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 #52

This is it, our last week chronicling every day of food and wine for an entire year.

The sheer volume of red herrings and incomplete explanations in Marcella made for a confounding consumption of a TV series.  Worth it? Marginally.

Taste of Cherry is on Hulu if you're interested in perfect filmmaking and seeing why Abbas Kiarostami's death was so mourned this week.

*** Full-Year Total: $7307 for food, $8161 for wine = $15,468 ***

*** Last Half-Year (26 week) Summary: $3765 for food, $4096 for wine = $7861 ***

Total food and wine cost for the week: $100 for food and $75 for wine = $175

Total food and wine cost for the month: $492 for food and $339 for wine = $831

Sunday: Scaccia with 2013 Cleto Chiarli "Vecchia Modena" Lambrusco di Modena

Food Details: Fitting that we end this 365 Days of Pairings with one of our new favorite things. It's pizza babka/lasagna bread (recipe). Semolina dough, San Marzano tomatoes, sharp provolone and smoked mozzarella standing in for caciocavallo, basil and garlic. Arugula salad to finish. It's layered, folded, Sicilian deliciousness.

Did We Like It? It's our new definition of Sunday Dinner. Fairly easy, fairly cheap, and the payoff is through the roof. Satisfaction to the nth degree.

How Was The Wine? An older Cleto Chiarli we found for $10. It's Lambrusco. Put a lil chill on it and you got tart red wine juice that knows what to do with Italian-type things. This one showed its age, with flavors somewhat muddled and a lack of top-notch verve, but even as it's settling in on its way to death, a lot to like. Nice cherry with a touch of tart red apple.

And The Pairing? It was $10, so no complaints. And overall, very little to carp about here with the pairing. The wine didn't cast its usual wide, frothy, tart, energetic net, but we didn't find much to dislike.

Cost: $16 for food, $10 for wine = $26  

Saturday: Salmon, Sprouts and Bagels with 2015 La Peña de España White Wine 

Food Details: Trader Joe's salmon, bagels, tarragon-dill cream cheese, kumatoes, and clover sprouts. Rip, top, eat.

Did We Like It? This is all anybody needs in life. The simplicity with this batch made it the best batch we've had of salmon and bagels. Sometimes, it's been with avocado. Though nice, it's sometimes too clumsy in the compilation of a bite and generally makes for too much "stuff." Usually, it's with arugula. Clover sprouts are better, here bringing a spiciness and a more delicate touch of greeny-ness that was rather perfect. Ripe kumatoes, perfect touch of herbs in the cream cheese, oddly very fresh bagels that had a wee bit of rye flavor to them. We loved the stink out of this.

How Was The Wine? A blend of 25% each of sauvignon blanc, muscat, verdejo and chardonnay, with a tiny wisp of Spanish air to it. It's mediocre at best, but showed its best face here.

And The Pairing? A fresh well water note popped up in this wine that previously was there the first time we had it. Wasn't resplendent, but a fine effort was being made on the part of the wine to lead to pairing satisfaction.

Cost: $25 for food, $6 for wine = $31

Friday: Uzbek Lamb Plov with 2015 Innovacíon Rosé Mendoza

Food Details: Recipe here, via Cucee Sprouts. Leftover lamb shoulder from here, chickpeas, carrots, barberries, garlic, cumin, turmeric, rice. A one-pot meal that's considered the national dish of Uzbekistan. It smells like the worst gym sock ever while it's cooking, but it's damn delicious.

Did We Like It? We love it. Something about the low-level perkiness of every flavor coming together to create a unified, elevated, delicious whole makes for an utterly satisfying dinner every time.

How Was The Wine? We loved the 2014 for its price-to-happiness ratio, then its focus faded rather quick-like towards the end of last year. Only our second 2015 of this rosé. One-liter rosé, malbec and syrah, $7.50 at Whole Foods (on sale with 6-bottle discount). Tastes like dirt and iron, backed up by dark cherry and plum. And right now, it's so gosh-darn bright and fresh.

And The Pairing? PER-FECT! Weaved right into the food, giving beautiful, shiny fruit and refreshment reminiscent of a cold glass of water after laying sod in 90-degree sun. It glowed.

Cost: $4 for food, $8 for wine = $12    

Thursday: Pork-on-Pork Pizzas with NV Ocarossa Cuvée Rosso 

Food Details: Pork rib meat from the 4th, with ham, onion and tomato sauce, on Whole Foods cornmeal pizza crusts. Fresh basil on top after baking.

Did We Like It? Porky. Plenty of pork. Pork galore. We liked them. Didn't love them, but we liked them.

How Was The Wine? 100% ciliegiolo, one of the grapes used with sangiovese in Chianti blends (among others). It's essentially another in a long line of regional, light Italian quaffers in the style of Lambrusco, broadly speaking (I can recommend wines from the Lettere DOC in Campania). This is a wine made for a little chill to be put on it before serving. Big basket of cherries covered in dirt. On the drier side, with moderate acid and softer overall, with a tiny bit of pucker at the end. For $5...it's an option, and a good chance to try a grape most haven't. Can't say it's better than putting a chill on a TJ's barbera from Mendocino where, for $10, you can get a more sunny disposition to its fruit and acid while finding more length, lift and depth.

And The Pairing? Fine. Can't say much more than that.

Cost: $15 for food, $6 for wine = $21    

Wednesday: Charred Onions, Yogurt, Greens and Bread with 2014 Barão de Figueira Beira Interior

Food Details: House staple, because it's Great food. Charred onions (recipe) with yogurt, sunflower sprouts, Trader Joe's lemon-herb greens blend, Ancient Grains bread. Rip, top, eat, repeat.

Did We Like It? Always. Always. Always. Usually use labneh, this time used Krino's. No diminishment of deliciousness. Nice greens, and a good break from the pounds of arugula we eat each week. Pita is fine with this meal, but Ancient Grains bread from Whole Foods is perfect.

How Was The Wine? This one was quickly dispatched to the fridge Sunday with fish cakes. Way too soft for the aggressiveness in that meal. But here, and we were initially quite skeptical, it stretched out nicely for a $9 siría from Whole Foods. Started out soft and rather ordinary, but quicked up halfway through, offering more distinctive lemon notes and finishing with the signature wooly siría broadness. For $9, here's a chance to find out if you like siría. It's delicious on the more spendy end. This one gives glimpses of what it can do.

