Week of May 7: Eating Tour

This week, Andrea's parents, Rick and Karen, flew into town from Bemidji, MN, a week early for Rick's conference in Reno to spend some time with us. They have both been to the Bay Area many times before so we decided to take them around to places where Andrea and I have always wanted to tour but never gotten around to. Lucky for them, Andrea and I have excellent tastes!

On Thursday, we made reservation for the Scharffen Berger chocolate factory tour in Berkeley. If you've never had Scharffen Berger chocolate before, consider yourself lucky. It's highly addictive and can be an expensive addiction. Scharffen Berger is a first-tier chocolate manufacturer. That means that they execute every step of the manufacturing process, from sourcing the beans to molding the bars. They pay close attention to every step along the way, never taking shortcuts. The result is evident in every bite... and we did take lots of bites during the tour!

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I think I found my true calling. Not only was I able to crank out 8 kilos of premium grade cocao but I got to wear a real hairnet. Lucielle Ball, eat your heart out!

Smokin'!

Hard to find a good Wiener these days. This Wiener made great chocolate! Don't you just love the word "Wiener"?

After the chocolate tour, we had lunch at Cafe Cacao which was in the same building as Scharffen Berger (not really sure if its operated by the factory). Perhaps it was the chocolate high that we were on but we all agreed that Cafe Cacao had the best cheese burger and pulled pork sandwiches that we've ever had. Honestly, they were amazing!

After gorging ourself silly on chocolates and bergers/pulled pork sammies, we drove up to Napa to get a behind the scenes wine tour at Hess Winery. A good friend of mine from college, Scott, is one of the four winemakers at Hess. He was kind enough to take some time out from his day to walk us through the wine making process and to personally deliver the wine tasting. I must say that Scott's discriptions of each wine we tasted really made us appreciate the love and care that went into wine making.

Not a bad way to spend a Thurday afternoon... a nice glass of Cabernet Sauvignon with my buddy Scott. Scott's wife, Margaret, by the way is an amazing pastery chef. Andrea and I are extremely jealous.

After the personalized tour at Hess, we visited Luna Vineyards and Darioush Winery. Although they both had good wine, we preferred the wine from Hess. Before heading home, we stopped over at Scott and Margaret's home in Napa and dropped in on the informal happy hour party they were hosting for their friends and colleagues. The majority of people at the party were wine makers or related to the wine industry. Maybe because it was a hot evening, but nearly everyone at the party were drinking either beer or margarita. Good thing I didn't listen to Andrea and bring over the Almaden Cabernet Box!