Bittman Lamb with 2004 La Rioja Alta Viña Ardanza

Here's an example of a pairing where the food was delicious, and the wine was delicious, and the pairing was certainly fine enough because those two things existed in such close proximity to each other.

Mark Bittman inside-out lamb persillade recipe from NYT Cooking. Trader Joe's leg of lamb, with the addition of late-season oregano and thyme from the patio. Watercress-mint-serrano-tomato-pomegranate seed salad with bread and butter to accompany.

Perfectly cooked lamb with nice herbal punch. Delicious salad. It was everything we wanted from a meaty meat fest. Something to meander slowly through, while loving the sort of regionlessness it offered. Kind of southern French, a bit of northern Italian meat simplicity (courtesy of Bittman being Bittman), sorta kinda could have been Spanish, which we tried to angle towards with the wine.

This was our first tasting of the 2004 La Rioja Alta, a longtime house favorite, and it was wildly similar to other vintages with a caveat. Very pretty cedar notes, with cherry-spice chocolate bonbons to start that moved out of the picture at just the right time, before it became too blunt, transitioning to something so suave and light, with light notes of tobacco and dust.

La Rioja Alta is Lopez de Heredia with a bit more gusto in the tradional Rioja world, and has something like a house memory in taste. More than most wineries, year after year, we get exactly this in terms of flavor, but this vintage really nails it in its preciseness and knowing when to properly transition. In a couple of other vintages, the concentration (read: sap) hung around a wee bit too long.

A nice pairing, because all the elements present were nice. Oddly, for me, it was the best with the watercress salad, tasting like a cool Spanish breeze.

Bison Hanger and Shishito Pepper-Watercress Salad with 2014 Broc Cellars Cabernet Franc

There's nothing better in life than 'free.'

Free food is nice. Even when food isn't anything spectacular, it's free, so who cares.

But free money is better.

We move in a month, and 13 years living in the same apartment, with the same things, located in the same place for years because our current apartment is so damn small that moving things around always felt like a futile effort, has made us look around at the stuff we have and say, "Hell no. That's not coming with us."

So new sofa and dining room table was...needed. Hours on the internet. Hours thinking about them off the internet. Then trips to stores yesterday. Blu Dot is nice, but committing to a $4000 sofa seemed (nearly) the opposite of wise. DWR was a fanciful adventure, but thanks for the water. And Restoration Hardware was something out of Black Mirror. Truly a dystopian shopping excursion. "Here's six floors of sameness to lure you into a decision based on the tiniest of differences and based solely on wanting to get the f@*k out of there."

Then we stepped into Roy's, found a sofa AND a table that landed at the perfect intersection of style, cut, and value; and we bought both for probably $3-4000 less than we might have spent just to be done with shopping.

So...free money. Free money is best.

Bison hanger, potato pancakes and feta-shishito pepper-celery-watercress salad with 2014 Broc Cellars Cabernet Franc Santa Barbara

David Began recipe from Food & Wine. Bison hanger from D'Artagnan, marinated, seared medium rare. Potato pancakes from Trader Joe's, because there's no easier and delicious starch that compliments a meal like this, dipped in Kewpie. Charred shishitos mixed with watercress, feta, pomegranate seeds, celery and celery leaves. We like a lot of salads. This one's in the top 10% for me, as it has bite coming at you from eight different angles. This entire meal has bite and presence and joy. Better with blue cheese instead of feta, but when 48,000 thoughts regarding the logistics of moving are in your brain, an extra errand to get one ingredient isn't happening. This wasn't even the best version of this meal, but it was entirely welcome.

Not the best pairing either. Malbec is the play here. This food likes malbec's robustness and fruit to soften the edges just a wee bit, but we didn't care. Lighter, fresh cab franc-y notes with the Broc. as per usual, with a touch of smoke backing up the freshness, and very delicate earth finishing things up.

Mostly, we have to move all our wine. Bringing wine INTO the house? Nope. So jamming some wines into food for the next month is what's going to occur. But on the scale of "FINE," where a "fine" of 10 is an annoying, get-out-of-my-face fine, and a "fine" of one is "hey, that was just fine, I have no beef with that." This pairing was about a two.


A Couple of Notes: Spanish-style garlic shrimp, roasted feta with honey and pink peppercorns, baguette and salad; served with 2004 López de Heredia Viña Gravonia Rioja. I wanted viura, but the 2004 is NOT READY! Don't do that. Still a lot of Heredia deliciousness, but this one is tight and doesn't want you in there (giggity). A supplemental bottle of TJ's La Granja Viura brought the Spanish Patio Happy in more evocative, Spanish Patio ways.

Scaccia and salad with 2015 Broc Cellars Nero d'Avola Ukiah. I love Broc. We don't love the nero d'Avola. Grape juice to start. Added some black pepper to the scaccia and more of a plummy, spicy, wine impression showed up to the party, but this is our third or fourth go with Broc's nero d'Avola and while it seems to be shooting for "utterly gulpable and drinkable," it doesn't hit that place for us. It's the wine-club throw-in that sits on the shelf, waiting to get picked last for dodgeball.                

Christmas

Let's kickstart this here blog back up.

The 365 Days of Food and Wine experiment, while interesting, sapped my ability to accurately describe the delicious food Mrs. Ney made. It got to the point where my word canon reached the very end of its description limit. I'd re-read things I'd written and think, "Hot damn that's boring!" And that wasn't doing any justice to the time and effort Mrs. Ney had put in to researching, thinking about, and making dinners.

The break was needed, but it's time to step back in, because while we hope anyone searching for food and wine pairing advice - a vexing and frightening proposition for many - comes across this site and comes to understand that it's not that frightening, mostly we want and need the reference. We also like to see how our year and tastes flowed and changed.

Christmas seems a good place to start.

Food: Bittman Lamb Osso Buco with Sean Brock Grits and Rapini

Mark Bittman osso buco recipe, from NYT Cooking. Lamb osso buco from D'Artagnan, seared, then cooked for 90 minutes on the stovetop with garlic, anchovies, sage, marjoram, rosemary, white wine, salt and pepper until tender. Meat removed, sauce reduced, served on the side. Cracked pink peppercorns sprinkled on top of lamb. Sean Brock grits, from Heritage: A Cookbook (page 74 - "How to cook grits like a Southerner"). Simple rapini done up with salt and pepper that somehow didn't taste so simple.

Luscious lamb. Frenchy touches with northern Italian guts. Osso buco is never going to be the best meat I've ever had in my life, but when it hits, like here, it's a meat-melty wonder. Rather perfect grits, as Mr. Brock seems to offer with most anything he offers (see burgers, patty melts, steaks, grits, griddle cakes...he's one of our house food guiders to the delicious). Silky, but corny and buttery, with a surprising jump and lightness. A great balance and vacillation between all the flavors. When some of the anchovy pan sauce bled into the rapini, it was maybe the best rapini we've had in a good long time.

This was a dinner worthy of Christmas, after a shockingly easy Christmas Eve visit to the family.