And The Pairing? This is one of those meals where you can drink an acid-driven white sitting around the house that you don't really care about or your house white that you intimately know, because the food makes up for it. The food will always allow the wine to show its best face, as it did that here. And this pairing is growing evidence that Portuguese whites really like this food.

Cost: $12 for food, $9 for wine = $21  

Tuesday: Chicken Thighs with Clementines and Fennel with 2014 Louis Antoine Luyt Coelemu Cuvee Des Brasseurs Gordo Blanco

Food Details: Ottolenghi chicken thighs with clementines and arak (using ouzo). Essentially smothered chicken, Ottolenghi-style, with fennel, clementines, mustard, fennel seed, thyme, etc. White rice with onion on the side.

Did We Like It? Our third time having this and it was the best batch. Beautiful marriage of everything together. It's easy food that's fancy food. I'd pay $25 for this in a restaurant and I'd do it a few times a year.

How Was The Wine? Natural Chilean muscatel (great interview with Mr. Luyt on the Louis-Dressner site here). You say yes to that when you see it. You say double-yes to it when you drink it. Natural wine nose, the kind where you say, "I know what that fermentation tank smelled like!" A ton of smoked oranges and a bit of chile heat to this one, even a brooding moodiness to it. Beer-like, but only as a façade and not in its guts. Sometimes natural wine can come off as more of a beverage than wine. Not here. Its wine pedigree is intact, with just enough wildness to enjoy its weird and strange ride. Big fans.

And The Pairing? Hot damn! This wine love fennel, clementines and chicken thigh skin. Loved-loved-loved it! We'll be having this exact same pairing again, fo sho!

Cost: $13 for food, $22 for wine = $35

Monday: Fourth of July Ribs and Hushpuppies with Grilled Fruit Sangria

Food Details: Govind Armstrong ribs (The Daily Meal); a different white barbecue sauce than Armstrong's (Serious Eats); hushpuppies (Saveur); salad of cabbage dressed in Alabama white barbecue sauce and topped with Farmers' Market tomatoes, avocado and basil.

Did We Like It? I hate (mostly the concept of) ribs. The payoff in terms of deliciousness usually falls short of the utter mess they inherently tend to be. Not these. These are dry ribs with dry, savory notes everywhere, making for delicious rib meat, particularly when you drizzle on a lil bit of white barbecue sauce and top it with a basil leaf. Them's Good Eats. Basil and white barbecue sauce together are already bestest buds. Put this rib meat with it and it's Holiday Food. BIG hushpuppies that served as another Holiday joy. With those two things, this stupid freshness of the cabbage-tomato-avocado salad was a perfect counterpoint to all of it, a salad that could have almost been a (gassy) meal on its own. This is the first American-y meal we've had on July 4th in a long time. Glad we did.

How Was The Wine? Well, it was sangria actually. Grilled fruit sangria, a beverage we loved the first few times we had it and then it lost its newness/cachet for us (Chiarello recipe in F&W). This batch came off quite savory with less of a fruit punch. Batches of this sangria aren't sweet, but the level of fruit that comes through varies (used clementines, lemons and white grapes; no simple syrup). This batch came off like wine more than sangria, with fine balance and subtle tannic notes. Tasted like a blood-red sunset on a hot day. Used two bottles of Espiral rosé and Metaxa brandy, which we felt that next day. Funny what even a tiny bit of hard liquor does to us now.

And The Pairing? Fine, festive Fourth of July feast. These ribs aren't terribly bullying in flavor. They're more toned-down and graceful. The sangria liked that, and the bevy of flavors all over the plate like the sangria as well.

Cost: $15 for food, $14 for sangria = $29

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #43

Between our dog having a heart attack every time it thunders and the year-long road construction outside our house, sleep has been a precious commodity of late.

So I declare The Summer of Sleep!

...particularly since nothing political is worth consuming until November. Gonna be a rough summer for the republic, everyone.

Drinking higher-end, well-crafted wines can help you understand what lower-end, mass-produced wines get right. When one of them gets it right, one of those cheapy-cheap wines gets the balance between fruit, herbs, acid and refreshment perfect relative to what you paid, your surprise level is sometimes higher than when you have a pedigreed wine higher up the dollars scale. With that, this house recommends the Lila Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough in the can. Four-pack of 250mls for $10.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $108 for food and $76 for wine = $184

Sunday: Charred Onions, Arugula and Ancient Grains Bread with 2014 Amancay Torrontés La Rioja

Food Details: (recipe). Charred onions and shallots over yogurt. Arugula and Ancient Grains bread. Lemon-thyme vinaigrette for the onions and arugula. Rip bread, top with stuff, eat.

Did We Like It? A Mother's Day double for me left me clueless as to what Mrs. Ney made for dinner. To come home to charred onions and yogurt is like coming home to a Technicolor version of Home. De-licious!

How Was The Wine? Lightly fruity, lightly floral. It's $7 Trader Joe's torrontés.

And The Pairing? I enjoyed a well water note in the wine this time. Overall quite acceptable. It loved the vinaigrette.

Cost: $10 for food, $7 for wine = $17

Saturday: Piri-Piri Chicken and Feta Potatoes with Lila Canned Wines

Food Details: Mr. Oliver's piri piri sauce dumped on top of [seared-to-seal] boneless chicken breasts and sauteed red, orange, and yellow "ancient chiles", baked in 400-degree oven for 15 minutes; boiled (old! sprouty!) potatoes mashed with leftover feta, dill, cilantro, and evoo.

Did We Like It? Chicken, spice, peppers, potatoes, feta. Who doesn't want any of that. And it's better together.

How Was The Wine? More Lila cans. I don't know how long our mild fascination will last with these little numbers, but for now they're juicy, poppy and fun. I got a cherry Now-n-Later note in the rosé this time. The sauvignon blanc is the undisputed winner between these two.

And The Pairing? Acceptable.

Cost: $12 for food, $5 for wine = $17    

Friday: Zucchini Babaganoush Pick-n-Choose with 2015 Innovacíon Rosé Mendoza

Food Details: Recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, by Claudia Roden (page 65), using roasted zucchini instead of eggplant, with tahini, cumin, lemon juice and olive oil. Kumatoes, arugula and pita. Compile a bite using all the goods and eat.

