Archive for the 'Food Pairing' Category

With the economy faltering, restaurants across the country are taking a painful hit. Even in Manhattan where I live, a quick walk-by of usually bustling eateries gives the impression that more people are cooking at home. But for diligent diners nationwide, the downturn can actually be a bonus. Where wresting a table at buzzy joints was akin to an audience with the Pope a year ago, tables for mere mortals are becoming available at short notice. Special “happy hour” prices for both food and drinks are appearing at upscale establishments that in the past had no need of offering value. And small plates menus, though not a new trend, seem to be increasing—a strategic approach for budget-minded gourmets who may want to taste what the restaurant has to offer without splurging on a $40-plus entrée.

Varying degrees of this new way of thinking were apparent to me this past week in my own culinary meanderings—I dined at three diverse and equally impressive restaurants: The recently opened Tarry Lodge in Port Chester, New York, the new venture by Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali (among others); Haven in Manhattan’s Midtown East, also newly opened and whose menus are conceived by former Mercer Kitchen chef Kay Choe; and Graffiti in Manhattan’s East Village, the 14-month-old food and wine bar of cookbook author and celebrated pastry provocateur Jehangir Mehta.

All three restaurants specialize in eclectic, small plate offerings at reasonable prices. Two of them, Graffiti and Haven, focus on global cuisine (a shrimp dish from Thailand, Argentine flank steak) and eclectic wines by the glass (think German Rivaner, Hegre Nache from Spain) offering a way for budget-minded diners to trot the globe without the pricey airfare. It reminded me that whether you cook eclectic cuisine at home or dine out, wine and food is an adventure—an excellent way to explore mentally in a time when travel takes a back seat.

At Tarry Lodge, located in a gleaming, century-old building, the journey ranges all over Italy, and the fare is hardly predictable. Plates like Armandino’s salumi (made by Batali’s father), guanciale (pork jowl), black truffle and sunny-side egg pizza and brasato al Barolo with polenta and horseradish smack of being hand-picked by Batali, Bastianich and Chef Andy Nusser—giving diners the feeling of jaunting around Italy with insiders as culinary guides. Splurge a bit with the grilled lamb chops. They’re succulent and perfectly prepared—you won’t be disappointed. Bastianich himself works the room and aids diners with wine choices, whether they’re eating an $8 plate of rock shrimp or a $60 ribeye for two. The wine list is surprising and Bastianich chose a delicious and affordable 2005 Montefalco Rosso for us that bridged a range of flavors and dishes. I was impressed with how respectful he was of budget—no attitude whatsoever.

Haven’s ambiance—think funky English manor meets Victorian brothel—is part of its charm, but the globetrotting small plates menu and imaginative wines by the glass list are both fun and educational. Again, Haven’s menu feels like it was hand-selected by the absent eccentric jetsetter in whose “house” you are kicking back. Two to three small plates are enough to fill you up and won’t break the bank by any means. The lobster risotto and Thai duckling meatballs are outstanding. I mixed it up with Rivaner, a Rhône red and a Washington Cab. I love that more restaurants around the country are having fun with their by the glass menus and really pushing interesting, affordable wines. It’s about time.

The bargain traveling ended yesterday at Graffiti, a closet-sized small plates spot in the East Village. I smelled the rich spices before I even opened the door—a good sign. Like the Tarry Lodge, Graffiti had a homey, personal touch with Mehta working the floor, discussing the exotic, Ayurvedic-influenced nibbles and pouring our wine. The fair, fixed per-glass price of $8 made wine choices easy and invited experimenting. So did the beautifully spiced, aromatic dishes—we had a chili shrimp and a dish of skate to die for and walked out of there with some money left in our pockets.

It’s a grim world out there and nearly everyone has been financially impacted in some way. But thanks to creative chefs and clued-in restaurateurs, there are deals to be had in the gourmet world for the diner who wants to continue to live the good life of wine and food, but is watching his/her pennies.

What creative approaches have you seen restaurants taking in this downturn? What do you wish you were seeing more of?

We all know the story of the Pilgrims; a group of about 100 folks who decided to depart from England to search out and colonize a new world about 2,750 miles away from home. Their ship, the Mayflower, landed at Plymouth Rock instead of the original destination of Northern Virginia due to inclement weather, poor navigation and a need for supplies. The real scoop? Supposedly, according to many historians and accounts of the momentous occasion, the real necessity that was lacking was… beer.

“We could not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beer” – one diary recalls. Now, numerous stories from various sources are available, both supporting and debunking the long lived myth, including articles from well-known beer writers Cecil Adams, Stephen Beaumont, and Bob Skilnik to name a few. Now, whether or not the claim is true, it’s fun to imagine that without the shortage of “victuals” the Mayflower perhaps would not have landed in Plymouth Rock and the sequence of events that transpired thereafter would not be history as we now know it. Leading to the question… without beer, would we be celebrating Thanksgiving?

