Thursday, March 31, 2011

#175 - Flatiron, Portuguese Potato Skins & Rapini With '04 Schild

Happy New Year!

Opening Day christens the beginning on my year as I settle in for roughly 500 hours of following a softball team in the LA Angels along with five fantasy teams, down from 13 just three years ago.

So that's progress.

More progress happened last night.  Well, not so much progress, more of a reminder that wine is BFFs with food and many times, it absolutely needs it.

Cracking a bottle of red just to drink has become foreign to us.  The same is true with most whites outside of some bubbly, an occasional Muscadet and whatever is hanging around in the fridge and probably should have been drunk a week ago (I can report that Retsina, after a three weeks in the fridge, crossed the Rubicon into Pine-Sol so much more than it was pop-and-fresh).

Last night's Schild Estate Shiraz demanded food, needed food, died without it and reaffirmed our commitment to the Truth:  Who cracks a bottle of big red wine and just drinks it?

Especially for anything over $25, it seems to us it's like buying a fancy car and never taking it out of the garage.

Food:  Flatiron steak, Portuguese potato skins and rapini

Paulina Meat Market flatiron rubbed with salt, brown sugar, smoked paprika, roasted garlic, cinnamon and wee bit of coffee, cooked medium-rare.  Just came through the back door at Paulina.  Wasn't even out in the case yet and we could taste it.  Fresh meat ("heh-heh," - B&B back this summer).  And kinda tasted like bologna.  Or mortadella.  Something about it came off like blended, seasoned, packed meat product in a way we utterly enjoyed.  Still retained its beefiness, something we somewhat missed lately as we try to consume less red meat things, but there was a hint of fancy luncheon meat to it in a great way.  Also had one of those rubs where every ingredient could all be alternately tasted.

Portuguese potato skins, from The New Portuguese Table, was a recipe Mrs. Ney has been staring at for months.  A bundle of fresh herbs (parsley, mint, rosemary, marjoram) are dumped into a pot of oil and very slowly heated up, infusing the oil with the herby essence.  Herbs are strained out, the oil cooled down and the brought back up to deep fry the potato skins.  More, fresh herbs are deep-fried in the leftover oil, crushed and sprinkled generously over the top.  Mayo for dipping.  Didn't fully crisp up like Mrs. Ney wanted but freakin' great stuff here and will be tried again at a future time.  Earthy was the aim of the night to contrast with the expected fruit bomb nature of the wine and the potato skins played their part with the skins cut and herbed up to emphasize such things.

Rapini blanched, blended with Aleppo pepper and finished in the meat sear pan to get the leftover rub and meat char into the greens.  I don't know what and when it happened but rapini has become something actually wanted in my world.  Bitterness toned down beautifully by the good blanching.  Had a bit of a popcorn edge to it.

A pretty great meal.  Tasted like we got back to something.  Red meat, of course but something more as well.  We're sort of the conventional opposite of most people when it comes to seasonal cravings.  Big meals that go with big red wine are craved in the summer and light fare with spice accents to go with interesting whites/bubbly in the dead of winter.

Felt like we kicked off that season last night.  Much like Opening Day, let the games begin.

Wine:  2004 Schild Estate Shiraz Barossa Valley ($30 - 20/20)

Didn't decant.  More people on the interwebs had better results lately not doing so.  Grilled herbs and meat and virtually no fruit initially on the nose.

Bloody as all get-out to start, iron and salt blowing up but mingling nicely with a sort of melted down black cherry Lifesaver quality with underlying blackberry jam.  Concentrated but not thick.  A meal in the glass nonetheless, though, with salty and sweet vacillating back and forth.  Loved, loved, loved its sanguine nature that stayed throughout the entire meal.  Never big, long enough finish with toned-down acid that played its part and an occasional and proper vanilla hit from the oak that popped up at proper times.

This one got huge press when it was released for its impressive body and concentration for a fraction of the price of similar Barossa offerings at a time when Australian shiraz was just ending its peak (and bloated) popularity.  We didn't especially love the 2005 Schild Estate Shiraz last April.  Liked it, didn't love it.  This one, the 2004, garnered superlative ratings from multiple critics and it showed.  I was never particularly fond of the couple of Schilds we had (2003, 2005).  This was different.  Great stuff.

But alone, by itself, without food, it was a disjointed mess with oak and tannin everywhere and raspy, uninteresting fruit.  Outside of some Rhônes we've had, I don't think I can recall a wine that desperately needed food more than this one.

Pairing:  94  Delicious!  Every element of food and wine goodness showed up

We angled for a contrast between the earthy notes all over the plate and the presumed fruitiness in the wine.  What we got were two elements that stayed in the same realm of dark and delicious with only underlying notes of contrast.

