Índex per October 2016 a Sunset

CERTAIN DAYS at Sunset, the communal tables by the Test Kitchen practically groan under the weight of wine bottles. A Hughes Family Cabernet blend with lush fruit and good structure; an unusual skin-fermented Chardonnay from Scribe. In the midst of it all sits Sara Schneider with her notebook, swirling and sipping and scribbling away (and wisely tipping most of the contents of her glass into a spittoon). A coworker wanders in, checks out the lineup, pulls up a chair; then another curious colleague, then three. Pretty soon we have a bit of a party—at 4 p.m. on a weekday in Oakland's Jack London Square. It's one of the many reasons why working at Sunset is like no other game in town. Sara, of course, is Sunset's wine editor, a woman…

HOUSE STYLE PLANTATION-ERA COTTAGES POPULATION 1,081 YOUR NEW FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR MANGO SEASON (SUMMER) WHO ARE THE NEIGHBORS? FAMILIES (78 PERCENT) PRIME DATE NIGHT SUNSET AT MAHUKONA BEACH PARK, THEN A PIPELINE ROLL AT SUSHI ROCK AND TRIO (SUSHIROCK RESTAURANT.NET) TOWN CELEBS THE TAKATA FAMILY, WHO OPENED HAWI'S GENERAL STORE IN 1923 MEDIAN SINGLE-FAMILY HOME $410,000 HOUSE RENTAL $1,035/MO. TOURIST CRED SWEET TWO-BLOCK TOWN WITH SEVEN RESTAURANTS AND THREE ART GALLERIES LOCAL CRED BIRTHPLACE OF KING KAMEHAMEHA HOW TO GET AROUND A TRUCK; ROADS ARE RUGGED PRIZED GOODS SLIPPAS (FLIP-FLOPS) FROM LOCALS BRAND POINT OF VIEW Sweet Potato Kitchen owner Susan Alexy traded Portland for island life. Susan Alexy made the move in 2012 at the urging of her son, who lived in Hawi. His advice to her was…

COOKBOOKS OF THE MONTH SEASON'S BOUNTY For cooks in the West, this month brings a windfall of great produce—the best of both summer and fall. Three new books will help you make the most of it. For the Portland Farmers Market Cookbook (Sasquatch Books; $28), Ellen Jackson gathered 100-plus recipes from local cooks and growers. Highlights: minestrone with shell beans; green salad with delicata squash. In the Malibu Farm Cookbook (Clarkson Potter; $40), Helene Henderson shares inventive recipes from her family farm and restaurant. Farmsteads of the California Coast (Yellow Pear Press; $25) by Sarah Henry profiles 12 sustainable farms, orchards, wineries, and dairies, with choice recipes for the harvest season, like pear jam and walnut pie. Our recipe is adapted from Malibu Farm Cookbook. Celery Root and Arugula Salad…

FOOD FOR THOUGHT BEST URBAN HARVEST This small-business story isn't about the bottom line. "It's about community, connection, and a basic human right to food," says Renée Günter (at left), owner of Daily Organics in South Los Angeles, an area considered an urban "food desert." Her shipping-container storefront selling farm-sourced fruits and vegetables is just a few blocks from her current home and a half-mile from where she spent part of her childhood. "When I was growing up in a single-parent household, food was scarce. Healthy options continue to be a problem here, so I chose to do something about it," says Günter, whose background includes experience as a landscape designer and as an haute couture model in Europe. Last summer, after several customers asked about local honey, she brought…

[The following content appeared in the Northwest, Northern California and Southern California edition.] WHEN STONES THROW BREWING opened this past spring, the number of breweries in this college town on the Salish Sea hit double digits. Eleven breweries in a city of 83,000 gives Bellingham a per capita lead over Seattle, according to Tap Trail, which maps the city's taprooms, pubs, and breweries. It's not just volume, though, that's luring people to this Edwardian-era city with brick-lined sidewalks. It's the quality, which expresses the northwest Washington terroir; much of the hops in the bottles comes from regional family-run fields. You'll quickly note that Bellinghamers aren't ones for idleness—so here are four adventures to pair with your pint. Hop culture Explore the intoxicating beauty of Bellingham by paddling the coast or…

[The following content appeared in the Northern California edition.] IDEA WE LOVE Get your greens You don't need a large garden to get a season's worth of vegetables. This bed—which measures just 4 feet by 6 feet—provides plenty of room for cool-season crops. The trick to packing them tightly is to regularly harvest outer leaves to encourage adequate air circulation. Include lime green and purple, and textures, like ruffled and flat, for a bed that's as good-looking as it is tasty. Clockwise from left: "Georgia" collards, "Purple Choi" bok choy, "Green Wave" mustard, "Lacinato" kale, "Ruby Streaks" mustard, "Spanish Roja" garlic (for harvest next summer), and "Viroflay" spinach. PLANT Grow garlic garlic by by breaking breaking bulbs apart and planting cloves 3 to 4 inches deep and 5 inches apart.…

IT'S A LIVELY DAY AT Big Table Farm, what with the grape stomping at the winery, the cooking frenzy in the kitchen, and the chickens clucking, horses whinnying, pigs grunting, cattle mooing, and a very persistent pet goat named Goatio nuzzling pretty much everyone outside. Less fun-loving winery owners might lie low during crush, when the workdays can stretch to 12 hours. But Clare Carver and Brian Marcy are gathering 10 friends and crew members for a harvest feast in the barn. "Eat and drink. That's what we do!" says Clare. A passion for food and wine has been the through-line of their lives since they sold their home in Napa 10 years ago, where Brian was working in wine production and Clare as an artist, to buy a farm…

