food delights

Loving the weather in Denver--it is 70 degrees--awesome.
I should be outside and I have been. Right now, I thought I would take the time to update my blog. I had a wonderful weekend in California with Shari. Of course, it centered on food, wine and Brian. I felt his presence with us the entire time.
We started in Kuleto's and ended at a restaurant on Pier 39 for clam chowder. I was fortunate to meet up with two of my friends while we visited and see more of the city.
I know that I enjoyed Bouchon the most. I love the atmosphere and have never been disappointed in my meals there. I had my first meal with Brian in Las Vegas in 2006.
We had 3 bottles of wine, foie gras, duck confit, chicken, bread, fries, frisee salad and possibly dessert. I remember feeling a food coma the next day and swearing that I would never do that again.
Well, on Friday night, I made Shari have a similar experience. We began with beignets and a beet salad. I think the theme of our trip was beets since we had more than one beet salad and I believe that Shari is now an avid fan. The next course was fish, chorizo and braised cabbage. I think I could have just eaten the braised cabbage--it was awesome. We finished with pork, pumpkin, spinach and fries. We dined for 3 hours and seriously, it is definitely one of my top 5 meals. (I need to update my top 25 eventually.)
Gary Danko was amazing as well. We arrived and told the hostess that we wanted to dine at the bar. She told me that it would be an hour-hour and 15 minutes before we would be able to dine. She was in charge of the bar diners and kept us in line. An hour after we entered, we were seated. They offered a chef's tasting menu or a custom coursed meal. We chose a 3 course and began with a shrimp risotto. It melted in my mouth and we selected a bottle of Craggy Range Merlot. Ironically, my boss, Dave, is in New Zealand right now and his friend, TJ, owns Craggy Range Winery. I visited there on my around the world trip last year and so it felt right on a few levels to drink that wine.
We tried foie gras next and it was delicious. We should have stopped, but instead continued with a salmon course and tried a chocolate souffle as dessert. It had enticed us from the start, but it lacked for me.
The next morning, we were lazy and Shari watched the KU/MU game with me. I couldn't help but ask her to watch it with me. I think that is a tradition, too.
I will talk more of my weekend later. I have yet to discuss the wineries or the car.