#133 - Two Cheap Meals With Two Bargain Wines

'99 Prager Smaragd Steinreigl's done!

Smelled like rotten milk left in dumpster juice last night. Or wet wool blankets that someone forgot about in the basement for 87 years. Didn't taste much better either.

Sad. Our first post here was describing that wine with Wine Can Chicken.

A sick Mrs. Ney meant no family visit for Thanksgiving.

Food: Thomas Keller chicken with mustard asparagus, herb cheese, La Quercia prosciutto and Seeduction bread

Quick and easy meal, nothing out of the ordinary compared to other Thomas Keller chicken meals with a few notes.

$8 Whole Foods non-organic chicken isn't as good as $14 Trader Joe's organic chicken. We learned that. In an attempt to keep the meal cheap, that's what we got - a chicken that tasted cheap. If you told me a few years ago that I'd have strong opinions about chicken, I'd have said you be crazy, fool. We got sum opinions. Tasted boring and a tad chemical-y. Edible, just dull, dull, dull.

But...La Quercia and Seeduction bread can lift any meal out of the world of cheap and dull to something resembling goodness. Even cheap $5 herb cheese from Whole Foods has its complimentary and "good creamy quality" merits. Mustard asparagus = always good.

We counted our blessings on what we didn't experience yesterday, like the rest of the Prager...and other things.

Wine: 2006 Jean-Philippe Fichet Bourgogne Blanc Vieilles Vignes ($24 - WDC)

Got $100, don't know anything about white Burgundy and want to?

Go buy three bottles of anything by Jean-Philippe Fichet. The guy makes delicious wine from plots straddling the big names/plots and pumps out wines with balance, beauty and none of the boring butteriness that comes from chardonnay in the same price range.

Just tons of mineral character that makes you want tons more.

We recently had the 2005 and 2006 Auxey Duresses from Fichet, both with TK chicken and both were sublime. This one was less so, showing more typical character of solid white Burgundy but never really getting out of that box. Pineapple and white peach notes with a touch of cream that never overtook a pronounced and tasty minerality at its core. Structured and balanced with nice acidity. Tasted proper but never stretched its legs to show anything greatly distinct. Tasted more "beautifully representative" than particularly interesting. That's okay, though. At $24, we never felt cheated, but it's one of those situations where for $10 more, going up a notch would yield something twice as good from Fichet.

Pairing: 86 A meal that again informed us on exactly what we want

Like better quality chicken and a white Burgundy that's maybe a notch up the pole.

That said, I liked this wine. It's like buying a 10 year-old used Honda. Might not be shiny, sparkly, new, pretty or full of personality, but it's a Honda, damn it. It's gonna run just fine.

Best with the bread and cheese, bringing out some delicious Burgundy funk, itself with the chicken and not so great at all with the mustard asparagus. Which was expected. That's what the Prager was for. But mustard asparagus with rotten milk/old wet wool blankets isn't good in anybody's world.

A quick note: Wednesday night's meal needed cheap wine with a meatloaf and roasted potato meal as Mrs. Ney was just starting to get sick. Served with a bottle of 2007 Chateau Beauchêne Premier Terrior ($15 - Binny's), a wine highly recommended on a Chicago Frenchman's blog that chronicles French food and wine in the Chicago area. You go check out that blog now. Go! Get! It's good stuff - informative, exhaustive and downright interesting.

A lot to like with this wine. Black tea and black cherry intermingle with nice earth. Good minimum quality for the price that tasted like vacation in France where the table wine turns out to be something that defines the meal. The Domaine Des Tours Vaucluse in the same basic price range beats it but everyone's on that bandwagon, making it difficult to reliably find.

Tasted rather ordinary with the veal, beef and pork meatloaf (a recipe that will end your search for a good meatloaf, BTW) but turned into something that tasted well above $15 price tag with the rosemary potatoes, showing great structure and cherry and tea notes that sparkled and changed rather beautifully.

Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all. (Pairing Score: 87)

#132 - Thomas Keller Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Wedge Salad and Biscuits With '07 Királyudvar Sparkling

Some special stuff here.

Made special by "Ad Hoc At Home", a recipe book bought on a whim that may end up being used over the next year to full effect (the pickling section alone!).

When we went to Ad Hoc in July, something happened. Something along the lines of a restaurant experience that trumped anything I'd had before. It was like I'd found a place that, in some ideal world, I wanted to live next door to so I could have it any damn time I pleased.

I think about our meal there that night way more than I probably should. It's just food, but for me, it was something else, something more. Might not have been the best meal I've ever had in my life (in the top five, though), but it was the best total restaurant experience I've ever had (with the first Moto visit, Blackbird always and Colburn Lane in Toronto all right behind).

The Monday we were there in July was Memphis BBQ night but a frequent Monday menu is buttermilk fried chicken and it's always intrigued us.

Got the book, the recipes are in the book, why not?

We've only been to Ad Hoc once (with another trip coming soon) but to us, last night's meal tasted specifically like a meal that could only have come from that kitchen.

I can't really describe such things, only to say that it tastes like American comfort food has been perfected.

Food: Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Iceberg Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing and Buttermilk Biscuits

Like the Thomas Keller chicken that's been chronicled a thousand times on this blog, Keller doesn't do anything fancy or use ingredients only found in the backroom of some restaurant in Chinatown. He uses ingredients anybody for the most part can get and he uses methods that may come off a bit fussy but the end result is worth every second.

Nothing about the fried chicken skin was exotic, it just tasted like the best fried chicken skin I've ever had. Evocative to nth degree, deeply seasoned but never came off heavy, crunchy and thick but never oily and a taste that kept changing in my mouth alternating between paprika, cayenne, salt, black pepper, garlic and onion powder in such a tremendous way. Never separated out, just changed beautifully.

The chicken itself proved original as well, which came from the brine (lemons, bay leaves, parsley, thyme, honey, garlic, black peppercorns and sea salt in a 12-hour brine). Became one of those times when you love something specific so much, like the chicken skin, and don't expect or even need the chicken itself to be anything great. You're good. But the chicken meat may have exceeded the skin. The breast meat in this recipe is the winner, sucking up the bay leaves and lemon perfectly and making for entirely original chicken goodness.

The iceberg wedge salad is a bit of a relic from the 70's steakhouse past in many people's eyes but I've always kinda loved it, finding value in the fresh crunch and good blue cheese/bacon/onion blend. We understandably took it off the menu of a restaurant I used to work at a few years ago (nobody ordered it) but it has a place. Done well, it can be a perfect compliment. Iceberg has few uses in this world except here.

With this one, it was in the blue cheese from the cookbook, substituting Greek yogurt for crème fraîche (buttermilk, onion and garlic powder, lemon juice, chives, parsley and mint). Mixed beautifully with the bacon, green onions and kumatoes along with oozing into the incredibly fresh iceberg with a spectacular crunch.

Buttermilk biscuits tasted like I was eight years old and our family got a bucket of Famous Recipe with all the sides, something I saw as fancy and special when I was eight. Loaded with butter but utterly delicious, they tasted like Love.

Tons of superlatives but all warranted. The book is worth every cent of the price tag.

Wine: 2007 Királyudvar Pezsgö Sparkling ($30 - Saratoga Wine Exchange) & 2007 Királyudvar Sec ($30 - Crush)

Along with Ad Hoc, I've rambled on about Királyudvar wines from Hungary on this here blog multiple times (site here).

The 2005 Sec was a bit of a revelation for us. The 2006 Sec less so but still wonderful.

Run by Gaston Huet from Domaine Huet in Vouvray, the wines are the definition of exotic yet familiar.

The 2007 Secs are starting to pop up around town (saw it at Howard's recently) but the Pezsgö is the first time the estate has bottled a sparkling and it's only available at Saratoga Wine Exchange in New York from what I can tell.