The bloody notes in the wine picked up the smoked paprika, cinnamon and salt beautifully on the meat rub and took a bite-and-drink to great places.  The brown sugar served as a great bridge to the subdued jammy notes in the wine.  The herby potato skins with deep-fried herbs brought out some very welcome bitterness in the wine, turning it into more of a well-rounded number that tasted of an entire bundle of fruit, branches and all, grilled over a enormous flame; wild and bucking like a big burly wine can and sometimes should be.

Let the summer of big meals with big reds...begin!

Friday, March 25, 2011

#174 - Taxim

Last Monday, after postponing it for a disappointing visit to Coco Pazzo two weeks ago, we finally made it to Taxim (1558 N. Milwaukee), a delicious Greek spot in Wicker Park.

Beautiful space, Byzantine was a description I saw and that nails it.  Pillows line long benches straddling the length of the each wall of the narrowish restaurant that never feels crowded leading back to the kitchen.  High ceilings that lead to odd lighting at first but we quickly warmed up to it.  Dark wood, copper accents and comforting, relaxed, even quiet with a welcoming low-key feel.

But it's really about the food.

It's not country Greek, more urban Greek with refined, modern touches and the use of local ingredients to achieve the effect.

From the website:  Farmers:  Iron Creek, Gunthorp Farms, Mint Creek, Nichols Farm & Orchard, Heritage and Green Acres Farms. All of our breads, pastry, phyllo, charcuterie, preserves and yogurt are housemade.

No skimping here.  No shortcuts.  Well-sourced and it tastes like it with every bite.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

#173 - Scallops & Tuna With Three Wines


Mrs. Ney threw down the gauntlet a few months ago and demanded that the world "Beat THAT!" when we had the best tuna preparation we've ever had.

Last night's meal, a dinner with a co-worker, actually came close.

Same Moroccan-inflected tuna. It didn't beat the previous one but this meal's joy came from everything else we had with it, how all of it complimented each other and how it built to the tuna.

In the end, the tuna became just one of three elements that we'll be revisiting again and soon.

Pre-meal opening: Spicy carrot purée with Seeduction bread, Kerrygold butter and rose petal jam

Wine: NV René Geoffroy Rosé de Saignée Champagne ($60 - WDC)

Same bread and accoutrements as the last tuna meal. Best bread ever. All raw dark grains without being too raw. Creamy, rich butter and floral-as-all-get-out jam.

But the love came from the Moroccan-spiced carrot purée. Cumin, ginger, cinnamon and harissa blended into puréed carrots. Tasted creamy without any cream added. Silky and more delicious with each subsequent bite. We fell in love quickly using the Seeduction bread to dip.

The René Geoffroy is 100% pinot noir (disgorged July, 2010) somewhat disappointed. Only the second rosé de saignée we've had with the Christmas Larmandier-Bernier being the first. That might have been some of the problem. Having only two and the first being that, a comparison inevitably came into play. Nice, small, fine bubbles. Light roses and strawberries notes dominated with a solid red berry core supporting everything but it came off a touch flat, missing an acid lift. Didn't wow us with its depth and concentration like the Larmandier-Bernier did.

And with the Love in the Bowl that was the carrot purée, it became an afterthought.

Appetizer: Scallops with a pea purée and pancetta

Wine: NV Gruet Brut Rosé ($15 - Binny's)

The dinner guest has a partner that doesn't eat seafood of any kind so we seafooded him up. Two scallops, seared beautifully with a nice touch of sweetness to them that sang with the subtle, spring-like greenness of the pea purée. Great hit of dark, charred meatiness from the pancetta without being too smoky. If someone ever asked what was the most balanced bite of food I've had recently, this might be it. Came off purposeful, thoughtful and nuanced following the carrot purée as the meal felt like it was building properly. More of a darker carrot purée lifted up and cleansed by an intense freshness with the pancetta serving as a bridge.

The Gruet Brut Rosé, compared with the Geoffroy, showed more liveliness with a crisp and bright core. Not a technically better wine, tasting more like a very pretty $15 brut rosé, but more wanted, more playful. Cherry and citrus notes with a bit of cream dancing around and propped up by some great acid. More bright notes that played into the scallop preparation more effectively than the Geoffroy and the carrot purée did.

Entrée: Moroccan-inflected tuna with blood oranges and black olives with an arugula and pomegranate salad

Wine: 2008 Ponzi Pinot Noir Willamette Valley

Some differences with the January tuna (recipe there). This one had less of a pink and Szechuan peppercorn presence due to the fact that we didn't know the level of peppercorn tolerance our guest had. Still utterly present, just not at the level we like. Medium-rare tuna that Mrs. Ney thought could have come up to room temperature a little more before searing, but nonetheless mimicked almost identically what happened in January. Hits of peppercorn, cardamom and coriander mingling beautifully with the blood oranges and black olives. The joy comes in the fact that one bite brings 20 different tastes that vacillate between dark and bright, deep and light while all of it coming off entirely clean. Still the best tuna ever.

