#40 - Sunday Gravy With '05 Nero d'Avola

Sunday gravy is a sort of Italian/Italian-American hybrid.

The conventional story behind its creation is the combination of all the leftover meat from the week's meals thrown into a tomato sauce and stewed for a few hours.

It goes by 12,000 different names. In our house, it's called Sunday Gravy because two years ago, within the span of a few days, Mrs. Ney saw/read a chef talk about it and within a few days, Cook's Illustrated had a recipe for it, both calling it Sunday Gravy. It was one of those weird convergent moments when you hear about something you've never heard of/heard heard about for years and you hear it twice within the span of a few days. So we tried it. And it was delicious.

Like meat and meat with a side of meat.

Food: Sunday Gravy consisting of ribs, meatballs and spicy Italian sausage stewed in tomato sauce

In the meat competition, the baby back ribs won out. Succulent and well...meaty. I'm not a rib guy but these were some good ribs. Homemade meatballs that fell apart a bit but were still solid. Kinda served as the backbone of the meatfest, filling in the gaps here and there. The Whole Foods sausages were below average, having a sawdust quality (that's twice we've been burned by Whole Foods sausage - we live and you learn, people).

The recipe used was this one almost verbatim.

San Marzano tomatoes negates any use for tomato paste and has a tendency to ruin the brightness that comes from the best tomatoes on the planet.

With three hour stew time, the entire concoction, while a bit coma-inducing, is and was delicious.

Typically served over pasta, we opted for homemade garlic spread on Pugliese bread. It was a wise choice as the garlic bread was probably the best part of the meal, dipping it in the stew and sopping up the sauce. Great stuff. Just really great stuff.

Wine: 2005 Nerojbleo Nero d'Avola Gulfi ($18 Binny's ?)

This is the fourth time we've had this wine and it's been different each time.

A couple of years ago at Cellar Rat on North, we had a tasting of it. It was like drinking the juice of herbed and grilled meat. The finish stuck with me for hours. Just glorious.

We bought a bottle right after that, trying it a few weeks later and couldn't replicate the experience. In fact, it was pretty ordinary. Did it again a few months later with the same result.

Figuring the wine was probably open at Cellar Rat for a day or so, we tried a three-hour decant last night and it started to approach the first experience.

Dark red in the glass. Almost black in the center. Big basket of freshly-picked raspberries and cherries on the nose - stems, leaves, earth and all. Tar, black cherry, a hint of grilled meat with a nice herbs de Provence background on the palate. Medium finish, slightly bitter. Softer tannins.

A solid nero d'avola, better than the Cusumano/Regaleali/Colosi world but short of the reserve-level stuff I've had through work.

Plays perfectly for its price point and maybe a little above. A clean, slightly bitter wine right out of the bottle. A much more complex wine after three hours. I would be interested to see what a six-hour decant or even what two days open would do.

For $18, good stuff. I've always been a fan of the simplicity of the Cusumano, its versatility with food and its heft and spice you got from the $12 price point. But for $6 more, the Nerojbleo is infinitely more complex.

Nero d'Avola seems to be getting the respect it deserves recently. Almost dead just a couple of decades ago and then only almost exclusively used in blendings to give body to a wine, it's worth trying, is still inexpensive for the most part and pairs perfectly with grilled meats and/or more rustic Italian fare. Like a Shiraz without the flashy fruit.

Pairing: Yeah, that'll work

It was going to be a good pairing if the Nerojbleo started to wander out of its touch of bitterness and into the meaty quality we first experienced and it did.

I am the furtherest thing from an Italian freak, both food and wine. I think it tends to be overrated, a lot of bluster, chest-heaving and sound and fury in my world for the most part for food that just doesn't warrant that much hagiography.

But Italian food with Italian wine works for a reason. Like French wine and food, the Italian cuisine evolved in lockstep with the wine over hundreds of years. There's a harmony that can't be forced or manufactured.

Last night was no different. The food made the wine more supple and graceful while the wine brought out more meaty goodness from the meat extravaganza.

#309: TWIB: A Potpourri of Pairings

We're in slowdown mode here at FWW but let's whip out some food & wine pairings had over the course of this busy holiday week in the tradition of "Boom! Roasted!"

