Prosecco Protection

The 30 second wine advisor brought this to my attention -- Italian makers of Prosecco are trying to protect their brand as the drink gains in popularity. The New York Times recently profiled Prosecco's growing popularity and those seeking to cash in on that popularity. The only problem is that, unlike Champagne, Prosecco refers to the grape varietal, which will make it harder to protect it. The Italian government and Prosecco producers are working on a plan to create a region which would define the growing area for Prosecco. This would be followed by protective status and seeking EU blessing of this status.

Here's my favorite quote from the piece:

One product, Rich Prosecco, is made by an Austrian company whose ads feature Paris Hilton. In some, she is naked and spray-painted gold. What’s worse to some producers, the product is sold in a 6.8-ounce can, in gas stations as well as stores, for around $3.
“It’s absolutely vulgar,” says Vittorio Zoppi, marketing manager for the prosecco consortium.

Well, I'll just say this: at least the US doesn't have the monopoly on vulgar. Those Austrians must like Carl's Jr Burgers.

River Horse Beer

If you live in the immediate vicinity of New Jersey (NY, NJ, MD, DE, and PA), then you must try River Horse Brewing Company's great beers. This is wonderful stuff, from the Belgian style to the Pale Ale.

Christmas Lamb from the Country Cooking of France

I ended up doing a wonderful seven hour lamb from one of my new cookbook's, the Country Cooking of France. Lots of root vegetables, easy to make, and delicious once it's on the table. The only thing is, you need literally seven hours to make it. Because it cooks at such a low temperature (275 degrees F), it takes that long, but turns out spoon tender. Yes, that's right, spoon-tender. You can take this apart with a spoon when you serve it.



The cookbook is excellent, by the way. I thought it might be one of those "pretty-but-no-good recipes" books. You know the kind -- all the recipes are too involved or too contrived from exotic ingredients that you know you'll never try them. There are a couple of those, but it is also full of really good recipes that anyone can make. A few minor critiques, though. I hated having to flip back and forth to the end of the book to look up the recipes for staple items (like sweet tart dough). I understand why they did it, but it is difficult to do when one's hands are all sticky or covered in dough. Second, the book is obsessed with veal stock. It would be nice to recognize that not everyone has an easy supply of veal bones around to make this and offered some suggestions of adequate replacements. Can I use beef stock, or will it be too strong? What about chicken stock?

These are really quibbles, though. Although the list price is $50, you can get this book from Amazon or Jessica's buscuit (link above) for about $30, and I think it is well worth it. I'm getting pretty tired of seeing celebrity chefs and others put out cookbooks with 75 or 100 recipes in them. For $25 or more, we should get more than that (I mean you, Ted Allen -- whom I don't trust to make toast anyway, Bobby Flay, and Mark Bittman, who respectively have put out books with 100, 100 and 75 recipes in them in recent years). Now, before I go off the deep end, I should say that both Bobby Flay (particularly Boy Meets Grill, despite its paltry 125 recipes) and Mark Bittman (his Fish: The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking is the only fish cookbook I need) have put out excellent cookbooks previously, but when I look at a cookbook, I know that at least half the recipes are going to hold no interest for me or seem too complex or not worth the effort to make. So that leaves 50 or fewer recipes in a cook book I would even consider making. For that money, I could subscribe to Gourmet, Food and Wine, or Bon Appetit (actually, the first and last I do get) together and get more recipes.

Congratulations, this Bud is for you!

I am not a beer snob. Really, I have drunk plenty of Bud Light, Miller Light, MGD, and so on in my life, but to call any of them great beers is stretching it. The craft beer rage of the last ten years has started to put the big beer producers on their back foot, so much so that they have decided to expand their product lines to include, well, beer with flavor (mind you, the big brewers still account for something on the order of 85% of beer sales in the US, so Sam Adams, Anchor Steam, and the rest are hardly storming the castle). And so, Michelob has launched a series of commericals touting the great people who make great "hand-crafted" brews. Good luck to them, because Michelob makes some pretty attrocious beers (one man's opinion).

More recently, Budweiser has launched its own foray into the world of beers with taste -- American ale. I was intrigued by this one, so I decided to try it. It is a very good beer. A beautiful red color with some spicy hoppiness. The ale has flavor without bringing a sledgehammer to the party. Congratulations Budweiser on making a great beer.

Rolls for Christmas Dinner

My first attempt to make "pain facon beaucair" from Richard Bertinet's book Dough, which has a great technique for kneeding dough that doesn't require as much flour and yields a much softer dough with more air incorporated. I don't think I got the technique down on folding and leaving a small hole (these are supposed to look a little like doughnuts with holes when they go in the oven), but they came out great. You can see the progression from dough before first rise, then after second rise, and then coming out of the oven.

White Bowmore

You can enter to win a bottle of White Bowmore (valued at more than $4000 a bottle) if you go to their website. No strings attached, except, I suppose, if you are an American and win. Then you have to figure out whether your particular municipality and state will let you receive the bottle in the post or if you have to go to Islay to pick it up in person. Living where I do, the latter is likely to be my course of action. Not a bad reason to go back to Scotland, mind you...

If you want to know what you could be in for, here's John Hansell's take on the newest in ultra-premium malt from Bowmore.

What's for dinner?

Next week is Christmas, of course, and the family will gather at chez nous for dinner. The past two years I have made a rib roast that is excellent (using the recipe the good folks at America's Test Kitchen recommend -- this recipe is premium content, so sign up for the two week preview to get it, or just pay the $20 for a full year). I want to continue to support local producers, but it looks like my vendor of choice won't have the beef hung in time for Christmas, so I may end up making a leg of lamb, which I know my dad loves. Now I just need a good recipe...

Marcel's **** (4 out of 5 stars)

We went to Marcel's for our anniversary dinner a little while ago, but I'm just getting around to writing about it. I haven't been to Marcel's in over ten years, and Leslie last went there with her parents just before September 11th, 2001, so this was our first time in the quieter, more intimate setting. The redesign makes for a less bistro-like experience. The food was excellent (we highly recommend doing the five course tasting menu) as one would expect, including wild scottish pheasant (no buck shot), rabbit, venison, and numerous other dishes. Dessert is not overwhelming, in a good way, because after four courses, one is slightly wary of a substantial dessert. And the service is wonderful -- we found the courses arrived with sufficient interval to allow us to enjoy ourselves without feeling rushed or forgotten. And all things considered, the price is quite reasonable for a top-flight DC restaurant.

