#190 - Hanger Steak Adobada, Potatoes & Arugula With '08 Firehouse Red

Hey, look, I spelled hanger steak right.  I'm growing (shakes head).

I didn't expect a $15, short-windowed wine would need an hour and a half in the decanter.

A half-hour wasn't nearly enough, leaving us with a wine that, for over half of the meal, offered little outside of new oak and tannin.  We could feel that it desperately wanted to get there, wanted to come out and play but once it did, much of the food on the plate was already consumed.

Zinfandel was the call with this meal.  Or the similarly-priced Schild Estate GMS.

We hadn't had hanger steak in five months and this one was one of the best we've had and it very much wanted a better pairing to help it take off.

On a baseball note, the Angels haven't scored a run in 21 innings.  Runs are important. They help you win games.  In the immortal words of my former baseball coach, "I think if we score more runs than the other team, we might have a chance to win this one."

Just a thought.

Food:  Adobo-marinated hanger steak, potatoes with Michael Symon Worcestershire mayo, arugula and chimichurri 

A recipe from The Week magazine that sounds delicious and it was.  The only alteration was the use of specific chilies, going with ancho, casabel and mulato.  Not spicy hot, just tons of depth all over the place.  Chilies dominated but it was the secondary flavors that lingered so well.  Cloves and allspice jumped out with everything coming together to create a taste somewhat foreign yet deliciously familiar.  A perfect medium-rare sear.  Five months since the last hanger steak meal?  Really?

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.

TWIB Notes: This Week In Bottles

What's the difference between TWIB Notes and Quick Hits?

Nothin'.

Someday - I'm shooting for July of 2017 - I'll figure out how to organize this here blog. Same with painting the apartment.

Better food week than last. French roast chicken, a great elderflower cheese, cocoa hanger steak with fancy Portuguese wine, and a panzanella salad whose preparation made the kitchen look like a gaggle of wild muskrats got loose and went to town.

#148 - Michael Symon Hanger Steak And Yuca Fries With '07 Pingus PSI

A plentiful pickle (-d) party permeating every pore of the pretty protein on the plate!

"Don't practice your alliteration on me!"

If I was prone to year-end listy-type things, I'd say the hanger steak with a fried egg on top at Lola in Cleveland last April would be up there. Like in the top 10. Maybe between #3 and #8. It's #5. I've decided.

Last August, Mrs. Ney mimicked it to great effect using skirt.

That time, we ate it with an Australian shiraz that felt like it was nearing its demise but still brought the fruit.

That's what we probably should have heeded this time. More fruit.

Food: Lola-style hanger steak with yuca fries and an arugula-parsley salad

Recipe here. Yep. From a Michael Symon appearance on the Rachel Ray Show.

Good, not great hanger steak but fine stuff. A sinewy mess on a couple pieces but great hanger gnarly flavor on most. Marinated in coriander, salt, sugar and chili powder and left to sit overnight. The coriander comes through quite beautifully.

Topped with the aforementioned pickled party. Onions and peppers pickled and put on top of the meat with homemade Worcestershire sauce. Both the pickled elements and the Worcestershire sauce once again brought a pretty and cheek-sticking low-level and very pretty acid. Always present and always welcome, something that can't be said for most pickling stuff out in the world. And the Worcestershire sauce could be drunk by itself, it's that good. Balsamic/crapload of herbs base but flavored with the half-bottle left of the Thackrey, it came out something freakin' delicious.

Yuca fries = top five favorite food in this house. Another nomination for the list. Even though we've had them for years, for 2010, it's #3. Garlic mayo for dipping.

Arugula-parsley salad to finish.

Getting a bite of the pickled elements (especially the pickled serrano), a piece of meat doused in Worcestershire and a bit of parsley made for everything we wanted and craved from the meal. Great stuff to finish out the year (I suddenly seem obsessed with year-end crap!)

Wine: 2007 Pingus PSI ($35 - Binny's)

Sisseck's third bottling. Blah, blah, blah.

100% tempranillo. Last had this one at Mado in February. Mado is, alas, no more for the most part. Robert Leavitt left to open his own butcher and larder named Butcher & Larder, looking to open in Logan Square within the next week. But I digress.

Opened for a half hour before drinking. Deep red in the glass. More fruit this time on the nose, showing smoky sweet plums and leather that followed to the tongue. Less wild this time. More settled in its flavors and progression, but a more singular fruit profile with the plum dominating and maybe a blackberry edge. Buttered toast and a wee hint of vanilla. Subtle earthy, fine dark dirt, raw menthol tobacco and charcoal finish. And a very dry finish with tannins still bucking everywhere but something that settled down to a reasonable level rather quickly.

Best thing I can say is that this vintage has a place and we'll be following it. Not near the top of the list after drinking it twice this year and seeing where it went (and is probably going to go) but I'd be interested enough to find out what it's like in two years. Missed that blackberry/cherry note that I thought would keep the fruit diversified, though. A long decant may have helped things but my interest may still have dropped 5% in this vintage with this showing.

Pairing: 84 Nothing remarkable in the least but enough there to keep us from opening something else

More fruit, please. The pickling elements needed something bigger and more in-your-face, Look At ME! personality. It hollowed out the core of the wine and beat it up for the most part. This was a biggish meal and the PSI needed something more subtle, earthy and mild, like a good Spanish feast to accentuate its pretty secondary flavors.

This didn't have that. This wanted a Robin Williams-type personality in the form of a ready-to-go Australian shiraz or some very recent fruity garbage blend like the Owen Roe Abbott's Table with all its zinfandel and blaufrankish sweet fruit, which we should have drunk but I nixed.

Now we know.

#105 - Lola-Style Skirt Steak & Yuca Fries With '05 Colonial Estate Envoy

Sometimes, good enough is actually welcome...

...welcome because of what didn't happen to the food and wine compared to what did.

It wasn't great. The wine was a little short and a little muddled but there was much to recommend, like watching a perfectly pleasant little movie that never made you feel like you wasted your time while watching it even though you probably wouldn't ever dare to watch it again lest the shine wear off quickly or you find a reason to absolutely hate it.

Last night's pairing was akin to watching the movie Once.

Food: Skirt steak with pickled onions and pickled jalapeños with yuca fries and a arugula/parsley salad with pomegranate seeds and Lola steak sauce

Salt-sugar-coriander-ancho chile powder-rubbed and marinated Paulina skirt steak with pickled onions and pickled jalapeños on top and Lola steak sauce to drizzle over the top.

A Michael Symon hanger steak recipe.

I had a completely random, out-of-the-blue Lola Bistro hanger steak craving and Mrs. Ney mimicked it, substituting skirt. We've had it at Lola twice now (chronicled here and here) and it's why food is good. Topped with Lola steak sauce that brings a beautifully silky, low-level acid that ties the pickled elements to the meat in a great way. And more pickled elements will be showing up on the plate in the Ney house with attempts to marry them with silky sauce. Just great stuff that made the skirt come off very light, clean and fresh.

