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Part 6 in my series of posts about my recent transition from Tampa, Florida to a new life in California. In this episode: lemon cucumbers, farmer’s markets, Bourbon and Branch speakeasy and the wine blogger’s conference. Read more: Life in California, part 6: Foodie flush, speakeasys and #WBC11 bloggers It’s been five months since I moved to Santa Rosa, California from Tampa, Florida, and besides the friendships, a few dishes still gnaw at my memory like a half-starved mongrel. I spent 17 years collecting these faves and so wish they could be Fed-Ex’d on a weekly basis just to keep the love alive. My eight best dishes/experiences in Tampa Bay, in no particular order. Read more: Eight of the best Tampa Bay food dishes that I crave from California Mollydooker Wines, the uber cult winery out of Australia’s McLaren Vale, seeks your help with naming their red, bubbly Shiraz, the sister to their popular Boxer red. The competition is dubbed “Label Our Lefty” since Mollydooker is Australian for left-handed. But here’s a daunting footnote: The search for a name is worldwide… the competition will be fierce… are you up for it? Read more: Got a creative streak? Win a free trip to Australia from Mollydooker Wines Let’s face it, with the number of people begging for money even in the Safeway parking lot in Santa Rosa, the economy remains bleak. We all need to save a buck or two and there might be a way to save additional funds by making your own wine. And this method doesn’t involve buying a garage full of equipment or shipping juice across the country. Are wine bloggers not raking in the revenue because the critical medium isn’t respected? Are the advertisers not willing to throw cash into the untested waters of wine blogs? Do bloggers simply want to get their thoughts out there, hopefully reaching more than 100 people beyond their circle of friends and family? Or is it that bloggers, who work full time and have families, don’t have the time to devote to generating revenue beyond the piddly Google Ads trickle? Read more: Survey: Why can’t wine bloggers make money with their writing? Downtown Tampa’s L’Eden recasts traditional French finds along with toothsome Spanish, Greek and Italian dishes. People do not know where the four-year-old bistro is but once they find it they return. Dinner traffic is also improving. The café seats only 25 inside but adds another two dozen in the atrium where the owner got the idea to name his place for the Garden of Eden. Floor to ceiling windows allow a great vista for downtown skyscrapers and people watching at Gas Light Park from the corner of Tampa and Madison streets. A soft bed of contemporary French music offers a soothing backdrop. This year, I was nominated for a Wine Blogger Award, for Best Wine Reviews (read more about the nomination here). Frankly, it’s an honor to even be invited to this crowded party, and it justifies all the time I put into this blog (kinda). TaylorEason.com may not make much money but an ego stroke every now and then never hurts a girl, right? When an Athenian fisherman catches an octopus, he leaves it out in the sun to dry before he pounds his prey into submission. But there are other ways to soften the cephalopod. Costa’s Restaurant owner Stelios Migadakis boils this creature from the briny deep. He says he is careful not to cook it too long or too short because it’s tricky tenderizing its tough muscles and connective tissues. After broiling it with lemon, garlic and oregano, he sells a whopping 100 pounds of this tentacled treat every week. The dish is No. 1 in his small café. Read more: When in Tarpon Springs, coast to Costa’s Restaurant It’s amazing how popular you become when you have a house in northern California. Even one with pink carpet and hideous rose-print wallpaper. I actually underestimated the power of a second bedroom in wine country. Out of the 60-something days in June and July, we have hosted (and will host) 18 nights with various guests, mostly from Tampa. And we love it…it’s like having a little dose of “home” away from “home.” It hasn’t sunk in that we live here yet. Read more: Life in California, part 5: Newfound popularity, food foraging and meeting James Laube Having enjoyed dinners at Café Ponte sometime back, we happily found an encore performance. As soon as you enter, the welcoming host assures that you are in good hands. Proprietor Christopher Ponte, who trained at Johnson & Wales University and later at the Cordon Bleu in Paris, has also worked at the famed Taillevent in Paris and continues to earn a litany of accolades. Read more: Don’t punt on Clearwater’s Café Ponte |
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