#89 - Bison Flank Steak & Mushroom Tart With '06 Chateau Des Tours Réserve

Tuesday's lamb was probably better.

But last night's meal has a place. And what a place it was!

Much of the comparison came down to seasoning. The lamb was beautifully seasoned with hints of the marinade subtly popping up here and there. The bison and mushroom tart was aggressively well-seasoned, with sometimes so many flavors going on that we both gave up trying to figure out what exactly was going on and just loving the bites. Nothing was overdone, just...a lot!

Also, after last night's bison, it will be, for the most part, replacing ostrich is the lean meat-type substance category. It's cheaper and maybe even a bit more versatile with some of the bigger wines in our collection that we've ignored of late. Australian shiraz, I'm looking squarely at you.

Food: Bison flank steak with mushroom tart and Swiss chard

Whole Foods bison flank steak from the Whole Foods at Halsted, a store with some of the most helpful people on Earth. Seriously. Marinade of crushed fennel seeds, juniper, black pepper, extra virgin olive oil, roasted garlic, glop of honey and a splash of balsamic vinegar. A Chris Cosentino marinade for bison. We'll be visiting Mr. Cosentino's Ferry Building establishment in San Francisco, Boccalone, in a month during a "we gotta get the hell out of here" three-day trip to the West Coast.

Cooked medium-rare, there was a pause after the first bite. Crap, it was good! Juicy, tons of juniper and fennel seed coming through with a touch of ever-so-subtle sweetness from the honey and acid from the balsamic. In pure meaty deliciousness that shocked me with how good it was, rivaling the onion skirt steak and Asian beef filet. This is great stuff, cheap-ish, lean as heck and takes on even the most aggressive seasoning and marinade with great effect.

Farmer's Market cremini mushroom and bulb onion tart. There's a difference. There just is. Compared to Whole Foods produce, which are good, our experiences with the Farmer's Market in Lincoln Square recently has been just the tops. Great. Product. Rosemary in the crust of the tart (along with the juniper) was the star supporting actor of the night.

Farmer's Market sautéed Swiss chard done up with gaeta black olives and orange zest. The olives and orange zest didn't really add much but the chard itself was a much more subdued version of chard compared to what we've had in the past - less bitterness, more grace. I won't be bullying any conversation by going into raptures about the Farmer's Market but we've really loved it.

With the entire meal, it was in the combinations of bites. The mushroom with the bison. The onion with the bison. The mushroom and crust with the bison. Great every time. Really, a veritable smorgasbord of flavors in front of us to pick and choose as we please and so much going on.

Wine: 2006 Chateau des Tours Réserve Côte-Du-Rhône ($27 - WDC)

Grape: Grenache (65%), Syrah (20%), Cinsault (15%)

Region: Vaucluse

Vintage (WS): 93 Ripe, pure and balanced reds, with fresh flavors and bright finishes. In the mold of 2004/1999 but slightly more concentrated; whites superb

Chateau des Tours is the third estate of Emmanuel Reynaud, the owner of the renowned Châteauneuf-du-Pape estate, Chateau Rayas. He took over all three estates after his uncle, Jacques Reynaud, the man that made Chateau Rayas what it is, had a heart attack in 1997 but he ran Chateau des Tours for years before running the entire show.

Chateau Des Tours also has a second wine, Domaine Des Tours, a wine that we've had a few times before and, while hit or miss with food, consistently loved (outstanding with fig tart).

Darker ruby in the glass, raspberry, alcohol and brush on the nose, and elegant, if a little subdued on the palate. More elegance here than the Domaine des Tours, showing more integrated raspberry and fainter spice than the cherry and bolder spice that I remember from the DdT. Some alcohol initially that blew off quickly and settled into an almost elegant, if not terribly exciting red that was nice to have around.

Sometimes, lik here, wines never get out of the "Hey, that's really nice!" category. That's not to say there was anything wrong with it, just that nothing really jumped out of the glass. Both of us don't really prefer dominant raspberry fruit notes. More simple grenache-based wine tends to be that. While the Domaine des Tours can be a bit more bumpy and rough, we might prefer the rough edges in comparison. The Chateau des Tours is a better technical wine, but at roughly $12 more, the Domaine might offer more excitement and unpredictability. But with more craft involved in this wine, it probably would be more consistent with food and last night's pairing was certainly "consistent."

Pairing: 89 Rhônes and pepper, Rhônes and pepper, nothing better

The wine was a trooper with the aggressive seasoning, standing up to it and even offering some personality here and there.

And there were great bites and drinks. Like the food combos alone, mushroom and bison with wine and mushroom, crust and bison with wine were lovely, pleasant, welcome. Any pepper bite was great stuff like Rhônes tend to be.

My mind never really wandered to other possible wines during the meal but it did afterward. With the juniper, a better Australian shiraz might have been the play. Bigger fruit might have helped and brought much more. I don't know. It's a tough call. The entire meal may have strolled right into a ridiculous kaleidoscope of flavors offering way too much. But tons of credit should be given to the pairing for its gracefulness, proper weight and welcoming nature.

In the end, no complaints and we liked much of it, almost all of it. Nothing paired badly here and it was tasty.

I just wonder what a shiraz with some polished blackberry would have done with the juniper and bison. Just curious.

#107 - Harissa-Marinated Bison Flank Steak & Two Wines

Two days ago, I did a wildly detailed spreadsheet inventory of our wines.

The side-effect of it was seeing the number of wines that probably should have been drunk years ago. Fewer than I thought as we try to keep good tabs on such things but I can't recommend a non-vintage Trialeti Akhashini Georgian (the country) red wine bought probably three years ago and very well could have been eight-nine years old. Tasted like bugs.

I'm guessing the 2004 Toasted Head is on a similar path without the buggy bugginess.

But a surprise in the older/"drink me now! Geesh!" vein was drunk last night, a wine that thoroughly outperformed a wine that we just adore and was also approaching its demise.

Food: Harissa-marinated bison flank steak, sweet potatoes and frisée

In June, we went a little darker, big and Frenchy with bison flank steak, using a Chris Cosentino marinade containing junipers, balsamic and black pepper. Following this recipe last night (bison for tri-tip) , the bison came off insanely bright in a great way.

