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

Thanksgiving Week

The week leading up to Thanksgiving, and a good time after, means easy meals in this house. One of the worst work weeks of the year and an impending family visit makes that necessary for sanity and general well-being. So, a round-up of such.

#1 Red-wine-rosemary hanger steak (Martha Stewart recipe) and potato pancakes with crème fraiche for slapping on top, served with 2004 Chateau Faugères St.-Emilion Grand Cru ($22 - Binny's)

Baller meat. Just the best. One of those rosemary meat preps where the rosemary gets into the medium-rare meat and juice so perfectly. Trader Joe's potato pancakes (ideal starch for such a week) with a whipped-up horseradish/blue cheese crème fraiche to slather. Very good meal.

Bordeaux is in the house. Gotta drink it. We stated that this may be the winter we gulp down a good amount of all the Bordeaux sitting on the shelves. After this one, like so many in the past, we may have to backtrack a bit on that statement. This bargain St.-Emilion brought an earth-first joy, with a medium body, happy textural presence, everything one would want in this price range. Unfortunately, it was schizophrenic with the food. Mildly interesting at times; tinny, backwards, limp at others. Sometimes, it was super concentrated but short. Other times, it was almost quite good. But it was too all over the map to find that place of pairing enjoyment. We never knew what food step to take in order to find its happy place.  

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #18

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Rick Bayless recipe here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And The Pairing? See above.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #31

TV things with a week to go until pitchers and catchers report:

I feel the internet failed us. How nobody told me that every freaking season of Channel 4's Come Dine With Me is on YouTube is a big disappointment and I blame all of you people. This show has everything: bad food, strangers forced to try to get along, weird human ticks, conversational dynamics, and judgment...loads of judgment. Everyone on the show is also Trying: trying to cook well, trying to understand another human being, trying to have some fun, trying to be understood. Loads of Trying.

There are hundreds of episodes. If I didn't like sports, that cord would have been cut years ago.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $85 for food and $72 for wine = $157

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

Food Details: Orecchiette with sausage, rapini, onion, red pepper flakes, parsley, bread crumbs and evoo.

Did We Like It? Solid batch here. Loved the sausage-rapini back and forth.

How Was The Wine? Trader Joe's Gavi done well. Dry, crisp, lightly floral, peaches, medium-bodied. I drank this, like it muchly, and now I want picpoul. Something about these two grapes that make me want buckets of them.

And The Pairing? Classic. They like each other.

Cost: $6 for food, $8 for wine = $14

Saturday: Leek-Onion-Tomato Tart with 2014 Charles Smith VINO Pinot Grigio Columbia Valley

Food Details: Leek, onion, shallot, charred scallion, garlic, basil tart with parmesan and grape tomato slices; herb salad.

Did We Like It? A fine tart, even with me making the wrong dough for it in the morning. Tart and salad. It's simple, honest bistro food done right.

How Was The Wine? The Charles Smith VINO is consistent, with teeny-tiny vacillations with each drinking and depending on the food. But knowing that we're drinking it with a weeknight dinner always ups the anticipation of dinner, particularly after waiting on Valentine's weekend couples (rubs temples). Loved the acid with this drinking.

And The Pairing? Nice tart, solid wine, very happy.

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

Friday: "Sandwich" with 2015 Viñas Chilenas Reserva Rosé Valle Central

Food Details: Smoked turkey, mortadella, muenster, roasted red peppers, onion, tomato, leaf lettuce and mayo on the more "fancy" batch. Ham, mortadella, American cheesed onion on the street sandwich batch. D'amato's bread for both. More than six feet of Sandwich! Olive oil chips.

Did We Like It? So much sandwich that it blew past the plural back into the singular. So much sandwich to last us through the weekend for snacky-lunchy needs. And good sandwich at that; the kind of basic sandwich that tastes like the rolling history of sandwich.

How Was The Wine? This is $4, fresh, fruity, round, bouncy and delicious. Cabernet-syrah blend done up rosé style.

And The Pairing? Not as delicious here, at least for me. A bit coarse.

Cost: $20 for food, $4 for wine = $24

Thursday: Mexican Green Rice with 2014 La Granja Blanco Rioja

Food Details: Jalapeño chicken sausages, sauteed onions and Bayless' "Mexican Red Rice" made with freezer roasted tomatillo salsa.

Did We Like It? Easy weeknight food when you simply want a big, hot bowl of Mexican flavors. And a vehicle to eat sour cream without simply opening up the tub of sour cream and eating it with a spoon.

