We were in Oxnard, CA this last weekend.  Oxnard is an agricultural area.  A lot of strawberries come from Oxnard.    There is also a lot of beach front homes and that’s where we were.  It’swarm there and after this winter in New Mexico ,  I’m so happy to be WARM and see the Pacific.

We were sitting at one of our favorite lunch places on the harbor, The Lookout.  We were sitting OUTSIDE, looking at the boats, having really good fish and chips (the new owner is a Brit.  There’s also Shepherd’s Pie and other traditional English fare on the menu.  Can’t imagine how that’s going over.)  Anyway, they were featuring Herzog wines and we each ordered a glass.  I wasn’t expecting much.  The Lookout is a beach bar not known for its fine wines but I was pleasantly surprised – the wines were really good.

I break out my trusty IPhone (how did we ever get along without IPhones?) and look up Herzog Cellars and find they are right there in Oxnard and they have a restaurant, Tierra Sur.  Wow!  I call right then and make reservations for Sunday lunch.  It was the only time we could get in because the Herzog’s are orthodox Jews and the restaurant is closed from Friday afternoon until Sunday for the Sabbath.

On Sunday we find ourselves in a really lovely restaurant right past the tasting room at Herzog Cellars.  What a treat it was.  We chose to have a wine pairing with each course.  A pour of about 2 ozs of wine for each course is great for me because I’m a lightweight and I love trying lots of wine. We started with two appetizers.  The first, carrots with harissa – raw baby carrots sliced paper thin right thru the stem (a beautiful presentation) tossed with harissa.  The second, chile rellenos with potatoes and taramasalata.  According to my food dictionary taramasalata IS mashed potatoes with fish roe and seasonings.  Traditionally it’s cod or carp roe but other kinds of roe can be used and this was salmon roe.  The peppers were yellow and red baby bells, the breading light and crisp.  They were divine. Our server poured the Herzog zinfandel for Randy and the pinot grigio for me.

Carrots with harissa

Next I had their house salad.  Not an ordinary house salad, it was romaine, watercress, jicama and avocado in a caramelized orange vinaigrette.  As soon as I got home I looked up a recipe for a caramelized orange vinaigrette.  I have got to try and duplicate the dressing I had at Tierra Sur. It was light but with deep flavors. Our server poured their Central Coast Sauvignon Blanc and with its peach and herbal notes, it was a perfect complement to the salad.

For the main courses, I ordered fettuccini with a tomato caper sauce.  Randy ordered the Birria lamb, a chili braised lamb shoulder with corn cakes, avocado, pickled onions and cilantro.  My pasta was a disappointment – overcooked with uninspired sauce but Randy’s birria was possibly the most perfectly spiced dish I have ever tasted.  Umami comes to mind.  The Japanese have long recognized umami as a  fifth taste.  If you look up umami on Wikipedia, the writers go on in a scientific vein for quite a while blah, blah, blah but to me umami is the magic that happens when it all comes together in flavors that fill the mouth and satisfy in a way that none of the individual flavors could have done.  Umami is about balance, a perfect balance of flavors and this lamb dish had it.  It was a sensory pleasure.

Lamb birria

fettucini with the lamb in the background

With our main courses, Randy was served the Alexander Valley Reserve Cabernet and I had the Russian River Valley Reserve Chardonnay, a cool terroir style wine, meaning a lot of earthy qualities, rich and lush.  They brought out the good stuff!

Our dessert, an orange, almond flan was light and fruity.  Served with the late harvest chenin blanc. Perfection.  If you’re ever in Oxnard, treat yourself to a wonderful meal and pick up some great  wines to take home.

 The Herzogs have been making fine wines for generations, first in their native Czechoslovakia and then after WWII, here in the United States.  http://www.herzogwinecellars.com/ or http://www.tierrasuratherzog.com/