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Episode #43 GruV Olympics Tasting Party
2 hours ago
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Slippery Slopes. Slippery Slopes Aplenty (3 weeks in).
Furthermore, when Dave from eatbufordhighway.com (great Atlanta food blog) posted this video (a while back, but I revisited it), I knew that I would be powerless to the cheese's awesome power:
Other than my concession to dairy (shamefully, I don't like eggs, so they're a non-issue), I've been pretty good. Once I dropped vegan and went vegetarian, things got a LOT easier. Since the now-infamous "CarnivoreFest" debacle, the eating has been pretty spartan, devoid of pork, beef, chicken, lamb, turkey, duck, and Rodents of Unusual Size. That being said, a slippery slope manifested itself on one of my latest (of many) beeswax trips to Mobile, AL.
"If it can't run away from you, fly away from you, or swim away from you, then it's a vegetable. Think about broccoli...there it is, just sitting there. Oyster? Same thing." -quote from a very convincing co-worker of mine
The oyster po-boy is a regional delight of the gulf coast...deep fried gulf oysters on a french roll with lettuce, tomato, and remoulade. And on that last trip to Mobile, there was a Wintzell's right around the corner, so I had to act on impulse...and excellent reasoning on the providence of oysters.
Okay, and I also at a lobster. It was amazing. And some canned tuna. So, an oyster po-boy, a lobster, a can of tuna, and some cheese. Other than that, I'm still on the path of righteousness. By next week, I'm sure I will have rationalized that all seafood does not count as "animal". Can someone provide more folksy wisdom to bolster this concept?
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Coyote Callers Agree: Sauvignon Blanc is not just for Twitter Tastings anymore!
Last Thursday marked a pretty incredible event....a worldwide Sauvignon Blanc tasting on Twitter. This thing was started by wine guy, social media marketing extraordinaire, and all-around nice guy Rick Bakas, and the word spread fast.
The idea was to connect wine lovers around the world with wineries, distributors, retailers, and other oenophiles in open discussion about arguably the Tubbs of the white wine landscape (to Chardonnay's "Crockett", of course). That is, the #2 out there. Nothing wrong with Tubbs. Some prefer Tubbs. Just meaning that Don Johnson's star rose a little higher. Maybe the marketability of his sassy fashion-sense. I don't know. I wasn't allowed to watch Miami Vice as as a kid. Nor could I drink wine. Geez, my folks were real mennonites, huh? Maybe I need to start over. You see, Sauvignon Blanc is the "other guy in Wham!" to Chardonnay's "George Michael"...
...enough of that. Anyway, folks would hop on Twitter and comment about the wines, adding the hashtag #sauvblanc. Then, by searching said hashtag, participants could view all the comments from all other Tweeters out there. Honestly, pretty amazing to see folks in North America, South America, Europe, New Zealand, Asia, and beyond connect so effortlessly. 'Twas a true demonstration of the power of technology and social media. In fact, Twitter shows a list of the top-ten trending topics on Twitter (worldwide), and #sauvblanc made the cut about an hour into the event. Incredible!
Swelling with a feel-good vibe of world peace, I opted- once again- to patronize the wines of Chile in the wake of their recent earthquake. Chilean wines are neither the Crockett nor the Tubbs nor the 3rd most popular character on "Vice" in my mind and experience, but I continue to give them a try. Furthermore, they're making a lot of Sauvignon Blanc, and it's easy to find on most retail shelves.
Sadly, neither of my selections on #sauvblanc eve were earth-shattering (yikes, that's a bad choice of words). The 2008 Palo Alto Maule Valley Sauvignon Blanc Reserve (not pictured) couldn't even get past my nose. It had a very unpleasant smell of rubber and a whiff of rotten eggs, suggesting excessive sulfur compounds in the finished wine. Sulfur dioxide is a common addition to wines (notice most bottles say "contains sulfites") to prevent spoilage and oxidation, but it can sometimes be overdone and cause reactions that ruin the wine. I'll give it another try, because I don't think this is what the winemaker intended. "What? You don't love my burnt rubber/rotten egg nuances in the wine?!"
The second one was MUCH better. The 2008 Chilensis Casablanca Valley Sauvignon Blanc Reserva had a subtle nose to it, but there were the thumbprint aromas of gooseberry (I've smelled enough SB to assume I know what the hell a gooseberry smells like), grapefruit, cut grass, and some stone fruits, with a bit of toast from the oak aging. So far, so good. However, it fell pretty flat in the mouth. While SB is renowned for a nice dose of acidity, this one was just...well, watery. Not a lot of flavor; not a ton of acidity. Honestly, if this had been a $10-12 bottle, I would've been perfectly happy with it. The fact that it cost $17, and it was from Chile, where wines are supposed to over-deliver for the price, well...it left me feeling as flat as the taste of the wine.
