A Welcome Home, Welcome Drink
Tastes from a month in Asia + Uruguayan Albarino + Welcome Drink for all Occasions
Hello dear Californiavore readers. And welcome to all you new followers! Many thanks to my friend Anna, prolific reader and author of the very enjoyable Substack, Books on the Go, for recommending Californiavore. I’m happy to meet so many fellow book, food and wine lovers here. I hope you like what you read. Whether you are a new subscriber or a longtime follower, a gentle reminder that you can find the whole archive of past Californiavore articles here. Most are free for all but if you are a paid subscriber (thank you!) you also have access to periodic wine lists as well as travel guides to wine destinations.
Where have I been these past weeks? I’m a bit dizzy thinking about it. It began with nearly a month in Asia moving from Vietnam to Hong Kong to Singapore then the Komodo Islands and Jakarta. It was back home in time to prepare for the San Diego fundraiser in my day job capacity as CMO of U-GO, only to hop back on a plane less than 36 hours after the event bound for New York and Washington DC.
I’m happily home again, reunited with family, friends, a familiar bed and the welcoming embrace of my kitchen and wine shed.
I have a whole roster of recipes and wine recommendations in the works so please stay tuned these coming weeks for inspiration for your next barbecue, making the best of summer produce, garden updates and insider tips on what might be your new favorite summer sips.
The main reason for all the recent travel was a series of events for U-GO, the charity founded by my husband, John Wood, that supports university education for talented young women in low-income countries. The good news is that we find some of the best ways to raise money for a good cause is to throw a really fun party – and it wouldn’t be a good party without great food and wine! Read on for a few highlights from recent weeks, enjoyed and brought back with me in the suitcase primed for more cooking and drinking inspiration.
Da Nang, Vietnam
If there is one brilliant thing that could have come out of a visit to Vietnam, it was having both our boys fall hard for pho. It was a given that I would eat whatever noodle soup was on offer for breakfast each morning at the Intercontinental Da Nang. What brought a deeply proud smile to my face was watching our 16 year old down four (breakfast-sized) bowls of pho each morning, and then, order a super-sized portion for dinner. Meanwhile our four year old would start his day with bowl of pho broth, happily slurping down the soup alongside scrambled eggs and a chocolate croissant. It is also a fact that pho tastes better while looking out over the stunning, rainforest hills of Monkey Bay while rare red-shanked duoc langurs frolic in the treetops.
Stretching south from the Intercontinental is a 19 mile (30km) white sand beach, the focal point for life in the Central Vietnam hub of Da Nang. What was once a R&R spot for American soldiers during the Vietnam War, the city has grown in recent years with a spacious, modern airport and bevy of luxury resorts offering up the powdery soft sands and endless coastline to foreigners and Vietnamese alike.
Sitting in the center of the country and welcoming visitors from all parts, Da Nang adopts food trends from the North and South while inventing creations of its own. Vietnamese coffee, with its myriad variations is but a microcosm of how tastes adapt up and down the country.
At the Hyatt Regency, the location for a conference with 90 of U-GO’s partners, scholars and supporters, I could not get enough of the rotating, daily, Vietnamese coffee special. Thanks to a sensitive stomach, coffee is normally off-limits for me. But the jetlag was hitting hard and if I wanted to get through the day, I needed a beverage with more firepower than green tea. Vietnamese coffee, strong and dark, classically topped with sweetened condensed milk, is like a defibrillator for a dragging, time-zone confused body.
The first morning it was egg coffee, a variation originating in Hanoi that swaps the condensed milk for an eggy custard foam. The following day it was a local, Da Nang specialty: salt coffee. Perhaps influenced by the beach that dominates this seaside town, a pinch of sea salt balances the sweetness of the condensed milk topping. Finally, on Day Three, came matcha coffee: a holy union of my usual morning tea with the “put some hair on your chest” local coffee. My colleague Tom took one sip and proclaimed, “that’s basically dessert.” Then promptly ordered a second. I was right there with him.
For those interested in learning more about learning how to make Vietnamese coffee yourself, check out Andrea Nguyen’s article here.
Singapore
There were many incredible parts of the U-GO Singapore Wine Dinner: the lively crowd of 200 supporters packing the Edition Hotel ballroom, a two-bottle collector’s edition of Macallan auctioning off for $31,000, and over 1,000 years of scholarships funded in one night. It would be tough to pick a favorite. However, if there was one comment we heard from all our guests, it was how excellent the wines and wine service were.