Using Whole Foods harissa paste - a product that has the freakin' goods - garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil and sherry vinegar, the result was meat with flavor that jumped in our mouth, staying perfectly bright and sunny and allowing the bison flavor to completely come through. Turned into a surprisingly light meal and for $12 a pound, bison's always a perfectly delicious option.

Served with honey, cardamom and ginger sweet potatoes and a frisée salad with a toasted cumin seed/za'atar vinaigrette. A North African/Middle Eastern/Maghrebian/Levantian extravaganza in many ways. Except bison. Not many bison in the Middle East.

Wine: 2004 Yalumba Hand-Picked Shiraz-Viognier ($30 - Sam's) & 2006 Rosenblum Cellars Mourvèdre ($11 - Binny's)

We were under the assumption during the meal that the Yalumba we were popped last night was the same vintage as the wine we drank with what was probably the best food and wine pairing we've had in the last year. It wasn't. And thank all that is holy. It solves a riddle knowing that it wasn't the 2004 Yalumba HP Shiraz-Viognier with the Asian beef filet. It was the 2005. It would have been odd to see such a dramatic change in just a few months and would have forced me to buy a larger wine fridge right now. Money saved!

The 2004 Yalumba by most estimates is approaching the end of its drinking window and that's what we got last night along with a wall of tailing oak. Very concentrated cherry and herb core right away that disappeared in a split second, then settled into a medium-bodied, rather ordinary wine that was drinkable but not particularly distinguished. Then the oak bomb came. Every other sip was like chewing on a piece of dry wood that's sat out in the hot sun for years. Tannins were tired and the wine overall just came across as weary and creaky. Drinkable but geriatric. We missed the golden years with this one.

So we popped a second bottle, a 2006 Rosenblum Mourvèdre (with a touch of Carignane) made in Contra Costa County, just northeast of the Bay Area. Rosenblum wines are everywhere, in grocery stores, liquor stores and corner markets. And I'm quickly coming to the realization that that's a good thing. This was the second or third Rosenblum wine we've had and they seem to be quality performers at a great price point.

A cloudy red in the glass with a floral violet note on the palate mixing with a solid core of red and black raspberry and maybe a bit of bee pollen. Fine structure and played well above its price tag in some great ways. Probably would have been better two years ago but seemed to be still going strong enough.

Pairing: 85 Boring with the Yalumba, Surprising and good with the Rosenblum

The Rosenblum mingled beautifully with the bright bison and just soared with the cumin seed. Mental note: Cumin and Mourvèdre.

While the Yalumba was clumsy and tired, the Rosenblum saved the night. It would have been sad to see such a wine fail with meat of this caliber but the Rosenblum came to the rescue and served us admirably.

#253 - Bison With El Jefe & Lamb Curry With Tavola

Sandwiched between these two meals was a drunken trip to Bar Toma and the Gambero Rosso wine tasting at Union Station.

We're glad we went to Bar Toma.  It's a beautiful space offering an interesting, pan-Italian collection of vittles (revolving around Rome and broadening out) with a nod to something a touch more Mediterranean.  Didn't love it.  Some salting and temperature issues (really across the board on temp) kept it firmly in the world of Like while never sniffing Love.

But the sandwich bread, these two meals along with Shrimp Lunch, brought enough goodness to keep the food weekend (Monday thru Wednesday) in the camp of "That's a break from the workweek and that's the point!"

And I think we wrote off the Ponzi Tavola way too soon a few years ago.

Meal #1:  Bison flank steak with chimichurri and yuca fries with smoked paprika mayo

#208 - Bison Flank Steak, Tapenade & Risotto With '07 Duorum Reserva

One seemingly innocent element in many of the best pairings over the history of this here blog has served as the literal and figurative starchy-oozy gooey glue to what made them great.

We like various grains risotto'ed up.

Jus' sum'in 'bout it.  Something about its ability to round out edges in the rest of the food and the wine, round out the pairing, enhance spicing, perk up fruit, help along secondary flavors and bring a rational, sane and mature flavor to a meal.

Stupid Italians.  They got yet another thing right.

Whether it's a saffron risotto with arborio, blue cheese fregola, pistachio fregola, pearl municion, fennel arancini, English pea risotto, duck risotto or various other takes on these and other styles, risotto has been the happy-slappy glue to many a great meal for us over two-plus bloggy years and more.

Last night was no different.  Outstanding food here that harkened back to a former food place for us and served with a wine that was all Portugal.

Food:  Bison flank steak with almond/olive tapenade and Israeli couscous/São Jorge risotto

#141 - Bison & Vanilla Mash With '09 Wolftrap + Urban Belly

I continue to forget how bright bison is.

Incredibly lean, juicy, takes on spice and marinade in utterly original ways and...bright.

We've had some reasonable success in the past year with pairing wine with bison.

I seem to recall going with Australian shiraz almost exclusively before I started this blog but California mourvèdre served us well in August after a failed attempt with a dead Yalumba and a Vaucluse in June offered a respectable pepper explosion.

Much like the former, last night, we tried a dead something else (or was it?) before loving an cheap gem.

Food: Bison flank steak, vanilla mashed potatoes and sautéed spanish with a chestnut sauce not used

Whole Foods (Halsted) bison flank steak. $13 for 3/4 of a pound. Marinated overnight in a much more simple way than previous efforts. No juniper or harissa angles this time, just herbs, garlic, olive oil and balsamic, seared in salt and pepper, medium-rare. That's it.

Beautiful stuff, a pause after the first bite happened again over how bright and sunny bison is. Almost light. Dense meat, sure, but light.

Vanilla mashed potatoes (from #44 in March):

"Vanilla mashed potatoes was first discovered by Mrs. Ney about three (?) years ago after perusing some Thomas Keller recipes. And holy crud! That's sex on a plate! You'd think it's just mashed potatoes and you'd be wrong. These aren't mom's potatoes. These are the most silky, delicious, vanilla-spiked dollops of beauty incarnate I've ever tasted. And carry with them about 2,000 grams of fat. It's in the top 20 of things I've ever eaten. And they're freakin' mashed potatoes!"

Sautéed spinach cooked up in the bison pan juice.

Fancy food here. We went less fancy with the wine, instead taking a shot at a South African Bordeaux blend that showed well a year ago even if there were reports of its eminent demise.

This time, not so much. But another South African Rhône-style saved the day.

