I can honestly say that I’ve never been to an event quite like Pebble Beach Food & Wine. Over. The. Top. As I pulled up to the Grand Tasting in my Honda CRV, I giggled at the sign which read, “Free valet parking when you drive your Lexus,” and knew that I was in for something completely different at this tasting event. As I walked from my car to the enormous white tents hosting the festivities, I had a momentary concern that my nice-looking outfit wasn’t snazzy enough but any […]

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The octopus arrived at our table on a plate illustrated with the two hands of the many workers who helped produce this gorgeous dish. At Bracero Cocina de Raiz in San Diego, Baja cuisine advocate Chef Javier Plascencia invites guests to witness and celebrate the efforts of all the workers—including produce pickers, grapevine pruners, and fishermen—who help them produce such incredibly creative and flavorful dishes in a Mexican style completely their own. Bracero Cocina cuisine knits together Baja and California as well as Mexico’s culinary past and present. Every dish […]

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“Hippie” Jack Stoddart handed around a Mason jar of chilled moonshine as music filled the air. We were close to the main stage under the big tent during the second day of the September 2015 Jammin’ at Hippie Jack’s Americana Roots Music, Camping & Arts Festival in Overton County, Tennessee, the home of Americana Music: so delicious. This funky, progressive, and educational gathering of Americana roots musicians and enthusiasts served as the capstone of our arts, cuisine, and natural resources tour of the Upper Cumberland region. While that sip of home […]

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From a tastefully arranged table featuring delicious, beautiful food to an Art Deco-infused wine tasting at the top of Paso Robles, foodie visitors and locals to this exciting wine country can find rich aesthetic experiences in the midst of their gastronomic discoveries. The wine’s the thing, of course, but there’s so much more to experience in Paso beyond just wine tasting. Blending together foodie art with a tour of this northern San Luis Obispo County wine and craft beer country keeps the mind as engaged as the senses. Edible Art […]

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Just a few decades ago, sleepy Paso Robles, California, hosted no distilleries or craft breweries and only a few dozen pioneering wineries. Rodeos and pickup trucks were more pervasive than limos chauffeuring wine enthusiasts around this beautiful area in northern San Luis Obispo County. Today, vineyards abound in all directions and the overall “agriculture culture” remains strong in the fabric of this increasingly diverse community. When winemakers discovered that the soils around this friendly cow town with reasonable land prices could produce some exceptional wines including Rhônes and Zinfandels, the […]

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For our first field trip, we headed to Los Alamos, about an hour south of San Luis Obispo and an hour north of Santa Barbara. Rolling the dice for a sunny weekend with dry pavement after a solid week of gray rain, we scored with great weather on Sunday and a pleasant loop road ride through the hills east of town along Cat, Foxen, and Alisos Canyons. But before the sunshine, the rain had a few more things to say. Gloomy Saturdays are made for wine tasting. Following up on […]

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