Things we learned during this Thanksgiving blur: Leave Amarone Classico on the shelf. Spend $4 more for the good albariño. Kermit Lynch could release a Night Train-based beverage and we'd buy it. The 2007 Vale Meão STILL isn't ready. Rubber, plastic and petrol tastes terrible in wine form (or any form, really). Cheap Crasto doesn't taste cheap. And food is good.

I also learned that Krzysztof Kieślowski's The Decalogue will utterly destroy the hearts and minds of anyone with a heart and mind. This is ten hours of real and honest filmmaking with some spectacular acting that makes you mad when you realize it has to end, as you want to stay in that world so completely. Can't recommend it more highly.

Let's do some cataloguing:

#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.

#47 - Duck, Mole & Sweet Potatoes With '04 Vale Meão

This stuff is getting downright scarce.

What used to be fairly easy to get (even at Sam's) just a few years ago has become nearly impossible to find, even on the interwebs. And what used to be $40 now sits in the $80-100 range on average.

I'm talking about the Quinta do Vale Meão Douro. We love Portuguese wine. Having said that, there's Portuguese wine and then there's Quinta do Vale Meão. The first time we had it (the 2003), both of us were stunned, thinking, "Wine can taste like this?!" Silky, almost creamy, Asian spice, big, smooth fruit, smoky, dark...just freakin' lovely.

Since the 2002 vintage, production seems to have been cut nearly in half (according to WS notes) and imports to the U.S. have been dramatically reduced (80 cases of the '06 vintage and 200 cases of the '07 vintage).

Their second label, the Meandro, has performed admirably in the U.S., getting solid ratings and selling for under $20 in many places. While fine enough, it never compared to the flagship label in our world. Not. Even. Close.

Food: Five-spiced duck with mole, sweet potatoes and snow peas done in duck fat

We've neglected medium-rare duck recently. That should change as duck and pinot noir on warmer nights is a pretty great thing.

This meal was planned around the preparation of the mole. Mrs. Ney whipped up a mole imparting huge earth and dark chocolate notes with a hint of brightness. A modified Rick Bayless recipe, she substituted oranges for tomatillos, apricots and cherries for raisins, corn tortillas for white bread and 85% cacao for Mexican chocolate with a squirt of honey and a glop of miso paste.

It was the star of the meal and we have gallons of it now. Anybody want some? Please?

Both of us have been rather indifferent when it comes to sweet potatoes, but last night's sweet potatoes, especially dipped in the mole, were something great.

The entire meal was something great.

Wine: 2004 Quinta do Vale Meão Douro ($50-60ish - Sam's?)

Only made since 1999, every vintage since has been adored by critics. As I said, the 2003 was a bit of a revelation for us. The 2002 followed the same path and last night, we had the 2004.

For me, there was a problem that I can't really explain. I got much less from what I've usually got from the Vale Meão (I blame the pre-dinner Conundrum with its sugary sugariness). It was a bit frustrating, so frustrating that I resorted to trying to clean my mouth with pickled ginger, so I defer exclusively to Mrs. Ney on tasting notes, who has a better palate than mine anyway.

One hour decant. Reddish-purple in the glass. Big sediment in the bottle. I got roast beef juice on the nose. Mrs. Ney found smoky/charred meat. Fruit more subdued than expected. Big charred meat initially on the palate with a smooth Asian spice kick followed by more char and charred meat down to the mid-palate. Everything just kept popping, changing and coating on its trip down. Earthy, silky finish that lasted a good 30 seconds. Best one yet. Tasted like the winery went all Old School-Old World in 2004 rather than playing up the fruit and creamy aspect like in the 2002 and 2003. Sort of a gnarly, big-boy wine that said, "this is what I am, like it or not. We don't care either way because we like it."

We thought it might be a little closed (?) still with its more subtle fruit so with two more 2004's, we'll put them away and try again in a few years. This could really be interesting in four years. We're also torn on the one hour decant. After 2 1/2 hours, it started to taste like it was shutting down. But that could open right back up after 4-5 hours. Overall, it had medium, almost chewy tannins that shot in and out so who knows?

Pairing: Yes, yes, yes

We will have this exact same meal again, wine and all. Pretty great stuff.