Served, like in January, with the 2008 Ponzi Pinot Noir. Started to get a little bit of palate fatigue but still picked up similar notes as last time. Not quite fully open for business yet but still had that signature Ponzi floral, leaves and black tea notes backed up by cherry and plum fruit. Forest floor moss and tobacco interlaced throughout with the acid allowed everything to come through in a pure way. Even pleasantly gnarly at times.

Pause-worthy again with the tuna. A match made in heaven. It was a new food and wine pairing place for us last time and brought all of the same joy this time.

Finished the meal with dessert brought by our guest. Poached pears done in apple cider, orange and lemon zest with mascarpone and orange zest on the side. Served with Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur, a spirit that's been sitting in the pantry that we forgot about. Delicious stuff and a great finish.

Pairing: 94 The food was the focus but the wine, especially finishing with the Ponzi, played a welcome role

In fact, when it came to the food and wine goodness, it was mostly the Ponzi with the tuna.

We liked what the Gruet offered, bringing a different, more red-fruit freshness to the scallops, but as a technical pairing, it wasn't the enhancement we necessarily wanted. More nice to have around than great match.

And the Geoffroy just didn't stand a chance with the loveliness that was the carrot purée.

Nothing new in terms of a pairing presented itself but that Ponzi and tuna, oh that Ponzi and tuna. Always, everyday and often. It saved the food and wine night.

In the end, with this much completeness and complimentary flavors in the food, we didn't really care that the first two wine selections didn't live up.

We ate too well to care.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

#172 - Greek Flank Steak & Skordaliá With '07 Boutari Xinomavro


Happy St. Patty's Day to everyone.

We're celebrating with fish tacos and purple corn sangria. You know, for all the Irish-Mexican-Peruvians in the world. I feel like they're under-celebrated and should also get a tip of the glass.

It's funny to think that a frozen product from Trader Joe's introduced us to Greek wine. For a good stretch in 2010, it was our Monday default lunch that kicked off our weekend. Quick, easy, delicious and great with Greek white in many forms. All apples and creamy lemons, a pinch of salt and great acid with creamy spinach-phyllo goodness. A $20 lunch that utterly satisfies.

But a trip to Purple Pig and two wines we had there made us more intrigued about Greek reds, especially the Alpha Estate Axia, a 50/50 split of Syrah and Xinomavro.

Greek food in general recently has hit a pleasure zone in us similar to Spanish food five years ago, Moroccan accents two years ago, home-cooked Portuguese in the last year and simple Italian preparations very recently with the use of Italian and southern French basics pretty much always.

In short, Mediterranean cuisine has always always our food love and constant strand, picked and prodded here and there, but it happened incrementally and built. Greek was the next, natural step and it's quickly turning into our next love.

We like hot climate food. You can taste why it's made and consumed. Like much good wine, it tastes of a place.

And the great thing about last night's meal was it was mostly freezer food.

Food: Greek-influenced flank steak, skordaliá and pearl onions and rapini

Medium-rare flank steak marinated in onion, parsley, evoo and lemon juice. Still tender and melty with charred herb hits. Great meat but it wasn't the star.

Became a side dish because of the stellar skordaliá, a blend of potatoes, ground toasted almonds, roasted garlic and extra virgin olive oil with bits of oregano and a splash of red wine vinegar. Dipping heaven with pita. Perfect, balanced shots of every ingredient.

But the real star of the meal came from the pearl onion and rapini combination made with sundried tomatoes rehydrated in white wine, dill (oregano & mint, to a much lesser extent), lemon zest and pecorino romano (standing in for feta). Complex stuff with everything in balance. The rapini with sheep's milk cheese brought an unexpected, deeeeeep depth to the entire plate of food with dill serving as a bridge to the onions, lemon zest and the parsley that was spread over everything.

This was a spectacular meal with a flurry of flavors all playing nicely together. And it was that way because of diligent attention paid to keeping it Greek. They've been around for centuries and know what they're doing.

Like most pairing attempts, if you make a meal that pays heed to cultural traditions, those cultures usually make wine that goes with their food.

Wine: 2007 Boutari Naoussa Xinomavro ($15 - Cardinal Wine)

Our first 100% xinomavro, an indigenous, fickle grape grown mostly in Macedonia. Go here for a great write-up on xinomavro.

Herbed-up stewed tomatoes and meat on the nose. Tough to explain the palate. Like a blend of cabernet franc and carmenère that's aged beautifully, maybe. Fruit isn't the game here. It's fresh, stewed tomatoes and herbs with fruit of cherry and a touch of blueberries (?) only serving as the supporting cast, rounding out things. Nice, light hit of sweet oak and pleasing acid. Vacillated between being a bit brawny and graceful but always a great medium-bodied weight overall. In the end, the wine was defined by its constantly changing tomato and small olive notes, like a spicy tomato stew that came off fresh and light. Original.