So why only four stars? There were just a couple of off notes. First, the bread is dissapointing and pedestrian. Attempts at something unusual falls flat and some of the bread was dry and/or even burnt. Second, the wine pairings were not terribly inspired. One white wine smelled like rotten milk. Our server (who did take wonderful care of us) was happy to pour something else, but the second choice was a non-entity.

Take that Thomas!

They look a little different from what comes in the Thomas's English Muffin package, but these were delicious. From Peter Reinhart's recipe... (his blog is here). I think I didn't make the dough wet enough, so the muffins didn't spread on the griddle when I cooked them. Next time I will add more milk. Easy recipe to do, by the way.

Petit Pans au Lait

From Thanksgiving dinner, my Petit Pans au Lait -- tried a new recipe this time that worked out quite well.

Smuttynose Winter Ale

I had never heard of the Smuttynose Brewing Co. before Friday when I spied a six-pack of their winter ale at the checkout line of Corridor Wine (similar to Total Wine in Virginia). I figured, what the heck and decided to try some. This is a very dark beer as you can tell from the picture. There is a definite red tinge on the edges as you look at it in the light. It has a sweet nose, perhaps with cherry there. It has just a hint of bitterness from the hops, but otherwise this is a smooth drink with a shorter finish. The alcohol (4.8% ABV) is not strong at all and doesn't interfere with the drink. Not a great beer, but not sick like some seasonal beers can beer.

Thanksgiving Prep

It's the night before Thanksgiving, and all through the house, only one creature was stirring, and he was still trying to decide how to prepare the Turkey! See, I'm doing some Thanksgiving preparations today -- making the sweet potato pie (please, please let the crust roll out well!), starting the petit pains au lait (rolls to you), and deciding how to prep the 20 pound turkey we got from Julie up at Groff's Content Farm. I originally ordered a heritage turkey, but Julie said when I went to collect it that they were too small, so I ended up with a much larger (though it was the smallest they had) broad breast Turkey. They are nice looking, though (see photo).

I think in the end, I will salt brine it again, but go easy on the salt this time (I put too much on last year). We have a cooler that could fit the turkey for wet brining, but it won't fit in the fridge that way.

Give us this day our daily bread

Over the last few months I have let my bread-baking lapse (with occasional exceptions to make bagels or pizza) because the local farmers' market has included a stall from Baltimore's Atwaters Bakery, which makes some of the best bread I have had this side of the Atlantic. Whole Foods bread tends to have too-soft crusts and they bag the bread before it is ready, so it continues to steam in the bag. Atwaters has great sourdough, rye, and pumpernickel.

But now that the farmers' market is in hibernation, I am back to the baking and I realized that I did miss it. Baking bread is a form of relaxation for me, and I revel in discovering new techniques. Some great books include the Bread Baker's Apprentice and Clayton's French Bread, the latter of which I used to make some pain complet yesterday. Pain complet is basically a whole wheat bread that is often shaped like challah bread - braided, essentially. Clayton's recipe called for making three loafs, but I decided on one loaf of braided bread and put the rest in a loaf pan in three chunks to make it a semi-pull-apart bread. The bread came out well and has a nice flavor developed from an overnight pre-ferment and a little honey. I use a stand mixer most of the time, rather than hand-kneading, because it keeps me from adding too much flour. That said, you need to get your hands in the dough to make sure it's coming together right. The key is to not be afraid of a wet, sticky dough. In many cases that's okay (particularly some italian breads, like a ciabatta) and will smooth out as it rises.

In general, home baking of bread has limitations and will not usually achieve the same type bread a commercial baker can, for two main reasons: commercial ovens have steam-injection which keeps the dough surface moist and allows the inside to cook a little before the crust forms (which will be crispier), and commercial ovens get much hotter, which yields a thicker, crunchier crust as well. I have gotten close with a few breads, but often you have to cheat a little with a wash of some sort (egg and milk, or just water, or some oil).

Finally, I have been using active dry yeast instead of quick-rise yeast. I think it doesn't yield as high a rise and I may switch to quick-rise, but generally I have been happy with the results. Sometimes the rise just doesn't work the way you want it to, but that is dependent on so many factors (kneading, air moisture, temperature of water used in the bread) that you just have to accept they won't all be winners.

Small experiment

I'm trying my bolognese sauce with Buffalo meat this time around. Just a little experiment to see how it stacks up against the all-beef version I did last time.

Petit Plats ****

I am a big proponent of the idea that there are more bad Italian restaurants than bad French restaurants, because people tend to over-estimate the simplicity of Italian food and end up with bad Chef Boyardee. French food, on the other hand, is known as a complex cuisine that is not to be attempted by any old prol. That said, finding a good, relaxed place for French food is harder, because it is often dressed up to match the complexity. Not so Petit Plats in Woodley Park in Washington DC.

The restaurant offers honest, well-executed food in a neighborhood setting. The restaurant inhabits a row house and offers a comfortable and quiet place to enjoy some great food, such as the veal cheeks, or lemon sole. The wine list offers a good range, and the service is honest and no frills, which makes it a nice change from the overbearing service you get some places. The lemon tart is excellent and, well, tart, not sickly sweet.

For shame, Pizza Hut

I've been marveling at Pizza Hut's new commercials for the line of Tuscani pastas. I don't really believe that they are as grand as they are cracked up to be in the commercials -- maybe it's the snob in me, but I can't help but think that the people on the "hidden cameras" don't know from pasta. But what really gets me is that this 3 pounds of pasta with bread sticks is marketed as the perfect meal for a family of four. So, let's see... that's 12 oz of pasta per person. But actually, a serving of pasta is supposed to be more like 4 oz, so you should get 12 servings out of the Tuscani. If you check out Pizza Hut's nutrition webpage, you'll find out that a serving of the Tuscani pasta is about 500-600 calories, which doesn't sound too bad, except that it has 1200 mg of sodium and between 22 and 32 grams of fat -- or nearly half your daily recommended fat. They argue on their website that:

We believe eating sensibly, combined with appropriate exercise, is the best solution for a balanced lifestyle. To help you further, we've provided here useful links to Pizza Hut nutritional information so you can make informed choices about what to eat.
Pizza can be part of a well-balanced meal. Ingredients in our pizzas include protein, complex carbohydrates, Vitamin A and calcium. And, depending on the toppings you choose, our pizzas have items from all of the four major food groups - meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables, and grains! So take a closer look within our menu for suggestions when counting calories and fat grams.

While I agree with the thrust of their comments above, telling people in commercials that 3 lbs of pasta feeds four people is misleading at best.

