Va La Family Farmed Wines

Many times I've started to write a post on Va La, my favorite winery in Southeastern Pennsylvania, but have aborted the mission because 1) the pictures I've taken in the past were seriously bad, and 2) while I love wine, I'm uncomfortable about confidently describing wine.

Well, I've finally taken some half-decent photos, and while I can't banter like a sommelier, all that matters with wine is that if you like it, you like it. And I like Va La's wine!As well as the wine, I enjoy visiting Va La's vineyard and tasting room in Avondale, PA, a tiny town — if you can even call it that — I somehow found myself living in for eight months (long story). Just a ten minute car ride from Kennett Square, and an hour from Philadelphia, a trip to Va La makes a nice weekend getaway.

Hit up other wineries along the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail, as well, if you really want to make a day out of it. Va La is sneaky, though, and doesn't show up on the official Brandywine Valley Wine Trail, but don't miss Va La! It's the best of the bunch.
Sitting on 7 acres of land that has been in the family since 1928, Va La vineyards grows all of their grapes (save but a few from other local vineyards) for their wines. Production is small at Va La, producing on average 500 - 750 cases of wine per vintage, but some as little as 250 bottles. You must go to Va La to buy the wine; you will not find it at wine stores.

You'll find quirky mixes like the big, robust Mahogany blended with malvasia nero, barbera, charbono, sagrantino, la grein, carmine, teroldego, and petit verdot; and, if you're very lucky, a straight-up nebiolo. The wines aren't cheap (most bottles range from $25 - $45), but, remember, this is a small operation.

I admire Va La's passion for making good wine, but most of all for making wine that they want to make, how they want to make it. Fittingly, "va la," which means "go there" in proper Italian, also means "piss off" in the vernacular.I must warn you, before you even drive up the driveway lined with rows of grape vines to the picturesque stone and wood barn, you will smell Avondale's signature scent. Avondale is smack in the middle of mushroom country. Mushroom production — and the compost involved in mushroom production — smells like a loaded baby diaper.

Do not let the abominable smell discourage you. Your nose will adjust in a few minutes, and I actually find that Va La wines taste finest when sipped on premises with eau de compost swirling about. I guess it's true; a wine's terroir is best enjoyed while standing on the terrain in which it was grown.Sidle up to the tasting bar on the lower level of the barn for a $10 tasting of wines, or hit the upstairs art gallery for the $20 tasting of wines. The family and friends who man the bar are always chipper and eager to explain each wine and their food pairings. The tasting pours are healthy (no measured pour spouts here!), and the pairings with local Pennsylvania Noble Cheddar, ShellBark Hollow Farm goat cheese, and Neuchatel chocolate are fabulous.When you're done with your tasting, mosey around the barn to sample olive oils, jams, and marinated mushrooms. I cried when Sunny Dell Foods burned down in 2006, and thought I'd never have their teriyaki marinated mushrooms again, but they rebuilt, and I grab a jar every time I stop in at Va La.You're going to find Va La so cozy that you'll want to stay. Buy a glass of wine (or a bottle), grab some local cheeses from the cooler along with some crackers, and head upstairs to the gallery where there are plenty of tables.
If it's nice outside, go out back and hang on the deck or under the backyard pergola, where many weekends there's jazz music from Glenn E. Williams, Va La's official house band, or wood fired pizza for sale cooked on the back of the aptly named Wood Fired Pizza truck. Yep, you're going to want to go ahead and get a bottle and stay a while.The best part about Va La is the owner and winemaker, Anthony Vietri, and his sarcasm-filled email newsletters. I highly suggest you sign up for the newsletters (scroll down) to be in the know about weekend festivities, and, of course, new wine releases. Va La is also good about updating on Facebook, if that's your thing.

Va La Family Farmed Wines
8820 Gap Newport Pike (Rt. 41), Avondale, PA 19311
610-268-2702

Indian Kitchen / Hot Breads

Readers occasionally email me to tell me about their favorite restaurant in an attempt to get me to review it, or just to enlighten me on what I'm missing. Almost all of these favorite restaurants are in some Pennsylvania or New Jersey town I've never heard of, nor will ever travel to.

I do know Exton, PA, and I do travel pretty darn close to it a few times a year. And the discovery (thanks, reader!) of an Indian restaurant that serves chaats, dosas, curries and other Indian classics, as well as Indian pizzas and wraps, Bombay specialties, and Indo-Chinese dishes meant that the next time I zoomed down Highway 30, I'd be taking a detour.

