Thursday, February 24, 2011

#166 - Garlic, Serrano, Mint & Oregano Shrimp With Two Wines


Funny how a good meal makes you initially forget much of what recently came before.

Just three days ago, we had a great meal of TK chicken, English pea risotto and kumatoes with radishes served with a great Sancerre.

While eating last night, it took both of us a couple of seconds to recall that meal when trying to think of what we ate this past week.

Something about being engrossed in great food with shockingly interesting wine makes everything else, even some of the good stuff, wash away from your frontal cortex.

Food: Garlic, serrano, mint and oregano shrimp with baguette and an arugula, parsley and pomegranate seed salad

Gussied-up Trader Joe's frozen shrimp marinated and cooked in extra virgin olive oil, oregano, lemon zest, serrano peppers, mint and Garlic! Garlic! Garlic!

What surprised us most about the shrimp was how nothing took over in the pan. Nearly an entire head of garlic but it never tasted overly garlicky. Subtle heat from the serrano but always properly in the background. Lift from the mint but I never got a huge mint hit. Oregano more prominent than most of the ingredients but in a great way. Great balance here.

Baguette to sop up all the marinade. Panera baguette bought in a pinch. Meh (too bready), but served its purpose as a vehicle to get all the delicious sauce out of the pan.

Arugula and parsley salad with pomegranate seeds to finish. Oddly great arugula.

It was What We Wanted. Spring-like again. Fresh ripped from frozen.

An indicator of how much we loved it came from the time it took to eat it. Half the food as the night before but took twice as long to eat. We wanted to take our time.

And the wine most definitely played a role in that.

Wine: NV Cantina del Taburno Falanghina Extra-Brüt Spumante ($20 - Fine Wine Brokers) & 2009 Anselmo Mendes Alvarinho Vinho Verde Muros Antigos ($12 - Fine Wine Brokers)

Both wines from Fine Wine Brokers in Lincoln Square. An ownership switch happened recently and the guys over there are doing some great things that should be applauded.

Neighborhood wine shops can be sticky, driven nearly entirely by the taste of the owner. That's a good thing but mostly, over the years, that can devolve into what's selling and what's keeping them afloat. It's a razor-thin profit margin business. One indicator among other things that can tell you about the efforts being made by the owner (or owners in this case) is before looking around, find the Orin Swift The Prisoner because it's most likely going to be there. A fine enough wine that seemingly everyone loves, if you find The Prisoner prominently displayed and featured in the store, front page and center on their website, you're probably not going to find much of nuance or interest in the rest of the shop.

Of course, that's just one indicator. Dig into the selection but over the years, for me, that's proven itself to be true more than I ever want.

Fine Wine Brokers is doing some great things right now and, along with Howard's, has become one of the few small wine shops where I know I'm going to find something or multiple somethings that I don't know a thing about and infinitely intrigues me.

Last night's wines, both from FWB, were no exception.

The NV Cantina del Taburno 100% Falanghina Extra Brüt Spumante is a rare beast. Small production from a massive Southern Italian winery that pumps out wine by the ten of thousands of bottles. I've served nearly their entire line for years at my place of business. Never heard this one even existed. A sparkling falanghina.

Big jumble of entirely interesting flavors. Fuzzy peach skin, cinnamon oil, peach/apricot pit, watermelon Bubblicious, pear flesh, touch of almond, bit of straw, something herby and ever-so-slightly creamy, all supported by refreshing and vibrant bubbles and zippy acid. And so much more that we couldn't pin down. Loved everything about it and probably the best $20 sparkler that we can remember.

We never loved Vinho Verde. Liked wine made close to the Vinho Verde region, like the Auratus, but never were particularly drawn to Vinho Verde wine itself. Too much lime salt on the low end and that never made us want to explore the higher end with more interesting stuff being done just across the border with essentially the same grape in Rías Baixas.

Count this one as another example where my prejudices were wrong.

Lemongrass and pear are upfront with something maybe ginger-like on the finish. Beautiful watery center that showcases the nice minerals. Slight hint of something nutty and a subtle lemon-lime peel on occasion. Great balance and tasty as all get-out. $12. Vinho Verde? Start here.

Pairing: 91 Enough enhancement to keep wanting more and more

Much like the food, we found ourselves taking smaller sips of wine so it didn't run out too quickly, wanting to keep everything going. Always a good sign.

Solid enhancements here and there but the impression we took away was how the wine seemed to be like a couple that seems quite happy to be with each other. They may not get married, they may break up next week, but at the time, they seem entirely happy to be in each other's space.

Both wines slid right in the shrimp and never got weird with the greens. Never got weird, period, just kept on bringing the delicious.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

#165 - Pork, Pancetta & Prunes With A Plush '09 Schild GMS


"Don't practice your alliteration on me!"