Did We Like It? Delicious babaganoush that kept adjusting to all the other elements and changing its personality. Sometimes a big hit of lemon, other times a hit of cumin, tahini pop on occasion. Every bite was deliciously different, with planty arugula and oddly solid pita from Middle Eastern Grocery (usually don't love it). Zero diminishing returns or eating fatigue. That rarely happens with Mrs. Ney's pick-n-choose, because she brings a bevy of spices, acid, veggies, herbs and greens to the plate that...if you get tired of something like that, well, you have no tongue. A great meal all around.

How Was The Wine? One-liter rosé, malbec and syrah, $7.50 at Whole Foods (on sale with 6-bottle discount). Our first 2015. Tastes like dirt and iron, backed up by dark cherry and plum. At this price for a liter, we're tickled pink (oof).

And The Pairing? No complaints whatsoever. Iron Earth!

Cost: $9 for food, $8 for wine = $17

Thursday: Rotisserie Chicken Pick-n-Choose with 2015 Barbadillo Palomino Fino Cádiz

Food Details: Harvesttime dinner! Rotisserie chicken and a new bread made in-house there, 99¢ braided sesame loaves from that crazy-cheap grocery store. With that, herb salad blend from Trader Joe's, leftover homemade za'atar mixed with olive oil. Rip a piece of bread, slather with za'atar, top with chicken and greens. Eat.

Did We Like It? It's pick-n-choose. Of course we did. Solid new bread option here and cheap as heck.  Za'atar brought all the background complexity needed, eschewing tomatoes for the simplicity and deliciousness it brought without them. And it worked better with the wine.

How Was the Wine? I'll plagiarize myself from the last time we had it: Trader Joe's palomino in not-sherry form. We love how the label says it's "fruity." Nope. This is categorically not fruity. This is dry, clean, savory as hell, light, refreshing, dry, and dry. It's a blank slate. Add food that likes it and things happen. It gets into the food and tastes like standing in a dried-up wheat field in a hot, late-summer day. And it tastes like something an old Spanish man has been drinking at the exact same time everyday for 60 years. In a world of superlatives, this is not something to call some superlative. It's a nice, quiet, evocative drink. A teeny-tiny small moment in the glass. It simply makes you smile.

And The Pairing? Like a nice, meandering walk through a quiet city on a hot day.

Cost: $11 for food, $6 for wine = $17

Wednesday: CHEESE!

Food Details: Dog storm anxiety, zero sleep because it, and the resulting aborted trip to Milwaukee to watch the Angels led to Bill's Drive-In for lunch and Jimmy's Pizza Cafe for dinner. CHEESE! Oof.

Cost: $40  

Tuesday: Halloumi, Heirloom Tomatoes and Garlic Bread with 2014 Santo Assyritiko Santorini

Food Details: Fried halloumi; heirloom tomatoes, (Ottolenghi) slow-roasted yellow tomatoes, roasted lemon slices, red onion, pomegranate seeds, fresh oregano, evoo, white balsamic; pea shoot salad with mint; garlic bread

Did We Like It? For some reason, we didn't eat "tomatoes as meat" last year, not spotlighting them as much as we had in the past. Good to have them back. And good to have the first, real, spring "GARDEN! on the plate" meal of the year. Tons of freshness, bite, planty deliciousness everywhere. The fried halloumi with bread is always great, but the star here was everything else: heirlooms, spectacular roasted lemon slices and yellow tomatoes with its roasty-ness contrasting with the freshness of the pea shoot salad, mint and fresh tomato chunks. It's the kind of meal everyone should eat once a week. Resets the body. Except don't follow it up with more cheese the next day, like we did.

How Was The Wine? Sigalas Assyritiko has been the undisputed assyritiko winner in our house for years. But finding an assyritiko that's cheaper than the $23 price tag on the Sigalas would be nice. So here's a $15 alternative that plays above the price difference between the two. Salt, fruit, minerals and zip in a cheaper, slightly more subdued package than Sigalas. It's nice, I might buy it again, but can't fully commit. And BUT, as mentioned above, the Lila Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough in 250-ml cans showed that uber-cheap canned wine has come a long way of late. From the company that makes 90+ Cellars wine, we didn't love the rosé, but the sauvignon blanc brought lovely levels of grapefruit, mint and acid without bringing too much of any of it. It's refreshment in a can; nothing serious but it's not meant to be taken so. Huge surprise, particularly since New Zealand sauvignon blanc isn't something we love in the least. Typically it's too much muchness. Not here.  

And The Pairing? Greek whites have a specific food place in our house. This type of meal is one of those places, but it's also a meal that can go with a flurry of higher-acid, minerally whites. This meal was very pleasant with the Santo, offering everything we needed with the food to find completely acceptable, even lovely at times, pairing pleasure. But with the surprise of the can, and the mint-mint matchy-match in the food and wine, there was an odd level of...grace...in the can of sauvignon blanc that won the night. Who'd a thunk?

Cost: $15 for food, $20 for wine = $35    

Monday: Anne Burrell Chicken Milanese with 2015 Broc Cellars Picpoul Luna Matta Vineyard Paso Robles

Food Details: Anne Burrell chicken Milanese, pickled onions, shishito peppers and watercress salad, pecorino/hazelnuts/parsley/lemon zest crumble, and ciabattini buns.

Did We Like It? Mrs. Ney doesn't know why, but the crust on this version of Ms. Burrell Milanese was the best we've had since she started making this superlative meal four years ago, covering dozens of eatings. And probably the best version overall once we discounted the newness factor of the first few versions. The shishitos and watercress brought a raw-bitter element that drove right up to the "too much!" door but never entered. A Capital-G Great meal.

How Was The Wine? Disagreement. Both of us found goodness in the glass here. Mrs. Ney loved it, I found an ever-so tiny oxidized, maybe bottle shock (?) note that I couldn't fully get past. Tons of orange-fennel in many forms with this vintage it seems (which is only our second of this wine). Mrs. Ney loved its balance, tiny salt hit and acid integration, I found it the smallest bit tired, like it went into its shell and wasn't going to give all it had. We'll see how the other three bottles drink. Should be fairly soon.

And The Pairing? Same as above. Mrs. Ney found loveliness all around, I wanted more.

Cost: $13 for food, $30 for wine = $43        

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #41

Ever watched a movie you should have seen decades ago? I watched Gandhi for the first time last night. Yep. First time. Never seen Chariots of Fire either. Probably should take care of that.