Indian Kitchen is the name of the restaurant, with a sister restaurant, Indian Hut in Bensalem, PA, but people seem to refer to the restaurants as Hot Breads, which is the name of the bakery inside.Yeah, I said bakery. Birthday cakes, tiramisu, and a whole slew of tradition bakery goods, including a few Indian specialties like pastry puffs filled with Indian curry are baked on the premises.

Hot Breads pretty much has you covered on any Indian food craving you might have. Want to cook it at home yourself? Hit up the Indian Corner grocery next door.

With such a large menu, covering so many styles of Indian cuisine, I had a hard time choosing. Ultimately, I decided to check out an Indo-Chinese dish (India's take on Chinese food) , since I've had Indian pizza and Bombay street food elsewhere, and I've never seen Indo-Chinese food at any other place.

After looking over the menu, step up to the counter to place your order. Pay, then have a seat. When your order is up, a person behind the counter will call out the name of the dish (listen closely, because it comes with an accent), and you go gather your goods on a tray to bring back to the table.

When ordering, you'll be asked if you want mild, medium, or spicy — for everything! I've never had any anyone ask my spice preferences at an Indian restaurant for anything other than curries, and even then usually not. Not knowing Hot Bread's definition of spicy, I played it safe with medium, but I'm afraid the lack of heat may have diminished my enjoyment of Hot Bread's food. Next time, it's spicy all the way.Of course, my favorite chaat, dahi puri, was ordered. Puffed puri shells filled with potato and chickpeas, topped with yogurt, tamarind chutney, and sev could have had a little more sweet tamarind chutney for my liking, and I very much missed the sprinkling of chili powder I get on most dahi puris. I'm hoping the lack of chili powder was because I ordered the dish medium.The masala dosa was thin, crisp and not at all greasy, although the potato filling suffered from a little too much grease and lack of spiciness. Again, I think medium got me.When it came to the Indo-Chinese dishes, I waffled between the curries over rice, noodle dishes, and fried rice for quite some time. The Veg Manchurian won. Deep fried vegetable balls the consistency of a chewier kofta balls swim in a mild Manchurian sauce flavored with onion, ginger, garlic, and a healthy amount of cilantro. The dish tasted more Chinese than Indian, but somewhat different than anything you've ever had at a Chinese restaurant. It was like a cilantro-heavy Chinese sauce landed on my Indian vegetable balls and Basmati rice.
The hot cardamom tea (masala tea is also an option) was sweet, spicy, and creamy without being too much of any three of those things. Perfect, really.

I'm not prepared to declare Hot Breads the best Indian restaurant — I've only covered about 3% of their menu — but I will say that Hot Breads quite possibly has the most varied menu I've seen. I'm very envious of the Extonians who have the opportunity to blow through the menu on a quest for their favorite dish.

Oh, and the restaurant is BYOB with free wi-fi! Really, what doesn't Hot Breads offer?

Indian Kitchen /Hot Breads
260 Pottstown Pike, Exton, PA 19341
610-363-9500
Sun-Thurs, 11:30am-9:30pm
Fri-Sat, 11:30am-10:30pm
BYOB

Raw Food Dinners and Potlucks

Thanks to a couple of friends that are into eating raw, I had the pleasure of being invited to tag along with them to a raw dinner in Newark, DE, catered by Kim Lemberg and Pat Umbel. Kim is a Certified Holistic Health Counselor. Pat is a Certified Natural Health and Holistic Nutrition Counselor. Both Kim and Pam are Certified Raw Food Instructors through the Alissa Cohen program, and together these two ladies host catered raw food dinners, and also host raw food potlucks.

For the extremely reasonable price of $20, I was treated to a truly delicious raw dinner that included a mango smoothie, chili, enchiladas, crackers with salsa, and key lime pie. If you're curious about raw food, these dinners are a great place to discover just how good raw food can be. And that would be seriously good!Kim and Pat are hoping to have one raw food catered dinner in the Newark, DE, area once a month, and one raw food catered dinner in the Gap, PA, area once a month. Here is the schedule so far:

August 27 - catered raw food dinner at the Kinzer Fire Hall in Kinzers, PA
September 11 - catered raw food dinner at the Newark Co-op Limestone Presbyterian Church in Newark Wilmington, DE

Pat holds a raw food potluck the third Monday of each month at the Kinzer Fire Hall in Kinzers, PA. Kim's first raw food potluck will be September 15 18 at the Newark Co-op.

To attend any of these events all you have to do is RSVP by email to Pat (paumble@yaoo.com). And be sure to get on their email list for monthly notices of events, or check Kim's events page (presently not up to date) and Pat's events page.