Wine: 2005 Capaia Philadelphia ($25 - WDC) & 2009 Boekenhoutskloof The Wolftrap ($9 - WDC)

The Capaia is a Right Bank ape consisting of merlot, cabernet and petit verdot, unfiltered. No decant due to Wine Spectator saying it was past its drinking window by two years. Which is too bad. I just had a sip of it after being open for 18 hours and it's opened up quite well. Last night, it came off as a bit tired, showing sleepy dark red fruits and dirt with not enough acid to think it could be anything else than unimpressive. Now, a nice blackberry note came through with more structure than last night, volatile red fruits in the middle and a pleasing bloody, hot finish. A second chance might have been in order.

But we were entirely pleased with the cheap alternative we cracked to compensate for what the Capaia was offering at the time. Totally surprised, actually.

The Wolftrap is a Rhône-inspired South African blend of 65% syrah, 32% mourvèdre and 3% viognier. It's $9 and easily falls into the category of one of the best reds under $10 we've had in a long time. Shocking structure for the small bills paid. Sunny blue and black fruits upfront that transitioned nicely to a graceful chocolatey mid-palate, finishing with a mocha-coffee bean and minerally, almost old lady perfume blended with black pepper coda. Admirable balance here, offering light earth notes and a touch of blood throughout with clean edges. Could have paid twice as much and been happy.

Pairing: 91 Take out the Capaia and this is a stupid delicious $27 meal for everything

Became a meal giving some dark depth here and there contrasted by the inherent brightness of the bison and the floral notes and lift from the viognier.

Just a different element jumping up at each turn. Seemed like we had 20 different distinct flavors on the plate and in the glass with all of them playing nicely in the sandbox.

But more dominantly, big, bright and almost creamy blueberries in the wine with the vanilla mashed potatoes and a coffee-infused chocolate bar hit with the bison.

Great stuff, going back and forth.

A Restaurant Note: Back to Urban Belly after at least a year. It took two bites to proclaim, "Shame on us." Seems we got stuck in our Semiramis and Indié Cafe ways in the past year when thinking about a good, cheap BYO meal out of the house.

Menu: #3 Asian Squash and Bacon Dumplings, #4 Duck & Pho Spices Dumplings (double order), #5 Pork & Cilantro Dumplings, #13 Rice Noodle: Hominy, Kimchi & Spicy Pork Broth and #16 Seasonal Kimchi

Wine: 2007 Hirtzberger Smaragd Riesling Hochrain ($35 - WDC) & 2005 Domaine Des Baumard Savennières ($26 - WDC)

Not going to discuss the food much, just to say that we'll be back, probably in two weeks. Deep flavors and great balance with recipes that seem to have been slightly altered for the better since our last visit. We always loved Urban Belly but this seemed like an even better version with less raw elements blended in, relying more on savory balance found in a more deft interplay of spices. We've had marginal success with pinot noir here but after this trip, it's Austrian riesling.

The Savennières had its moments but had to be kept in the squash dumpling box. Intensely floral and waxy. Bone-dry with big chamomile notes, like someone dumped chamomile tea all over old mossy peach skin and left it to dry for weeks. We've had a couple good Savennières and a couple of bad ones. This one fell in the middle. More in your face than the good ones with bitter wax upfront but got back on its feet nicely on the mid-palate with a jumpy flowers and gasoline. Rough, minerally finish that turned very bitter. All the jagged edges were smoothed out with the squash dumplings though, and the floral and tea notes turned more elegant and natural. Just didn't come close to the realm of acceptable with the other dishes, which probably should have been expected with the spice level.

But the Hirtzberger couldn't have been better. The spice needed a little sugar and the sugar in this wine couldn't be more inviting and playful. Tangerine fruit that, at times, resembled Five Alive (do they still make that?). Good structure with nice delineation, giving fine minerals in the middle and an oh-so subtle sweetness that went down the throat in pretty ways. The weight and grace fit like a glove with the well-crafted Korean feast. Pairing Score: 92

Birthday Asian Bison "Satay" & Watermelon-Radish Salad With 2011 Raventos Perfum de vi Blanc

After a Cuban-style Hot Pocket lunch to help "recover" from a day of pool and wine bacchanalia, Asian freshness and a birthday lounge day was on tap.

Two things. First, don't eat Hot Pockets. I think everyone knows that. But it said "Limited Edition Cuban-style" and we had a coupon, two factors that led to such a body abuse. Second, the "lounge" part wasn't really an option. Movement was slow and made everything iffy. Stupid pool. Sucks us right in.

Pretty standard pairing play here. Asian flavors, floral wine, with the hope that the acidity and impression of fruity sweetness plays like the 2011 Ponzi Pinot Gris did with the watermelon-radish salad did last month. We missed a superlative elevation of food and wine flavors with this one but found both components playing like old friends that haven't seen each other in a decade and just needed some time to get back in the groove. And they eventually got close.

Food: Bison flank "satay" over lemongrass rice with watermelon-radish salad and extra basting sauce for dipping

You don't have to peanut up your satay when this recipe from Cook's Illustrated is so delicious. Split the basting sauce, reserving a third to dip and dunk the bison at the table. Some alterations. Oodles more shallot and ginger added. And not skewered...and no peanut sauce so...not really "satay."  

#209 - Orecchiette & Lentils With 2010 De Falco Falanghina

Shorter one day as yesterday's prodigious length burned up any useful part of my brain.

Last night's meal wasn't better than bison flank, risotto and Duorum but if you caught us in the right mood, or the bison meal caught us in a crabby one and this one in a friendly, "the world's so nice!" one, orecchiette and lentils with falanghina might have won.

In short, it was close, and closer than we expected.

Probably because it's a Lidia Bastianich recipe that fills you up while leaving you feeling so, so clean.  She does that.

And it was meatless...except for a bit of ham dust.

Food:  Orecchiette and lentils

A modification (s) from Lidia's recipe, substituting orecchiette for rigatoni.  I got a thing with how the orecchiette's little cups catch more sauce.  Less messy and you get more of the good stuff.

Quick Hits

Quick Hits, a collection of pairings that didn't blow us away yet had their merits. Or...record-keeping.

The inaugural edition is brought to you by food that isn't Spanish. We're going to put you to bed for a couple of months, sweetie.

#1 - Bison flank steak with potato latkes and blue cheese, paired with 2008 Efeste Syrah Ceidleigh ($30 - Wine Discount Center)

Mid-August Mishmash of Meals

Waiting...