Yesterday's meal went through a heavy editing process on the fly, much soul-searching and an in-the-shower epiphany that "really tied the plate together."

I'm sure few people find fregola to be an important shower epiphany but last night, fregola brought the food love.

Throw in Rogue River Blue Cheese purchased two months ago yet still chugging along quite nicely, thank you very much, and Mrs. Ney found a winner where, for the four hours of prep before the meal, she didn't think she had one.

She's the Minnesota Twins of cooking. A way WILL be found.

Food: Pancetta-wrapped and prune-stuffed pork tenderloin with blue cheese fregola and bacon fat chard

Pork-tastic! Pork and pork with a side of pork.

Pork tenderloin ($4 - Aldi) wrapped in La Quercia pancetta ($3 - City Provisions, it was a "high-low" meal) and stuffed with prunes and rosemary, all slathered in mustard and roasted.

Medium-well pork tenderloin that was tender and juicy. Both of us really don't care about pork as a main dish. Pork chops can go to H-E-double hockey sticks. Cured pork products are, of course, another story but pork-pork is like a Butterfinger or Hershey bar or some college friends - you have to revisit one every two years to remind yourself why you don't revisit it more often.

That said, tasty pork with charred and deliciously caramelized pancetta with a subtle sweet prune and rosemary hit in the center. Each bite was a Good Bite.

Shower epiphany fregola ($2.50) done in chicken stock, fennel seed and orange zest. Topped with Rogue River Blue Cheese. Done in the risotto style, fregola first introduced itself to us in magical ways during a meal that shall not soon be forgotten. More "Crap, that's good!" here. Rich and rustic, tasting like gussied-up Sardinian peasant food.

Chard ($4) done in bacon fat and Aleppo pepper. Heaping mound, tasted like meat, we loved a few bites and promptly threw in the towel. Just too much.

$18 total for both plates.

We ate well last night, loving what came out of an uncertain meal direction while having no freakin' idea what wine to serve with it for most of the day (a smoky-sweet blackstrap sauce was in play at one time, polenta another).

Things turned out just fine.

Wine: 2009 Schild Estate GMS ($12 - WDC)

Started with a 2006 Nerello del Bastardo, an $8 Trader Joe's Super Tuscan blend that we were sick of looking at on the shelf. Corked. Smelled like cardboard that's been sitting behind the garage for months in the summer heat. Decanted for 2 1/2 hours to see if it would blow off because there was a resemblance of decent wine goodness hanging around, underneath. Nope. Corked. A cheap Italian wine corked? NOOOO!

Settled on a surprisingly cheap Schild Estate GMS blend (55% Grenache, 25% Mourvedre and 20% Shiraz). Schild Estate, of the surprisingly cheap Shirazes that have garnered boatloads of praise over the last few years, seems like it picked up in American market where Pirramimma left off in the quality $25 range. Can't find Pirramimma for the life of us anymore, Schild's everywhere. In our world, Pirramimma's a very personal friend and Schild shiraz isn't that. But it's always been good (enough) stuff in the $25 world. This GMS blend was HALF that.

Smoky herby berry on the nose. Berry fruit basket right away with a big underlying blackberry juice quality that I really loved. Medium-bodied, smooth, open, welcoming with a juicy acidity, turning a touch smoky and meaty halfway down, a hint of licorice on occasion, and finishing with a deft, long, dark fruit touch of sweetness.

Tasted like a nicely restrained Rhône Ranger. More of a naturally occurring sweetness than a sappy sweet finish many of the California blends allow. Like a favorite sweatshirt.

If we paid $25 for this, we would have been happy and may have even bought more. It's not.

It's $12. And entirely food-friendly.

Pairing: 88 A broad and open wine with a meal that we never thought was going to be that

Quality, aged (to put it mildly) blue cheese, rustic, browny, grainy, starchy goodness, caramelized pancetta char, bacon fat greenness, pruney sweetness with herby hints. That's a big basket to capture and the wine captured nearly all of it in admirable and Mom-like ways ("Come with me, sweetie. It's best).

Fielded like a rangy, handsy shortstop and showed a food-ingratiating maturity well beyond its years, lifting things nicely while never allowing its sweetness to dominate.

$30 for a pretty tasty feast.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

#164 - TK Chicken, Pea Risotto, Kumatoes & Radishes with '08 Vacheron


"It was the best, Jerry! The best!"

Tons of fine, right and upstanding pairings lately but none blew us away.

In fact, since the glory that was Moroccan-inflected tuna with Ponzi/Ken Wright one month ago, it's been two easy weeknight meal pairings - meatloaf and sauerkraut pierogis with a cheap Trader Joe's gewürztraminer and sopa seca with a cheap Calina Carménère - that impressed us the most.