Powered by a long-standing relationship with 67 Pall Mall, the world’s leading private club for wine lovers, our guests were treated to a stellar line up of whites and reds. While having 67 Pall Mall’s expert sommeliers decant and pour magnums of Antinori Chianti Classico 2020 was lovely, it was the 2022 Bodega Garzon Single Vineyard Albariño from Uruguay that was the belle of my ball. Primarily grown in the Galicia region of Spain, somehow the mineral, saline influence of the Albariño grape translates across the Atlantic to a fresh, food-friendly bottling from a country whose wines we deserve to know much more about. The thrill of this discovery was matched only by the lingering joy of making a lasting impact in the lives of hundreds more talented and deserving young women.
You can find 2022 Garzon Single Vineyard Albariño on Wine.com for $42.99 a bottle
Komodo Islands
By the time we reached the Ta’aktana Resort in Labuan Bajo, our whole family was in need of a hard reboot.
Having already checked in an out of four hotels in two weeks, our four year old knew just what to expect when we pulled up to the lobby.
“Can I get a welcome drink?”
By this point, Orion was a connoisseur. He could tell you which hotel’s welcome drink he preferred over the others and would not hesitate to find his way back to the lobby during a stay to ask if perhaps, he might have another cup.
As the staff did a traditional welcome ceremony, slipping locally woven bracelets around our wrists and offering cool towels mop our sweaty brows, Orion sipped his drink with studied concentration. He swallowed, eyes narrowed, letting the cool, sweet beverage slip down his throat. He looked up, face serious. I held my breath. “It’s good.”
Over the coming days, we moved like well-fed lizards between another incredible hotel breakfast spread, the pool, and our room with a view of the ocean and the domed karst limestone islands dotting the Komodo island chain. At the pool, Orion would accept the occasional shot glass of watermelon juice or kombucha handed out by the servers. Taking mine and his, he would mix the two in a larger glass, add some water from a nearby pitcher, and hand the new concoction to me, saying it was his “welcome drink.” A stirring inside felt like I was witnessing the future of hospitality.
Home again, I’m looking forward to a summer not so much of being hosted, but hosting. Longer, warmer days are calling for barbecues, big salads, homemade popsicles and granita. But as Orion learned from his weeks of research, there is nothing so hospitable as offering a refreshing beverage when your guests arrive. As we welcome the summer in the Northern hemisphere, I leave you with our new signature family welcome drink. Make a batch and have it ready to welcome friends and welcome summer.
Cinnamon, Lime and Lemongrass Welcome Drink
A welcome drink at a hotel is generally a small cup, a few sips to refresh. This makes a liter over ice. Feel free to double the recipe of you like larger portions or have more guests. The lemongrass is optional but this is a great, zero-waste way to use leaves after you have used the white, tender portion for other recipes like this one for Sweet Lemongrass Pork Chops, perfect for Memorial Day weekend grilling.
Serves: 4 - 6
4 cinnamon tea bags such as Republic of Tea Vietnamese Cinnamon Tea
2 T. coconut sugar, or to taste
2 T. lime juice from 1- 2 Mexican limes or 4 makrut limes
Leaves from one lemongrass stalk tied in a bundle
4 c. Ice plus more for serving
Place tea bags in a large pitcher and submerge in 16 oz. of boiling water. Let steep for five minutes. Remove tea bags squeezing with a spoon against the side of the pitcher to get the liquid out of each bag. Stir in coconut sugar until dissolved. Stir in lime juice and add lemongrass leaves. Add 4 cups ice. Refrigerate until serving. Serve in small cups with or without additional ice.
Looking for other recipes to welcome guests or welcome in the summer? A few suggestions from the archives…
Sticking with the Vietnam inspo, how about you grill Sweet Lemongrass Pork Chops or serve your grilled meat of choice with Vietnamese Salsa Verde?
Get your side game going with Summer Vegetable Panzanella or French Lentil Salad and Kabochu with Labne.
And by all means, bring on the pink. Past summer rose picks are still going strong with Scribe and Corsica’s Clos Alivu Patrimonio.
Thank you for the kind words! I have U-Go event fomo. So fabulous. ☺️
Fantastic post … so much in such a short time! Love the Asian caffeinated drinks. I’m not a coffee drinker but it sounded very similar to a Hong Kong tea - strong - sweet and so more-ish ☕️