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? Good. Enough.

Cost: $6 for food, $5 for wine = $11

Wednesday: French Pizzas and Walnut Oil-ed Arugula with NV La Granja Brut Cava

Food Details: A Trader Joe's feast. TJ's French pizzas with ham and gruyère. Arugula salad dressed with walnut oil, roasted garlic, grainy mustard, evoo and white balsamic. Slice of pizza, top with salad, eat.

Did We Like It? What the hell? After a lazy day and Five Guys for lunch, easy food was in order. This was easy food and oddly great food. Something about the walnut oil jazzed this up to something delicious with flavors jumping everywhere.

How Was The Wine? Cheap Cava (70% xarel·lo, 30% parellada) and usually cheap lunch bubbles that tastes like cheap wine from vacation. Nothing special, ever, but here...

And The Pairing? Best it's ever tasted in this house. The sweetness of its fruit bloomed - bright and clean and Spanishy - with a very nice nut-pit note on its finish with every bite and sip. This was a cheap, easy, whipped together dinner and it turned into something so much more.

Cost: $10 for food, $8 for wine = $18      

Tuesday: Sumac Poussins and Braised Endive with 2014 Alloy Wine Works Grenache Rosé Central Coast

Food Details: Ottolenghi sumac-ed baby chickens (sumac, garlic, allspice, salt marinade), stuffed with Carolina Gold rice and barley (instead of bulgur), ground lamb, allspice, cinnamon, pine nuts, almonds, etc. Birds then roasted. Endive braised and roasted under the baby chickens. Yogurt to dip and dunk.

Did We Like It? We did, well enough. It had all the Ottolenghi flavors we like. Great bird meat and stuffing, and with a dip of yogurt, it reached all the basic heights of what makes Ottolenghi food our first food love. Felt like something was...half-missing here, though.

How Was The Wine? Grenache in the can from Field Recordings. We've been over this. It's nothing serious or thought-provoking, just VERY sunny strawberry and guava notes with buckets of happy acid. It's ever-so slightly starting to fade from its former fresh-fresh deliciousness, but it's still more than adequate. And was here.

And The Pairing? Fine and good. At times, even delicious. In hindsight, this might have been a food opportunity for something sherry-like.

Cost: $25 for food, $16 for wine = $41  

Monday: Beef Cheek Sugo over Pappardelle with 2007 Quinta do Vallado Tinto Douro

Food Details: Beef cheeks from a couple of Tuesdays ago, mixed with soffritto, a glop of tomato paste, a spoon of cocoa powder and rosemary sprigs; deglazed with Muscadet; added San Marzano tomatoes, brick of congealed braised beef cheeks dumped in, simmered for as long as Mrs. Ney had the patience. Parsley, pecorino, pappardelle.

Did We Like It? Had a depth similar to Bolognese and a darker, winter forest, mountain food-like warmth. Great use of leftover beef cheeks here. We liked it muchly.

How Was The Wine? Our last 2007 Vallado tinto, a great vintage in the Douro. Nine years old and still drinking well. A bit sanguine, with some cocoa, burning brush and blackberries. Typical Douro flavors with a three-act play. Everything needed was present.

And The Pairing? Linked up beautifully. The cocoa in both served as the bridge, and the rest of the flavors giddily played with each other. A fine pairing.

Cost: $10 for food extras, $20 for wine = $30

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #51

Movie reviews:

'Hail Caesar!' - a bit pointless.

'45 Years' - Great acting, but a little hollow. Wasn't enough there there.

'Trainwreck' - You know, for someone whose entire show/persona is taking on sacred cows, could you choose a more formulaic, sappy movie, Amy. I wanted to bang my hands on the desk like Jon Oliver, saying, “NO! NO! You can’t do that! You can’t be what you say you are and do that!”

'F for Fake' - Welles' last film, and if you allow yourself to be lured in, it's quite lovely.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $97 for food and $84 for wine = $181

Sunday: Fish Cakes, Pickled Potatoes and Beet-Avocado Salad with Two La Granjas

Food Details: Fish ball recipe (page 196) from Claudia Roden's The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, turned into cod fish cakes and using a dried lime variation at the bottom of the recipe (along with eggs, pepper, turmeric, cumin, garlic, breadcrumbs, cilantro). Michael Solomonov's fried pickled potatoes (recipe). Farmers' Market beets, beet greens and avocado salad with serranos, cilantro, lemon thyme and pomegranate seeds. Chermoula from the freezer mixed with mayo for dipping and dunking.