Yuca fries with spicy mayo for dipping = staple and it had been awhile since the last time we had them.

Arugula and parsley salad with pomegranate seeds. Pomegranate because they had to be used up and pomegranate was in the wine tasting notes. Parsley because it's become oddly essential in our world and is freakin' delicious with skirt steak. Who knew?

A meal that completely satisfied the Lola hanger craving and made us feel happy. And easy-squeezy to make. Not fancy-foo-foo.

Wine: 2005 Colonial Estate Envoy ($20, down from $40 two years ago - WDC)

Grape: Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre

Region: Barossa Valley in Australia

Vintage (WS): 97 Ideal weather made balanced, generous wines

We bought three bottles of this one two years ago after a 50% markdown was too irresistible to pass up at Wine Discount Center. It's shown a dramatic arc in the last two years of drinking them.

Close to finished now as it's lost most of its interesting depth and the fruit has turned from a more intense darkish fruit to something resembling macerated red fruits that have sat out for a bit.

Short finish and the fruit isn't particularly lively but the structure was still there, if hanging on for dear life. A bit gamey on the nose showing slightly dried dark cherry on the palate mixing with something a bit tobacco-y. Had a very abrupt, Frank Costanza-like "stop short" halfway down, leaving the finish a tad empty and hollow with a very slight perk-up way down at the bottom.

Fine enough but we're glad it was our last bottle. Fun to see how it matured but it's old and gray now and dangerously close to smelling like an old person who pushes ribbon candy on unsuspecting visitors.

But for all that, it was a gamer with the food.

Pairing: 88 The old dog still had some game in those creaky legs

With tons of pickling and big skirt flavors on the plate, the wheels of the bus never really fell off and even slightly enhanced some things.

It was kind of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. With the skirt and pickled jalapeño with a touch of sauce, the wine's fruit dominated in almost pretty way. Add some pickled onion in the mix and...not so much. But with the former, the wine was better and the sauce's inherent goodness really shined.

Overall, the wine was probably best with the yuca fries and mayo, something that showed itself to be true in the past with Australian wines. They're a nice match with Australia's more fruit-forwardness but this was a more subtle GSM compared to a Shiraz and it still produced the same effect. Something about the crispy element mixed with a little spice forced the wine to reveal itself very early in the mouth. It woke it up and even seemed to take a few years off it.

It may have been ever so slightly dull at times and we wouldn't do a match with this wine's vintage again but a lot could have gone wrong and it didn't.

I tried to watch a few minutes of Once a couple of months ago on HBO and had to turn it right away. Something was being destroyed. My memory of the experience of watching it the first time was being rotted and I started to see it through a more critical eye. The pairing last night, I suspect, would have a similar effect if we did it again.

We found a nice place with the wine and food and we'll just leave it right where we left it.

#154 - Hanger & Onion/Spinach Napoleons With '06 Filliatreau la Grande Vignolle

Leftover-garbage-buried in the freezer-"Let's see how this goes" meal last night.

And it went quite well.

We've been in a bit of a pairing slump of late. Feels like it anyway. Might have something to do with the poo-arse weather and dreariness that comes with late December-early January but not much has stood out w/r/t wine. Except this one, of course. Yeah...that was Good.

Some of it, as Mrs. Ney ruminated on last night, probably comes from the fact that we've drunk so much white and rosé wine this winter. We love white and rosé, of course, but there is a point of diminishing returns when you drink so much of said wine that is indelibly attached, or in the least elevated, by its delicious accompaniment to the weather outside.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whites and rosés should never to boxed into "summer quaffer." Of course not. We drink a ton of it when it's bone-chillingly cold. But too much during that time can make you want to put it to bed until the joy of having the windows open in the apartment for the first time presents itself. Too much has made us want so much less of it.

So let the red flow.

Food: Hanger steak, onion/spinach napoleons and fava beans

Freezer hanger steak that didn't taste like it. Came off fresh. Marinated in parsley, onion, lemon and extra virgin olive oil, much like the Greek-style Bittman chicken marinade from two weeks ago.

Napoleons made with mini pancakes (originally going to be crepes but didn't make it). Pancake batter made from the leftover French Pot Chicken from the day before, blending the potatoes, carrots, onions and juice into a batter.

Used the mini pancakes to make layers stuffed with a combination of sautéed onion and spinach, roasted kumatoes, sheep's milk ricotta, roasted garlic, lemon zest, oregano and dill, calling them napoleons, cuz it's our house and we can. Oodles of savory goodness with quality depth jumping everywhere, coming off creamy at one time only to change to this rustic, almost Italian jumble of deliciousness. Light that changed to substantial. Bright that changed to dark. Odd and weird, delicious and wonderful.

Freshly-shucked fava beans tossed with shallot, mint, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil and dumped over the entire plate adding a lift to the entire plate.

For a meal made on the fly and incorporating so many leftovers, it tasted...intentional. And pretty darn good.

Wine: 2006 Filliatreau la Grande Vignolle Saumur-Champigny ($20 - WDC)

Grape: 100% cabernet franc

SubRegion: Anjou-Saumur

Appellation: Saumur-Champigny (fun to say)

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

We've had two cab francs since the start of this blog. Enjoyed the first (2006 Guiberteau) and piqued my interest more for cab franc than any other one I had before. This one stayed right in that "interesting" vein.

Four hour decant, recommended by the person we bought it from and it helped. Tight and tannic right out of the bottle. After the decant, it opened up into something almost generous with red cherries and black cherry pit all over the plate with a rose petal edge. Meaty core with vegetal/red pepper/green and black olive hints going everywhere, alternating with every sip.

Bigger than the Guiberteau with an impression that came off like a watered-down shiraz at times, but mostly medium-bodied with an always prevalent acidity that accented the cherry pit notes on the finish.

Good stuff. Don't know if I need it again but, good stuff.

Pairing: 86 Great with the hanger, short with the napoleons

The wine exploded with the char on the hanger steak, making every note in the wine jump up a level and become more distinguished, bigger, more concentrated and darker.

The napoleons shortened the wine's finish considerably, something that seemed to be the result of the onions as I tried them separately and killed it even more. Nothing strange, just muted.

Overall though, not too shabby.

Really enjoyed the food. Almost enjoyed the pairing.

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #7

Dear Committee Members, by Julie Schumacher, was house favorite over the last couple of weeks. Breezy, hilarious read, particularly for anybody who spent WAY too much time in a college town.

The rest of the year will be me reading books I never finished. This week, White Noise by Don Delillo. It's rather refreshing to read post-modern literature after reading the pile of suck that is post-post-post-modern literature.

And I've never looked less forward to football season than this year, college and pro. It all seems so freakin' exhausting. Go...Browns?