Griffin Tavern & Restaurant *

Oh, we so wanted to like Griffin Tavern in Flint Hill. We were on our way to Thornton Gap in the Shenandoah Valley for a Sunday hike and had blown through Front Royal's cornucopia of fast food. When Leslie spied this tavern in a victorian house on a hill, it seemed like the fates had brought us what we needed -- good, honest tavern food to fortify us for the trek ahead. We should have gone to KFC.

The tavern is pleasant looking and has seating on the wrap-around porch that gives a nice view of the hills (occasionally punctuated by the roar of motorcycle engines). The special of the day was open-faced meatloaf sandwich that was luke-warm by the time it finally arrived and didn't seem very special at all. I had a passable lentil soup with a weirdly textured and not very spicy curried shrimp salad sandwich. All this was washed down with watery ginger ale. Not worth the time or the money, which is too bad, because it is in an idylic spot.

On the plus side, the tacos from Taco Bell in Middleton, VA were excellent -- crispy taco, lettuce that wasn't soggy, and meat that wasn't swimming in grease.

Head to Head Tasting: Aberfeldy 12 vs Dewar's White Label

Aberfeldy is not a particularly well known single malt, mainly because the Dewar brothers founded the distillery in 1896 to produce malt for their blended whisky. Hence today's head-to-head tasting of Dewar's White Label -- one of the most popular blended whiskies in the States -- and one of its primary constituent malts. The two have an identical straw or pale gold color. the Aberfeldy has some sweet, light sherry on the nose, perhaps some faint bubble gum, whereas the Dewar's has a little more of a plastic note with almonds (it should be noted that I tasted both these whiskies as single malts -- neat and then with water added, whereas I normally drink the blended malt on ice, which impacts the nose and flavor). The Aberfeldy is thicker and more oily, whereas the Dewar's has a clean flavor that is a little short, but one can definitely drink it neat.

After adding water the Aberfeldy develops a flat waxy or plastic smell, perhaps some biscuit or baked good, and is less oily on the palate. The Dewar's nose dies away a bit and becomes fuller on the tongue. When I have drunk the Dewar's on ice it has a bit more smoke which I didn't notice as much with just water added. Neither one blew me away, but try the Dewar's on ice and you will find a fine drink for relaxing with after a long day at work.

Macallan Tasting

Last night I attended a Macallan tasting in the City Tavern Club of DC in Georgetown. Apparently this is a pretty regular event, but it took an email from the Chicago Tribune of all places for me to find out about it. As you might expect, the event is a gathering for people to sample whiskies (for free, natch) and hear about the distillery and the whiskies from the brand ambassador. Of course, Macallan, like others, is hoping to recruit new drinkers of whisky and the Macallan in particular. There were about 130 people at the event jammed into seats around cocktail tables. I was wondering what the Macallan hoped its yield would be for such an event, i.e., what is their measurement of success -- one new drinker? Ten? I don't know and didn't have a chance to ask because we were ushered out at the end to make way for a second sitting that evening.

The event itself lasts just about an hour (there is 30 minutes of hors d'oevres and the Macallan 10 year old fine oak prior to the formal presentation) and consists of tasting four more Macallans, so there isn't a lot of time to linger over each drink, so my impressions are highly superficial. After the 10 y.o., we tried the 12 year old sherry oak, the 15 and 17 year old fine oak, and wrapped up with the 18 year old sherry oak. The 15 and 17 year olds seemed a little too light to me, particularly the 15 year old lacks a bit in character. The 18 year old is a substantial and tasty scotch and I would definitely drink it again. I would not, however, buy it purely based on price. At about $120-130 a bottle, it is far more expensive than other great 18 year olds on the market (like the glorious Highland Park). This is largely due to the sherry oak casks that Macallan directly sources and the manner of distilling through many runs (Macallan says they only use 16% of the spirit run in the final product, the rest is recycled through the distillery).

I applaud the Macallan for this evening and for exposing people to their whiskies.

2008 Virginia Wine Festival

This past weekend we visited the Virginia Wine Festival after a one-year hiatus (not our desire, that's just the way it worked out last year). This year's festival switched venues to the Prince William County Fairgrounds from its former home in the Plains, Virginia. The change is distinct. Instead of rolling hills amidst rural beauty, the festival is on a grotty fairground lot near Manassas's old town. The good innovation was the advent of larger tents to provide shelter from the rain. We visited some old favorites (Keswick Vineyards, Chrysalis Vineyards, and of course Barboursville) and discovered a couple of new ones (West Wind Vineyards).

Keswick only brought a few of their wines, but we were impressed by the 2007 Touriga and the 2007 Les Vents d'Anges Viognier. Virginia produces some excellent white wines -- West Wind's Pinot Gris really shone, as did many of Barboursville's chardonnays. Cardinal Point makes a really good, dry Riesling, but also does wonderful Cabernet Franc, probably one of the most successful of the red grape varietals in Virginia's soils. We of course came across some nasty wine, many with weird smells, but overall the quality is improving. Barboursville continues, however, to blow the competition away with consistent wines on both the red and white ends of the spectrum (the brut, for example, is delectable). The Italian sensibilities have drawn wonderful flavors out of cabernet sauvignon, nebbiolo, cabernet franc and even sangiovese.

Kluge is an inconsistent vineyard (the blanc de blanc is too sweet and the Cru -- a fortified chardonnay aged for a time in Jack Daniels barrels -- is just bizarre), but their Abermale Rose continues to impress. At $6 a bottle it's also a steal!

We were disappointed to see that Veritas decided to skip the wine festival again this year. We've finished all the wine we bought from them in 2004 during our trip to Charlottesville. Perhaps a return trip is required. That would give us an opportunity to patronise Jefferson Vineyards as well, which has done wonders with Gewurztraminer, among other white varietals.

Overall, it was a successful day (despite the traffic jam on the Beltway coming home). We even discovered great peanut and pistachio brittle made by Red Rocker Candy!

Rye? Rye!

Jim Beam is of course renowned as a giant of the bourbon world, but I couldn't resist picking up a bottle of their Rye Whiskey when I spied it in the local Montgomery County Liquor Store. At $10 a bottle, I thought it was well worth a try. Rye whiskey is made from at least 51% rye. This one is aged four years in oak barrels and has great sweet and sour nose, spice and even some caramel. Definitely worth the price.

The Un-Islay Islay?

