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Outside Lands Day Three

August 17, 2014Leave a comment

Day 3 of Outside Lands can be summed up in two words: trucks and lands. We ate from so many food trucks and frequented Wine Lands, Beer Lands, Cheese Lands, and Choco Lands the entire day.

There were so many food trucks to choose from, but we narrowed it down to Bacon Bacon, Del Popolo, Senor Sisig, The Rib Whip, and The Fabulous Frickle Brothers.

Last year, Those Fabulous Frickle Brothers paired up with their festival neighbor, Bacon Bacon, to add their Fabulous Fried Pickles to Bacon Bacon’s Bacon Burger. It was a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, their location didn’t allow that to happen this year, but it inspired me to try something besides their amazing pickles. We went the dessert route and tried their Fabulous Fried Apples with a Vanilla Coconut sauce on top. The breading created a nice sweet and savory mashup with cinnamon and sugar sweet apples. I’m not a huge fan of coconut, but they added the perfect amount to the vanilla sauce on top.

The Rib Whip was serving Pulled Pork BBQ Bowls and while there was a bit too much lettuce for my liking, the meat was cooked perfectly.

The California Sisig Burrito, from Senor Sisig, has to be one of the best California burritos I have ever had. The french fries were crispy, not soggy, and the sour cream wasn’t overwhelming. They use pork shoulder as their main meat, and I must say that it is absolutely decadent. This award-winning truck has also been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

Del Popolo had the longest line at Outside Lands for the duration of the festival. I mean, how can you not when you’re serving whole wood-fired Margherita Pizzas? The crust was cooked to a dark brown crisp with generous chunks of mozzarella to balance out the sauce. Their setup is pretty cool too; go to their website and take a look at more pictures of their truck, you’ll be glad you did.

I have a soft spot for all things bacon, so I was definitely looking forward to what the Bacon Bacon truck had to offer. Their BBQ Pork Sandwich and Chocolate Covered Bacon definitely fulfilled my porky cravings.

Now, onto the lands. Choco Lands was one of my favorite lands because I have a pretty big sweet tooth. In addition to Humphrey Slocombe’s special edition flavor, Kara’s Cupcakes, Sharona’s Chocolate Shop, and more were serving up delicious chocolate treats! Cheese Lands consisted of platters full of assorted cheeses and charcuterie from Long Meadow Ranch. Bacon Land was serving up $10 bacon flights.

Wine Lands is an expansive tent full of different wineries and packed to the brim with people. I have had most of the options at previous tastings or events, so it was nice to see some familiar names including, Ghost Pines, Hess Collection, J.Lohr, Menage A Trois, and Roth Estate. The tent also featured Summer of Riesling which included a full crash course on different styles of Riesling and fun temporary tattoos.

Beer Lands was more of an open area, in comparison to Wine Lands. Featuring over 30 different breweries, Beer Lands had something for everyone. Similar to Wine Lands, I have had many of these beers before, so I already knew what I was getting myself into. Overall, I think the lineup was a good one with selections from Ace Cider, Drake’s Brewing, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Golden Road Brewing, Lost Coast Brewery, Magnolia Brewing Company, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., and Stone Brewing Co..

Another addition to this year’s festival was the Gastro Magic stage. Each day, the stage featured different acclaimed chefs and gourmet restaurants, and paired them with a comedian or DJ to create a unique multi-sensory culinary experience. There were too many shows to see, so refer to the Gastro Magic page for a more specific description of each show.

As for the last day of music, we enjoyed Paolo Nutini, Jenny Lewis, Spoon, Ben Howard, The Flaming Lips, Ray LaMontagne, and The Killers. The Killers put on the best show of the day and the best show of the festival. I have never been a huge fan of theirs, but seeing them live definitely changed my mind.

Pizza Tuesday: Tony’s Pizza Napoletana

June 17, 2014June 17, 2014Leave a comment

It is safe to say that I have a pizza obsession, and I don’t discriminate. Thin, thick, deep-dish, flatbread, I have had it all and love it all! It is also safe to say that my favorite pizza of all time is found at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in North Beach in San Francisco. Owner, Tony Gemignani, is no stranger to good pizza. Famed pizza tosser, he has beat out countless Italians in Naples’ World Pizza Championship. He now has several locations boasting his award-winning recipes across California and Las Vegas. I don’t know how he manages to do it all considering I always see him at one of his establishments in San Francisco whenever I’m in town. It is safe to say this man is a genius and having tried almost every pizza on his menu (regular and seasonal) I still become a bit star stuck when I see him.

Now on to the good stuff, my most recent trip might have been my favorite so far. We indulged in three exceptional pizzas, the Quail Egg, White Rose Potato, and Guanciale, the Cal Italia, and the Sausage and Stout. Part of the intrigue of the pizzas at Tony’s lies in the unique ingredients and preparation of each one. There are several different ovens that prepare pizzas at different times and temperatures, ensuring that each one is distinct and perfect.

QUAIL EGG, WHITE ROSE POTATO, AND GUANCIALE
mozzarella, white rose potatoes, rosemary, calabrese peppers, chorizo, quail eggs, guanciale (pork cheek), fromage blanc, lavender sea salt

This pizza is one of my favorites, for two reasons.

