Oxbow Public Market

With Randy currently on a Wards schedule (translation: works up to 80 hours/wk, no weekends off and only 1 day off a week), we try to make the most of his precious time off. The weather was gorgeous yesterday so we decided to head over to Napa for lunch. We are so lucky to live less than an hour away from this beautiful wine country. We have a lot of favorite restaurants in the Napa area including Brix, Bouchon, and Gott's Roadside, but we decided to stroll through the Oxbow Public Market. The market is housed inside a large hall filled with wonderful purveyors of coffee, spices, cheese, seafood, other fine foods and of course, good eats. Before settling down for lunch we sauntered through the hall, checking out the different vendors.

I spent a good amount of time poring over the spice jars at Whole Spice Company, where they have every spice, salt and seasoning blend you can think of. There were so many I wanted to try but settled on an organic seasoning mix for roasted chicken and sea salt with porcini mushrooms that I'm going to try on salmon.

At the Olive Press, they have great little utensils and tools for olive lovers.

We also admired the awesome cheese selection at Oxbow Cheese Merchant but managed to refrain from buying anything this time. I snapped a picture of this bumper sticker which made me laugh and reminded me of my good friend April, another cheese-lover.

Lucas and I "shopping" for lunch!

I decided to get lunch at Pica Pica Maize Kitchen which offers traditional Venezuelan fare. I've never had Venezuelan food before so I was excited to try it out. I chose an arepa (grilled corn flour cake) with pernil (pulled pork), topped with fresh tomato and avocado. I also ordered garlic yucca fries on the side. The food was amazing! So fresh, flavorful and different from anything I've tried before. The pulled pork wasn't as smoky as the American version but still so tasty. The yucca fries were surprisingly crispy given how large they were cut and their natural starchiness. I will definitely be going back to sample their other menu options.

Randy opted for a wood-fired pizza from Ca'Momi with prosciutto and mushrooms. I was so engrossed in my own lunch that I forgot to get a picture of his pizza, but suffice it to say it was delicious, especially the fresh crust.

Although we are both have shameless sweet tooths, Randy and I were too stuffed for any dessert (a rarity). Next time we'll try some homemade ice cream from Three Twins. It was another beautiful day in the Napa Valley and time well spent on a day off.