$650 for New Year's Eve dinner?
From Salon.com, a mini-interview on the extravagant cost of New Year's Eve dinners.
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Thursday, December 31, 2009
New Year's Drink
This is the last day of the western calendar year, and many will be celebrating with various fizzy or sparkling drinks. Tonight, we'll probably open a bottle of Barboursville's great brut sparkling white wine, made predominantly with pinot noir grapes and some chardonnay. Another recommendation for a fantastic, toasty, yet not overly wrought sparkling white from the US is Domaine Meriwether's brut. Both are wonderful and far less expensive than equivalent Champagnes.
Happy New Year to one and all!
Happy New Year to one and all!
Good Cheese
Good cheese is remarkably hard to find, only complicated by food safety regulations here in the U.S. (and no, I am not arguing for abolishing food safety standards, but for a recognition that they limit our ability to enjoy some foods that people have safely consumed for hundreds of years). The NYTimes had a nice piece this week about one man's attempt to create a better Camembert without contravening these regulations. You'll find the story here.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Knowing your meal
A new generation of urbanites is learning where there food comes from in an intimate fashion. Woe betide a society that willfully ignores the connection between animals and food on the table.
Second Careers in winemaking
Today's New York Times has a good piece about people choosing to open vineyards and wineries as second careers. A friend of mine once remarked that one way to make a million dollars is to start out with ten million dollars and buy a vineyard (thanks, Ole).
Saturday, November 21, 2009
What's open
I've got some people coming over in mid-December for a mini-scotch tasting and I realized that most of my bottles were biased to Islay, so I've spent the last few weeks trying to expand my Highland exposure, including adding the Glenmorangie 18 year old and the Dalmore 12 year old. This got me to thinking about what is the perfect age for a scotch. Obviously the first answer is "it depends", but I think some scotches lend themselves to perfection, or nearly so, at certain ages. I've convinced myself of this in the last few weeks as I have had the opportunity to taste some older (20+ year olds) scotches, and not always been that impressed.
I used to think that 18 was a perfect age, but then I started to taste some other scotches that were wonderful at younger ages and then tired or woody even at 18. For instance, the Bowmore 15 year old is a beautiful malt, the 18 is excellent, but the 25 is very woody. The Highland Park 18 year old is close to perfection, but the now bygone 15 year old Laphroiag is a fantastically balance malt. And the Dalmore 12 year old is amazing; I would think more age would detract, rather than add, to its flavor profile. The Ardbeg young whiskies were amazing examples of young malts that had plenty of character.
Many distilleries have started to migrate towards no age statements on the bottles, which eases the burden of having enough of particular aged stocks. Some turn out really well, others not so much. I don't know how much of that is a commercial decision and how much is a decision based on the quality, but I have read and heard that many age statement blends (e.g., Johnnie Walker Black 12 year old) often contain much older whiskies (by law they can't contain younger whiskies). In the end, though, it comes down to what you like and want to drink, not the age on the bottle. Some people love Glen Grant five or eight year old; others think the Macallan 53 year old Lalique is the pinnacle of taste. The great thing about scotch is that there is a malt for every taste and wallet. Slainte!
I used to think that 18 was a perfect age, but then I started to taste some other scotches that were wonderful at younger ages and then tired or woody even at 18. For instance, the Bowmore 15 year old is a beautiful malt, the 18 is excellent, but the 25 is very woody. The Highland Park 18 year old is close to perfection, but the now bygone 15 year old Laphroiag is a fantastically balance malt. And the Dalmore 12 year old is amazing; I would think more age would detract, rather than add, to its flavor profile. The Ardbeg young whiskies were amazing examples of young malts that had plenty of character.
Many distilleries have started to migrate towards no age statements on the bottles, which eases the burden of having enough of particular aged stocks. Some turn out really well, others not so much. I don't know how much of that is a commercial decision and how much is a decision based on the quality, but I have read and heard that many age statement blends (e.g., Johnnie Walker Black 12 year old) often contain much older whiskies (by law they can't contain younger whiskies). In the end, though, it comes down to what you like and want to drink, not the age on the bottle. Some people love Glen Grant five or eight year old; others think the Macallan 53 year old Lalique is the pinnacle of taste. The great thing about scotch is that there is a malt for every taste and wallet. Slainte!
Voltaggio!
For those who have watched Top Chef on Bravo this year, Bryan Voltaggio is a familiar face. We recently had lunch at his restaurant, Volt, in Frederick Maryland. In typical fashion, I did not know about this restaurant until I saw the show, but Leslie has been wanting to go there for more than a year since she first read about it. As part of our anniversary celebration this year, we made a day of traveling up to Frederick (about 45 minutes north of DC), exploring the downtown area, and having a later lunch at the restaurant.
Volt is in a large, stone town-house in the downtown area, near all the kitschy shops and restaurants. This is fine dining with a slight hip twist (if you consider all the servers wearing chuck Ts with their suits hip). And the lunch menu is a bargain -- three course for about $20, and not skimpy courses at all. Add $15 and you get wine pairings, including with dessert. I decided to test the kitchen's mettle by ordering... roast chicken. I think Jacques Pepin said once that a true test of a chef is making the simplest thing (omelet, roast chicken). I was not disappointed. It was flavorful, moist, and perfectly seasoned, with crispy skin. Dessert could have been better, however. We had the baked pear with crumble and ice cream, but the pear was still very hard and crunchy -- probably not ripe -- and the crumble was slight. Despite that, it was a wonderful dining experience, and the waitstaff were excellent. Definitely worth the trip.
Volt is in a large, stone town-house in the downtown area, near all the kitschy shops and restaurants. This is fine dining with a slight hip twist (if you consider all the servers wearing chuck Ts with their suits hip). And the lunch menu is a bargain -- three course for about $20, and not skimpy courses at all. Add $15 and you get wine pairings, including with dessert. I decided to test the kitchen's mettle by ordering... roast chicken. I think Jacques Pepin said once that a true test of a chef is making the simplest thing (omelet, roast chicken). I was not disappointed. It was flavorful, moist, and perfectly seasoned, with crispy skin. Dessert could have been better, however. We had the baked pear with crumble and ice cream, but the pear was still very hard and crunchy -- probably not ripe -- and the crumble was slight. Despite that, it was a wonderful dining experience, and the waitstaff were excellent. Definitely worth the trip.
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