Islay malts are renowned for their peat and smoke. Bowmore, Laphroaig, Caol Ila, and especially Ardbeg are known as the peat monsters. But not all the Islay malts are the same. Bunnahabhain doesn't have quite the same fanatical following (I could be wrong) and prides itself as the gentle Islay (and the spiritual home of the Black Bottle, but that's another story). In my steady quest to try as many of the active distilleries as possible (about 1/3rd down), I picked up a bottle of the 12 year old. It's a light-colored, almost straw-like. The nose without water has sea salt, some sweetness, almonds and a little like Talisker. Adding water yields baked goods, sweeter smells. Maybe prunes and a slight hint of smoke. It is quite thick and coating. A pleasent dram, definitely a change of pace from the rest of Islay. Would I buy this again? I don't think so. It's a fine enough malt, but lacks the character I am looking for in a scotch. For my money, I'd replace it with a good blend (Dewar's being my favorite) rather than rely on this single malt.

Head-to-head Scotch Tasting: Glenrothes vs Aberlour

As a friend pointed out, I have been a little delinquent on my posting, so I was determined last night to rectify that and hauled out some nosing glasses and two newer purchases to compare. Are these fair comparisons? I don't know. I'm not exactly scientific here at Epi-Q, but it's always fun to pitch whiskies against each other. Or for that matter compare Michel Richard Central's fried chicken to Popeye's (hmmm, I think Popeye's might come out on top).

For this tasting we will look at two Speyside Highland malts. Both are aged at least for a portion of their lives in sherry casks. In terms of price, the Glenrothes is more expensive (by about $20). Glenrothes has made a cottage industry out of vintage bottlings. This one is the 1991 vintage, aged 15 years and bottled at 43% ABV in 2006. The Aberlour 12 year old is the new standard entry-level Aberlour from the distillery for the US market, replacing the excellent 10 year old. The Aberlour is double cask matured, spending a good chunk of its life in traditional oak casks and then finishing in sherry casks. How long it spends in sherry is a good question. Their website doesn't give much information.

The two whiskies have nearly identical deep gold-amber color, which is rich and enticing. The Glenrothes has a subdued nose without water followed by sharp nose prickle from the alcohol. I thought I detected a faint bit of taffy in the background. On first taste it is very oily and coats the tongue. The Aberlour has a brighter nose than the Glenrothes with faint honey and flowers. Its taste is slicker but also coats well. Adding water, the Glenrothes opens up with toffee, hazelnut, faint vanilla and maybe even strawberry, whereas the Aberlour almost dies off. It is herbal, straw, maybe soap or lavender, but with more time it comes back a bit. Its taste is now sweeter with some oil and a long finish, while the Glenrothes is still a little sharp and less coating.

I let both sit a bit longer and I think the Glenrothes gains more sweetness and rounds out as it is exposed to air. The Aberlour is a little disappointing compared to the old 10 year old, but I will have to revisit it again in the future before I pronounce definitively on it.

Bourbon ***

I owe a couple of posts, which I will get to at some point, but I wanted to enter a few quick notes on Bourbon. You get no points for guessing this place's specialty. Hans and I went there last night for some drinks and dinner, our second visit to the Adams Morgan outlet. I won't give detailed tasting notes on the drinks, but we had the Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel from Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill's Rittenhouse Rye, and a third that replaced the Four Roses the place was out of. I think it was Elijah Craig, but I forget at this point.

The drinks came in tumblers, which are not the best to drink out of if one is interested in getting the full experience, but I recall last time that drinks did come in nosing glasses. That said, this night was not about discovering the finer points of the drinks. The range of bourbons and whiskies is impressive and reasonably priced (many are in the $6-$9 range). The food is also very good. The veggie sliders -- house made -- are excellent, as was the bison burger and the ostrich burger. An excellent choice for drinks with friends.

Morimoto ****

The Iron Chef himself, Masaharu Morimoto, plunked his eponymous restaurant down in Philadelphia of all places -- not NYC, not LA, not any of those other places that get too much press for their culinary outlets. On a recent trip to visit the parents in Philadelphia, I sought out Morimoto's restaurant on a non-descript block of Chestnut Street (trust me, most of Chestnut Street is non-descript -- and that's being charitable).

I opted for the sushi bar seat, which allowed me to observe a small piece of the kitchen in addition to the sushi chefs. Morimoto probably doesn't cook much in his kitchen, but the results are stellar, nonetheless. I opted for the Omikasse menu, which essentially is a tasting menu at several price points, depending on how much you wish to splurge on the ingredients. I went for the middle of the road and was not disappointed. In all, I had seven course and none were anything but above average, with possibly the exception of the sushi course, which I think was a matter of placement in the batting line-up, not in execution. Here are my quick notes from the night:

1st course is a beautiful toro tuna tartare in a dashi sauce with caviar and some sourt of small pitted fruit on the side reminiscent of a strawberry in appearance. A sublime start to the meal.
2nd up is red snapper sashimi in oil and I think a soy sauce that is slightly spicy and warming. Tiny sprigs of cilantro added nice balance.
3rd course was a seared yellow-fin tuna sashimi in a sweet soy onion vinaigrette that was wonderful. The searing added flavor without messing up the flavor of this lovely fish.
Next came a strawberry lime jelly as a palate cleanser. Refreshing.
The 4th dish is the first of the hot dish. This first one is a rich halibut on three seaweed salad with a buerre blanc sauce and wrapped in yoba leaf, I believe. I could have sworn the fish was lobster, or failing that a perfectly executed monk-fish. I've never had such sweet, perfectly moist halibut before.
5th was a rack of lamb over spinach with ratatouille and a pesto. The ratatouille is not typical, rather it's got some sweetness that follows with spice in a southern style, like a fresh salsa. Delicious nonetheless. I wasn't sure the pesto had much place, but on second try it gives the rack of lamb a mint jelly flavor that is not unwelcome.
The 6th course is the somewhat out of place sushi. Five fish are laid before me, including a side belly of toro, skipjack, and Thai yellowtail. All are nice, but muted in flavor after the lamb and the halibut.
The dessert is a flourless chocolate cake with a white chocolate mousse and a brown rice crisp. There are two "smears" on the plate, one chocolate reduction, and the other adds a salty butterscotch texture. Too much salt, I think, but I have a sweet tooth. The cake is small, but satisfying.

Well done Morimoto. My only question -- who are all these people who ask me how my meal is? I get the floor manager, but then there's someone else, my main server, and at least two others. And none of them introduce themselves.

Morimoto also has beers under his own label that are brewed for him by Rogue Brewery in Newport Oregon. I tried the soba ale, because the other two seemed too rich (a porter and an ale that actually was described in a way I thought would be too bitter), which was very good, though I would never have guessed it was soba-based.

