Eating My Way Through Napa

It's Spring Break and while I have tons of work to catch up on, I decided to go on a quick vacation with my love to Napa after finding an amazing travel deal on Living Social.  Most come here for the wine, but I find the food just as a compelling reason to visit.

First stop: breakfast at the Dipsea Cafe.

Our starter course: a biscuit.  This was a late addition- we had to add it on after seeing another customer eating one at a neighboring table.  

M's dish: whole wheat pancakes with fresh blueberries, homemade breakfast sausage (huge link) and home fries.  He was pretty impressed- said it tasted very homemade. 

I had a special: zucchini, carrot and dill pancakes, chicken apple sausage, sour cream and homemade applesauce.  De-lic-ious.  Huge portions, so I didn't get through even half of it.  

This was a fun first stop.  We were worried at first because there was a good 30 or so people waiting for a table, but they moved through the list fast.  I think we only waited about 10 minutes.  Tons of babies- so adorable.  Made my ovaries ache.  It was a tad pricey, but the portions are so large, you could easily split a plate and help stretch your dollar.

Next stop: ironic dim sum for a snacky lunch at a food truck in Napa called Dim Sum Charlie's.

It was it in a Air Stream trailer.  They were camped out in this random dirt lot next to Gott's Roadside and I'm sure they swiped a few customers who didn't want to wait in the ridiculously long lines that are always at that place. 

The prices were really high considering that you could easily get the same meal in San Francisco for half the price.  That said, it was pretty solid.  We got the "Ten Dolla Makes You Holla" deal, which include a steamed  pork bun, a honey pork bun and 5 assorted pieces of dim sum.  

I forgot to take pictures until we got down to the last two pieces.  The one on the right was our favorite.  I have no idea what it is called, but it is super tasty. 

A couple next to us had huge steaming bowls of ramen that smelled wonderful.  Again, far too pricey, but that's true for almost everything in Napa.  

Finally, dessert from Sweet Pies, a bakery next to our hotel. 

Red velvet whoopie pie with cream cheese frosting.  Far bigger than I expected.  Pretty good, but way too big to finish.  They had some other goodies that looked very tasty- cheesecake, creme brulee, cookies, and cupcakes.  Pretty good prices, especially considering that everything is big enough to split with a friend. 

We finished off the day with a fancy pants dinner at Morimoto's, a restaurant owned by the Iron Chef star Masaharu Morimoto.  That meal was deserving of its own post- to come shortly.