Still waiting...

Don't skip a spring vacation and then book your fall vacation five months ahead of time. The lack of a spring vacation, with all the attendant annoyances involved with that, along with the taxed anticipation that morphs into "GET HERE!" for the upcoming vacation is just too much. Screw you, time! Move it!

We're waiting, but it's almost here. Should be good.

A quick round-up today, mostly chronicled to make sure the Owen Roe Cabernet Franc gets a write-up. Oh, and to remind ourselves to not make Anne Burrell's falafel recipe. Too much work for too little pay-off.

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

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

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

But free money is better.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Asian Bison, Momofuku Ginger-Ramp Sauce & Barley-Basil Business With 2013 Arnot-Roberts & Julia's Dazzle Rosés

A rosé throw-down made with REALLY non-indigenous grapes (or with grapes most people wouldn't think even existed in these AVA's...well...the Portuguese grapes actually have a long and somewhat forgotten history in California so...and sangiovese seems to really be catching on...OH, HELL, you get my drift!)

Arnot-Roberts uses touriga nacional and tinta cão from the Luchsinger Vineyard in the Clear Lake AVA for this rosé. Portuguese grapes from California gets a big 'yes' in our house every time. Sousão from Silvaspoons? C'mon! Where do I get that?

Julia's Dazzle, a joint project between Long Shadows owner Allen Shoup and winemaker Gilles Nicault, is 98% pinot grigio and a 2% splash of sangiovese, all from Horse Heaven Hills in Washington.

Served with Asian flavors toned down, to make sure it didn't scare the bejesus out of the wines.

And it worked...mostly. We got food and wine with opinions, which is all we ever really want.

Food: Asian bison flat-iron with Momofuku ginger-ramp sauce, cold barley-basil salad, and Asian blend greens

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #27

We came to the halfway point in this 365-day experiment and arrived at a total cost of about $7600 for food and wine.

That number is about 90% of our spending on food and wine, which includes most lunches, as they typically are leftovers from the previous day, and that number includes about $1200 on food and wine for a week-long vacation to California.

So, taking out vacation (because that's vacation), it averages out to about $35/day ($6400/182 days) for overall great food with wine that matched. Not. Too. Shabby...Given:

A) This is basically our hobby.

B) We rarely go out to eat anymore due to the "We're Fabulous!" tax restaurants charge, particularly on wine but also for the level of food satisfaction that can be gotten at home for a quarter of the price if you're smart (not smart is spending $3000 for four people at Per Se, apparently).

C) For a comparison, Americans average about $150/week on food, or about $7800/year. There's two of us, so we're right in line with the food average without even including wine (tons of caveats and calculations in there)!

We've had some spectacular food and wine over these six months and haven't broken the bank.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $85 for food and $75 for wine = $160

Sunday: Meat and Cheese Plate with 2014 Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc Casablanca Valley

Food Details: Mortadella, salami, dill havarti cheese, arugula, mustard, and homemade bread from this recipe, using Gold Medal AP flour (bread flour in the works).

Did We Like It? Both of us found it somewhat boring. Mini-ciabatta would have helped, and the arugula wasn't the best. This bread loaf was punched down and shouldn't have, leading to a somewhat dense bread.

How Was The Wine? Chilean sauvignon blanc on the cheap. Tangerine and grapefruit and herbs with nice, punchy acidity.

And The Pairing? No complaints, but nothing to love here.

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

Saturday: Allium Tart with 2014 Montinore Borealis Willamette Valley

Food Details: Leek, pearl onion and chive blossom (cooked down with rabbit stock) tart with smoked cheddar cheese, tarragon, and dill. "Spicy spinach" salad blend. Tart shell recipe.

Did We Like It? Bistro food! Tart with salad. You don't need more than this, people. This tart had more of a cold weather, foggy, northern France feel. Great slight black char on the veggies.

How Was The Wine? New wine for us. A müller thurgau, riesling, pinot gris, and gewürztraminer blend. Brilliant bright funk to its peach, kiwi and floral notes. Shows like it's going to be sweet at first, but the high acid leads to a crisp, clean finish, leaving everything bouncy and happy. Frankly felt more like some poop and hay got into a vat of pinot gris...in a good way. Liked it muchly and has a place in our food world.

And The Pairing? Really great little pairing place. Very Alsatian, but with a more New World transparency, clean brightness and aggressiveness. Wasn't subtle as the food and wine matched up, but the tarragon, dill and touch of char and smoky cheese, the aggressiveness in the wine turned into vibrancy and class. Big fans.

Cost: $9 for food, $15 for wine = $24      

Friday: Coconut Goat Curry, Raita and Naan with 2014 João Portugal Ramos Lima Vinho Verde

Source: From 660 Curries, Raghavan Iyer, page 230.

Food Details: Substituting ground goat for pork and adding mustard greens in the curry. Celery raita. Trader Joe's naan.

Did We Like It? The recipes we've made from this book has been hit-and-miss, mostly falling into a very "meh" territory, always feel like something's missing, rarely grabbing our attention, rarely bursting with flavor. Like here. Tasted fresh and moderately vibrant, and it was nice to have an Indian spread of food. But we have little to say.  

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

And The Pairing? Wonky with the curry but got better as the meal progressed, good with the raita. We ended up finishing fridge wine just to get them out of there.

Cost: $12 for food, $8 for wine = $20

Thursday: Zucchini Goop with 2014 Charles Smith VINO Pinot Grigio Columbia Valley 

Source: Based on a recipe from Mexican, by Jane Milton (page 186).

Food Details: Quickly became a weeknight staple a few months ago, it's goopy zucchini-meat surprise to top on bread and get our "pick-n-choose" on. This version used up Family Dinner leftovers: zucchini, onions, garlic, tomatoes, leftover pork shoulder, leftover pimiento cheese, oregano and dill. Harvesttime isn't carrying LaBriola anymore. Sad face. So we gave that large, fat, pale, basic-looking baguette that's ubiquitous at so many Latin grocery stores a try. DON'T DO THAT! It's bread that tastes like my early 20s depression.

Did We Like It? Food. This wasn't the best batch of zucchini goop but it had some nice underlying heat and veggie-centric goodness. But that bread, man... That bread.

