MARIANI’S

Virtual Gourmet


  March 15,   2020                                                                                            NEWSLETTER



Founded in 1996 

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Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in "Sabrina" (1954)

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IN THIS ISSUE
CARTAGO, COSTA ROCA
By John Mariani

NEW YORK CORNER
HYUN

By John Mariani


NOTES FROM THE SPIRITS LOCKER
BRINGING IRISH WHISKEY
AND GIN UP TO DATE
By John Mariani



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AN ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT TRAVELING AND CORONA VIRUS


Day by day the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus invades more nations around the world, and while nations like Italy have taken heroic steps to contain it, travel into and out of heavily infested countries has been severely restricted. As the publisher of Mariani’s Virtual Gourmet Newsletter I need note that I do not wish to advocate for travel anywhere that the virus is still raging. (As I write this, Costa Rica, which is my lead article this week, has 13 cases.) I myself  have cancelled one European trip for next month and am considering my options for upcoming trips in the next two months. That said, I have to assume the virus will at some point disappear and the world will get back to normalcy.  With regard to restaurants, especially in NYC where they have been told to reduce their capacity by 50% and are going empty many nights of the week,
I will continue to  write about places I like very much and hope they thrive soon and refrain from writing about those I think might lose a single customer because of my remarks.   So, I will take a wait-and-see-attitude on others, I look forward to a safer, happier time in the near future when I can in good conscience begin to recommend the joy of travel everywhere in the world.


 

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CARTAGO, COSTA ROCA

By John Mariani


Irazu Volcano

    As capital and largest city in Costa Rica, San José draws the most tourism and industry. But as a whole Costa Rica is one of Central America’s most sought-out eco-tourism countries, and the city of Cartago, southeast of San José, is a good place to stay while exploring the verdant rainforest of Tapanti Macizo de la Muerte National Park and the still-active 4,700-foot Irazú Volcano to the northeast. The Lankester Botanical Garden displays a thousand orchid species alone, and serves as a research center within the University of Costa Rica.
    Within Cartago itself, which was the country’s capital from 1574 to 1824, there are several historic sites that bespeak the city’s origins as a Spanish settlement by Juan Vásquez de Coronado in 1563.  Critical to the city’s decline were major earthquakes in 1822, 1841 and 1910. Today Cartago cannot be called a modern city in the way San José so manifestly is, but its folklore and location give it a great deal of quiet charm based on a strong Catholic faith.
    According to legend, in 1635 an indigenous girl found a statue of a black Madonna (“La Negrita”) that kept mysteriously disappearing from her house despite repeated retrievals, then eventually vanished. Today a statue of La Negrita inside the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles (left) adorns a rock where the original was supposedly found, and pilgrims eagerly come for faith cures, often climbing the Cathedral steps on their knees.
    The most famous of Cartago’s historic sites is Santiago Apóstol Parish (below), dating to 1575, which was left in stark ruins, like a Mayan temple, after significant damage from the 1845 and 1910 earthquakes. (The latter destroyed most of Cartago’s colonial buildings.) It is set in the Plaza Mayor and has a strange quiet about it, similar to that at Barcelona’s unfinished Antoni Gaudí Cathedral, as if the ruins were cloisters in which to meditate.
    The nearby City Museum, opened ten years ago, is actually located within the former police headquarters, originally designed by Lluis Llach, now beautifully landscaped. It exhibits local and national artists, while soft music plays within the rooms and hallways.
    Outside of town, with Irazú Volcano looming over the landscape, are the Costa Rica Highlands, with some of Central America’s most glorious forests, populated by more than 400 species of exotic birds with wonderful names like highland tinamou, ochre-breasted antpitta, black-bellied hummingbird, green-fronted lancebill and Cabanis’s ground sparrow.
    A unique place to stay, eat and explore the region is the Hotel Quelitales (Peñas Blancas; 506-2577-2222), set up a rocky road called Calle El Bochinche (which curiously enough means “gossip road”), spread over 10 acres bordering 30,000 acres of a forest reserve, run by the very affable and knowledgeable José Albas, who is also the chef at the on-premises Restaurant Casa José. The tropical-colored rooms and suites are all within individual cottages and overlook the gardens and forests. (While I visited over the course of a half-hour I must have spotted a dozen species of birds in the trees outside the window.)  The hotel has well-working Wi-Fi, but there are no TVs in the rooms.
    It’s also a good central location from which to visit attractions in the Highlands like the Guyabo National Monument, which preserves the ruins of a powerful town from 1,000 BC; the lake at Laguna Angostura; and the Catie Botanical Garden.
    Albas’s restaurant would be quite remarkable anywhere in Central America, for it is very personalized and very much dependent upon what he finds locally, seasonally and in peak condition. I sat down to an extensive lunch, for just $30, that began with an omelet cooked in butter with sprouts of quelites, a Nátuatl word meaning edible herb. It was served in a bowl of chicken broth that tasted like the chicken had just been plucked from its nest that morning. A simple and delicious salad of tomatoes, onion, winter cress and olive oil came next, followed by a trout from local waters (left), grilled and served with sweet shrimp, onions, garlic and oil, with a squeeze of lemon juice and a salsa made from Lizano, which is to Costa Rica what Tabasco is to Louisiana.
   