Total food and wine cost for the week: $90 for food and $98 for wine = $188

Sunday: Free Chicken, White BBQ sauce, kumatoes, herb salad, basil and rolls with NV Grifone Bianco Sicily

Food Details: Free chicken! (no price tag on it at work), roasted. White BBQ sauce, basil, herb salad from Trader Joe's, and rolls. Rip and top. Eat. But the big key here was the magic that happened with the white BBQ sauce and tons of basil together. Make sauce, buy basil, compile ripped piece of roll + chicken + sauce + TONS of basil. It equals dinner MAGIC!

Did We Like It? YEP-YEP-YEP! Everything around the sauce-basil was background. This sauce and lots of basil made for an explosive new flavor that would probably be on a tasting menu from a Sean Brock-Michael Symon "special food night." Dances James Brown-like in your mouth! And the wine helped.

How Was The Wine? It's cheap moscato-riesling from Sicily. Trader Joe's. $5. Loves food, particularly big flavors from chicken pick-n-choose. Usually a nice fruity refresher with this meal, here with sauce-basil, it turned into a cross between moss-covered oceanside rock and water from a flower vase, with tiny hits of smoked fruit peel. And we weirdly loved it.

And The Pairing? See above. This wasn't right in a traditional pairing sense, but was oh-so right in a life sense. Piggybacked on the utter uniqueness of the sauce-basil flavor and created a second unique deliciousness in such a welcome way. Great meal right before vacation.

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

Saturday: Indian Carrot Salad with Goat Curry, Naan and Raita with 2014 Earthstone Sauvignon Blanc Sonoma County

Source: Jamie Oliver recipe here.

Food Details: Took goat curry from the freezer, cooked it down to evaporate most of the liquid. A salad of carrot, onion, cilantro, mint and sesame seeds. Dressing of lemon, ginger, olive oil, cumin and mustard seeds, s/p. Mixed with salad. Plate of arugula, carrot salad on top, goat on top of that. Raita and naan on the side.

Did We Like It? Big thumbs up! Way up! And two more items came out of the freezer. It's rarely been so empty. I should clean it. Or maybe not. The goat curry turned into spicy Asian goat BBQ and it was delicious. But this meal, always, is a big spread of Indian-influenced food that satisfies every jones you'd ever have. Spicy, fresh, meaty, vegetable-y, dip, dunk, eat, cleanse. I love it so much. I like it more than I like most people.

How Was The Wine? We stayed cheap. The Earthstone Sauvignon Blanc has taken over for the Trader Joe's Growers Reserve, mainly because it offers cool, breezy acid and fruit restraint that went missing from the latter lately. It's nothing special, and wasn't here, but it hits some guzzle-worthy place when drunk during a busy and annoying work week, as it was here.

And The Pairing? See above. Missed on a goat curry bite, but the acid liked the carrots, cilantro and arugula. Fine "refreshing beverage" with this meal.

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


Friday: Ham and Cheese on Pretzel Buns with 2014 La Granja 360 Tempranillo Cariñena

Food Details: That's it. You read it above. Cheap ham and cheap cheese on pretzel buns. We're saving for vacation, so poof! ham-cheese-pretzel.

Did We Like It? We're saving for vacation, so poof! ham-cheese-pretzel. Did I mention that?

How Was The Wine? Chilled tempranillo was put in a glass so I could keep up this 365 business.

And The Pairing? Wine. Food.

Cost: $9 for food, $4 for wine = $13


Thursday: Mexican Rice with 2014 La Granja 360 Verdejo-Viura Castilla y León

Food Details: Freezer-garbage Mexican rice dinner consisting of Mexican rice, kielbasa from Wednesday, freezer salsa, freezer peas and non-pooped-on cilantro. Sour cream on top.

Did We Like It? Went above 'filling a hole.' We MUST empty the freezer. Nothing goes in and at least one thing comes out with each meal. So, strange food this week, according to Mrs. Ney. Here, we had carbs, protein, herbs and sour cream goop. A big bowl of Mexican-ish stuff in it. That'll do.

How Was The Wine? House white. Spanish verdejo-viura from Trader Joe's. It's $5 and suffices for meals like this. Its flavor tastes like a random Tuesday when we decided it was time for afternoon wine.

And The Pairing? No complaints. Food and wine in the basic sense, but I wasn't left wanting.

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


Wednesday: Tapas Spread with NV Albero Sparkling White Wine

Food Details: Trader Joe's Spanish meats sampler pack of saucisson, serrano and chorizo, Sardininan Brigante cheese, marcona almonds, arugula, garlic/parsley/olive oil baguette and kielbasa-stuffed dates in piquillo-tomato (?) sauce, which we barely touched and will probably be puréed and used for a meatball dinner.

Did We Like It? Yep. Tasted like our Spanish/Portuguese vacations, when we go to a supermarket and compile a cheap dinner with what we can find at El Corte Inglés or Pingo Doce. This $5 sampler pack isn't too shabby. The serrano isn't particularly distinctive, but the other two maintain a minimum quality in terms of flavor/freshness to be worthwhile. And it's the perfect amount for two. Solid Sardinian cheese, which is true for most Sardinian cheeses I've tasted. They like cheese in the way I like cheese - sheepy, creamy, grassy, nutty. Almonds, arugula, garlic, parsley, all the goods needed for a tapas spread and a leisurely two-hour dinner. What's not to like?

How Was The Wine? $6 cheap Trader Joe's Spanish sparkler made from viura, malvasia and airén, we believe. Fruity, fuzzy, frothy, focused, six dollars. Likes food. What's not to like? Not. Fancy. Just bargain bubbles with nice acid and fruit, and tastes like cheap house wine in Spain, which has a quality we enjoy.

And The Pairing? Tasted like thrown-together vacation food, where the pairing doesn't really matter, and there's enough elemental Spanish-ness all over the place to bring a smile to your face.

Cost: $15 for food, $12 for wine = $27


Tuesday: Melissa Clark Green Goddess Chicken, Zucchini-Tomato-Onion Salad and Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits with 2014 Matthiasson Tendu White California

Source: Two Melissa recipes: Green Goddess Chicken and Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

Food Details: "Use stuff up!" dinner. GGC recipe altered a bit, using chicken thighs and cooked under a brick in the cast-iron. Green Goddess sauce, using as many herbs in the crisper as possible (no chives, so dill), while using a whole serrano to bring more pep. Used freezer GG to marinate the chicken. Made a fresh one for dipping and dunking. Buttermilk biscuits, a bit charred, but served admirably as a carb component. Grilled zucchini mixed with leftover pickled onions, and tomatoes that needed to be used up. Make it, drag and dump GG sauce through everything, and you'll be a happy camper.

Did We Like It? Yes, yes and yes. We went through a big Green Goddess phase from mid-2013 through mid-2014, but haven't had it recently. It has everything you need in terms of greeny punch and broad, healthy zip. Wakes you up and goes quite deep. Your stomach wants herbs, veggies, acid and balance. Your head wants it to taste good. This has all of that.