Alive, vibrant and loads of bubbles here with a nose of apricot fuzz, peach pit and grapefruit that followed onto the palate. Very little yeasty notes with this one and missing the signature orange blossom that comes with Királyudvar wines in our experience. What we found was a sparkling that was, structurally, very well put together, hitting all the right notes that one wants from a bubbly. Big body and solid acidity that tasted proper and delicious at every turn. May have wanted a bit more than the dominant grapefruit notes but utterly enjoyable nonetheless.

The 2007 Sec underwhelmed at the start, showing hidden fruit and something approaching a moldy water quality that quickly went away and opened up nicely. As it warmed up, solid and very supple citrus fruit basket notes and a wee hint of orange blossom water gave way to a pleasant nutmeg quality on the mid-palate and finish. Not as electric as the 2005 but better put together than the 2006, which has been a tad short and upfront for us recently. More depth with the 2007 compared to the 2006 but not as explosive as the 2005 with less vibrant acid.

Both were extraordinarily food-friendly.

Pairing: 92 The food was the star but the wines were great supporting actors

The sparkling, as expected, mixed and mingled with the chicken and chicken skin beautifully. Not a false note on the night, never turning strange and always bringing a tastiness, effervescence and refreshment to every bite.

Both wines were oddly delicious with a blue cheese bite, turning into a delicious taste of something I've never tasted before, like if somebody made a Maytag blue soda with some herbs and it turned out perfect.

The food was on the marquee but the wines allowed the food to shine.

Everything tasted like what people talk about when they talk about Home.

Gonna remember this one for a while.

#131 - Harissa-Marinated Skirt Steak & Yuca Fries With '07 Santa Ema Merlot

Alrighty.

Last night's wine didn't really taste like wine.

Very little tannin, very little depth, didn't change much and was a bit of a one-trick pony.

It was more like a wine-type beverage.

And we were TOTALLY okay with that.

Food: Harissa-marinated skirt steak, chimichurri, yuca fries with whiskey piri-piri mayo for dipping and an arugula-pomegranate seed salad

Planned for Tuesday, it happened Wednesday because of what happened in the note below (ordered pizza).

Medium to medium-rare skirt steak marinated for two days in harissa paste (hot chilies, garlic, salt, etc.). Good meat. Solid meat. The two-day marinade may have took some of the verve away from its skirt steakiness but it was tasty and welcome nonetheless.

Yuca fries (house favorite) makes any meal, this time with a whiskey-piri piri mayo that left a perfect hint of whiskey and heat that didn't overwhelm.

An arugula and pomegranate seed salad with a chimichurri drizzle to top it off.

Tasted South American good with a little more finesse; one of those meals that falls into the world of 'just good food.'

So meat marinade from the Maghreb and yuca and chimichurri from the Southern Hemisphere. Wine?

Quinta do Vale Meão Meandro was in the discussion. Zinfandel? Wine Spectator's inexplicable and continued love affair with Schild Shiraz was revealed again this week (the 2008 is #7 on the 2010 top 100 list) and we still have the '04 and '05 hanging around.

But...South American flavors and South American wine worked in the past (particularly here and here) and we had a cheapie with a bit of a buzz around it.

Wine: 2007 Santa Ema Maipo Valley Reserve ($11 - WDC)

If blueberry Whoppers existed, that's exactly what this wine tasted like.

All malted milk and milk chocolate with a swirl of blueberry juice, a touch of vanilla that became much more pronounced as the bottle opened up, a touch of cherry, a bit of pepper, some sage and more blueberry Whoppers.

Mostly, the milk chocolate note showed right away and quickly dissipated, transforming into what milk chocolate offers in the way of texture, turning into all malted milk with a ton of vanilla extract in the flavor profile with black pepper and a very secondary cherry note popping up now and then along with sage kicking up towards the end of the meal.

Sure, it was one note, very simple and bordering on weird. But we had absolutely no complaints.

Reminded me of the Flor de Crasto and its Mounds bar domination, the Bogle Merlot that's basically sage milk and the Montes Alpha that was all BBQ sauce - cheap wines that are great one-offs that shouldn't be thought about or critiqued too much. Just drink it and enjoy the wine-type beverage-ness.

Pairing: 88 Like a CSI: episode. Enjoyed it for exactly what it was

Nothing fancy. Nothing trying to be more than it was or could be. Nothing clashed.

Parker gave the wine a 90 and the estate put that on the bottle neck. To that, we say, "you go, girl." It's ten freakin' bucks and Parker throws that in your lap? Use it and abuse it.

For $10, I'd buy more for meals similar to this - food where we're sorta indifferent about the wine pairing (mostly anything would have been fine enough) and food where we just want a little meat and whole lotta yuca with mayo.

A quick note: Monday's Greek feast deserved a big write-up but frankly, it would have been long and frankly (who's Frank?) after the third bottle, the details began to get blurry w/r/t the intimate pairing details. Had a former co-worker over and the wine did flow.

Food: Yellow split pea dip with pita bread, spicy marinated cerignola and Castelvetrano olives and spiced pumpkin seeds to start. Chicken and skordalia with artichokes and fava beans for the entrée. Ouzo-lemon tiramisu for dessert.

Wine: 2006 Raventos I Blanc "L'Hereu Reserva" Brut Cava ($18 - Binny's), 2009 Skouras Moschofilero ($14 - WDC), 2009 Flor de Crasto Branco ($15 - Binny's), 2008 Valtea Albariño Rias Baixas ($17 - Binny's) and homemade Limoncello

All of us couldn't have loved the food more, particularly the yellow split pea dip, which we gorged ourselves on, leaving us full before the great chicken and skordalia, which drew the short stick on being able to fully enjoy it. Tiramisu = yes, please. I don't love tiramisu but this is some good tiramisu.

The wines played their role. Raventos Brut Cava is a favorite, this one a touch less vibrant than previous drinkings but still pretty. The Skouras showed more bitter lemon peel this time around and less depth. Good enough but forgettable. The Flor de Crasto Branco was ALL Portugal with a kaleidoscope of melon, green fruits and wet stones. Mrs. Ney freakin' Loved it. The Valtea Albariño was my favorite with a finer minerality and subtle citrus edge.

Fun food night with good company.

#130 - Roast Duck And Onions In Date-Tomato Compote With '04 Hacienda Monasterio

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of this blog.

So...bully for us.

130 posts consisting of about 180 wines (most listed, some not).

Not bad.

We learned a lot about food and wine pairings over the last year, about what works and, more importantly, what works for us.

And last night seems like another lesson along the way.

Food: Whole roasted duck with pearl onions and chorizo in a date-tomato compote, barley-daikon radish seed rice, micro-green salad and pomegranate seeds

Whole roasted duck done the Mark Bittman way. Easy work, great recipe and we didn't love it.

Perfect medium-rare on the breasts, good enough juice, pretty skin. Just didn't love it. We missed something that comes with good duck and came to the conclusion that it was the separation of moist duck meat and beautiful duck fat. A bite came off somewhat flat and a touch too gamey. It didn't jump out at us as being something we wanted to keep eating by itself.

With a forkful of micro-greens, pomegranate seeds and a bit of duck, it touched the world of good but the duck needed a ton of help to get to the point of "good".

Pearl onions with chorizo in a date-tomato compote was the star of the night. Slightly sweet, chorizo with duck innards mixed with dates and tomato to add some richness. Great stuff.

A Trader Joe's rice blend of barley and daikon radish seed added an interesting diversion from the standard rice blend with its rustic, earthy quality.

But here's the rub. Everything on the plate carried with it the same weight. Low in fat, dark in nature, earthy but light, similar acid and similar umami. Everything stayed in the same realm of brightness and fat level.

