Tahoe Part 1
Melissa and I spent the weekend in Tahoe, courtesy of one of our wedding presents. While the main point was to get away and enjoy some time alone, something I'm sad to say we have to explicitly make time to do, we did do a little bit of culinary exploring. We were staying on the South Shore of Tahoe, which is where the big casinos are. It's also where the fast food places and sketchy dining experiences congregate.
But our hotel actually managed to recommend an uber-cute café nearby: the Alpen Sierra Café. Melissa says their coffee was really good, and was particularly keen on the fact that they will, if you want, serve you your coffee in a French Press, so you know the coffee is fresh and made just for you. They do their own roasting, as well, and had a wide range of selections (I don't drink coffee; I'm just channeling Melissa for this part). If I had actually managed to get a wireless card for my new iBook before we left, I could have used their free wireless Internet connection. A very nice bonus, even if I only got to enjoy it in theory. The staff was friendly, the ambiance was nice, and it was a perfectly amiable place to while away the time.
Hoping to scope out the local wine scene, we went to the one wine shop recommended by our hotel, "The Cork & More". Its wine selection was respectable, having a good breadth of styles and places of origin. The "More" in the store's name covers a deli, kitchen gadget section, cheese/charcuterie counter, gourmet food store, and miscellaneous other items. Clearly the place we'd shop if we lived in the area, and according to one woman we met the next day, the only place to find good food on the South Shore.
For dinner, we drove to the North Shore, roughly 45 minutes from our hotel. We were eating at Soule Domain, a restaurant recommended by my boss, who knows that I'm passionate about food. The difference between North Shore and South Shore is striking. North Shore has cute (and almost certainly expensive) houses, small restaurants, and only one or two casinos. Supposedly it's also where the better skiing is, though I also don't ski (we were there before the season started), so can't vouch for this.
Soule Domain is good. Not great, but good. They have an Asian, and I might even venture fusion, slant to many of their dishes, even though they also serve Filet Mignon and other kind of fare you'd want in the dead of winter. An unusual twist to the bread basket, which was quite good, was that it was served with hummus. As an opener, I had a tuna tartare with a lemon-wasabi aioli and cole slaw on the side. Melissa had shrimp and spinach salad that was swimming in dressing and mixed warm shrimp and cold spinach in a way that Melissa found not to her taste. Our entrées were supposedly different, but it's hard to say what differed except the fish. Melissa had swordfish, and I had some esoteric Hawaiian fish (ono, maybe?). Melissa's swordfish was good. My fish was either inherently tough, in which case I wonder why the restaurant serves it, or prepared badly. The sauces were very similar, some Asian-fusion melange that was okay but not memorable. The wine list was surprisingly decent, and Melissa and I opted for a Rosenblum Viognier. I was a little annoyed that they didn't bring out an ice bucket or some way of keeping our wine chilled, but the dining room was cool (but certainly not cold) enough that it kept the wine at a decent temp throughout our dinner. I opted not to have a dessert, simply because I wasn't in the mood. Melissa thought her blueberry creme caramel was quite good.
In general, the food seemed to be from the "keep throwing things in until it looks interesting" school of thought. It was reasonably well executed within that context, but it's a style of cuisine that I find muddled and without focus. Most people who know me know that I have no qualms about frou-frou food, but I do like it to have direction. When the kitchen kept things simple, the restaurant was quite good. When they tarted things up with whatever was in the larder, it ceased to be interesting.
Coming soon: wine tasting in nearby Amador and El Dorado Counties.
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