Oh, yeah. Dak Bulgogi with a cheap Trader Joe's Vouvray demi-sec was some pretty great stuff as well.

Makes me think I should stop getting all snotty about the Trader Joe's wine selection.

But I digest. Last night. Back on the horse with a meal that tasted like a cleansing spring rain.

Food: Thomas Keller chicken with English pea risotto and kumatoes topped with radishes

The usual TK chicken, salt and white pepper with thyme sprinkled on top after cooking. Taken out five degrees earlier to keep the breasts moist (huh-huh). The usual result. Skin that could be sold on the street next to a crack dealer and take home similar coin. Fantastic leg and thigh meat with breast meat that was above serviceable.

Risotto made with Trader Joe's English peas (producto de Guatemala), onion, chicken stock, tarragon and mint, finished with parmesan. Here's where the spring rain came in. Tasted like everything that comes with the anticipation of exiting winter and entering the utter joy of spring, greening grass and the months of city smells left dormant for months under a blanket of scrotum-shriveling snow and cold and awakened by a constant, two-day, 50 degree, light rain.

Heaping mound of risotto that tasted like Hope. We're not sure the Englishness of the peas (producto de Guatemala) dramatically changed the dish but they were entirely welcome nonetheless. The pea essence, thrown in three minutes before finishing, still took over as the dominating but easy-breezy presence in the starchy-oozy run-off. Glorious stuff.

Kumatoes topped with razor-thin radish slices. Got an Oxo mandoline for Christmas. First time we've used it. While the thought of cleaning the thing made me initially wonder if it would feel worth it, that went away after the first bite. The paper-thin aspect brought about the exact desired effect - a radishy hint with every bite without overpowering anything else with its radishy radishness. I love radishes but they can be a bully at times. Worked beautifully with kumatoes doused in salt and left to sit for an hour and a tarragon-mustard-shallot vinaigrette with the whole composition lending a dark "meaty" quality to the rest of the plate.

This was What We Like. Both of us fell in love about two bites in.

We could have ate this meal with any wine and been completely satisfied but the wine brought it to places we didn't expect.

Wine: 2008 Domaine Vacheron Sancerre Blanc ($30 - Binny's)

Grassy notes with a sauvignon blanc provide a good match with the impetus of the meal, the English peas (producto de Guatemala). We figured we'd like it. Just not this much.

Minerals were what we wanted and that's what we got.

Pretty in the glass, a pure, pretty, light straw yellow with greenish traces. Simple nose of flint and a delicate lemon-lime peel right away with it becoming more complex as it warmed up, turning to an orchardy-type nose. Or what a grocery store smells like as the air-controller hits you as you walk through the automatic doors on a rainy day. Or dumpster juice...but in a great way.

Dry, fresh, delicate and confident on the palate, bringing some great light touches of lime peel intermingled with lemon spritz and a wee hint of grass clippings that transition to something like big rocks halfway down. The finish is what we loved the most. A small, beautiful touch of something like peach skin mixed with flint, limestone and an acidity that wasn't necessarily mouth-watering but served more to bring everything together for a graceful and balanced coda. It was a finish that immediately summed everything up with a concentrated hit of everything that came before. Great. Stuff.

Fully-certified biodynamic Sancerre done very well. Couldn't have loved it more.

Pairing: 94 Like Spring Training (Opening Day is 37 days and five hours away, BTW)

Came off like a day where you didn't expect much of note to happen and everything, very organically, turns into this glorious and easy day of heavy and fun activity done in the manner and nature of when, where and how you want.

Peas and the wine made everything stand up straight and get all right and proper while the radishes turned the wine into something oodles more complex, offering more orchard-grocery store-dumpster qualities that made for some delicious stuff in the glass and on the plate.

Tasted...Balanced.

We have a lot of friends/co-workers in our life that don't really care to get how food and wine go together. This meal would have turned even the most skeptical of the lot.

Without much expectation, it turned into Exactly What We Wanted.

Oh, yeah. For everything? About 50 bucks.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

#163 - Blood Orange-Black Olive Duck & Farro With Two Pinots


About a month ago, a Moroccan-inflected tuna preparation blew us away.

It had Everything along with Everything we Love.

With blood orange season quickly coming to a close, it seemed right and proper to find out how versatile the recipe is with other proteins.

Result: Tuna, tuna and only tuna.

It change yo' life.

Tried lamb a couple of weeks ago (no write-up). Fell flat, never elevating itself with the combination of ingredients. Last night, somewhat similar results with duck, a bit better, but still made us contemplate bright and sunny tuna dreams.

Food: Blood orange and black olive duck, chestnut farro and mâche with pomegranate seeds

Duck rubbed with coriander, szechuan peppercorns, pink peppercorns, cardamom and ginger, seared medium-rare. A salad of blood oranges, gaeta olives, onion, parsley and walnut oil placed on top. Virtually identical to the tuna prep.

