Thursday, November 29, 2012

#310 - Walnut-Pomegranate Chicken & Rapini With '01 La Rioja Alta Viña Ardanza Reserva Especial

Three months ago in Rioja, during the best vacation of our lives, a restaurant was recommended to us by someone in the know on one of the nights we didn't have any food plans.

Los 4 Arcos in Briones, particularly for their lamb roasted over wine vines, a tradition quickly becoming a rarity in Rioja, as we were told.

I think everyone has those places they're told about where the possibility of eating THAT becomes almost mythical in their brains. It becomes a bit of an obsession, something that HAS to happen, especially after driving there, up a myriad of zig-zagged, impossibly narrow "streets" to the very peak of the hilltop town only to find out they were closed for their September vacation.

So that lamb, the thought of eating that lamb, morphed into THE lamb, the one that has transformed into the pinnacle of having lamb and we haven't even eaten it yet.

Stupid and silly brain stuff, that. But with tentative plans to go back to Rioja (and Hotel Viura, Arzak and Etxebarri), Los 4 Arcos will hopefully be able to accommodate us because that's lamb that we want to eat, both because of what it is and what it's become in our brains.

I say all this because this meal with this wine jettisoned itself into that superlative Spanish food and wine world we love so much, that place where the meal tastes like something Given. Something that makes you say, "Nah. THIS doesn't exist. It doesn't!" It tastes like an intimate history of a place that we seemingly know but weren't born there, only been to a couple of times and don't even really know the language. It's stuff that feels like a gift.

Just does.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

#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:

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

#308 - Crab Cakes w/ TJ's North Coast Sparkling & Moroccan Phyllo Pie w/ '10 Calera Viognier

All the leaves are brown (all the leaves are brown) and the sky is gray (and the sky is gray) California dreamin' (Cal-if-orn-ia dreamin') on such a winter's day...

I can't get the song out of my head! The Mamas & The Papas was splashed all over last night's film.

I'd put off watching Chungking Express for about 17 years. Probably rented it three times (speaking of Three Times, that film left Rain & Tears by Aphrodite's Child firmly implanted into my brain for about a month), but just never got to actually pushing play on the remote. No reason. Just didn't. My loss all those years. Gorgeous stuff.

But Slant Magazine's recent feature chronicling their top-200 films of the 90's has caused me to get off my butt (or on my butt, as it were, on the couch) and work the list, catching up on the films I missed, filling in the holes created by so much time wasted on silly things too numerous to list here (but I'm looking squarely at you, NFL).

So, as California Dreaming rumbles around in my head, I offer two California wines with food that made the California freshness sing.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

#307 - Vietnamese-Marinated Lamb Riblets With '09 Dandelion Shiraz-Reisling & Brandade With '09 San Clodio

Golly, election night was barrels of fun.

I never expected the Obama ground game to nail it so completely, so thoroughly as they did. Can't wait to see the final breakdowns, county-by-county, with real data showing demographic shifts. Thank you Republicans for continuing to hold onto a 1980s playbook for the 2012 world. You continue to warm the cockles of Democratic hearts with your ignorance as to how this country has changed.

Enough of that. Food and wine is party-neutral. With these two pairings, we found one that was technically fine but tremendously boring and one that took us right back to Portugal in the best possible sense.

Pairing #1: Vietnamese-marinated lamb riblets, jalapeño-cream cheese pierogis and soy-balsamic roasted pearl onions with 2009 Dandelion Vineyards Lion's Tooth of McLaren Vale Shiraz-Riesling ($20 - Binny's)

Election night food! We stayed away from a bacchanal on election night. Our nerves couldn't take it.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

#306 - A Potpourri Of Pairings

Geesh! It's been two weeks.

We here at FWW haven't been in the type-y mood as this election has sapped the strength of even the strongest of oxen. It's been head-in-the-sand time in our house, sitting very still, letting the time pass and hoping it does without incident, desperately wanting the polls reflect an accurate reality.

The Ney house endorsement is to the right. Always has been, always will be.

But it's time to clean house. Keeping busy on something other than following election coverage will help to keep me sane during this longest of days.

Today's effort is merely for cataloguing purposes, as nothing in the last two weeks blew us away. But some nice moments of pairing pleasantness occurred so let's put those to electronic paper.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

#305 - Five Spice-Rubbed "Hanging Tenders" & Sweet Potato Fries With '10 Owen Roe Lady Rosa Syrah

During a wine tasting at Owen Roe last May, as we became a lil tipsy and frolicked in the joy of the wine we were tasting, a flurry of box-checking next to the wines we loved and wanted to purchase left us in a state of confusion afterwards.

"What in the heck did we just buy?"

It wasn't until a couple of weeks later, when we received the wine, that we saw what happened that day.

All we know is that we bought three of the Lady Rosa Syrah so...we must have liked it. Right?

That question was answered last night and, while this one still needs some time, happy smoky loveliness in the glass was the result, something that played into the five spice-rubbed meat and sweet potato goodness to a point of pretty enough pairing pleasure, if not perfection.

Food: Five-spice "hanging tenders" with sweet potato fries and adobo-orange zest mayo for dipping

Thursday, October 18, 2012

#304 - Cacio E Pepe With '11 Vera Alvarinho

The biggest reason I continue to do this weird little blog is because there's no end to it.

There's no end to food. No end to wine. No end to pairings.

You can eat and drink everyday from birth to death and not even touch the tip of everything offered by this strange world. It just keeps going! Just abide by a few simple pairing rules and lunch or dinner jettisons itself out of merely lunch or dinner into a pause, a moment, a suspension of the normal flow of the day where the clock, the to-do list and the usual life annoyances no longer register.

Done well and they're tiny vacations.

Every. Day.

Food: Cacio e pepe pasta with arugula salad

Recipe from Saveur. Two alterations. Oregano added and Sardinian pecorino fioretto used in addition to pecorino romano.

Less is more with Italian pasta and that's why it's good. Get too cute, think you're all that, and you've ruined the joy of its simplicity.

And watch how cheap mini-vacation joy can be.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

#303 - Borlotti Bean & Blue Cheese Fregola Risotto With '07 Sanguis Oracle Of Delphi

15.3% alcohol in a wine is quite a lot.

But when done well with particular attention paid to a refreshing acid lift on the finish, you've got wine that is rather friendly and inviting instead of tongue-killing and port-like.

That's what we got last night from this 2007 Sanguis offering comprising of 96% syrah and 4% viognier.

Put into a food world like borlotti bean and blue cheese fregola risotto with a little Cleveland bacon to match the meaty notes in the wine and you've got a winner.