How Was The Wine? Juicy, silky, peppy, fresh and clean. We'll be drinking this guzzler until Mr. Smith stops making it. When one talks value wines, if this isn't on the list, stop reading that list.

And The Pairing? Helped me from focusing too much on the wretchedness of the bread. "Got goop, got wine, good enough."

Cost: $5 for food, $10 for wine = $15

Wednesday: Dinner with the Family

Food Details: Pimiento cheese with crackers as an appetizer, Sean Brock pork shoulder, rice cakes, bbq sauce and kale salad for dinner. Pistachio meringue-cherry sorbet-chocolate sauce "spumoni dacquoise" for dessert. A low-key, easy-ish family gathering. No complaints. $60

Tuesday: Bittman Game Hens, Scallion Frybread and Roasted Carrots with 2013 Darting Riesling Kabinett Trocken Pfalz

Source: From Mark Bittman's The Best Recipes in the World, Vietnamese cornish game hens, page 334. Lucky Peach spicy fish-sauce sauce (with the addition of keffir lime leaves). Crispy scallion pancakes from Serious Eats. Lucky Peach roasted carrots (using scallions instead of red onions).

Food Details: Mariano's cornish game hens (2/$7), marinated in garlic, shallot, fish sauce, keffir lime leaves (added), ginger and honey; roasted in a 500-degree oven on a preheated griddle for 22 minutes, drizzled with sesame oil after roasting. Spicy fish sauce on the side of Red Boat fish sauce, garlic, Thai green-manzano-fresno chiles, white wine vinegar and keffir lime leaves (added) for dipping, dunking and drizzling on everything. Scallion pancakes, fried up in the cast-iron. Roasted carrots made with said fish-sauce sauce and topped with arugula, mint, cilantro and pomegranate seeds.

Did We Like It? I don't know what I'm gonna say... A bite of frybread topped with game hen breast meat and skin, drizzled with spicy fish-sauce sauce is a top-12 bite of food I've probably ever had in my life. Mrs. Ney pretty much agrees. This was a most incredible dinner, right up there with Ottolenghi fish, cocount-peanut salad and rice. Funny that both are Asian. Delicious carrots, Thai chiles that didn't hold back its heat, an absolutely complete dinner that was one of the best in recent and not so memory. We're going to do a top-100 dinners of our lives at some point. This one is going to be right up there.

How Was The Wine/Pairing? We abandoned a bottle of 2013 Forlorn Hope Trou Grit (trousseau gris) rather quick-like because the aggressiveness of the fish sauce and heat were messing with it. It was trying but didn't get all the way there. The Darting riesling's sweet underpinnings offered a fine and good counter to everything on the plate, never reaching a level of great, but offering a touch of lemongrass on the finish that played happily with the Vietnamese-centric food. A Selbach-Oster would have been more lovely/complete here, but enough of a cleanse/reset with the Darting to not really care about the wine's intimate details because the food on the plate was so F*&^^$#ing fantastic. A ridiculous dinner. Absolutely perfect. And look at the cost.

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

Monday: Bison Short Ribs and Zucchini Cakes with Marietta Cellars Christo Lot #1

Food Details: (David Leite recipe) Whole Foods bison short ribs (when they're there, buy them - it's not often), rubbed with coffee, cumin, smoked paprika,  chipotle powder, salt and pepper, marinated overnight. Seared then roasted 2-3 hours with garlic, onion, marzano, drizzled with espresso-tomato-vinegar mixture. Pan juice sauce on the side. House-standard zucchini cakes (recipe) on the side, our veg and starch in one package.

Did We Like It? I'm no fan of short ribs. I am a fan of bison short ribs. Leaner, meatier, less fatty and less greasy. This dinner had all the backyard bbq goodness without the bucket of fat that typically comes with short ribs. We were happy campers, especially eaten with this wine:

How Was The Wine? Our last Lot #1. Syrah, grenache, petite sirah and viognier. Fresh dirt, smoke, tar, blackberries, blueberries, lavender, grizzle. Savory. It's so damn lovely. A complete red, so versatile with food, always adjusting, always showing its best side with each different bite.

How Was The Pairing? This food would have been fine with a lot of red blends geared towards food. Spanish, maybe a Washington blend. But there's something about the fresh cut and transparent flavors with the Christo that's not trying to be anything other than it is. It's not trying to hew to traditions, or regional styles, or worry about what their next-door winemaker will think. Marietta Cellars just makes wine that's going to like food, first and only first. That's why it's a favorite. Here it took the meal from "Well...this is quite good" to "Did you taste that? Cripes, that's good!"

Cost: $24 for food, $16 for wine = $40

#278 - Yogurt/Saffron-Marinated Top Sirloin & Potatoes With '04 Resalte de Peñafiel De Restia Crianza

A Selbach-Oster dinner at Yusho on Tuesday left me contemplating buying another cellar.  Mr. Johannes made the night something to remember. Great guy.

Home classic revisited yesterday after a moderately long absence.

The 'home classic'-ness came from a marinade of saffron, onions, yogurt, ginger, lemon juice and olive oil.

Stupid great with bison and '07 Duorum Reserva.

So good with flank steak and duck fat potatoes that it trumped Portuguese buggy-bear love, the '04 Quinta do Vale Meão.

With the ubiquitous pan-Mediterranean flavors in the marinade, your wine direction is pretty open, but we've always loved the Spanish-Portuguese connection, something with a smoky, mineral undertone.

Ribera fits like a glove.

Food: Yogurt/saffron-marinated top sirloin, rosemary-garlic potatoes and arugula salad

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #13

Seasons change. Baseball's regular season has ended.

It's a sad day in many ways. The day-to-day workings of my life alter slightly. No more coming home from work, turning on the Angels, scanning through boxscores, watching highlights, calculating possibilities, creating a vague picture of how this week, month, year will play out. It's a process that means nothing, constantly changes and ultimately useless. And I could have taken the 350 hours a year I put into watching baseball and learned about five languages by now.

We all need processes, methods, well-understood flows and familiarities to get through the day-to-day and year-to-year. Baseball is mine. 184 days until Opening Day.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $170 for food and $365 for wine = $535

Sunday: Salmon, cream cheese, bagels, kumatoes, pickled onions and herb salad with 2014 Matthiasson Tendu White California

Food Details: Trader Joe's smoked salmon, cream cheese (tarragon, cilantro, chive, serrano, garlic, cream cheese), sesame seed bagels, sliced kumatoes, herb salad dressed with white vinegar and olive oil, and pickled onions. It's more pick-n-choose, because it's delicious. bagel+cream cheese+salmon+kumato+salad+onion, then eat.