Quality duck. We liked it. But there was little melding of flavors. Not necessarily fighting flavors, more like flavors simply placed next to each other. Some things worked. Black olives and duck. Interesting. Onion slathered in blood orange juice with duck. Nice. Walnut oil presence tasted like it wanted to be there, unlike most of the ingredients.

But little jumped out and the peppercorn presence, something that exploded with the tuna and wine, was muted, missing that possible bridge between the brighter blood orange/briny black olive that could have ingratiated itself to the duck.

Farro cooked in chestnuts, duck stock and thyme. Always delicious and always with duck. Made better with a little duck fat/juice run-off bleeding into the bottom of the pile. Silly good.

Mâche salad with pomegranate seeds and a dressing of walnut oil and juice from the blood orange/black olive/onion salad. Spectacular stuff. Peppery with a walnut oil hit, all brightened up by the juice. Complex.

This was good food. If we didn't know duck and this was our first duck we would have been more interested in duck. But we know duck and love duck, particularly herbes de Provence duck which the best duck in the duck world and this duck was not that duck. Good duck, just not That Duck.

With the tuna, we did two Oregon pinot noirs and it was stupid awesome with a side of wow. Last night wasn't that but our opinion of one of the wines dramatically changed over the course of the evening as the wine changed.

Wine: 2005 J.K. Carriere Pinot Noir ($40 - Binny's) & 2005 Domaine Daniel Rion et Fils Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts - 375ml ($38 - Knightsbridge)

Let's start with the Vosne-Romanée. Very little experience with quality, Big Boy red Burgundies. This was an attempt at finding a starting point with such things. Vosne-Romanée, home of the Richebourgs, Romanée-Conti and La Tâches of the world at the Grand Cru level. This is one of the 13 Premier Cru wines designated by climat (Les Beaux Monts).

Cloudy nose that smelled a bit like English muffins with dark cherry juice spritzed over it. And you stuck your nose into the glass while standing in a barn. One-dimensional medium-red-with-a-darkish-edge cherries on the palate with an unfocused (yet softish) acidity that seemed to not know what to tackle first. Bit of oak floating around, taking on a charred toast edge on occasion, like toast that's been dropped in a bowl of herbs and a touch of cinnnamon. Overall, came off cloudy. Serviceable but barely. I wonder if the half-bottle format is forcing things along at a pace this wine doesn't naturally want.

The J.K. Carriere was a different beast. Dark cherries with a forest floor quality on the nose that followed right through to the palate. Touch of herbs, bit of game. Like the Vosne-Romanée, we were initially struck by how UN-struck we were with the wine. No signature notes or unique announcements of their presence occurred. Both came off somewhat...boring.

With no experience with either wine, five years on each and a half-bottle format for one, no decant, just opened 20 minutes before drinking. Over two hours and with the half-bottleness, the Vosne-Romanée didn't budge and my conventional wisdom thinks it should have. The J.K. Carriere most certainly did.

It started to show up about an hour in and exploded from there out. All beef juice and gamey notes took over, becoming a Big Beefy Joy. Dark cherries receded but hung around in the background with this rather pretty beef juice presence supported by game, all rolled in herbs and forest floor/tree moss blending into a something quite good. Truly tasted like someone cooked up beef and quail medium-rare in herbs, put them on the plate, let it sit for a time and then drained off all the juices on the plate and put it in a glass.

Didn't think much of it at first and then it turned into something that might have a place in our Oregon wine world, just took a bit to find out where they were going with it.

Pairing: 80 Felt like a singles mixer that never gets off the ground

Neither of the wines seemed to want to mix and mingle with the food. Like they were too shy to get in there and get talkin'.

We loved what the peppercorns did on the tuna and with the Ponzi and Ken Wright. The peppercorns left the party five minutes in, went to another bar, never to return. That was probably our biggest lament.

Mild spikes of interesting at times but nothing jumped. The J.K. Carriere, when it became Big Boy Beefy was entirely more intriguing by itself (the first red wine in a long time that we wanted to down alone, without food) and the Vosne-Romanée never felt like it wanted to be there at all.

Both were best with the mâche salad. Never a good sign.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

#162 - Two Meals And Two Wines


A combined post because the pairings weren't much to recommend, though one wine, the 2000 Heredia, is worth mentioning.

Some surprisingly good food, both with slight twists put on food we like, that made for a pretty solid food week during the house arrest the Chicago snow has put us under but nothing really popped together.

Meal #1: Quiche with arugula salad, bread and butter

Quiche maraîchère from Around My French Table, same quiche as this quiche with a slight change that made it better. In the three times we've had this, it's been a clearinghouse for random herbs in the house. This time, fresh tarragon was used and it elevated things beautifully.

