I was whipping up egg whites and sugar for a meringue today, and they were supposed to come to stiff peaks. It seemed thick, but when I lifted up the whisk to check the peak, a soft peak fell over. I asked the Chef about it, and he spun the whisk around the bowl a little by hand and lifted up the whisk slower — and a stiff peak appeared. I’m going to test this more, but maybe lifting the whisk too fast and having too much buildup of meringue on the whisk give an inaccurate reading for egg white peaks….

Irony can be awful. The day after I went to Saddle Peak Lodge, I blithely spoke away to someone about my luck of only taking one picture of every course at a restaurant and always having it come out in focus. Then I got home Sunday night, imported my pic’s from my camera, and beheld some crucial pictures of this meal that were out of focus. Oh, they’re discernible… but just not in focus. So, cover your eyes if you’re offended, I’m posting them anyway… and I know that it’s not the first time on this site.

Saddle Peak Lodge is one of the most beautiful restaurants that I’ve been to — and even the drive there is gorgeous. Technically, it’s in Calabasas (in the San Fernando Valley), but it’s nestled right on the edge of Malibu Creek State Park, so it can reached via Malibu after a cruise on the Pacific Coast Highway. The drive through the park is stunning, since you wind through the canyons on roads that just keep you from descending into them. There are a lot of lookout points, too.

By the time you reach this rustic oasis, you can’t wait to settle into a fine meal. We were a bit early, so we drove around the area, and marveled at the assortment of stylized houses that have been fashioned into the hills.

The building of the restaurant is over 100 years old. Since it was once the place to bring game and gather after a hunt, of course Ernest Hemingway used to find his way here. In the past thirty years, it’s transformed from a simple hunting lodge to a romantic restaurant that looks like a hunting lodge. A place for carnivores, I suppose, because even if you order the token vegetarian item, chances are that a mounted stag head will watch you eat it. The interior is packed with wood upon wood and lined with books and curios.

In hindsight, I recommend getting there a little early, so that you can relax in the unique bar area. A table there is made from a giant tree trunk that branches out to offer individual sized surfaces for many guests. Their glasses of wine were all over $10, but once poured, I felt like they were bargains — every large glass was filled to hold almost double the normal amount.

Our table was ready a little early, and we ascended two flights of stairs to the third story. As I looked into each floor, I noticed that the restaurant was broken into rooms and nooks, with every area being slightly different and infallibly intimate and cozy.

Now, a restaurant like this — which has pulled off the clever trick of making an arbitrary beautiful place in the world feel like almost like a tourist attraction — could get by on mediocrity as many restaurants near landmarks do, but Saddle Peak Lodge is known for its fantastic food centered around game. I found that the food was very good and creative, but not quite perfect. But, as you sit there, in a comfortable leather-lined chair, gazing out into the canyon at dusk and into night with a large glass of wine and perhaps some elk on your plate as your companions do the same, it’s impossible not to feel lucky and appreciative of how thoroughly beautiful the world is around you.

After we were seated, we went out the door on end of the room, and walked on a path through the beautiful garden and a reception area that is probably used for weddings; and everywhere you looked were stunning views of the area.

When we returned to our table, an amuse bouche of Carrot Soup in an espresso cup was waiting for us. On the one hand, I’d wished they’d waited for us to return to serve it so that we knew what it was right away and could have it before it cooled much, but on the other hand, it’s nice to sit down to a table armed with food for you. Anyway, it was pleasant and restorative, and quite a large serving, unlike many other one bite amuses. I wish that it’d had some contrast in it, but it was good carrot soup in itself.

Butter Poached Maine Lobster in Shredded Filo Dough Basket, with Asparagus, Baby Greens & Citrus Confit and Nage. I’d been dying to have butter poached lobster for years, so finally I was able to experience what it’s like to bite into a butter infused lobster chunk for myself, and that was delicious; it was a tad tough, though, so maybe it was slightly overcooked. I liked it with little shreds of filo dough and a little nage, but when I tried a bite with an orange segment, the orange was so pungent that I couldn’t taste the lobster; the grapefruit segments were even stronger. I would think that lobster shouldn’t be overwhelmed by common citrus fruits, so I felt like this was an uneven dish that required a strategy to eat to get the most out of the flavors.

Grilled Belgium White Asparagus with Golden Balsamic Vinaigrette, Strawberries, Arugula, and Hazelnut Brittle. The eclectic combination of flavors worked better here, and Chad liked it a lot. For me, only the hazelnut brittle seemed to stick out, texturally, but it was like a nice dessert or intermezzo within the dish.

Roasted Elk Tenderloin with Bacon Wrapped Salsify, Jerusalem Artichokes, and Creamy Wild Mushroom Sauce. I completely loved this dish. The elk had a slightly sweet gamey taste, and was so tender and juicy. The bacon wrapped salsify were amazing. I think that they use Nueske bacon from Wisconson, and it was just slightly crispy and smoky around the creamy salsify inside. I liked the slightly woody jerusalem artichokes, too. Luckily, it was such a large portion that I got to take some home.

Game Tasting Plate. Each meat was paired with its own vegetables and sauce, which I think is great since meat tasting dishes elsewhere usually have cursory buttery vegetables thrown on the side of the plate. So, from the bottom, it was Elk with Mushrooms in a Mushrooms, Antelope with Napa Cabbage, and Buffalo with Mashed Potatoes and Bearnaise Sauce. The elk and buffalo were just perfect. I’ve never had antelope before, but I found this one a bit more chewy, with a very deep game flavor that was unpleasant for me.