So, while we enjoyed all the flavors, we missed the ups and downs, the contrasts w/r/t each ingredient and the, I guess, surprise. Maybe we needed something more substantially raw in the meal. Maybe we needed more of a fruit presence. Maybe we needed more fat, more contrast, more something.

In an attempt to tie elements of a meal together, maybe we got too matchy-matchy.

Or probably it's just that we don't really enjoy roast duck. It was just kinda...there.

Live and learn.

Wine: 2004 Hacienda Monasterio Ribera Del Duero ($30 - WDC)

Grape: 80% tempranillo and 10% each of cabernet and merlot

Vintage (WS): 96 - Hold - Powerful yet balanced wines, with deep, pure fruit

Made by Peter Sisseck of Pingus fame, this is the non-reserva blend.

Purple in the glass and fig on the nose. On the palate, we didn't get much in the way of fruit.

Certainly a minimum level of quality winemaking with this one with a admirable balance, nice acidity and bordering on elegant. We just didn't get much distinction.

Bit of smoke, a possible hint of black tea, some tar/tobacco blend, some spice and sweet fruit. Medium-bodied with a feeling that the wine desperately wanted to be bigger/more expressive. We just couldn't pin down what the fruit was or even wanted to be. Maybe a black currant angle and I got some hints of strawberry later in the meal but it was subdued as all get out. This one might be closing up a bit right now. Maybe it was an odd bottle. Hiding more than it was showing and both of us didn't feel compelled to reach for it.

Pairing: 83 Everything was less than we felt it should have been

In the end, it was the Contrast that we missed, resulting in a meal that didn't offer those undulations and surprises, those rides and changes. There was a lot of sameness on the plate, in the glass and together.

We would have thought the pomegranate seeds would have offered sufficient brightness, the micro-greens a raw element, the pearl onions and the compote a sweet angle, but nothing offered enough to jettison the meal out of a flatlined box of sameness.

And this was good food! We were happy and full. It just didn't jump.

It was one of those meals that informs us as to the importance of such things.

And whole roasted duck isn't our bag. We need more personality from our duck.

Live and learn.

#129 - TK Chicken, Leeks & Arugula With '06 Michel Gahier Arbois

Now that's more like it!

Nothing like Thomas Keller chicken to banish all the bad taste/thoughts that came with Tuesday's venison meal (and the election).

And there's nothing like wine that offers an explosion of creamy fruit that compliments the food while offering something extremely distinct and separate from what's on the plate.

All good pairings do that, but this one seemed to have that in spades.

Food: Thomas Keller chicken with leeks, arugula, baguette, butter and Saint Aubin cheese

The usual TK chicken, this one with copious amounts of white pepper on the chicken and all over the plate. Carved at the (coffee) table as we wanted it (makes a difference), juicy meat all around and just great stuff.

Spectacular leeks: "melted" in bacon fat and muscadet with tarragon and a glop of green peppercorn mustard and last night's celery root pureé added. Creamy, deep flavors jumping everywhere and finishing with the celery root. Blended beautifully with the breast meat, both bright, delicious and seemed made for each other. But with the thigh, the contrast of the leek's creamy brightness and the darkness of the meat was the winner. More complex and tasted thoughtful.

Big, honkin' pile of arugula with tarragon and lemon balm, white balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil to finish.

Baguette and butter on the side with Saint Aubin cheese. Given as a gift to expand our stinky cheese horizons, we respected what was being offered, even liked the idea of it and willingly swallowed it. But after a few bites, we were done.

Food is more than just food because of food like this food.

Wine: 2006 Michel Gahier Chardonnay "Les Crêts" Arbois Jura ($19 - WDC)

Picked up on a Wine Discount Center run more as a catalog wine that was cheap and highly recommended by our favorite wine person at the store. Didn't think much of it as it got lost in the shuffle a little bit.

We'll be buying more very soon.

Shockingly well composed. Starts and ends with pear custard. ALL pear custard with a hint of fine minerals and some sort of a wee touch of baking spice (nutmeg?). Changed but always stayed within the pear custard framework. Sometimes, it seemed like the pears became smoked and/or poached pears and, at times, especially by itself, the minerality and smoky notes exploded with the custard receding into the background.

Sufficient enough depth to offer so much and unbelievably cheap - thought if I spent $40-50 for this, I'd be thrilled.

May be the perfect place to start if you're interested in Jura whites.

Pairing: 93 It was like the pear custard was something solid on the plate

It offered that much.

With anything creamy - the butter, the leeks - so much pear custard that it tasted like it was part of the ingredients in the food as opposed to merely complimenting the flavors in liquid form.

Probably liked it best with a bite of breast meat and leeks. It made the wine taste like freshly-made custard and oh, so shiny. But it was more complex and kinda brooding, darker, deeper and luscious with a thigh and leeks bite.

Even solid with the arugula, showing a ton of minerals and smoky pears, though the finish was a tad short.

Tasted like old milk poured from a rusty bucket with the cheese...but...not...in a...bad way.

Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful! Beauty everywhere.

Crap, this was good food and wine.

#128 - Venison With Juniper, Celery Root & Farro With A 2000 Côte-Rôtie

Maybe should have had chicken.

Mrs. Ney's impression: "Tasted like what I imagine French food tastes like at a mediocre British restaurant: Depressing."

My impression: Tasted a bit too matchy-matchy. Like what a young chef would think is the most ingenious thing ever.

Dead-of-winter flavors all cooked well, light enough not to leave a gut-busting feeling, wine that cozied right up to everything and entirely enhanced the meal and a general sense that everything was right and proper.

Just not surprising or electric.

Tasted like 1994 fancy or flavors we might have liked in 2004.

Mrs. Ney voiced what I've felt for awhile now: Screw meat with sauce.

Food: Venison with juniper berries in a blueberry-red wine reduction, chestnut farro and celery root purée

Paulina venison crusted with juniper berries, thyme, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, cooked rare to medium-rare.

Venison has a Butterfinger quality. I had plenty of venison growing up in Iowa. Like a Butterfinger, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Then you buy one, eat it and think, "Yep. That's a Butterfinger. See you in two years, my friend."

Alternating levels of gaminess that mingled nicely with the juniper and thyme. The ginny, drying aspect of the juniper offered a nice diversion and the thyme enhanced the freshness and quality of the meat. But unlike lamb, venison offers gaminess without the luxurious richness. And unlike duck, venison offers gaminess without the beautiful fatty secondary flavors. It's just too lean and the flavor isn't exotic enough or unfamiliar enough to match the ostrich/bison world of crave-able and unusual gaminess.

Fine and good meat. Just not our bag. Kinda boring.

A blueberry-red wine reduction made with blueberry preserves, copious amounts of butter, shallot and beef stock. Subtle and mild yet offered a rich butteriness, tied in with the juniper and thyme in relevant and proper ways but...

Meat and sauce reminded both of us that sometimes sauce as a integral "tie-in" component for Everything (!) on the plate tastes like a crutch. There's a fine line here. Of course sauces are relevant, important and often freakin' delicious. But it depends on what side of the fence the sauce falls. I think it has to be something that delivers a spike of surprise that elevates the protein but sufficiently separates itself from the other ingredients on the plate while only tying together with them in a "meta" way. Get too into the same flavor profile and it becomes akin to a run-of-the-mill action flick. A little too Predictable. Even as the sauce wanders into the other ingredients and you take a bite, instead of possible surprise, you know exactly where it's going to go and you're left with seeing how it's going to get to an already known ending. Might have some familiar surprise, just not new surprise.

And you begin to question the inherent purpose of the entire genre and why the hell you're watching it. Sort of like mental masturbation where the only joy is seeing if you can correctly guess what predictable lane the director is going to take.

If that makes any sense.