A darker, more present and substantial herb hit from the tarragon that bled into the vegetables (red pepper, leeks, celery, carrots, etc.) and changed them into something more connected, darker and bordering on meaty. Really changed things. Liked this quiche before with its lightly buttery notes and less-of-an-eggy egginess but this was better.

Arugula and parsley salad with bread and Irish butter to round things out. Seemingly light and delicious but I didn't feel hungry even five hours later. Surprised how much tarragon changed everything. The quiche became an entrée instead of almost being one.

Served with the NV Crémant du Jura Berthet-Bondet ($24 - WDC). A blend of chardonnay and savagnin grapes, not worth $24 but certainly a solid value in the mid-teens. Tough to think of what food this could go with. Fine and plentiful bubbles, bringing a great mouthfeel to the wine, which is its best asset. Something close to creamy almond skin or creamy peach pit (or both) dominates along with a cheap fruit juice blend without the sugar, the kind where three or four yellowish juices are blended together and it's odd how together you get so much less than if drank separately. Five-Alive without the citric acid. Different and nice by itself (its best use, really), offered very little with the food outside of good lifting bubbles. Pairing Score: 75


Meal #2: Pepita mahi mahi with white rice and snap peas

Pepita chicken used to be a weeknight staple for a bit in our house. A return from a long hiatus last night with mahi mahi instead of chicken.

Pepita (pumpkin seeds) with tomatillos, onion, chiles, cilantro, garlic, sea salt, corn oil and black peppercorns simmered and turned into a rustic, chunky green Mexican paste-sauce. Served with Trader Joe's mahi mahi and sided with white rice and snap peas with cilantro dumped over the whole plate and lime to spritz. The mahi mahi flavor wasn't really lost but in essence became a light vehicle for the pepita sauce, which was just the tops. It's a favorite. Somehow, the white rice was the best white rice I've ever had, a product, Mrs. Ney said, of a standard preparation but the toasting of the rice beforehand brought out this humongous nutty flavor. One of those meals where as Mrs. Ney was making it, she didn't want any part of it but, as typical, turned out magically delicious. All nutty, earthy and green, spectacular seasoning with the mahi mahi keeping everything light while letting the sauce star...because it's good. And about $13 total for both plates!

Served with 2000 López de Heredia Gravonia ($25 - Binny's). First time for the 2000. The 1996 has a fond place in my heart. The 1998 is fantastic (haven't had it recently - no write-up). The 1999 a bit less so (some bottle variation here). The 2000 is fresher than previous years. Lively. With lime spritzed on the food, an enormous banana note dominated. Pineapple, apple, maybe quince and something like lemon oil danced around as well. The freshness came from the acidity but the acid doesn't make its presence felt as much as some internet reviews say. Definitely Heredia but not as much iconoclastic Heredianess bursting out of the glass as previous vintages in our world. Less smoke, wax, gas, nuts and we couldn't taste the obvious and glorious age yet. Cleaner. Complex as per usual, precise and delicious. Big Boy White. Gonna need to see what another bottle and a little age does to this one to completely figure it out. Guess I missed the funk and commanding presence to declare it another Heredia winner right now but it's nonetheless a pretty great white, especially for $25.

I spritzed lime right away over all the food (bringing out the banana). Mrs. Ney did not. Both of us came to the same conclusion. Run-of-the-mill pairing with nothing jumping out. Nutty white rice and banana in the wine the best and overall, it was nice to have the wine there. Best that can be said. Pairing Score: 84

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

#161 - TK Chicken And DdB Cheese With Two Chardonnays


More of the same cuz we capital-L Love it.

TK chicken with white Burgundy and a cheap American chardonnay to round out the drinking.

We're no experts on white Burgundy as we've only been focussing on it for about eight months now, but certain dimensions are starting to come into view.

Without the wallet to jump into Meursault and the like, two AOCs in Burgundy have stood out in our very small sample size so far: Auxey Duresses and Viré Clessé.

Auxey Duresses last night and something to compare with the Jean-Phillipe Fichets from before.

Food: Thomas Keller chicken with Delice de Bourgogne cheese, baguette and mâche and pomegranate seed salad

Typical TK chicken. Great skin, delicious and juicy leg and thigh, breast meat slightly dry, though. White pepper, salt and thyme crust.

Delice de Bourgogne cheese a month past its expiration date, putting it in a great place, right on the edge of too funky but still showing great brightness and depth.

Mâche and pomegranate seed salad. More pomegranate because the season is nearly over. And they're delicious.

A standard in the Ney house because it's always something we crave, never get sick of and is freakin' fantastic, easy to make and cheap. This one was no different.