Wine: 2015 Jolie-Laide Trousseau Gris Fanucchi-Wood Vineyard RRV

We loved the poop out the 2014 Jolie-Laide Trousseau Gris, first had at Chez Panisse two Septembers ago. So board and giving. The 2015 is more sturdy and focused in its flavors. It gets more directly and quickly to the point it's trying to make. Bitter orange peel galore, like Chinotto or Aperol in presence and aggressiveness. Wispy touches of herbs and minerals, particularly on the back-end, even something tea-like thrown in there on occasion. This one needs to warm up significantly in order for it to stretch its legs and become more elastic and playful. The 2014 was all ethereal, sunshine-y goodness, but sputtered with some food. The 2015 is more punchy, and that over the course of the next year might make it more suitable to the flavors we love.

Pairing: Once it reached the right temp...nothing wrong with that.

I opened a 2005 Gourt des Mautens Rasteau (Jérome Bressy) and decanted couple of hours before dinner, but it didn't budge from its hairy-backed, tannic self, and would have been just terrible with how delicate the lamb was. But the Jolie-Laide served us quite well. Not perfect, not by any means. Once it warmed up though, there was enough weaving in-and-out with the grits and lamb together to say, "Slap Daddy! That's just fine!"

Lunch: Homemade duck pâté with Rogue Flora Nelle Blue Cheese, fig marmalade, baguette and salad, served with 2011 Matthiasson Vermouth. Mrs. Ney whipped up A LOT of duck pâté, this one more country in style with its small chunks of duck meat. Turned into one of those pâtés one eats and thinks THIS is how all pâté should be. Every flavor bouncing and jiving with each other. Rogue Flora Nelle has that ideal touch of blue streaks while still retaining a clean brightness to it. House fav.

All served with a Matthiasson Vermouth that's been sitting in this house way too long, and it was great here. Smoky tangerine peel, blood orange and bark. Still going quite strong. A bite of cheese and fig marmalade on baguette with a sip of vermouth was as pairing-perfect as it gets.

Damn good (and lazy) Christmas Day! We didn't get to the "Feast of the One Fish" (brandade). It's in the works for New Year's Eve. With bubbles. We need bubbles. So we'll have them. Because bubbles are essential in life.

After the jump is a list of all the pairings we've had since this blog stopped, some of it in shorthand. It's for our reference:

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #42

Chicken, lamb and country ham.

Fennel, Castelvetrano olives, faux pomme frites, rye crepes, gruyere, onion, fava, radicchio, asparagus and watercress.

Fennel pollen, lemon, preserved lemon, garlic, herbes de Provence, basil, mint, tarragon, walnut oil, pink peppercorns, parsley, honey, soy, chiles and white/regular balsamic.

That was much of the first three days of food this week.

Good week.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $103 for food and $153 for wine = $256

Sunday: Picadillo with 2014 La Paca Garnacha Calatayud

Food Details: Sam Sifton picadillo, subbing red "ancient chile" pepper and smoked paprika instead of chorizo, currants instead of raisins, plus fresh oregano, over rice.

Did We Like It? It's beefy, tomatoey, spicy-sweet bouncy, olivey. It's Cuban stew over rice and it's quite good.

How Was The Wine? $7 Trader Joe's Spanish grenache. Bright cherries and plums. Ripe. A bit of smoked meat and tobacco. Low tannins. Medium-to-light. Easy-breezy Spanish drinker. Friendly for $7.

And The Pairing? Cuban stews focus on balance and bump. They're one-pan stews with everything thrown in there, giving a little of everything but rarely too much of any one thing. That allows an easy red to weave into the food and pick up what it wants to without being overwhelmed or surprised by something it doesn't want to be. This grenache works. It's not spectacular or memorable, it's just what Spanish grapes do with Cuban food: Like it.

Cost: $6 for food, $7 for wine = $13  

Saturday: Indian Carrot Salad with 2014 Amancay Torrontés La Rioja 

Food Details: House staple. (Recipe) Crisped-up ground lamb with garam masala. Carrots and shallots dressed with lemon, ginger, cumin, peppers and olive oil. Sesame seeds. Kale as a base green. Naan and black mustard seed raita on the side.

Did We Like It? Oh, my, yes. Been awhile since we had this. A weekday and weekend meal, because it's that good. And was here.

How Was The Wine? Trader Joe's $7 torrontés, which has just enough flowers, just enough acid, and just enough cheapness at $7 to have a place in this house with the type of food we eat.

And The Pairing? Floral notes help counter the spice and heat, and that's what it did on this night. Nothing amazing, but a basic elemental interplay usually leads to a happy meal.

Cost: $13 for food, $7 for wine = $20

Friday: Orecchiette with Sausage and Rapini with 2014 Rosa dell'Olmo Gavi Piedmont

Food Details: Orecchiette with (ground pork turned into) sausage, rapini, onion, red pepper flakes, parsley, bread crumbs and evoo.

Did We Like It? A nice batch. A once-a-month thing. A big bowl of meaty, bitter, spicy, herbal, carby goodness.

How Was The Wine? Trader Joe's Gavi done well. Dry, crisp, lightly floral, peaches, medium-bodied. This drinking showed its age. A lil jumbled in flavor and order.

And The Pairing? No complaints. Missed on having its typical perky cut and pause that says "this wine is $8?" with this food, but no real complaints.

 Cost: $7 for food, $8 for wine = $15

Thursday: Big Greek Salad with 2013 Jackys Preys Cuvée de Fié Gris Touraine

Food Details: Big. Greek. Salad. Consisting of leftover chicken, cucumber, yellow tomato, red pepper, scallions, jalapeno, feta, olives, dill, oregano on arugula with evoo and white balsamic.

Did We Like It? Enormous and delicious! Delicious and enormous! Eat your veggies. Here's a great way. Just dump a bunch of "veggie stuff" in a bowl with other things you like, mix and eat.

How Was The Wine? This 2013 is still super-duper juice. Natural, floral, Asian-fruity. Almost frothy-beery but never gets there. We've loved this wine over the last few months and this drinking was no different.

And The Pairing? That frothy-beery business helped with the saltiness of the feta. A fine-and-good pairing that reminded us why this wine is so funky-wonderful.

Cost: $9 for food, $19 for wine = $28

Wednesday: Country Ham and Asparagus Rye Crêpes with 2014 Day Wines Malvasia 'Mamacita' Applegate Valley

Food Details: David Tanis ham and asparagus crêpes, using country ham from Paulina Meat Market and rye flour in addition to buckwheat flour. 12-month Gruyère cheese with the country ham and grilled asparagus as filling. Watercress salad drizzled with walnut oil. Big honking plate of crêpes with salad. California brunch bistro food.

Did We Like It? I was skeptical. Mrs. Ney wanted country ham and this was the first search result and recipe of the day on NYT Cooking the day she looked. Magic! One note on the recipe: use more batter for each pour into the pan. Too tiny/delicate otherwise. One might think that, after a few bites, this would grow monotonous. Nope. Not even close. Delicious right to the last bite. Fresh, clean, filling and lovely. We went from thinking this might be a once-every-two-years thing to "I'd eat this again every spring. At least."

