Knowsee Blog

Knowsee Contest: Enter to WIN an Amazon Kindle Fire

Knowsee is hosting an online holiday sweepstakes to win a new Amazon Kindle Fire.

The contest is super easy to play and have multiple ways of increasing your chances of winning!

How to enter:

• Download and Create a new Knowsee account (required to enter) - counts as 1 entry
• Send New Recommendations using Knowsee - counts as 1 entry per recommendation
  note: the more recommendations you submit, the higher your chances are to win!!
• Like us on Facebook - counts as 1 entry
• Retweet this tweet - counts as 1 entry

The Deadline:

• December 1st 2011 12:00AM to December 31st 2011 11:59PM.

The Rules:

• Only entries submitted during the valid contest dates are eligible to win. 
• You have to share the recommendation on either Facebook or Twitter for entries to be valid.
• Downloading and creating a Knowsee account is a prerequisite for all entries to be valid, including Facebook like and Twitter retweets

Here are some sample recommendations:

Azat Aslanyan recommends Wineries @ Napa Valley

I love wine. However, I do not love the process of choosing wine. When I’m presented with the wine menu at a restaurant, I always get the feeling that I’m about to take a standardized test that I have not prepared for. I have no idea which Merlot has the best oak flavor and what Pinot Grigio has a blossomy fruity top note. One can always rely on sommeliers but I cannot help but feel that they are partial to a particular brand because the restaurant sponsors it. In other words, I rather have a friend or someone I know recommend a wine to me because they know what I like. 

Fortunately, I have a go-to person for all things wine. Azat Aslanyan is a good friend and a wine connoisseur. His love of wine and traveling has taken him throughout the US, Europe and Eastern Europe. I can always trust him to give me the best recommendations for wine and where to get the best wine. 

Here are Azat’s recommendations on wineries and wine in the Napa Valley:

Azat Aslanyan recommends Wineries @ Napa Valley

One of the things I enjoy doing most is wine tasting.  I find it to be a fun experience.  You get to meet new people and experience wine from 4-5 different wineries in a given region per day.  Twice a year I arrange a trip up to Los Olivos and to Paso Robles for friends and family.  We rent a 15 passenger van and try to visit 5 wineries a day. 

I’m often asked to recommend wineries.  I find myself writing pretty long emails each time with both winery recommendations as well as restaurant recommendations in the given region my friends will be visiting.  I have copied a sample email at the end of this post as a sample for everyone to see how much I write about wineries and stuff to friends each time they ask. 

When Edward and I originally spoke about Knowsee and about the power of personal recommendations, the first thing that came to my mind are the winery and restaurant recommendations I make and how if I had a tool to do it on an individual level how much more effective it would be as compare to Yelp or even Facebook.  I have already used Knowsee at some restaurants and dishes and have seen great conversation around them.  Im excited to use Knowsee and can’t wait for my next trip up to wine country to use it.  

Below is an email I wrote to a friend who was making a trip to Napa. 

Hey Josh,

My favorite winery up there is Chappellet -

http://www.chappellet.com/

I think they have the best Cab Francs in town.  The winery is also very very beautiful in the summer.  It’s a 10-15 min drive from Napa but its great. 

Another great winery is Quixote - http://www.quixotewinery.com/- the wine is really really good and the winery is architected by the famous German/Austrian architect - Friedensreich Hundertwasser

(both of the above need an appointment)

I love Stags Leap - http://stagsleap.com/index.cfm

It use to be part of the same winery as Quixote (listed above) but they split off and they produce some awesome wines.  They Cab is Cask 23 is incredible.

If you can go to Rubicon/Coppola do it.  Its beautiful.

(who knows maybe Mr Coppola will be there. :)  that’s the wine tasting room in a cave) 

Silver Oak is great, Miner is great.  These are the more popular places.  Silver Oak only gives a single tasting but its probably top 5 winery up there and Miner is on a small hill overlooking some very beautiful wineries just 5 min from Silver Oak

I also love Quintessa but its so expensive :(

Plump Jack is owned by the Getty family and it’s a great place to be.  Right by Rudd and Silver Oak.  Their wine can be challenging at times and at 125 for a corkscrew bottle for the cab is steep but the tastings are fun and I think free.  Plus the great iron work in the tasting room and great rock music blasting makes it a different winery to visit. 

I like Rudd and also Nickel & Nickel but they both can be pricey. but if you are just going for the tastings it pretty cool. 

Sonoma has some good wineries as well.  Not sure if you are going to do that side or not. I love driving up all the way to Alexander Valley for the Alexander Valley Vineyards - http://www.avvwine.com/ its not beautiful or anything but they have good wine and its all free. 

I love driving to Russian River as well.  The wineries are usually free or only 5-10 bucks to taste on that side of the valley and they are much grander. My absolute favorite is Preston which is a small organic self-sustaining winery that produces awesome wines for dirt cheap. 

More like huge estates?(St Francis is good ,Chateau St Jean is great, Landmark for whites, Kunde for cabs, Kenwood, Rohn I love…) 

I can go on forever but I’ll stop.

Azat

With the help of Knowsee, one would be prepared with Azat’s personal recommendations for wineries to visit up in Napa Valley. No more searching Yelp and guessing which winery to visit. No more posting Faceboook status updates with zero or “Sorry can’t help but have fun!” replies. Download Knowsee and see what the power of personal recommendations can do!