AND WE WANTED SOMETHING RAW ON THE PLATE! Something about everything cooked to the same level of warmness contributed to our general sense of boredom.

But the chestnut farro satisfied a part of the soul that tasted like fall and the celery root purée mixed with crème fraiche tasted gloriously silky, like a whipped, light, flavor wonder.

A very good, fine meal but one of those meals that straddled so many lines that it made both of us think about what we really like when it comes to food.

And the weird thing is...the wine was kinda great with it.

Wine: 2000 Tardieu-Laurent Côte-Rôtie ($60 - Howard's)

Grape: 100% syrah

Vintage (WS): 88 Clean and pure with good structure, but without the depth of top years

I can't really defend this purchase. Perusing the selection at Howard's on a random wine shop run last week, I thought it prudent to explore northern Rhône, a region we haven't touched yet.

Choice was a bit thin - at least with names I knew - I wanted one ready to go, one from a name I at least heard of and one of sufficient quality to get a representative example of northern Rhône.

Ah, the perils of going in blind. I overspent and knew it the second I walked out of the store.

But that's not to say this one wasn't good and I think we got something fairly representative.

Decanted for about a half-hour. Oodles of peppered bacon fat right away mixed with smoked cherries. Dry, like sucking on a cherry pit at times. Some red licorice notes occasionally. Tons of acid in a medium-bodied profile with a tart-ish finish and changed as the meal progressed, becoming a bit more substantial and plump but never getting out of its medium-bodied core.

But without food, it tasted like someone took grape and cherry Sweet-Tarts and boiled them down in Lipton tea. Not...good.

But with food, decent stuff. Not $60 good but if I'd have paid $30, I would have been happy enough.

Pairing: 87 A technically solid match, just not what we wanted

On an election night like that, this was far from the worst taste in my mouth.

In fact, I liked the meal despite everything previously said. Not one element of the meal felt technically wrong. The wine matched up almost perfectly and brought much to the overall feeling of the meal.

Nice with the venison, pleasant with the farro, kinda great with the celery root purée, oddly, especially when a little sauce wandered into it.

But not...particularly...remarkable...overall.

Funny thing is, if we jammed lamb into this exact preparation and force-fitted a big and fat Oregon pinot noir into it, we probably would have liked it more. Something about the clumsiness of it all would have offered more of a shock.

As it was, we knew what was coming at every turn.

Quick note: Hot Spanish tapas! Monday night meal of linguiça, manchego, patatas bravas, dates, Sicilian green olives, saffron mayo and honey and sherry vinegar-marinated asparagus finished with Spanish sea salt. Served with 2001 Altún Reserva.

Always a great, quick, fallback meal that needs to be revisited once a month. Always love it and in fact need it. It has a valuable purpose to our food world and always will.

The 2001 Altún Reserva Rioja ($30) was a wine we had at Piperade in San Francisco two years ago and wanted to revisit. Tasted like everything Rioja is. Sort of a blend between new and old-style Rioja showing vibrant, bright cherry with plenty of cedar and background tobacco and orange peel notes, even a wee touch of leafiness. Typical Rioja but with more bouncy verve and jump to the intermingling of the flavors, like a 3-D spazzy version of Rioja and a bit volatile. Might be in an odd phase right now. Was all over the map at times and turned raspy and undrinkable towards the end. Only the second bottle we've had and don't know the winemaker but tasted very alive, maybe a bit too much. Enjoyable, fit with the food and may revisit in five years just to see what a settled down bottle might taste like.

#127 - Chicken Breast, Anchovy Pasta & Kumatoes With '06 Guiberteau Saumur Rouge

Was it Sicilian?

Certainly Mediterranean but with an inland French bent.

Maybe Californian? That cuisine seems to co-opt anything that borders on the rustic and fresh.

To me, it tasted like Avec.

Food: Mustard-garlic chicken breasts with anchovy farro pasta and kumatoes with olives

Quick and easy Jacques Pepin mustard-garlic chicken breasts cooked under a brick à la Mark Bittman. Juicy, enough depth and stayed right smack dab in the same flavor range as the rest of the plate.

Winner of the night: Farro pasta mixed with anchovies, capers, aleppo pepper, toasted bread crumbs, lemon zest, extra virgin olive oil and parsley. Stellar stuff. HUGE anchovy hit in the best way, never turning fishy and toned down by the bread crumb filler and lemon zest. Perfect heat with oodles of aleppo pepper added. To use an overused word, just freakin' fantastically balanced, the kind of stuff I could eat again today and tomorrow and be utterly satisfied.

Kumatoes (second time in 10 days and eaten with another from the Guiberteau family of wines) drizzled with white balsamic vinegar and gaeta black olives. New favorite weird hybrid food-style substance. Darker tomato deliciousness with an almost plummy flavor that turns bright and low-grade acidic.

Kind of a shock. Mrs. Ney thought little about this meal and turned out like a plate full of Mediterranean joy.

And the wine did its part.

Wine: 2006 Domaine Guiberteau Saumur Rouge ($30 - Red & White)

Grape: 100% cabernet franc

SubRegion: Anjou-Saumur

Vintage (WS): 85 for cabernet franc - very rainy, leading to unripe grapes

Mostly indifferent to cab franc due to the few we've had that were rather ordinary, this one will force me to think about it in the future. Toss the vintage report out the window with this producer (see a two great write-ups over at Wicker Parker).

Dark and brooding raspberry pile here that tasted like a splash of cherry juice was spread over the top. Flowery (dried rose petals) with fine earth (kinda loamy) and herbs intermingling and an enormous amount of beautifully fine, twiggy, woody tannins dominating the entire background in the best possible sense. Made me truly understand the use of cabernet franc in a Bordeaux blend and what it offers w/r/t structure and finesse. Nice transitions that bordered on elegant. Given the little experience I have with cabernet franc, if asked, start here.

And it constantly changed in respectable ways with the food.

Pairing: 89 Enjoyed what it brought immensely

Had no real plan with this meal so we simply took the suggestion from the Jacques Pepin recipe on pairings. Loire red and we had one we didn't really care about.

No complaints in the least.

Stayed pretty much itself without food, which we liked, and kept in line with the chicken and its medium-depth of flavor with a touch of flavor punch (I'm practicing my Sandra Lee non-descriptive descriptiveness). Liked it.

But with the the anchovy-farro pasta, it sung. Intensified the aleppo pepper to a large extent, separating it out right away with everything popping up later. Got to explore the complexity of the tannins with the pasta as they changed and glommed onto different flavors in the wine with slightly different combinations of bites.

Nearly identical acid levels in the kumatoes and the wine made it compatible, if not spectacular (a bit too much one-dimensional earth and twigs) but with a bite of chicken and kumato, the wine tasted surprisingly like a handful of red apple peel.

Changed and surprised, those are the two words that kept coming back.

We'd do it again in a second.

#126 - Quail, Fava, Iberico & Soda Bread With '98 Heredia Rosado

Sometimes, you have to find the bottom of things to understand the spectrum of goodness.

At the very bottom of the wine and food spectrum of goodness for me is Iberico ham and the '98 Heredia Rosado. I truly can't describe how awful those two taste together. Best I can do is if you've ever accidentally mixed bathroom cleaners when cleaning the tub, like bleach and KaBoom!, and a wisp of something like the devil's brew of chemical vapors shoots up your nose.

Or like you washed your dog in a rusty basin and decided to see what the water tasted like.

Maybe people like that. People are into a lot of weird things. Just ask Brett Favre.

I pass.

As an overall meal, it tasted like really fancy picnic food. But pretty much a dud with the wine.