Wine: 2007 Benjamin Leroux Auxey Duresses ($35 - Fine Wine Brokers) & 2009 Trader Joe's Petit Reserve Chardonnay Santa Lucia Highlands ($7)

Not the best but certainly in the upper tier of the white Burgundies we've had recently, the 2007 Benjamin Leroux is the first vintage released under the winemaker's own name and is culled from three different vineyards in Auxey Duresses.

Slight pineapple rind and honey on the nose with a lime salt hit right away that settled down as it came closer to room temperature, becoming more nuanced and lovely with each rising degree. Medium to light weight overall. Creamy, slightly smoky lemon took over with background tropical fruits and apple coming into play. A mineral core that wasn't particularly distinctive or mouth-watering but still quite pleasant. Enough acidity to keep everything chugging along nicely and finishing with a touch of honey and creamy vanilla. Just a little touch, which was nice. A well put-together wine with no complaints in the least.

The Trader Joe's chardonnay brought to mind Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls." Thin upfront, barely anything in the middle and an explosion of heaviness after. Bottom-heavy jumble of mixed, undistinguished tropical fruit with a heavy-ish vanilla hand blended with some cream and minerals. Meh. Better on its own as it came up to room temperature but the best that can be said is what seems to be the overall trend with cheaper American chardonnay lately. Absence of overpowering oak and the mere presence of some minerals. Respectable effort but nothing too much to recommend. If you only drink chardonnay, for $7, you could do worse, I guess. So far, in the cheap American chardonnay world in our tastings, there's the Francis Ford Coppola Votre Santé and there's everything else.

Pairing: 87 Fine and Good

It's TK chicken. It's what we like. And we love it with white Burgundy. Same result here.

The Benjamin Leroux fit entirely well. Great with the cheese but probably best with the bread that was under the chicken during the roasting process. Big piles of crusty, chicken juice-laden and charred bread. With the wine, little pops of spice in the wine popped out that accented the chicken juiciness infused in the bread.

The Trader Joe's chardonnay was almost serviceable with the chicken but fell flat with everything else.

Again, a solid white Burgundy ruled the night with a favorite meal and it wasn't even close.

Monday, February 7, 2011

#160 - Ropa Without The Vieja With '06 Mas De Maha +1


Last year, for the Super Bowl, was duck confit and veal sausage cassoulet with a Loire Rosé.

That meal served us well as we watched Bud Light and Doritoes belch and vomit all over my TV viewing experience.

This year was Ben Roethlisberger's move towards "redemption" from being an ugly and deplorable human being...because throwing an oblong ball well in a big game washes away all our transgressions.

Same reaction as last year for me:

No Browns = Don't Care.

With a caveat. The NFL industrial complex - and that includes the deplorable NFL media that might be the biggest collection of meatballs I've ever seen over the last ten years - has become just a little too icky for me. I fear baseball with splashes of college football and basketball and sprinkles of even tennis are my games now. Football is a little too...football-y for my world. And the impetus was probably the FOX dancing robot, a seemingly small concoction of awfulness that might have pushed me over the edge.

But like last year, good food went a long way in being able to stomach the spectacle.

Cuban pot roast without the roast coupled with a a wine we thought nearly done.

Food: Flank Steak with ropa vieja accoutrements and yuca fries with an arugula and pomegranate seed salad

Flank steak marinated in onion, parsley, worcestershire and olive oil, cooked medium rare and placed over a pile of traditional ropa vieja ingredients of onion, poblano, sweet red pepper, garlic, can o'cheap tomatoes [oregano, cumin seeds, pinch of cloves & cinnamon, bay leaves] reduced with veal stock and graciano, topped with parsley.

Instead of stewing the meat and ropa vieja-ness together, they were cooked separately. Became a sort of half-deconstructed deliciousness, allowing the typical bright and clean flavors of the flank steak to show through while still allowing the soul-satisfying Cuban flavors announce its presence. This was great meat with great accompanying flavors that allowed each distinctive flavor to show up at different times (cinnamon at time, cloves occasionally, big poblano presence, all alternating). Not ropa vieja. Ropa vieja's appeal is the sum of all the parts as it becomes something else. This was better, new and will be had again, probably soon. In our flank/hanger/skirt world...the best we've had in a long time.

Solid batch of yuca fries. Each batch is different. This one had that 'it' factor. Served with a Portuguese whiskey sauce-infused mayonnaise.

Arugula and pomegranate seed salad with balsamic and olive oil to finish.

With Cuban food, it begins and ends with Mas de Maha but the 2006 hasn't performed as well of late for us. The tempranillo in the blend lost some of its brightness and lift the last time we had it (no write-up) and the 2007s haven't shown up in Chicago yet.

Wine: 2006 Villa Creek Mas de Maha ($23 - Binny's)

Still good!

Might have just needed some big food flavors to pry open the door. With Mas de Maha, what we love about it is the addition of tempranillo, taking the typical cheaper California Rhône blend out of the world of that dominating flat syrupness and into the realm of distinction and balance.