Many wine types poo-poo such largesse in a wine. They say to keep your reds under 14% and your whites under 13%. Admirable goal, that. Under 15% is commonplace in our house, but keeping your reds under 14% excludes so much freakin' great wine.

The world is big. The wine world is big. Big wines made well can and do have a place. Just like large food flavors - bacon as an ingredient in virtually everything, BBQ, whole roasted pig's sticky-sweet goodness, spicy Thai, etc. - large wines on occasion can be the truth. So let's stop saying wines HAVE to be one certain way. It works the other way as well.

Yes, Parker's love of the big-boy bombs has had a detrimental effect on the emphasis of subtlety, grace and finesse in wine. But isn't the wine world pulling the same philosophical jujitsu when it comes to diversity by outright dismissing higher alcohol wines? Getting down and dirty with a plate of food chockablock with massive flavors necessitates a wine that can keep up. That's gonna mean a bit more alcohol that many may want. But made well and it's happy-slappy stuff.

Dismiss higher-alcohol wines whole-hog and you dismiss the food pairing joy that can come with such things.

So let's make that distinction. Higher alcohol in and of itself isn't a terrible thing. It's bad winemakers that patently refuse to do a good job of integrating it into a larger picture in the glass.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

#302 - Anniversary Roasted Chicken With '03 Dom Pérignon

Every once in awhile, my curiosity piques over the ridiculously extravagant.

Over the stupid stuff, the silly things in life made strictly to say, "I am lavish. I am ornate. I harken back to the spirit of rococo, the baroque. By possessing me, you are saying something about what you are, how you live and most importantly, what you're not. And you're going to pay a hefty sum for me...to keep out the riff-raff."

Wine is not immune. Not even close. In fact, the wine world may be one of the last of the supposed luxury worlds that, in some circles, is still meticulously protecting their exclusivity with ever-increasing gateway prices that would feed a Guatemalan village for a month.

For juice. I don't become curious over the status-chasing stupidity of it all. I just sometimes wonder, "What does it taste like?"

With all that said, that's not really Dom Pérignon. Their release prices have held rather steady and, in a relative high-end wine sense, reasonable over the years. You can get a cuvée for about a C-note and a half upon release. It starts to go up from there as demand begins to outpace supply and $150 is nothing to sneeze at for sure.

But we'd never had a Dom Pérignon and an anniversary dinner to celebrate number eight was coming up. We could go out into the world and continue our streak of being let down by anniversary/birthday-type dinners (long, uninterrupted stretch there - and my Thanksgiving crappy movie streak is prodigious) or we could stay in, eat a favorite meal and drink fancy-pants wine for half the price. Even think about following said fancy-pants wine every anniversary and watch it evolve.

The end result was delicious, enormous, chickeny chicken, fancy French Basque cheese (hey, we were just on the other side of that border) and a Champagne that tasted of fancy vanilla bean, butter and not much else.

This Dom Pérignon (I refuse to call it Dom) is just a baby but that was the idea. Start it out early and see where it goes over the years. After having it, we were left with a palpable sense of "keep it." Nice to have, now know what it is in a sense, beautiful texture worth every bit of its price tag but we'd take an Egly-Ouriet at half the price any day of the week.

Friday, October 5, 2012

#301 - Cleveland Followed By A Cleveland Meal

31 hours out our door and back through it.

That was our trip to Cleveland to stock up at West Side Market, eat at Lolita and see Louis C.K. kick off his current tour.

Big stock-up at West Side Market with all the Cleveland goodness now in our freezer. Pierogis, gnocchi, bacon, jerky, sausages, stuff that tastes like Cleveland and only Cleveland. We've tried Chicago pierogis. They're not Cleveland pierogis.

Meal at Lolita. Bruschetta and bone marrow to start. Chicken and duck confit as entrées. Bottle of 2008 McCrea Yakima Valley mourvèdre-forward blend to drink. I have a thing for Lolita - the atmosphere, the portions, the flavors, the Tremont neighborhood, our waitress, the lighting, how laid-back it is, how delicious the food is, the honesty of it all after all these years, the totality of the experience. It's just good in every way.

I won't give a review of Louis C.K.'s show. I'll just say it's the best thing I've seen on stage in my life (small batch, to be fair). I saw Carlin a couple of times. This was better. I've never laughed that hard, that long, that thoroughly.

So...took off at 7:30am on Wednesday, got into Cleveland at 2:30pm, went to West Side Market, dumped stuff at our hotel, got to Lolita at 5pm, ate, went to Severance Hall at 7:30 to see Louis C.K., done by 9:30, went to sleep and left the next morning, back by 2:30pm.

Seemingly tight schedule but it wasn't. Because everything in Cleveland is ten minutes away with no traffic. And from the time we sat down at Lolita to the time we left Severance Hall was the most entertaining "dinner and a show" I've ever had in my life.

Not too shabby.

So to celebrate the greatness and ease of such a Cleveland trip, a Cleveland meal to finish the day.


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

#300 - Romanian Skirt Steak, Spring Onions & Scallion Sauce With '07 Twisted Oak The Spaniard

Hey...we made it to 300 pairings.

Or 300 posts with probably 450 pairings.

I guess, given the societal significance attached to numbers ending to double zeros, I should sum up what we've learned lo these last almost three years.

Learned...? Hmm. I guess that is the word here. Because we have learned, while it's always been a rather organic process dictated entirely by our own random curiosity.

In many ways, food with wine has become what we love, what we do, it's our hobby, the thing we find infinitely interesting and...fun. Finding that in our 30's was something unexpected and joyful.

We knew all that when I started this blog but it's become a little more entrenched, more of a love I would say, more essential and true when talking about what we like in life. Because it's good.

So good.

Like this.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

#299 - Two New House Favorites With Two Wines

Back to home flavors after Rioja with two meals that epitomize new home flavors.

New in the sense of taking old favorites and tweaking them, moving old faves forward, keeping them fresh and new.

The first meal, Symon roasted chicken with down-and-dirty salsa verde and a tomato-corn-arugula salad, has become new with the weekly visits to the Lincoln Square Farmers' Market. Where roasted chicken used to reach such great heights with a simple roasting of the bird and tossing down some Fancy French cheese with good bread to slather with said cheese and sop up bird juice (that phrase sounds weird), the newness of the new comes in the impeccably fresh salad ingredients in various forms that become more than just side salad.

To wit. Here, the tomatoes were stupid-ripe and bursting with proper tomato flavor. Take advantage now. Not much time left in that realm. And it's corn season, folks. Use it and abuse it until you're sick of it. Predicted to be the worst crop in 17 years (news that piques an Iowan's interest, like me, because that was the de facto, 'the sky is falling,' grocery store-coffee shop-Casey's conversation everyday growing up), here was delicious corn complementing the tomato in great ways.