When in Philadelphia, visit Morimoto!

Clynelish 14 year old

No less an authority than Jim McEwan of Bruichladdich has stated his opinion that Clynelish is a fantastic malt that too many people overlook. Clynelish is part of Diageo's line of Classic Malts (so is Talisker and the surprisingly good Glenkinchie). The standard bottling at the moment is the 14 year old, which is 46% alcohol by volume. The color is deep gold, almost orange it seems to me. The nose is rich, with tangerine rind, some smoke as water is added, and light sherry notes. The texture is oily, thick and coating on the tongue. With water I get some pears too and a little bit of woodiness. A very good malt.

The distillery has an interesting history (check out the Malt Maniacs link on the right side of my blog or the link above), but perhaps the most intriguing is that for a period of time it went by the name Brora (from 1969-1983 according to Diageo). The two distilleries were side-by-side for a period of time, actually, and my one experience of Brora (a 31 year old, I think) was of a much smokier, peatier malt than Clynelish. Untypical of a highland malt, I guess, but as I have learned, regions of Scotland do not doom a malt to taste a particular way or meet a specific profile. Peaty, smoky malts can come from anywhere.

Alt-a-Bhainne vs Glenfarclas

This is not an exact head-to-head of Alt-a-Bhainne versus Glenfarclas, but it is close. I tasted the Alt-a-Bhainne (which is predominantly used in Chivas blends, not bottled as a single malt) on two consecutive nights and then transitioned to the Glenfarclas on the second night for a comparison.

The Alt-a-Bhainne is a Duncan Taylor bottling from their NC2 (non-chill filltered, non-colored) line of single malts. It was distilled in 1992 and bottled as a 14 year old in 2007 at 46% ABV. (The distillery was closed from 2002 to 2005, but after an ownership change production restarted and was ramped up). The color is quite light, almost straw colored. It has a slight medicinal smell before any water is added, but otherwise it was difficult to detect anything. The taste is full, coating the tongue, and not overly strong. Once I added water I smelled a little bit of apple, but not much else. Despite my long time spent over this one, it left me disappointed. The nose doesn't develop very well and the taste, though full, doesn't evoke much.

The Glenfarclas is the distillery official bottling at 12 years old and 43% ABV. The first thing I noticed was the rich, gold color. The nose (un-diluted) has honey, toffee, maybe burnt sugar, and some peat. It tastes full bodied and coats the tongue well, though feels stronger than 43%. After water is added the nose develops more. Still honey and sherry (it is sherry-cask aged, after all), but now some flowers come out and what seemed like fondant/wedding cake. The nose is rich and full; the sherry rounds it out without overwhelming.

From my description I'm sure you've guessed that the Glenfarclas is the winner. Well worth the time to enjoy this malt. I've heard good things about Glenfarclas 105 (the cask-strength release), but haven't found a bottle yet.

Aberlour A'bunadh

The A'bunadh from Aberlour, whose 10 year old is a fantastic malt, is a cask strength whisky in a 19th century style bottle (basically shorter, squatter, with a wider mouth). My bottle came from batch 18 bottled in 2006 at a strength of 59.7% ABV. The color is quite dark, almost a deep rich crimson. It seemed to smell like a bourbon at first (which is funny, because I believe it is only aged in sherry casks). The nose is quite sweet --- like a port, but not quite. It's got a cough-drop smell, maybe some eucalyptus.

After adding water it gets softer, but the sherry still comes through strong. There's a slight bit of smoke. It's very rough going down, even with water. I added more, but you need to go a long way with the water to keep it from dragging the grappling hooks the entire way down your throat. This is powerful stuff that makes you gasp if you're not careful. I added more water and got a slight bit of mint.

This is not a subtle drink. Supposedly distilled to be closer to the 19th century standard, it makes me worry a bit about the Macallan 1851 Inspiration I bought in Seoul airport -- that's also supposed to be a 19th century-like whisky. Since the Inspiration is only available in duty frees, though, I plan to hold onto it.

Bowmore Legend

Bowmore Legend is sold in most markets without an age statement, but is supposedly an eight year old. Its youth shows. This is a light, straw-colored whisky that needs a lot of time to develop in the glass. My first impressions were of new sneaker and rubber bands or latex. The legend was very closed the first night I tried it. Adding water didn't add much to the nose. A first taste revealed light smoke and a sharp finish. I could tell it would eventually become a Bowmore like the 12 year old, but more time in a barrel is definitely needed.

The second night I poured a dram and let it be for more than an hour before I even attempted to try it. In fact, I was closer to 90 minutes before I took my first whiff, which yielded much more of the traditional Bowmore nose. Some fruit came through, green vegetation and maybe sherry. Still some plastic. Finally some faint peat and smoke, but not a lot.

An interesting dram, particularly to see what a Scotch is like early in its career, but I would not choose this as a regular drink.

Talisker Distillery

On our recent trip to Scotland, we spent a couple of days on the Isle of Skye, the largest of the western islands. Yes, it rained, but in fact the locals told us they had had virtually no rain the previous ten weeks. Besides hiking in the Cuillens, we spent an afternoon on a Connoisseur's Tour at Talisker Distillery (tour info is here), which provides a more in depth look at the distillery and a tasting of their core range of malts. Fiona, our guide, provided us a great overview of the workings of the distillery, including the standard explanation of the distilling process one would expect on the tour. We couldn't go into the room where the wash-backs (where fermentation takes place), because the CO2 levels were elevated. But we did see the wooden cooling tanks out back where the spirit is cooled after it goes through the wash stills and spirit stills (Talisker has two of the former and three of the latter). Fiona told us that the warm period coincided with their maintenance period this year, so by the time they restarted the distilling process, the cooling tanks had dried out and sprung leaks. The dry spell on the island meant that their dammed water used for cooling had run low and they were down to two distilling runs a week, as opposed to their normal average of 16 runs a week.

We then were taken to the warehouse they have on site. This is a little unusual, because all Talisker spirit is tankered to the mainland for cask filling and bottling, so bringing casks back to the island for aging and then back to the mainland for bottling is frightfully inefficient, but then you might not get that island spirit. Fiona pulled the bungs from two 1979 casks to allow us a whiff (that's me above filling the olfactories). The one on the left had a sweet, port-like smell, while the one on the right of the picture was more like a dry sherry. Both were distilled in 1979, but had completely different smells. Amazing to experience first-hand.

I was surprised to hear that Talisker adds caramel coloring to their whisky given the vociferous chorus of connoisseurs railing against the practise. I'll admit that I don't believe I have such a sophisticated palate to tell when color has been added.