How Was The Wine? We fell in love with the 2013 Tendu, a 100% vermentino in a one-liter bottle that gave lovely herbal, ocean, briny notes with plenty of snap and character. Simple, lovely, right and proper. We blew through 6-8 bottles last year. The 2013 started to lose its snap and energy by the winter of this year, so we waited for the 2014s to show up in Chicago. Then it didn't, until Pastoral had it on their restaurant wine list and they were kind enough to sell me three through their shop. The 2014 is mostly vermentino with French colombard and chardonnay thrown in due to the fact that the vermentino this year didn't have the acidity needed to make Tendu, Tendu. At first, we loved it, thinking it might be better than the 2013, but the chardonnay showed up a little too much for us, losing the personality, grizzle and verve that we loved so much in the 2013. It's still Tendu. We like it, and will buy every release. It's wine that likes food that we like. This year just won't be "We need a case! Now!"

And The Pairing? This is where the Tendu wasn't the Tendu we love. The GG gobbled up the vermentino and shoved it into the background, allowing the chardonnay to come forth from the shadows. We like chardonnay but don't crave it, except with very specific food. And this was nice chardonnay, lean and mean. But this food wants vermentino to give everything that vermentino is, a wine that tastes like a stiff ocean breeze blowing over a sandy, grassy bank. Stupid California drought and heat.

Cost: $11 for food, $29 for wine = $40  


Monday: Sean Brock Steak, Potatoes and Steak Sauce with 2003 Chateau Fombrauge St.-Emilion

Source: Heritage, by Sean Brock: herb-marinated hanger steak with onion gratin and steak sauce (pg. 135; sauce page 240). Here's the recipe from someone on the internets.

Food Details: Hanger steak marinated tarragon, parsley, chervil, chives, s/p and olive oil. Let sit. Seared medium-rare. Onion gratin. You don't have to slice onion paper-thin. It's going in the blender. You do have to slice the potatoes paper-thin, because, like potato tart, the texture it gives is essential. For the gratin, the recipe says 8-inch round baking dish. No way three pounds of potatoes fits in there. Adjust. Steak sauce made from about 15 different ingredients, simmered, blended (used dried apricots instead of golden raisins).

Did We Like It? Here's steak and potatoes, with a steak sauce that tastes like a hybrid of Heinz 57 and A-1, but it's so much more than mere steak and potatoes with steak sauce. In fact, the entire meal was a hybrid of steak and potatoes many of us grew up with, while elevating everything enough that anybody could get into the nostalgia trip without thinking it's a gimmick. Make it. It's Sean Brock. He makes things that come from a good and honest place. Everything will taste like a better version of every steak and potatoes with steak sauce meal you've ever had.

How Was The Wine? Gotta. Drink. All. This. Bordeaux. So this meal seemed like a good opportunity. Huge, pretty nose. Real presence. Very alive wine, with round blackberry/cherry that gives way quickly to an earthy mid-palate and a subtle vanilla oak/blue Sweet Tart finish. Sounds like a generic Right Banker, but it's very nice, medium-bodied, properly aged, value-driven stuff.

And The Pairing? Delicious with the gratin, giving everything it could give, and creating that thing that nice Bordeaux and food creates. Less so with the hanger and steak sauce, as the vinegar in the sauce interrupted the linear progression of the wine, chopping it up a bit. But happy stuff overall here.

Cost: $34 for food, $33 for wine = $67

#13 - Hanger Steak, Yuca & Miguel Torres Chilean Cabernet

If you're ever stuck in the wine store over what wine to get and want to keep the budget low, you can rarely go wrong with anything by Miguel Torres. And believe me, there will be 12,000 different choices from the guy.

Torres mostly makes approachable wines in the northeastern region of Spain but he has vines everywhere in Spain for the most part. He's also a huge name in Chile, accounting for 4 million bottles a year.

We don't drink Cabernet much. It's not our thing. And I can't remember the last time I drank a Chilean Cabernet.

This bottle was given as a gift and had to be drunk soon in order to avoid hurt feelings. We had no expectations really, but were quite surprised.

Food: Hanger Steak with Chimichirri and Yuca Fries over Arugula

Big fans of hanger and yuca here. Yuca and mayo never gets old. And never will. Best. Fries. Ever.

With the chimichurri, the entire meal are Argentinean-ish with the pan-Latin yuca goodness added on.

This meal used to be a staple in the Ney household. Great to revisit it. Always good stuff.

Wine: 2006 Miguel Torres Cabernet Sauvignon Curicó Valley Manso de Velasco Old Vines - $20 Costco

Instead of the usual fruit bomb New World Cabernet offers, this one's more subtle and balanced. Still big, just doesn't stand up and say, "Look at me! I'm Cabernet!" like most New World Cabs.

Tons of plum, a little chocolate and sage. The wine allows you to get to the mid-palate without it screaming to notice it. Smooth, seamless. Nice underlying notes of fig. Everything's well-integrated, letting you find new things with each sip. Low tannins. Round mouthfeel.

For people who don't like Cabernet, this is a good one. If it was a little more earthy, could have been a great bargain Bordeaux if tasted blind.

Pairing: Fully functional

Really kicked up with the hanger steak, leaving a wonderful, long finish, bringing out a little cinnamon, maybe. Really nice with the yuca and mayo. A bit oaky with yuca alone. Pleasant with the arugula by itself, a rare thing for many reds.

The wine made for a meal greater than the sum of its parts. Can't ask for more.

And it's from Costco!

#92 - Hanger Steak, Zucchini Jam & Fried Egg With Two Duds

Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

Or maybe not.

A few wines exist in the cellar that have to be drunk quite soon as they approach the end of their drinking window. Some of them aren't going to be good. Some might be interesting. Some might surprise.

Last night was the first one.

To quote a Score caller, "Some stuff sucks."

In an attempt to salvage a pretty tasty meal with another wine, we opened another bottle in the cheap vein and, while it performed marginally better, it stayed in the same realm of boring, especially with the food.

Both were like the Pirates and Orioles this year. Everything was true and they tasted like this was their intent, but bad is bad and that's that.

Food: Hanger steak with a zucchini, pepper and onion jam, arugula and a fried egg for me

Simply prepared hanger steak (salt, pepper and olive oil) with a little more char on the outside. A zucchini, bell pepper and onion jam from the New Spanish Table (pg. 29) that smelled like ratatouille and tasted quite good. More finely chopped with just a wee hint of sweetness. Went great with the hanger and the egg yolk as it bled into the medley. In fact, a bite of hanger, egg and jam was simply awesome.

A nice meal, a satisfying meal. A solid mid-week meal. Nothing transcendent but I was full and happy.

Topped off with blueberry pie with blueberries from Harvestime on sale for a ridiculous $1.50 a carton. Would have been a crime to not buy them.

The entire meal could have been lifted to different heights with better wine.

Our choices for the night weren't. Bad and bad with a side of bad.