So...Michael Symon roasted chicken (chronicled many times on this here blog), this time an enormous Whole Foods five-pounder with a shimmering golden skin and juicy (even the breast) meat. One of the better ones of late. Tomato and corn salad with an arugula bed which was more about the tomato and corn than the arugula. Salsa verde, It's salsa verde in a different form, loaded with dirty delicious anchovy-caper flavor that's cleaned up in such a new, lifty way by the parsley-mint-olive oil driver (plagarized myself there). It's the thing on the side that sits there, saying, "Use me how you like. I don't care. Salad? Sure! Taste that! Chicken? Yep! Told ya. All of it together? That's what I'm about." Whole Foods Seeduction bread with butter to round things out.

Monday, September 17, 2012

#298 - Rioja

Getting away and coming back always leads to a state of precariousness. How do you maintain the sense of calm and exhale you find the moment you set down in a foreign land upon your return? Or more realistically, how do you conserve at least a piece of it? How do you stop it from too quickly transitioning from a feeling to a memory?

It's never a perpetual suspension. Never an enduring sensation floating weightlessly on the right side of that line. It's always merely a delay.

This trip, a trip to Rioja, wine country that has become so dear to our wine hearts over the years, left me with a sense that the feeling will stay a feeling a wee bit longer. It will float for a bit, holding steadfast for a period of time acceptable. Because Rioja has that thing, that Spanish thing making it so Spanish as we know and love it. A way of moving that tastes like the food and wine taste. More Spanish than Barcelona, even Madrid, more languid and wonderfully meandering, more something that took us out of life here to a restful there. To a place that became very "there."

And to our relative surprise, it was never really about the wine.

The highlights:

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

#297 - Spanish Pork & Saffron Potatoes With '91 Heredia Bosconia GR

Pork.

It's fiiiine and God bless those people that love it so, putting pork slogans on t-shirts, inking pigs on arms (and possibly other places, if you read the news this week - I suppose that was the next inevitable tattoo spot in this day and age) and just generally preaching from the altar of swine.

For us, it offers little. Sure, you can screw with it like no other meat (Whaaaa?), making for a blank slate on which to paint your food art. That has value. Pork is by no means valueless. We like pork in various forms. But we don't anticipate pork. Not like lamb, duck, flank, hanger, shrimp (see below), roasted chicken, you get it.

Pork is like watching Chopped to us - fine enough food TV entertainment to record and watch commercial-free but never in real time. And I've certainly never anticipated the airing and viewing of Chopped. It's sorta just 'there' with all its predictable structure and snooze-worthy content (usually halfway through the entrée course). Yet we watch, because it's on TV.

We eat pork because it's available, cheap and, at times, like this time, can satisfy the 'use stuff up' food meme of the next two weeks as we wait for vacation.

Spanished-up pork is also a good platform for Heredia reds.

And this one was.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

#296 - Sea Bass a la Veracruzana & Saffron Rice With '96 Heredia Gravonia

Back in 2010, right around this time of the year, we drank up one of our Quinta do Vallado wines in anticipation of a stay at their winery in Portugal.

And on that trip, we had wistful and unrealistic yearnings to hop over to Rioja from the Douro and visit another winery that holds a massive place in our wine hearts, López de Heredia.

"It's only six hours away. We're already here, have a car. Can we pass it up?"

Yeah, we found out we could pass it up. That's a long time in a car on a trip that already had six hours booked in said vehicle.

So we're going back to the Iberian Peninsula next month, this time to Rioja, to visit the place we yearned to visit two years ago. Time to drink up a few Heredias in the meantime.

Gotta prep.

After experiencing Veracruz-style sea bass with the 2001 LdH Gravonia in May and all its pairing glory (probably the best pairing we've had this year), seeing where the 1996 is with nearly the same food platform felt right and proper.

It didn't reach the May pairing heights but it was still quality Heredia food and wine stuff.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

#295 - Shrimp Lunch With Huet Pétillant & Lamb Dinner With Ponzi Reserve

Season 2 of The Killing finally entered and exited my world this week. I'm typically behind on TV and movie things, especially when I can frolic in the superlative joys offered by the Angels' bullpen.

Not once in the 13 hours of the season did I even remotely guess the ultimate killer. Great show, great show! And clues were there throughout both seasons.

In this week's food world, Popeye's chicken and Belgian waffles with watermelon-jalapeño sangria is wrong, we did it and I don't wanna be right.

In this week's restaurant world, Green Zebra is worth a trip. Thoughtful wine list, pretty and quiet space, good food, great staff. We had some salting issues and maybe a feeling that dishes were created first to not offend. Tepid is not the word but, at times, offerings entered that realm. Clean flavors but sometimes clean can become a bit sanitary and Green Zebra felt a bit like that. Bottom line is we'd go again. Not in a hurry and, unfortunately, can't really touch Ubuntu in the veggie flavor explosion world, which is too bad because Green Zebra is here and not 2104 miles away (only 33 hours in current traffic according to Google Maps. Or 691 hours on foot).

Two pairing offerings this week, both with juice that came from houses we both love, both coming off for the most part delicious but both leaving us a little wanting.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

#294 - More Than Just Hanger, Potatoes & Green Beans With '07 J. Bookwalter Protagonist

Olympics grub and juice.

I've found myself watching more Olympics coverage than I ever imagined. Basketball, tennis, water polo, rowing, kayaking, gymnastics, tons of swimming, volleyball, beach volleyball and whatever else NBC has put in front of my face (except for the moment of silence for the Munich victims. And the 7/7 victims. NBC tells me what's important in life).

Also, if you're a liberal like me but don't understand that tingly feeling you get in your special place when you see an American athlete accomplish something he or she has been training for their entire life. If you feel it somehow reinforces America's imperialism, Salon has you covered. Because it's what they do:
"However, I’ve outgrown the lust for an overpowering victory that has us, medal-count-wise, leave everyone else in the dust. I’ve outgrown it because while I know our athletes deserve our support and respect, I also know that the same respect is due all the competitors from all the nations at the games — and respect is something wholly different from complete conquest." 
Salon is like sports radio. They lecture morons.

Food:  Hanger steak, potatoes, green beans and onions

Thursday, July 26, 2012

#293 - Gazpacho, Chorizo-Stuffed Date "Brisket" & Potato-Kale Cake With '08 Gramercy Inigo Montoya

Spanish inspired and Spanish delicious.

Simple meal, Wednesday meal. Something about some meals we eat on Wednesday tastes like we're eating on Wednesday.

This tasted like Wednesday, a early-to-bed day that gives a nod to fancy while keeping the cooking agony to a minimum.

Drink more fancy wine with it and boom! Fancified.