How Was The Wine? One of the good things about NYT Cooking (and there are many) is when Mr. Asimov chimes in with wine pairing recommendations. Go to the bottom of the recipe link and you'll see him say, "If you prefer wine...The United States is also producing more good, dry sparkling wines. Look for those labeled pétillant naturel, an ancient method that is a sparkling equivalent of cider." WE HAVE THAT! Sparkling, pet-nat malvasia from Oregon! And it's probably the wine of the year for us so far. Big mouthfeel of orchard fruit skin to start, transitioning to a sunny, white flowered, yeasty core, and finishing with a refreshing, lemony acid and perk.

And The Pairing? Tasted so gosh-darn intentional in terms of pairing, like they were made specifically for each other. Interweave your fingers. That's what it tasted like. Lovely stuff together.

Cost: $20 for food, $28 for wine = $48  

Tuesday: Ottolenghi Lamb Rosettes and Radicchio-Fava Salad with 2014 Alloy Wine Works Grenache Rosé Central Coast

Food Details: Mr. Ottolenghi lamb recipe, subbing Paulina Meat Market lamb "rosettes" (skewered lamb flank) and swapping out coriander for basil. Lamb marinated in a blitz of parsley, mint, basil, garlic, chile, honey, olive oil, soy, lemon juice, balsamic and water; seared medium-rare. Grilled radicchio, farro and fava bean salad (very roughly based on this recipe) with preserved lemon, feta, basil, mint, pink peppercorns, etc. Lamb and salad.

Did We Like It? Beautiful-Beautiful-Beautiful lamb with a salad that said, "I'm full of Great Stuff. Eat me. You'll like me." Bitter, herbs galore, real big punch. Loved it.

How Was The Wine? We've probably drunk 25-30 of these cans of pink from Field Recordings over the nine months. The second the 2015s show up, we'll be buying 25-30 more. This drinking helped us feel better about the few left in the house. Started to fade into a nondescript rosé the last couple of drinkings, this time a perky bitterness emerged to complement its watermelon brightness.

And The Pairing? The saltiness of the feta, bitterness of the radicchio, and hodgepodge of herbs kept us away from a red. Needed a catch-all we didn't care too much about and the Alloy rosé performed admirably once again. A guzzler that brings the happy for $7 a can.

Cost: $30 for food, $14 for wine = $44  

Monday: Roasted Chicken, Fennel and Olives with 2012 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe La Crau Blanc

Food Details: Jeremiah Tower roast chicken (Whole Foods - air-chilled), rubbed with fennel pollen, white pepper and salt, roasted with fennel, onions, Castelvetrano olives, garlic, lemon, tarragon, and herbes de provence (deglazed with white wine). A mixture of Tower chicken and Thomas Keller chicken with fennel and olives. Sam Sifton faux pommes frites. Watercress salad drizzled with walnut oil.

Did We Like It? My golly, yes. Juicy chicken, gorgeous watercress from Edgewater, all the fennel-olive goodness that comes from Mr. Keller's recipe... A delicious dinner.

How Was The Wine? Two 375-mls of Télégraphe blanc that sort of slipped through the cracks due to not having this meal for a good long time. It's a nearly perfect pairing and we reserve this wine specifically for this meal. Sherry and honey notes are starting to show up and they're magically delicious. Smoked orange peel, pineapple... Lower acid now, with its body taking over and giving all we needed. Like La Crau and López de Heredia had a baby. Smoky minerals. We loved it. A huge surprise. We always drink this blanc pretty quick. Now we know it's still wonderful with a bit of age.

And The Pairing? Still one of the best pairings in the world in our book, this time in a different form. Wonderful stuff.

Cost: $18 for food, $70 for wine = $88

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #33

Movie reviews:

If you ask me what Spectre was about a week from now, I'll have no clue. No a one. Completely forgettable Bond installment.

But 99 Homes, Ramin Bahrani's newest, writer/director of the superlatively good Chop Shop, Man Push Cart and Goodbye Solo (and less successful At Any Price), digs in there, sets up shop and doesn't leave your head. Quite good.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $130 for food and $162 for wine = $292

Sunday: Tuna-Caper-Pistachio-Shallot Pasta with 2014 Desperada Sauvignon Blanc Fragment Santa Barbara County

Food Details: Leftover olive-oil poached tuna, pistachios, capers, serranos, charred scallions, anchovies, toasted bread crumbs, basil, mint, lemon zest on bucatini; kale salad.

Did We Like It? Big plate of happiness! A big surprise. Mrs. Ney expected it to be good as she was cooking it, just not THIS good. So breezy, leisurely, delicious, broad and deep.

How Was The Wine? Last (and first) had with fish cakes, celery root pita panzanella and chermoula, where it had a perfect back-and-forth between its grizzle and grace. This time it brought a quiet elegance and suppleness to go with its wisps of fruit and perfectly perky yet controlled acid. Fine on its own, nothing special, but wow with this food.

And The Pairing? Snuggled right up to the pasta and Mediterranean-ness of all the ingredients and turned into a perfect "expander of the flavors." Put this is front of me at some seaside restaurant at three in the afternoon after a dip in the water and I'd chew peoples' ears off about it for years. California sauvignon blanc gets a bad rap. It's taken great leaps in the last few years.

Cost: $8 for food, $22 for wine = $30      

Saturday: Smoked Chicken and Sprout Sandwiches with 2014 Terrasse du Moulinas Blanc Elégance Languedoc-Roussillon

Food Details: Paulina Market smoked chicken, clover sprouts, kumatoes, monterey jack cheese, avocado, onions, mayo on toasted baguette. Olive oil chips.

Did We Like It? Pretty damn good sandwiches, as usual. A home interpretation of a Big Mike's classic. It has everything.

How Was The Wine? Grenache blanc, vermentino, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc. One liter, $10, Whole Foods. Top-three wine of 2015 in our home in terms of price-to-enjoyment ratio. It's fading. The flavors, order, sparkle and energy is becoming jumbled and tired. Almost bought a ton more recently, so I saved money there!

And The Pairing? Did nothing for me.

Cost: $25 for food, $10 for wine = $35

Friday: Iraqi Chicken, Yogurt, Salad and Naan with 2014 Amancay Torrontés La Rioja

Food Details: Based on this Saveur recipe, it's Djaj bil-bahar il-asfar, or dry-spiced Iraqi chicken. Click on link to see the bevy of spices. 500-degree roast on the chicken. It'll chicken up everything in your house but it's entirely worth it. This meal was more stuff on top of a bread-type substance. Naan slathered with cilantro yogurt, topped with the Iraqi chicken and herb salad. Eat.

Did We Like It? We've come a long way since wine-can chicken. Now, Iraqi chicken is chicken we want. Such a beautiful, dirty, gnarly, dry spice blend on the chicken that makes you declare "This is Better chicken!"