The Asian spice notes in the wine served as a great bridge between the mole and five spice on the duck crust, the mole and the sweet potatoes and even played well with the snow peas.

Just kept popping back and forth, making everything a bit electric.

By the last third of the meal, I started to get what Mrs. Ney was getting and it became a taste entirely better than the sum of its parts and something that became a taste-memory sort of goodness. Entirely original yet entirely derivative of flavors we love.

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A quick note on two wines: Sunday was/is always frozen food Sunday because we work. I didn't work under the auspices of watching the Oscars. Instead of one frozen food meal, we had two.

Lunch: Trader Joe's spinach/feta/phyllo pie with Zacharias White Squared (under $10 - Binny's). $4 for a great little lunch pie. Tastes fresh, isn't salty and doesn't reek of too much feta. Greekish food with a great, cheap Greek wine. A good find. Had a farmer's market on a hot summer day smell going on, like the smell of a crate of peaches that's been out for a bit. In a good way. Dry, a hint of a basement quality and solid, underlying fruit of peach/apricot with a bit of salt. Paired well. No complaints at all and we'd do it again any day.

Dinner: Leftover Sunday Gravy with La Loggia Barbaresco ($12 - Trader Joe's). Same Sunday Gravy from a week ago with the same great garlic bread. Solid meal. Cheap Barbaresco that has gotten a beating on the web for its cheapy cheapness. I'm not saying it was good, but it was a step up from bland table wine. Good cherry core with a little smoky meat. Paired was average, nothing great. We didn't finish the bottle.

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #9

The end of our week-long California trip, low-lighted by a delayed flight, crabby flight passengers, and getting home at 2am.

California, you're nice. We like you in doses and in specific spots. Your food and food culture are wonderful, but only in doses. Getting back home to Home Food, as I seem to write every time I do a vacation recap on this here bloggy-blog, is What We Want.

Always.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $277 for food and $281 for wine = $558

Sunday: Ham, Cheese, Onion and Pickled Jalapeño Flatbread with 2014 Innovacíon Rosé Mendoza

Food Details: "What's in the house?" naan pizzas. Cheap ham, cheap cheese, onions and pickled jalapeños, baked.

Did We Like It? Fine, good, food, done.

How Was The Wine? Great rosé for $8. Weeknight workhorse. On its own here, I loved the snot out of it. All bright, sparkly and refreshing.

And The Pairing? Jalapeños killed it, turning it into a rather boring drinker. A bite without jalapeño was much better, but never got out of the realm of run-of-the-mill rosé.

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


Saturday: Beet-marinated Chicken Curry with 2014 João Portugal Ramos LIMA Loureiro Vinho Verde

Source: Weeknight riff on chakundari chicken tikka, from Mark Bittman at NYT. Mr. Bittman is retiring from the mothership, by the way. Sad face.

Food Details: Beet-marinated chicken (beet marinade from freezer), cilantro, peas, onions over rice. Chicken, un-skewered; onions sauteed in fond, deglazed with stock; lemon juice spritz.

Did We Like It? Big bowl o' food! Great smells while cooking, but something got lost in translation. Never rose above vaguely curry-ish, beety chicken and rice.

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

And The Pairing? A miss here as well. The food stripped out LIMA's lilting appeal. Fine enough, but boring. Better on its own.

Cost: $6 for food, $8 for wine = $14


Friday: "What's in the House?" Quiche and Arugula Salad with 2014 Caves de Charmelieu Saint-Bris Sauvignon Blanc

Food Details: Onions, tomatoes, leftover peppers, parsley, thyme. Gruyère cheese. All in quiche form. Arugula salad on the side. It's bistro lunch food.

Did We Like It? We always like it. It's once-a-month quiche that's we haven't had once-a-month in a while. Not fancy, just everything you need. Quiche, with salad on the side. Done. Eat.

How Was The Wine? It's Trader Joe's sauvignon blanc from Saint-Bris in Burgundy. Didn't think Burgundy made sauvignon blanc? They do. There's a creamy-pasture note with nice snap that makes this one a good sauvignon blanc alternative on the cheap. Last year's vintage was better, but it showed well here.

And The Pairing? It showed well because of the gruyère cheese, which likes sauvignon blanc. Best this vintage has drunk.