So, I dumped the Palo Alto and put the Chilensis in the fridge, hoping it's time would come. Fortunately, the suburbs- at times- have a way of making the nuances of a bottle of wine take backstage to its undeniable ability to be no more than a vessel containing alcoholic beverage. Sitting on the back porch with neighbor Van Burin, piping Varmint Al's coyote sounds through the outdoor speakers at 1 AM (all in an attempt to get a response from the large pack that inhabits the woods in our neighborhood), I must admit that the Chilensis- pulled straight from the bottle- was mighty good.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Curry
To all the fans of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Clue, and- of course- Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, I apologize. This is not a post about actor Tim Curry. Sorry to lead you astray in your quest, and I wish you luck in finding more info about Tim Curry. I'm not here to judge. While I have no idea why you would be searching for Tim Curry, my presumptions about your interest in Tim Curry are none of my business.
Rather, I meant to talk about curries...found all over the world; a generic term for spices mixed into a sauce with vegetables or meat. Oddly, as curry powders and pastes are combinations of said spices, the word from which "curry" is derived translates to "sauce" or "gravy", instead of "spice".
In any case, when meat is not an option (an update on that later), intense flavors are critical. Furthermore, many Asian curries employ coconut milk, a tasty, fatty base for sauces that is very filling.
Making this one was incredibly easy (outside of the endless chopping...get a good knife and it's actually fun). I quickly wokked the veggies in hot oil, mixed in curry powder and coconut milk, and served over steamed jasmine rice. Totally satisfying, and not nearly as creepy as Tim Curry.
FYI: While I didn't have any wine with this meal (cries of "HERESY!" are heard in the distance), I think the perfect pairing would be a Gewürztraminer. "Gewurtz" often has aromas and flavors of exotic spices, and the off-dry versions will have enough sweetness to temper the peppery heat of many curries. Look for great ones from Alsace, Germany, Washington State, and Oregon.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Bringin' the Funk for Chile
Earthquakes are a bunch of crap.
You messed with Port-Au-Prince. Destroyed Haiti. I suppose that what the Haitians get for selling their souls to the devil. Pat Robertson said it. It must be true...
...[giant fart noise emits from my mouth]
The world is getting through Haiti. The recovery has begun. At least no grapevines were damaged. Then, February 27th rolls around, and Chile- a major wine producing country- gets smacked. Okay, you can mess with the Caribbean, earthquakes. My roots are from Ireland and Northern Germany. I get sunburnt by spray-on tan. Beaches and equatorial sunshine jive with me like hippies and techno music or hippies and Axe body spray or hippies and any sort of cleansing/deodorant products. C'mon, hippies. Once a week. A bar of soap. That's all I ask.
But, you start messin' with wine regions, and we're coming to fisticuffs (an Irishman fighting over booze...I can't imagine why stereotypes exist). So, as I sincerely (again) reflect on the loss of life in an earthquake-ravaged nation, I've decided to pour out some vino for my homies in the 011 + 56 (they don't have three-digit area codes down there...work with me, folks).
Bringing the funk tonight was the the 2007 Montes Alpha Colchagua Cabernet Sauvignon. The Chilean wine game was built in large part by the French, especially the Bordelais, so Bordeaux varieties are the name of the game: Merlot, Carménère (no longer grown in Bordeaux, but formerly a big player there), Sauvignon Blanc, and of course Cabernet Sauvignon.
Now, when I say "bringing the funk" on this wine, I'm not exaggerating at all, or using clever street-talk for comedic purposes. I mean to say that this wine smelled like poop. Big time. Some wine writers with more eloquent pens than I would describe such a smell as "barnyard". Well, I think the word "poop" is funny, so I'm going with it. Oddly, this is not generally regarded as a negative aroma in many red wines. See, when you smell poop (hee hee hee) in a wine, it's often an earthy smell, and such suggests a great expression of terroir, or "sense of place" to the French. That being said, when thrown at your nostrils in huge doses, it can be a little off-putting to the novice.
Luckily, if you stick with a poopy/funky wine, things usually develop. I always try to see it as a sign of complexity and a promise of great things to come. In the instance of the Montes Alpha, poop turned into really intense aromas of charcoal, burnt toast, but, more than anything, really high-quality dark roast coffee beans. The coffee further developed into dark chocolate, smoke, and- finally- some nice, subtle dark fruit scents: black currant (just a tell-tale in Cab Sauv) and plum.
In the mouth, this one brought big tannins, decent acidity, and a solid wallop of alcoholic heat...at 14.5%, that was to be expected. I found it a little big to drink by itself. I would like it with red meat. At this point, though, I would like anything with red meat. I'd drink Yoo-Hoo with the chance of red meat, and I'm pretty sure Yoo-Hoo is the stuff they squeegie out of the gutters on Bourbon Street the morning after Fat Tuesday.
All in all, and interesting Cab. This one is worth checking out, if only for the nose. While I'm yet to be wowed by anything from Chile, I keep hearing good things, and the experimentation is half of the fun. Besides, it never hurts to support some folks when they're down. I'm sure the Chilean winemakers and citizens- as they pick up the pieces- appreciate the help.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
"What do I do with this?", part 3
Once again, I choose laziness over research. Yeah, I could pop around online and figure out what to do with this, but I charge you- the public- with advice on this food!
Salsify Root. I've seen fancy people boil these fancy roots in fancy milks and such. What other options are there? I don't have fancy milks on hand.
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