The first season of 'The Americans' only made me think that the rest of the series is them almost getting caught every other episode, with them almost breaking up in the other episodes. Keep it. I have hundreds of hours of terrible Angels baseball to watch.

And I can't wait to see in what unique way the Browns screw this one up.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $126 for food and $91 for wine = $217

Sunday: Salmon and Bagels with 2015 Charles & Charles Rosé Columbia Valley

Food Details: Trader Joe's cured salmon, avocado, clover sprouts, cream cheese (with dill, cilantro, serrano, onion and lemon zest), bagels, and tomatoes for me.

Did We Like It? Leaves us clean, full and feeling healthy every time, even with bagels and cream cheese. We have it probably 8-10 times a year.

How Was The Wine? More Charles Smith rosé (this one a collaboration with Charles Bieler). 63% syrah, 12% mourvedre, 10% grenache, 7% cab, 7% cinsault, 3% counoise from Columbia Valley, with Mr. Smith's VINO being 100% sangiovese. Both are a house favorite. When the new vintages come out, at least six of each are immediately bought. This year's has a watermelon-earth back and forth with bright acid. Not as evocative or deep as a couple vintages ago, but has a playful, perky side that's welcome. And it was a stupid-ridiculous $8 at Target (!) when we bought it.

And The Pairing? Not great. Felt like two co-workers who go through the necessary pleasantries because they have to be in the same space while on the clock, but no friendship will be forming anytime soon.

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

Saturday: Big Fried Chicken Salad with Leftover Wine

Food Details: 'Southern style" Aldi frozen fried chicken cutlets, cheddar, green pepper, onion, peas, kumatoes, pretzel-bread croutons, romaine and homemade honey mustard dressing. All ingredients in a big bowl, mix, eat. Don't even use a table. Sit on the couch, put the bowl on your stomach and go to town.

Did We Like It? Nostalgia food! Tasted like 1998 Bennigan's, and that was a pretty darn good thing. Tasted like my 20s. Does Bennigan's still exist?  

How Was the Wine? Mrs. Ney had better luck with leftover Joel Gott sauvignon blanc than I did with leftover Schwarzböck Grüner Veltliner, which was terrible. Tasted like Pledge.

And The Pairing? See above.

Cost: $11 for food, $0 for wine = $11

Friday: Fava-Ramp-Carrot Top Strozzapreti with 2014 Schwarzböck Gruner Veltliner Austria

Food Details: Favas, ramps, carrot-top pesto, ricotta salata, marjoram, parsley on strozapretti

Did We Like It? First uber-spring meal of the year. Green and green with a side of green, and it was rampy and carrot top-y in the bestest sense. Happy. Very happy.

How Was The Wine? Fine. Lemony with green hints and fine acid. Cheap grüner in liter form that has served us fairly well over the years.

And The Pairing? Less "fairly well" this time. Not much intermingling or interplay.

Cost: $20 for food, $13 for wine = $33

Thursday: Zucchini Goop with 2015 Charles Smith VINO Rosé Columbia Valley

Food Details: Based on a recipe from Mexican, by Jane Milton (page 186), with the addition of green chorizo, from Melissa Clark in NYT Cooking. Cook your chorizo. Remove from pan, and then brown onions and scallions. Add garlic and four [previously salted and rinsed] sliced-into-sticks zucchini, sautée some more. Add a can of tomatoes and sliced pickled serranos; sauté briefly. Dump in chorizo, warm through. Turn off burner, add half a block of cubed cream cheese to melt in residual heat. Fresh oregano, tons of dill and parmesan. Ancient Grains bread to top with zucchini goop.

Did We Like It? Bready, porky, touch spicy, vegetabley, happy as all-get out. This version brought a very good dill-heat balance.

How Was The Wine? Sangiovese rosé from Mr. Charles Smith. Bright cherry fruit, pretty earth, medium-bodied, super-duper rosé happiness. We'll probably go through a case by the end of the year. Because it's delicious and because it's $10.

And The Pairing? The wine LOVED the dill. Very good version of zucchini goop with a very fresh rosé that liked the food. Do need much else.

Cost: $10 for food, $10 for wine = $20

Wednesday: Hummus, Laffa and Fattoush with 2015 Broc Cellars Sparkling Chenin Blanc Central Coast

Food Details: Hummus here, laffa here, fattoush here. Third making of this meal. Hummus somehow less bright and clear than in the past. Greens too wet, but fine enough flavors bouncing around to enjoy it. Homemade za'atar again helped immensely. Laffa instead of pita this time, which is the same recipe as pita but rolled thinner and bigger. Better than pita.

Did We Like It? Good enough was my overall thought. But this wine... Curse the heavens that it's sold out!

How Was The Wine? Pet-nat chenin blanc from Broc. 11.5% alcohol from Central Coast (that in itself seems like a miracle). We got three in our club shipment this year. Crazy-fresh peach, peach fizz and pit in a glass. Crystal-clear fruit that tastes like San Francisco morning sunshine - cool, bright, head-clearing. Five stars, Mr. Brockaway. You're ridiculous.

And The Pairing? Wine ruled the night and slid into the food well enough. Nice dinner.

Cost: $20 for food, $27 for wine = $47    

Tuesday: Argentinean Skirt Steak and Empanadas with 2009 Quinta do Vallado Tinto Douro

Food Details: Most beautiful medium-rare on some of the beautiful beef we've had in a long time. Paulina Meat Market skirt steak in churrasco marinade. Chimichurri to top and dip. Empanadas filled with kale, potato, onion, Petit Basque cheese, currant and garlic. A bit of arugula under the beef.

Did We Like It? Best meal of the week and probably the best since Fish sauce-sauce game hens! Gorgeous beef, delicious empanadas, what else does anybody need?

How Was The Wine? Dry, savory blackberry fruit, perfect earth, lovely hint of spice, great balance. Vallado's tinto is the best $20 and under red wine in my book. This thing is over six years old. Find me another $20-and-under, six-year-old wine that drinks like this and I'll give you...something...how about a hug? Tastes like the air of a mid-August Iowa summer (which is the air of the Douro all the time) in the bestest sense.

And The Pairing? The chimichurri beat it up the smallest wee bit, but overall this was so stupid-good.