Cost: $6 for food, $10 for wine = $16


Thursday: Duck Meatballs, Amaranth Seed Polenta Cakes and Borlotti Bean Gravy with 2012 Raul Péréz Ultreia Mencia Bierzo and 2009 Domaine des Tours Vaucluse Rouge

Source: Gravy and andouille-spiced meatballs [Mrs. Ney was not stuffing sausage casings] in Sean Brock's Heritage cookbook. Amaranth polenta cakes from this recipe, from Bob's Red Mill.

Food Details:  Ground duck meatballs, amaranth seed polenta cakes, borlotti bean gravy (using borlotti instead of lady pea gravy in the cookbook), red, yellow and green peppers, leftover amaranth greens, and parsley on top.

Did We Like It? Yes. Wouldn't make it again, as everything was very subtle in pop and punch, but some very good flavors here. And very complete in flavor play. The bean gravy created a subtle, peppery-bean, underlying flavor to everything that was quite nice. Everything was done well, ate well, very much liked and enjoyed. It was simply more quiet than we like. But amaranth seed polenta cakes are A Thing. Like the amaranth leaves with the goat kofta above, they offer an earthy, expanding, country breeze note that broadens things out and integrates into savory, planty, veggie-centric flavors quite well.

How Was The Wine? We figured the Raul Péréz mencia would match the weight of the food and like the duck. It didn't. Not even a lil bit. Came off flat, tired and saggy. No lift or liveliness. So we opened a Vaucluse that's been sitting around, was past its prime and HAD to be consumed. It tasted like it.

And The Pairing? The duck helped make the wine taste like its former self, if only a little bit. Enough resemblance of a proper wine flow to not open a third bottle.

Cost: $25 for food, $47 for wine = $72 (oof!)


Wednesday: Goat Kofta, Cauliflower, Amaranth Leaves, Tahini and Pita with 2006 Two Hands Beautiful Stranger Barossa

Source: Goat kofta from Yotam Ottolenghi (do a book search here). Cauliflower, hazelnut, pomegranate salad based on this recipe, from NYT, and Ottolenghi's as well.

Food Details: Goat kofta made with allspice, cinnamon, etc. (similar flavors used in the salad). The only real difference in this meal to the last time we had it was using amaranth leaves as the greens. Roasted cauliflower-hazelnut-pomegranate salad. Celery, parsley, onions, mint, serrano. Tahini and pita.

Did We Like It? "This is what all other food wants to be!" Spicy, nutty, crunchy, fresh, bright, slightly sweet, every flavor and food sensation, all put together on a plate. There is absolutely nothing missing here. You don't like this, you don't like food. It's perfect, perfectly balanced, makes your tongue go, "Wow!" and was a much needed meal after simple California food. We had arrived Home when we ate this.

How Was The Wine? Shiraz done in the Amarone style. Our second 2006. 2004 was one of our favorite wines of last year. Very pretty nose of smoldering fire and berries. A bit alcoholic, nice fruit, quite round, bit of ash, burning wood. Nice wine, didn't work here.

And The Pairing? Too big for this meal. Didn't work, but we didn't really care. This food is surprisingly light in overall impression. The cauliflower creates a gap that allows the spices to take a break, sucking up its possibly larger punchy blitz on "spices!" That creates bouncy, broad, deliciously balanced food, but it needs a wine that matches those gaps. This one is too brawny and in your face to allow that. The mint helped a bit, as it does with shiraz, which was nice.

Cost: $15 for food, $75 for wine = $90 


Tuesday: Bocadillos and Gioia Pizzeria 

Notes: Two lunches in San Francisco we wanted to hit before leaving, and our only trip into the city, oddly. Just didn't want anything from the city after sitting on the bay. Bocadillos, Gerald Hirigoyen's sister restaurant to Piperade, feels like a San Sebastian interpretation for the corporate lunch crowd during the day and young tech-types for nosh and drinks at night. It's done well for that realm. Pretty space, solid food. Bocadillos of salmon, lamb and BLT. Patatas bravas and empanadas. Cheap pink Cava to drink. A pleasant lunch.