That's Wednesday.

Food: Gazpacho, chorizo-stuffed date "brisket," potato-kale cake, mayo and manchego

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

#292 - Roasted Chicken, Salsa Verde, Amaranth Leaves & Radishes With NV Pierre Peters "Pour Albane" Brut Rosé

What are amaranth leaves?

We had no idea. Don't even know what species we ate last night but I tell you what. They're delicious! Like Swiss chard but, you know, good (I've never been a fan). Big, cheap bundle at Whole Foods necessitated a purchase.

A Champagne rosé seemed like a good catch-all for chicken, salsa verde, amaranth and radishes (and we wanted to drink it) but this was an example of a wine being too delicate to play the role of herder. And an example of maybe checking the price tag before letting the wine serve as a herder. That's not something one should do in this price range.

Oops!

Food:  Michael Symon chicken, Michael Symon salsa verde, amaranth leaves, radishes, Seeduction bread, butter and rose petal jam

Symon roasted chicken. It's better chicken. Go here to see the prep. Mrs. Ney turned the oven off from its high cooking temperature 15 minutes before the time allowed to see if that brought about a juicier chicken all around and success! Moisty moistness galore. Lemony, herby, delicious.

Symon salsa verde - it's salsa verde in a different form, loaded with dirty delicious anchovy-caper flavor that's cleaned up in such a new, lifty way by the parsley-mint-olive oil driver (I plagiarized myself from here. Good meal, that. Fond memories).

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

#291 - Ratatouille & French Feta With '11 Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé

The price on the Tempier rosé shot up sometime in the mid-aughts, from around $30 to the current price of almost $40.

Which raises a question. Is a rosé ever worth $40.

The answer is, of course, yes.

Why would rosé ever be seen as some ersatz version of wine not worth a higher price? That's just silly talk.

Also, when drinking Domaine Tempier's rosé, you're not exactly searching for value. It's a rosé experience, a benchmark, a peek into how one of the masters of the juice and style expressed the grapes in that year.

But let's just say for drops and chuckles you're craving a Tempier rosé and have ratatouille on the docket for dinner. Should be great, right? It was. Very nice grub and juice, separately and together, even if we drank it way too young.

But for $20 we could have drunk another Kermit Lynch import (a wine made by Mr. Lynch himself) the Domaine Les Pallières Au Petit Bonheur Rosé and found very similar pairing love.

Was it $20 flushed down the toilet. No.

Friday, July 13, 2012

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

Or hanging tenders, as the Whole Foods label said.

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

Learn something new everyday.

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

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

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

Sunday, July 8, 2012

#289 - Linguine Al Limone & Avocado-Kumato-Corn Salad With '10 La Spinetta Vermentino

Odd combo.

Delicious combo.

Essentially an antipasto and a primo (look at me!) made into a meal.

A Saturday night dinner on an unexpected night off that hurt financially but felt needed psychologically.

A 20-degree midday temperature drop yesterday without any rain developing made it impossible to not find ourselves in a good mood. And eating this food with that weather?

Happy. Happy, happy, happy stuff.

Food:  Pasta al limone & avocado-kumato-corn salad

The simple, basic, delicious pasta both of us were craving. A David Rocco recipe to boot (changed a bit) and yet another example of how the Italians get things so right.

Linguine with tons of lemon juice and zest, garlic, olive oil, the rest of the balsamic/juniper pecorino from a few days ago (sprinkled on top), parmesan (in the sauce), lemon thyme (added to the recipe) and parsley. Uncomplicated and straightforward pasta with perfect balance; the boatload of lemon in two forms cut through both cheeses at just the right level, leaving behind the best of both in our mouths with the parsley and lemon thyme then mixing in beautifully. Dumb in how good this tasted and it takes about 10 minutes to make start to finish.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

#288 - Spiced Lamb Riblets With '10 Villa Creek Garnacha & Tapas With Albariño & Malvasia

Indian, Spanish and 4th of July-inspired food this week.

Served along with torrontés, Slovenian zelen, albariño, malvasia, New World grenache and pinot noir.

A rather lavish three-day spread. That's how we celebrated Independence Day.

That and staying out of the oppressiveness of outside, a brutality of heat so brutal that we skipped Winnemac Park fireworks this year. And from the relative lack of long and sustained firework bangs coming from two blocks away, so did mostly everyone else.

But we ate like people do on the 4th. American-inspired food with American wine. Can't say we're not flag-wavers.

Food: Barbecue-like lamb riblets, tomato salad and corn on the cob

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

#287 - Chakundari Chicken Tikka, Beets & Zucchini Cakes W/ Crios & Slovenian Bubbles

We love Hema's Kitchen on Devon.

This meal, made at home, rivals Hema's with Indian flavors and spices flying everywhere while offering something slightly more northern Indian in origin, as opposed to the central Indian wonder that comes from Ms. Hema Potla.

I really don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to regional Indian cuisine but Mr. Bittman has the rundown on beet-marinated chicken here.

As Mr. Bittman says, go find dried fenugreek leaves for this recipe. We found ours at Pars Persian Store on Clark. It makes a big difference, as it opened us up to another distinctive and deep flavor that now seems necessary and wanted.

Food: Chakundari chicken tikka, roasted beets, zucchini cakes, naan and raita

Recipe for chakundari chicken tikka (beet-marinated chicken) here. It's a bit of work but entirely worth the effort. Dried fenugreek leaves, ginger, garlic, yogurt, garam masala, cumin, all the Indian goodness, flavors that are bright yet deep and dark at the same time. I'm not going to attempt to describe the flavor of the chicken, it just bounces and expands all over the place. Top three chicken in my world.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

#286 - Roast Chicken & Endive in Rosemary-Balsamic With '11 Ponzi Arneis

Continuing the theme.

A lot of Michael Symon and Jamie Oliver lately and this meal was no different.

A simple meal with Symon chicken we've chronicled here a few times already and a easily made endive (chicory) salad with rosemary and balsamic taken from Jamie Oliver's 30-Minute Meals. Oliver garlic bread that eschews butter to top off the goodness.

Wine thoughts: red and chicken is boring to us. Sparkling might have been nice but we like a wee touch of spice or a bread and cheese leader to counter/play with bubbles. White wine was the leading candidate to start but the meal needed acid in the wine to stand up to the balsamic and the roasty caramelizing, the major flavor drivers on the plate. Balsamic's Italian, lemon and bay in the chicken are common Italian ingredients. Garlic bread. What's more Italian? Arneis has acid and it's Italian. So we drank Italian...from Oregon.

