Napa Food Part Three

We spent the latter part of the trip in Sonoma since I was competing in the Francis Ford Coppola Perfect Your Pizza competition. Spoiler... I won.

We stayed in Healdsburg, which was such a cute town. I could have spent a few days there exploring all of the shops and restaurants. One of my favorite activities we did was renting bicycles from our hotel and cruising through the town on a bike path.

We stumbled upon this sushi spot called Otoro and had a great meal. The food and company were great, and the atmosphere was more chill and relaxing than some of the other restaurants we went to.

I only took one picture, but we had the Jalapeno Bomb, which was fried jalapenos stuffed with spicy tuna & crab. These were delicious and the texture on the jalapenos was really interesting (in a good way). They must have been blanched and then lightly breaded and quickly fried. We also had Galbi, a tempura veggie roll, and another roll that my husband ordered... I think it was a Fire Rainbow roll but I honestly don't remember. I was hesitant to eat anything raw since I had the competition.

The next night we dined at Studio Barn Diva in Healdsburg - a Michelin Recommended casual fine dining restaurant. The vibe in here was interesting; I'll say that. The menu puzzled me a bit because it seems kind of all over the place, but I think that's what they're going for.

I had the Crispy Chicken with green chermoula, tahini, garlic dressing, and naan bread. This was delicious. I feel like the sauce could have been on the bottom, though. I wanted more sauce to dip my chicken and bread in!

My husband had the Roasted Mt. Lassen Trout with soubise, shaved fennel & pea shoot salad. He said it was his favorite dish he had on the trip. I tried it and it was very good - I especially loved the soubise. Raise your hand if you've never made soubise before!

On the evening after the competition, we celebrated and went to Lo & Behold; they're known for their global comfort food and cultivated cocktails.

I ordered the beef brisket tacos with chile negra, refried white beans, asada onions, and consommé - Let’s just say a beef brisket taco hates to see me coming.

My husband had the Pollo a la Brasa - blackened chicken thighs with aji sauce and fries. I think I actually preferred his dish over mine. Honestly, I could have eaten both meals that night since I didn’t eat much the day of the competition.