Food glorious food!

Food is one of my greatest passions. There's a lot to be said for gorging on sweet sugary foodstuffs, but my greatest pleasure is experiencing new and sophisticated flavours. It goes hand in hand with travel and I find it sad that people go abroad only to look for the nearest full English breakfast they can find. Defeats the whole point as far as I'm concerned.

Thursday consisted mostly of eating, and lots more wine. After a typical, and delicious, American breakfast in ihop (international house of pancakes) we set off on the road for a private wine tasting session at a woman's house which overlooked her vineyard and the valley. The view was amazing, I can't believe someone lives in such an inspiring place.

The vineyard is owned by her and her husband, and together they grow, manage and pick the grapes themselves. I'm not sure how much more they do in the process, but they have their own highly exclusive wine named E II, after their dog.

We sat on her balcony where she brought a selection of cheeses that are all made within a 5 miles radius, and treated us to her wines, both white and red. Both wine and cheese were stunning, and had I realized how high valued they were at the time I would have consumed much more. The four cheeses she had out for us was over 100 dollars in total! It's not the first time on this holiday I've felt spoilt and undeserving.

The biggest shock was the view, I don't think I'll ever again be so impressed by someone's back 'garden'. Can't say I miss my view of a beer garden in Bangor.

After this tasting we set off and headed for an area called Fort Baker, an area near Golden Gate bridge that once served as a defensive point for the area during the second world war.



Now the buildings in the area which look like manors or estates serve as restaurants or hotels for people much posher than myself.


At our table there was a manner of cutlery in front of me that I hadn't seen before, and with the help of Kate I managed not to offend. When studying the wine list we saw a bottle of white wine from the vineyard we'd just been to priced at 750 dollars! I gasped.

For my meal I chose fancy seafood, as it's all locally caught, and chose sole with squid risotto, covered in squid ink! This was too new and interesting, and after finding out it wasn't going to taste like pen ink, I had to try it.

It was probably the nicest meal I've ever eaten, and squid and rissoto are among my favourites anyway so it was bound to please. Turns out the ink doesn't taste of a great deal, thankfully, but rather acts as a colouring. It was the first time I've ever had sole and I'm impressed!

Another eye opening day, where I've realized how fortunate I am as I'd have never seen or eaten things like this if left to my own devices.

And for my mum, this is the vineyard owners dog. A mental dog that would not stop playing fetch.