Food: Symon chicken and Oliver chicory salad with garlic bread

I'll plagiarize myself: Go here to see the prep. "Lemon peel and bay leaves shoved under the skin (with that, garlic and onions put up its rump) has made for a better whole roasted chicken experience. Juicy thigh, delicious salty, lemony skin, bay leaf flavor flyin' everywhere."

It's better chicken. Onions cut in half and stuck in the pan with the chicken to roast. A caramelized wonder, my friend.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

#285 - Fish In Shrimp Sauce & Maduros With '01 LdH Gravonia Blanco

Or filhote com molho de camaroēs e bananas, if you want to practice your Brazilian Portuguese.

That meal, the third in today's roundup, came off so utterly surprising that we vowed to eat fish once a week from this point out. With a recipe like this and eating it with a wine like the 2001 López de Heredia white, that might be something that lasts longer than the mere proclamation.

Hot Chicago days brought about food from hot climes this weekend.

Monday saw skirt steak in green sriracha sauce (Food & Wine - Susan Feniger), sweet potato fries, mayo for dipping and arugula salad with 2008 Orin Swift Saldo ($26 WDC).

It's a meal that naturally follows the utterance, "I want something California blendy, maybe something Zinfandel-ish." Grab some cheap cut of beef, maybe marinate it, maybe not, get a good char on it, throw on some interesting sauce you found on the interwebs or in a magazine like green sriracha sauce, toss a bag of sweet potato fries in the oven, whip up a fancy mayo for dipping (like pan juice mayo), finish with an arugula salad and drink something New World, big and blendish. Orin Swift, Villa Creek, Owen Roe (the Ex Umbris started this business).

Very little kitchen pain, flavors galore, tastes like a fancy BBQ and everything comes in under $50. This meal is our "let's just order a pizza and drink something we have in the house." It's essentially the same price, same amount of time, only a bit more work and delicious as all get-out. Green sriracha is something delicious. Doesn't resemble sriracha in the traditional sense. It's more of a broad definition akin to an Asian chimichurri or pesto, led by basil, coconut and lemongrass and worth a look. The Saldo more stayed its delightful self than offering a whole lot in the way of real, true-blue enhancement but that's all what really wanted. No clashing and tons of juicy dark goodness. Pairing Score: 88

Thursday, June 14, 2012

#284 - Farmers' Market Jubilee

Two Lincoln Square Farmers' Market-driven meals with two adult wines.

Huge haul of veggies for a mere $14! And we have a boatload of snap peas left!

Meal #1 - Indian Carrot Salad. Recipe here (another Jamie Oliver recipe). Last eaten here (wanted a bigger Oregon pinot expression with the wine there and got it with this one). A base of Minnesota wild rice topped with ground lamb gussied up with garam masala and mixed with carrots, carrot greens, cilantro, mint, sesame seeds and topped with pomegranate seeds. A dressing of olive oil, lemon, cumin, shallots and ginger drizzled over the top of the massive mound of mouthwatering goodness.

A pretty perfect blend of spice and earthiness with this meal, edging more towards earthy with that earthiness brightened up by the zing in the dressing and pomegranate seed pop. This was a huge plate of food that never felt like too much because of its freshness, vacillation and interplay of flavors. Coriander in the garam masala led the spice march with the carrot greens (a product that has the evocative smell of whacking weeds in Iowa on a hot August day) taking things down to a garden-y quality without making it taste too Garden-y!

Just great stuff that made us feel so clean.  And the wine helped make much of that happen.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

#283 - Gigante Beans & Scallops In Pea Purée With '11 Palmina Pinot Grigio

We were thinking last night that if a person could have only two sources of recipes from chefs/food people in which they had to eat, nothing else, that person would eat quite well with Jamie Oliver and Michael Symon.

It would be the trifecta: cheap, diverse and heavily herbed food goodness that would never get boring.

Mrs. Ney takes from oodles of sources in many forms in our apartment and on the interwebs, but anytime we see those two on TV, either from the bevy of Jamie Oliver's BBC shows or Symon's Suppers on The Cooking Channel ( a show that seems to be rounding into a Jamie Oliver-type show for the American audience), it gets both of us instantly excited to Eat. That. Food!

Another source Mrs. Ney found that she's starting to see as a pretty great little thing is the Palmina website recipe page. It's Italian food with a California edge catered directly to the wines Palmina makes; tried-and-true recipes made specifically not only for the varietals they offer but more for the specific expression of Palmina's Italian varietals. In other words, Italian wines with a California edge. Palmina took the time to get in there and find what works with their wines and that's a good thing. Our last experience taken from their site, polenta panini & roasted beet salad with the 2010 Palmina Malvasia Bianca was something pretty great - fancy, delicious patio food and wine.

This one was no different.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

#282 - Michael Symon Chicken & Delice de Bourgogne With '05 Jobard Meursault-Blagny 1er Cru

Unbeknownst to us, Monday was National Cheese Day.

I'd like to thank the Maker that we accidentally had cheese with dinner. Can you imagine the humiliation if we didn't?

It was even more nice that we had a cheese we love, Delice de Bourgogne, with chicken we love and white Burgundy, which rounds out a true (and easy) favorite over the last couple of years.

Our white Burgundy collection isn't anything deep or broad, but we usually have a few on hand, nothing radically profound, but a couple that are age-worthy.

That became a problem couple of weeks ago when we read this from Matt Kramer at Wine Spectator:
"Starting with the 1995 vintage, that "better tomorrow" often didn't arrive. White Burgundies that should have been gloriously fresh-tasting, vibrant and dimensional five or seven years after the vintage proved to be nothing of the sort. In fact, they were dead, victims of what has come to be called premature oxidation. Affected wines have a dark yellow hue (where they should be a vibrant lemon-yellow); the scent is oxidized, almost Sherry-like; and the flavor is flat, devoid of fruitiness, essentially shot. This for wines that should just be beginning to become mature."
Premox. We had no idea. Might explain this. White Burgundy for us has been a recent dalliance but that's a big blind spot. Places like Burgundy and Barolo are regions put on the back burner due to the price, making for big holes in our knowledge of those places and, apparently, a large thing like this evaded our wine news radar.

Don't think we would have dropped the bucks on this bottle had we known. But we did and got lucky.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

#281 - Piri-Piri Chicken, Couscous & Pineapple With '10 Berger Grüner Veltliner

Holy crap!

From a technical pairing standpoint, this was just awful. Truly terrible stuff. This was Ishtar. This was Battlefield Earth. This was even bad inside of bad, like "Take me to the teleportation platform!" inside Battlefield Earth.

We planned a Portuguese white, 2009 Van Zellers Branco ($18 - Spanish Table), to drink with this No Reservations Mozambique episode-inspired piri-piri chicken but...corked. No backup chilled. The 2010 Berger Grüner Veltliner, a common fridge wine in this house, was the only option. And what an option it was!