By the end of the bottle, it was a winner. Completely interesting and worth every bit of the $15 price tag. I wouldn't have felt ripped off if it were $25-30. Good stuff.

Pairing: 91 A couple of extra points for its Greekiness

Only an occasional isolation of the tannins in the wine with the flank steak was our only criticism of the pairing.

Overall, the wine served admirably as a catch-all, playing up the herbs while the tomato and tiny olive quality in the wine slid right in with all the other flavors in the meal.

Greek food and Greek wine. We are just getting into it whole hog but this was the kind of meal that is only going to bring about oodles more of such things.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

#171 - Bittman Chicken & Momofuku Soba Noodles With Two Demi-Secs


After the odd (read: bad) food week last week, this week's gotten off to a rollicking start.

The best puttanesca (also a Mark Bittman recipe like today's chicken entry) I've ever had on Sunday followed by a trip to Semiramis Monday brought things back into food focus. Good to have flavors again.

Unfortunately, none of the wines with those meals brought much to the table in terms of enhancement.

The 2008 Trader Joe's label Super Tuscan blend Trentatre (33 by another name - a third each of cabernet, merlot and montepulciano) with puttanesca was all cinnamon and wet leaves. Good stuff by itself, if a bit low on the acid front, but offered little with the explosion of dark creamy anchovy, black olive and caper deliciousness in the bowl.

Semiramis was its usual tabletop full of Lebanese wonders but the 2008 A to Z Pinot Noir (#75 on the 2010 Wine Spectator 100) isn't anything noticeably better than their previous offerings in our world. Worth exactly what we paid, in other words. $18 and a wine that asks the question, "If I'm spending about $20 anyway, why not go up a level and get some distinction?"

The NV Cantina del Taburno Falanghina Extra Brut, a new personal favorite, performed a bit better but really never got out of the realm of 'nice to have ya here, buddy'. Semiramis has always been a tough match.

Last night's dinner was no different when it comes to food and wine pairing love for the week. Very little enchancement to speak of and only made us think about we might have worked.

Food: Bittman chicken, Momofuku ginger scallion noodles and sugar snap peas

A black char on the Bittman chicken (chicken-under-a-brick) led to pronouncements of "At least the noodles will be good!" but an odd thing happened. The char actually brought some level of goodness to the plate. The chicken stayed moist and the rub of tamarind, five-spice and ginger came through in great ways with the char offering something more. Wouldn't recommend this path to your Bittman chicken but stuff happens in the kitchen.

But the Momofuku ginger scallion noodles were the star. A Saveur recipe from David Chang of Momofuku Noodle Bar (and four other restaurants in New York including Má Pêche, which is on our list of places to go soon and has the deliciously weird Arbois from last week on their wine list), it's a simple concoction of ginger, scallions, soy sauce, canola oil, serrano peppers (modified), sherry vinegar and salt and whipped into soba noodles (modified). Bright, hot, defined and probably one of the top three noodle dishes I've ever had. Explosive flavor happiness in the mouth.

By the end, the sugar snap peas (mint, cilantro, sesame seeds and szechuan peppercorns) and the chicken pulled off the bone were mixed together with the noodles and turned into a mélange of Asian wonders.

Good recipes make good food. I wish more people understood that.

Wine: 2005 Foreau Vouvray Demi-Sec Domaine Clos du Naudin ($36 - WDC) & 2007 Dr. Konstantin Frank Riesling Semi-Dry ($15 - WDC)

Pop and pour on both. Much debate on the interwebs about a decant for the Foreau. Phillippe Foreau himself says not to decant. Even more debate on whether the Foreau is proper to drink right now. Again, Foreau himself loves the idea. So we're good.

Foreau: Honeyed pears, honeyed pineapples and honeyed peaches on the palate with a smoky apricot skin once it warmed up. A delicate, pretty, sugared edge showing a deft touch of grace and skill that utterly defines the wine. A touch upfront with a medium finish and enough acid to keep things focused. Liked it - almost loved it - but missed the mineral presence that comes from Hüet's expression of chenin blanc, something that would have made this wine silly good (and a critique that I'm sure every producer in Vouvray hates reading - no matter how good a wine turns out, Michael Jordan seems to always be in the room). It's that separation with chenin blanc in our experience, that entrance of pretty, lightly sugared, honeyed fruit washed away by a singular mineral mid-palate with pretty acid and a returning, darker, honeyed fruit to the finish that brings the three-act play that makes Hüet's so distinctive and wonderful. We got all of that but the minerals and we missed them.

