I'm not sure what I was thinking when I suggested that we take a drive down to Temecula on a January day. As you can see, the grape vines were in their dormant stage. But there was still plenty of wine to taste. We started in downtown Temecula for a little olive oil tasting at the Temecula Olive Oil Company. This family owned business grows their own olives and hand presses them to make their delicious extra virgin olive oils. Another great shop that we visited was the Old Town Spice & Tea Merchants. They have some amazing things in this shop besides spices. I picked up a bag of green bamboo rice. Never have I seen that before. After our shopping, we got back on the road and headed to the wineries. We did some tasting at Europa Village and had a great lunch at Calloway.
Went to a great restaurant while in Hanoi called La Badiane. One of the best vegetarian dinners I have had, though this is not a vegetarian restaurant. Had the vegetarian plate with mushroom cannelloni, a sweet potato puree, and grilled eggplants. Absolutely delicious. And the owner was so kind to let me into his kitchen to do my iPhone restaurant scene series.
The other day, my friend and fellow blogger, Krista Skellern of The Wellist, went on a field trip to Little India. This is a little area outside of Los Angeles. It is full of markets and spices, sari stores, jewelers, and restaurants. We had lunch at a southern Indian vegetarian restaurant called the Udupi Palace, which was amazing. Samosas, vegetable cutlets and vegetable pakoras dipped in 4 different sauces, my favorite being the mint sauce. And for our main course, the Palek Paneer, which is spinach and paneer cheese cooked with onions, tomatoes and Indian spices.
Be sure to check out the ever traveling Krista on her blog and on instagram.
Another highlight of my trip to Southeast Asia was visiting the Elephant Nature Park. This is an elephant rescue center in Chiang Mai, Thailand. On the ride to the center, we watched a video of the mistreatment of Asian elephants. It had me in tears in the back of the van. But the work that Sangduen Chailert (Lek), has done warms your heart. Lek rescues these elephants and they get to live in a natural environment with a river and mountains surrounding it. And everyone who works or volunteers there loves these sensitive, beautiful giants. We spent the day visiting, feeding and bathing them in the river.
Lek has received Time Magazines (2005) Asian Hero of the Year award and the park has received many awards, one being from the Smithsonian.
