Actually four meals with wine in the last week.
The fourth involved a trip to Ceres' Table in Andersonville, a new, Italian-influenced restaurant with American accents from the guy that manned the Boka and MK kitchens in Chicago.
We were left with a choice between this new, recommended restaurant three blocks from our apartment and taking a trip to Mado. Mado - BYO. Ceres' Table - not. Mado = awesome. Ceres' Table = neighborhoody place that makes us immediately suspicious that it won't be money well spent and we'll leave thinking "meh". Mado = our own wine. Ceres' Table = no internet list to filter through and determine whether they're serious about offering good wine at something approaching reasonable restaurant prices.
Three blocks away won out.
Day after holiday at 5pm meant we had the restaurant pretty much to ourselves (=ing awesome).
The menu:
Appetizers - rabbit confit gnocchi, pistachio-inflected country paté and veal tongue
Entrées - flat iron steak and venison
Dessert - crème brûlée and banana bread pudding
Wines - bottles of Szoke Kiraly Hungarian white and Scutari Nero d'Avola with two glasses of Prosecco (one white, one rosé)
In our limited experience, Hungarian whites offer something that oodles of people would love if they gave them a chance. This one was wonderfully balanced with well-integrated fruit, highlighted by pear and orange blossom and a floral note that allows it to silkily wash down the throat. The Kiraly grape, indigenous to Hungary, is better known for Tokaji dessert wines but the dry styles deserve more press.
The nero d'avola was a typical nero d'avola with maybe a bit less spice. Solid fruit, no rough edges, nothing special or exciting but paired well with the entrées. Entry level but decent.
The wine list offered at least four other wines that would get me back in the door. Both a 100% nerello mascalese (seems to be a newer trend/reversion to the old style by omitting the cappuccino) and a Cannonau sounded great (even a couple of negroamaros). It's thoughtful, emphasizing lesser-known Italian wines but offering a hodgepodge from around the world that would pair well with the menu.
Ceres' Table overall falls into a rather quixotic category. I think I can safely say it's the best restaurant in the Andersonville/Lincoln Square food world (soundly trumping the oddly-loved Bistro Champagne). We did it up, which allowed us to get a better sampling of everything they offer than probably 99% of the people that eat there. Guiseppe, the owner, takes a bistro-type angle, offering simply-prepared food but doesn't cater to morons. There's a depth of flavor here unlike anything north of Fullerton and he does it with ingredients that challenge people to somewhat expand their palates.
In short, it's nice to have that near us. Some nice touches include entrées hovering in the mid-teens/early-twenties price range, an eclectic wine list with the majority in the $30-$40 range, all desserts are $5 and LaBriola bread offered gratis.
This isn't food you will remember a year later but it's food that you'll remember two weeks after you have it. If it wasn't so close, I'd still keep an eye on the internet food and wine menu to see about a return trip. Since it's so close, we'll go back, probably soon.
Back the home food and wine with three pairings in the last week.
Meal #1: Modified Tbikhit Qra with 2007 A to Z Pinot Noir - $18 Trader Joe's
Tbikhit Qra is a north African casseroley-type thing consisting of chickpeas, pumpkin, spinach, onion and harissa with lamb added to this particular recipe. Big bowl of clean, surprisingly light goodness and spectacular juice to the whole dish that stuck in your cheeks.
The pairing seemed pretty obvious with pinot noir of some sort holding the top-five slots on the option list. Since Mrs. Ney was a bit leery as to how the dish would turn out, we went with something fairly cheap and safe.
A to Z Pinot Noir is available pretty much everywhere. For many, it's the kind of wine that allows you to get into something a little more complex than your standard, cheap varietal wine without breaking the bank. It's $18.
For the first half of the meal, It was simple, maybe a little too simple, but fine enough with the food. The second half of the meal, though, the wine started to open up, becoming more dark with more cinnamon and a pleasing juiciness. Still a just-above-average pinot noir but in the value category with enough acidity to go with tons of other food choices. Oddly, it was better, great actually, drinking it first and then taking a bite instead of the usual other way around.
Good midweek meal that we'll revisit it again.
Meal #2: Asian Wine Can Chicken with 2005 Prager Riesling Smaragd Steinreigl - $25 WDC
The
first offering here at Food With Wine involved the 1999 Prager Riesling Smaragd Steinriegl. It went over the label terms there. Six years on, this one shows a similar life trek. Where the 1999 was dying a glorious, very imminent death, the 2005 showed what could only be described as showing the first signs of age. The wrinkles around the eyes were starting to show.
And that made it pretty great. The fruit has started to concentrate and is just starting to dry. Intense with tropical fruit and an overtone of green apple and a bit of peach. Still a tad light, though. Elegant with a lifting finish.
It paired in the way you want Asian-inspired food to pair. Great counterbalance to the salt and hoisin crust with a bit of orange peel on the chicken.
Prager is one of the wineries we will follow in some form every year going forward and this exact one was the wine that made us stand up and take notice of better crafted, more expensive whites.
Meal #3: Pistachio-crusted rack of lamb wrapped in Serrano ham and 2006 Ponzi Pinot Noir
Speaking of wines we'll follow, Ponzi Pinot Noir is one of the top five. It's the wine that made us love Oregon pinot noir. For the first time, the 2006 (which we've had a ton) is starting to show some graceful age.
Every other time we've had it, the 2006 Ponzi was exactly the same - a lighter wine with cherry and other red fruits playing around in the background and a pronounced floral note that made the finish glorious. Just great balance and a perfect amount of acidity. We hadn't had this one for a few months and were immediately surprised by how deep it's become. The balance and acidity is still in harmony with a body that's changed from lighter to medium, fruit so much deeper I thought some darker black fruit might be there. It's been entirely interesting and wonderful to actually taste, for the first time, some of our wines age in our relatively-brief wine drinking world.
The recipe for the lamb called for pancetta but I bought waayyyy too much Serrano ham for New Year's Eve and it had to be used up. The purpose of using pancetta was to allow the fat to leech into the lamb. Serrano doesn't have that fat but it wasn't a problem at all. The Serrano, instead, became fully crisp and the unique earthiness that comes with it worked beautifully with the pistachio/oil and the lamb, offering something probably better than what pancetta would have. Tasted like a charcuterie plate was slathered on the lamb. As everything fell onto the arugula that accompanied the meat, it became one of the best salad concoctions I've had in a long time.
Nothing was greatly enhanced by the food and wine pairing. It was rather one of those nicely complimentary pairings where nothing hurt anything. Good food stayed good food. Good wine stayed good wine.