Recommendations: 

Chappellet -http://www.chappellet.com/  

Quixote - http://www.quixotewinery.com

Stags Leap - http://stagsleap.com/index.cfm

Rubicon - http://www.rubiconestate.com/flash.php

Silver Oak - http://www.silveroak.com/

Miner - http://www.minerwines.com/index.html

Plump Jack - http://www.plumpjack.com/plumpjack/

Rudd - http://www.ruddwines.com/

Nickel & Nickel - http://www.nickelandnickel.com/

Alexander Valley Vineyards - http://www.avvwine.com/

Preston - https://www.prestonvineyards.com/

St Francis - http://www.stfranciswinery.com/

Chateau St Jean - http://www.chateaustjean.com/

Landmark - http://www.landmarkwine.com/

Kunde - http://www.kunde.com/

Kenwod - http://www.kenwoodvineyards.com/

Knowsee recommends Entire Menu @ Picca Peru

With the arrival of Mini Me more than a year ago, Edward and I really needed a couple hours away by ourselves. More importantly, my taste buds were begging me for something other than mac ‘n cheese scraps off the my toddler’s highchair.

I saw some pictures on Instagram from a restaurant called Picca Peru, “Peruvian food with Japanese flair”. I was very intrigued. After researching around for the the must have dishes at this newly opened restaurant, I was having a hard time getting good recommendations. Since the restaurant just opened in late June and we went in July, there were minimal Yelp reviews and comments on Facebook. I resorted to Twitter where Jesse @tricerapops referred me to his sister Kimberly @dangitkimberly who had been to Picca Peru. She gifted me with her best recommendations of this amazing place. Armed with a list of the best dishes, we were off to Picca Peru.

As soon as I stepped into the restaurant, I felt a surge of excitement run through my body. The decor was minimalist chic and the atmosphere was heightened by the Latin jazz playing in the background.

Completely equipped with my personal recommendations,we proceeded with our drink order. I knew I made the right choice when I saw master mixologist Julian Cox at the bar. I rarely get cocktails before my dinner but there was a couple of must have drinks on my recommendation list. Lucky for me, almost everything on the cocktail menu had pisco in it. I developed a love affair with Pisco ever since my trip to South America earlier this year. I got the Chilcan de Anis which was made with PISCO, lime juice, ginger syrup, anise mixed with soda water with a spray of Pernod then poured over crushed ice. It was a perfect cocktail for a warm summer night. Light, sparkly and tart.

I urged Edward to get the Martin Ricky since it was on @dangitkimberly’s recommendation list. I swear I didn’t know it was going to be a pink drink served in a cup adorned with gold accents. ;) Either way, it was delicious. The Martin Ricky was created with lime juice, grapefruit juice, peychaud bitters, simple syrup, PISCO, soda and strawberry airs. Writing this now really makes me wanna kick myself in the arse for not ordering a second round of drinks.

As we started to order, our very friendly server was impressed that we had a list. (yes, your truly memorized the recommendations, those years at UCLA memorizing lecture notes for Soc 101 is finally paying off.)

We started out with the chicharron de pollo which is marinated crispy chicken, salsa criolla and rocoto sauce. The portion was just right to share for 2 people and it was the right amount of crispy and right amount of protein in each bite.

Then came the causa sushi which was what I have been wanting to try. We ordered the albacore with garlic chip, ceviche sauce and the scallops with mentaiko.

Causa is a staple Peruvian food. It’s a mixture of yellow mashed potatoes flavored with lime, onion, chili & oil. Chef Ricardo Zarate puts a spin on the traditional causa by topping the potato mass with sushi. I loved the texture of the causa sushi. It was creamy and fluffy at the same time. The sushi was fresh and the mayo and ceviche sauce gave the dish an extra kick.

Next up was the ceviche. We ordered the ceviche crocante which was made with halibut, leche de tigre, topped of with crispy calamari. This was Edward’s favorite dish and also came highly recommended by @dangitkimberly. As someone who loves spicy and sour flavors and anything crispy, this was his perfect dish.

The anticuchos came next. Anticuchos are basically skewers. We opted for the the black cod with miso and the scallops with aioli. I loved the black cod as it was so buttery and melted in my mouth. The scallops were also delicious and the aioli was a nice complement. 

Then came the locro de quinoa. Edward was hesitant at first because the dish consisted of 2 of his least favorite things, quinoa and pumpkin. I assured him to trust @dangitkimberly’s personal recommendations and he was nicely surprised at how much he liked the dish. It is a pumpkin quinoa stew , choclo,parmesan cheese and crispy tomato. I was tempted to order another plate but decided to keep the little room I have in my happy stomach for another dish. 

Last but not least is chicharron de costillas. This was a crispy port sandwich topped with sweet potato puree, feta cheese sauce and salsa. The crostini was bigger than I expected so it was a perfect sharing size for us. 

Although my stomach over runneth, I always save some room for dessert. Of course we got the churros which came with 3 dipping sauces, caramel, orange and chocolate.  

Whenever we try a new restaurant, there are always hits and misses. But with personal recommendations, there are bound to be more hits. Picca Peru is an amazing restaurant but being prepared with our list of recommendations from our friends, the entire dining experience was more enjoyable. Everything was beyond delicious and my tastes buds are buzzing with happiness. 

This is the reason why we are building Knowsee. We know personal recommendations are powerful and saw that an app was needed to share the best of’s and the must have’s with your circle of friends and family. 

So I highly recommend this restaurant for date night or any night. We plan to go back with more people so we can try everything on the menu. 

Recommendations:

Cocktails:
Everything!

Starters: 
Chicharron de Pollo

Causa Sushi: 
Albacore
Scallops

Ceviche: 
Ceviche de Crocante

Anticuchos (skewers)
Black Cod
Scallops

Main Course: 
Chicharron de Costilla
Locro de Quinao

Dessert: 
Churros

Picca Peru
9575 West Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Tel: 310-277-0133