Wine: 2003 Domaine de Baron'arques Limoux ($15 - Binny's) And Loios J. Portugal Ramos Tinto Alentejano ($8 - WDC)

Went with cheaper side projects from good producers for the night.

The Domaine de Baron'arques is made in the Limoux appellation in the Languedoc in southern France by the family company running the Mouton-Rothschild estate, currently run by Phillipe's daughter and her two sons since his death in 1988 (Lafite is run by Eric de Rothschild). The story of Mouton and its ascendency to First-Growth status is a bit fascinating. Check out Noble Rot by William Eckikson, a nice little popcorn read that follows the development of the 2000 Bordeaux vintage and touches on some of the First-Growth details. And Mouton is a global brand with collaborative projects in Napa with Mondavi making the esteemed Opus One, and in Chile with Concha y Toro making the Almaviva. Last night's wine is much closer to home.

The 2003 vintage was the first for the Domaine de Baron'arques estate under the Rothschilds' control. A blend of 50% merlot and 10% each of cabernet, cab france, grenache, syrah and malbec, it received solid reviews upon release but the drinking window ended in 2010, which hey! That's this year!

And it showed.

Odd mixture of slightly stewed fruit with an occasional tannic grip. Tasted like nothing above a cheap, supermarket French blend that says "French wine" on the front. Occasionally, some fruit that resembled something distinctive popped with a little cherry showing through but mostly only bland, boring and past-its-window merlot with its cooked plums showed through. Came off flat, disjointed and done with some odd tannins hanging around. Sometimes, you can catch a heavily discounted wine at a good spot. The early 2000s Pragers have served us well. This one, $15 down from $35, stayed true to the reason for the discount. Nothing to recommend here. Move on (though I'll give it a shot to see what happens the next day after being opened for a bit).

The 2008 Loios João Portugal Ramos Tinto (a blend of Aragonês, Trincadeira and Castelão), by contrast, was just released and comes from...well...Mr. João Portugal Ramos, a superstar consultant at many of Portugal's best wineries for years who is now doing his own thing in southern Portugal's Alentejo region. Also, would someone please sell his 2007 Duorum Reserva on the North American continent so I can buy it. Geesh! It's been a failed quest since having it in Toronto.

The Loios, while it certainly performed better than the Domaine de Baron'arques, wasn't anything distinctive or really that tasty. Tons of butterscotch and vegetal notes, very soft and never got out of the fair-to-middling table wine world. It was $8 but never played above its price. Might have needed some decanting to get the party started.

Pairing: 65 Brutal

Can't say much. As a pairing....awful. A lot of blandness with a side of blandness.

Might have been interesting to see what a Heredia red would have done with the food but we weren't opening a third bottle.

Quick Hits

Bocadillos, Basque shrimp, chicken-sprout sandwiches, lemon-dill hanger steak & Sun-Wah Beijing duck and fish balls. With the wines above, in order.

We ate and drank fine enough this week, but thoughts on food, wine and their pairings were gobbled up by this comically terrible winter. If this shifting jet stream business has any validity, that this TYPE of winter is here to stay...we might have to live someplace else. In Chicago, it's going to be cold, it's going to be gray, and it's going to last you the rest of your life.

#231 - Two Birthday Meals

Insert Jack Benny joke here.

Like...for the condition that must exist before the joke starts ad infinitum.

For a birthday such as that, two of the classics, or new classics, or...heck, just two meals that we've come to immensely enjoy seemed apt, right and proper.

Italian lunch and sort of Cuban dinner.

And sandwiched between both meals was an Iowa loss to Minnesota so Happy Birthday to me, indeed.

Lunch:  Marinated mozzarella and kumatoes with baguette

#44 - Hanger Steak & Vanilla Mashed Potatoes With '00 Right Bank

It was $40, down from $80.

And it was 10 years old, the traditional opening of the drinking window for most Bordeaux.

And it was from Jonathan Maltus, a "flying winemaker" whose wines we've enjoyed for what they were in the past.

And we were in the mood for something merlot-based.

And it wasn't that good, at least not what we wanted.

Food: Hanger steak with sautéed shallots and bacon with vanilla mashed potatoes and mâche

Hanger steak, that lovely funky, gnarly beef, made a return appearance after a too-long sabbatical in the Ney household. Medium rare with a shallot-bacon topping. Salty goodness.

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!

From a food standpoint, we were sitting in the cat bird's seat.

Then the wine happened.

Wine: 2000 Chateau LaForge St. Emilion Grand Cru ($40 - Binny's)

90% merlot, 10% cabernet franc. Reddish-purple in the glass. Truffles on the nose right now, turning to macerated plum and dark berry. We had high hopes to start, mainly because we opened a Trader Joe's Right Bank an hour or so before just to see what it's like. The 2002 Chateau Coucy ("That's what she said!") tastes like we were drinking a tree. After that, anything would have seemed like heaven.

Maltus has about 12,000 labels. We've loved his Australian operation, Colonial Estate (Exile and Émigré), which uses old vines previously used by Penfolds Grange. And you have probably seen his Chateau Teyssier label around town. He has vines in Napa and the Languedoc as well. Basically, he comes in and buys up neglected or failing houses, modernizes them and pumps out moderately-priced wines (for the most part, his "garage wine" Le Dôme is not, shall we say, cheap) in a style that's representative of the area.

The LaForge has been praised by many critics for its complexity by some press (Decanter and Tanzer) and seen as a nice upstart. Um...we didn't get that.

More gravelly than silky, the wine didn't have that plushness we wanted and usually get from Right Bank Bordeaux. The generosity of the fruit faded in and out and only very occasionally did I get a big mushroom hit. Wasn't seamless, a bit clunky and still oaky. A crumbling cork might have led to a wee bit of oxidation but the wine tasted proper, like this was the true expression of what it was supposed to be. It just didn't come together, like a very moderate step up from a table wine.

In many ways, I think we've been lucky with Right Bank wines. By latching onto Clos Fourtet and Chateau Fombrauge early on (and rather accidentally), everything will always be compared to those in this price point.

Pairing: Wanted so much more

Oddly, it was better with the greens than anything else. The subtle bitterness of the mâche wasn't too bad at all with the LaForge and that was where I got the mushroom hit.

It just didn't work with fat in any form at all. Vanilla mashed potatoes, for us, has been a pretty great pairing with Right Bank in the past. Perfect, actually.

Did. Nothing.

LaForge, after the initial good press (Maltus has only been making it since 1998), was released for upwards of $150. That's dropped dramatically of late, down to $50 for the 2006.

Seems like they're still figuring out what LaForge wants to be.

#196 - Harissa Hanger, Spicy Carrot Purée & Sherry Onions With '08 Mas Carlot

Good things are good.

Last night's dinner was good, great actually.

