Intensely Delicious Wine Pairing

I don’t consider my self a wine connoisseur, I don’t even consider my self a wine drinker. When I heard about this awesome event wine and chocolate pairings in Long Beach, I had to be there. It’s not to often we get blogger events in my city of Long Beach. My blogger friends often hear me complain about driving to LA for events.  I don’t mind the drive as much as the traffic. So this day was perfect, wine, chocolate, Long Beach and bloggers. Oakley (LBC twitter friend) held a wine and chocolate pairing party for the new Ghirardelli Intense Dark chocolates.  4 types of wine were served with 4 types of Intense Dark chocolates, along with some dried fruits, cheese, nuts and crackers.  I can’t even remember what types of wine we had and what it was paired with all I remember is it was DELICIOUS!  For someone who doesn’t know squat about wines, this was a great experience to taste different wines and explore what I like.  I have come to realize my preference for white wines, as well as sweet wines.  The red wines can be more dry and bitter, which doesn’t appeal to me as much.  The experience was wonderful, learned about some great wines and a wine bar in my neighborhood (District Wine), ate some delicious chocolates and spent a nice afternoon with blogger friends.  If you want to learn more about the wines and chocolate pairings, head over to Oakmonster.com she has a great post about the even here.

Here are some photos I took, they are not great since my hands were usually full of chocolate or a wine glass. 😉

Bloggers listening attentive to the speaker.

the goodies (cheese, fruit, almonds, crackers and marshmallows)

One of the red wines, thinks its Malbec. After 2nd pairing I was lost! lol

I arrived a bit late to so had to catch up on wines.

the artmuse and presleypantry tweeting about event.

Mark is the owner of District Wine, he was a very nice and cool host.

Toffee Interlude from Ghirardelli Intense Dark collection. DELISH!

looks funny, taste great!

Oakley hostess and foodie

I sat at the cool bloggers table...LOL. We totally enjoyed the wine and chocolate.

I heart sushi!

Sushi is one of those foods that people either really love or really don’t. I personally LOVE IT!  I don’t eat sushi too often, its more a special treat type of meal.  Recently I found out about new sushi spot called Gatten Sushi Revolving Sushi Factory.  What makes this place special and not your typical sushi spot is the revolving sushi factory.  It’s basically a conveyor belt with plates of sushi and you pick what you want to eat.  I had seen this on the Food Network and thought it was such a cool idea.  I just had to try it out and see what all the buzz was about.

So here is the low down, you come in sit down at either a booth or the bar.  Then you get right to it, the sushi will be revolving right by and you pick a plate of any roll you like. The plates are color coded so you know how much each is, the yellow plates are $2 & the red plates are $3, depending on the roll each plate has about 2-4 pieces.  Those prices are so cheap for sushi.  What I liked about it theres no waiting, as soon as you sit down and see a roll you like, just grab it.  Each type of sushi is labeled so you know what kind of roll each plate has.  For those you who don’t love sushi they also offer other things, like rice, soups, salads, tempura and fried chicken.  So really something for everyone, oh yeah they also have desserts, but didn’t try any.  They have about 4 locations in Southern California at the moment, but I see the revolving sushi movement growing…LOL

Fried Chicken roll, no raw fish!

There is its, revolving sushi.

sushi chef is close by to make any roll you don't see on hand.

Each plate has a name tag so you know what your eating.

When your done, they count your plates and give you the bill.

They have some for the more daring sushi eater. Jellyfish?

Each plate is covered and place was clean. I like!

The sushi goes around and around, I wanted 1 of each plate.

Overall I enjoyed the sushi and the experience of the fast access.  Its a great spot for lunch during work, conveniently its located just a few miles from my office. 😉  I will say it was not the best sushi I ever ate, but not the worst.  It was good and for the price you can’t beat it.

Have you ever tried the revolving sushi? Writing this post is making me crave it, guess I will have to go for lunch tomorrow. Who wants to join me?

I heart granola!

Sometimes you come across certain things you love, and have to share with the world. Ok maybe I am exaggerating a wee bit, but really I am in love with granola. Since Fresh & Easy opened up a few years ago, its been my fave food store to shop at. This is not a commercial, nor am I getting paid or even getting free stuff from them. I really just love their products. I particularly love the granola, my fave is the Maple Pecan Granola Clusters.

Bags almost empty, been munching on it at work all week!

 OMG so yummy! I eat it alone as a snack, like I am doing so now, in my yogurt with fruit or even add some to my cereal to give it some crunch. Seriously think I’m obsessed with this granola, the price is awesome as well. Only $2.98 for 12 oz bag, with large chunky pecans and REAL maple syrup! F&E has other flavors and varieties of granola but by far the Maple Pecan is my fave.

I eat all the pecans first, then crunch the granola.

I recently introduced my co-worker to Fresh & Easy and the granola, yeah she is hooked on it as well. I guess its better than being obessed with their cookies or cupcakes, right? Yeah the have good sweets as well but nothing beats the granola!

Who’s been to Fresh & Easy and tried their granola? Tell me what you thinkg of it, or do you have another fave product you think I should try? Do tell, love to hear about new things and trying them out.