STARS of Santa Barbara Wine Tasting

Learn About Wine is the one responsible for many great wine events and tastings in LA throughout the year, including the recent STARS of Santa Barbara held at The Peninsula Hotel. Ian Blackburn of LAW had gathered quite the lineup for the event (from Santa Barbara area and beyond). There was too much to taste without spitting - but I have a hard time spitting good wine...

It was impossible for me to try everything due street parking time limit and my liver, but here are some highlights, from old favorites to new discoveries. Being a new wine making region, you can find diverse varietals and styles from Santa Barbara wines.

Palmina from the Lompoc "Wine Ghetto" produces some white of the Italian varieties, including Arneis, Tocai Friulano, and Malvasia Bianca. For the quality, they are quite inexpensive at $12-18 per bottle.

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Le Bon Garçon, Trés Bon Caramels

Truth is, while I love the taste of caramel, I don't usually go for caramel chews. Why? They're usually either hard or really sticky and I have a hard time cleaning my teeth after. I never really enjoyed eating caramel until I met these babies ... Le Bon Garçon!

My friend got them at a bakesale last year and said that they were amazing. Recently, they sent me a box of the caramels so I can try their new, limited time flavor, Caramour. Both the name and the pretty box are perfect for a Valentine's gift, don't you think?

In the box were bags of their four flavors: Salted, Macadamia Nut, Mango-Passion, and Caramour. No hardened, sticky, chewy caramels in this box; Chef Justin Chao's creations are absolutely soft and creamy, even a week after. Now, oftentimes with "flavored caramels" you can barely taste the flavors, but not so here. You get bits of coarse sea salt in the salted caramel, the mango-passion is noticeably fruity and tart, and so is the Caramour, made with one of my favorite fruits: blood orange. As the fruit itself is seasonal, so are the Caramour caramels, so get them while you can.

In light of the upcoming "holiday", if you're tired of sending/receiving chocolate this Valentine's, try sending some Bon Garçon caramels! (Note that the last order for guaranteed V-day delivery is February 7)

Learn, Forage, Taste

Did you know you can pick sage at a public park - for free? If you know where to find it and what it looks like, of course! But most of us think of foraging as a stone-age activity, except for the highly specialized art of wild mushroom foraging. I know of people who have foraged for nettles, but I never did nor knew how. Under the radar, the duo Urban Outdoor Skills and Transitional Gastronomy have taught small groups of people how and what to forage nearby and how to prepare not just edible, but gourmet dishes from the pickings.

The class meets at Hahamongna Park, just east of the 210 Freeway in La Cañada Flintridge. When you enter the park, keep driving until you see the restroom building. The class meets at a picnic bench next to that building. Pascal Baudar of Urban Outdoor Skills then takes the students around to forage while Mia Wasilevich of Transitional Gastronomy stays behind to prepare lunch.

Until our foraging class, I had never heard of chickweed. The edible chickweed looks similar to purge, which isn't. The difference is that chickweed has pointy leaves, lighter green color, and fine hair and buds that look like bells. Its flowers are white with what looks like 10 petals but actually 5 split unto 2. To make distinguishing them easier, if you snap the stem, purge will release sap.

Chickweed is actually very nutritious and filled with vitamin c, calcium, and iron.

He showed us how to pick stinging nettles without getting pricked (thorn prick can cause skin irritation). They're edible after being blanched and can supposedly lower cholesterol. They make a nice sauce too, Rustic Canyon has a pasta dish with nettle pesto.

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