Bridesmaids is not so much good, well, sorta almost good, marginally almost funny, not the worst way to spend a 97 degree day.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams is quite good and should probably be seen in 3-D, just make sure to go in with knowledge of Werner Herzog's penchant for meandering through the material in a way that can only be seen through his eyes.  Do that and you'll love it.  And the postscript absolutely has a place.

I cannot recommend Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN, an 800 page manufactured drama of the most inconsequential inconsequentialness.  If you're interested in the behind-the-scenes fights over how the ESPYs made it to air, then this is for you.  For me, it's like listening to other people's stories about their children.  Keep it.  The Pale King, DFW's unfinished novel, was bought for summer reading but instead I chose to finish this pile of poo.  And it's 800 pages!  Did I mention that?

But back to the good.

Ever eaten high quality soil?  We have, last night, on the plate and in the glass and it was delicious.

#290 - Yakitori Hanger & Yuca With '05 Quinta Do Vale Meão

Or hanging tenders, as the Whole Foods label said.

We didn't know hanger steak had another name like hanging tenders.

Learn something new everyday.

And it's quite a little product. $8/lb as opposed to $14/lb at Paulina. These trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes, ready to be skewered so we did it up Asian-style and ate it with our favorite starch and one of our favorite wines.

Food:  Yakitori hanger and onion skewers with yuca fries and arugula salad

Hanger steak cubes marinated in soy sauce, mirin, dry sake, brown sugar, black pepper, garlic and ginger, a Saveur recipe using beef instead of chicken. Meat skewered with yakitori-soaked onions interlaced between each cube. Parsley and mint dumped on top. Well-done hanger. Oops! But oddly delicious nonetheless with the marinade leading the way at every turn. The meat simply became a vehicle for the deep Asian mouth surprise ("That's what she said!").

#51 - Hanger, Fish Tacos & Three Mediocre Wines

Let's combine two meals this week that were eaten with three wildly mediocre wines.

Food: Mustard-red wine rubbed hanger steak with onion tart and arugula salad

Good hanger steak with a nice char, something that I thought would help the wine beautifully.

Traditional-style onion tart made with bacon had a good earthy taste and a fluffy crust. In fact, I'm eating the leftovers of it as I write this and it's still good stuff.

Arugula salad drizzled with balsamic and olive oil. Again, good capper.

Should have been a great meal. Both of us, though, thought it missed some brightness.

And some of that could have been mitigated if the wine revealed itself in the same way it did that last time we had it.

Wine: 2005 Colonial Estate GSM Envoy ($20 - Wine Discount Center)

The meal seemed to match well with a Rhône. Originally, we had the new 2007 Chateau Des Tours (brother of the Domaine Des Tours Vin de Pays that we absolutely love and is probably one of the best QPR wines we've ever had - both are wines from the venerable Châteauneuf-du-Pape winery, Château Rayas), but I had a bit of the sniffles so we deferred to an Australian done in the Rhône style.

Last time we had this, it came off much darker and much bigger with herbal, tar and spice elements.

This time, unfortunately, the dark fruits were gone, replaced by exclusively red fruits with some raspberry and cherry, medium-to-short finish, medium tannins, somewhat concentrated but not in the least distinctive.

Had that in-between mouthfeel that good Australian GSMs have, something between the New and the Old World. Not syrupy, more like deep. But everything had a manufactured feel to it and the fruit had an over-extracted sense that showed well two years ago but now is coming off a bit flat.

Just didn't distinguish itself. Would be a decent little table wine under $12 but this one used to sell for $40 once upon a time.

Pairing: Meh

Clunky. Good enough with the hanger steak but didn't enhance anything. Got by on its fading glamour, but didn't deliver the goods.

One bottle left of this. What used to be somewhat held back to match a meal in the very least has become a sandwich wine. If the wine would have stayed in the dark and deep range it showed previously, that could have brought the meal to a different level where the mustard-red wine rub began to pop and the onion tart went deeper.

It's not a bad wine - nothing disjointed. It simply isn't interesting anymore.

The same world last night compared to Tuesday when it comes to wine.

But fish tacos is a top 10 meal in our world.

Food: Mahi Mahi tacos with jalapeño sour cream, Mexican slaw, guacamole and hot sauce

Recipe taken directly from here.

Duncan Gott, the brother of winemaker Joel Gott, has a place in Napa that serves up some serious deliciousness.

Spectacular marinade on the Whole Foods mahi, garlic-y with a deep spice. Jalapeño sour cream that I could drink by itself. Easy slaw that adds crunch and depth without getting cabbagey. Insanely fresh guacamole.

It can't be emphasized more, this is great stuff.

We've had it one other time since the beginning of FWW with the ridiculously good purple corn sangria, swapping out mahi for tilapia and altering the slaw.

On that purple corn sangria, there's no better match for these fish tacos. Nothing.

And certainly not these.

Wine: 2003 Prager Riesling Bodenstein Smaragd ($14 - WDC) and 2007 Bokisch Albariño ($4 - Binny's)

I could be fine with the Bokisch albariño. It was $4. Not offensive. Not good, but not offensive. Mrs. Ney found some hard-boiled egg notes, which was worth the $4 by itself for its hilarity.

But the 2003 Prager Bodenstein is done, over, finito. Felt kind of burned by the signage at WDC on this one that said it was still drinking beautifully despite the major critics saying it was done three years ago.

Even the faintest hint of fruit is hanging on for dear life. As it came to near room temperature, I thought I found something that might have resembled orange peel or kumquat.

It's done. I have another bottle. Anybody want it?

Pairing: Nothing

Both wines added nothing. But in our world, that didn't matter. Unlike so many other meals that scream for good wine to make it better, nothing was going to detract from the greatness that is fish tacos with this recipe.

#245 - Spanish-Style Hanger & Almond-Saffron Potatoes With '05 Pico Madama

Last night's progression on the thoughts of the wine:

1.  Meh
2.  Ummm...
3.  Certainly has a lot going on...
4.  This is pretty good stuff but not really our bag...
5.  I don't know...kinda like it...wouldn't buy it again...
6.  Well...if it was on sale...
7.  I think this might have a place...
8.  Crap...there's a lot going on here...
9.  I'm not saying I wouldn't buy it again...
10.  Boy, that settles and sits reeeally well.

A 50/50 monastrell/petit verdot, we expected more of an interesting diversion than something that was going to sit in our wheelhouse with such a Spanish-Spanish meal.  I can't say we loved this wine with the food but I can say that our opinion of the wine grew more and more favorable throughout the meal.  Not because it necessarily opened up as the meal progressed (though it did a little bit), more because we sort of gave ourselves over to what it offered - its generosity, its limitations and all.