1. My mom loved it. – Let me explain, my mom doesn’t LOVE just anything. She is a very closed-minded and picky-eater, so when she went out on a limb and ordered this, I was frightened. She loved the spiciness of the peppers and chorizo, but refused to try the quail egg (which I still find unjustified and ridiculous).

2. The pizza is so unique – I loved everything about this pizza. The crust isn’t too crispy, but still doughy as to absorb the oils from the meats and eggs, and the level of spicy is right on the cusp of adventurous and enjoyable.

SAUSAGE AND STOUT

honey malted Guinness stout beer is worked into the dough, mozzarella beer sausage, caramelized onions, crushed red peppers, green onions and rectangles of fontina cheese, and drizzled in a beer salt and sweet a Guinness reduction

This was definitely a new favorite of mine, but I’m pretty sure it is seasonal, so I am trying desperately to not get too attached. I love beer and I love sausage, and this was the best fusion of both in a pizza. What more could you want? You can taste a subtle hint of Guinness (yes, the beer) in the dough with a sweet aftertaste. The beer sausage is meaty and cheesy all at once. The caramelized onions provide a buttery and richness to the pizza that compliments the large chunks of fontina and Guinness reduction drizzle. I would definitely recommend to try this before they take it off the menu!

WARNING: They only make 23 of them per day, so I recommend going for an early lunch; otherwise, you will never see this pizza in real life.

CAL ITALIA

asiago, mozzarella, italian gorgonzola, croatian sweet ﬁg preserve, prosciutto di parma, parmigiano, balsamic reduction, no sauce

Now, on to the perfect pizza. This is my favorite pizza of all time. I know that is a big statement, and believe me, I take my comments very seriously. The mix of cheeses is heavenly with the perfect ratio of each. Prosciutto belongs on everything, but it was made for this pizza. If prosciutto is Romeo, then fig jam is Juliet. The combination of the two is everything. It is life. It is love. It is everything. I crave this pizza every day of my life, so much so that my boyfriend recreated it in a grilled cheese. While it was heavenly, it fell JUST short of the Cal Italia.

TRUE STORY: I witnessed someone tear up because this pizza was so good, and they knew they would never have anything like it again. All other pizza would pale in comparison.

Don’t take my word for it! I dare you to go to Tony’s Pizza Napoletana and not walk out smiling, full, and wanting more. A word of advice, if you go for dinner, be prepared to wait at least 2 hours. This isn’t a huge issue if you walk a couple blocks down to Rogue Ale House to wait and drink with friends. If you aren’t the patient type, line up at 11:30AM and you will get a seat right when they open at noon. If you are lucky, you will run in to Tony himself!

Bottlerock’n in Napa

June 7, 2014June 9, 2014Leave a comment

When I heard that Outkast was reuniting this year, I fell out of my chair. Then, I heard that they were doing a festival tour, and I couldn’t be more upset. This would mean that I would have to find a festival to attend, fight the crowds, eat the bad food, and avoid the Molly rollin tweens as much as I could. I knew this would be impossible at Coachella, so once I saw that they weren’t playing at Outsidelands (still a tragedy), I knew I had to go to Bottlerock in Napa, CA.

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I had never been to this festival, as I am exclusively an Outsidelands attendee every August in San Francisco, but I had heard good things. My expectations were met once I walked in to the festival at the Napa Valley Exposition. The different sections were organized pretty well, and while I had my personal struggle with fairground allergies, I liked the venue. It had its fair share of lines, but overall, not terrible. The food and drink options were good, not as extensive as Outsidelands, but that is to be expected from a smaller festival. Planning ahead, our first stop was to get something portable to eat later on that evening for dinner while we camped out a good spot to view the headlining show. We narrowed down our choices and settled on a tri tip sandwich from Tip’s Tri Tips. This will be addressed later (get excited). Next, we fueled up on a Beef Wagyu wrap from Morimoto Napa. It was handheld deliciousness and the perfect lunchtime snack. I wanted to be more impressed with the wine selection and displays, but it was a little underwhelming. There were twice as many booths selling ambiguously labeled wine out of bottles with hidden labels, as there were sponsored booths with cool swag and branding, which was disappointing. However, at a certain point, this is a festival where a majority of the attendees could care less if they are drinking a red blend or a Malbec from Argentina, so touché.
We thoroughly enjoyed performances by The Soft White Sixties, Matt and Kim, Third Eye Blind, and Weezer, but we were counting down the minutes until Outkast would grace us with their presence. They did not disappoint. The show was over an hour and half of pure awesome sauce. When I watched the Coachella live feed, their performance was lackluster and the crowd was dead. Napa knew better. The crowd knew their hits, old and new, and you could tell that Big Boi and Andre3000 knew what was up. They performed several hits from each album, including personal favorites like Aquemini, Ms. Jackson, and Crumblin’ Erb. While I am biased, I spoke with several individuals who also attended their Coachella performance, and they concurred that this one was better tenfold.
After the half hour cab ride back to our hotel in the faraway land of Benicia, we found the sandwiches we had bought so many hours earlier. Even though it was midnight, we were hungry and thought, why not? It was one of the best sandwiches I have ever had. It didn’t get soggy and the meat was delicious! Walk, don’t run to Tips Tri Tips in Nor Cal!

Overall, Bottlerock was a splendid experience. It was a nice change of pace to only attend a festival for one day, and should the lineup hold up for next year, I would definitely go back.
Keep a look out for my Outsidelands post coming up in August!