We closed out our tour with a guided nosing and tasting of six drams:

• New spirit (74% ABV)
• The ten year old
• The distiller's edition (which is double matured, the last three years, I believe, in sherry casks)
• The 18 year old
• The 25 year old
• Cask strength edition (no age statement) that's only available at the distillery.

It was really fun to compare the drinks side-by-side and see how they evolved in the glass over the course of nearly an hour. The new spirit is not for drinking, of course, but that trade-mark pepper and sea salt is present from the beginning. The distiller's is great for the softening the sherry brings. Fiona swooned over the 25 year old, but I admit that it took so much water to reduce the nose prickle and bring some smell out, that the flavor was too muted. Thankfully I was not bowled over by the 25 year old -- though I secretly hoped I would be -- because it sells for 105 pounds a bottle (more than $200 at present exchange rates). I was not going to buy the 10, distiller's edition, or the 18 year old, because they are all available in the US, and are much cheaper here than in the UK. I liked the cask strength once it opened up, and at 50 pounds a bottle (minus 5 pounds discount for the tour) it was a much better deal. Plus, it is only available at the distillery.

I'm glad we made it to a distillery this time. I don't think I could do a series of distillery tours, but a couple of others definitely interest me (Bowmore and Highland Park as two of my favorites, and Aberlour because it has purportedly a great distillery tour experience, besides producing a great whisky).

Slainte!

Cafe Asia (no stars)

Cafe Asia in Rosslyn, Virgina, is a large restaurant that offers many kinds of Asian cuisine, though predominantly Chinese, Southeast Asian, Japanese, and Sushi. I stopped in here last week for lunch. I had been here before a few years ago and had competently executed pad thai, but details escape me. This time I started with crab fried wonton. If there was crab in there, I couldn't detect it. I mainly got a gummy interior and a flavorless exterior. Next I had some sushi -- my favorite unagi (eel), which was also lacking in flavor and had a slight film on it. The crab in the crab roll had not been well picked over (some cartilage made it through) and the yellow-fin tuna roll had such tiny pieces of tuna in it, most of the flavor came from the seaweed wrap. Not worth $20 for lunch.

Bebo Trattoria da Roberto Donna *

Chef Roberto Donna's more casual trattoria -- Bebo Trattoria -- in Crystal City, Virginia is a bit disappointing. The space is impressive -- high, high, high ceilings (probably close to thirty feet) and the decor minimal, but not spare. The restaurant's focus is pizza from the wood-fired oven, so my impressions are somewhat biased in that I didn't try the pizza. The service was also a bit off, but perhaps Monday lunch-time is when the new staff gets broken in. The menu makes a point of stating that olive oil is only provided with bread on request, otherwise a bread basket appears unaccompanied. I didn't mind in fact that my waiter poured a small plate of olive oil (sweet and simple, not deeply flavored) unasked. I started off with a carne crudo, essentially steak tartare, with some pecorino cheese on top and frisee on the side. This was actually quite good. The steak was not over-seasoned, and the cheese had a slight crust to it.

The problems came with my second course -- spaghetti bolognese, except it wasn't. What showed up was spaghetti with tomato and basil. My waiter confirmed the error, and then had to go back to the kitchen at least two times when the table next to mine asked (relatively simple) questions he couldn't answer. This table ordered prosciutto and melon, only to be told they had none. They were offered prosciutto and mozzarella, which they didn't want, but appeared a few minutes later anyway.

Finally my bolognese showed up and it was, well, okay. Nothing stood out about the dish. It had some flavor, though I wasn't sure any real veal made it into the dish. The noodles were just a little over al dente. A decently executed dish, but not the richness I have experienced in le trattorie in Italia.

Don't get me wrong. The food was good, but it wasn't anything more than competently executed. It is extremely rare, in fact, to find good Italian food in most American cities. I don't mean this in the snooty "it's not like in Tuscany way" (though I can see why my previous paragraph might have led you to believe that); rather, it's clear to me that people think that because Italian food is simple, it is easy. The two are not the same. Like his other restaurant, Galileo, I expected more from Donna's kitchen.

Oakville Grille and Wine Bar **

The Oakville Grille and Wine Bar (WaPo review is here) was a lunch-time choice recently as the clouds threatened a torrential down-pour and I had time to kill before my hair cut at nearby Salon Nader in Bethesda on Old Georgetown Road. The first thing I noticed as I was the first customer is the music -- an eclectic mix of music I cannot begin to describe. I could have been an old fart and asked them to turn it down, but it wasn't THAT bad.

In any case, my one visit to Oakville was not disappointing at all. The wine list has many wines by the glass, though given its supposed homage to the Oakville section of Napa Valley, many of the bottles standing around as ambience were pretty standard $10 bottles, but the list of wines by the glass was actually quite pleasing -- many choices, from $8 to more than $20. I chose a Vino Verde from Spain that was pleasant, fruity without being noxious, and paired well with my tilapia BLT, though the BLT came on what looked like store-bought wheat bread. The bread provided on your side plate is served hot, though the crust is set, so I suspect it was heated in an oven. It is good, though, don't get me wrong.

A pleasant experience overall. Worth stopping in if you find yourself a bit peckish in the area.

Talisker

We are off to Scotland in just a few weeks and I am definitely looking forward to spending some time tramping about the Highlands and on the Isle of Skye. While on Skye, we're signed up for the tour at Talisker distillery. My sister and I will get to sample five whiskies at the end of the in-depth tour, while Leslie, at least for the moment, will not. I say for the moment, because at our scotch on the ribs night last weekend (see my post on it), she actually liked the Glenkinchie. She said she might well want to try the Taliskers, but actually told me to get some Talisker for her to try before we leave so she can decide whether to partake. This is a big deal after the bare tolerance of my Scotch habit Leslie has shown to date.

So I headed to one of the best places in the Washington DC area to find Scotch (link is on the links side of this page) and bought a bottle of 18 year old and one of the distiller's edition (which is a 13 year old bottled in 2005). The latter is "double-matured", whatever that means. We'll see whether Leslie likes them -- they at least are less forthright than the Islay malts.

Komi *****

You will note that I have added some asterisks to the title of this posting. I have decided to start adding a rating system (out of five stars) to my restaurant reviews. For Leslie's birthday recently we went to Komi Restaurant in DuPont Circle, and fittingly for the first restaurant I rate, it garners five stars out of five.