How Was The Wine? More TJ's torrontés. Flowers, acid, fruit, cheap.

And The Pairing? Again, very acceptable. The floral notes in the wine mixing with the spices created the gap and pause you want from a pairing. Happy.

Cost: $13 for food, $7 for wine = $20

Thursday: Charred Shallots, Labneh and Pugliese Bread with 2014 Amancay Torrontés La Rioja

Food Details: The usual. Hey, vegetarians. If you complain that it's tough to cook easy veggie meals that simultaneously come off as substantial, filling and delicious, you're not trying. Here's one. Charred shallots and onions with a lemon-thyme (?) vinaigrette (based on this Melissa Clark recipe), Middle Eastern yogurt, Pugliese bread and arugula. Piece of bread, top with yogurt, shallots and salad. Eat.

Did We Like It? We'll probably eat this meal once or twice a month until we die. Satisfies every crevice of your being.

How Was The Wine? I finished the rest of the Broc Cellars grenache blanc, which wasn't...good...with this meal. Mrs. Ney had a new Trader Joe's $7 torrontés, which has just enough flowers, just enough acid, and just enough cheapness at $7 to have a place in this house with the type of food we eat.

And The Pairing? Mine, terrible. Mrs. Ney's very acceptable.

Cost: $8 for food, $7 for wine = $15

Wednesday: "Spread" with 2013 Broc Cellars Vine Starr White Central Coast and 2004 López de Heredia Blanco Gravonia Rioja

Food Details: Roasted red and cubanelle peppers, charred onions, garlic, anchovy, parsley, white balsamic, evoo. Olive-oil poached tuna (made at home) with thyme, rosemary, garlic, bay. Castelvetrano olives with lemon zest and black pepper, mâche, batard bread.

Did We Like It? It was just "spread." But it turned into such much more. Stellar peppers served as the base with nice tuna and great herb-infused oil. This was pick-n-choose bread topper, mostly. Piece of bread + peppers + tuna + mâche = eat. Vaguely Spanish, but easily could be southern French. We Loved This.

How Was The Wine? This Heredia has been in the fridge for a month (!) with a Preserva disk in it. By itself, no bueno. But with food, unbelievably, this turned into everything that makes Heredia, Heredia. Length, nutty, touch of lemon and smoked orange peel, all of it. Classy. I have no idea how. We just needed to get it out of the fridge. The Broc Vine Starr (100% grenache blanc) is lightly herbal, lightly mineral and lightly fruity, while being the perfect blend of all three, with each taking the reins at different times while the others served their supporting roles admirably. Nice acidity, as grenache blanc has/does. Clean, dry, Broc being Broc. Best wine club decision I've made.

And The Pairing? With the Heredia, this was Spanish goodness. With the Broc, this was southern French. The back-and-forth was so damn good. It took a meal that was already good and made it even wider/better. Paired with more Come Dine With Me. Great two-hour dinner.

Cost: $23 for food, $53 for wine = $76        

Tuesday: Pizza Art Café with NV Fattoria Moretto Lambrusco Secco Grasparossa di Castelvetro Monovitigno Emilia-Romagna

Food Details: Greek salad to start, Diavola with arugula and Pugliese with smoked beef pizzas.

Did We Like It? Something about their Greek salad. It's loaded with freshy-freshness. We don't divert from what we like here. It's consistently good pizza. This time...something about the cheese on both...it was better this time.

How Was The Wine? Lambrusco done well. Blackberries all over the place. Juicy, dark, smooth, twiggy forest floor, dry, tart. You taste it and it tastes like what Kermit Lynch likes.

And The Pairing? Zero complaints.

Cost: $40 for food, $28 for wine = $68    

Monday: Goat Kofta and Roasted Cauliflower with 2014 Frank Cornelissen Etna Rosato Susucaru 

Source: Goat kofta from Yotam Ottolenghi (do a book search here). Cauliflower, hazelnut, pomegranate salad based on this recipe, from NYT, and Ottolenghi's as well.

Food Details: Goat kofta made with allspice, cinnamon, etc. (similar flavors used in the salad). Roasted cauliflower-hazelnut-pomegranate salad. Celery, parsley, onions, mint, adding preserved lemon and serrano, leaving out maple syrup. Tahini and pita.

Did We Like It? "This is what all other food wants to be!" Spicy, nutty, crunchy, fresh, bright, slightly sweet, every flavor and food sensation, all put together on a plate. There is absolutely nothing missing here. You don't like this, you don't like food. It's perfect, perfectly balanced, makes your tongue go, "Wow!" It's been a few months since the last time we have this, and that gap made it taste oh-so new again.

How Was The Wine? Our first 2014 Susucaru after drinking a good amount of #5s. You stick the 2014 next to any other Susucaru vintage (this is only our third) and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Exact same expression (maybe less rosewater here) and a lovely one at that. Light, fluttering red fruits in the background with dried roses, stones, and a happy buckwheat-rye-cinnamon note. Dry, gutsy, easy, refreshing and fun.

And The Pairing? The Susucaru wants North African-Middle Eastern flavors. It has the backbone to stand up and expand with the spice while having the gaps and space to slowly and gracefully mingle with the flurry of flavors on the plate. Great pairing. Great.

Cost: $13 for food, $35 for wine = $48      

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #18

For the winter...we have all the meats.

Patrick Modiano's Occupation Trilogy, so far, captures all the moral ambiguity and farce that came with the manipulation of moral ambiguity under the Vichy regime during WWII. Bad, weak-willed people given their chance to do bad things. It's been a treat. An odd treat, but a treat nonetheless.

This week, we've had great boar, delicious Veracruz scallops, and we found our house pizza dough. So...success.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $88 for food and $114 for wine = $202

Sunday: Mozzarella, Tomatoes, Basil and Pugliese Bread with VinTJ's Arneis Russian River Valley

Food Details: Exactly the above. Trader Joe's marinated mozzarella (has all the oil and herbs in one container), campari tomatoes, copious amounts of basil and Pugliese bread. Slice, top with all of it, eat.

Did We Like It? Yeah. Easy as all get-out, filling, and satisfying.

How Was The Wine? Trader Joe's arneis from Russian River. We like the Italian varieties grown in California. We find that infinitely interesting. Here's a moody one. A bit watery in terms of distinctive arneis flavors, with apples and pears and anise and a leafy quality, but it was all there...except with the mozzarella.

And The Pairing? Fine stuff with a tomato-bread-herbs-oil bite, approaching that "just drink Italian wine with Italian food and be done with it, because it's good" quality. But with the mozzarella, it tasted like a dead ferret got into the tank.

Cost: $8 for food, $8 for wine = $16

Saturday: Fenugreek Blackeyed Pea Curry, Naan and Celery Raita with 2014 Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc Casablanca Valley

Source: From 660 Curries, page 321, "Fenugreek-Perfumed Black-Eyed Peas;" Celery raita here, via Bawarchi.com

Food Details: Black-eyed peas, onion, garlic, ginger (added), peppers, tomatoes, dried fenugreek leaves, turmeric. Make the day before. It's better. Celery raita and naan, to dip, dunk and cool.