Dr. Konstantin Frank: Less pretty with the sugared edges but more of a floral and lemon angle than the Foreau. Had moments of quince and spice as well. A nice riesling for $15, though, at three years old, has probably lost some of its acidic vibrancy and came off a touch weighty. Again, would have benefited from a minerality that just wasn't there but we came to like it over the course of the night.

All in all, we both admired how well the Foreau was put together and it certainly was the wine we reached for the most during the dinner, but the Dr. Konstantin Frank kept it shockingly close.

Pairing: 83 Missed the minerals

A flat pairing, nothing that said eat and drink me, more in the vein of having two nice wines with food in its most basic sense but feeling more like a wine tasting with random food sitting around than a chance to match food and wine.

And only made us think of what might have worked. A grüner veltliner with its basketful of minerals and lentil notes might have exploded with the soba noodle base. The roter veltliner left in the fridge felt like a missed opportunity.

Just wanted something more, something that felt elevated and we never got there, though the sesame seeds all over the plate did some admirable things with both wines.

Spicy, oniony Asian food should have matched the sugar in both wines. Seemed like a no-brainer and a foolproof pairing.

It missed.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

#170 - Beef & Pork Arancini & Arugula Salad With '08 Owen Roe Abbot's Table


We're on our way to diving headfirst into Washington red wine.

Many have been bought, few have been drunk, but that should change quite soon as spring arrives and we go against type and crave red much more than white.

Tons of various bottlings of Owen Roe are in the hopper and we're intrigued.

That intrigue was brought on by a delicious glass of Washington GSM had at Girl & The Goat a few months ago. Just a delicious glass of wine and probably the highlight in an otherwise rather forgettable meal.

On that, with our recent Coco Pazzo experience, Girl & The Goat and The Bristol in the last year, mid-level restaurants have only brought on scorn and derision in this house.

In fact, outside of Blackbird and Purple Pig, it's been BYO places like Hema's Kitchen, Semiramis, Indie Café and Urban Belly that have tickled our fancy more than anything in the last year out in the world - places offering aggressive, confident flavors not trying to please too many people at once, places that put out food that say, "Eat it! It's good! Don't like it? Not my problem."

Or cook at home where you can whip up something new to you and drink something new to you.

For us, last night, homemade arancini was new to us. The Owen Roe Abbot's Table was new to us.

And the entire meal cost about $40 with $10 alone coming from the piquillo peppers.

Food: Saffron rice arancini with a beef and pork ragù and an arugula, basil, parsley, mint and onion salad with piquillo peppers

Arancini is the quintessential Sicilian street food. Never been to Sicily but I've certainly listened to Italians talk about it for months at my place of employment when we have them on special.

Deep-fried rice balls made saffron rice and stuffed with a beef and pork ragù blended with leftover patatas bravas sauce made from cherry tomatoes, garlic, copious amounts of white wine, onion, chili flakes, salt, pepper, etc. Saffron rice half-cooked hours before and finished off in the frying process, making for rice balls that are substantial but still light. Coating made with leftover baguette from the night before and parmesan. The end result was rice balls that came off meaty but never heavy while being balanced and quite freakin' lovely. Six balls per plate and it was more than enough as a main dish, which shocked us. Recipe from this March's issue of Saveur (pg. 62). Use it, know it, love it.

Arugula salad topped with basil, parsley and mint, mixed with onions and piquillo peppers put on the side with a dressing of sherry vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

Sicilian origins. Spanish touches everywhere. With Coco Pazzo on Monday and a failed organic/sustainable Thomas Keller chicken on Tuesday, the goodness of this meal felt needed.

Wine: 2008 Owen Roe Abbot's Table Columbia Valley Red Blend ($23 - Binny's)

Grapes: 24% Zinfandel, 22% Sangiovese, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Syrah, 10% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, 6% Blaufrankish, 4% Malbec
Vintage (WS): 95-100 Cool summer and warm autumn; many great wines

Plums, other purple-type fruits and a touch of herbs on the nose that follows right through on the palate. A simplish, forward wine that gains a bit of complexity with the right food bite. Smooth, round and even supple on occasion that's friendly and generous with enough acid to keep things brightish, a bit lifty and balanced.

A wine that's a bit of a puzzle. I would love to say that it's a fantastic table wine, a bottle that would be an excellent fallback chugger but at $23 and so many other wines out there at half (or less than half) the price that perform as well by itself and are more food-friendly in our experience, it's tough to recommend it on those grounds. The Schild GSM, Trentatre and Chariot Gypsy come to mind.

But outside of that, it's a tasty little number that went down easy and was warm and friendly stuff. Finished it quick-like.