Dessert Sampler w/ Banana Huckleberry Bread Pudding, Frozen Mascarpone Souffle, Chocolate Macadamia Nut Tart, Belgium Chocolate Creme Brulee, Passionfruit Sorbet, and Fresh Berries. Being the young Californians that we are, we both went for the berries first, and they were great. But eventually, I found that of the prepared desserts, the creme brulee and the mascarpone souffle were my favorite, but they were all wonderful in their own way. I also like the selection of deserts here, with a nice balance of fruit, chocolate, crusts/starch, creams, nuts, and warm/cold. I usually find creme brulee boring, but it was so perfectly creamy and chocolate-y, with just enough crust, that I couldn’t stop eating it. We were told to eat the mascarpone souffle last to give it time to melt a little, and it had a lighter kind of creaminess and refreshing flavor. We couldn’t eat the whole sampler, but it was so hard to stop, as our spoons made one last trip to the plate for about 5 minutes.

Edit: I have since revisited Buster’s.

Buster’s is one of my favorite places to eat in the valley. I like it so much that Chad and I drove the 60 miles roundtrip upvalley from Napa to Calistoga right before driving the 100 miles roundtrip to Oakland Airport today.

We happened upon it by chance last September as we were driving down from the Old Faithful Geyser (which is laughably lackluster and not worth visiting), and couldn’t believe our luck to suddenly feast on their succulent tri-tip sandwiches with all the barbecue fixings. On that day, I think that Buster himself was even manning one of the outdoor grills.

I’ve only ever had the tri-tip sandwich, but there are also such things pork ribs, pork loin, and chicken (I’ve always felt a twinge of curiosity for them). And you’ll notice from the sign above that even though it’s a very modest road stop eatery — which has a kind of outdoor eating area that is well-covered — it, of course, has espresso, cuz this is still the Napa Valley. Sandwiches with a side are generally $7-9, and dinner plates with two sides are a little more.

This picture doesn’t quite do justice to how laden with meat and sauce that sandwich was; after I picked mine up first to eat, Chad asked, “How did you do that?” I got the hot bbq sauce, which isn’t prohibitively spicy but just spicy and sweet enough for me, but even the regular bbq sauce is a tad spicy (you can order half of each if you want). We both felt the skin tingle around our mouths where it had smeared. They also brush garlic butter onto the inside of the perfectly soft rolls before filling them. Whenever I finish eating the sandwich, I feel like I’ve done something very, very good.

The beans were a neutral, refreshing break between bites. The potato salad, which was also a touch spicy, has a creamy smoothness that comes from the potatoes breaking up a little into the mayonnaise (rather than being simply chunks coated in mayo). Chad had a great macaroni salad with shell shaped pasta that was speckled with ground pepper and had a spicy kick. I’ve had the sweet potato pie for dessert, which is good enough, but now I think I’d just get more meat if I was still hungry somehow.

For a quick, flavorful, and reasonable barbecue lunch, check out Buster’s — no matter what the roundtrip mileage may be.

Sometimes it feels like citrus and chocolate rule desserts — and that’s not a bad thing — but I like to explore more unique flavorings… Such as beet. Somewhere on the web, I discovered that beet cake used to be a common dessert in England a few centuries ago. To me, it seemed like it would join zucchini and carrot to complete the trinity of vegetable dessert cakes. From what I gathered, it usually produces a very moist cake with a subtle or non-existent beet flavor because a lot of spices or cocoa are often added to the batter for a flavor kick — one recipe even had a peanut butter icing on a cocoa beet cake.

But, I didn’t want a spice cake or a cocoa cake — I wanted to know what the beet tastes like in a cake. I was happy when I came across the recipe for Nigella Lawson’s Ruby Jewel Cake, found here. Nigella has such a  playful way with words. Ruby Jewel Cake sounds so luxuriant, so vibrant… much more so than the rather thudding Beet Cake, which is what it is at heart. She uses just a bit of nutmeg and dried cranberries for additional flavoring, which sounded nicely matched with the beets.

As I started to make it, I wondered why beet cake has fallen to the wayside, while carrot and zucchini have manage to thrive. I eat beets somewhat regularly, usually roasted and chopped, but once I started grating my beet, my reddening hands gave me one answer. No ordinary scrubbing would clean them. For better or for worse, I remembered this tip that I apparently didn’t forget, and applied it to my red hands — it took several rounds of salt and scrubbing to make them clean again.

So, how did it turn out? Very moist and festive looking, but with a taste that separates the diehard from the epicurean. It tasted like beets all right, but with a slightly astringent raw beet flavor that might overpower some. The cranberry and nutmeg ameliorated it a little by the end of the bite at least. I ate a whole slice in a few bites as I wondered “Do I like this? Hmm… Do I like this?  Hmm…” So, it was decent for me. On the other hand, Chad’s response to his first bite was a worried “Do I have to eat the whole slice?” (rest of that conversation: “No, of course not.” “It looks nice.” “Yeah, thanks.”)

I still wonder, though… Maybe baking the beet first would take the edge off a bit. But I don’t know — the more I try to imagine a popular sweet beet flavoring, the more I’ve come to doubt. Maybe it would be just good as a stealthy moistening ingredient, mixed with cocoa… and topped with peanut butter… or mixed with pineapple and carrots and lots of sugar and topped with lots of cream cheese frosting…

I’ve been waiting for this strawberry stand to open since I moved to Napa months ago — finally the “closed” sign was gone yesterday, and now I have a daily strawberry temptation on my way home from school on Hwy 29. There’s another stand just north of Napa on the Silverado Trail, too.

I ate some out of the basket, and then was inspired to make this creamy and delicious Pavlova…