Did We Like It? Tough call on whether the curry or the celery raita was better. When you have celery in the house, this raita is what you do with it. It's delicious. The curry (our new house curry) was blazingly hot the day before, but mellowed out so well. Perfect level of heat, happy cooling from the raita, tasty Trader Joe's naan, a product that I could make a case for being a top-five, all-time TJ's product (along with seafood sausages, dark chocolate gelato, Picpoul, Muscadet...). It's incredibly versatile, has great chew, acceptable depth, and not wildly expensive.

How Was The Wine? Chilean sauvignon blanc on the cheap. Tangerine and grapefruit and herbs with nice, punchy acidity. We've had a couple of vintages of this one. The 2014 might be the best. Everything was in balance, with every layer giving way to the next in graceful fashion, allowing it to play above its price tag.

And The Pairing? Happy. The acid did its cut-and-slash with the food, then the wine showed its herbal-fruity side and juicy finish. My Saturday work night was filled with nutters. Coming home to this...? Wiped away.

Cost: $9 for food, $10 for wine = $19

Friday: Mexican Red Rice with 2014 VinTJ's Vermentino Russian River Valley

Source: Rick Bayless recipe here

Food Details: Bayless' Mexican red rice with jalapeño chicken sausages, leftover kale and leftover lentils. Sour cream and cilantro on top.

Did We Like It? It's a staple. An easy staple. A happy staple. This one with leftover rabbit oil-dripped kale and tea-smoked lentils from the week. Brought texture and depth to a meal that can sometimes get a little mushy in terms of texture.

How Was The Wine? Two new labels arrived at Trader Joe's: this vermentino and an arneis, both from Russian River Valley. The vermentino, with this meal, brought some lime notes with a wee touch of minerality and herbs. Simple vermentino, nothing special, but for $8, a decent little wine when you want/need a modicum of citrusy snap to perk up and weave into the food.

And The Pairing? I pretty much hated this wine by itself. Had that garbage dump waft to it. But with this food, a fine level of enjoyment merged; ironing its pants, straightening out the wine's ties and fluffing its coat. Misses on the second and third level of goodness, but it's $8. Not too shabby.

Cost: $7 for food, $8 for wine = $15

Thursday: Pick-n-Choose Chicken, Tomatoes and Herb Salad with NV NV Grifone Bianco Sicily

Food Details: Mariano's glazed rotisserie chicken, campari tomatoes, herb salad and ciabattini buns. Rip your bun, top it with all the rest, eat.

Did We Like It? Don't wanna cook? Buy all this stuff, cut that chicken in half, slice, salt and pepper your tomatoes, dress your salad, put it all on a plate and eat food that pushes the all the food buttons. Pro tip from people that do this regularly: Put the half-chicken under the broiler - it crisps up the skin and adds a delicious, crispy dimension.

How Was The Wine? Drank the rest of the Charles Smith Pinot Grigio, which didn't really add much here. The Grifone Bianco, a riesling-moscato blend, is the default wine for this meal. Meh on its own, with this food, it's long and complete. A touch less so here, but still nice. It likes kumatoes, but we didn't have any in the house.

And The Pairing? See above.

Cost: $11 for food, $16 for wine = $27

Wednesday: Potato-Rosemary Pizzas and Arugula with 2014 Tablas Creek Vermentino Paso Robles and 2014 Charles Smith VINO Pinot Grigio Columbia Valley

Source: Pizza dough, via Lucky Peach. Learn it, know it, love it.

Food Details: Boiled potatoes, Boar's Head fresh mozzarella, rosemary and olive oil on top of the above-linked crust. Arugula on top. Two rectangular pizzas cooked on 18" x 13" pans, oiled. Five minutes lowest rack, 7-9 minutes middle rack. Preheated 500-degree oven. 48-hour proof on the dough in the fridge. Two balls.

Did We Like It? HUGE surprise. Perfect dough, at least what can be done with our oven. Thin and crispy, with oodles of flavor. Perfect amount of salt and yeasty depth. We have found our house pizza dough! This was potato pizza, but with the arugula and rosemary, the flavor and weight was so bouncy and light. We ate both pizzas and didn't feel like we just ate "POTATO PIZZA!" in the least. Big success, and impossibly easy to make.

How Was The Wine? Vermentino from California? Yes, please. A bit pricey at $25 retail but real vermentino deliciousness with this one. Punchy, scrummy entry of citrus, tangerine, herbs and salt; a somewhat quiet mid-palate, but that leads right to a more complex, broad finish of minerals, Asian herbs and Asian citrus leaf. Oh, for this to be $18. Put this in the La Val Orballo albariño price world and we'd be buying six a year. $27 with tax gives us pause, but it's rather delicious.  But then there was Charles Smith being Charles Smith...

And The Pairing? We were quite happy with the vermentino and these pizzas. It loved the rosemary. But a couple of glasses of the Charles Smith VINO pinot grigio turned into all sparkly, twinkly stars with this food. It was perfect. We have found our pizza dough, and we've found the wine to go with it.

Cost: $7 for food, $27 for wine = $34

Tuesday: Wild Boar, Kale and Tea-smoked Lentils with 2008 Duorum Colheita Duoro

Source: Francis Mallman's pork tenderloin with burnt brown sugar, orange confit, and thyme, via News OK, using wild boar from D'Artagnan.

Food Details: Boar brined overnight in lapsang souchong brine, braised in orange confit oil for three hours, coated with coconut sugar and thrown under the broiler, raw lacinato kale tossed with black lentils cooked in more lapsang souchong, pomegranate seeds, all drizzled with thyme and braising oil.

Did We Like It? This was very good boar, eating like brisket in a way, and every flavor coming through. Loved-loved-loved the orange confit oil. It defined the meal along with the tea smoke. This was melt-in-your-mouth meat with a big pile of meaty, smoky kale, and it was deep and dirty-delicious.

How Was The Wine? Opened a 2008 Avanthia, a mencia from Valdeorras in Spain and it was strike-two for the week in terms of 'first wine choice' boringness. Tasted tired and quiet. Moved on to the 2008 Duorum, a red Douro blend of touriga nacional, touriga franca and tinta roriz. Dry, savory, medium-bodied, medium acid, medium verve. A nice Douro red blend for under $20. Happy dirt. The 2007 Reserva was great, this one less so, but good guts here while simultaneously having an overall ethereal presence.

And The Pairing? We were just glad we found a wine that was good enough after opening a $40 Avanthia that brought nothing to the table. This was a tough pairing - a lot going on with the food - and the Duorum brought enough slice and dice for us to be moderately satisfied.