Cost: $27 for food, $17 for wine = $44    

Monday: Fish Tacos with Argus Cidery Tepache Pineapple Wine

Food Details: (recipe - don't mess with it) Mahi mahi marinade = shallot, garlic, jalapeño, olive oil, lime juice, chili powder, cilantro and cumin, then fish cooked up in cast-iron. Cabbage slaw. Homemade guacamole. Jalapeño crema. Hot sauce. Charred tortillas.

Did We Like It? Why has it been so long, fish tacos! This batch had a complete balance of flavor. Perfect hit of everything needed to find fish-taco joy. And a perfect kickoff to a great food weekend.

How Was The Wine? Pineapple wine made in Texas. We're fans, ever since having it at Minero in Charleston. Spicy grilled pineapple in a bottle. Frothy, almost beer-like but never all the way there. It demands you to pay attention to it in the best way.

And The Pairing? Strangely better than we expected, and we expected to love this. Purple Corn Sangria is great with fish tacos, but purple corn sangria can be a bit of work, particularly when you don't want to do said work and pineapple wine exists. Argus killed purple corn sangria and we're just fine with that.

Cost: $16 for food, $16 for wine = $32

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #40

A certain Portuguese wine, in 2013 form, that is NEVER available in Chicago has popped up at a certain Chicago wine shop, Vin Chicago. We haven't seen this wine on any Chicago shelf for years, usually shipping them in and paying the premium. At $90, it doesn't get cheaper.

Put me out to pasture. I got a lil too excited about the prospect of a new vacuum cleaner this week. Get. Older.

September vacation plans are underway and this place looks infinitely intriguing.

And by September, I may have to be out of town as Chicago as a baseball town promises to be wildly stupid.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $120 for food and $142 for wine = $262

Total food and wine cost for the month: $987 for food and $1312 for wine = $2299

Sunday: Lou Malnati's Pizzas with 2012 Trader Joe's Barbera Lot #88 Mendocino County

Food Details: Sausage for her, pepperoni for me. Kale salad for both of us.

Did We Like It? Pizza snobs say they "never eat Chicago pizza." Eat. Me. 2-3 times a year, it's delicious.

How Was The Wine? Oddly fresh. It's 2012, it's cheap, it's Trader Joe's California barbera. Everything says this wasn't going to be freshy-fresh or lifty. It was, which is a good thing, because we have three more left, as these 2012s got lost in the wine shuffle over the last couple of years.

And The Pairing? Pizza and barbera. It's what's good. Juicy with acid, making for a good match with tomato sauce.

Cost: $30 for food, $10 for wine = $40

Saturday: Wild Boar Dirty Rice with 2014 Amancay Torrontés La Rioja

Food Details: Susan Spicer's wild and dirty rice recipe, via Food and Wine, using leftover wild boar from Tuesday instead of ground pork. Andouille chicken sausages, wild rice, mirepoix, chicken stock, herbs, wild boar, chicken livers, chopped scallions on top.

Did We Like It? It's a big, honkin' bowl of rice chockablock with meaty, herby, Cajun flavors. This was a Great Batch.

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

And The Pairing? Did what gewürztraminer does with Cajun food: serve as a foil for everything in the bowl in the best possible sense.

Cost: $10 for food, $7 for wine = $17

Friday: YO-marinated Chicken Breasts, Chermoula, Avocado, Kumato, Cucumber, Arugula and Bread with 2013 La Val Orballo Albariño Rías Baixas

Food Details: Cheap bone-in chicken breasts marinated in leftover Ottolenghi three-chile sauce from last week and equal amount of evoo. Chermoula sauce (cilantro, garlic, cumin, paprika, chile pepper, white wine vinegar...)  from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. Avocado, kumatoes, arugula, cucumber and mini-ciabatta buns. Rip, top with combination of ingredients of your choice, and eat. Repeat. It's pick and choose.

Did We Like It? Stupid chermoula. It's delicious. Bevy of flavors bouncing everywhere. Delicious. Always. It's Good Food.

How Was The Wine? Stupid Orballo. All the other albariños under $20 try, but nothing beats the fruity, pitty, parsley-leaf-like, minerally, aggressive, confident goodness that is Orballo. And it wasn't even at its freshy freshest. Still perfect to us. Every time.

And The Pairing? The spiciness in the chermoula beat up the wine a bit but we didn't care. This was Good Food and Good Wine. On a Friday (our Tuesday). Lucky.

Cost: $10 for food, $18 for wine = $28

Thursday: Black Bean Soup with 2015 Dark Horse Rosé California

Food Details: No recipe. Whipped-up black bean soup using a hambone, chipotle and cumin, topped with tortilla chips, cilantro, sour cream, and cheese for me.

Did We Like It? IT MADE A LOT OF SOUP! And I've eaten it three times in the last three days. Clean you out! Soup doesn't inspire grand visions of delicious dinner for me, but this was fine soup. Simple, clean, filling.

How Was The Wine? $7 rosé from Dark Horse, a bargain California brand that's seemingly everywhere in town right now. 40% grenache, 20% barbera, 20% pinot gris, and 20% tempranillo. Nothing wonderful, but a 2015 freshness was present, the pinot gris REALLY showed up here, and it served our black bean soup needs. In moments, I got a big Charleston Chew hit.

And The Pairing? Food and wine. Nothing more than that, but good enough.

Cost: $5 for food, $7 for wine = $12

Wednesday: Barberry Boar with 2007 Angela Pinot Noir Clawson Creek Vineyard Willamette Valley 

Food Details: (recipe) A chicken recipe that Mrs. Ney typically does with beef, this time was done with wild boar shank. Slow-roasted boar, barberries, rosemary marcona almonds, cardamom, turmeric, cinnamon, black pepper, rice, mint. Roasted Brussels sprouts.

Did We Like It? It's just boar. Mainly, it was in the freezer because Mrs. Ney tacked it on to a D'Artagnan order to get to free shipping. Boar is fine and good, but rarely is it more than that. Here, it served as fine template-vehicle for everything else. Barberry perk and lift, spice-marrow juice, all the goods. We love this recipe for just that. Iranian dinner that we love every time we have it.

How Was The Wine? Here's an example of a well-crafted Oregon pinot noir that nearing the end of its run, yet still brings complexity and intrigue with every sip and each one was different. Sometimes dark cherries, other times wet leaves, iron at times, birch beer-sassafras others. Every sip wasn't delicious, but every sip was interesting and welcome. Very drinkable and quite fun to watch the progression.