All raspberries this time, big batch, seeds and all. Like unsweetened raspberry jam in the process of being made. Touch of cherry at times as the tempranillo tried to assert its fading presence but the grenache and mourvèdre is taking over in great ways. Solid phase right now and something we didn't expect in the least as we popped it because we figured we should blow through the last two we have while we still could. Secondary grilled meats and hint of tobacco with enough acid holding on. It's softened considerably since the first time we had it but still possesses a great balance and dark juiciness that hits some place in us that we absolutely love.

A quick wine note: the graciano in the reduction was the 2006 Bokisch Graciano ($8 - Sam's). Tried it before putting it in the pan. Shocked. All booze-soaked chocolate cherries with earth, spice and meat char. Deep. Delicious stuff...still! Tasted like some weird off-region monastrell or mourvèdre blend. All mud with the food when we gave it a go but might have been better than the Mas de Maha by itself, without food, simply because of how odd and weird and good it was. Got a steal with this one.

Pairing: 91 Super Bowl Delight

As with our past experiences with Mas de Maha and Cuban-style food, a melding of the food and wine together happened so gracefully and fully that it became something else, something more than what each offered separately.

The raspberry juiciness brought a brightness to the meal, for sure. But the food also seemed to grab the wine by the shirt collar a bit and throw everything into line. The clove/spice in the food and wine seemed to be the chain that united things but nothing else in the food, wine and food and wine hit a false note. And the pepper on the char with the big fruit in the wine exploded on over the place in stellar ways.

Seemed made for each other and just fit.

So much better than anything emanating from my television as well.

A Quick Pairing Note: Dak Bulgogi with Trader Joe's cheap label Vouvray, the 2009 Lacheteau Demi-Sec ($6). One of the better weeknight pairings we've had in months. Nothing special in the least with this wine on its own, the sweetness in the Vouvray picked up the spice in freakin' delicious Korean hot goodness, tamed it, threw it around like a rag doll and took it to places the dish wouldn't have been by itself. Textbook example of matching a touch of sweet with a touch of heat. Great food, something double-Great with this wine. Pairing Score: 93

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

#159 - Greek Chicken Legs & Pomegranate Salad With Orballo & Albero


Yeoman's work was done in today's New York Times with Julia Moskin telling the world that pepperoni is NOT an Italian meat product.

Over four years now working at an Italian pizzeria and this is still, routinely, something that people are aghast that we don't carry.

For today's offering, how to take dirt cheap bargain chicken and make it into something so much more. Or alternately titled, 49¢/lb. chicken legs! Gotta marinate the crap out of that!

Food: Greek chicken legs with mâche and pomegranate salad, hummus and pita

Chicken leg quarters marinated in onion, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil. Cooked under a brick, thanks to Mark Bittman and his recently shuttered NYT food column, The Minimalist. RIP. Here's every Minimalist column in its 14-year history. Marinated for days. The chicken was just chicken but the flavor that bled into the skin and fat was sublime. Greeky to the nth degree. Great onion-lemon play. Became souped-up chicken at Harvesttime clearance prices ($1 total for chicken on both plates).

Homemade hummus. We've had good homemade hummus a ton of times. Last night's came shockingly close to Semiramis hummus (best I've ever had) in many ways. The key seemed to be cooking the dried chickpeas at home instead of using canned chickpeas. Olive oil drizzled over the top to finish. Delicious stuff. Couldn't get enough. Served with fresh pita bread from the Middle Eastern bakery in Andersonville ($5).

Salted kumato slices with a mâche salad topped with a Saveur recipe of pomegranate seeds, cubanelle pepper, scallions, mint, parsley and lemon juice (Saveur: "tomato salad with herbs and pomegranate"). Probably about $8 total - pomegranates ain't cheap. Screamed fresh acid with darker undertones of flavors. Bright yet almost brooding and the best part of the meal. A combination bite of scallion and pomegranate seed with mâche and lemon juice was familiar yet entirely new and I couldn't get enough of it.

Simply nothing missing with this meal coupled with boatloads of quality acid, something we both love and need. And a grand total of about $14 for both plates.

Wine: 2008 Orballo Albariño ($17 - WDC) and NV Albero Cava Brut ($7 - Trader Joe's)

I've written about the Orballo Albariño multiple times and it showed pretty much the same as before. Nice minerals with tons of lemon rind and big, big acidity. Not a simple wine. Some depth here with maybe a pear core (and a little canned pineapple juice) hiding underneath with something like a creamy almond. If someone were to ask where to start with albariño, I would say this one every time. Cheap albariños can be uninspiring. This one shows exactly what it can be for under $20 and beats most $30 ones. Big, raw and confident while showing alternating layers of finesse. It's probably our favorite albariño with the Valtea running a close second.