Pairing: 83 Should have went Spanish-Spanish

Started with a 2006 Nashwauk Tempranillo in an effort to go Spanish without going Spanish. All earth and leather with dead-tired fruit. So we cracked the Abbot's Table thinking that the garbage blend would be a sort of catch-all for the food in enough ways to satisfy, especially with sangiovese playing a big part in the blend and tomatoes serving as a backbone to the arancini.

Didn't come off that way. The tomato in the arancini weren't as prominent as expected and the sangiovese hasn't gotten out of the gate yet with the wine.

The result ended up being a generic description of food with wine that didn't detract. At times, especially with bigger bites involving the beef and pork, an herbal kick showed up but never enough to feel like the food and wine were attempting to make sweaty pairing love.

We were just happy, in the end, that it wasn't Coco Pazzo or a bad bird bastardizing our beloved Thomas Keller chicken.

And felt like we got back on the good food horse.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

#169 - Coco Pazzo, Gunthorp Farms Chicken & Melon-Queue-Rouge



What is Melon-Queue-Rouge? After thirty minutes of research on these here internets, my definitive answer is...I don't know. Don't know for sure, anyway.

It's chardonnay in origin. That's one fact that isn't disputed. Is it still chardonnay? Maybe. More a cousin by most opinions. It's red-stemmed, hence the name and only grown in the Jura region of eastern France with the Arbois AOC being its traditional home. It's also pretty rare even for the Jura wine geeks out there and typically manifests itself in a uniquely oxidative, sherry-like aroma and taste.

And it's not used to make vin jaune, a wine from the Jura that goes through a process similar as sherry, comes off like sherry but is made from the savagnin grape. Though the particular bottle we drank last night could be an approximation of such things as it did come off intensely sherry-like and winemakers in the Jura have been experimenting with the vin jaune style using chardonnay grapes, which MQR is...and isn't, really. And MQR usually comes off sherry-like and since I've never had one until last night, how do I know?

Confusing. Let's move on.

Gunthorp Farms in Lagrange, Indiana has a huge following among the chef-types in Chicago and rightfully so. They can't come more highly praised by anybody and everybody that brings them up for their tasty, fresh, sustainable and organic wares. We have eaten a good amount of their products in various forms out in the Chicago restaurant world and partook in other products in sliced meat form from City Provisions.

What we haven't done is go the whole animal route. Seemed right and proper to give a Gunthorp Farms chicken the Thomas Keller treatment, especially given the fact that the bird comes at the same $13 price for a four-pound bird (City Provisions) compared to a Trader Joe's chicken.

Appeared smallish for four pounds. Weighed it. Exactly four pounds.

For Thomas Keller chicken, that tightness and muscle was most likely the problem.

Here we had a very pretty bird from a great farm - sustainable, organic, all that stuff - cooked up and served with a mâche salad and tarragon vinaigrette with radish slices, Uplands Pleasant Ridge Reserve Cheese, a cheese similar to the tomme-style cheese from Savoie but made in Wisconsin, Kerrygold butter and LaBriola baguette.

A well-sourced meal that should have been, in the least, tasty.

Nope.

Terrible bird for this preparation.

This is TK chicken, my friends. TK Chicken needs a fatty bird, it needs the sizzle that jumps off it at 450 degrees in the oven, that sizzle you listen to for an hour and realize that your oven will never be a clean oven again and that's entirely okay with you. TK Chicken needs that fat to baste itself and bleed deep into itself, turning it into something so goshdarn succulent that no other chicken will do. It needs that fat that creates a plume of smoke that engulfs the entire apartment.

It can't abide these birds that get all this exercise and sunlight and are fed proper, diet-driven feed. TK Chicken needs a bird that downs an entire bag of Cheetos while watching a Top Chef marathon. It needs that fat that only comes from years of sedentary, couch-loving behavior.

In other words, the chicken blew. Edible? Sure. I didn't want anymore after about eight bites, though. It wasn't TK Chicken.

It was just chicken. And that don't fly in this house.

Mâche, tarragon and radish = good. Cheese tasted like it came from a cow that ate grass all its life and then for one week decided that horse crap tasted like heaven...in a good way. Sound foundation of grassy cheese goodness with a bit of a welcome background funk coupled with floral, moldy orange rind.

The wine served was the aforementioned melon-queue-rouge, the 2005 Jacques Puffeney Melon-Queue-Rouge Arbois ($32 - WDC) along with a completely forgettable 2009 Tasca d'Almerita Leone ($12), which I don't feel the need to chronicle.

Liquified nuts, nail polish remover, some gasoline and maybe a touch of pear on the nose. Huge acid on the palate with similar flavors from the aroma. Tasted younger than I expected from the nose with a little touch of lemon lift on occasion. Sherry-like in every way. Oxidized as all get-out. Not something I wanted more than a few sips of by itself but this one changed dramatically with food, settling into something entirely interesting, especially with the cheese and greens, bringing about a finish that came off less sherry-like and more like a chardonnay past its prime but entirely interesting to try. Comte cheese is the quintessential pairing according to many people. Maybe we'll give this one another go with that. I wasn't in love with it while drinking it. One-trick pony in many ways. But I certainly kept thinking about it.