And The Pairing? Worked. A slight sourness in the cherry fruit matched up with the barberries quite nicely, and enough in the way of guts in the wine helped to stand up to everything on the plate. We were very happy with this one.

Cost: $15 for food, $50 for wine - $65          

Tuesday: Fritto Misto with NV Cantina Sociale del Canavese Erbaluce di Caluso Spumante

Food Details: David Tanis NYT fritto misto. Bay scallops, calamari, shrimp, dover sole, fried up. Gabrielle Hamilton NYT tartar sauce, arugula salad to finish.

Did We Like It? Just look at it! When you don't want to leave the house, go down to Nico Osteria and get their fritto misto, here's an option that I frankly thought was better. Frying each fish-seafood separately seemed key. Great textural contrast, fresh batter. Arugula salad to finish so we could trick ourselves into thinking something nutritious was involved in this meal. Perfect.

How Was the Wine? We'd never heard of the erbaluce grape. After this, we want more. Sparkling erbaluce from north of Turin. Creamy pits of pit fruits to open, then it turned into a bevy of bright sherry notes with lemon peel popping up later. Long finish, delicious, and VERY interesting all-around. Most likely has been sitting in the bottle a wee bit too long for this grape, but we sorta loved the snot out of it.

And The Pairing? By no means a perfect fried-food-and-bubbles pairing, but everything separately and together was oh-so wanted and loved. Great meal.

Cost: $16 for food, $34 for wine = $50    

Monday: Nando's

Food Details: "I want a big plate of hot chicken and an enormous glut of fries with a bottomless amount of spicy mayo to dip them in." If that is a dinner thought, then go to Nando's. Whole chicken in hot peri-peri. Two sides of fries. Four sides of peri-peri mayo.

Did We Like It? For $60 with a bottle of wine, tip, no cooking or dishes, it's a great deal.

How Was The Wine? 2014 Cara Viva Branco Lisboa. Zippy, fruity, crisp, cheap Portuguese white wine. Nothing spectacular, but fine refreshment, and acid that stood up to the peri-peri in admirable ways.

And The Pairing? It works. Again, Nando's overall is not earth-shatteringly great. It's simply a whole hot and spicy chicken, tons of fries with mayo and a bottle of wine for $60 out the door. It wins in the cost-benefit analysis of end-of-week tiredness vs. roasting up a chicken and frying up fries at home. Just go to Nando's.  

Cost: $34 for food, $16 for wine = $50

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #39

In about 3 1/2 months, we'll be done with this 365 experiment.

At the end, we'll do a breakdown of protein, veggies, grapes, cost, etc.

It will be laborious to compile, but I think quite interesting to see how the entire year ate-and-drank out.

And I'll have the time to do it, because my favorite baseball team, the Angels, are one Garrett Richards injury from being easily one of the worst teams in baseball.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $113 for food and $104 for wine = $217

Sunday: Spanish Hotel Picnic with 2015 Barbadillo Palomino Fino Cádiz

Food Details: Petit Basque cheese, La Quercia borsellino salami, quince paste, marcona almonds, salad, baguette.

Did We Like It? When you're in Spain and just finished a long car trip to your next city (maybe your fly-out city like Madrid), you check into your hotel, really haven't eaten outside of your last hotel's breakfast and a travel granola bar, and need to get some sort of food, any food. If you've planned well and chose a hotel near things, like a Hipercor (or Carrefour), and wander into the strange and glorious K-Mart/Mariano's hybrid that is Hipercor and buy a quick mid-afternoon snack to tide you over until your 10pm dinner reservation. So you buy a spread. Meat in salami form, some cheese, bread, some nuts, maybe some quince paste. All of it is rather cheap and you'll have a true spread of food to lay out on your hotel bed to eat, watch some weird game show on Spanish television that you can't, for the life of you, figure out the rationale or rules of, and enjoy a brief rest from traveling before taking a stroll around town. In other (and shorter) words, this meal tastes like vacation, particularly a part of our Spanish vacations that we've done many times. And you need a wine. It should be cheap and it should be something you can't taste at home. Like un-sherried palomino.

How Was The Wine? Trader Joe's palomino in not-sherry form. We love how the label says it's "fruity." Nope. This is categorically not fruity. This is dry, clean, savory as hell, light, refreshing, dry, and dry. It's a blank slate. Add food that likes it and things happen. It gets into the food and tastes like standing in a dried-up wheat field in a hot, late-summer day. And it tastes like something an old Spanish man has been drinking at the exact same time everyday for 60 years. In a world of superlatives, this is not something to call some superlative. It's a nice, quiet, evocative drink. A teeny-tiny small moment in the glass. It simply makes you smile.

And The Pairing? Tastes. Like. Vacation.

Cost: $22 for food, $6 for wine = $28  

Saturday: Rick Bayless Tomatillo Chicken with 2015 90+ Cellars Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough

Food Details: From Mr. Bayless (recipe). Layered in the crock-pot: onions, potatoes, chicken, cilantro, tomatillos, pickled jalapeños and juice; salting each layer through the tomatillos. Four hours on high. Over rice.

Did We Like It? Always. This version was much less spicy than usual, but didn't detract from the joy that is Crock-Pot tomatillo chicken.

How Was The Wine? In our effort to replace the cheap, weekday, Trader Joe's sauvignon blanc, which hasn't been delicious or interesting for a couple of years now, we gave this one a go. Nothing revolutionary at all, but nice. Crisp, clean, bright tropical fruit with a modicum of depth that satisfied, just enough, our weekday sauvignon blanc jones. At $9, it's an option, but we're still searching.

And The Pairing? The wine had a bouncy tropical fruit bubble gum brightness by itself. That was gobbled up by the food, turning into a more subdued, pleasant quaffer that paired moderately well. Nothing great, but after a couple of wine clunkers this week, it was nice to have something that gave an effort.

Cost: $8 for food, $9 for wine = $17

Friday: Sandwich with More Leftover Wine

Food Details: Italian subby-type sandwiches filled with capicola, genoa salami, mortadella, provolone, onions, romaine, kumatoes, vinaigrette and mayo on Harvesttime Italian bread.

Did We Like It? We like sandwich so much that it's now referred to in the singular in this house. This version of sandwich had all the meaty-cheesy-goopy goods in one Italian-American sub shop-like package. Damn fine sandwich. And made A LOT!