Komi is the restaurant of Johnny Monis in a converted row house on 17th street, just above Massachusetts Avenue. We originally thought Saturday would be good, but more than a month out, only 9:30 pm was available. So we went with Leslie's actual birthday on Tuesday for a 6:30pm reservation. And that was a lucky turn of events. The dining room is spare -- I would call it farmhouse chic because of simple tables combined with very little decor and a bare, distressed dining table used to hold open bottles of wine and a tall server along the wall. The menu is simple, but deceptively so. We opted for the dinner (mezze, pasta, main course and dessert for $84) with wine pairings.

Komi's cuisine is mediterranean, though there is some emphasis on greek. Half of the wine list is greek wine, but by some circumstance, all of our wine pairings were either Spanish, Italian, or American (a pinot noir from the Finger Lakes). We had a spanish sparkling white similar to a blanc de blanc with our mezze, all of which were wonderful with only the odd off note. A medjool date stuffed with creamy mascarpone was divine, once the excess salt is taken off. A whimsical cone filled with beef tartar and topped with a parmesan foam, quail egg, and a bit of parmesan at the bottom was excellent. We also had a small gyro like no other. I was worried we would get too full just on mezze, but luckily we moved on to the pasta course. I had beet ravioli with feta, candied pine nuts and maple, which might have been too sweet but for an excellent pairing with a cabernet franc. Leslie had fava bean caramella with charcoal grilled octopus. When I tried it my mind immediately screamed "flamed broiled Whopper." It was very smokey, perhaps a bit too much.

Our main courses were monkfish with fenugreek (the flower, not the seed) for Leslie and local Iberian pig done three ways for me. I had the pinot noir with the pig, which came as a trio: delicate tenderloin, blood sausage with clove, coriander, and fennel, and pork cheeks in the style of pork belly. The pork came with fresh, crunchy peas and carrots, including a carrot puree. My dish was delicate and rich at the same time, while Leslie's monkfish was delicate and lightly sweet, making me realize that monkfish really can be the poor man's lobster when done right. The gruener veltinger from Tirol was light and short-lived on the tongue.

Finally for dessert I deferred to the birthday girl, letting her have the bittersweet chocolate mousse. Leslie had ordered a port, but the sommelier felt bad when we pointed out that we had not tried any greek wines, that he changed her order to a greek vin santo that paired well. I had a white port with my basil panna cotta with a rhubarb compote (firm and crunchy, almost halfway to a candied rhubarb) and shortbread.

Overall, this was a wonderful experience (minus the woman who brought up her gynecologist in conversation with her husband loud enough for the whole room to hear) and service was attentive without being overbearing. I have read reviews on-line from people who felt slighted on service (though on a busy Friday) and that the portions were tiny. I left the restaurant very satisfied, but not bloated and full, which I appreciated. Komi is highly recommended, particularly during the week when it is not packed.

Ardbeg Recovery

You will recall my disappointment when I discovered that Ardbeg's Still Young and Almost There are not available in the United States. Luckily on a recent trip to Europe I spied a bottle of Still Young in the window of a tobacconist just of the Grand Place in Brussels. Some 57 Euro later and much careful wrapping to survive three C-130 rides and a transatlantic flight, the bottle survived to stand on my whiskey table at home. I haven't tried it yet, but will likely do so as soon as I have finished off a couple of bottles that have been around a while.

Scotch on the Ribs

Last night's dinner and scotch-tasting was a rousing success, I would say -- everyone seemed to have a good time and enjoyed the food and companionship. After a slight hiccup with some of the ribs (my normal source was completely out on Thursday evening, so I went to Whole Foods, which besides charging a lot for ribs ($7.99 a pound for baby back), also sold me one rack that turned out to be past its prime. Don't worry, I took it back for a refund and went to Snider's to get some replacement ribs.) Leslie had the weekend off too, so she was able to help out by making her three-bean salad and a pasta salad (with which she was dissatisfied).

After a satisfying dinner of smoked baby back ribs, salad, chips with home-made guacamole, we dove into a tasting of three scotches. I had pulled out the map of Scotland and placed some bottles on it to show the diversity of regions. We tasted the following:

Glenkinchie 10 year old from the Lowlands
Glenfarclas 12 year old from Speyside/the Highlands
Laphroaig Quarter cask from Islay.

A diverse group indeed. Many people were surprised by how good the Glenkinchie was -- even Leslie liked it, though she has never liked scotch before. The Glenfarclas was also well-received, probably due to the sherry cask finishing that gives it a sweetness, honey-like finish. And of course opinions on the Laphroaig were at both ends of the spectrum -- comments like "I feel like I just licked a wet cigarett butt" and "wow, that's got some power to it" were indicative.

We rounded out the evening with some strawberry-rhubarb pie (Whole Foods does this quite well) and good conversation.

Vegas Part 2

The other restaurant I went to while in Vegas a few weeks ago was L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, which I had not originally planned to go to, but was easily talked into after I won all my bets on the Super Bowl and could cover (most) of my Guy Savoy check. L'Atelier looks more like a sushi bar when you walk in, with a few tables, but most of the seats at the bar that is all black with hi-chairs. I had the discovery menu, which is nine dishes, most of them sublime or at least very very good. In fact, I was more impressed with this menu than I was with Guy Savoy. The pork belly is not on the discovery menu, but Scott had it and kindly let me try it -- it is pure heaven. The one off note perhaps were the oysters, that had too much lemon juice and vinegar. The oysters have a sublime sweetness that stands best on its own.

But the other dishes were wonderful, including an asparagus soup, smoked salmon, and two desserts. Well worth a visit, and (relatively) reasonable price ($120 for the discovery menu) for Vegas. One interesting note is that the seats at the bar give a full view of the kitchen. We watched the executive chef carefully dissect what looked like a sausage with no casing, and then proceed to eat the whole thing. When we asked him what it was, he said "an experiment that I'm still working on," but he declined to tell us any specifics.

Valentine's Day, Take 2

After coming down with a truly nasty cold on Valentine's Day, we had to postpone our celebrations until after Leslie got back from her trip to Nashville and Los Angeles. Last night was the second take -- dinner at Palena in Cleveland Park. Dinner was wonderful, I must say. The menu is short, but packed with so many intriguing dishes, it's hard to decide what to get. Leslie started with a sweet and spicy Japanese ceviche (snapper, I think). I had the salt cod on an italian braise -- both dishes were excellent starts to the evening.

