Eleanor Coppola’s stir-fried earwigs; Three Sonoma wineries make Chronicle Top 100; Bacon scented pillow cases; Travels with Henri Episode No. 13

As Eleanor Coppola began to tell her story at Sonoma Valley Museum of Art of how and why she made her 1996 documentary 'A Visit to Miao Country'|

As Eleanor Coppola began to tell her story at Sonoma Valley Museum of Art of how and why she made her 1996 documentary 'A Visit to Miao Country' on her fabric quest in China, she of her childhood thrill of going to the 'five and dime store' with her mother and loving to walk through the bolts of fabric, smelling and feeling them. That fascination carries through to her life today.

As her travel group ascended into smaller and smaller mountain villages, they became more dependent upon tinier and tinier 'hotels for foreigners' where she said she got 'some of my best bathroom stories.' We can only imagine.

Coppola used a 'regular Sony consumer video camera' to record their travels, and got a little help from her husband's American Zoetrope in the end.

But on the way, the travel group, led by a guide who had paid appropriately at city halls, encountered several village festivals where locals performed traditional portrayals and dances in silver-decorated hand-woven costumes.

Some of those festivals culminated in feasts of local specialties, especially rice liquor. Coppola said she became adept at pretending to drink the potent beverage and letting it drip down her chin behind her camera.

Apparently local culinary tradition includes making 'the best' rice balls, which are exchanged when visiting someone's home. But if a male comes to woo a female of the house, and she doesn't want to see him again, she gives him a rice ball with a pine needle inside. She puts something sweet in the ball if she wants him to come back. Does he wait until he gets home to bite into it?

Coppola's least favorites dishes were 'peach blossom shrimp,' which were actually stir-fried earwigs that fall from the peach trees' blossoms as they turn to fruit, and what Coppola thought was a macaroni pasta that turned out to be duck intestines. Speaking of using every part of the animal!

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Frozen food recall: The USDA has recalled frozen Open Nature Chile Cheese Enchiladas sold at all Safeway stores because the organic cilantro in them may include salmonella. The enchiladas were sold at Safeway until Dec. 1 with the lot number of 141006 and a 'best by' date of Aug. 06, 2015.

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Only three Sonoma Valley wines made the 'San Francisco Chronicle Top 100 Wines 2014.' Wines from Napa Valley, Oregon, Santa Ynez and Santa Barbara areas reigned in this west coast judging.

Those that made the cuts include: Chardonnay – 2012 Hanzell Sonoma Valley Chardonnay, with Chronicle wine editor Jon Bonné's prose including 'salty mineral and dried pineapple accents to intense pear and quince fruit.' Cabernet and Blends – 2011 Dominus Estate Napa Valley Red. Zinfandel and Other Reds – Morgan Twain-Peterson's 2012 Bedrock Heritage Sonoma Valley Red and 2012 Dashe Ancient Vines Bedrock Vineyard Sonoma Valley Red, Michael Dashe's mix of carignane, zin and mourvedre.

In the 60 best wines that cost less than $40, selected only from the top 100, we found NV Bedrock Shebang California Red ($14) and 2013 Hanzell Sebella Chardonnay ($36).

Some of the judges' and editors' descriptions are mind-blowing, such as 'full of robust, lacquered cherry and zingy pomegranate, plus accents of sesame paste and toasted spices' (Marin County pinot noir), and 'intensely spicy and aromatic: chamomile, white pepper, peach pit' (2011 Iota Pelos Sandberg Vineyard Eola-Amity Hills Pinot Noir). I don't remember eating lacquered cherries or a peach pit, although they may have curative powers.

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Sonoma Valley Vintners & Growers Alliance just sent out info on their 'Holidays in Sonoma Valley Gingerbread Contest,' which began Nov. 28.

You have now through New Year's Eve to run to participating wineries, check out their gingerbread houses, vote on a paper ballot, or vote online at the Sonoma Valley Wine Facebook page. Every time you vote you enter a contest to win a case of local wine.