Gioia Pizzeria's San Francisco outpost inevitably drew comparisons to the original Berkeley spot. A bistro-style feel inside that San Francisco does very well, but our hearts lie in Berkeley. Something was a tad amiss in flavor. Same dough deliciousness, less overall greatness. Two acciughe and two summer squash slices. Two glasses of Zibibbo to drink, which is fun to say.

Airport early to see if we could catch an earlier flight. Nope. Our flight delayed, then not, then delayed, then a new plane, it was hot in the terminal, hot in the plane, people were crabby, got home at 2am. Annoyed. Could have been worse. Vacation done.

Cost: $85 for food, $60 for wine =  $145


Monday: Fish in Sausalito and Harmony Chinese in Mill Valley

Notes: This is exhibit A of the above. We could have gone out into the world for another spendy California meal. It would have been fresh. It would have been good. It would have had $300. So cheap eats.

Fish in the Sausalito Harbor is a "form a line before they open" kind of thing, because it's fresh fish boated right up to the Sausalito Harbor, 50 feet away. Again...it was fresh and it was good. Since the freshness of the fish is the star, nothing too complex is added. The fish and chips were quite great, the fish tacos less so. Crab roll, lacking a bit. Bottle of house Vinho Verde to wash things down. We'd go back for the fish and chips with house tartar. That's good fish and chips.

Harmony Chinese for dinner, because it was right around the corner and a take-home Chinese spread before flying out the next day, sitting outside on the bay, sounded perfect. Kung pao chicken, house beef, green beans, pot stickers, egg rolls, rice, all the Chinese goods. Once again, fresh and good. No complaints. Had to drink the wine we bought during the trip, so two bottles: 2014 Broc Cellars Picpoul Blanc Luna Matta Vineyard Paso Robles and 2014 Field Recordings Camp 4 Carignan. Loved both wines. The Picpoul we knew, and love. It's domestic picpoul with a Muscadet edge. The carignan (25% cinsault) was a surprise. Better than when we tasted it at Field Recordings, all flowers and bright, round red fruits with a touch of fancy dirt. Big fans.    

Cost: $130 for food, $73 for wine = $203

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #11

If some vine disease hit cabernet and malbec (and touriga nacional for me), our wine lives wouldn't be upset one bit. Like people, it's a personality thing. The personality expressed by those grapes don't offer the grace and quiet we want. It's not that they don't possess very own particular grace and quiet, just not the type we want.

With a somewhat limited wine budget, the flurry of fascinating grapes/blends/expressions out there today, and the fact that we don't eat beef five times a week, those grapes don't need to have a place in our wine life. We aren't left wanting in the least without them. 

But, at times, in order to challenge our preconceived notions so we don't become aging, grumpy, uncompromising curmudgeons, we have to drink cab and malbec on occasion so we don't become the people we hate. So we did. 

But you can go to hell, touriga nacional! You go to hell! You're great in a blend, but yourself, you go to hell!

Total food and wine cost for the week: $102 for food and $81 for wine = $183

Sunday: Meatballs in Date Sauce and Kale-Smoked Almond Salad with 2014 La Paca Garnacha Calatayud

Food Details: We're still sick, but getting better. Freezer date-kielbasa-tomato sauce. What do you do with that? It's sweet. It's sweet sauce. We don't want that! But this worked. Pork meatballs in date sauce, kale salad with smoked almonds and pecorino. A ton of parsley dumped over both the meatballs and salad. Mini-ciabatta buns. Rip a bun in half, top with meatball and kale salad. Eat.

Did We Like It? Kind of a lot! Tasted like a fall Italian mountain meal in a basic sense. Not sweet. Mrs. Ney toned down the sweetness to a point that the taste of date without a ton of date sweetness came through, and the kale provided a cut and lift quite nicely. No diminishing of results as we ate either. This was a big surprise.  

How Was The Wine? $7 Trader Joe's Spanish grenache. Bright cherries and plums. Ripe. A bit of smoked meat and tobacco. Low tannins. Medium-to-light. Easy-breezy Spanish drinker. Friendly for $7.

And The Pairing? The low-level sweetness from the dates and ripeness of the fruit in the wine matched up and cancelled each other for the most part, allowing all the other flavors in the food and the wine to shine. We found a bevy of fluctuating flavors in each bite and sip. With both of us ill, this seemed like a perfect time to get rid of the date sauce we didn't particularly want. But this turned into a meal that was more than just "food to fill a hole." It tasted intentional, like people somewhere in the Italian mountains eat this in the fall and someone passed along the recipe to a cookbook as a meal indicative of the region. We liked this.    