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #25

Top...Whatever Number...Pairings of 2015 (no order except the top few, so a bit of an order):

1. Ottolenghi Fish, Cocount-Peanut Salad and Rice with 2013 Darting Muskateller Kabinett Trocken

2. Tuna Niçoise with 2014 Jolie-Laide Trousseau Gris Fanucchi-Wood Road Vineyard Russian River Valley

3.  Roasted Chicken and Fennel Panzanella with 2014 Broc Cellars Picpoul Blanc Luna Matta Vineyard Paso Robles

4.  Fava Bean and Ricotta Salata Strozzapreti with 2014 Quinta de Porrais Branco Douro

5. Sausage, Zucchini, Tomato and Cream Cheese Surprise with 2014 Alloy Wine Works Grenache Rosé Central Coast

6. Lamb Chops, Charred Shallots, Yogurt, Tomato Vinaigrette and Pita with 2014 Charles & Charles Rosé Columbia Valley

7.  Yakitori-marinated hanger steak, yuca fries and Tuscan kale salad with 2006 Quinta do Vale Meão Douro

8. Lamb Salami, Feta spread, Arugula and Ciabattini Buns with 2014 João Portugal Ramos "Lima" Loureiro Vinho Verde

9. Big. Greek. Salad. With Lillet Sparkling Rosé

10. Bee-Pollened Pork Shoulder and Griddle Cakes with 2009 Jean Bourdy Côtes du Jura

11. Galician Tuna Empanadas With 2012 Forlorn Hope "Que Saudade" Sierra Foothills

12. Argentinian Skirt Steak and Shishito Pepper, Inland Cress and Frisée Salad with 2012 Luca Malbec Uco Valley

Was this our best food and wine year, Mrs. Ney? Probably, I say. I missed a few. There's still a couple of vague notions of "Wow, that's good!" meals rumbling around in my brain that I can't specifically remember. Odd there's no goat meal. Just wasn't an amazing goat-wine year.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $185 for food and $229 for wine = $414

Sunday: Smoked Chicken and Sprout Sandwiches with 2014 Alloy Wine Works Grenache Rosé Central Coast

Food Details: Whole Foods packaged smoked chicken slices, mashed avocado, kumatoes, pickled onions, Monterey jack cheese, mayo, and alfalfa-fenugreek sprouts, on Mariano's Italian-style batard bread. Olive oil potato chips.

Did We Like It? A nice batch, wet overall due to the pickled onions but the crusty bread helped a bit. Fine and good Sunday night sandwich-and-chips meal.

How Was The Wine? $8 grenache rosé in the can. We've been over this. House fav.

And The Pairing? But not here. A bit astringent and a tad boring here, probably due to the copious amount of mustard seeds and peppercorns floating around in the sandwiches from end-of-batch pickled onions.

Cost: $30 for food, $16 for wine = $46

Saturday: Argentinian Hanger Steak and Shishito Pepper-Living Cress-Arugula-Blue Cheese Salad with NV La Posta Tinto Red Blend Mendoza

Food Details: (David Beran recipe) A recreation of this meal from September, using hanger instead of skirt. Overnight hanger marinade of basil, thyme, shallot, peppercorn and olive oil. Salad of living cress, arugula, celery and leaves, mint, charred shishito peppers and Rogue Creamery Blue Cheese. Dressing of charred lemon and olive oil. Trader Joe's potato pancakes for starch.

Did We Like It? I don't know what it is about this meal. There's a lively ping-ponging of flavors, mostly lightly bitter and always popping. Just when you want it taken down a notch, here comes the blue cheese to offer creaminess and depth. Brilliant meat marinade. One of the best we've had. I cooked this one. Notes: use the cast-iron. Easy on the dressing.

How Was The Wine? Laura Catena manages five of her family's wineries in Argentina and owns two of her own (Luca and La Posta), all while working as an ER physician in San Francisco. So...yeah...geesh... We had her Luca Malbec with this meal last time, a classy, polished malbec that liked the food enough. Her 2013 La Posta Tinto, a malbec-bonarda-syrah table wine blend, was better as a pairing with this food prep. Smoky herbs and happy fruit, it tastes wildly similar to the unpretentious non-vintage red blends that we love so much, like the Marietta Cellars line. Blackberry bush notes with a touch of cherry that starts to trend sweet, but takes a quick turn to dry at just the right time. A real personality here. We loved it. And will buy more.

And The Pairing? As I said, we really liked the Luca, but it demanded our attention too much and went a bit pear-shaped with the salad. The La Posta Tinto wants one thing. It wants beef-centric food with other food toys to show off how versatile it is. One of the better table-style wines we've had of late. Big thumbs up.

Cost: $32 for food, $14 for wine = $46

Friday: Green Goddess Chicken Panzanella with 2014 Berger Grüner Veltliner Kremstal

Food Details: First, a few notes on lunch. Caviar and crème fraiche on potato chips with pear-celery-hazelnut salad quickly turned into pear-celery-hazelnut salad with potato chips because the caviar was too fishy. Nice salad, but the real winner was finding our new house Champagne - Bollinger Special Cuvée Brut. When trying to find a $50-ish Champagne that simultaneously will bring elegance without breaking the bank, we've gone from Gaston Chiquet to Ayala to Paul Bara to Pierre Peters to just trying just about every $50-ish Champagne out there. Liked them all to a certain degree, went through phases where we drank multiples of each, but Bollinger tasted like "This is what we want right now." Such elegance and grace with this drinking. Egly-Ouriet is 'for the special' so 2016 will probably be a good amount of Bollinger.

The panzanella...was an enormous amount of food! Whole Foods chicken marinated in Ms Clark's green goddess dressing, roasted. Heaping plate of fava, roasted ancient red pepper (seriously, "ancient" is its variety name), charred red onion, arugula, scallions, crushed marcona almonds, Pugliese bread croutoned-up, and more green goddess dressing tossed with all of it.

Did We Like It? Not the best version of panzanella but a damn good one. The fava beans took center stage here, taking everything into a realm of a fava garden-warmness (if that makes sense). Juicy chicken, different flavor combination with each bite, all that you'd want from Food.

How Was The Wine/Pairing? A bit off. Grüner is typically a workhorse with food, but this bottle, while technically fine, seemed a bit tired when drunk by itself and offered the same with the panzanella. Opened a bottle of cheap Trader Joe's La Granja Blanco Rioja and found a surprisingly nice matchy-match with the food, tasting like they were oddly made for each other. Much better than the Berger and not even close.

Cost: $58 for lunch and dinner, $70 for wine = $128  

Thursday: Persian Beef, Barberry Sauce and Buttered Almonds with 2004 La Rioja Alta Viña Ardanza Reserva

Food Details: (Recipe, with beef shank instead of chicken) Last had in April, this is essentially Iranian stew that doesn't resemble any stew we'd ever had before first eating it. Beef shank, tons of marrow, barberries, almonds, cardamom, turmeric, cinnamon, black pepper, rice, snap peas, mint.

Did We Like It? It's perfect stew, because every ingredient constantly bounces off each other in every bite, going deep but staying bright and lively. A wonderful back-and-forth between the dark, deep beef-marrow that played with the spices, then the barberry sauce tart-sour lifty perk. Buttered almonds that calmed all of that down with a huggy-bear nutty finish. It's brilliant stuff.