Food was piri-piri chicken thighs (page 118, The New Portuguese Table) cooked under a brick. Tasted like fancy buffalo wings in a good way. Whole wheat Israeli couscous cooked in chicken stock with crushed coriander and fennel seeds; sliced green onions mixed in post-cooking. Great cheap option that can be gussied up and was. Overripe pineapple. Lemon thyme dumped over everything. Arugula salad with evoo and white balsamic vinegar to finish. Tasted like roadside café food thrust upon you when your car breaks down in the middle of Louisiana nowhere and something about it leaves a big, happy impression on you.

The wine pairing was another story. Just shocking how bad it was. So bad that any critical tongue was put in our back pocket and we just sat back and took it in, which made for an oddly happy dinner. With the food, the 2010 Berger Grüner Veltliner ($13 - WDC), usually a delicious little mid-afternoon guzzler, tasted like zucchini juice, bean-soaking water and, at times, milk just about to turn had a baby. Hilarious how bad it was with the piri-piri (and we knew it would be). Made nice efforts with the couscous, even good at times, but once the piri-piri hit our tongues, it was all downhill from there. But like watching Battlefield Earth, there wasn't one moment I was going to get up and leave (yep. Saw it in the theatre in anticipation of such howlingly terrible stuff). It was so bad it was almost good.  Pairing Score: 60  

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

#280 - Chimichurri-Marinated Flank Steak & Potatoes With '06 Mollydooker Carnival Of Love

Got rid of it!

And thank God! Both of us were sick of looking at it and both of us were sick of having it come up in the discussion when figuring out pairings over the last few years.

I mean the wine, of course.

97 points Wine Advocate, #8 on the Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2007 (the 2007 checked in at #9) so...critical darling and most likely the reason we bought. That and being available at Sam's. We loved Australian wine at the time. Still do. But if this sort of wine came up on some list now and we saw it out in the world, there would probably be more of a pause and pass.

We're learning.

Food: Chimichurri-marinated flank steak, salt-crusted potatoes, balsamic-roasted pearl onions and arugula salad

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

#279 - Shrimp Lunch With '10 Strub Riesling & Greek Dinner With '09 Villa Creek Avenger

Hey, it was thigh-soaking hot last Memorial Day as well.

And we went Greek then, too!

And we had Villa Creek wine just a few days before last May Remembrance with ropa vieja, a meal we were just talking about last night!

This is eerie. Moon cycles or something.

Our pairings were better this May holiday than last, with a quality bargain riesling and a surprisingly savory Villa Creek number that I think shows the vintage and the work Villa Creek put in to create something rather delicious.

Lunch:  Leek-saffron shrimp and bread for juice dipping with 2010 Strub Niersteiner Brückchen Riesling Kabinett ($18 - WDC)

Thursday, May 24, 2012

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

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

Home classic revisited yesterday after a moderately long absence.

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

Stupid great with bison and '07 Duorum Reserva.

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

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

Ribera fits like a glove.

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

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

#277 - Michael Symon Chicken, Salsa Verde & Fava-Corn-Avocado Salad With '08 Viñátigo Verdello

We spent four days in Portland/Willamette Valley last week.

Here are some highlights:
  • No sales tax! 
  • The Portland airport smells like wet dog. 
  • Firehouse Restaurant has good food that needs more depth but a great wine list. 
  • The new Nissan Sentra has fantastic get-up-and-go but it's a little too slopey. 
  • No sales tax! 
  • Owen Roe winery is a warehouse with a road sign and gravel road leading to it that makes you think you might be bound, gagged and thrown in the basement. But by golly! Great private tasting! 
  • Nick's Italian Café in McMinnville pumps out delicious, old-school vittles with a huge nod to the new and a great, cheap, Oregon-focused wine list picked to match the food. 
  • Expected the Willamette Valley to be more...bucolic.
  • The beautiful grounds at Ponzi match their beautiful wines. 
  • At Voodoo Donut, simple is better.
  • Stumptown Cold Brew gets us closer in finding the best bottled coffee 
  • I thought I'd found the Holy Grail of Viet/Thai food while eating at Pok Pok but it didn't resonate as much as I thought it would (and then it did. I really did). 
  • No sales tax! 
  • No self-service gas stations, which was a touch odd. 
  • Potato Champion's worth it for the curry ketchup and anchovy-tarragon mayo alone. 
  • Olympic Provisions has a top-notch ham sandwich and bratwurst. 
  • Flagship Powell's Books made me miss bookstores. 
  • Andina's Peruvian grub hit a big place in both of us. 
  • No sales tax! 
  • Four days of sun and mid-70s...in Portland, continuing our vacation streak of great weather (knock-knock).  

Maybe should have went skydiving. Maybe should have seen the coast. But nice little getaway overall. We both thought that if we worked for a corporation and were told we were getting transferred, with the myriad of just terrible possible options, if we were told we were going to Portland...for two years...we'd both say, "Oh...okay...we can do that." It's a nice place with nice people and tons to do.

On the food. We like home food and we like Chicago food just a bit more. In our small sample size, we missed the depth and maybe the surprise.

Speaking of home food, this is why we Like it:

Thursday, May 10, 2012

#276 - Rabbit Sausages, Chicken Thigh & Smokey Blue Fregola With '11 Ponzi Pinot Gris + 1

Ponzi-licious.

Ponzi acid, guys. Ponzi. Acid.

It's what they do oh-so well (among other things) and these two meals really showcased that.

Good weekend. Found Ring Day on Monday followed by tuna Niçoise with --> Ponzi Pinot Noir Rosé followed by this meal.

Plus, dog obedience class is over. We got our Wednesday nights back. You should see how much she kinda-sorta-not really remembers it all.

A trip to Oregon wine country for us soon. Drinking Ponzi seemed right and proper....and Ponzi-licious (I'll stop that now).

Food: Rabbit sausages, chicken thigh, blue cheese fregola and baby kale salad with meat juice

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

#275 - Spanish Hanger, Rosemary Potatoes & Rapini With '96 Contino Gran Reserva

May 7th will henceforth be referred to as Found Ring Day.

I lost my wedding ring cleaning out the neighborhood storm drains Sunday.  Convinced it was lost to the city sewer gods, I nonetheless made a seemingly hopeless effort to find it. As I was looking, an older gentleman on a bicycle, smoking a cigarette, curious as to what I was doing with a rake around a storm drain, asked what was happening. I told him, he was sympathetic, we talked, he mentioned I should look to St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things, and he peddled away. I found it three minutes later.

I'm not a religious man, but...

So moderately fancy wine to celebrate.