The NV Albero Cava recently returned to Trader Joe's. It's nothing dramatic or complex, just a simple cava that has the quality of being more what it's not than what it is. Key lime upfront this time with a touch of apple and lively bubbles. It gets a lot right for $7 and its solid bubbles serve so many meals well when you want to inject a little sparkling into a meal without spending too much. Hummus and sparkling is glorious.

$24 for the wines.

Pairing: 86 Food won the day but it was nice to have the wine around

Not much enhancement with either wine but the Orballo showed best, standing up to the significant amount of acid on the plate and even showing a touch of cream on the back-end with the chicken. Good stuff. Not great stuff but tons to like.

The Albero never got out of "fine" territory when it came to the pairing but its place always comes from its sparkling nature and the lift it offers. Nice to have there.

$38 total for everything. Stupid good food and wine that wasn't too shabby at all.

And $38. Did I mention that?

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

#158 - The Purple Pig


I recently did a year-end summary in the vein of "Where the hell did all my money go?" over the last year.

Among the tasty nuggets that yearly makes me re-think how exactly I'm spending my money - like giving $700 last year to a restaurant that we don't even particularly love - I was a little shocked how little we went to new places in the city.

For non-vacation, non-BYOs in Chicago, it was Girl & The Goat, The Bristol, Big Star, Belly Shack and Epic Burger. That's it.

Aside from that, it was plenty of Blackbird, Avec and Ceres Table jammed between a flurry of BYOs, mostly Mado, Hema's, Semiramis and Indie Café.

For 2010, our food joys came from home food, our wine, Blackbird, Avec at times, Portugal, Ad Hoc and Chez Panisse in the Bay Area and Lola in Cleveland.

There just hasn't been a need lately for us to blow a good chuck of cash on pretty spaces with a grotesque mark-up on wine and food stylings that we can approximate at home for a fraction of the cost.

Purple Pig...is NOT...one of those.

I'd always been curious, been told ad nauseam by too many people to get there so we finally went under the auspices of "getting it out of the way!"

Some ancillary benefits/fortunate happenstances to our visit to The Purple Pig:

* $6 street parking for two hours downtown! Would have been at least $30 in a garage

* Open everyday from 11:30am to at least midnight (2am on weekends). Straight-through.

* Went at 1:30 in the afternoon on Monday. About 20% full. Glorious!

* Great service, inviting layout and if you're one to gripe about huge crowds, DON'T GO AT 8 ON A SATURDAY!

Food:

Speck Potato Croquettes (special)
Fried Almonds
Tuna & Lima Beans
Purple Pig Charcuterie Platter
Roasted Bone Marrow
Valdeon Cheese
Scallions
Farro Chocolate Crema for dessert

Wine:

2 glasses of Vilarnau Cava
250ml of Veedha Portuguese red
250ml of Alpha Estate Axia (50% syrah/50% xinomarvo)
250ml of Bodegas Enguera Pelta (80% tempranillo, 20% monastell)
250ml Skouras Saint George red (100% agiorghitiko)
glass of Lustau Amontillado for dessert

Two espresso

Pan-Mediterranean with flavors that show a particular love for Spanish and coastal Italian with a whiff of Greece all seasoned beautifully, using the nature and seasoning of each particular pork product to guide the way. Simple flavors with no overly complex preparation to cloud the main focus of each dish. You order tuna and lima beans, you get tuna and lima beans done well.

One of the best wine lists I've seen in a long time that thankfully averaged about 2.5 times retail. Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek. No French on this visit. Oodles of selections from each broken down by region and offer tons by the glass, quartino, half-bottle and bottle. The versatility is brilliant and, unlike one small criticism I've had at Avec, the glass/quartino/half bottle offerings are intriguing and abundant, allowing us to indulge the impulse to explore instead of settling on the seemingly small amount of offerings Avec has kept the same over the last few years.

I can't say that each menu item is the best incarnation I've ever had. The scallions were better at Mercat (the only thing we really loved there) but they were damn good. The roasted bone marrow wasn't going to beat the bone marrow at Lola (still one of the best things I ever ate) but this one was a solid second. The charcuterie platter didn't beat the refined delicacy of Avec's but this, by its sheer size and number of offerings, made for some great meat goodness (solid testa and great Catalonian fuet).

But there wasn't one false note. Anywhere. Confident cooking rules the air with never a feeling that the place wasn't, not once, trying to gouge anyone. Seemed like Scott Harris, Tony Mantuano and the Bannos guys just wanted to open a place where they can hang out and eat food they like and hoped other people liked it as well. In other words, the place seemed sincere at every turn.

Two-hour meal, all that food and wine, a great time all around and the final bill was $182.

That made us laugh. Tons of great with a side of great and one of the best non-BYO restaurant bargains we've had in a long time.