This was a year filled with extraordinary food and beverage adventures.  It was difficult to narrow down a “Best of the Best” list, but here are my picks for 2011:

Best Overall Coffee Experience: Roasting beans and doing a comparative tasting with Scott Miller, owner of Ogeechee River Coffee Company, Savannah, Georgia.

Best new chocolate confection chef: Chris Kollar of Kollar Chocolates in Yountville, California.  Especially love his passion fruit, coconut and peanut butter chocolates.

Best foraging adventure on a farm: La Petraia in Radda in Chianti, Italy, with owner and chef, Susan McKenna Grant.  Foraging was followed by a cooking class and lunch that featured our foraged ingredients!

Best wine harvest experience: Goosecross Cellars, Napa, California. Was such a learning experience to follow Winemaker Geoff Gorsuch during the pressing and crushing of the grapes for their Viognier wine.

Best new chocolate bar: Askinosie Chocolate, Springfield, Missouri.  I absolutely adore their new single-origin bar made with cacao beans from Honduras.

Best organic olive oil discovery: Castelas’ Biologique Olive Oil, Les Baux de Provence, France.  Grassy, aromatic, spicy and delicious.  This is a perfect finishing oil.

Best dish using brussel sprouts: Bottega Restaurant, Napa Valley, California.  Their new crispy brussel sprout salad is phenomenal.  I was upset that they took their shaved brussel sprout salad off the menu but this new salad is truly superior – so full of flavor and crunch!

Best new diner: The Fremont Diner in Sonoma, California.  Farm-to-table, Southern-inspired dishes such as BBQ pork sandwich, collard greens and housemade biscuits.

Best sugar discovery: Wasanban from Shikoku, Japan.  Wasanban is a very fine-grained sugar that is made from a thin sugar cane plant grown in Shikoku.  A friend in Japan sent it to me.  I have been using it to sprinkle on dessert crepes and cookies and to sweeten tea.  I love its delicate texture and sweet flavor.

Best affogato (gelato with a shot of espresso): Poggio in Sausalito, California.  They dress their affogatos up with slices of toasted almonds and candied orange peel.  Exquisite!

Best caramels: Jacques Genin in Paris, France.  These caramels melt in your mouth and dance on your tongue.  The flavors are rich and the texture is perfect.

Best wine education experience: Les Printemps de Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, France.  Was there in April for a tasting of grenache wines from several different soil types and microclimates within the Chateauneuf-du-Pape appellation.

Best new artisanal salt: Jacobsen Hand-Harvested Pure Sea Salt from Netarts Bay, Oregon.  This salt has a wonderful crunch and a bright, clean flavor.  Excellent finishing salt.

Best hamburger in San Francisco: 4505 Meats, San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.  Haven’t tried every hamburger in town yet, but this was my favorite of the ones that I tried this year.

Looking forward to discovering what new “Bests” 2012 will bring!

Note: Top photo taken by Oliver Seidel and Nicky Stich of deliciousdays.com.

There is just something about the flavor of cardamom that makes a super pairing with espresso.  This ice cream is very simple to make.  It is made in the same style in which we made ice cream when I was growing up on my grandmother’s farm in rural Georgia – with fresh cream, milk, sugar and natural ingredients, but no eggs.  It is rich and creamy and intensely flavored!  My obsession with the cardamom ice cream affogato came to me a few months back while at Oxbow Market in Napa.   I spotted cardamom ice cream at the Three Twins Ice Cream shop.  Since it is right across from Ritual Coffee, I asked the Ritual folks to put a shot of espresso in the bowl.   I liked it so much that I started experimenting with making cardamom ice cream at home. 
 

Ingredients
1 cup cream
1 vanilla bean
1/2 teaspoon crushed cardamom seeds (I buy whole seeds and crush them myself using a pestle and mortar.)
4 green cardamom pods (optional)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup whole milk

Espresso shots for serving

You will also need:
Small saucepan
Paring knife
Large spoon
Ice cream maker (I use a Cuisinart ice cream with a compressor in it).
Pint-sized freezer-safe container with tight-fitting lid
Espresso maker
Ice cream scoop
Glasses or dishes for serving affogato

Instructions
Pour the cream into a saucepan and place over medium heat.  Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the cream.  Drop the vanilla bean into the cream, as well. 

Add the crushed cardamom seeds, the cardamom pods and the sugar. Mix well.  When the mixture starts getting bubbles on the sides (just before a full boil), turn off the heat, cover the mixture and let it sit for about 20 minutes for the flavors to infuse.  

Remove the vanilla bean halves and the green cardamom pods.  Add the milk.  Cover and place into the refrigerator to cool for at least an hour.  

Remove the mixture from the refrigerator and pour into the container of your ice cream maker.  Freeze the mixture according to the instructions for your machine. 

Remove the ice cream from the machine, place into a freezer-safe container with a tigh-fitting lid and place into the freezer.  The ice cream will need to freeze to a firm consistency.  I find that overnight is best.
   

Makes 1 pint of ice cream.

To make the affogato, remove the ice cream from the freezer.  Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out a serving of ice cream and place it into a dish.  Pour a shot of hot espresso over the ice cream.  Serve immediately.

Cibo has become one of our favorite cafes in Sausalito.  I am very picky about espresso drinks and coffee, and Cibo serves Blue Bottle Coffee.  They use two shots of espresso in their coffee drinks so they have a deep, robust coffee flavor.   Cibo features a seasonal menu, and they have specials that change daily.  They serve both breakfast and lunch seven days a week.  Some examples of their breakfast menu include granola with yogurt, toast with housemade conserve, steel cut oats, a seasonal vegetable frittata, and poached eggs with creme fraiche.  For lunch, they serve a variety of seasonal paninis along with soup and salad.  Some of my favorite lunch menu items are their yellow and red beet salad, their dungeness crab panini, the wild mushroom panini and their lentil salad.  Today their specials included a winter vegetable and farro soup, a stuffed artichoke and a meatball sandwich. 

Cibo is owned by the Ancona family of Sausalito, also owners of Angelino Restaurant here in town.  They are open daily from 7am to 5pm. 

Cibo
1201 Bridgeway
Sausalito, CA  94965
(415) 331-2426

If you are in the coffee business, have a keen interest in coffee or are thinking of opening a coffee roastery, check out the unique coffee courses offered by expert, Willem Boot. Willem started working in his father’s coffee shop as a teenager and knows the specialty coffee business inside and out. He owned his own coffee shop in The Netherlands before moving out to Mill Valley, California, a few years back. He has worked as an international coffee consultant in more than 15 countries. He offers intensive coffee workshops in coffee roasting, cupping and product development. To find out more about these specialty coffee programs, visit Boot Coffee online.

One of the purchases that I am really enjoying is my Nespresso machine.  I was quite skeptical at first of espresso from this type of process (I have always said to grind your own beans and make coffee or espresso within ten seconds!).  However, I find the aroma and the taste of this espresso to be quite excellent.  It is also a really fun system to have – lots of brightly-colored pods from which to choose (different beans, stengths, etc.), no mess, creates a beautiful foam on top, and all within four seconds!  To get this system, you must buy a machine (run from about $179 to about $800) and then the pods.  The pods run about $.50 each, but that is no more expensive than going out for a cup of good espresso.  I like this system so much that I now have three – one in France for my Getaways, one at home, and one in Napa Valley for my Getaways.  (My $179 system works just as well as the one I bought for $359).  Take a look for yourself:  www.nespresso.com .