How Was The Wine? Stupid Spain. You're lovely. And you feel and taste like Home. Fruit remained in the background with this drinking, offering only a roundness and occasional cherry punch. This one was all about the sweet spice, vanilla, cedar, tobacco and Spanish air that makes good, old-style Rioja so great. We took one drink and we were back in Villabuena de Álava.

And The Pairing? This stew is right in our wheelhouse for the wine we like, but the barberries can be tricky. A graceful red with sneaky guts is needed. This one was just that. We loved it.

Cost: $15 for food,  $33 for wine = $48    

Wednesday: Chiarello Chicken Tacos and Jicama Slaw with Argus Cidery Tepache Pineapple Wine

Food Details: Michael Chiarello chicken taco recipe. Basic. Chicken thigh meat slowly simmered in onions, garlic, serranos, both paprikas, cumin, and oregano. Jicama slaw made with herbs, mayo and sour cream. Lime to spritz. Hot sauce to douse. As basic and minimalist as great tacos get.

Did We Like It? After having these, this quickly jumped right to the top of our "I want tacos that are easy and cheap, but delicious" list. We have mostly everything to make these tacos on hand at all times. The juice alone I'd drink. Loved it.

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? Here's a meal that settles things. No much futzing about with various fancy sangrias with tacos for us. Chill and drink this. It's everything you want-need from a taco-pairing beverage.

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

Tuesday: Ottolenghi Tuna and Blood Orange-Black Olive Salad with NV Philippe Glavier Rose Idylle Celeste Champagne

Food Details: (tuna recipe) Half-pound of Whole Foods tuna oiled, seasoned, seared, chilled, coated in mustard and ground pistachios and blood orange zest, chilled, sliced. Charred fennel and shallots, blood orange supremes, nicoise olives, raw mustard greens. pink peppercorns, fennel fronds and pistachio oil on top.

Did We Like It? We have a bit of a thing for blood oranges and black olives with rare tuna. Typically, Mrs. Ney studs it heavily with various shades of peppercorns, cardamom and ginger. This meal was a switch-up, looking to Mr. Ottolenghi for a different tuna prep. We liked it muchly, digging the mustard and pistachio goodness that got deep into the tuna. But it wasn't the superlative love we find from white-pink-black peppercorns, coriander, cumin, cardamom, ginger and fleur de sel. Nice change of pace, though. This meal had everything anybody would ever want from "Flavor."

How Was The Wine? Roasted carrots and curried-up watermelon rind. You read that right. That was the biggest, most clear impression we got from it. For $50, meh.

And The Pairing? Didn't love it, didn't hate it. Like stadium popcorn, "It's neutral!"

Cost: $22 for food, $50 for wine = $72  

Monday: Anne Burrell Chicken Milanese with 2014 Matthiasson Tendu White California 

Food Details: Recipe here. Make it, eat it, and you'll make it 200 more times throughout the course of your life. It's that good.

Did We Like It? Top-third of all the Anne Burrell Milaneses we've had. Not the best, but a very strong version. This meal just has that extra something that makes you say, "THAT's perfectly balanced food!"

How Was The Wine? We haven't loved the 2014 version of the Tendu White, feeling that 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 was adequate. While still not getting as much distinction as the 2013 had, nice acid-vague fruit back-and-forth to be happy enough.

And The Pairing? Fine. Frankly better than I expected.

Cost: $12 for food, $30 for wine = $42

Chimichurri-ed Hanger Steak and Arancini with 2004 Twisted Oak Tempranillo Calaveras County

Vacation soon, so it's "empty out that freezer!" time.

Menu:

* Recently purchased Whole Foods hanger steak (cumin, coffee, pepper rub)

* Not recently made pumpkin-Rogue Smokey Blue-rosemary arancini, leftover from a huge batch made in March for flap meat and arancini with 2004 Two Hands Beautiful Stranger (best wine of the year)

* Chimichurri from who knows when, slathered on the meat, with...

* Leftover freezer bacon and parsley added

Served with a wine given blind that, given a thousand years, I never would have guessed was California tempranillo. Well, not a thousand, that's a long time. And I'd be dead.

Delicious, juicy, medium-rare hanger with a great cumin-coffee hit, mixing and mingling beautifully with the chimichurri and bacon. Arancini that lost its pumpkinness but gained a "look at me!" rosemary number, which was surprising and so gosh-darn good. Star of the meal. Arugula salad to finish, cuz meat and fried food needs a lil somethin'-somethin' to move things along.

Meat and starch in a happier, better form. Good stuff.

A 2004 Twisted Oak Tempranillo Calaveras County ($15 - Lush), bought at Lush because it was $15 and California tempranillo and $15 and 2004. And $15. Little lost if it sucked. It got lost in the wine storage shuffle. I didn't even remember it was in the house. Mrs. Ney knew what it was, socked it up, and gave it to me blind. Round and ripe. Formerly full-bodied, now wandering into a happy "middle-aged man who still routinely whips my ass in tennis" medium number.  Fading but not faded in the least. Huge, alive, black fruit hit. Blackberry and blueberry. Purple Sweet Tart number, indicating to me that this HAD to be Australian shiraz. Just had to be. Guessed 2004 Pirramimma. Nope. Calaveras County tempranillo (with 12% cabernet added). We love Twisted Oak, mainly because they love Spanish grapes. May I suggest The Spaniard with Romanian skirt steak and scallion sauce? Or with lamb osso buco in anchovy-garlic sauce, charred green beans and fried haloumi? Those were GOOD meals.  

The Twisted Oak found its perfect self with the arancini, turning all complete and layered and deep. Less so with the hanger, as a touch of oak separated itself from the pack and went rogue, but still decent stuff.

Big surprise here. Mrs. Ney had few expectations for this meal. Turned out pretty great.

French-Spanish-American With French-Spanish-American, Plus Other Stuff

Jolly good food week.

We had wine and food that matched up with their countries, something somewhat rare for a string of three meals in our house.

Usually, there's some crossover or playing around, just to keep it frisky.

#1 Chicken thighs, fennel and olives with crispy potato roast, served with 2010 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe La Crau Blanc ($58 - Saratoga)

French and French. Thomas Keller recipe. Last had here with the exact same wine and vintage.

It's $8 food with spendy wine. Two changes to the recipe. Tarragon added and thighs marinated in leftover Michael Symon salsa verde (from meal below).  It is what the name of the recipe says it is, except when it comes together, it tastes like food that's been eaten and refined over the course of 200 years. That's what Thomas Keller recipes taste like. He makes food that taste...so...perfectly...in proportion. Everything serves a purpose at just the right level. That's what we found here again. Cheap food. Fairly easy food (that's saying something for Keller recipes). Utterly delicious food. This wine with this meal can't get better. Just can't. It's slap-to-the-face good.