Some of the creations are very artistic and historic. Some are made by winery workers and family and others by professional bakers.

The 10 participating wineries include B. R. Cohn, Bryter Esates, Chateau St. Jean, Deerfield Ranch Winery, GlenLyon and Two Amigos, Highway 12 Vineyards & Winery, Larson Family Winery, Meadowcroft and Muscardini and VJB in Kenwood. Pick up a map at any of these tasting rooms.

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Sonoma Valley Democrats' Annual Holiday Party will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 15, at the Seven Flags Club House, 300 International Blvd., in the Seven Flags Mobile Home Park. Bring a potluck dish to share. The club will provide appetizers, beverages, paper goods and good company, including newly-elected state Senator Mike McGuire. For more info, contact Beth at bethh@sonic.net.

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Sheana Davis's cheese making classes at her Epicurean Connection are two-for-one during December. Her Sonoma Valley Cheese Conference and Artisan Cheese Fair roll around again in February 2015, with tickets still available for the big public event Sunday, Feb. 22 at Ramekins Culinary School, where the public can taste superb artisan cheeses and help judge the macaroni and cheese contest. The professional sessions scheduled for the conference are already sold out. Get class schedule and Artisan Cheese Fair tickets at sheanadavis.com.

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Emily Nagan, who moved her family from Minnesota to Sonoma County to work with her brother Matthew Nagan at Schellville Grill and eventually take it over (as he told it), became a fabulous cake baker and dessert specialist, started her own catering company called Desserts by Emily, and then left the restaurant after a family to-do.

She then went home to Santa Rosa and focused on her cheesecakes and other specialties, entered in every baking category at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair, won them all, and walked away with Best of Show.

Excited as one person could be, Emily got a job serving at the girl & the fig in Sonoma and tried a few of her tasties out on proprietor Sondra Bernstein, becoming friends along the way.

Suddenly Viola's restaurant vacated its prime Montgomery Village location between J. Jill and Chico's. Nagan pounced, and Emily's Kitchen was born, opening last weekend. Nagan tried a Kickstarter campaign and didn't quite make her goal. But Sondra Bernstein 'kickstarted me with a gift of tables from the under-renovation fig café in Glen Ellen.'

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Stanford graduate and Ph.D. candidate Sophia Chaparro just visited the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn as part of her stunning prizes for winning a national Fairmont video contest called 'My Destination Story.' Among her many super goodies were seven nights here, spa treatments, a tasting menu dinner at the highly rated Santé Restaurant, bike tours and wine tasting at Gundlach Bundschu and Buena Vista wineries. Congratulations.

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Paula Wolfert, Sonoma resident, world-renowned cookbook author and Alzheimer's advocate, is charged up because well-known Los Angeles Times food writer Jonathan Gold cited her book, 'The Cooking of Southwest France,' as 'the book that taught me how to cook.' Other cookbooks offered by L.A. Times writers included 'Simple French Food' by Richard Olney, Mark Bittman's 'How to Cook Everything,' Irma Rombauer's 'The Joy of Cooking,' Maida Heatter's 'Book of Great Chocolate Desserts' and Marcella Hazan's 'The Classic Italian Cook Book.'

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J&D's Foods is pushing bacon scented pillowcases for holiday presents, claiming they will give you happier dreams of breakfasts past, overnight weight loss by stimulating your digestive system and other unbelievables. Does your hair smell of cold bacon in the morning? The company also makes baconnaise, bacon shaving lotion and even bacon coffins.

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Tom Jenkins has brought his winter chili back to Sonoma's Best. It's great even when you take it home.

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Anne Tolpegin and her dog are visiting her parents, Diana and André Tolpegin, while Anne creates two roles in the hot musical, 'Kinky Boots,' at San Francisco's Curran Theatre. Diana and André attended the opening night on Tuesday, with great pride and excitement. The wild and crazy (and brilliant) Cindy Lauper wrote all the music to go with Harvey Fierstein's book.