How Was The Wine? More using up of fridge wine. Finished off the Lagar de Cervera, and the drinking further confirmed that this albariño ain't fo' us.

And The Pairing? Tasted like sadness.

Cost: $25 for food

Thursday: Puttanesca with 2014 Charles Smith VINO Pinot Grigio Columbia Valley

Food Details: Linguine puttanesca consisting of gaeta black olives, capers, briny green peppercorns, anchovies, garlic, red pepper flakes and extra virgin olive oil.

Did We Like It? A fine pasta bowl. We liked it. Yes.

How Was The Wine? Using up wine in the fridge. We love Charles Smith's pinot grigio for its zip, fruit and cheapness. But it must be fresh. This 2014 showed as other 2014s have of late - getting a little tired and lacking chisel, cut and verve.

And The Pairing? Nothing to see here. Move along.

Cost: $8 for food, $11 for wine = $19

Wednesday: Ottolenghi Three-Chile Fish and Pickled Potatoes with "Wine"

Food Details: (recipe) Mrs. Ney tried a recipe that's been sitting on the computer desktop for too long. Three-chile fish from Ottolenghi, using smoked milkfish, with a harissa-tomato sauce and tahini. Solomonov pickled potatoes to dip and dunk in harissa-tomato and tahini as well. Parsley. Arugula salad to finish.

Did We Like It? A fine one-off. Fine enough, but wouldn't have it again. Clean and light, with a sneaky depth. And I could eat tahini seven days a week.

How Was The Wine? Huge fail across the board. Finally found some level of acceptable with a bottle of Trader Joe's torrontés after opening a 2014 Lagar de Cervera Albariño Rías Baixas and found an unacceptable lack of salinity and acid for our albariño taste. Came off like a wine that would only work with the simplest of seafood prep, like octopus with the tiniest amount of lemon spritzed on top, or the simplest of oysters, which isn't how we eat. We need some guts. This one is too delicate and soft. Shame, because I've been looking forward to this one, as it's made by the La Rioja Alta people.

And The Pairing? Dud.

Cost: $15 for food, $26 for wine = $41        

Tuesday: Bittman Fish Sauce Game Hens and Scallion Pancakes with 2010 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Spätlese Mosel

Food Details: From Mark Bittman's The Best Recipes in the World, Vietnamese cornish game hens, page 334. Lucky Peach spicy fish-sauce sauce. Crispy scallion pancakes from Serious Eats. Charred rapini.

Did We Like It? After Pok Pok, this was the meal we were most excited about, and it's probably our favorite meal right now. A piece of scallion fry bread with some ripped game hen on top and a healthy dose of fish-sauce sauce might be a perfect bite of food. You have to like salt to really dig in and LOVE it, but we do. It's a shame there are about three people in our life that would get why this is the Best Food, because it's pretty damn perfect food.

How Was The Wine? Tasted like the ripest apricot we've ever had. Lower acid, but beautifully balanced sugar with its acid. The nose alone reminded me why we need to drink more German riesling. Smells like the feeling I get when I realize I'm reading a Great book, at that exact moment about 40 pages in, when I feel how everything is coming together.

And The Pairing? About as lovely as we could expect. A higher acid riesling might have brought more electricity, but the balance here was perfect. Happy-happy-joy-joy all around.

Cost: $22 for food, $27 for wine = $49  

Monday: 'Kansas City BBQ' Sirloin and Fries with 2010 Owen Roe Ex Umbris Columbia Valley

Food Details: Meat and potatoes. Trader Joe's 'Kansas City BBQ' Sirloin steak, frozen fries with charred scallions-rosemary-garlic-balsamic mayo for dipping.

Did We Like It? We did. Sirloin ain't our thang, but Mrs. Ney bought it to have in the house for an easy dinner after our New York trip. Both of us probably wanted a burger and fries more, but this version of meat and potatoes brought enough of that to satisfy.

How Was The Wine? A mix of syrah from different Washington Vineyards around Columbia Valley, The Ex Umbris was usurped by the Marietta Cellars line of juicy, bouncy, red blends over the last 2-3 years in our world, mainly because pure syrah on the more bargain end of the cost spectrum can be oddly finicky with food. Pleasant here, with black fruits, tobacco and a moderately big black olive nose. Nice acid, more than expected. A good showing for a wine we haven't had in quite awhile.

And The Pairing? Pleasant again. Missed on a complete roundness, depth and full-blown presence, but succeeded in bringing what we want from a basic steak and fries meal with a red wine that completes said basic goodness.

Cost: $13 for food, $25 for wine = $38

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #35

Here's a thought: 

For all the people consuming each primary result like it's an indication of a sea change in American thought, consider this: In 2008 at this time, like the Republicans now, we were talking about a possible 'stalemate, vituperation and disillusionment' at the Democratic Convention and hadn't even heard of Sarah Palin yet. In 2012, we were still talking about Rick Santorum.

It's a long slog. To put how long in perspective, and for all you people who complain about the length of a certain sports season, we have an entire baseball year to play before anybody even votes in the general election. 

So take a breath.

Just a thought.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $94 for food and $116 for wine = $210

Sunday: Asian Pork, Peppers and Snow Peas with 2014 Selbach Incline Riesling Mosel

Food Details: Freezer BBQ pork from banh mi, stir-fried red peppers and snow peas, scallions and cilantro over rice.

Did We Like It? A big bowl of Asian goodness. Clean, ample, deep and satisfying. Big winner and a big surprise.

How Was The Wine? Selbach's entry-level riesling. Perky, fruity, light sugar mixing with minerality, refreshing. A fine example of riesling on the cheap.

And The Pairing? The hoisin, fish sauce and hot sauce in the pork wants a touch of sugar. Then you get the Asian-riesling "aaaah" and "yes!" So...happy.

Cost: $5 for food, $12 for wine = $17 

Saturday: Ham-Asparagus Naan Pizzas with 2014 La Granja Blanco Rioja

Food Details: Naan with [cream cheese, feta, roasted red pepper spread], charred asparagus, onion, ham, with arugula with walnut oil.

Did We Like It? Naan pizzas. They're what's for dinner. We love 'em. Topped with arugula and it's a bite of that has everything you'd want.

How Was The Wine? $5 Trader Joe's verdejo-viura blend. Big tropical fruit notes this time, with a fine snappy finish.

And The Pairing? Not great, not even really acceptable. But something about it tasted like some thrown-together meal we've had in our hotel room in Spain. So we didn't mind.

