Jeremiah was a bullfrog....(A food porn pic extravaganza!)

Greetings, and an early TGIF to ya. I am currently home, sipping on a Negra Modelo, and listening to some nice jazz music. Despite the fact that I have to work on Fridays and Saturdays, I am so happy on Thursday nights because I'm done with school for the week. I usually go celebrate by eating out on Thursday for dinner before my last class, but those adventures will be put in a future post. For now, I give you Tra Vigne.



I went up to Oakland a couple weeks ago because my cousin was getting married in Napa. On Friday, I started off the party early by enjoying a heavily priced Amber Bock at the airport bar, and upon meeting a classmate at the airport, having a drink on the plane, a first for me, but screw it, it's a celebration! I met with an old friend, and we had dinner at this Korean-Chinese place, where I was able to get the jjajang/jjamppong bowl for the first time. Sorry no pictures, but it was good. A quick shoutout to Top Dog. I only wish that I had gotten more there. I got the Bockwurst, which was 1/2 pork, 1/2 veal, milk, and eggs. I've never had veal before, but the dog was very soft. No pictures once again...sorry!

Saturday I went to Napa with my sister. The wedding was held at Tra Vigne, which my sister told me was opened by Michael Chiarello. The wedding itself was quite small, as it was only for family, and the Buddhist ceremony was both interesting and very beautiful. Having had some chocolate for breakfast, and the hot dog for lunch, I was starving by the time the ceremony had ended. And without any further ado, onto the food. After the pictures were taken, people started trickling in for the reception, and appetizers were soon being circulated by the very attentive and helpful staff.


Sorry if the picture is ugly, but this is mushrooms with some kind of cheese on biscotti. I really don't know, but it was delicious.


Bacon wrapped shrimp on a bamboo skewer. I'm not sure what that black stuff on it was. I want to say a grape leaf, but I really don't know. The shrimp was definitely my favorite appetizer. It had a nice citrusy taste to it.


Here's a picture of the shrimp as it was presented to us. At this point, I was feeling GOOD and having a mighty fine time with my friend Jack, if you know what I mean, and started asking the staff if they could just hold still for a second, so that I could take a picture of the food.


Fried calamari with what I believe the server told me was a lemon (ranch or butter? i forget) aioli


The dinner menu.


Some type of focccia bread. I stuffed myself silly with this stuff. I was so hungry I could not stop eating. I went through a good amount, and we had three baskets among a table of seven. The first batch was dry. The second batch was perfect. The last batch was a bit too oily/buttery.


I thought it was bit too salty. Maybe it was just my salad. I don't know. However, the strawberries were very fresh tasting and delicious. I also loved the goat cheese. I love that stuff. I remember when I worked in catering at UCSD we would cut it with a very thin piece of wire.


This was by far my favorite thing I ate there. It was very rich, and I left nothing on the plate, soaking up the sauce with my bread. I think this was the first time that I've ever had carbonara before. I liked it.


Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. This was one big ass piece of meat, as my cousin dubbed it, "the Flinstone meal." Underneath these exceedingly soft and tender ribs was polenta, which was quite good, and another thing that I tried for the first time. I'm sorry if my descriptions are short, but I was drinking, and it's been a while since the wedding.


Lastly, an ugly picture of the cake, which I enjoyed very much. Rather than those airy, light cakes, this cake was thicker (for the lack of a better word at the moment), kinda like an ice cream cake's cake part. I don't know how else to put it, but I liked it.

That's the end of that folks. A pretty long post if you ask me. Another congrats to my cousin and cousin(in-law)....More to come in the future...and once again, as I cannot say this enough....

TGIF MANG!