I Can't Believe I Just Found This....

A little wine history. An amazing vintage menu. A classic eighties recipe. And the joyous return of great jam.

I spent last weekend in the Bay Area, which always makes me nostalgic for the seventies; the city was a very different place when I was living there. And so I went rifling through my box of old menus, looking for an artifact from that era.

Then I found…. this astonishing program from the California Vintner’s Barrel Tasting of 1985. (The event had taken place at the Four Seasons in New York for ten years; this was the year it moved to San Francisco.) It is a tribute to a time when the American wine industry, having been upended by both Prohibition and a couple of world wars, was still quite young and the people involved were a small and tight-knit group.

The wines are fascinating. Notice which varietals are included and which ones are missing. Look at the vineyards… it gives you a sense of how much has changed since then.

The menu is equally interesting; it contains many foods which had never before been produced in the United States. That caviar was probably from Tsar Nicoulai, who began producing American caviar in 1984. The Olympia oysters, which grow only in the Puget Sound, were being brought back from near extinction. Then there’s the “Mongaup Valley foie gras.” Since Hudson Valley Farms produced its first foie gras that year (in the Mongaup Valley), it’s likely that most guests were getting their first taste of American foie gras. All three cheeses are also American: Teleme is almost a century old and Maytag Blue has been made since the forties, but Laura Chenel did not produce the first American goat cheese until 1979, so for many of the attendees this would have been excitingly new.

In the end, however, it’s the seating chart that really blows me away. Such an interesting mix of winemakers, celebrities, chefs and food writers; just imagine the conversation at some of these tables! To anyone interested in the early days of the American wine revolution, it’s great fun to think about.

At this point in history, the state of California was the most interesting place in the American food universe. While the Barrel Tasting was taking place up north, there was a lot going on in Los Angeles.

This, for instance. Isn’t it interesting that while the Stanford Court menu above is entirely in English, this one sticks to the rather old-fashioned style of writing the name of each dish in French.

Max Au Triangle was one of the most ambitious restaurants to open in Los Angeles in the early eighties.  The chef was Joachim Splichal, who had previously been at the private Regency Club. It was probably ahead of its time, and when it closed, Joachim opened the more modest (but equally impressive), Patina.

This special menu, however, was served while Max au Triangle was still in its glory.

What were we eating back then? Here, from Comfort Me with Apples, is one of the classics of the time. It couldn’t be simpler.

I’m in love with Ayako and Family plum jams. For my palate they have the perfect balance of tart and sweet, and the different flavors of the various plums are intriguing.

The family shut down the website for a while last spring due to flooding. I have just received the happy news that they plan to go live again on Sunday.

The best jams (Black Pearl Plum!) will go fast….

Zuni, Zuni, Zuni

Sometime in the eighties, when the late Judy Rodgers and I were chatting, she said “We’ll always have customers at Zuni because we will always have a great hamburger and a Caesar salad on the menu.” That was 40 years ago -and they’re both still on the menu.

After all this time, the restaurant is so beloved that when I posted this picture of the shoestring potatoes I was gobbling up, hundreds of Instagramers instantly identified them.

We went on to the restaurant’s famous chicken. And the iconic house-cured anchovies with celery and Parmesan cheese. And, and, and…. Zuni has never let me down. But what I like best is the easy atmosphere; just walking through the door makes me happy.