On a side note, this was the replacement ring if said ring wasn't found. That's a freakin' gorgeous ring.

Food:  Hanger steak, rosemary potatoes and rapini

Thursday, May 3, 2012

#274 - Weisswurst, Grapes, Tomatoes, Pierogis & Rapini With '09 Ponzi Dolcetto

While not necessarily a meal fit for the first hot and humid day of the year, this sausage, grapes and tomatoes recipe, first eaten as a weeknight meal a few weeks ago and loved every second of it, has easily shoved its elbows into our food rotation.

Its five best qualities:

1. Delicious
2. Easy to make
3. Versatile as all-get out for wine pairings
4. Tasty enough for quick dinner AND sorta fancy dinner
5. Delicious

In fact, it's a meal perfect for showcasing a wine you crave. Reverse it. Modify the recipe. You crave a wine and don't necessarily crave a specific dinner? Modify this one with herbs. Got a Portuguese wine just sitting around and want it? Add a dash of five-spice.  How 'bout a GSM? Sage and pepper it up. Maybe South African syrah blend? Bet a sprinkling of mint and black olives would be interesting. Possibly a Ribera del Duero? Char up the sausage and drizzle in a touch more balsamic.

It's a platform for so much because it possesses wine's origins in the grapes with a tomato acid that doesn't drive the dish.

Mrs. Ney wishes she would have added rosemary to link the Italian variety here but we quickly warmed to the pairing while getting everything the wine offered.

Food:  Weisswurst, grapes & tomatoes with potato pierogis and rapini

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

#273 - Roasted Chicken, Brillat-Savarin, Bread & Butter With '02 Gimmonet Special Club

Been awhile.

Wine-related things have happened, just little of anything that wowed us.

A Blackbird dinner featuring older-vintage Sanguis wines brought interesting food, if low in acid, and pairings that puzzled us a bit.  Texture perfection has seemingly been the MO at Blackbird over the last few years and they nail it.  It's memorable stuff in that respect.  It just doesn't get under our skin these days like acid perfection does and that, in our experience, takes a backseat at Blackbird.

With wines all a wee touch over 15% alcohol, more grizzly bear elements in the food seemed warranted. A stupid-good sous-vide quail was gobbled up by the Infidels, a bigger syrah-cab-grenache blend.  An amuse of fluke and lardo needed an acid lift from the Acromion, a roussanne-viognier blend, and the wine just didn't offer such a thing.  The Optimist showed better with ahi and beef tongue than our home experience while The Bossman, a personal favorite, fell flat, turning gritty with black bean agnolotti, ricotta, peas, morels and wasabi.

Sanguis is about decadence. Blackbird excels in different food arenas. Odd fit.

But the winery owners are just the tops and they have a customer. Blackbird as well because the experience is always something that feels like visiting friends.

In other news, the sign of a good wine shop comes from a game. If you browse the selection in a given wine shop and someone told you that you could only drink wines from there the rest of your natural-born life, would that upset you? Would you feel like a large gaping hole opened up in your wine world?  Would you palpably feel like something, a big something, was missing? I don't think I'd feel that to any large extent with Vinic in Evanston. Great diversity, great owner, great bargains and an atmosphere you want to spend time just walking around in.  Rare, very rare thing in Chicago. An Evanston alcohol/city combined sales tax approaching 15%, which was a surprise, but worth it.

On to a back-on-the-equine pairing of chicken and fancy Champagne.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

#272 - Polenta Panini & Roasted Beet Salad With '10 Palmina Malvasia Bianca

Winery website recipe eaten with a wine from the winery recommended for the recipe.  Or the other way around.  Potato, potahto.

They usually get it right.  And this one was right, delicious, pure, springy, new and just gosh darn wonderful.

I was thrilled enough with two Palmina reds to join their wine club because we typically have a jones for varietals grown in places not typically grown.

Palmina covers much of the better-known Italian grape spectrum and our experience with three of them, a nebbiolo, barbera and this malvasia, has just been the tops.

Lunch:  Polenta-anchovy-caper panini with lemon-yogurt dip and roasted beet salad

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

#271 - Ropa Vieja & Tostones With '09 Villa Creek Willow Creek Cuvée

Cinnamon stick!

That's what was missing!

And a longer decant!

That, too!

On what else can I add an exclamation point?!

The Angels' bullpen and Scioscia's love affair with Kevin Jepsen makes me want to stick a hot poker in my eye!

I have more Angels-related exclamation point business but we'll table them for now.  Long season ("It'll be okay, It'll be okay" - rinse and repeat).

Good meal last night, friendly and fresh with a wine bringing the New World fruit we crave with ropa vieja but we missed the bridge to the wine.  And that was the missing cinnamon stick.  Oops.

And we missed the tempranillo a little that's been so successful with ropa vieja in the past.  Nice diversion here, though.  And maybe a beef that's more down, dirty and gnarly.  Okay!  That's it.

Food:  Ropa vieja and tostones

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

#270 - Hanger, Vanilla Mash & Rapini With '08 Owen Roe Merlot

Portland vittles and Willamette wine trip next month!

A trip that includes a visit to the Oregon outpost of Owen Roe.

Those crazy cats have become a bit of a favorite.

This wine was no exception.  In fact, it might be the best full-on 100% merlot I've ever had.  We don't drink much merlot except when we have a rare yen for the fat pile that is vanilla mash.

This time, we wanted merlot, oddly, with the hanger, vanilla mash and rapini business coming along for the ride, which is the way the meal itself turned out because this is a silly good merlot that strikes every chord of balance:

Expressive without being obvious, elusive without being a tease, fruity without being a hammer, earthy without being gritty, full and round without bringing milk chocolate cream, layered and long without a sappy linger.

Want more now, please.

Food:  Hanger steak, vanilla mash, rapini and Jamaican pickled onions

Monday, April 9, 2012

#269 - Lidia's Fava Bean & Ricotta Salata Strozzapreti With '09 Girard Sancerre Rouge

It's just pasta.  Except when it's not.

Because when you eat like Lidia Bastianich, you eat well and we're amassing a nice little catalogue of meals and pairings based on Lidia's recipes.

She makes "simple food, poor food," food that chefs love to talk about with the same pretentious pitch, cadence and emphasis, and you roll your eyes because it always seems like it comes right out of a manual mandatorily issued to every chef looking to bloviate endlessly about why he or she is so awesome.  It's the chapter that follows the chronicling of the mystical nature of Chef Passion and how you can taste their Passion.  Two chapters later tells us that local, sustainable and organic is the only way to eat and live, like they're the first ones to discover such a thing.