I heard Anne interviewed live on KGO radio and called her parents' home, and there she was. She told me that the Shorenstein/Hayes/Niederlander Group (SHN) had also asked her to write the introduction to the Playbill program for the show in which she plays two roles, one in the factory worker ensemble and a 'comedic' cameo as stage manager in a Milan fashion show. Tickets at shnsf.com Dec. 2 through 28.

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Travels with Henri No. 14

When we all began our week at Chateau Dumas under the guidance of Sarah Anderson of Chateau Sonoma, some in our group looked out at the seemingly beautiful rural isolation and wondered what we would do for a whole week. When Wednesday, known in the U.S. as 'hump day' of the work week arrived, many of us thought, 'Oh, no! It's going to be over soon. We are on the downhill side of bliss.'

We seemed to race through everything, trying to absorb all that was new, experience everything we could, and take in every opportunity that presented itself and try to remember it all. That might include new sites, new tastes, new smells, new people, new French words – it was all different for each of us.

Such was Friday, when we all piled into our plush bus again and lumbered down the winding roads and rounding roundabouts part way past directional signs that pointed to small towns we now recognized and could even reminisce about our experiences in each of them as we headed toward Toulouse, the largest city in the area.

We had a couple of reasons to invade Toulouse. Margot, the Andersons' visitor earlier this year, lived there and would join us to help with many things. A very smart and striking young woman, Margot had prepared herself to tell us as much as possible about Toulouse history, guide us through the local monthly flea market, and take us to her family's favorite restaurant where they enjoy lunch together every Sunday.

Toulouse is a mix of ancient capital of what is now the Haute-Garonne department on the River Garonne and about 90 miles from the Mediterranean. Through history, Toulouse has been a trade capital between the Pyranees, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic that was controlled variously by Celts, Romans, bounced among Muslims, Cathars, Dominicans, and became part of France in the 1229 Treaty of Paris when the University of Toulouse was founded.

The city's progress was slowed in the 13th century by plague, war, famine and floods, with the population down to 22,000 in the 14th century, swelling to more than a million currently. Wine, grain and textile trades brought it back to life, surviving the 1814 Battle of Toulouse, one of the last of the Napoleonic Wars.

The Matabiau Train Station opened in 1856 which facilitated travel everywhere, and Sarah Anderson, Cathy Gellepis, Beth Buehler and I made use of the station a couple of times. Toulouse is popular with Mediterranean immigrants, and a refuge for those from Algeria and Morocco.

Now the fourth largest city in France, Toulouse is the headquarters of Airbus, Intel in Europe, several satellite and aerospace industries.

But we were looking for old stuff at the monthly flea market. Our bus delivered us alongside the several blocks of vendors. Some of us approached scientifically starting at the nearest end and searching one row of vendors after another, and others plunged right in for their exploration. Flea markets offer a unique slice of cultural and historic life of any region, as do farmers markets.

Those who came to the tour as customers of Chateau Sonoma were often serious hunters looking for décor for their homes. Others of us were more impulsive or 'just looking.' Everyone helped each other search for treasures of interest. Margot translated occasionally and guided us to cafes where there might be restrooms and refreshments. In that order. I even got a big thrill negotiating in French for a few people purchasing linens to portable typewriters. Suzie and Tony Eglin found a box of bullion tins, all alike, priced at 80 euros (about $100) each. The one I have at home cost $10 U.S. One has to be careful looking for 'bargains.'

Margot made a reservation for us all at her family's favorite Sunday lunch restaurant, Le louche Bem, or Le Boucher, located with several other small restaurants, divided only by Plexiglass, on the second floor above the Victor Hugo Market that closes by noon. Two-course lunches were 18 euros, and three courses 26 euros with a half bottle of wine included for each person, and foie gras added for 8 euros. We ordered everything to share tastes: fish soup, pâtés, salads, lamb, Toulouse sausage, cassoulet with duck confit, Scottish salmon, choices of sauces on everything, and cheeses. Wine flowed freely and we stayed for hours.

Next week: Travels with Henri Episode No. 15. Our farewell dinner and the train ride to Paris.

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