Pairing Score: 60 Tough to go any higher with such a bad chicken experience.


Ever have a restaurant on your list of places you'd like to go for years? Coco Pazzo (300 W. Hubbard) has been on our list for about seven years now. Two days ago, we went.

It should have stayed on the list. It tasted Timid. For $300, I got a clam pasta I enjoyed, Mrs. Ney got a very fresh ricotta she enjoyed, we had a nice, cheap, dry bottle of Tocai that we enjoyed.

Other than that, we ate good food that never even briefly wandered into the realm of great, surprising, inventive, evocative or even marginally memorable. Nice enough staff and pretty enough space that, by 7pm, was populated with more older men in suits than I can ever remember dining among.

Certainly not similar to Vanity Fair's A.A. Gill's experience at the worst restaurant in the world but, for the money, stood up and screamed mediocre.

We can cross the place off the list.

Best that can be said.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

#168 - Lamb, Chorizo Spread & Arugula With Vallado 100% Sousão


A week in Portugal last September left us with some impressions.

1.) We can take or leave Lisbon.

2.) We can take or leave most Portuguese food.

3.) There are few places on Earth better than the Douro Valley.

4.) There are few places on Earth more relaxing than Quinta do Vallado winery.

5.) There have been few wines that left a bigger impression on me than the 100% Sousão we had at Vallado.

Last night, seven months after buying a bottle about two seconds after tasting it (for about $20, BTW), we finally had it.

Food: Lamb rack with pearl onions, chorizo spread with Seeduction bread and arugula and parsley salad

Trader Joe's lamb rack marinated in roasted garlic, olive oil, rosemary, soy sauce and red wine vinegar. Better than most Trader Joe's lamb racks. Tasted more...fresh or something. More pure, bright lamb flavor. Usually, it's a fallback lamb when Paulina/Whole Foods lamb seems cost-prohibitive or we're drinking a bottle of wine that doesn't particularly warrant the $10-12 more in lamb cost.

Roasted tiny pearl onions drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar reduction and soy sauce. Solid stuff and played a integral role in the pairing.

A chorizo spread for Whole Foods Seeduction bread (one of the best breads out there). The spread taken from The New Portuguese Table. Seemed right and proper and continues to be a cookbook offering much bigger, bolder flavors than we got in Portugal. Chorizo, mayo, butter, parsley, mint and a splash of Portuguese whiskey hot sauce all blended together. Tasty. A touch salty but came off more like whipped mortadella than chorizo-like. More up my alley than Mrs. Ney's.

Arugula and parsley salad with extra virgin olive oil and good sherry vinegar. Odd arugula. Trader Joe's stuff that had a very raw, almost sheep's milk cheese funk to it. Wasn't bad, was even good overall, just had an oddness to it. Starting to realize that organic arugula almost necessitates the clamshell packaging instead of the bag and spending an extra couple dollars for the certainty of it being delicious is essential. It's been hit or miss.

The meal was prepped around the wine - or at least the impression we had of the wine at the winery - but it turned into a meal that could have played into the hands of a lot of reds we like.

Fresh, a little bit of umami goodness, great depth from the onions, salty hit from the chorizo, always welcome hearty graininess from the Seeduction bread, bitter and earthy salad finish. Hit a ton of notes.

But the wine was the star.

Wine: 2008 Quinta do Vallado 100% Sousão Douro (about $20 - Winery)

Not sold anywhere in the United States which, admittedly, offers a bit more swagger to it in my mind. Something nice 'bout that. Only about 200 cases made with most sold in Portugal and Spain to wine nuts, according to our wine tour. Entirely foot trodden for six days in old-style lagares built into the design of the winery's brand-spanking new winemaking facility specifically for the sousão grape (read about the revival of the grape here). Aged 20 months in French oak. Special stuff in my world. Wine Spectator rated it just four days ago talking about its fruitiness and juiciness. We didn't get that. The fruit in this one played second-fiddle more than any other wine I think I've ever had in such a glorious way.

At the winery, it was all iron-rich blood, concentrated and utterly distinctive. Completely original in our world. Last night showed tons of iron, tar, game, liquified dirt, game (did I mention that?), treated black tobacco product like Skoal, balsamic and summer garbage whiff in the best possible way. Tasted like it came from a dark, dark place. Big black flavors, medium body, great structure, long finish, nice heat and acid that let everything fall into its seemingly proper place. Black, black magic here. Ink in the glass and balsamic-drenched compost on the nose. After all that, we finally figured the fruit to be old dark cherries and blackberries underneath, utterly buried by the delicious weirdness upfront but still there in essential and tasty ways. Beautiful witches' brew. Kills us that we only bought one bottle.

