Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Girly Goodness in Sonoma

Sunday morning we decided to explore Sonoma, CA. First stop: the girl and the fig, a charming little restaurant featuring "country food with a French passion."

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The interior is cheerful and bright.

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The walls are adorned with earth-toned paintings of languishing women, Gauguin-style.

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They also sell a collection of their condiments and cheeses in the store (and also online). I'm totally kicking myself for not buying a jar of their fig compote.

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The menu featured lots of cheese (yay!), an assortment of sandwiches, soups and salads, and other typical brunch fare.

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I began with a white peach/white cranberry concoction sprinkled with some sort of bee pollen.
I could drink this everyday for the rest of my life, no problem.

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There was a separate menu just for cheese - that's how serious this place is. lol

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We got the works. No - that's what it's called, the works. It consisted of 3 cheeses (we added fourth), house-made fig cake with pistachios, sliced green apples, fig compote, assorted nuts, cured meats, olives (boo!), and a french baguette. We got two cow's milk, one goat's milk, and one sheep's milk cheese. This alone easily could have been enough tastiness.

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Next up was pastis scented steamed mussels with garlic, leeks, herbs, grilled bread.

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Dipping the grilled bread into the broth was a highlight. You have to work too much for mussels. And sometimes you mistake the shells for something tasty inside and say, aw man! when it's empty.

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Main courses. We were going to split one, but ended up getting two. We should have split.

I got the frittata basquaise with yukon gold potatoes, peppers, onions & tomatoes, roasted red pepper coulis and a side salad.

The side salad looked pretty much like garnish, and I took a half-hearted bite. Wrong. I never imagined that red and green leaf lettuce with trace amounts of a vinaigrette could be so good. That lettuce was the best lettuce that I've ever had - seriously. The leaves were so tender and flavorful - it didn't taste like anything I've every bought at a store. When I mentioned this to our server, she informed me that the lettuce is harvested from their vegetable garden out back. Of course. This is wine country. Everyone has a vegetable garden out back.

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Mr. Insom got the duck confit & potato hash with poached eggs, applewood smoked bacon. Although both entrees were delicious, I liked his a bit better. So did our dining companion, Pete Bunniberg.

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After that incredibly large meal, we walked around historic Sonoma for a bit. Lots of cute shops like this one. I'm a sucker for fair trade nick nacks.

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Pretty pottery. I bought a tea mug with a strainer so I can have cups of leisurely tea at work. lol

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I thought these baskets were neat - they're made from recycled magazines.

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Lots of cooking shops all over this town.

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We headed to the town plaza to check out the Bear Flag Celebration.

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Grilling. Yum.
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Then we made our way to the amphitheater to watch a rather confusing skit about the bear flag.

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A bunch of rabble rousers wearing authentic garb rushed the stage, firing their fake guns and yelling about Mexicans.

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Dude in the sunglasses apparently disregarded the email about historical accuracy. And is he drinking a beer??

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The fake guns were loud and made it hard to hear what the hell was going on.

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Then the mob captured this guy that looked like a fat Abraham Lincoln.

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And tied him up.

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This was the leader. He kept talking about no longer being under Mexican control.

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Then the fat Lincoln signed a paper with a quill.

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And then we left. It was very educational.

Go Bear Flag!


2 comments:

weezermonkey said...

(1) Adooooorable restaurant.
(2) Pete Bunniberg!
(3) Great captioning with the bear flag historic reenactment.

Grace said...

Nice photos! I love me some cheese and figs.

I am dying over the bear flag skit.