Food: Quail with pistachio sauce, fennel and fava salad, Iberico, coffee-crusted cheese and soda bread

Quail marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, cumin and smoked paprika and cooked medium-ish. Slightly gamey, a lil bit sweet, tasty meat. Two medium-sized quail each. I like quail, or I should say I have fond memories of the few quail meals I've had. And that's probably it. My memories might be better than the actual consumption of it. More of a diversion that satisfies just enough than savoring every bite.

Fine on its own but much better with a Moroccan pistachio sauce made with pistachios, parsley, mint, chilies, garlic, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Fresh fava beans, nature's most well-packaged food, and sautéed fennel salad dressed with white balsamic vinegar, cilantro and mint. Sort of a seasonal transition salad between summer and fall bringing lightness and lift while serving as a bridge between the darker flavors on the plate.

Soda bread made with walnuts and dates, Barely Buzzed coffee-crusted cheese from Beehive Cheese Company in Utah and Iberico ham from Binny's.

Take out the Iberico and this meal could have been quite versatile with a huge range of wine. Pinot noir would have fit quite nicely. We were intrigued by the idea of a grüner veltliner just to see what would have happened. 2001 Heredia Bosconia worked well enough with Iberico in the past. Iberico isn't cheap so having it play a big role in the pairing seemed appropriate. With fennel involved as well coupled with the leafy orange peel notes that the Heredia rosado usually shows, the pairing seemed destined for, in the least, acceptableness to marginal goodness.

It wasn't.

Wine: 1998 López de Heredia Tondonia Gran Reserva Rosado ($23 - Binny's)

It's shown better in the past.

60% grenache, 30% tempranillo and 10% viura

Dusty old orange peels on the nose. Fading, old, mashed dried cherries, cashews, moldy wet leaves, some caramel and even a car battery acid component (and maybe some old milk) on the palate. A bit flat with, dare I say, somewhat muddled flavors. Came off boring. We've only had three of this one in the last year but, from memory, it seems like it's taking a very linear, incremental arc to an odd place. I could be totally wrong but it just hasn't excited me lately like it has in the past.

It's in the dust. It hasn't been evocative lately. Where before, it tasted and smelled like the dust of vivid childhood memories, like walking into an old house where something exciting feels like it's about to happen. This dust tastes and smells like you're an adult and you have to clean out a water-damaged attic that hasn't been touched for years. You're left with an immediate sense that you're going to get real sick of the taste and smell real quick. Because it tastes like work you don't want to do.

Nearly all of the same elements as in the past with this wine, they just came off much less interesting and alive. Tasted kinda tired and diluted, like an old man that just wants to sit in a chair and watch TV until he dies instead of an infinitely interesting, energetic old man with stories coming out of his wa-zoo. Missed that underlying freshness that perks up among all its beautifully dusty, musty, crusty, blustery fall wind notes.

Utterly drinkable but still must be compared to how it's shown in the past.

A 2000 is out there. May be time for us to switch vintages.

We'll try it again with tuna niçoise sometime. We know that's spectacular and will be a better gauge as to where it is.

Pairing: 82 as it was, 86 if it were a picnic

All that said about the wine, there were moments. The fennel with the wine was borderline delicious and tasted like the wine was attempting to find its former legs.

A bite of quail and pistachio sauce with the wine wandered into the world of tasty. And with the soda bread, it might have been best with the dates playing right into the wine's wheelhouse.

Unequivocally awful with the Iberico ham. Have I mentioned that?

We didn't love the food but certainly liked it. If we had all of it on a picnic (which we've never done - picnic, that is), we would have thought it fancy pants and having any wine with it would have upped the fancy pants factor even more.

Happy enough overall but with some grumbles.

#125 - Lamb, Fregola and Carrot Purée With '03 Hobbs Gregor Shiraz

Or...

Fregola and carrot purée with a side of lamb.

And total up this meal ($185 - that's with wine shipping), add it to the TK chicken total from two days ago and we still haven't spent what we spent dining on a mediocre meal out in the world ten days ago.

I'm just gonna keep floggin' away. Feel free to join in if you like.

Today is a example of a meal nearly soul-satisfying (I'm working on my overuse of superlatives - full-on soul-satisfying probably should be reserved for something close to a religious experience, like the Browns making the playoffs, so we'll go with 'nearly').

And it made it to the realm of nearly soul-satisfying without the help of some beautiful and ridiculous protein. It came down to what the rest of the plate offered up to the wine.

And what a wine it was.

Food: Coffee-crusted lamb on carrot purée with a fregola "risotto"

Trader Joe's lamb rack with a crust consisting of coffee, cocoa powder, olive oil, soy sauce and rosemary, cooked medium-rare to medium. We probably like our lamb more rare to medium-rare ("Look at us!") but this was perfectly fine lamb, tasty and good, that was entirely out-shined by everything else surrounding it.

The Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner award went to:

Fregola "risotto". Fregola is a Sardinian semolina pasta that looks like toasted Israeli couscous and tastes like love (it's been mentioned everywhere in the last two months. I'm sure we won't hear a peep about two more months. That's how the foodie world works). Done in a risotto style using onion, pine nuts, fennel seed and chicken stock, then garnished with Rogue Creamery's "Smokey Blue" cheese and basil.

Freakin' gorgeous stuff right out of the pan and still utterly great an hour and a half later as it sat on the plate and congealed. Rich but never too rich. Substantial without being a gut-buster. Just the right amount of fancy blue cheese so it didn't become a blue cheese-infected glop of silliness. But that blue cheese was key.

Carrots roasted with olive oil and balsamic vinegar drizzle; puréed with water and roasted garlic then garnished with mint. A very good purée made better by the sweetness offered by the balsamic vinegar. And that balsamic was key.

This was delicious food. If we would have eaten it with decent northern Rhône, Californian syrah or anything else, we would have been happy and full.

But we didn't. We ate it with this:

Wine: 2003 Hobbs Gregor Shiraz ($158 - Endless Vine)

An Australian shiraz done in an Amarone-style where the grapes are partially dried to intensify the flavors.

Conflicting reports on the drinking window on the webby-webs with this one. Some who drank it recently talked about the alcohol showing up too much right now. Others found it too port-like.

Not us. We found it to be drinking so utterly beautiful right now, like if the Browns had made the playoffs or something (stop it!).

Popped one hour before the meal. No decant. Blackberries, olives and something like walnut oil on the nose. A round, generous, open and supple texture on the palate with blackberries quickly turning to blueberries, grilled bushy French herbs and some grilled meat. But the surprise was the fruit, texture and perfect acid. Not a hint of raisin that we've gotten from this wine before. More like super concentrated, lively, bursting fruit of blueberries with a baseline of black currants. The blueberries playing a huge role in a texture that tasted like a blueberry latte but without the obvious coffee element (so...like Starbucks and their coffee-flavored milk). Just massive depth, rich but not overextracted, big but balanced as heck, and never came off port-like while entirely hiding the 15.7% alcohol. Never disjointed in the least with such graceful acid and tasted like sunshine, lollipops and puppies rolling in a sun-drenched meadow (Crap! I'll work on the superlatives some other time).

Pretty great stuff on its own and probably one of the top 20 bottles of wine we've ever had but just stupid good with the food.

Pairing: 96 Sex in the bottle and on the plate

We both don't want blue cheese ever again without this wine. Something about the base nature of the blue cheese and the acid in the wine neutralizing each other out, allowing this weirdly beautiful kaleidoscope of flavors to burst forth in the most pure way. Everything was amplified times a thousand. Toss in this rustic semolina background with a starchy brown ooze coming off the pasta and it tasted like (even more) love.

The sweetness from the balsamic vinegar in the carrot purée came in second place in the race for the stupid good. It let the fruit in the wine take a step down from the spotlight and allowed all the secondary flavors shine. The wine became more herbal with a touch of vanilla from the French oak popping up, even a green vegetal note, like if grilled green veggies were sweetened, began to come through. Same texture and the fruit was present but the alternating tastes from the carrot purée and the fregola showed everything this wine had to offer in such glorious ways.