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he next course was a hefty, rare t-bone with a big slice of habanero pepper on top, sided with plantain and onion. For dessert was a kind of bananas Foster Costa Rican-style flamed in brandy, and delicate crêpes with ice cream and Bailey’s Irish Cream sauce—all to the sounds of birds singing and a breeze blowing through the trees.

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NEW YORK CORNER
By John Mariani

 HYUN
10 East 33rd Street (near Fifth Avenue)  

917-261-6217



    

    Hyun is a highly unusual, perhaps unique, restaurant. It’s very high concept and built around one ingredient: Japanese A5 wagyu beef, flown to New York in the form of butchered whole cattle rather than just the loins and ribs. This allows owner Jae Kim to use every part of the animal as different cuts presented in different ways, whereas most restaurants that buy Japanese wagyu usually receive only the ribeye cut or filet.
    The whole issue of the easy availability of wagyu beef, with its feeble knock-offs from Texas, Australia and Oregon, is a mystery I’ve yet to solve. Not even five years ago the rarity in America, or anywhere else outside of Japan, of true Kobe wagyu beef—especially from the famous A5 Prefecture—made its appearance on a menu a very big promotional deal. Today, however, it seems any restaurateur, especially steakhouse chains, can obtain this once-precious meat merely by dialing up a local purveyor. Be that as it may, I am fully convinced that the certified A5 wagyu at Hyun is the real McCoy: You can readily see it in the intricate marbling and taste it in a single bite.
    Hyun, though, is not an actual Japanese restaurant. Kim and director Euikyu Bang are from Korea, and they originally sought to create a modern, very high-end Korean restaurant using the highest quality Korean beef, but they were unable to obtain it on a regular basis. Switching to Japanese product has made them even more focused on the idea of all-beef menus cooked on a flattop Korean induction barbecue set within the dining table, which is set with hand-forged brassware and table mats done in a traditional Korean lacquer technique —which makes the cheap paper napkins very much out of place.
    The overall design is minimalist, done in brown woods and gray walls, beginning with a long corridor flanked by tables and leading to four private dining booths with slatted doors that are partially closed during service. The service staff, usually with Bang at the ready, pretty much explains, prepares and tells you how to eat your meal throughout the evening.
    There is the requisite new cocktails list, though the selection of liquors is small (no rum at all and only one tequila), but makes up for it in sakes of different quality levels and a modest wine list. The Asian beers go well with this cuisine, as well.
    The tasting menu is available every day and the price is based on the Chef’s Cut ounces, with 3 oz. at $165 a person, 4 oz. at $180 and 5oz. at $195. (An omekase menu is still being conceptualized to serve around sixteen courses at an enclosed five-seat bar.) There a are some à la carte entry items like the silky smooth Chawanmushi, a Japanese style steamed egg custard, and Kimchi Biji-Jeon, a soybean curd residue.
          Our tasting meal began with beef, then more beef. First was
Chadol Jjim, which is steamed A5 beef brisket wrapped in perilla leaf with enoki mushrooms and a few drops each of Yuzu Ponzu sauce and honey soy bean paste. (You’ll definitely ask for a refill.)
    Next came another appetizer, Yookhwe, bright red raw A5 wagyu tartare from the chuck, with Korean pear and sea trumpet seaweed. Our appetite was most certainly roaring by that point. Then came slices of ribeye and tenderloin, grilled to medium as the chef recommends, accompanied by Korean traditional pickles brined in wild garlic, perilla leaf and pepper, with sea urchin.

