Please The Palate |

Please The Palate Pick of the Week: A Classic Chinese Culinary Feast at Bistro Na’s in Temple City, CA

The Year of the Rat is here! January 25th marked the 2020 Chinese New Year and the festival lasted through February 8th. To celebrate the Lunar New Year, a group of friends and I went out for a classic Chinese culinary feast at Bistro Na's. Bistro Na's is located in Temple City in the San Gabriel Valley. It is also the only traditional Chinese restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star in Southern California and it is the Please The Palate pick of the week.

Walking into Bistro Na's feels like walking into a scene from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The restaurant looks like a traditional Chinese home. The main dining room looks like an enclosed formal Chinese courtyard. Musical instruments hang above the gold and red room with bamboo trim and high-hanging lights. Past the dining room are private banquet rooms, each elegantly designed with Chinese accents. Bistro Na's is unlike most Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles. It is not Cantonese or Szechuan or a Dim Sum restaurant. Instead Bistro Na's serves Chinese Imperial Cuisine, dating back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). This was a cooking style reserved traditionally only for the Emperor and the royal family. At Bistro Na's you can order a la carte but they offer six different banquet menus. We selected the menu which included King Crab. We took our seats in our private room and our feast began. Soon our table with filled with dishes!

15 February, 2020

2015 Handpicked Wines Regional Selections Shiraz Barossa Valley Australia Red Wine

14 February, 2020

The story of a grape, of a family and a wine told through a label and a one-woman show

Wines labels tell us about a wine. But the Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino label tells us a story. And that story has been brought to life in a one-woman play entitled "As Wine Flows By". The story is about the Malbec grape and its journey through the centuries as represented by four female figures. It is the story of a grape, of a family and of a wine and you can read about it as I wrote in the Napa Valley Register and share here.

A wine label can tell us a lot about the wine inside. It tells us who the producer is, what grape(s) are in the wine, and where it was produced. The back label might describe what the wine tastes like or tell a story about the vintage, the harvest, or something quirky and humorous. The label of Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino tells a story. It tells a story of the wine, of the Catena family and of the Malbec grape.

13 February, 2020