The lamb, while good, was just kinda "there". Nothing special with the wine, even shortening the finish. Bold flavors on the lamb were put there because of the assumption that this wine needed it. It didn't and even kinda killed some of it.

Can't describe how well this wine is showing right now. Bring in a touch of well-crafted, more refined blue cheese, offer up a little sweetness on the plate, maybe do a simple preparation of ostrich instead of lamb and you got yourself somethin' like the Browns making the playoffs.

And this was a happy accident. Mrs. Ney had no idea where things were going with this. Even the wine was chosen about two hours before dinner.

We fell ass-backwards into probably one of the top three best meals this year and another Australian wine that debunks the current trend of poo-pooing such things.

#124 - TK Chicken, Hummus & Kumatoes With '07 Guiberteau Saumur Blanc

Here's a $58 meal that surpassed (by a HUGE margin) a recent $300 meal out in the world.

Chicken = $11

Hummus from Semiramis = $10

Kumatoes = $4

Pea shoots and Pomegrante = $4

Wine = $29

The entire meal last night, beginning to end, wine and all, cost the same as the bottle of the decent little albariño drank last week at a restaurant that I could have bought at Binny's for $22.

Far be it for me to discourage dining out at the new and hip. I work in the industry. But doing the math on occasion and taking the time to research food with wine pairings makes it hardly an argument.

Also, with Joe Bastianich now telling us that the proper restaurant business model demands a wine mark-up of FOUR TIMES, the "fabulous" tax on dining out continues to go up.

Food: Thomas Keller Chicken, Hummus and Pita and a Kumato-Pea Shoot Salad

Thomas Keller chicken. Taken out a little earlier than usual to experiment with resting temps and levels of juiciness. Worked. Only ate the leg and thigh and left the breast for lunch sandwiches due to the ton of food on the (coffee) table. Great skin again and moist meat ("giggity"). There's chicken. There's wine can chicken. And then there's TK chicken.

Two orders of hummus from Semiramis because their hummus and the wine drank with this meal in April was Devin Hester on kick returns. "You are ridiculous!" The rest of the pairing in April at Semiramis was much like the rest of the Bears (ugh - but I'm a Browns fan so...) but the hummus and Saumur pairing shocked us. It's great hummus.

Kumatoes (brown tomato hybrid) dressed with olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper. It's a new tomato creation with a higher sugar content that taste almost meaty, plummy and like a drizzle of balsamic was slapped on them. Still the great tomato acid but darker and magically delicious. Can't recommend them more highly. Great stuff.

Pea shoot and pomegranate seeds with the kumatoes.

The meal had everything for about $15 a person. Hate to beat a dead horse here, but that got us about six bites of food each last week.

Wine: 2007 Domaine Guiberteau Saumur Blanc ($29 - Red & White)

Tough one to find on a consistent basis. Red & White usually has it. Cellar Rat as well, IIRC. Flickinger Wines in the South Loop has many of the single-vineyard offerings from Domaine Guiberteau. Flickinger does a spectacular job. Get to know it. Scored a 2005 Sanguis Bossman there last year for $50 (rare then and now and no cheaper than $70 elsewhere).

Dried honey and chalk on the nose. Half-stewed pears on the palate with a load of beeswax-honey surrounding it on the palate. Medium depth on the finish with something that resembled plum (?) on the way down with a graceful acidity. Little spikes of apple, citrus and nuts here and there that may not have been consistent or focused but lovely in the way Chenin Blanc can surprise.

And I guess that's the rub. Chenin Blanc continues to be the white grape that defines elegant for us. It's just so gorgeous in nearly every form. Get out of the bargain offerings that tend to be inconsistent and unremarkable, spent just a few dollars more (mediocre movie), and you consistently wander into the realm of silk freakin' magic.

Domaine Guiberteau practices natural wine-making in all its glory, letting much of their wine rest of its lees and...heck...just go here because WickerParker was there.

Pairing: 94 Fit like a glove

Medium depth all over the place. In the food and in the wine as both, instead of offering little jumps of goodness in that medium depth range, exploring every nook and cranny of what a medium depth meal can bring. Tasted purposeful.

Best with just a bite of pita, but the hummus and pita followed right behind. The wine turned the hummus into something much more than its previous self, becoming hummus with a (pea)nutty tone and drawing out more of the nuttiness in the wine.

Salty skin on the chicken turned the wine into a minerally-yeasty pear-honey wonder and played beautifully with the darker meat.

Held up admirably with the kumatoes but lost its way with the pea shoots, bringing out too much unwelcome lime and a short finish.

The entire meal hopped and jumped, changed and surprised, all within an entirely beautiful tight box ("giggity"). Everything become more heightened and vivid versions of themselves, seeming made for each other with flavors stacked upon flavors stacked upon flavors.

$58. Beat that at even a low-cost, quality restaurant and you win my undying affection.

#123 - Walnut-Pomegranate Chicken With '06 M. Cosentino Pinot Noir

On a night that was destined for a leftover extravaganza, coffee and a nap brought the energy to make a prepared meal.

It's been some time since we had walnut-pomegranate chicken.

Previously served with Heredia Bosconia of some vintage, we gave another wine that we've become tired of looking at on the shelf a try.

On that, we're drinkin' the damn Rumball oh-so soon.

Food: Chicken with walnut-pomegranate sauce and a mâche salad

Two chicken breasts subbed for thighs in the recipe (linked above). The breasts propped up on the plate with a chunky walnut, Spanish onion, cumin seeds, touch of saffron, a pinch of brown sugar and pomegranate molasses concoction spread on top and all around the plate with pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top. A touch of sweet, a hit of earth and spice, rustic, substantial and delicious.

It's one of those meals that you forget how good it is and lament the fact it fell out of the rotation.

Mâche salad to finish.

Wine: 2006 M. Cosentino The Wines Pinot Noir Solano County ($15-ish - Cork & Beans in Cleveland)

Didn't expect much. More of a "get it out of my sight!" pairing for the night.

But a big surprise here.

Not abundantly complex but... Creamy cherry on the nose and something that resembled a creamy bright cherry custard on the palate, showing typical and solidly put together pinot noir character followed by some baking spices and maybe some vanilla with a smooth, medium-bodied finish bringing a pleasing and proper tartness.

Not a big wine even with the 14.7% alcohol but a solid everyday pinot noir drinker. I know we didn't spend more than $18 at Cork & Beans in Cleveland for this and in that range, it probably one of the better $15-18 basic pinots we've had (they're always such a hit-and-miss game). Held together quite well, showed beautifully and informed us once again that under $20 California pinot noirs tend to outshine Oregon pinots in the same category.

And the entire Cosentino line always seems to play a bit above its price tag.

Pairing: 90 Almost surprisingly great

With no expectations and a "fine, whatever" attitude towards the wine, everything worked quite nicely, thank you very much.

The creamy element in the wine filled in some of the gaps of the earthiness in the chicken and walnut-pomegranate sauce, serving to not only complement the meal but nearly tasting like a integral part of the recipe.

The tiny touch of sweetness on the finish worked with the touch of sweetness in the sauce and the baking spice notes fell right in line with the cumin and earthy elements.

A bit more complexity in the wine would have took it to such great heights but for a meal that almost wasn't a meal and a cheap wine, we ate and drank oodles better than both of us thought just two hours before.

#122 - Cuban Feast With Two Rhône-Styles & A Heredia White + A Girl & The Goat Review

Sleepy day in the Ney house after the bucketful of wine last night.

Had a friend and his dog over for a Cuban feast.