Did We Like It? Always. This batch took on the ridiculous amount of coriander/mustard seed I put in the pickled onions quite nicely. Flavors flying all over the place!

How Was The Wine? We didn't love the 2014 version of the Tendu White last time we had it, feeling like the chardonnay toned down the spritely bounce that the 2013 offered. Mr. Matthiasson said the vermentino - which is the vast majority of the three-grape makeup here, along with French colombard - didn't have the requisite acidity to go 100% vermentino in 2014. But this drinking showed better. While still not getting as much distinction as the 2013 had, nice acid-vague fruit back-and-forth to be happy enough. Two bottles left.

And The Pairing? With the flurry of flavors in the pick-n-choose, the wine offered a nice acid-slight mineral refreshment and cleanse. We liked this pairing, even if it didn't reach higher than mere like.

Cost: $17 for food, $30 for wine = $47  

Saturday: Croque Monsieur-Champagne Lunch & Steak Frites-Syrah Dinner

Food Details: Croques Monsieur (recipe) lunch, with chicken and abondance cheese, using almond milk for the béchamel. Olive oil chips. Steak frites from Bistro Campagne for dinner. It was a Day of Celebration that turned bistro-style French.

Did We Like It? Golly this was a Good food day for Anniversary-type celebrations. Easy croques monsieur that weren't traditional but have all the goods that make good croquet monsieur good. Steak frites from Bistro Campagne. At $27 each, with the quality of the hanger here and the huge handful of fries that accompany it, and $15 corkage, it makes for one of the best quality-to-price ratios in our neighborhood. When we break down the cost of making steak frites at home, food is going to be in the mid-$30s with the hanger, potatoes, all the marinating ingredients, arugula, and probably something extra to make it different than other preps (like Sean Brock steak sauce). We'd drink a wine that isn't everyday cheap, probably between $25-40. So we'd already be in the $55-70 range for the both of us. Our bill at Bistro Campagne was $100 before tip (tip on the wine you bring, people). No dishes, no frying or frying-oil hassle and mess for the fries, and we get out of the house and go to an utterly pleasant restaurant space that has neighborhood charm. Big winner. And given how good their steak frites are, it's a bargain. A big one. PLUS! We have a glut of wines in our cellar that were bought with good intentions and former interest years ago that simply don't excite us like when we first bought them (I'm looking at you, 40 bottles of Right Bank Bordeaux). With $15 corkage, this is a perfectly productive way to shed these wines with food that goes with it. Might become a once-a-month thing.

How Was The Wine? The 2004 Gaston Chiquet Special Club Brut Millesime for lunch was nothing like Mr. Chiquet's other bottlings. Very loose, with tons of space. It wasn't vanilla. It was like the juice in the tank was NEAR vanilla. Or peach skin and cream. It was like the juice in the tank was NEAR peach skin and cream. Nice mousse and happy lift, with a minty undertone. Tasted like a unexpected yet welcome chilly breeze. We Loved it. We have no idea why we stopped drinking Champagne about a year ago. That'll be changing.

The 2007 Jonata "La Sangre de Jonata" Santa Ynez Valley Syrah, brought to Bistro Campagne and decanted there, needed a few more years and more air. Lovely violet, licorice, plum, tobacco, everything expected from this big-boy syrah (with 2% viognier), but with nice pauses and real elegance. Initially did feel very northern Rhône, but turned more Californian as the night went on, which wasn't unwelcome, but few surprises here underneath its alcohol and richness. We liked it. It was nice. And now we don't have it in the cellar, which is mostly fine with us. It was heady, and would still be a few years on, something we've mostly moved away from.

And The Pairing? The Gaston Chiquet was flat-out lovely with croques monsieur and chips. Just the best. And it kept changing; towards the end it felt like it was losing steam just a touch. The Jonata, though shortened a bit by a garlic bite, had real a presence and complete expression. Though again, maybe not an expression we love anymore. Like it, but paying $70-80 more for 10-15% more joy than, say, a Marietta Cellars or Owen Roe Ex Umbris...doesn't feel wise and certainly isn't in the budget. Also, some of these big boys can be surprisingly finicky with food. Since we don't drink red wine by itself...

Cost: $72 for food, $224 for wine = $296

Friday: Fenugreek-perfumed Black-Eyed Pea Curry, Naan and Raita with 2013 Recuerdo Torrontés La Rioja, Argentina

Source: From 660 Curries, page 321, "Fenugreek-Perfumed Black-Eyed Peas"

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

Did We Like It? It's now our favorite curry. This one helps on this day, because it's vegetarian and we have a large slab of meat on deck for tonight's meal. Lovely altering curry depth and lift, moving back-and-forth, up-and-down so nicely. Then the same back-and-forth, up-and-down with the altering curry-then-raita-on-naan bites. It's the best.

How Was The Wine? Fine enough torrontés. A higher floor for this torrontés in the cheap torrontés world, but nothing special. A little bit of Earthstone Sauvignon Blanc as well, just for funnsies.

And The Pairing? The floral notes in the torrontés brought a peek into the world of what good torrontés can be in the vindaloo/curry realm, but it never brought more than a peek. Even given that, this food was so good, with said peek, we were both quite tickled.

Cost: $9 for food, $12 for both wines = $21      

Thursday: Rotisserie Chicken with basil, tomatoes, arugula, pickled onions and ciabatta with NV Grifone Bianco Sicily

Food Details: After a chicken fail, have more chicken. Because who doesn't like chicken? Mariano's rotisserie chicken, ripped up into pieces, sliced tomatoes, pickled onions, arugula and mini-ciabatta buns. Build your own open-faced mini-sandwiches. It's pick-n-choose your own combination for each bite.

Did We Like It? Always. Easy and delicious. The basil and the stupid glaze Mariano's puts on their chicken was key. Both sets off this $5 riesling-moscato blend from Sicily in ways that's just strange. It's store-bought chicken and $5 wine...and it's perfect (also great with white BBQ sauce).

How Was The Wine? Fruity, bright, bouncy, and floral. For $5, this wine has a disproportionate amount of balanced refreshment.