          By then, I was dying for a substantial vegetable and starch, but all that was offered was a couple of slices of Greek haloumi cheese and grilled vegetables. A small bowl of sot bap, rice that takes 45 minutes to prepare to order, is served only after the final course of beef. By this point our hunger was wholly sated, but for dessert there was bland shiso sorbet and hijicha ice cream.
    It should be obvious that anyone mad about wagyu beef will find Hyun a form of earthly paradise, though for the richness of the product it’s hard to imagine returning more than once or twice a year. Others might find so much of one very fatty ingredient a bit off-putting, and, since Hyun is not tied to any traditional Korean or Japanese template, I would encourage Kim to consider varying the courses and adding non-beef alternatives.
    Hyun is quite an experience—a very expensive one— and you won’t find its kind anywhere else in New York. Knowing that, you’ll have nothing short of an adventure at Hyun.

 

Open Tues.-Sun. for dinner

 



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NOTES FROM THE SPIRITS LOCKER

BRINGING IRISH WHISKEY
AND GIN UP TO DATE

By John Mariani



Founders of Glendalough Distillery Brian Fagan,  Kevin Keenan, Barry Gallagher and Gary McLoughlin.


    With St. Patrick’s Day upon us and many parades cancelled, imbibing a dram or two of the whiskey might buoy our spirits, whether it’s an old favorite like Jameson, Bushmills, Powers or Paddy, or some of the newer brands in the market, such as Glendalough, which was founded only in the past decade. I spoke with Glendalough’s “forager,” Geraldine Kavanaugh (left), who is responsible as well for the brand’s complex gin.

 

Q: Why did you decide to make gin as well as Irish whiskey?

Glendalough was founded by a group of guys who always loved Irish whiskey. We'd meet up for a drink and talk a good game. Eventually, we convinced ourselves to leave the safety of our city jobs, and headed into the mountains to take a chance on something more meaningful. Together we built Glendalough distillery near our favorite spot in those mountains, Glendalough. We started to make Poitín and gin and in 2019 we started distilling Pot Still Whiskey. The Glendalough whiskey on the market currently is either contract distilled to our recipe or purchased stock that we finish ourselves in barrels we have hand picked from around the world (Japan, Spain, France and Dublin). 

Q: How would you distinguish your gin from others in the market?
 In seven words: It is made fresh from the wild. This is a labor-intensive, thoughtfully crafted, small-batch spirit that captures the true essence of Glendalough. Using wild ingredients from mountains surrounding our distillery, each sip will transport you to our home in the Wicklow Mountains. The fresh, foraged botanicals are added to the still each day, within hours of picking, which allows their essential oils to be captured.
    Classic gin botanicals like juniper, coriander seeds and a few others form the foundation of the gin. Then our local, wild ingredients are carefully balanced to add layers and depth, and the nuance of a terroir-style spirit. The heavier, more sturdy botanicals macerate in our copper pot still. The lighter ones are suspended in baskets to allow the vapors to pass through and extract the more delicate flavors gently.
    The wild plants are carefully and sustainably foraged, so that we don't adversely affect the areas we find them in. That means sometimes using scissors rather than picking to make sure the roots aren't pulled, or maybe skipping a few before picking the next one to make sure the area can recover for the next season.  It is painstakingly slow-distilled with cut-points determined batch-by-batch through smell and taste. Nothing is timed or automated, each batch is done as if it was the first.
    Filtering is a delicate business. We need to make it crystal clear without removing too much of the oils that give it all that flavor. Our aim is to leave no trace that we were ever there. It means harder work, but it's worth it to keep our mountains the way we like them—wild.
 