What better way to pay tribute to the poor planning (or perhaps over-indulgence) of the Pilgrims this Thanksgiving than by celebrating the holiday with a few choice beer selections.

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Once upon a time, a working knowledge of moo shoo pork, California roll, and pad thai got you through most Asian restaurant experiences.

Today, if that’s all you’ve got on your mind’s menu…..your little white take-out carton is intellectually empty.

There are now more Asian restaurants than ever in the U.S.–indeed, more kinds of Asian restaurants than ever!–and, as the movement rolls, more of us are patronizing them more frequently.

But the anchor dishes we once depended on are increasingly surrounded by waves of other things. And, for most of us, sticking with General Tso, no matter how you feel about loyalty, seems positively antediluvian.

So the crunch is on: to get maximum enjoyment, we need to know more about Asian cuisine. How to acquire it? Precisely at this delicious moment, along comes a fine way to do so: a new book by super-foodie Steven A. Shaw, the eGullet founder, called Asian Dining Rules (William Morrow, 2008).

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I’ve said it again and again…..one of my favorite regional dishes in Europe is a platter of choucroute garnie (garnished sauerkraut), as served in Alsace, France. The difference from choucroute garnie as served in American bistros and brasseries is enormous. Oh, sure, we do fairly well on our shores in keeping up with the kinds of cured meats and sausages that ride on top of the sauerkraut. But where we fall down, time and time again…..is in the sauerkraut itself! Alsatian sauerkraut is remarkably light, almost fluffy–much of which derives from its incredibly thin cut. Forgive my cross-cultural stretch, but choucroute in Alsace seems like angel hair compared to the thick, spaghetti-like sauerkraut we see here. It truly makes all the difference.

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Years ago, while conducting research for my book about gastro-pairing (Red Wine with Fish, Simon & Schuster, 1989),  I stumbled upon a freaky surprise: anchovies were just fine with a fruity, reasonably young red Rioja. And the more I tested the combo, the more the truth became clear: there’s something about the Rioja fruit combined with the normally excellent Rioja acidity that covers the fishiness, cuts through the salt, and leaves your taste buds in more harmony than they should have any right to expect. It offered a pairing alternative to a difficult food that was quite unexpected.

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Lucky me. I’m just back from a trip to Germany’s Pfalz region, researching a feature scheduled for the November issue. I don’t want to give away the story, but it got me thinking that whenever I visit a wine region, I look to experience more than just the area’s vinous delights by trying whatever local food specialties I can find. It helps me gain a more complete understanding of the region, and how that region’s wines fit within their local context. To me, it’s also just a natural part of exploring anyplace new.
This trip, asparagus and strawberries were in season.

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Enviable collection of Barolo at Belvedere restaurant in La Morra, Italy.

IS NEBBIOLO THE MOST SITE-SPECIFIC wine-grape variety in the world? It just might be. What other varietal wine is as hard to duplicate in other parts of its home country, let alone other parts of the world?

The challenge occurred to me last weekend when we hosted nine friends for a dinner party. I pulled together a mix of newly released northern Italian wines plus Italian-style wines made in California. How did they compare?

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It’s wise for a guy to have a good plan in advance of Valentine’s Day. I’ve learned this after too many Valentine’s Days when I tried to rush around San Francisco or New York at the last minute to find a gift of jewelry, chocolate or flowers. This year my gift is going to be a quiet, romantic dinner, where I spend a lot of time gazing into her hazel eyes, and not at the wine list.

Here’s what I’m thinking our evening will involve, at the table, that is. I just have to decide whether I’m buying the sushi and dessert as takeout and then cooking the quail, or if we’re dining out. What’s more romantic, anyway, cooking for your partner or dining out in style?

Sushi with Bubbly
Quail with Pinot Noir
Chocolate with Port

Ah, but why and what?

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It bugs me sometimes when I hear other wine writers and critics dissing California wine for being too big, too flavorful, too much. Disclosure: I live in Napa Valley, and I’ve lived about 40 percent of my life in California, so I do have an urge to support the home team.

The dissing sometimes strikes of condescension from people who learned about wine from a Eurocentric perspective and will never be able to acknowledge that a style different from the generally lean and underripe European profile could be desirable. So I defend the generally bigger style of West Coast wines, but I also like to point out that they make smaller wines here, too.

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Northern California has its own culinary specialties and traditions. It’s only been inhabited by non-natives for about 160 years, so the traditions don’t run as deep as the East Coast, and of course there’s no comparison to Europe or Asia, from where most of California’s current inhabitants or their forebears migrated.

Our family likes to put a couple of regional traditions on the table on Christmas eve. These are malfatti, an Italian dumpling that has been identified with Napa Valley for generations, and Dungeness crab salad, made from the large, native Pacific crustaceans harvested from the deep cold water outside the Golden Gate and from points north to at least Washington.

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