I followed that with parsley ravioli that started strong on the parsley and then melded into lovely heat. The ravioli are accompanied by mushrooms and frogs legs (that I forgot were in the dish until the main course came, when I said to myself "oh yeah, those were frogs legs in my pasta"). Leslie had the saddle of rabbit and enjoyed it. My main course was pork done three ways, including a cube of smoked pork belly (basically a very fine bacon) and loin cooked to perfection (slightly pink still). Leslie had monkfish. We finished off with wonderful desserts -- I had the chocolate almond cake with chocolate sorbet (naturally), and Leslie had the cannoli (also a natural choice for her. The cannoli looked more like a fried wonton and open-faced, instead of the traditional tube. Both our plates were clean in seconds (maybe a minute or two).

The wine was a difficult one. We looked at some pinot noirs and I thought maybe a St. Emilion (though from 2004) might go well. The wine steward recommended a barbaresco from 2001, noting that its floral and lavender notes would go well. My first impression was twizzler -- a faint candy cherry smell. The wine was good, but didn't really pair well with any of the dishes all that well. Ah well, you experiment and sometimes it doesn't pan out perfectly.

All in all, it was a wonderful dining experience. I would go back -- perhaps to try the cafe in front, but wouldn't turn up a chance to eat in the formal dining room again.

Ardbeg Disapointment

It turns out that the Ardbeg Still Young and Almost Young are not available in the US. Blaaaast.

Oh, and I figured out that I have tried about 20 of Scotland's distilleries, including two closed ones (Brora and Port Ellen). Only 60+ to go to fill out the active ones.

The GOAT

Some of you may know LL Cool J's (that's, Ladies Love Cool James) album, the G.O.A.T. -- Greatest of All Time. Never mind that the album is not his best work. I digress completely, because I am here to write about a different goat entirely -- the Goats do Roam of South Africa. It was recently pointed out to me that I seem to report on the expensive restaurants, but not places like Five Guys (been to the one in Old Town and in Tampa, by the way, and thank you very much Fierce Flores). So, I don't have any cheap restaurants to report on, but the Goats do Roam Wine Company of South Africa (home of the gosh-darn kruggerand -- quote is prettied up from Lethal Weapon Two) does offer a great wine at a fantastic price. I tried the 2006 vintage of this peppery, fruity, deep wine, available for about $12 at Balducci's, which means you can probably find it for a bit cheaper elsewhere. Don't feel ashamed to drink this bottle by yourself on a weeknight -- it's yummy and won't dent your wallet.

The collection, part deux

This is the collection as it appeared about a month ago. As I said, I finished up a couple of bottles since then. In addition to the two I mentioned in a previous post, I also finished the Bowmore 1989 you see fourth from the left. And some I haven't opened yet -- I'm trying to get some friends together for a scotch tasting, but it's proven very difficult to arrange around everyone's schedule.

The collection

Since I last posted on my scotch collection, I have finished off the Port Ellen and the Compass Box Peat Monster, both excellent malts. I just bought the Ardbeg Uigeadail to the collection. If you recall, I tried this at the scottish restaurant in London. I finally bit the bullet and laid down nearly $100 for a bottle.

Vegas Part 1

I was in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago and took advantage of the opportunity to spend an obscene (for me) amount of money on dinner. I had seen the full-page adds for Restaurant Guy Savoy in Wine Spectator magazine for quite a while, so I ended up making a reservation for one on a Saturday night.

To start, I showed up at about 5:5opm in the secluded part of Caesar's Casino where the restaurant is. The front desk ushered me to the bar as they were not ready to seat just yet. I started with a glass of excellent champagne bottled for Guy Savoy (should be for $23 a glass). After five minutes, I was ushered to my table.

To start with, I can do nothing but rave about the service. It is top-notch and very attentive, without being over-bearing. Frank Savoy, Guy's son and owner of the restaurant, came out to greet me and checked in regularly throughout the meal. When I decided on the TGV menu (a four-course version of the tasting menu), I asked if I could have the venison on offer instead of the normal meat course. But of course!! The chef was delighted to do so.

The food is quite good, but I have a few quibbles (beyond getting too much!). The scallops came on a small pools of parsnip puree that I found overpowered the delicate (and perfectly cooked) scallops. The soup -- an artichoke soup with shaved truffles and parmesan -- had an odd smoked tea (maybe Prince of Wales, or gunpowder) smell to it. The parmesan was evident, but I noted to my server that the truffles didn't come through at all. I've noticed this elsewhere -- perhaps the truffles don't travel very well. In any case, Frank & Co. went above and beyond and whisked away the soup to replace it with a delicate truffle risotto. The venison was amazing -- so tender despite coming from a notoriously tough meat. Dessert started as a chocolate plate, including a sorbet, a form of napoleon, and more. But my espresso also came with petit forts, and after all was said and done, they brought over the dessert cart. I couldn't take much more, but did sample the chocolate mousse, which I found too thick and dense as too many french restaurants want to cater to American tastes (the Sofitel in Philadelphia has the same problem). Your french for god's sake!! Stand up for the chocolate mousse!!!.

My wine with dinner was the 2003 CdP from Vieux Telegraphe. I had a half bottle that went well with the venison. The restaurant also has a bread cart and offers to pair the breads with the courses. There is a malty pain de campaign that is not to be missed, but the lemon bread is not much of an addition to the scallops.

On the way out the door, after more than two hours, I had to turn down a proffered candy from a large jar. Guy Savoy certainly takes care of you, but for the price of a dinner (with wine) for two at Citronelle, it was not the best bargain in dining.

Badia

I found the Antinori Badia wine in one of the Montgomery County liquor stores for $47. Not bad given the exchange rate and shipping. When I get some money, I may pick up a few bottles.

Veritas Wine Bar

I went to Veritas Wine Bar on Florida Avenue tonight after work. I forget where I heard about it, but about a month ago I came across it on the web. It's a small, darkly lit modern bar on Florida Avenue just off Connecticutt (and across from the famous Royal Palace -- thanks Mike). I sat at the bar and ordered a glass of syrah and some rabbit terrine with pate. The syrah was from the Yakima Valley in Washington State -- Elephant Mountain from Yakima Cellars, 2004 vintage. Very strong nose, very pleasant, and held up well against some excellent terrine and pate. I followed this with a berthet-rayne "chateauneuf-du-pape," rhone, france, 2005 that was much more subdued. Rob, the bartender, was friendly and efficient. The charcuterie appeared before me about four minutes after ordering. My only complaint -- for $10 a glass and up, the wine pours are a bit on the meagre side -- certainly not the standard 5oz pour. Would I go back? Probably, given the sizable list of wines by the glass and wine flights, plus hundreds of other bottles. But don't count on filling up -- this is a way-station on the way to bigger and better things.