Q: How did you get into the business in the first place. How did you come by investment money?
We have had relatively modest financial investments from friends and family over the early years. We used a lot of favors and good will, doing everything on a shoestring. With a lot of passion and some luck we survived those initial, crucial years as a start-up. Four years ago Mark Anthony Brands International took a stake in Glendalough and at the end of last year they purchased the company outright. We do not share specific financial details. 

Q. The Irish whiskey market has been soaring.  Do you have the most current figures of sales and distribution?
Last year dollar sales for Irish whiskey were +10.3% versus the year before. IWSR [an industry data company] recorded 30 new Irish whiskey brand lines in the U.S., priced in the premium and above sector. According to the Distilled Spirits Council, the high-end premium Irish whiskey category, representing SRP [suggested retail price] of $20 to $35, grew 1,106 percent between 2002 and 2018. And entries over $35 grew by a staggering 3,385 percent. Overall U.S. Irish whiskey sales topped $1 billion in 2018 and now account for 12 percent of the spirit market by value. 

Q: Your website says Glendalough was started by a “group of friends” but says nothing more about them. Who are they?
Glendalough’s five founders all worked in and around the drinks industry. Two were drinks analysts in a Dublin investment bank, two were in advertising and branding agencies and one was selling whiskey for another Irish Whiskey brand. They always wanted to cut their own path in the drinks game and had a real passion for Irish spirits. One evening over a drink they decided to start a craft distillery in the Wicklow Mountains and make a go of it. Over the next four years, one by one, they left their corporate jobs and put their hearts and souls into developing Glendalough Distillery.   

Q:  One of the distinctions of your Irish is that it spends time in a different finishing oak barrel after the initial aging. Is this unique to Glendalough or is anyone else doing it?
Double- and triple-barrel finishing is not unique; however, we’ve gone to great lengths to source exceptional wood in which to mature and finish our whiskeys. Taken in its entirety, we believe we have one of the most unique wood programs you're likely to find out there. Our focus is on quality and craftsmanship, attention to detail, and finding something special every time. 

Q: How many Irish whisky labels are now available and how many distilleries are there now?
There are 31 distilleries in Ireland now distilling Irish whiskey. 

Q: There is some controversy over the concept of “vintage Irish whiskeys,” which go against the tradition of blending to maintain a consistent brand style year after year. Has Glendalough made any?
We have launched a number of aged/vintage whiskeys over the years. Our most noteworthy to date has been our 13-year-old single malt aged in first-fill bourbon casks before being finished for up to a year in Japanese Mizunara oak. Jim Murray of The Whisky Bible wrote that it is “probably the most sensuous chocolate finish in the history of Irish whiskey. Incredibly thick mouth-feel, different and adorable.” Later in 2018 it was named in the top 20 whiskeys in the world by Whiskey Advocate.
   
We have recently launched two new aged whiskeys: a 17-year-old single malt, and it is something very special. Never has an Irish whiskey spent so long in Mizunara. It’s a numbered, single-cask release, spending twice as long in Japanese oak as its 13-year-old predecessor. After 15 years in a first-fill bourbon cask, it was already an exceptional single malt. It had vibrant citrus notes over the long, sweet honey and vanilla you would expect. However, it was the rare, Japanese Mizunara that brought the unexpected. The smoothness from the initial aging carries you through the depth and intensity of the wood spices, incense and earthiness within, while the sweetness of the bourbon cask creates harmony with these drier, woodier notes.
    It was a risk to finish this liquid in notoriously leaky and expensive Japanese oak, but the extra two years in these rare Japanese casks were worth it. We have released 6,000 bottles. The U.S. has received 3,000 of them.
    Beyond rare and more than unique, our 25-year-old single malt is a world’s first. It is the first ever Irish single malt to be aged in Irish oak casks. [Before that] there weren’t any Irish oak casks. They were the first casks made from the first trees felled by Glendalough in the woods surrounding the distillery. This is a monumental moment for Glendalough and the history of Irish whiskey.
    There is very little whiskey of this age in Ireland. However, looking past the age statement, the liquid itself is sublime, with each of the three casks and two predecessor liquids adding to its taste in both the right measure and order. The luxurious sweetness of the heavily charred American oak bourbon cask is followed by the bold, round flavors of toasted Spanish oak, Oloroso casks, while the lively last word is left to the virgin Irish oak spices. This is all clearly discernible in chronological order through an exquisite smoothness. Five casks produced 1,700 bottles. Two casks (752 bottles) have been allocated to the U.S.