Did We Like It? As Mrs. Ney said, this wasn't even great, but it was so gosh darn good. The dried lime business in the fish cakes turned out to be a dud. Flat taste, with mostly a vague brown spice flavor coming through. But great pickled potatoes, as always. And this beet-avocado was boss. Beety, creamy, with a firework explosion of flavors bouncing everywhere. Good. Meal.

How Was The Wine? We opened a síria to start, but it came off too delicate for the flavors on the plate. Moved on to fridge wine, a Trader Joe's La Granja throwdown: one verdejo-viura blend and a Cava. Cheap Spanish wine that has served our house well over the years, because it does this with the food...

And The Pairing? The verdejo-viura blend was terrible with the pickled potatoes, neutral with the fish cakes, but jumped out of the glass with the beet-avocado salad. Wonderfully broad, aromatic and all-around delicious (we'd pay $20 instead of $5 for how it performed with this beet-avocado salad). The Cava served as a mop for everything else, liking the pickled potatoes best as it became frothy and sparkly, turning into a right and proper Cava with all its Spanish-style strut. Very happy how this turned out given the síria failure.

Cost: $12 for food, $12 for wine = $24    

Saturday: Caprese with 2014 Charles Smith VINO Pinot Grigio Columbia Valley

Food Details: Trader Joe's bocconcini balls of marinated mozzarella, Farmers' Market baby tomatoes, copious amounts of basil, and baguette.

Did We Like It? This used to be a Monday lunch staple. We loved it then, a few years ago, as it served as a long lunch that made a clean break from the after-burn and frustration of the workweek. Having it now reminds us of that. And we're glad we don't have it as often today. Good. Tasty. Fine.

How Was The Wine? 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? Fine, basic, elemental matchup, just nothing to get all worked up about.

Cost: $10 for food, $11 for wine = $21

Friday: Lamb and Pickled Vegetables Salad with 2014 João Portugal Ramos "Lima" Loureiro Vinho Verde

Food Details: A riff on a house fav, Indian lamb-carrot salad, using Solomonov pickled vegetables (cauliflower, celery and carrots) from the fridge instead of carrots (Mrs. Ney needs the pickling liquid for upcoming Solomonov pickled potatoes). Ground lamb crisped up in the cast-iron with onion, ginger, garlic, black cardamom, coriander and black pepper. Arugula on a plate, pickled vegetables on top of that, then the lamb with pomegranate seeds and toasted sesame seeds on top of everything. Black mustard seed raita and naan on the side.

Did We Like It? I found it perfectly simple, perfectly spare, perfectly dressed and perfectly poppy. This riff on Indian carrot salad is missing nothing. Nothing at all. I'd go so far as to say that it had a cut and intensity that Indian carrot salad doesn't. Not better, just blissfully different.

How Was The Wine? Lightly fruity, lightly floral, lightly acidic. It's $8 loureiro.

And The Pairing? It was trying... Tons of wine-trying... But the LIMA has been missing its élan, its joie de vivre, its purpose and pep of late. Same here.

Cost: $14 for food, $8 for wine = $22    

Thursday: Roasted Carrot and Ricotta Sandwiches with 2015 Terrasse du Moulinas Blanc Elégance Languedoc-Roussillon

Food Details: Carrots from the Lincoln Square Farmers' Market, roasted; leftover ricotta/country ham mixture from Tuesday, with garlic and piquillo peppers added; tomato, onion, arugula, basil and marinated artichokes (for me), all on ciabatta. Olive oil chips on the side.

Did We Like It? What was essentially a "Use stuff up" sandwich dinner turned into "Who doesn't want roasted carrots, ricotta and tons of other matchy foodstuffs together?!" Messy and so damn good. I certainly didn't want a camera on me while eating it. I'd eat this once a month.

How Was The Wine? $10, one-liter, grenache blanc, vermentino, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc blend from the Languedoc. This was our house white for awhile. Less so lately. It's rather happy juice for $10. Mixed bag of orchard fruit with enough of an acid edge to like a lot of food that leans Mediterranean.

And The Pairing? Here, it was more of an accompaniment to the food than any sort of pairing wonder. I like this wine and it was nice to have it there.

Cost: $8 for food, $10 for wine = $18      

Wednesday: Dirty Rice with 2014 Firelands Winery Gewürztraminer Ohio

Food Details: Susan Spicer's wild and dirty rice recipe, via Food and Wine, subbing tasso and country ham for ground pork, with beet greens and andouille sausage.

