This week's PLAYBACK
Part 1:


Part 2:


Here’s the Scoop from the Gabby Gourmet Restaurant Show on Saturday, September 25, 2010.

REMEMBER GALLOP CAFÉ THIS TUESDAY FOR THE GABBY DINNER—THERE ARE 2 PLACES OPEN THAT JUST HAD TO CANCEL.

Join me on channel 7 on Wednesday on the 11am news for some fun restaurant reviews.

We were at Argyll Pub on 3rd and Clayton with the American Sheep Council, Robert Thompson, owner of Argyll, Chef Sergio, and Mike Harper of the American Lamb Council. He has a ranch-superior—and is a world of great knowledge about lamb, wool, and all.

Their question of the day---how many lbs. of lamb were they taking to the CSU AG days today---650.

The lamb items on the menu are fabulous-cassoullet, the burger, sirloin grilled rare with chestnut puree, and lamb hash and poached eggs.

The Woody Creek Cellar Wines were a huge hit and sold out. He brought some more.
Robert and Kevin Doyles of Woody Creek are teaming up for the month of October to make it lamb and Woody Creek month—such fun. The lamb specials-and more will be on the Argyll menu.

Go to sheepusa.org or Americanlambboard.com for info on lamb.

Let’s begin with Calistoga Ranch in Calistoga California—you will see a full article October 1 but it was heavenly—the most divine spot ever!!!! The villas are amazing, the service perfect, the food at Lake Terrace the best ever—the entire experience a trip of a lifetime. And visiting wineries was great too-our favorite, aside from the Calistoga Ranch Red was our visit to Spring Mountain with the fabulous grounds and incredible wines!!!!
We ate at Ad Hoc, which was good but not fabulous, and had a great meal at Redd-read more in the article-and the food at the Ranch was perfect.

The Ceylon Pearl Tea people came by and they are charming-and they picked up lunch at the Egg and I. they brought reubens, burgers, and a frittata-and yogurt and fruit too. It was fun.
And we had fabulous Ceylon pearl tea with the fun lunch.


According to the USDA, what was the dollar value of total tea imports into the United States in 2007? Answer: $284 million dollars

Here's the source of that answer (first sentence). (Also, please see the last sentence re green tea
From the USDA.gov site:

Tea
With the exception of black tea in large packages, U.S. imports of all types of tea grew rapidly during 1998-2007, with total tea imports reaching $284 million (109,000 metric tons) in 2007, up from $170 million (95,000 metric tons) in 1998. While 90 percent of the total value of tea imported in the United States was black tea in 1998, by 2007, black tea accounted for less than 70 percent of the value of total tea imports. The import pattern changed even within black tea imports. In 1998, almost 90 percent of the black tea imported into the United States was in packages greater than 3 kilograms (i.e., less than 6.6 pounds), but in 2007, only two-thirds of the black tea was in larger packages. Imports in packages smaller than 3 kilograms may reflect the growing demand for tea that can be directly purchased by consumers. Both the large and small packages of green tea imports into the United States registered big increases over the decade, possibly reflecting growing consumer demand and greater knowledge of the health benefits of green tea.


The gourmet tea basket we are giving away:

Gabby Gourmet's Ceylon Pearl Gift Bag - Black Tea Selection - $50 retail value - contains:

One box of Geragama Single Estate Tea - Pekoe - 100 grams of loose black tea

One box of Geragama Limited Edition Tea - Orange Pekoe 1 - 100 grams of loose black tea

One box of Geragama Limited Edition Tea - Broken Orange Pekoe 1 - 100 grams of loose black tea

One box of black tea - 25 tea bags

One can of High Forest Nuwara Eliya Single Estate Tea - black leafy tea - Hand-wrapped can - 100 grams -

One can of Geragam - Kandy - Single Estate Tea - black leafy tea - Hand-wrapped can - 100 grams -

One box of Black Tea - 50 tea bags



We went out to Pulcinella Pizza for dinner. We made it for happy hour-did not know that and had a super glass of wine for $3!!!!! Then we shared a salad-the pizza was excellent and we had penne puttanesca. Dessert was a wonderful tirmasu.

We went to Tango—yes—and what fun and then to dinner at Strings-of course, at the bar with Kris and our group-what a treat-great wine and service-great food and fun too- we had rolls, the beet salad and the heirloom tomato salad. Then we had the salmon entrée, the lamb, and the salmon blt—loved them all and what a fun time.

Dinner at Indulge French Restaurant was delightful and delicious. The people are so charming, and the food and wines divine. We had lovely wines, homemade rolls and breads (now sold there too), duck confit and mussels for appetizers. Then we had the veal tenderloin, the lobster pot pie, the duck, and the salmon for entrees and all were so good. We were too full for dessert. It was a treat.

Dinner on the patio—cannot last much longer—at Highlands Garden Café was amazing-the gardens are so gorgeous—and the fruit on the trees-was wanting an apple to fall on my head but no luck—our food and service were perfect-breads, then a heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad, a beet salad with goat cheese and then entrees of trout with the spinach salad with dates, pancetta and more, and the paella divine and incredible and the chicken breast stuffed with prosciutto were all amazing. And dessert was truffles with fruit—and the wine-a duckhorn sauvignon blanc—pure heaven. What a treat.

We went to the Original Pancake House as it was by our appt. it is always so good. We both ha omelets—they bake them and they are huge and fluffy-my guess is the egg whites are beaten separately-we were all laughing-but not after we tasted how good they were. And all came with buttermilk pancakes so it was a great time.

We went to a really great dinner at Randolph’s----at the Warwick hotel. Each guest was given a sheet for ratings and then we had a 6 course dinner---with 3 different preparations or kind of dish—and then we voted on our favorites-and great wines were paired with each.
We started with 3 soups—divine—all. Then 3 different salads that were great-salmon-3 kinds and then 3 pork dishes and finally 3 short ribs---and then 3 desserts. Will write all about it October 1 and hope we can have a dinner for our group too. It was super
Results were announced at dinner too.

We had calls on lamb—yes-Colorado lamb is at king soopers!!!! So they said—and so is mint jelly----along with whole foods, Tony’s, Marzyck, etc .

We had calls about lamb, and then about Corner Office and finally about Simply Sloppy Joe’s. and many more.

We will be in studio next week.
Thanks for listening.
Gabby