Cost: $7 for food, $7 for wine = $14


Saturday: Pan Bagnat with Leftover Wine

Ours was less bursting with ingredients than this

Source: Recipe here, via Mr. Bittman in NYT Cooking

Food Details: Now I'm sick. Mrs. Ney recovering well, I take her place. More easy food. Pan bagnat, essentially tuna Niçoise in picnicky sandwich form. Ciabatta loaf filled with kumatoes, red peppers, marinated artichokes, capers, Greek olives, onions, basil and As do Mar jarred tuna. Drizzled with red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Entire loaf smushed flat.

Did We Like It? Yes. One note: don't skimp on ingredients. Load that baby up! I put on a simple layer of all of the ingredients. This needed an overflowing layer of each. Tasted like French street food from a park food cart that isn't going to be generous with everything. But we'll be making this again. We usually have most of these ingredients on hand.

How Was The Wine? Leftover fridge wine from the last two days.

And The Pairing? The malbec rosé served merely as basic "wine" matcher, but the picpoul was quite nice, tasting like regional food and wine dancing like they typically dance. Sad we only had one glass left.

Cost: $10 for food, $0 for wine = $10

Friday: Arroz con Pollo with 2014 Innovacíon Rosé Mendoza

Source: Recipe here, Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday

Food Details: Mrs. Ney still can't taste anything, so easy food that has texture, something she can taste. Mexican rice, black beans, chicken, onions, chile, garlic, cilantro, chicken broth...click on the recipe. It's a good one. Sour cream on top for me. No dairy for Mrs. Ney. Hot sauce. 

Did We Like It? Fine. Rice and chicken went a little over. Big bowl of Mexican goop. Served us well enough.

How Was The Wine? Wine. A Whole Foods liter bottle of malbec-syrah rosé that we've loved this summer for its cheapness and liter-ness. This bottle had a church wine quality. Not...the...best.

And The Pairing? Barely registered.

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

Thursday: Pick-n-Choose with 2014 Trader Joe's Cuvée Azan Picpoul et Pinet Languedoc

Food Details: Harvesttime Roasted Chicken, Tomatoes, Pepper salad, Ciabatta and Mayo.

Did We Like It? Mrs. Ney is still sick. And there's gonna be a lot of "Let's just buy a chicken and bread and use up tomatoes and greens" meals on Thursday through the end of the year. Mrs. Ney's job and the upcoming holidays associated with that job demand it. Buy a chicken, char up some bread, use up tomatoes and greens in the house, open up some mayo, go to town. It's open-faced mini-sandwiches that has everything you need. We ditched the herb butter made for the bread rather quickly and moved on to something we love more than most people: mayonnaise.

How Was The Wine? Trader Joe's picpoul, another house love. Has the nose of pit fruit, the dryness of rosemary, the tart, puckering crispness of Muscadet, and the minerality of basic albariño. There's a minimum quality here that's always welcome for $8.

And The Pairing? This bottle showed more of its alcohol than it usually does. Wasn't unpleasant, but didn't show as well as it has.

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


Wednesday: Southern Biscuits and Gravy with NV Trader Joe's Reserve Brut Sparkling North Coast

Source: Alton Brown. Biscuits here. Gravy here.

Food Details: I'm a sucker for novelty food products created by multinational conglomerates. To the letter, they're terrible, though Lay's jamon chips have a vacation taste. When Lay's came out with their gyro/reuben/biscuits and gravy-flavored chips, my sucker impulse kicked in. Finally found the gyro and reuben, but not the biscuits and gravy. So with Mrs. Ney sick and no dinner joneses after the past few days of ridiculously great food, we had biscuits and gravy.

Mariano's breakfast sausage. Rice milk with a little flour subbed for milk in gravy.

Did We Like It? It was just fine. Satisfied the jones of biscuits and gravy, a food I think I've had only three times in my life. I've never been a breakfast person and this has ALWAYS the third choice in my world growing up so it simply never made it onto my plate.