Cost: $24 for food, $19 for wine = $43    

Monday: Veracruz-style Scallops, Rice and Kale with 2013 Noêlla Morantin Chez Charles Vin de France

Source: Fish Veracruz-style, via Saveur, using scallops

Food Details: A house fav with sea bass, this time with scallops. A blend of tomatoes, capers, olives, garlic, onion, manzano peppers, said pepper juice, rosemary, parsley, bay, all the goods; placed over annatto yellow rice. Seared scallops on top of that. Baby kale salad with pomegranate seeds on the side.

Did We Like It? Happy-slappy Veracruz goodness. And good to have scallops again. Felt like it'd been years. Check the link above to the sea bass versions. This was the spiciest version yet. Not blazingly hot, but it certainly permeated every bite. This meal has all the stuff we like while maintaining an overall lightness and spunky punch.

How Was The Wine? In the link above, you'll see a white López de Heredia in some form or vintage, because it's stupid-perfect with this food. A bottle of 2004 LdH Gravonia Blanco couldn't keep up with the heat in this meal, even coming up a bit boring by itself: salty, too much pineapple-like fruit and smoked oil, something that lesser vintages of Heredia sometimes possess. We probably opened this too soon, as 2004 was considered a very good vintage in Rioja. Moved on to an already-chilled bottle of natural sauvignon blanc from Touraine, and it was freakin' lovely. Pure, clean sauvignon blanc that's much lighter than most SB while maintaining an intensity and expression all the way through. Bit of lime, some ginger, some Thai basil, perfect acid, but mostly a prettiness, lightness and integrity of flavor that we loved. Unique sauvignon blanc to us, and we'll be buying more, most likely.

And The Pairing? With the Heredia being such a dud here, the Chez Charles brought everything we wanted from a wine that wasn't going to bullied by the heat in the food. Nice lime linkup with the orange zest (addition) and good acid that provided just the right cut. But this meal was mostly about how much we liked this wine. Big fans.

Cost: $22 for food, $26 for wine = $48  

A Step-By-Step Guide To A Great Food And Wine Week

A map to a week of flavors:

Day 1: Make David Leite's Portuguese orange-olive oil cake. Because it's the best snacking cake on the planet. Breakfast, mid-afternoon, after dinner. It covers all your snacking cake needs for the week. DO NOT eat it the day you make it. This is best after a day or two or three. Soak five pinches of fenugreek seeds in water overnight.

Day 2: Drain fenugreek seeds and toss in the processor with garlic, cilantro, salt, green chile, lemon to make a paste. Forget to take out the seeds from from the chile. Enjoy the mouth burn. Set aside.

Glaze some marcona almonds that have to be eaten and roast them off for Day 3 vadouvan-bee pollen pork with beet-pickled rhubarb salad and griddle cakes. Wonder if they will come off remotely resembling Ubuntu's vadouvan almonds circa August 2011.  Nope, but still delicious.

Begin Afghani leek-scallion fry bread recipe. Roast some leeks, chop some scallions, set aside. Make the dough. Knead for 10 minutes. Think this is quite relaxing for eight minutes. Get sick of it. Ruminate about how impatient you are in life. Let sit (the dough and the rumination). Dump your fenugreek paste into a bowl with a 1/2 lb. of shrimp that's been in your freezer for weeks.

Make a fry bread dipping sauce of honey-lime-cilantro-garlic-walnuts. Taste it. Like it. Set aside.

Jambon au Chablis And Gougères With 2011 William Fevre Chablis Vaudésir

Every once in a while, we eat something that tastes like "a thing," the sort of "thing" that tastes like people have been eating this combination for decades, because it's capital-G Good. And they drink the wine made down the street with it because, decades ago, they tailored the food for the wine. And vice versa.

Maybe it's not "our thing" all the time, because this meal had buckets of heavy cream by the...bucket. But, together with a higher-end Chablis and plenty of tarragon, jambon au Chablis with three-cheese gougères came off oddly light. We'll be forgoing the cream bucket dinner for at least a year, but this was a freakin' delicious meal.

Saveur recipes for both (links above), from their Chablis piece. Cheap ham from Aldi and recipes followed to the letter with one exception - didn't strain the sauce, cuz we like chunks of tomato-shallot goodness. Note: make sure your eggs fully come up to room temperature. My pâte à choux didn't come together until the very last egg. Felt like magic unfolding in the face of disaster.

Eat a bite of ham. Dip one of the gougéres in the luscious sauce. Rinse with fancy Chablis. Repeat 20 times. Finish with arugula salad. And you have yourself a winner-winner Ham-cream dinner!

Chicken Cacciatore With 2005 López de Heredia Cubillo

I'm trying to recall the last time I've had chicken cacciatore.

20 years? If we were to go to a traditional Italian restaurant (that feels like it's been 20 years as well) and I read down the menu, trying to figure out what I want to order, my eyes would blaze right by chicken cacciatore and immediately dismiss it.

There's nothing wrong with it. I like all the ingredients in cacciatore. But there's a sense about its...basic-ness...that doesn't inspire an "Oooh! I want that!"

It's probably the mushrooms. There's something about mushrooms. It's like watching a movie that I'm enjoying, and then an actor pops up that, in my head, makes it impossible to think this movie will ever reach great heights. He's not a bad actor. He has his own style. Brings something mildly unique. But I can't get past all his past work and all the past movies I saw with him in it that had potential and ended up utterly forgettable. Was it his fault? I can't say, but I can say that there's just too much evidence in my movie life that his inclusion in a project means that there's an 80% chance I don't need to see it.  

They're the Michael Rapaport of food.

But here, with this Lidia Bastianich recipe, the mushrooms don't bully their way to the front of the stage, letting the overall flavor of the dish become something more than the sum of its simple parts. The mushrooms only added a "here's where mushrooms come from and THAT'S IT!" note.

It's just chicken, onions, peppers, tomatoes, oregano, white wine and mushrooms, but that's what makes it good. Recipe followed to the letter here. The result was delicious, highlighted by a great broth-like soup in which to dip the Jamie Oliver garlic bread (made with a smoked paprika butter to help the wine).

Served with 2005 López de Heredia Viña Cubillo Crianza Rioja ($25 - Vin Chicago). We've never craved the Cubillo, particularly when a Tondonia or Bosconia from Heredia usually costs a mere $10 more (though that's inching up lately). In lesser years, the Cubillo has been a little too blunt. Here, the 2005, might be the best we've had. Tons of grace in a Cubillo frame. It's more quiet and less in a hurry to belch out its personality. Spice and tobacco, raspberry and cherry, with the tiniest hint of smoked orange peel.

This wine needs food, this was the food, and the pairing was the star. Together, this tasted like a foggy mountain meal. Everything slowed down, tasting like a well-told, slow-paced story that reveals itself in layers, as if hearing an old, burly, bearded mountain man say, "It was long, dark winter and that grizzly bear had been inching closer to the cabin for weeks..."

We loved it.    

Suquet alla Ca L'Isidre with 2004 López de Heredia Gravonia Blanco

This is our first 2004 López de Heredia Gravonia Blanco.

