A Delicious Day

Please don't faint, have a heart attack or drop dead, but yes, I am actually posting another blog and we actually got out of the city this weekend. I know, I was shocked too. Oh, but it felt so good to get out and away and we had the most delicious day. Literally. So I decided it was definitely a day worthy of another blog. We decided to take a trip with our friends up to the Upper Galilee (up north of the Sea of Galilee) and enjoy an afternoon of wine tasting. And cheese of course because you can't taste wine without a wedge of Brie. At least in my opinion you can't!

Our first stop after our 2 and a half hour drive was the Dalton Winery which ended up being the highlight of the wine tasting. The hour or so we thought we might spend there quickly ended up turning into three. We started with our very own personal tour of the winery from a very friendly and knowledgeable lady who very clearly had a passion for wine and wine making. We got to sample grapes straight from the vines (they were just the "tasting vines" as we couldn't actually touch the real grapes or we would ruin the wine's "Kosher" status--don't even get me started on the Kosher rules!) and learned quite a bit about the wine making process. Like why is it that "Reserve" wines are always more expensive than the regular ones? Well, because they are often made from the first press of what the winemaker feels are "superior" grapes (i.e. will produce the best wine) and they are often aged in more expensive French Oak barrels as opposed to the cheaper American Oak barrels. And what is the difference between a Fume' Blanc and a Sauvignon Blanc? Same grape but the Fume' is aged in a "toasted" oak barrel. Interesting, no? So that's your wine trivia for the day. Although sometimes my recollection of details isn't the best. So pass it on at your own risk!

After our little tour we headed into the tasting room for a delicious sampling of wine. And quite a generous one too I might add. She was very liberal with the pours. Perhaps a little too liberal. I am a light weight after all. We sampled a couple delicious whites and several (maybe 5 or 6) reds and by the end I was pouring out half of my samples as I could no longer keep up and could no longer remember which ones I liked as they all started to blend together. So we decided we needed a little break from imbibing (and some bread to soak up the extra alcohol) and took our last few samples outside for a little picnic. The weather was great (much less humid than in Tel Aviv) and we enjoyed some bread, cheese and fruit as we sipped our last few samples of wine. Ahhhhhhhh....it was pure heaven.

Then of course came the tough decision of what to buy! We ended up with a few bottles of white wine (both the Fume' Blanc and the Sauvignon Blanc) and also couldn't resist a bottle of dark chocolate liqueur (oh, yes, also pure heaven!) and then headed out for our next stop. Oh, and just so no one freaks out, yes, we had a designated driver. She was sort of the DD by default since she is pregnant, but she was more than happy to chauffeur us through the wine country. Although, she was a little less enthused with having to spit out her tastes of wine especially with all of us watching her! Oh, the things mother's have to do for their children! But to continue, we headed a little further North (only about a few KM's from the Lebanon border!!!) and hit our next stop, the Galil Winery.

This stop ended up being a little bit of a disappointment, especially after the awesome experience at the Dalton Winery. It seemed like a much larger more commercial place, and quite frankly it felt a little "cold". Figuratively, not literally. The guy was far less knowledgeable than the lady we met at Dalton (or at least he wasn't feeling like sharing his knowledge with us) and we weren't even offered water and pretzels/crackers to cleanse our pallets after each taste. So the wines all sort of ran together and we really didn't find any of them all that spectacular. Or maybe we were just in a wine & cheese coma and couldn't thoroughly enjoy this tasting as much. In any case, we left empty handed but I think we had all enjoyed our first stop so much that we felt satisfied with our afternoon of wine tasting and were ready to move on to our next stop.

We decided to head West and drive down the coast and look for a restaurant we had heard about from a friend. The restaurant was in a town called Akko, just north of Haifa. It wasn't so much on our way home but this friend has always given us excellent restaurant recommendations (must be the fact that her husband is French and they lived in France together for a while....they definitely know good food!) so we decided to check it out. It was a seafood restaurant called Uri Buri that we were told was one of the best in the country. And not just by this one friend either but by several Israelis that Phil works with too. Needless to say we we all had very high expectations as we sat down to enjoy our Early Bird Special Dinner (it was only 5:30, quite on the early side for us), but this place definitely did not disappoint!

We started with some fish soup in a base of coconut milk with ginger and cilantro. All I have to say about that is "Oh, my God!" It was easily one of the best soups I (we, if I may speak for the entire group) have ever had. I could have just eaten that for dinner and I would have been happy. We ordered everything family style so that we could taste several dishes and every single one was delicious. We tried some scallops in a lovely cream sauce topped with seaweed. Yes, seaweed. And although they may have been just a small touch overcooked they were still delicious and we of course devoured them. Then we tried Sea Bass cooked in a "cauldron" with a coconut milk based sauce, apples and saffron rice. This one was probably my favorite entree of them all and I think everyone agreed as we didn't leave a single morsel behind. And lastly we had a fish kebab with roasted potatoes and tehina (a sauce made from sesame seeds). Probably the least exciting of them all but still quite tasty. Plus by then we were all about to pop we were so stuffed. Definitely not a one of us left hungry and I have to say it was definitely the best seafood we have had here. We shall be going back again. And again, and again, and again. And hopefully we won't get lost trying to find it the second time around. Okay, that's probably doubtful since it's impossible not to get lost in this country (it's all apart of the experience right?), but one can always hope.

Anyway, it was a fabulously indulgent day and I just had to share it with you and shock the hell out of everyone by posting again so quickly. Cheers! I mean, Lekhayim!