Sip This: Corbin Sweet Potato Vodka

Corbin California Estate Grown Sweet Potato Vodka: It takes 10 pounds of sweet potatoes per bottle — that’s several Thanksgiving feasts per 750ml — to make Corbin. But it’s worth it if you want a vodka with some character and not just some odorless, colorless spirit. It’s very smooth, with flashes of nut flavors and that sweet potato sweet that’s a deeper sugar.

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Sonoma's St. Francis Reaches Out to Restaurants

Wine can get you into a whole host of wonderful things, and that was never more clear than a few weeks back when it meant a tasting/multi-course lunch at BS Taqueria as the very first guests before it opened its doors in downtown L.A. (Yes, it's good to be on the list.) That meant a celebration of the Cochon555 rolling national festival of heritage pig happening later that weekend, a chance to feast on the amazing cuisine of chef Ray Garcia (a two-time Cochon555 winner), and the launch of esteemed St. Francis Winery & Vineyards' new reserve tier wines.

If you want to read the rest then do so at KCET's Food Blog.

Sip This: Press Gang Cellars Rose

Press Gang Cellars Savanna Rhea Grenache Rosé 2013: The only bad thing about this delightful rosé is that winemaker Kyle Knapp made a mere 24 cases of it. Knapp, who in addition to owning this garagiste outfit is also the assistant winemaker at Beckmen Vineyards, has a thing for Grenache, and picks grapes specifically for this wine—it’s no saignée, and therefore fuller-flavored despite its gorgeous pale pink hue.

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Small Production in the Wild Wine West

As a garagiste winemaker, one can fly under radar and flout laws. That's one of the freedoms of being small. The 3rd Annual Garagiste Festival held in Solvang at the end of March made that clear over and over. For instance, Dan Kessler of Kessler-Haak Vineyards, on the panel "The Diversity of Sta. Rita Hills AVA: It's Not All Pinot and Chardonnay," poured one of his pinots anyway. He can be forgiven as the estate 2010 was a beautiful wine, fruity, earthy, and everything one wants a Sta. Rita Hills pinot to be. Might as well claim that and help us see baselines.

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Crazy for Corazon

If tacos are "just" Mexican street food, then the ones you can get at Corazon Cucina are from a street paved with oro. Chef Ramon Velazquez's weekly Sunday pop-up at Three Pickles has folks wisely lining up to enjoy his incredible food that is terrifically tasty, precise and pretty. That photo above (both photos courtesy Forrest Mori) is of one of the best fish tacos you could ever have. The ling cod seems much fresher and full of flavor than the fish that usually gets fried up for tacos, and then that batter is crispy, light, not oily in the slightest**. There's a lime mayo crema that adds layers of flavor yet doesn't overpower. Velazquez's food is all about notes adding up to a sweet song, not a series of solos or a mishmash of stations playing too loudly from the radios of competing cars. And, as with all the tacos, the tortillas are hand-made and gorgeous, with a texture, a bit of heft. This is a dish that will ruin you for all other fish tacos.

There's plenty more, though, so be prepared to be ruined in many wonderful ways. For instance his clever take on street grilled corn-on-the-cob. His comes on those tortillas, with the exact amount of cotija you want to have cheese flavor but not merely cheese flavor, some mayonesa too for a bit more creaminess, some poblano for color contrast and a hint of heat, and then, of all things, crumbled chicharrones, adding an ever pleasing porkiness,* but even better, a bit of crunch, yet small enough not to take the focus away from the corn. (That's it below.)

I could go on and on, but will stop after talking about one of the two ceviches of the day, La Lola. Velazquez was the opening chef at Cielito, and before that he'd spent years at Arigato, so he knows his seafood (and presentation). This one combined local red snapper, jicama, cucumber, avocado, tomatillo, serrano and yuzu (there's the Arigato influence) and then that comes atop a fried tortilla, as both an eating utensil, of sorts, and a crispy contrast. It all mixes into something almost shockingly fresh, partially from the citrus zing and partially because he buys primarily from local farmers market purveyors and local seafood, so that quality and freshness takes his dishes over the top.

The good news is the pop up is research and prep for his own spot in The Mill Project that's going up at the corner of Haley and Laguna, target date this summer. Until then, it makes sense to hit Corazon Cucina on Sundays religiously.

*There was a pork belly quesadilla, too, high and low meeting to make utter deliciousness. And again, the pork was cut in just the right size to function as taco topping. We're talking tacos engineered.

**I forgot to mention the batter is made with Captain Fatty's beer, too. So even that stays local and artisanal.

Sip This: Gordon Biersch Golden Export

Gordon Biersch Brewing Company Golden Export: Gordon Biersch, which opened its first location in Palo Alto in 1988 and has since spread throughout the country with brewpubs and bottle sales, is one of those stories of a little company that could. Now making more than three million gallons of beer a year, it also helps teach the mega-brewers what classic German lager styles can actually be.

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Figueroa Mountain Brews Sage Beer for Condor Trail

Warren Alford of the Wilderness Society got to heft a Google Street View Trekker, a top-heavy, 45-pound camera that takes 360-degree photos, over Mount Pinos (that's nearly 9,000 feet high, but who's counting) in Ventura County. He was accompanied by fellow naturalist Chris Danch, and after the 18-mile struggle, filming all the way, they got back to Danch's car. Alford says, "I told him, 'Man, I'd kill for a beer now.' Somehow he pulled two ice-cold craft beers out of his trunk. I definitely had a religious experience that evening."

Want to read the rest then do so at KCET's Food Blog.