Pairing: 90 It was about the wine but the pairing ended up better than expected

Fit wonderfully with a bite of lamb and onion, letting everything in the wine fall properly into place while accenting the iron in the lamb, turning it into something more lamby and pure with the onions turning the finish in the wine into something even longer.

But might have been best with the greens, oddly. Stellar stuff turning the wine into a kaleidoscope of previously mentioned flavors, each and every one popping up in one sip. Concentrated and vivid stuff even as the wine by itself was starting to become more simple and oxidized an hour or so into the meal (glad we didn't decant).

Too much iron and oak with the salty-ish chorizo spread.

Great stuff all around. We have to write that winery a letter.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

#167 - Speculoos Chicken & Kamut Spaghetti With Two Wines


Until a week ago, I hadn't heard of two of the words in the title of today's post.

Speculoos, maybe. Might have guessed some weird German cookie. Or the name of a character in Flash Gordon. Kamut? Maybe the name of some ruthless or inept Ottoman sultan.

Mrs. Ney ran across a recipe in Around My French Table a couple of months ago that called for French cinnamon Christmas-ish cookies to be made with chicken. The recipe labels itself as a good example of inventive French home cooking where you sometimes have to get inventive and use what you have on hand.

For us, it was too weird not to try.

Food: Speculoos chicken with Kamut spaghetti mixed with Brussels sprouts and pancetta

Speculoos (or speculaas) cookies are little shortcrust biscuits flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom and white pepper that are traditionally eaten in the Netherlands and Belgium on St. Nicholas Eve (thank you, Wikipedia!).

Kamut is the brand name of Khorasan wheat, but like Kleenex, has become synonymous with the grain, apparently. It's old, Persian and kinda delicious; an intensely rich, nutty and wheaty pasta that is LOADED with fiber (trust me) and protein and just about everything else your body wants.

For example, I had about a cup's worth of Kamut spaghetti in this meal. Nutritionally, that's 12 grams of fiber (48% of DV), 20 grams of protein (40% DV), 3 grams of fat, 30% of the daily value of iron, thiamin, niacin, magnesium and zinc and 50% of the daily value of phosphorus.

From the spaghetti alone. Cripes! And it doesn't taste "healthy" at all. First bite was a bit weird as it's intensely wheaty but then it becomes kinda delicious and wanted. Harvestime Foods has started to carry a lot more organic products so Mrs. Ney bought a box to, you know, support such efforts.

To the actual meal. Chicken breasts seared in butter and olive oil. Two cups chicken stock reduced down to a quarter cup (not in the recipe). All that mixed with eight speculoos cookies mashed up and mixed with about a cup of crème fraiche.

Yep. That's the recipe. Crème fraiche with cinnamon-like cookies put over chicken.

And it wasn't too shabby at all. Boatload of dairy that won't make us crave it on a regular basis but we'd eat it again. Tasted like it was advertised. Home cooking concoction made in a pinch that turned into something that stood the test of time. Church cookbook food except actually tasty and interesting.

Kamut spaghetti mixed with Brussels sprouts, shallots and pancetta as a side dish. Also a touch weird at first but quickly wandered into the realm of delicious. Wheat, greens, fat and fiber (trust me) in one small, yet intense package.

For a meal with no expectations outside of getting a curiosity out of the way, we liked pretty much all of what it offered.

Wine: NV Cantina del Taburno Falanghina Extra Brut Spumante ($20 - Fine Wine Brokers) & Seedling Hard Cider ($13 - WDC)

Read the previous post for information on the Taburno Falanghina Sparkling. Liked it so much we wanted to have it again. Soon.

The Seedling Hard Cider deserves attention. It's $13, slightly sparkling, refreshing as all get-out, even somewhat complex and worth every penny. Only about 7% ABV. Apples dominate, of course, but it's more apple orchardy than just apples. Tastes like everything an apple orchard is, all the tastes and smells, rather than simply drinking alcoholic apple juice. Good stuff.

Pairing: 82 Falanghina played along but not much enhancement overall

The Taburno remained itself in admirable ways, offering its cinnamon oil and peach pit-like flavors that fit nicely into cinnamon cookie chicken. Even a wee hint of cream on the finish played nicely with the crème fraiche. But everything was more about flavors running parallel with each other, remaining their delicious selves, than any real enhancement.

Often, that's fine, good, nice enough and more than probably should be asked for because I have no freakin' idea what other wine we could have drunk with cinnamon cookie chicken and got a better result.

The hard cider came off flat with the chicken, serviceable with the pasta-Brussel sprouts-pancetta mixture and not particularly needed overall. Better by itself in every respect.

Odd night of food.

And in the end, entirely interesting.