#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!

#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.

#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.

#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.

#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.

#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.

#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.

#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.

#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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And the wine most definitely played a role in that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pairing: 91 Enough enhancement to keep wanting more and more

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

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

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

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

"Don't practice your alliteration on me!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

$18 total for both plates.

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

Things turned out just fine.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

$30 for a pretty tasty feast.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tasted...Balanced.

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

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

Oh, yeah. For everything? About 50 bucks.

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

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

It had Everything along with Everything we Love.

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

Result: Tuna, tuna and only tuna.

It change yo' life.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#162 - Two Meals And Two Wines

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#161 - TK Chicken And DdB Cheese With Two Chardonnays

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pairing: 87 Fine and Good

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

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

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

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