Cuban in our world has one partner. It's Villa Creek Mas De Maha. Nothing else compares.

The friend we had over also hadn't had a good viura. With that, there's Heredia and then there's everything else.

What resulted was a meal chockablock with big flavors, something we got at The Girl & The Goat the night before (see below), but with this meal, we weren't left wanting.

Food: Black bean cake-hash, tostones, ropa vieja and key lime pie

Spicy, bold black bean cake-hash (they fell apart) filled with the Cubany goodness of sweet potatoes, smoked paprika, onions, and shishito peppers left over from The Girl And The Goat. Tostones fried up with garlic and salt. Both served as an appetizer spread with sliced avocados and a cilantro-mint yogurt sauce to drizzle over everything. Eaten with the Heredia white.

Roja vieja as the entrée. It's Cuban pot roast. Slowly simmered freakin' delicous Whole Foods skirt steak with onions, garlic, red and green peppers, beef broth, cinnamon, parsley, oregano, cloves and various other ingredients I'm not privy to at the moment due to the sleepiness of the house. Served over brown rice flavored with cumin seeds and orange zest. Succulent and medium-deep. We've had heavily seasoned ropa vieja a ton of times and, while delicious and has a place, it tends to make me feel sticky, dirty and in need of a nap. This was a somewhat lighter version that allowed us to actually taste each ingredient while still tasting everything as a dish in and of itself elevated to a greater plain. Great balance. Eaten with the Villa Creek Mas De Maha and half of a bottle of the Tablas Creek Côtes De Tablas.

Key lime pie without the "key". Still that bright tartness that comes with key lime pie without the puckery dimension. Eaten with leftover La Playa Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc and a failed experiment of ice cream made with the same wine. I now know the result of eight egg yolks and two cups heavy cream in the ice cream-making process. Brutal Richness.

Flavor and flavor with a side of freakin' flavor!

Wine: 2006 Villa Creek Mas De Maha ($25 - Binny's), 2007 Tablas Creek Côtes De Tablas ($22 - WDC) and 1999 López de Heredia Gravonia Blanco ($25 - Binny's)

Nothing new here.

Villa Creek Mas De Maha (60% tempranillo, 20% each of grenache and mourvèdre) is a favorite. This time showing some graying around the edges. Largely showed as it has in the past with a hint of muddling starting to happen to the fruit. Still deep and delicious but a touch of that sparkling brightness and verve is beginning to fade. Tons of bright cherry notes and the tempranillo still shines in this different take on a Rhône blend, staying light yet with a full mouthfeel and pretty finish.

The 1999 Heredia Gravonia (100% viura) was an odd bird. Food hit the table quick and we didn't get it out of the fridge in time to let it come up in temperature. So I threw it into a decanter. A hint of a watery core showed more than a wine with flavors fully and completely integrated. Pineapple and honeycomb notes dominated with a dried honey finish. The mid-palate came off flat to me. Missed a smoky olive oil note and that edge of nuttiness that comes with Heredia whites. The acid was there and we were all more than happy that it was in our glass but I'm beginning to wonder if the '99 might end up having a shorter life than the '96 or '98. Wanted more.

The 2007 Tablas Creek Côtes De Tablas, the bargain wine by Tablas Creek, is 50% grenache and 25% each of syrah and counoise. Gamey notes with pepper and licorice lead the charge with this one but, unfortunately, the promising entry got overwhelmed by the sticky, sappy, syrupy fruit that just isn't our bag. More toned down than some we've had but still coated the mouth with something that wasn't welcome. For the style, better than most in the price range, but...meh.

Pairing: 89 Just missed getting into the realm of talking about the finer points of greatness

We probably could have stuck with two bottles of Mas De Maha for everything and would have loved the meal even more.

And that's because the Mas De Maha really shined with the black bean cake-hash and the tostones. Big, raw, Cuban flavors and Mas De Maha again. Solid with the ropa vieja but exploded with the fried plantain-garlic-pepper black bean cake-hash tastiness.

The Heredia showed its true nature for the most part with the appetizer spread but hollowed out a bit with a big bite of garlic or pepper (something previous vintages never did with big punches of flavor).

The Côtes De Tablas didn't offer much outside of "wine at the table".

No complaints, though. We had the flavors we were chasing the previous two days.

A quick review of The Girl & The Goat

Anniversary dinner, number six, 8:30 reservation, packed restaurant even up until when we left at 11pm, informed and accommodating staff, pretty space - large, a touch loud, dark-ish, somewhat odd lighting but festive and warm.

Food: Peter Piper bread, shishito peppers, chickpea fritters, hiramisa crudo, scallops, pig face and short ribs

Wine: Two glasses of Gran Sarao Cava Rosado to start, bottle of Pazo Senorans Albariño with the first four plates and two glasses of Girl & The Goat GSM with the pig face and short ribs.

Great use of acid overall. A temperature issue with the chickpea fritters as they came out lukewarm but were still tasty. The hiramasa crudo and scallops, while solid, lacked some punch and weren't worth the $14 and $16 respectively. The pig face, served with tamarind sauce, cilantro and a fried egg, while also tasty, lacked a bold personality that I expected to come with the dish. The short ribs with edamame bordered on bad. Mostly flavorless short ribs with a enormous pile of edamame on top that weren't de-spined, making them awkward to chew. A mess of a plate for the most part. But the bread was delicious, the shishito peppers with parmesan were an humongous mound of awesomeness, I liked the chickpea fritters even with the temperature issue but the scallops and the crudo with crisp pork belly served more as filler than adding a different delicious dimension to the meal.

Solid wine list, mostly the usual suspects with a few interesting choices off the beaten path. Markup at about 2 3/4 retail, something that's mildly annoying given most of the list is readily available in stores all over town.

The restaurant is part of the Boka Group and you can feel it. Feels...a touch overly planned but with some semblance of an individual personality coming through. Good flavors overall but I don't think I can call them memorable flavors. Tons of variation in styles of cooking but I can't help but recall the old-fashioned mantra. When you put on everything you're going to wear for the night, look in the mirror and take one thing off. With Girl & The Goat, it felt like they accidentally took two things off, leaving a hole in the cohesiveness of it all. We missed the oscillation of flavors, that back and forth. Everything seemed to stay in an "safely inventive" place offering little in surprise. Didn't taste...risky. Or ballsy.

Mostly, I kept thinking it's in the same stratosphere of Graham Eliot but then we kept thinking about all the things Graham Eliot does better (right down to the $10 "4 cup" french press that was utterly forgettable).

And as always, it comes down to what you get for the price. In the world of $300 meals, it sits squarely in the bottom tier for us over the last three years. Good time, interesting enough food but if we would have spent $200 or even $250, higher points might have been given.

Just didn't touch even the mediocre experiences we've had at Avec just down the street for $100 less. We enjoyed ourselves but a few days after, the impression left was one of a "Restaurant Group" experience and that's rarely a great time. Good maybe, but never great.

But kudos on the Girl & The Goat GSM, blended by Stephanie Izard herself. That's one tasty food wine. All liquid figs.

#121 - Dry-Aged Filet & Mushroom Tart With Two Clos Fourtets

Right Bank Bordeaux can be fairly limiting with food.

Staying away from spicy heat is prudent.

And experimenting with the joys of contrasting elements on the plate that work together aren't in Right Bank Bordeaux's wheelhouse.

It's right and proper to keep the food in a similar, more mild, earthy vein with protein simply prepared in order to let the sometimes finicky, moody nature of merlot shine.

So...stripped-down, Old School, simple French food.

That can suck sometimes, coming off dull and boring, a meal that feels and tastes like the very essence of mundane.

It has to be done right in order to transcend its limitations.

It's not like good Thai or Mexican or even contemporary American, cuisines that seem to be able to make up for its sometimes sloppy preparation with its broader range of flavors, textures and surprises. More room for error.