Did We Like It? Great balance to the spice in relation to all the other flavors with this batch. Cleaner, yet still dirty. Had a sparkle to it. Meaty, herby, Cajun bowl of Happy.

How Was The Wine? Huge Ohio Winner! June is Cleveland's month with the Cavs championship, and even the Indians have won 14 straight as of this writing (six away from the MLB record). Mrs. Ney is from Ohio. I'm a 30-year-plus Browns fan. This is an Ohio house (except for OSU - screw them). If we see something like an Ohio gewürztraminer for $14, we buy it. "Gotta support the team." This one is a straight-forward, well-made, rather delicious gewürztraminer, giving a perfect, baseline tension to its acid and fruit. Lychee and peach with real lift. Stick this in a lineup with Old World gewürztraminers and this house would put it right up there with all the others, particularly with food.

And The Pairing? This wine loved the dirty rice. Every bite and sip jolted us out of the run-of-the-mill drink and sip and made us pay attention. Can't ask for more.

Cost: $10 for food, $14 for wine = $24  

Tuesday: Carrot-top Pesto Ravioli with 2015 La Spinetta Vermentino Toscana

Food Details: Homemade ravioli, using 00 pasta flour, stuffed with a Whole Foods ricotta, country ham, nutmeg and black pepper blend. Carrot-top pesto with carrot tops from the Farmers' Market: garlic, olive oil, tarragon, dill, sage, lemon zest, pistachios, whatever was in the house. More Farmers' Market baby tomatoes mixed in with the ravioli and pesto, topped with pecorino, parsley and crushed pistachios. Arugula (not baby) salad with pomegranate seeds to finish.

Did We Like It? Big plate of Good. Plant-y. A little bit of everything and not much of one thing.

How Was The Wine? I liked the 2010 of this vermentino and remember enjoying the 2013 (no write-up). This vintage brought oodles of green apple and pear, but not enough minerality, acid or ocean breeze to give the grizzle and presence we want from vermentino. This is more quiet and, to us, less interesting.

And The Pairing? They didn't really want to be friends. Not unpleasant, just not particularly interesting. A few sips and bites were trying, but overall, nothing to see here. The plantiness and surprising subtlety in the food wanted the pecorino we had in the house.

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

Monday: Lamb and "Potato-Tomato!" with 2013 Bokisch Montastrell Belle Colline Vineyard Lodi

Food Details: Paulina Meat Market lamb rosettes (marinated in onion, garlic, oregano, evoo, white wine), seared in cast iron; Sam Sifton faux pommes frites; tomatoes with shallots, serrano, oregano, parsley, mint, evoo, white balsamic; arugula; Saveur olive-anchovy aioli.

Did We Like It? More nostalgic home food done better than when it was first consumed. We used to eat something akin to this meal once every couple of months a few years ago. It's been too long since we've had Paulina's lamb rosettes and that's gotta change. They're everything that's best about lamb. And the Lincoln Square Farmers' Market has tomatoes right now that are so perfectly ripe that it's turned into tomato week in our house. FUNKY aioli in the best sense for potato dipping. This was a spectacular meal.

How Was The Wine? We're members of two winery clubs: Broc Cellars in Berkeley and Bokisch in Lodi. We get a case from each twice a year (just joined Bokisch). One thing we've learned over the years of being members of other clubs is that one should pick a winery that a wide array of bottles from different and unusual grapes that are made with food in mind, bringing the requisite amount of acidity and balance. And you're not being given their showy wines at $50-80 a bottle. Join a wine club to have a bottle for those casual lunches or solid dinners. Don't go for the club that gives you the "look how rare this wine is" bottles (read: stuff they couldn't possibly sell on the open market). Join a wine club that wants you to drink their wine everyday. Like Bokisch. Our last shipment had two gracianos, four albariños, a verdejo, two verdelhos, garnacha blanca, a rosé and this montastrell (mourvèdre by another name), all for around $220. Spanish grapes with California sun.

9% graciano in this montastrell, it's earthy, with red fruits galore, figs, and a light floral background. Very mourvèdre with a clean edge. More medium-bodied than expected, but a touch of sappy fruit on the finish. Very long and very nice though, and a good example of getting something different from a wine club that satisfies. This one is not going to blow you away with its amazingness, but you're going to get a well-made wine that wants food from a producer you like and trust.

And The Pairing? Changed often with various bites, liking the lamb and the anchovy-olive aioli well enough to be happy overall with what it gave to the grub. Again, nothing amazing, and the pairing could have been better, but this one was clap-your-hands-together and say, "That was quite fine!"