Lidia doesn't do that.  She just says, "This is good food.  Eat it.  Because it's good."  She doesn't need to sound like a 21 year-old college student who just got out of a Art History 1959-1964 seminar with a desire to convince the world that they somehow had something to do with Art History 1959-1964.

Food:  Fava Bean & Ricotta Salata Strozzapreti

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

#268 - Pistachio-Crusted Lamb Rack & Pea Risotto With '09 Freeman Pinot Noir

The problem with gaining a bit of wine knowledge is that one - and when I say one, I mean me - has to resist the compulsion to think they know their tastes, like it's something quickly achieved with a bit of effort and then everything is done.

The same can be said about wine knowledge in general.  Just when you think you have a firm grasp on wine-related things, something comes along that rather bluntly tells you that you're - and when I say you're, I mean me - an idiot.

It's akin to the adage about youth, life and aging.  At 18, you don't know anything.  At 20, you think you know everything.  At 25, you're back to being a moron.

With wine as in life, attempting to get to 'a point' of knowledge is a fool's errand.

Case in point (and this continues to shock me with its foolish foolishness).  Two years ago, my 37 year-old brain figured California pinot noirs and California wines overall weren't going to give me the character and finesse I want from wine.  Good ones are going to be good but big and forgettable.  Nothing that's going to get into your bones.

It was a shortcut.  We have a bit of money to spend on wine but nothing like a war chest to spend willy-nilly on just anything.  My experience with California over the years said I could basically eliminate it in the quest for Good Wine with maybe a little dalliance here and there.

I'm an idiot.  If pressed, my favorite, huggy-bear wines still come from France and Spain.  But if someone told us we could only drink wines from the United States for an entire year, with what's going on in Oregon and Washington these days, we would happily do it and crap, would we drink well.  Not a huge surprise there. But, at times, as we continue to be...surprised by California wine...it a bit of a revelatory, educational and joyful...surprise.

Food:  pistachio-crusted rack of lamb wrapped in pancetta, pea risotto and grilled whole scallions

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

#267 - Greek Chicken Thighs, Skordalia & Spicy Carrot Purée With '10 Sigalas Asirtiko-Athiri

Shorter post today, mainly because this pairing didn't get out of the gate in any happy sense.

Greek chicken dinner.  Eat Greek.  It's what's Good.

But the wine could have been cheap, low acid, throwaway Savennières if given blind.  Interesting expression, just not something that kept our interest in the least.

Food:  Greek chicken thighs over skordaliá and spicy carrot purée with pita for dipping

Chicken thighs marinated in lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, oregano, dry white wine, garlic, onion and black pepper, then grilled.  Served over skordaliá made with skin-on potatoes, almonds, breadcrumbs, garlic, lemon, extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice.  More rustic and simply outstanding stuff with the chicken juice bleeding all over it.

Moroccan-spiced carrot purée.  Caraway, ginger, roasted garlic, and harissa blended into puréed carrots.  It's a favorite always and forever.  Pita for dipping.

Great meal.  Too bad the wine couldn't keep up.

Monday, April 2, 2012

#266 - Quebecois Cheese, Smoked Trout & Other Stuff With NV Egly Ouriet Champagne



Visual post. Delicious and fancy lunch with a Champagne that may have been the best yet.

Wine:  NV Egly-Ouriet Champagne Brut 1er Cru Les Vignes De Vrigny ($60 - Binny's)

100% Pinot Muenier, 30 months on lees, disgorged 7/10.

Something magical here.  Medium-bodied.  Nose of dried mesquite with buttercream and yeast.  Darker but not a particularly brooding or shy bubbly.  More confident and thoroughly expressive in what it wants to be.  Almost had a pinkish hue to it.  A smoked tangerine/pear fruit gives way rather quickly to buttercream, fennel and a fancy nutmeg spice that drove the ship, turning it drying and woodsy to finish in the best possible way.  Perfect acid, bubbles that kept everything in line and a great, pause-worthy finish where everything came together like a surprising and satisfying end to a great film.  Worth every cent.

Pairing:  89  Fine and dandy, best with the butter

Most complete with baguette and butter, making everything in the wine sing on cue.  A green apple and smoked trout bite brought every element in the wine to the front of the mouth party nicely while the cheese, a Duvillage 1860 product from the same Quebec cheese house that brought us Moondust, amped up a great funk in both.  Nice stuff together.  Would probably alter the food with this wine in the future, cuz we're definitely buying more of this stuff.
 

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

#265 - Fenugreek Shrimp, Blackeye Curry & Raita With Two Wines

Odd Monday mélange consisting of...

A fenugreek shrimp preparation from the Arabian Peninsula, a black-eyed bean curry from West India and.... KFC and Champagne!

Yep.  We did that.  And it was kinda awesome.

KFC and Champagne lunch along with this dinner:

Food:  Fenugreek shrimp, black-eyed bean curry, raita and naan

Mrs. Ney whipped up a fenugreek spread.  Fenugreek seeds soaked overnight and blender-ed with garlic, handful of coriander leaves, salt, green chili and a dash of lemon juice until a paste emerged.

Cooked up the shrimp with the paste in the mini cast-iron and done!

Done and delicious!  Great shrimp prep.  Easy shrimp prep.  Into the rotation shrimp prep.  Perfect touch of heat mixing with an intense and vibrant herby core.  Indian in that sense from a recipe that wasn't Indian.  It was Yemenite.  But as a composed dinner, it mixed and mingled with the rest of the Indian fare quite nicely, thank you very much.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

#264 - Spice-Rubbed Skirt, Beet Greens & Sweet Potato Fries With '06 Long Shadows Sequel

Pretty great food weekend (Monday through Wednesday for us):
  • Veggie strawberry caprese with a pork chop-y Ponzi Rosato
  • Vadouvan roast chicken with a disappointing Marc Hebrart Champagne
  • Sea Bass a la Veracruzana with a stellar LdH Gravonia
And now spice-rubbed skirt steak, beet greens and sweet potato fries with this little gem.  Odd that vadouvan roast chicken and Champagne would be the lowlight of the weekend.  That was Good Eats, just not comparatively.

The Long Shadows story is a gosh darn interesting one.  Nine world-class winemakers, all part-owners in the enterprise, take their skills developed over decades in making fine wine around the world and come together to make wines from their favorite grapes that express the distinction and potential Washington exhibits.

This one, a syrah with a 2% kiss of cabernet (? - 2007 is that), is made by John Duval of Penfolds Grange fame.  His 28 years as chief winemaker at Penfolds Grange shepherded the winery to the top of the Australian wine world.  He now creates his own wine under his own name along with this co-op project.

After drinking this, we're intrigued, even at the price.

Food:  Spice-rubbed skirt steak, sautéed beet greens and tomatoes, whole Vidalia onions and sweet potato fries