Breakfast, brunch, and dinner

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I'm chillin' out at the Rosewood Sand Hill over the weekend, and there's really nothing much in the 'hood.  Pretty much gotta get a ride to go anywhere or do anything.  So it kinda made sense that we would stick around the hotel for most of the day.

I went over to Madera, the hotel restaurant with a macaron, to grab myself some breakfast.  I figured I couldn't go wrong with the challah French toast, which came with some walnuts.

I also ordered myself some pork sausages on the side.  These were pretty decent.

Lunch time rolled around, and I'm back at the same place.  The restaurant was serving brunch, and I decided to sit out on the deck where I had a view of the pool.  Honestly, I didn't find many choices on the menu that looked interesting, so I ordered something I've never had before...

Chilaquiles - the fried tortilla chips were on the soggy side, which weren't great.  The fried egg on top was fine, and I put up with the avocado sauce from a squeeze bottle.  The salsa roja was OK.  Overall, though, I was not a fan.

We did manage to leave the hotel for a while in the afternoon, and went hiking in Wunderlich County Park.  We didn't manage to make it all the way to the top of the hill, but it was still nice to walk among the red woods.

Considering the need to rest up before a late night conference call, we decided to stay in for dinner. So for the third meal in a row, I went back to try the regular menu at Madera.

The amuse bouche was a grape and almond gazpacho.  This was creamy and nutty.

Smoked trout, fennel, farro, trout roe, Meyer lemon - the smokiness of the trout was so aggressive that I wondered if it had just been processed with a smoker.  Oh and the trout itself was way too salty.

My friend's osetra caviar (from the West Coast) was apparently totally over-salted and not appetizing at all...  For a guy who loves caviar, it really says something to see him bitch about how bad this was.  Meanwhile, I'm pretty picky about what caviar I spend my money on, and I certainly wasn't gonna get any without knowing the source.

Sonoma rabbit, hand cut tagliatelle pasta, chanterelles, basil - this was better.  The rabbit was seasoned properly, and while the sauce for the pasta was a little too watery for me, flavor-wise it was alright.

We decided to share a cheese plate:

San Joaquin Gold - kinda like Comté, with good intensity and salinity.

Boho Belle - more creamy and acidic, softer texture, without much salt.

Wagon Wheel - like a young Gruyère?  Some saltiness, a little bit of bitterness on the finish along with some acidity.  A little springy.

Formagella - relatively bland, with some salt, and bitter rind.

Given our need to get on a conference call in a few hours, we decided to take it easy on wine.  I figured we should try a bottle of Cali pinot while we're here, and unfortunately I picked out something that wasn't to my friend's liking...

2010 Calera Pinot Noir de Villiers Vineyard, from half-bottle - very jammy, some metallic notes.  Unfortunately very one-dimensional.