The 1996 was our first love, and a wine that probably did more to get us into Spanish wines in general than any other bottle. The 1999 mostly lived up to the 1996 when it came to acid and echoing the original goodness, but fell short a bit. The 2000 emphasized freshness more than the typical Gravonia nutty depth. And the 2001 was all class. Everything you would ever want from Heredia. No write-up for the 1998, but it came pretty close to the 1996 in terms of completeness, if I recall correctly, and a shame there were so few of them on the market.

Early meals with Heredia Gravonia involved some variation on chicken, many times with saffron risotto. That migrated to Spanish-ed up fish, and it's been a good migration, one that makes the meal feel kinda special.

Like this one.

Suquet alla Ca L'Isidre, local fish stew that has its origins in Catalonian fisherman's Sunday dinner, made with whatever fish they had left. Taken from Barcelona's Ca L'Isidre restaurant. Recipe here, chronicled in Mark Bittman's The Best Recipes In The World (great book). No changes made to the actual cooking. Swapped out red snapper for Icelandic cod and langoustines for lobster tail.

Boiled down, this is deconstructed Spanish stew, with two types of seafood - and all the complementing and contrasting that comes with that - potatoes, onions, tomatoes, garlic, fish stock, parsley and chile. Depth from flamed-up brandy. Garlic-d up mayo for dipping. And a spectacular hazelnut sauce for drizzling over everything. Super-duper Spanish in every bite and done right. It's not the easiest meal to make, but this was the first time Mrs. Ney made it. She expects subsequent ones (which there will be) will be easier.

Hot damn, this was good. Want Spanish food? THIS is classic Catalonian Spanish food.

Rioja And Basque Country...For The Second Time

Returning to the same vacation spot as last year brought about a sense of familiarity with maybe a splash of non-surprise. We knew that when we booked it. But we're not busy people. We don't enjoy "busy." A vacation for us shouldn't be that. It should be a pause, a respite and a jolt out of our everyday, humdrum routine. A dash of familiarity often facilitates that. This time, it did. And while something "new" like Croatia or Morocco (this place looks too stellar for words) will be next year's pause, returning to Rioja and Basque Country this time brought about strange and welcome empty brains in both of us and a sense of calm from the second we pulled into the Hotel Viura parking lot. We knew this place, this region, this air, this quiet, and all of that was just so damn palpable.

Just like last year when all of it was new, it felt...wanted, which is all one can really ask from a vacation.

Peppercorn-crusted & Pomegranate-glazed Lamb Riblets And Farro with 2009 Angela and Ponzi Pinot Noir

Anya von Bremzen, author of The New Spanish Table, a cookbook that has seen such a workout in this house that it's falling apart, brings us this lamb chop recipe that came so deliciously tart, tangy, deep and delicious that the meal ended up being a 2009 Willamette pinot noir comparison from two of our favorite producers. We wanted to extend things out and take our time.

Some alterations in the cooking:

* A dry rub on two pounds of lamb riblets ($6/lb - Whole Foods) of ginger, salt, black pepper, Szechuan pepper, cardamom, coriander and fennel. The same rub used on the best tuna on the planet, left in the fridge for two days, glazed with pomegranate molasses, black currant whole-grain mustard, garlic and black pepper and thrown under the broiler to get it all rib-sticky.

* Similar compote recipe of plums, garlic, sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, fenugreek; green onions, cilantro, parsley (just like Food & Wine recipe, but added cardamom, omitted dried mint, savory, and tarragon).

Lamb riblets put over the compote, farro as a starch and pomegranate seeds and mint dumped over everything.

#310 - Walnut-Pomegranate Chicken & Rapini With '01 La Rioja Alta Viña Ardanza Reserva Especial

Three months ago in Rioja, during the best vacation of our lives, a restaurant was recommended to us by someone in the know on one of the nights we didn't have any food plans.

Los 4 Arcos in Briones, particularly for their lamb roasted over wine vines, a tradition quickly becoming a rarity in Rioja, as we were told.

I think everyone has those places they're told about where the possibility of eating THAT becomes almost mythical in their brains. It becomes a bit of an obsession, something that HAS to happen, especially after driving there, up a myriad of zig-zagged, impossibly narrow "streets" to the very peak of the hilltop town only to find out they were closed for their September vacation.

So that lamb, the thought of eating that lamb, morphed into THE lamb, the one that has transformed into the pinnacle of having lamb and we haven't even eaten it yet.

Stupid and silly brain stuff, that. But with tentative plans to go back to Rioja (and Hotel Viura, Arzak and Etxebarri), Los 4 Arcos will hopefully be able to accommodate us because that's lamb that we want to eat, both because of what it is and what it's become in our brains.

I say all this because this meal with this wine jettisoned itself into that superlative Spanish food and wine world we love so much, that place where the meal tastes like something Given. Something that makes you say, "Nah. THIS doesn't exist. It doesn't!" It tastes like an intimate history of a place that we seemingly know but weren't born there, only been to a couple of times and don't even really know the language. It's stuff that feels like a gift.

Just does.

#298 - Rioja

Getting away and coming back always leads to a state of precariousness. How do you maintain the sense of calm and exhale you find the moment you set down in a foreign land upon your return? Or more realistically, how do you conserve at least a piece of it? How do you stop it from too quickly transitioning from a feeling to a memory?

It's never a perpetual suspension. Never an enduring sensation floating weightlessly on the right side of that line. It's always merely a delay.

This trip, a trip to Rioja, wine country that has become so dear to our wine hearts over the years, left me with a sense that the feeling will stay a feeling a wee bit longer. It will float for a bit, holding steadfast for a period of time acceptable. Because Rioja has that thing, that Spanish thing making it so Spanish as we know and love it. A way of moving that tastes like the food and wine taste. More Spanish than Barcelona, even Madrid, more languid and wonderfully meandering, more something that took us out of life here to a restful there. To a place that became very "there."

And to our relative surprise, it was never really about the wine.

The highlights:

#297 - Spanish Pork & Saffron Potatoes With '91 Heredia Bosconia GR

Pork.

It's fiiiine and God bless those people that love it so, putting pork slogans on t-shirts, inking pigs on arms (and possibly other places, if you read the news this week - I suppose that was the next inevitable tattoo spot in this day and age) and just generally preaching from the altar of swine.

For us, it offers little. Sure, you can screw with it like no other meat (Whaaaa?), making for a blank slate on which to paint your food art. That has value. Pork is by no means valueless. We like pork in various forms. But we don't anticipate pork. Not like lamb, duck, flank, hanger, shrimp (see below), roasted chicken, you get it.

Pork is like watching Chopped to us - fine enough food TV entertainment to record and watch commercial-free but never in real time. And I've certainly never anticipated the airing and viewing of Chopped. It's sorta just 'there' with all its predictable structure and snooze-worthy content (usually halfway through the entrée course). Yet we watch, because it's on TV.

We eat pork because it's available, cheap and, at times, like this time, can satisfy the 'use stuff up' food meme of the next two weeks as we wait for vacation.

Spanished-up pork is also a good platform for Heredia reds.