Q:  What are the  current U.S. prices for those whiskies available?  bottling? (Glendalough is now sold in 17 states.)

Double Barrel suggested retail of $34.99

Pot Still suggested retail of $54.99

17 yo Mizunara Finish suggested retail of $299

25yo Irish Oak Finish suggested retail of $499

Wild Botanical Gin suggested retail of $34.99

Rose Gin suggested retail of $34.99

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DEPARTMENT OF. . . DUH!

According to HuffPost, here are some of the 25 Mistakes Tourists Make While Visiting Iceland."
1.Not respecting the weather
2. Skipping the Shower before swimming.
3. Failing to check road closures
4. Ignoring the signs
5. Getting in unsafe water
6. Driving the wrong kind of car

 






GOD FORBID WE'D EVER USE THE WORD 'SCENE' WITHOUT
QUOTATION MARKS TWICE IN ONE SENTENCE!

“Now, there are probably at least a few of you out there that scoff at the suggestion that a restaurant anywhere near Midtown could be compared to a fixture of the downtown ‘scene’ like Carbone, and to that we say, good luck out there being the coolest person ever, and also stop using the word ‘scene’ You sound like an asshole. We’ve actually heard from a few people that we trust (and who are pretty cool) that they prefer the old school Italian grub here to the stuff at Carbone, and that’s got our attention.”Chris Stang, “Quality Italian,” The Infatuation.







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 Any of John Mariani's books below may be ordered from amazon.com.



   The Hound in Heaven (21st Century Lion Books) is a  novella, and for anyone who loves dogs, Christmas, romance, inspiration, even the supernatural, I hope you'll find this to be a treasured  favorite. The  story concerns how, after a New England teacher, his wife and their two daughters adopt a stray puppy found in their barn in northern Maine, their lives seem full of promise. But when tragedy strikes, their wonderful dog Lazarus and the spirit of Christmas are the only things that may bring his master back from the edge of despair. 

WATCH THE VIDEO!

“What a huge surprise turn this story took! I was completely stunned! I truly enjoyed this book and its message.” – Actress Ali MacGraw

“He had me at Page One. The amount of heart, human insight, soul searching, and deft literary strength that John Mariani pours into this airtight novella is vertigo-inducing. Perhaps ‘wow’ would be the best comment.” – James Dalessandro, author of Bohemian Heart and 1906.


“John Mariani’s Hound in Heaven starts with a well-painted portrayal of an American family, along with the requisite dog. A surprise event flips the action of the novel and captures us for a voyage leading to a hopeful and heart-warming message. A page turning, one sitting read, it’s the perfect antidote for the winter and promotion of holiday celebration.” – Ann Pearlman, author of The Christmas Cookie Club and A Gift for my Sister.

“John Mariani’s concise, achingly beautiful novella pulls a literary rabbit out of a hat – a mash-up of the cosmic and the intimate, the tragic and the heart-warming – a Christmas tale for all ages, and all faiths. Read it to your children, read it to yourself… but read it. Early and often. Highly recommended.” – Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling author of Pinkerton’s War, The Sinking of The Eastland, and The Walking Dead: The Road To Woodbury.

“Amazing things happen when you open your heart to an animal. The Hound in Heaven delivers a powerful story of healing that is forged in the spiritual relationship between a man and his best friend. The book brings a message of hope that can enrich our images of family, love, and loss.” – Dr. Barbara Royal, author of The Royal Treatment.