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

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

Summer Begins

Summer, in our house, tends to be a high-low concept. One ridiculously great meal a week surrounded by an easy-peasy, greatest hits-style collection of dinners. Along with a fair amount of grilled food without the grill, some boozy sangrias, more cocktails, and tons of freshness.

So, no ribeye and vanilla mashed potatoes with Bordeaux for us. We want to light, perky and fun, not brooding and self-serious.

This weekend illustrates that point.

Got a cucumber, some tomatoes, and leftover pita floating around? Make fattoush for lunch. Grab some arugula, a bell pepper, a lil sumac, some mint, lemon juice, olive oil. Use those radishes that have been sitting in the  crisper for a bit. Maybe the chervil you bought for a very specific purpose and only used a tiny amount. It's an open book. Cut everything up, toast up that pita, toss it all together. Make it big because this is starting off your weekend. It shouldn't be a salad, with all that entails. It should be a SALAD, like a Seinfeldian "Big Salad" (Julia-Louis Dreyfus on CCGC this week). Drink fridge wine with it, like a 2014 Charles Smith VINO Rosé Wahluke Slope ($10 - Whole Foods), a 100% sangiovese from Washington. It's friendly and fresh, if not the lovely, distinct wonder that is Charles & Charles's syrah-based rosé from Columbia Valley. Maybe watch some 'Family Feud' or 'Cutthroat Kitchen.' Nothing heavy. That's a good lunch, and kicks off the weekend right.

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #2

It continues...

El Carrito, on Peterson and Lincoln, makes solid Mexican street food tacos that don't skimp on ingredients and are priced right. Two steak tacos and a southwest salad for $7? 

Yep. 

My bi-monthly drive right by that intersection makes it an option.

And...creepy clown alert! A bit close to home.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $92 for food and $118 for wine = $210


Sunday: Pick-n-Choose Meat, Cheese and Bread with NV Elvio Tintero Grangia Favorita Blend 

Food Details: Speck, salami, provola, arugula, Provençal mustard, and baguette. Pick and choose your combination of food-types on the plate to put together for each bite and go to town.

Did We Like It? Yep. It's a long, meandering meal perfect for Sunday night (the end of my week, second-to-last for Mrs. Ney). No cooking. Just throw a bunch of stuff on the plate, dress your arugula, cut your baguette, pour the wine, eat and enjoy.

How Was The Wine? Might be my new favorite cheap white. Piedmontese favorita blend (50% Favorita, 25% Moscato, 20% Arneis and 5% Chardonnay) that's light (11.5%), ever-so-slightly fizzy, lightly sweet, and deliciously mouthwatering. And it's $10! Great gaps and pauses here that extend it out nicely. Tastes like walking through an orchard on a surprisingly chilly morning.

And The Pairing? Quite good. Mustard messed with it on occasion, but the salty cured meats and this wine really like each other.

Cost: $15 for food, $10 for wine = $25         


Saturday: Southern Chicken Sandwiches with 2013 Charles Smith VINO Pinot Grigio Columbia

Food Details: Breaded Southern-style chicken breast sandwiches with pickles, mayo, kumatoes, onions and lettuce on pretzel buns. Olive oil chips. Sandwiches and chips.

Did We Like It? Oh, my, yes. For me, after a crappy work shift clouded by the general annoyance of watching people chew for a living, coming home to jazzed-up, sunny, picnic food wiped the slate clean.

How Was The Wine? We don't like pinot grigio, but we like THIS pinot grigio. Its 2013-ness makes for a wine that's losing some of its distinction, sparkle and polish, but the acid and citrus blossom notes are hanging on enough to 'bring the happy.' We'll be buying this one until Mr. Smith stops making this one. It's $13.

How Was The Pairing? Good. Enough. After two days of terrible wine, The wine's quality was more than welcome. The pickles messed with its segues a bit for me.

Cost: $12 for food, $13 for wine = $25  


Thursday and Friday

Wifey worky pool party on Friday. She ate food there, with jug Aldi Lambrusco, probably. It's fruity and tastes like the 80's in not a bad way. Or when you go to someone else's church service that's much more wealthy than your church, take communion, and realize that even their 'blood of Christ' is more fancy. I ate work pizza and drank a glass of chilled gamay from Thursday. Still...not good. Bit like chilled wood polish.

