“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.” -Ernest Hemingway -’A Moveable Feast’
One of my favorite stops when I am in the Bay Area is the Hog Island Oyster Company for a dozen of their plump, sweet oysters. They have two oyster bars, one at the Ferry Building in San Francisco and a newer location at the Oxbow Market in Napa, as well as a picnic location at Tomales Bay where they are harvested. They offer oysters grilled, baked and fried as well as clam chowder and oyster po’boys but I prefer them plain and on the half shell. Not even a squeeze of lemon to get in the way of their briny deliciousness. (more…)
“It is paradoxical but true that something that takes you out of yourself also restores you to yourself with greater freedom”- Frances Mayes, ‘Every Day in Tuscany’
I recently attended the Professional Wine Writer’s Symposium in Napa and had the pleasure to hear Frances Mayes, author of ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’, speak about her writing, her life in Italy and how everything changed for her when she decided to buy and restore a house in a foreign country. I also had the opportunity to read, ‘Every Day in Tuscany’ which will be released today. While ’Under the Tuscan Sun’ was about self discovery and learning to view one’s life through a different lens, her latest book published twenty years later captures the sweetness, richness, complexity and challenges of her everyday life in Tuscany. (more…)
Early spring day in St. Helena.
It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want – oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain