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The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink by John F. Mariani (Bloomsbury USA, $35)

Modesty forbids me to praise my own new book, but let me proudly say that it is an extensive revision of the 4th edition that appeared more than a decade ago, before locavores, molecular cuisine, modernist cuisine, the Food Network and so much more, now included. Word origins have been completely updated, as have per capita consumption and production stats. Most important, for the first time since publication in the 1980s, the book includes more than 100 biographies of Americans who have changed the way we cook, eat and drink -- from Fannie Farmer and Julia Child to Robert Mondavi and Thomas Keller.


"This book is amazing! It has entries for everything from `abalone' to `zwieback,' plus more than 500 recipes for classic American dishes and drinks."--Devra First, The Boston Globe.

"Much needed in any kitchen library."--Bon Appetit.




Now in Paperback, too--How Italian Food Conquered the World (Palgrave Macmillan)  has won top prize  from the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.  It is a rollicking history of the food culture of Italy and its ravenous embrace in the 21st century by the entire world. From ancient Rome to la dolce vita of post-war Italy, from Italian immigrant cooks to celebrity chefs, from pizzerias to high-class ristoranti, this chronicle of a culinary diaspora is as much about the world's changing tastes, prejudices,  and dietary fads as about our obsessions with culinary fashion and style.--John Mariani

"Eating Italian will never be the same after reading John Mariani's entertaining and savory gastronomical history of the cuisine of Italy and how it won over appetites worldwide. . . . This book is such a tasteful narrative that it will literally make you hungry for Italian food and arouse your appetite for gastronomical history."--Don Oldenburg, USA Today. 

"Italian restaurants--some good, some glitzy--far outnumber their French rivals.  Many of these establishments are zestfully described in How Italian Food Conquered the World, an entertaining and fact-filled chronicle by food-and-wine correspondent John F. Mariani."--Aram Bakshian Jr., Wall Street Journal.


"Mariani admirably dishes out the story of Italy’s remarkable global ascent to virtual culinary hegemony....Like a chef gladly divulging a cherished family recipe, Mariani’s book reveals the secret sauce about how Italy’s cuisine put gusto in gusto!"--David Lincoln Ross, thedailybeast.com

"Equal parts history, sociology, gastronomy, and just plain fun, How Italian Food Conquered the World tells the captivating and delicious story of the (let's face it) everybody's favorite cuisine with clarity, verve and more than one surprise."--Colman Andrews, editorial director of The Daily Meal.com.

"A fantastic and fascinating read, covering everything from the influence of Venice's spice trade to the impact of Italian immigrants in America and the evolution of alta cucina. This book will serve as a terrific resource to anyone interested in the real story of Italian food."--Mary Ann Esposito, host of PBS-TV's Ciao Italia.

"John Mariani has written the definitive history of how Italians won their way into our hearts, minds, and stomachs.  It's a story of pleasure over pomp and taste over technique."--Danny Meyer, owner of NYC restaurants Union Square Cafe,  The Modern, and Maialino.

                                                                             





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FEATURED LINKS: I am happy to  report that the Virtual Gourmet is  linked to four excellent travel sites:

Everett Potter's Travel  Report

I consider this the best and savviest blog of its kind on the  web. Potter is a columnist for USA Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury  Spa Finder, a contributing editor for Ski and  a frequent contributor to National  Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com  and Elle Decor. "I’ve designed this site is for people who take their  travel seriously," says Potter. "For travelers who want to learn about special  places but don’t necessarily want to pay through the nose for the privilege of  staying there. Because at the end of the day, it’s not so much about five-star  places as five-star experiences."  THIS WEEK:






Eating Las Vegas JOHN CURTAS has been covering the Las Vegas food and restaurant scene since 1995. He is the co-author of EATING LAS VEGAS – The 50 Essential Restaurants (as well as the author of the Eating Las Vegas web site: www.eatinglasvegas. He can also be seen every Friday morning as the “resident foodie” for Wake Up With the Wagners on KSNV TV (NBC) Channel 3  in Las Vegas.



              



MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly.  Publisher: John Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani, Robert Mariani,  Misha Mariani, John A. Curtas, Gerry Dawes, Geoff Kalish, and Brian Freedman. Contributing Photographer: Galina Dargery. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.

 

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