SKIRT STEAK with PORT and ROQUEFORT SERVES 4 / 40 MINUTES Skirt steak cooks quickly, making it ideal for weeknights; a velvety wine sauce gives it a special-occasion touch. Try it with hot, herb-flecked rice. 1 cup each ruby port and whipping cream ½ cup reduced-sodium chicken broth 3 oz. Roquefort cheese, divided 1 to 1¼ lbs. skirt steak, cut to fit the pan as needed ½ tsp. each kosher salt and pepper 1 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil ¼ cup thinly sliced green onions 1. In a large (not nonstick) frying pan over high heat, boil port, cream, and broth until large shiny bubbles form and sauce is reduced to about ½ cup, about 15 minutes. As sauce begins to reduce, stir often. Pour into a small bowl and add…

INTERNATIONAL WINE COMPETITION CONTENTS 102|New World Whites 109|New World Rosés 110|New World Reds 125|Old World Wines 126|New World Sparklers 126|Old World Sparklers 127|New World Dessert Wines, Old World Dessert Wines, Flavored and Nongrape Wines NEW WORLD WHITES ALBARIÑO abacela.com [BEST IN CLASS] [GOLD MEDALIST] Abacela 2015 Albariño (Umpqua Valley, Southern Oregon; $21). This Oregon take on the white wine of Spain's Rias Baixas region is a home run, with vibrant white peach, pear, and citrus fruit and complex hits of mineral, chamomile, and white pepper. bokischvineyards.com [GOLD MEDALIST] Bokisch Vineyards 2015 Terra Alta Vineyard Albariño (Clements Hills, Lodi; $18). Tropical flavors, including passion fruit and pineapple—plus vibrant acidity and a hint of minerality—plead the case for Lodi's ability to produce outstanding white wines. [SILVER MEDALIST] Mattina Fiore 2015 Paragon Vineyard…

"When we installed the first one here, it looked a bit sacrificial," says Anne Moller-Racke, pointing at a giant ox head speared atop an 8-foot bronze spike. Clad in a white T-shirt and overalls, the winegrower and I have just reached a crest of acreage on The Donum Estate in Sonoma Valley. Into view pops Circle of Animals, a dozen bronze animal heads staked firmly into the Pinot-loving soil of Carneros. This is esteemed artist Ai Weiwei's reinterpretation of an 18th-century artwork, each animal representing the 12 cycles of the Chinese zodiac. And although Moller-Racke is responsible for growing the grapes behind some of the best Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays in the region, now and again her duties stray into the realm of art. She oversees the arrival and assemblage…

WHEN DAVID SINEGAL purchased a historic winery in St. Helena, California, three years ago, the property was like a 19th-century painting come to life, with a storied Victorian farmhouse hugged by vineyards and a botanical garden. As much as he embraced the property's past, though, he also craved something modern and unexpected on the grounds—a design statement for the 21st century. To that end, Sinegal hired San Francisco interior designer Katie Martinez to reimagine one of the winery's less picturesque buildings: a brick fermentation facility from the 1980s. "David asked me to think outside the box—he was willing to take risks, " says Martinez, who was tasked with adding tasting and VIP rooms as well as a wine cellar to the structure. Her vision: a warm, contemporary interior that felt…

Hundreds of crimson heirloom chiles dangle from the eaves of Rancho de Chimayó restaurant, north of Santa Fe. But they're not just for decoration. Janet Malcolm, the kitchen manager (below), plucks them for carne ado-vada, pork in velvety red-chile sauce. "Our guests can't get enough of it," she says. "They eat 300 pounds a week." Since colonial times, this dish has helped define New Mexico cooking. "The sauce is made almost entirely from native chiles," says Malcolm. Those from Chimayó have developed—over centuries of struggling to grow in the lean soil and high, dry climate—a robust, mellow sweetness that makes them prized throughout the state. For home cooks, carne adovada is a savior: easy (you can do it in a slow-cooker), excellent made ahead, and freezable. It's great in tacos,…

Recently, I dipped into my local BevMo on a mission to find a specific bottle. As I zeroed in on the right aisle, a woman hovering there looked to me and said, "Any chance you could help me find a good bottle of red wine?" The complexity of her seemingly simple problem stopped me in my tracks. There's no easy answer, even for me, Sunset's wine editor. A series of questions ("What's the occasion? What are you eating with the wine?") and investigations ("What's on the shelf here today? What's a good value?") are required to get from "good red wine" to a specific brand, varietal, region, and year. Pretty daunting. My hat is off to those skillful sommeliers and wine-shop clerks who navigate that path for their clients every…

We've got a special treat in store next month—a preview of The Bold Dry Garden (Timber Press; $35) by Sunset garden editor Johanna Silver. To celebrate, we're giving away a trip for two to Northern California to see the celebrated Ruth Bancroft Garden. The prize package includes round-trip airfare; two nights at Berkeley's Claremont Club & Spa and dinner at Limewood; transportation to and from the Walnut Creek garden; and a signed copy of the book. For details on this Facebook contest, visit sunset.com/gardencontest.…