With Old School French, the joy comes in the quality of the preparation and ingredients. Get it wrong and it's utterly forgettable. Get it right and it reminds you why the French have known what they're doing for centuries.

And you can't beat using dry-aged beef filet with a Michael Chiarello mushroom tart recipe for getting a head-start on getting it right.

Turned into a pleasant night with a neighbor over for dinner.

Food: 21-day, dry-aged beef filet with mushroom tart, mâche and cheese plate

Say you want beef filet. To buy good filet, you're already in for about $35 or so for two people. It's of course good, tasty and dripping with beefy goodness. You're going to like it. It's beef filet. Spend $15 more for the same amount of meat and you get something that you'll remember for weeks. Very similar to '64 Heredia Tondonia pairing in February.

Cut into two 3 oz.-ish medallions and rubbed with salt, pepper and oil - roasted then seared, they turned into something extraordinary. Better than the NY strip. Better than the ribeye. While the strip sprinted directly for the beefy butter realm and the ribeye comes off as a little too rich, the filet brought a perfect balance of meaty butter and beefy structural integrity.

It's the pinnacle of beef.

A red wine and mushroom reduction on the side. We were worried that it might overwhelm the beef but it didn't. Complimented beautifully when kept to the side and dragged through.

Served with a mushroom tart. Creamy yet distinguished flavors. Lightly herbal with a good parsley hit. Great crust that never went mushy or dominant, as tarts can sometimes do. Great recipe and great preparation.

Topped off with a lightly dressed mâche salad with baguette and Irish butter.

A cheese course to top things off. After some research to find cheeses that went well with Right Bank Bordeaux, three names came up. Camembert (didn't want it), Cantal (couldn't find it) and Pont L'eveque (found and bought it). We're ambivalent to stinky cheese and lean towards not liking much of it but we're open to trying. Smelled like a corpse rotting in a dumpster and the smell enveloped the entire apartment. Nice to try, much milder on the tongue, full-bodied and intensely creamy, but we don't need it again.

Aged cheddar, leftover Delice de Bourgogne and Roquefort rounded out the platter. Aside from the Roquefort having a dirty sock behind the dryer taste, good stuff all around, varied and interesting enough. Cheese is good. We're just not "I can eat entire block of cheese!" people.

We've steered away from French-style food lately for a ton of reasons. Freakin' great to return precisely because it stays balanced and almost...light.

Wine: 2003 Clos Fourtet ($60 - WDC), 2002 Clos Fourtet ($35 - Brown Derby) & 2005 Royal Tokaji Wine Co. Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos ($35 - WDC)

The 2003 Clos Fourtet was the wine that got us into Bordeaux with a half-bottle four years ago at Schwa.

This was the first time we've had it since. Plum, truffle and grilled meat on the nose, the fruit was a tad closed at first on the palate but opened up quickly to show round, bright-ish plum and raspberry notes with a touch of spice and mid-palate core of fine earth and mushroom. Somewhat creamy in texture but not thick. Tons of tannin still but integrated nicely and quite drinkable now. Showing some age. Rich and straight-forward from a great vintage. Maybe missing some of that spicy edge-earth blend I remember from the half-bottle but big and balanced nonetheless. Long life for this one, I assume. Lovely.

The intention for the night was to do a mini-vertical with Clos Fourtets from 2002-2004. Didn't happen. The 2004 wasn't touched. That's a lot of wine. So we had the 2003 with the main course and drank the 2002 with everything else.

I was dubious about the 2002. Not much info on it and a mediocre vintage. But it turned out to be something to recommend. Tons of dirt, dirt and more dirt with juicy dark red fruits and a slightly thin texture that nonetheless held on to something resembling Right Bank Bordeaux...ish. Even somewhat leafy at times. Not much personality or commanding presence and the backbone isn't long for this world but for $35, it's a fine little Right Bank drinker.

The Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttanyos served us well in place of dessert. Drank with Swedish ginger cookie-crackers, it's all orange peel, honey and marmalade, light but substantial, beautifully consistent texture from the lips to the stomach and great balance of dry and sweet. Delicious. I can't say I liked it enough to pick up another. Borderline but good price.

Pairing: 92 Frenchy Goodness

It's tough to talk about the details as there was much talking going on at the table not involving the wine. The details slipped through the cracks as other things were being discussed.

But the 2003 with the beef and mushroom tart, especially as it opened up, served us entirely well, staying true to itself, serving as a bridge between the beef and tart and offering a richness that couldn't be matched by the 2002.

The 2002 was good with the milder cheese (Delice de Bourgogne), mâche, baguette and butter and got swallowed up by the funkier ones.

The Hungarian dessert wine played better than any actual dessert could have offered. That just would have taken the meal from nicely balanced to stupid rich and heavy in many ways, I think.

Just a nice night.

Really nice.

#120 - Thomas Keller Chicken With An '07 Hubert Lamy "Les Frionnes"

Serious discussions are currently taking place at Food With Wine headquarters over the possible renaming of this here website to The Church Of Thomas Keller Chicken.

It's getting that ridiculous.

This pairing experiment has been settled. It's white Burgundy and its various incarnations.

Other have worked just fine but nothing touches white Burgundy.

This one fell in the upper tier of all wines with TKC and the middle of TKC and WB.

Food: Thomas Keller chicken with Delice de Bourgogne, baguette and asparagus

Mrs. Ney thought it overdone. Maybe a little but the breasts stayed moist while, oddly, the thighs came off a touch dry. We cut to eat at the table (coffee) and it made a difference, mitigating some of that.

Skin again. Skin. Again. Blend of white and black pepper this time with salt turned into skin that tasted like so much more spice than was present. Crunchy as all get-out. Great stuff. And the juice on the plate at the table was drinkable, it was that good.

Delice de bourgogne with baguette because with white Burgundy, it's...stupid good (and was again).

Asparagus drizzled with walnut oil to finish things off.

Again. Again. Ridiculous. Surprising Again. Great Again. Just what we want every time.

Wine: 2007 Hubert Lamy Saint-Aubin 1er Cru "Les Frionnes" ($35 - Howard's on Belmont)

Grape: Chardonnay

Region/Sub-Region/Appellation/Vineyard: Burgundy-Côte de Beaune-Saint-Aubin-Les Frionnes

Vintage (WS): 92 Drink or hold Precise, pure and elegant, with lively structures if harvested late; at worst unripe if picked early

Huge edge of lime acid and a green apple core right out of the bottle. A bit harsh. After an hour decant, it transformed into something nearly graceful, full of minerals and a touch of white flowers. Fruit was less distinct and a bit all over the place but in a good way, offering a blend of citrus, peach, papaya, apricots and apple that gave way to its mineral core that came off more rough but welcome instead of finer and elegant. Huge mid-palate core of nutmeg with a little smoke gave it a darker overall tone. The creamy chardonnay character mitigated its rougher edges on the finish, bringing on a lovely and medium-long finish of stones mixed with white peach creamsicle (especially with the cheese).

Jumped around nicely, complex enough and fell in the middle of our growing white Burgundy world.

We're learning.

Pairing: 90 Settled. It's white Burgundy with Thomas Keller chicken. Testify!

Drinking anything else would seem blasphemous. And the Church Of Thomas Keller Chicken cannot stand for blasphemers.

Best with the cheese with a beautiful, infinitely interesting and longer finish. Better with the thigh for me and somewhat short with the breast. Became smokier with the chicken skin.

As I said, the wine jumped around nicely, offering alternating goodness throughout the meal.

And that's best thing we liked about it. The wine never fell short of "pretty." It may have never wandered into "wow" territory but always acted like it wanted to be accepted into the Church.

The Elders met and welcomed the wine in with open arms.