Ubuntu in Napa

While I was in San Francisco we had a trip to Napa to lunch at this restaurant. It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed the drive through the valley as it gave me the opportunity to see where the grapes for this famous wine area are grown. If you are wondering we didn't have time to stop off for any wine tasting!!
That I was also in the company of Cookiecrumb and Cranky really made my day. They are such lovely, welcoming and generous people; Cookiecrumb gave me a lovely bag from the Marin Farmers market. I was thrilled as we had actually called in on the market on our way to pick them up, so the bag is a lovely memento. Since I have given up using plastic bags I am busy collecting bags of various sizes, made from different materials for all different types of shopping; this new addition (shown below) has already been used several times.

The reason we dropped by the market was we were looking for leeks and bought just about all that were available. I also came away with a pot of Almond butter as my friend, Tina, is rather partial to it. I had to laugh because I'm not quite sure they are doing themselves any favours with the name and picture on the jar; it might put some people off! Ubuntu is a vegetarian restaurant (they will prepare the dishes as vegan) which has to be a plus but I was a little disappointed they were not a little more imaginative with the menu which had two pizza's out of a choice of five entrees. Sam is much better at describing the meal than I am, so if you are really interested you can go and read what she says. I will leave you with a few photos. I agree with Sam that the best choice was made by Cookiecrumb who had the 'cauliflower in a cast iron pot' this was a trio of roasted, pureed and raw cauliflower, vadouvan spice and brown butter toast. Oh and I know Sam raved about the potatoes but we all agreed they were good. I chose the salad starter because I had seen Persimmon in the market but had never tried this fruit, and I have to say it was very insipid, but it did give a little colour to the dish. I'm not a lover of olives (I did try one!) but that meant all the more for the others!
I can tell you the 'cheesecake in a jar' that we shared was really very good and to think we nearly passed on it!

Archives:
December 13th 2006: Celebration