Cost: $9 for food, $5 for wine = $14

Friday: Lamb Pan Bagnat with 2015 Espiral Vinho Verde Rosé

Food Details: (Bittman recipe) Leftover slow-roasted lamb from Tuesday, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, kumatoes, olives, basil on ciabatta; smushed. Olive oil chips.

Did We Like It? Southern French smushed sandwich! It's becoming a fav. This iteration had that extra something, with the lamb and artichokes mixing into a taste that was almost...Turkish (?). Pretty great stuff.

How Was The Wine? Just released new vintage of the Espiral rosé. And it tastes exactly like Mateus. Mateus isn't...the best.

And The Pairing? Meh.

Cost: $12 for food, $5 for wine = $17    

Thursday: Persian Chicken Stew with 2011 Georges Descombes Morgon 

Food Details: (Sifton recipe) Fesenjan, or Iranian chicken stew, using several more onions and 50% less pomegranate molasses, over white rice with cumin and orange zest. Pomegranate seeds on top.

Did We Like It? The result was a nutty, goopy chicken stew with a molasses depth, but a brightness that kept everything light. Tart, sweet, dark, bright; typical Iranian goodness, at least as we're starting to understand. Happy food that will be put into the weekday rotation.

How Was The Wine? Put into the fridge with a Preserva disk after Tuesday's pairing failure with slow-roasted lamb, this drinking was much more delightful, with a sort of undersweetened mulberry-cherry pie filling note backed by a lil bit of thyme. Light, easy, nice.

And The Pairing? Firmly in the camp of nice. Nuts and chicken with Beaujolais. Nothing wrong with that.

Cost: $7 for food, $21 for wine = $28      

Wednesday: Ottolenghi Fish-Coconut-Peanut with 2013 Darting Durkheimer Hochbenn Muskateller Kabinett Trocken

Food Details: Ottolenghi's mackerel/coconut/peanut recipe (a little down the page), substituting smoked milkfish for mackerel, with steamed mustard greens, soba noodles dressed with sesame oil. Nearly every Asian flavor in the book: Coconut, peanut, (manzano) peppers, fish sauce (tripled), mirin, rice vinegar, ginger, cilantro, lime, mint, everything. First had here. After that eating, we knew we'd be eating it once or twice a year until we die.

Did We Like It? I believe it's what's called a Nutritionally Complete meal! Each bite subtly different; each bite meaty, substantial, clean, deep, springy, popping and delicious. It's statement food. It's Armani worn well. And Andy's Fruit Ranch Filipino milkfish makes for a cheaper, delicious substitute for whitefish/mackerel.

How Was The Wine? Don't mess with a good thing. This meal wants Darting's muskateller. It's peachy-limey, almost paper dry, direct, focused, round, and tastes like a cool breeze.

And the Pairing? The first time we had this, it was the best pairing we'd had in a long time. Very similar love here. And we've had this pairing with the food enough to make it feel as nostalgic, wanted and enjoyed as grandma's cooking. Perfect.

Cost: $14 for food, $18 for wine = $32          

Tuesday: Slow-Roasted Leg of Lamb with Fennel, Blood Oranges, Olives and Anchovies with 2011 Hippolyte Reverdy Sancerre Rouge

Food Details: This slow roast is really an amalgam of about seven different recipes based mostly on Nrs. Ney's slow-roasted goat over the years. Lamb leg slow-roasted with fennel, blood oranges, oil-cured olives, anchovies and herbes de provence. Broiled tomatoes on the vine. Potatoes in a mustardy vinaigrette with tarragon. Mâche salad to finish. 

Did We Like It? We love lamb. It's been awhile since we had lamb. That distance from the last lamb we had doesn't influence my next statement, due to some 'distance makes the heart grow fonder' kind of thing. This is my favorite lamb going forward. It's benchmark lamb. Bring up lamb and I will point you to this lamb. Because it took lamb's funk and upped the funkiness in the most wildly funky sense. It tasted like an OLD recipe; proven, loved and eaten monthly by some group of migrated Uzbek people in the French-Swiss Alps or Andorra or something. We loved every part of this.

How Was The Wine? Well...it took us opening three bottles to get to a wine that approached acceptable with the crazy goodness of this food. A 2011 Georges DesCombes Morgon came off sappy, hollow and flat with the food. A 2012 Arnot-Roberts Syrah tastes merely like grape juice with a bite (shame - pretty nose). But the Reverdy pinot noir from Sancerre brought enough layers, transitions and something approaching an actual pairing dimension absent from the other two for us to be satisfied enough. Nice cherry, smoke and raw spice.

And The Pairing? We were just happy to find something with the Reverdy after opening $60 of wine that was useless with the food. Those two with show up later this week with some meal. Overall, with the Reverdy, a nice pairing. It was just one we wouldn't have chosen, tasting more like a pairing someone else loves. Pleasing. We get why they like it. We just wouldn't have chosen it.

Cost: $32 for food, $25 for wine = $57              

Monday: Jacques Pépin Brandade, Crostini, Shishito and Salad with 2014 Day Wines Malvasia 'Mamacita' Applegate Valley

Food Details: Jacques Pépin recipe (celery root instead of potato, almond milk instead of dairy, pecorino instead of parmesan), with grilled baguette. Charred shishito peppers and arugula-dill-celery leaf salad.

Did We Like It? Yes. The brandade got a lil mousse-y but still maintained all of its loveliness. Three things here: the celery leaves in the salad, taken from the top of the celery root and looked beautiful, were so goshdarn good. So was the bread. That sounds silly but there's something about perfectly grilled bread. And shishito peppers are always welcome. And then there's light, pillowy, tasty brandade. It's fish in spreadable form. Who doesn't want that?

How Was The Wine? We say "I could drink that by the bucket" a lot. And that applies here. Pet-nat sparkling malvasia from Oregon. Mrs. Ney saw that and rightfully said, "Yes. Always. Now." 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. People on the interwebs have called it beer-like or cidery...maybe just a little bit, much less from the initial impression compared to the final, overall picture. It's picnic wine at its finest. Available at Vin Chicago and Pastoral in Andersonville. 

And The Pairing? A perfectly not-perfect pairing that was perfect. Tasted like love on the table and in the bottle and boy were they happy and relieved to be in each other's company. 

Cost: $15 for food, $30 for wine = $45