How Was The Wine? Trader Joe's, $10, fresh bubbles done well.

And The Pairing? This TJ's sparkler isn't fancy, but it has an fresh breeze quality, herbs and fuzzy fruit, and accommodating structure that goes well with food, particularly buttermilk or biscuits or buttermilk biscuits. It's our default, cheap, house bubbles.    

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


Tuesday: Ottolenghi Fish, Cocount-Peanut Salad and Rice with 2013 Darting Muskateller Kabinett Trocken

Source: Yotam Ottolenghi recipe from The Guardian

Food Details: Whole Foods whitefish (substitute - we don't love mackerel), salt-pepper-seared. Salad of fresh coconut, peanuts, manzano pepper, scallion, mint, cilantro. Dressing of mirin, rice vinegar, coconut sugar, ginger. Rice. Charred lime spritzed on top of everything. Go to the recipe and buy all the specific ingredients. Don't get creative. Don't get lazy and say, "Oh, it doesn't need mirin." Just make it to the letter. Your fish substitute isn't a big deal. Fish is background here. This is Mr. Ottolenghi. You DON'T screw with it. He knows.

Did We Like It? This meal is a statement piece. This is Armani worn well. This is the first spring breeze. This is perfect food.

This is the best meal AND pairing we've had in a LONG TIME.

How Was The Wine? The color of the wine with this meal ALONE! Smelled like gewürztraminer, tasted like gewürztraminer and Muscadet had a baby. We've had Darting's muskateller before and liked it, even sort of loved it. Here, after having this - along with picpoul and Gavi - it's all I want. Grapefruit, peach, floral, herbal, medium-light, dry. Sparkled. A second bottle of 2014 Selbach Incline - cheap, well-made, representative German riesling - only told the story of how perfect the muskateller was with this food.

And The Pairing? As pretty, classy, and jumping out of the glass as I've had in, again, a LONG time. This was very nice on its own, but with this food, utterly complete. This wasn't just a pairing. This was perfect food with a wine perfectly tailored to this food. We can't think of a pairing we've had where that was more true.

Cost: $15 for food, $18 for wine = $33

   

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

Source: A David Beran recipe in this month's Food & Wine, a publication we have a love-hate relationship with, but a recipe like this pops up once an issue, and the $12/year seems worth it. 

Food Details: Whole Foods skirt steak (very pretty beef), marinated overnight in rosemary, thyme, garlic, shallots, peppercorns and grapeseed oil, seared medium-rare. Salad of blistered shishito peppers, inland cress, frisée, mint, celery and leaves, and Rogue Creamery Flora Nelle Blue Cheese crumbled on top. Dressing of charred lemon and evoo. Using the apple peeler, potatoes run through, creating thin, long, narrow potato crisps, fried. Garlic-parsley mayo for dipping. 

Did We Like It? There was a lot of swearing. Perfect meat with a marinade that was so gosh darn delicious. A salad that ran right up against the wall of the high-end of bitter, even breaking through at times, that we nonetheless loved, mostly because it was flavors we like and enjoy while being entirely new. Potato crisps and mayo dip that offered a carb to the meal while coming off light. If we saw this meal listed on a restaurant menu, we'd blow right by it, dismissing it outright. Skirt steak-shishito pepper-watercress salad? It'd probably be $32 and not conger up anything resembling "I gotta have that!" But this was freakin' stupid-great.

How Was The Wine? Malbec. We're not friends. But with food you like, like here, you can offer an enjoyable conversation, especially when you're made by Luca, a great house. Classy fruit. Very classy. So polished and spit-shined; never overripe, heavy or burdensome. Always buoyant and on the right side of the savory-sweet line. Two-hour decant and it helped. becoming a wine of medium length but proper presents parsed out at a pretty pace. Black cherry/berry and plum, smoky meat, cola and a wee hint of roses. A very nice wine. Does it change our mind about malbec? 3%. We're 3% more open. 

And The Pairing? That's where the 3% comes from. It felt like this food and this wine were made for each other/belonged together, making for a stellar two-hour meal. The wine loved-loved-loved the crisps and a bite of beef and blue cheese. Less so with the salad but never obstinate. A very good meal.  

Cost: $38 for food, $30 for wine = $68