And The Pairing? We wouldn't drink this wine by itself. It'd taste like $5. But with this meal, particularly this exact meal of Mariano's glazed chicken, tomatoes and basil (it needs all of those together), it turns into a great example of lightly floral, minerally refreshment with great snap. For me, it even offered more chicken skin notes in a different form. Oddly more savory than it's ever tasted, especially given that this is a riesling and moscato blend. We L-O-V-E this.

Cost: $13 for food, $5 for wine = $18
     
Wednesday: Let's Not Talk About It with 2012 Birichino Malvasia Bianca Monterey

Food Details: Failed chicken in mustard sauce. Weird texture on the chicken so we dumped it and had salami and dill havarti cheese with homemade Pugliese bread, which turned out quite nice. Mustard green salad with tomatoes and pickled onions. Filled a hole.

Did We Like It? See above.

How Was The Wine? Last bottle of Birichino Malvasia. Pretty elderflower and lime leaf. Happy stuff, but the failure of this meal clouded its loveliness.

And The Pairing? I can't believe I'm still writing words about this meal!

Cost: $5 for food, $28 for wine = $33

Tuesday: Lamb Chops, Charred Shallots, Yogurt, Tomato Vinaigrette and Pita with 2014 Broc Cellars Valdiguié Solano County and 2014 Charles & Charles Rosé Columbia Valley

Source: Melissa Clark shallot recipe, via NYT Cooking

Food Details: Trader Joe's lamb chops marinated in garlic, rosemary, evoo, soy and balsamic, seared medium-rare. Shallots, roasted in oven, placed over Middle Eastern yogurt, topped with parsley, mint and pomegranate seeds. Pita charred on the flat-top. Tomato vinaigrette to round out the meal.

Did We Like It? Mother F%7k! There was a lot of moaning, and strange sounds, and cursing. Here's a meal with flavors we have ALL the time, just in different proportions. It's Middle Eastern food, which is our favorite food, but this wasn't Middle Eastern food we've ever had before. The glut of yogurt coupled with the char of the shallots, the addition of herbs, all of that put on top of pita...again, all flavors we know well...but this was utterly different and stupidly delicious. It all came in the small adjustments to well-known goodness. This will be placed in the rotation and eaten once a month henceforth. Omit the meat (which also was so simple, yet so lovely here), substitute arugula and we'd be Just Fine for an easy weeknight meal that would completely satisfy every corner of our being (and serve it with any minerally, snappy white you like). The tomato vinaigrette was its usual goodness here, but superfluous. Not needed in the least.

How Was The Wine? The Broc Valdiguié was its typical loveliness. A well-made, light-bodied wine giving nice lilting notes of cherry, herbs and dried rose petals. A mismatch with this food though. We could have stayed with it and it would have been fine, but the Charles & Charles Rosé came off freshy French and jumped out of the glass with this food. Best this wine has shown for this vintage.

And The Pairing? The tomato vinaigrette and pita liked the valdiguié but shied away from the best part of this meal, the shallot-yogurt-pita bite. The Charles & Charles rosé didn't in the least. It loved every bite, turning gutsy and punchy in the best sense. This meal was so ridiculously great, words aren't gonna do it. Just make it, but skip the tomato vinaigrette until another day, when it can be the star of the show.

Cost: $29 for food, $39 for wine = $68

Monday: Asian Short Ribs with Star Anise and Tangerine, Kabocha Squash and Amaranth-Basil with 2010 Abacela Syrah Umpqua Valley 

Source: David Tanis recipe, via NYT Cooking

Food Details: Bison short ribs from Whole Foods (not always there, so buy them when they're there). Short ribs marinated with five-spice, tangerine zest and juice, ginger, garlic, etc., two-hour slow roast.  Roasted kabocha squash, wilted amaranth and basil, salad of tangerine-radish-scallions. Pan juice drizzled over bison and squash.

Did We Like It? There was a boatload to like here, though short ribs have a lower ceiling than many of our food loves. Juicy short ribs that went well with a multitude of different food bites. The amaranth-basil-meat combo was a big winner, but the kabocha squash and meat bite came in a close second. Nice with radish, solid with tangerine, this was a good meal. Mrs. Ney just wouldn't make it again.

How Was The Wine? With tangerine and five-spice, a tough match, but we found a wine that performed better than what most anything else would. The Abacela Syrah Estate is co-fermented with
1% viognier and includes 4% tempranillo, and each of them showed up to the party. Black fruits and plum, black and white pepper, cinnamon and smoke. Medium-bodied, trending more savory. But this was defined by its citrus-like acid that kept everything bouncy and buoyant, which helped immensely with the food.

And The Pairing? The wine changed with each bite, showing about ten different expressions with each chew-and-sip, all of them rather nice. Good wine guts here. Liked it muchly.

Cost: $25 for food, $27 for wine = $52  

An Utterly Haphazard, Completely Unreliable, Probably Not Complete List of Our Favorite Food and Wine Of 2013

Our Best of 2013 list, chronicled by month.

Criteria for this list: Good food, good wine, buggy-bear pairing love, something unique, something we very specifically loved, just whatever struck our fancy and deserved a list-type spot.

In short, some big impressions of the year past.

So...good, very good and great are listed, with the meh, huh?, and terrible not listed. Because who has the time for the bad in life? Just move on.

#103 - Figgy Duck, Brussels Sprouts & Farro With '06 Domaine Des Tours

Another example of "good luck finding it" but if you should, it's a fine example of an entry-level Rhône red, even as the price has steadily increased around town since we first bought it.

Nobody can seem to get their hands on any of the Domaine Des Tours, the third-level bottling from the Châteauneuf-du-Pape winery Chateau Rayas, though it's grown at a different site.

The wine director at Blackbird even said recently it's become impossible to score any lately.

We've never had a Rayas. But the Domaine Des Tours has served us well. Its big brother, the Chateau Des Tours, is the flagship wine at the separate site owned by Reynaud of Rayas with the Domaine Des Tours being the second bottling at that vineyard.

We had the Chateau Des Tours just a month ago with bison flank steak and mushroom tart. We were pleased with the pairing, not perfect but entirely happy and would do it again. The Chateau Des Tours is better crafted and usually about $10 more but the Domaine Des Tours has a place in our heart.

Heck, where before Rhône reds were more of a dalliance with us, they're quickly becoming something quite needed and loved in our world.