Meatloaf and potato salad on Thursday. Opened a bottle of wine that's been sitting around the house, WELL past its drinking window, the 2009 Gilles Bonnefoy Côtes de Forez Gamay, and it was just that. Good stuff a little over a year ago. Not so much now. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Cost: $8 for food, $12 for wine = $19


Wednesday: Fried Haloumi, Yellow Beet Salad with Walnut Gremolata and Garlic Bread with 2013 Palmina Sparkling Malvasia Bianca Larner Vineyard SBC

Source: Beet salad recipe straight from Palmina's website for malvasia pairing (this beet salad is a house fav)

Food Details: Yellow beets, roasted. Slathered with a walnut, garlic, lemon-orange zest and juice and anchovy blend. Put on top of arugula. Haloumi fried off in mini cast-iron with parsley and olive oil. Jamie Oliver garlic bread. Rip, cut, dip, eat.

Did We Like It? Always. The beet salad is a 3x a year thing. It's stupid-great and stupid-easy. Fried haloumi, same. Who doesn't want fried Greek-Cypriot cheese? It's delicious even after it gets a bit waxy. Plenty of bread to do as you do. Arugula to keep it lifty. Complete and satisfying meal.

How Was The Wine? The star. Loved it. More fresh on New Year's Eve, but we liked it better here, as its malvasia-y floral notes became FLORAL notes! Apricot blossoms to start with oodles of dying white flowers backing it up. Bubbles just barely hanging on, but I got something akin to a great Cava-like mineral finish occasionally. Turned into a delicate sour-bitter beer about halfway through and we loved it. Nutmegged pear fruit in the background throughout. It was like a Haruki Murakami novel. It took about two minutes to realize that this was going to go to deliciously odd places and we're going to love it.          

And The Pairing? So great with the beets. Less so with the haloumi but still happy. A leisurely meal with loveliness at every turn.

Cost: $15 for food, $36 for wine = $51


Tuesday: Uzbek Lamb Plov and Kumato/Onion/Arugula Salad with 2010 Abacela Tempranillo Umpqua Valley

Source: Recipe here, via Cucee Sprouts

Food Details: Lamb, chickpeas, carrots, barberries, garlic, cumin, tumeric, basmati rice. A one-pot meal that's considered the national dish of Uzbekistan. And boy, does it have people that are passionate about the assemblage of it, right down to the carrot cutting. I heart the tyranny of the authenticity brigade. Recipe followed to the letter, but left out the raisins and used barberries fished out of the torshi seer. Kumato, onion and arugula salad to finish.

Did We Like It? The result was a delicious, savory, light, homey, country, lamb and rice dish that both of us utterly loved. And will be having again. Probably soon. Very easy to make. The kumato salad rounded out of perfectly great meal. We're beginning to think we gravitate more towards land-based Mediterranean-Middle Eastern food instead of something more sea-based. Gets into our bones more.      

How Was The Wine? Tempranillo from southern Oregon's Umpqua Valley. Abacela has two, one for aging and this one. Happy, round, fresh dark cherries, getting plummy later. Smooth texture, medium length, nice acid keeping everything lifty, enough tannin to keep everything in place.

And The Pairing? The wine served as a pleasant supporting actor to the star on the plate. Missed that third-level, Spanishy, Ribera, lamb-and-tempranillo complete greatness, but got kinda close. Liked it.

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


Monday: Nando's Peri-Peri in Lakeview

Food Details: Full chicken platter for two, fries and mashed peas. Chicken slathered in peri-peri, heaping mound of fries with peri-peri mayo for dipping, mashed peas with mint parsley and chili. Open on Monday and straight-through from lunch to dinner, if we want spicy chicken and fries and don't want to make spicy chicken and fries, Nando's does it well. At 3pm, because we're old.

Did We Like It? Like other souped-up, fast-casual places out there, it's just good enough to say "this will work and it's cheap enough to justify the expense." There's some flavor, preservative or otherwise, that all of the Shake Shacks, Five Guys, even Urban Bellys of the world use that make it taste somewhat similar. Something there we can't quite pinpoint. And all of this can be made at home at 1/2 the price, but no kitchen time + no dishes = why not, once or twice a year. $15 more and we'd make it at home, but it's not. Amsterdam Falafel still reigns in the fast-casual category, though. That's The Stuff.

How Was The Wine? the 2013 Cara Viva Lisbon Branco is probably a wine made specifically for Nando's. Zippy, easy, with enough guts to stand up to the hot sauce. No complaints at all. Tasted like Portugal in nice ways. They probably pay $3 a bottle for it and charge $17 but who cares?

And The pairing? Refreshing. It helped in the overall impression of the meal.

Cost: $32 for food, $17 for wine = $50