And this one was.

#296 - Sea Bass a la Veracruzana & Saffron Rice With '96 Heredia Gravonia

Back in 2010, right around this time of the year, we drank up one of our Quinta do Vallado wines in anticipation of a stay at their winery in Portugal.

And on that trip, we had wistful and unrealistic yearnings to hop over to Rioja from the Douro and visit another winery that holds a massive place in our wine hearts, López de Heredia.

"It's only six hours away. We're already here, have a car. Can we pass it up?"

Yeah, we found out we could pass it up. That's a long time in a car on a trip that already had six hours booked in said vehicle.

So we're going back to the Iberian Peninsula next month, this time to Rioja, to visit the place we yearned to visit two years ago. Time to drink up a few Heredias in the meantime.

Gotta prep.

After experiencing Veracruz-style sea bass with the 2001 LdH Gravonia in May and all its pairing glory (probably the best pairing we've had this year), seeing where the 1996 is with nearly the same food platform felt right and proper.

It didn't reach the May pairing heights but it was still quality Heredia food and wine stuff.

#285 - Fish In Shrimp Sauce & Maduros With '01 LdH Gravonia Blanco

Or filhote com molho de camaroēs e bananas, if you want to practice your Brazilian Portuguese.

That meal, the third in today's roundup, came off so utterly surprising that we vowed to eat fish once a week from this point out. With a recipe like this and eating it with a wine like the 2001 López de Heredia white, that might be something that lasts longer than the mere proclamation.

Hot Chicago days brought about food from hot climes this weekend.

Monday saw skirt steak in green sriracha sauce (Food & Wine - Susan Feniger), sweet potato fries, mayo for dipping and arugula salad with 2008 Orin Swift Saldo ($26 WDC).

It's a meal that naturally follows the utterance, "I want something California blendy, maybe something Zinfandel-ish." Grab some cheap cut of beef, maybe marinate it, maybe not, get a good char on it, throw on some interesting sauce you found on the interwebs or in a magazine like green sriracha sauce, toss a bag of sweet potato fries in the oven, whip up a fancy mayo for dipping (like pan juice mayo), finish with an arugula salad and drink something New World, big and blendish. Orin Swift, Villa Creek, Owen Roe (the Ex Umbris started this business).

Very little kitchen pain, flavors galore, tastes like a fancy BBQ and everything comes in under $50. This meal is our "let's just order a pizza and drink something we have in the house." It's essentially the same price, same amount of time, only a bit more work and delicious as all get-out. Green sriracha is something delicious. Doesn't resemble sriracha in the traditional sense. It's more of a broad definition akin to an Asian chimichurri or pesto, led by basil, coconut and lemongrass and worth a look. The Saldo more stayed its delightful self than offering a whole lot in the way of real, true-blue enhancement but that's all what really wanted. No clashing and tons of juicy dark goodness. Pairing Score: 88

#277 - Michael Symon Chicken, Salsa Verde & Fava-Corn-Avocado Salad With '08 Viñátigo Verdello

We spent four days in Portland/Willamette Valley last week.

Here are some highlights:

• No sales tax! 
• The Portland airport smells like wet dog. 
• Firehouse Restaurant has good food that needs more depth but a great wine list. 
• The new Nissan Sentra has fantastic get-up-and-go but it's a little too slopey. 
• No sales tax! 
• Owen Roe winery is a warehouse with a road sign and gravel road leading to it that makes you think you might be bound, gagged and thrown in the basement. But by golly! Great private tasting! 
• Nick's Italian Café in McMinnville pumps out delicious, old-school vittles with a huge nod to the new and a great, cheap, Oregon-focused wine list picked to match the food. 
• Expected the Willamette Valley to be more...bucolic.
• The beautiful grounds at Ponzi match their beautiful wines. 
• At Voodoo Donut, simple is better.
• Stumptown Cold Brew gets us closer in finding the best bottled coffee 
• I thought I'd found the Holy Grail of Viet/Thai food while eating at Pok Pok but it didn't resonate as much as I thought it would (and then it did. I really did). 
• No sales tax! 
• No self-service gas stations, which was a touch odd. 
• Potato Champion's worth it for the curry ketchup and anchovy-tarragon mayo alone. 
• Olympic Provisions has a top-notch ham sandwich and bratwurst. 
• Flagship Powell's Books made me miss bookstores. 
• Andina's Peruvian grub hit a big place in both of us. 
• No sales tax! 
• Four days of sun and mid-70s...in Portland, continuing our vacation streak of great weather (knock-knock).  

Maybe should have went skydiving. Maybe should have seen the coast. But nice little getaway overall. We both thought that if we worked for a corporation and were told we were getting transferred, with the myriad of just terrible possible options, if we were told we were going to Portland...for two years...we'd both say, "Oh...okay...we can do that." It's a nice place with nice people and tons to do.

On the food. We like home food and we like Chicago food just a bit more. In our small sample size, we missed the depth and maybe the surprise.

Speaking of home food, this is why we Like it:

#275 - Spanish Hanger, Rosemary Potatoes & Rapini With '96 Contino Gran Reserva

May 7th will henceforth be referred to as Found Ring Day.

I lost my wedding ring cleaning out the neighborhood storm drains Sunday.  Convinced it was lost to the city sewer gods, I nonetheless made a seemingly hopeless effort to find it. As I was looking, an older gentleman on a bicycle, smoking a cigarette, curious as to what I was doing with a rake around a storm drain, asked what was happening. I told him, he was sympathetic, we talked, he mentioned I should look to St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things, and he peddled away. I found it three minutes later.

I'm not a religious man, but...

So moderately fancy wine to celebrate.

On a side note, this was the replacement ring if said ring wasn't found. That's a freakin' gorgeous ring.

Food:  Hanger steak, rosemary potatoes and rapini

#263 - Sea Bass a la Veracruzana & Duck Fat-Saffron Potatoes With '01 Heredia Blanco

Classy.

That was the word of the night.  Along with crazy-fancy-classy.

We've been in a bit of a LdH slump of late, finding many of the more recent vintages sort of pedestrian.  Good enough with strong echoes of what we want/love from drinking Heredia but many have just missed.  I think we were spoiled by a batch of '78 Bosconias and a bunch of '96 Gravonias a few years ago.  Heredia never lost that enormous place in our heart, we just haven't gravitate towards the stuff we had on hand.

And then the 2001 comes along. And then we have this food with it.  And then we break out of our Heredia slump with a 500-foot bomb to right that warrants a bat flip and happy trot that can only say, "Slump...GONE!"

It was the kind of home run that makes the bat feel weightless, your stride feel effortless, your muscle memory find its rhythm again, like it never left.  It's the kind of home run that reminds you how pure, singular and transcendent it all can be.

This was the kind of food, wine and food and wine pairing that doesn't need to scream its virtues because it knows, with utter confidence and vision, that what it offers is so damn good.

Food:  Sea Bass a la Veracruzana with duck fat-saffron potatoes and mâche salad