Food: Duck with fig sauce, Brussels sprouts and chestnut farro

Whole Foods duck breast glazed with a brandy-garlic reduction, cooked medium rare in rosemary. Black mission figs sauce on the side. Brussels sprouts salad with red onions and mahon cheese cooked in pancetta fat with pancetta chips on top. Big mound of chestnut farro.

Hadn't had duck in a long time and had only had medium-rare duck a couple of times this year. That's odd. And having it last night wasn't something both of us especially craved or needed. It was more of a "we haven't had it in a long time" kind of thing.

And then we ate it. It's funny how you forget how satisfying and stupid delicious something can be.

The duck and duck fat with the brandy, garlic and rosemary stuck in my cheeks and I rued the time when it was going to go away. Just seeped into the cheek lining in such a beautiful way.

The Brussels sprouts salad was nearly as good. Usually made with shallots and parmigiano-reggiano, the red onion and mahon brightened it up and, touched with the pancetta fat, surpassed the previous preparations completely in deliciousness. Might have to change. Always loved it (surprisingly as Brussels sprouts weren't even on my tasty rader three years ago) but we might be changing.

Farro is natural with duck but a better bite was the Brussels sprouts salad with some farro. Something about the brightness of the salad and the darker, earthy quality in the chestnut farro that made for a meal in itself.

Great stuff that put duck dinner right back on the docket.

Wine: 2006 Domaine Des Tours Vin De Pays Vaucluse ($17 - WDC)

Grape: Grenache, Counoise, Syrah, Cinsault, Merlot, Dious

Appellation: Vaucluse, the large, mostly bulk wine-growing area east of CDP

Vintage (WS): 93 Ripe, pure and balanced reds, with fresh flavors and bright finishes. In the mold of 2004/1999 but slightly more concentrated; whites superb

Showed similar to how it did in the past, with a brighter edge, losing the cherry fruit note and gaining a more integrated and deeper raspberry fruit. Somewhat similar to a pinot noir, like, as Mrs. Ney said, a cross between a California and Oregon pinot noir. Still undoubtedly a Rhône but it had a similar acidity mixing with the raspberry fruit at times. Played light with less of a alcohol hit upfront than it showed in the past. Some earth and brush. Slowly going but in a great place right now.

Pairing: 90 Didn't miss Pinot Noir with duck one bit.

Well...maybe a tea note but that's it.

With the duck, it showed a purity of fruit on the mid-palate with a perfectly delicate amount of acid that was delicious. Just as this wine might have been perfect with fig tart late last year, the fig sauce and the wine marched to the same drummer all night. Figs and Rhône = happy campers.

Maybe better with the farro. Became a little darker with fine tannins perking up. And it was shocking acceptable, even nice, with the Brussels sprouts salad. Never know with greens and occasionally finicky Rhône reds, as the Domaine Des Tours has been for us.

Not good in the least with the delicious pancetta chips, though. The alcohol showed up and dramatically shortened the finish.

It was a complete meal with a great bargain wine.

Missed ya, duck. You're good stuff.

Oh...Hello Again

Last December, we bolted for the highlands of the Chicago Tribune's blogging community, doing the same stuff we did here but over there.

Not realizing it was more of a Facebook-intensive group - and not being a Facebooker - we're back at the friendly confines of Home. We like Home. Because Home is Good.

But some of it is bittersweet. ChicagoNow is doing some great things. And we ate and drank extraordinarily well (index page) during our time on that site so we'll keep that up for the time being for reference purposes and figure out what to do with it.

Some highlights during our brief sojourn:

Oh, the rabbit loin with Darting Pinot Meunier! ... A Holy Grail of sorts, Two Hands Beautiful Stranger, was found, getting some of the last few bottles out there in the world and we drank it with great bison ... Quality meal at Elizabeth ... New Year's Eve Egly-Ouriet and Dagueneau Silex was an orgy of food and wine flavors. Silex is the best wine on the planet in my book (though Gail Simmons disagrees. She prefers Picton Bay) ... Sea bass and Waxman recipe endive salad with Hippolyte Reverdy Sancerre. C'mon! ... Pork butt bo ssäm. Fancy-ass Asian buffet ... Wild boar Christmas dinner and pheasant terrine lunch made us feel all mountainy ... Two more Bordeaux fails. Toss it on the pile (not even going to link) ... Our favorite meal on the planet, tuna Niçoise, saw more love, getting all dirty-delicious with a Les Pallìeres rosé ... Thomas Keller chicken thighs with fennel, lemon and olives and bacon fat crispy potato roast and Vieux Télégraphe Blanc opened up another ridiculously great food and wine pairing door in our world ... Veggie explosion with 2009 Quinta do Cardo Síria. Hot damn! ...  Chicken in lemongrass barbecue sauce with Selbach-Oster. So open! So much space! ... Frappato's the Stuff in my world right now. It was the stuff times 50 with fava bean and ricotta salata strozzapreti ... Duck leg confit, tea-smoked lentils and beets with a very pretty Efeste Jolie Bouche syrah shocked the pants off us ... Tuna, blood oranges and heirloom tomatoes with Owen Roe Pinot Noir Durant? Always happy food but unique pairing here, though ... Beets, carrots and avocado salad with duck breast and a bargain New Zealand pinot simply exploded with loveliness in the mouth ... Lamb-stuffed artichoke cups and garbanzo beans over pistachio-saffron rice with a Moroccan syrah was new and new with a side of happy-slappy new ... A trip to D.C. made for a great food escape with Jaleo, Minibar and 2 Amy's. But Komi. Oh, Komi. There's little better in this world ...and more. So much more.

We ate so well during these last nine-ish months, getting more seasonal, eating smaller portions of meat and a crapload more veggies (proper adjective for that). Things got more complex in ways and never suffered from it, always elevating things instead of dragging meals down. It feels like we drank a touch more thoughtfully as well, taking more care to match up secondary flavors in the food with wine that made such a thing sing.

This is what we Like. It's our hobby, our joy. I've said it before and I'll say it again (and again), Food and wine deeply integrated into one's life as part of one's day, one's rhythm, feels like a frickin' Gift.

Big plans in the works for this new (old) site. Maybe we'll even get all podcasty (or not). I've taken a couple of months off and we missed the reference.

"We're back!"

#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.