MARIANI’S

Virtual Gourmet


 March 27, 2022                                                                                            NEWSLETTER




Founded in 1996 

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Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston in "Breaking Bad"

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IN THIS ISSUE

À LA RECHERCHE DU PARIS,
Part Two
By John A. Curtas


NEW YORK CORNER
KANOPI
By John Mariani

ANOTHER VERMEER
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
By John Mariani


NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR

The Wines of Herdade do Esporão
By Geoff Kalish


 


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On this week's episode of my WVOX Radio Show "Almost Golden," on Wed. March 30, I will be discussing with jazz musician Jerryl Bell the Be Bop Movement of the late 1950s.  Go to: WVOX.com. The episode will also be archived at: almostgolden.



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 ANNOUNCEMENT! There will be no issue of Mariani's Virtual Gourmet Newsletter because Mariani will be in Ireland to gather stories for future issues.



















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À LA RECHERCHE DU PARIS,
Part Two

By John A. Curtas



Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves and Jack Nicholson at
Le Grand Colbert in "Somethin's Gotta Give" (2003)



LE GRAND COLBERT
 2 Rue Vivienne
+33 1 42 86 87 88

 

       One battle you will have to fight on your first few days in Paris is adjusting your appetite to the time zone. Hunger always seems to strike us in late afternoon, when Paris affords few options for a full, gastronomic meal. You may be starving and exhausted at 5:00 pm, but the French are still two-to-three hours away from even thinking about dinner. Popping into one of the ubiquitous cafés is always an option, but the better choice is to find one of the great brasseries (Ma Bourgogne, Lipp, Bouillon Chartier and, Pharamond, to name but a few), in which to quell those pangs at surprisingly modest prices compared to the grand surroundings in which they are charged.
     As brassieres go, they don’t come much grander than Le Grand Colbert— a Right Bank institution since 1900)—which we approached at 5:30 pm,  ravenous and ready to gnaw an arm off, even though the sign said it didn’t open until six. As we turned away, ready to concede defeat, a voice wafted from the doorway in that sing-song-y cadence so beautifully employed by French women. “Bonjour Monsieur et Madame. I saw you walk by a few minutes ago. Yes, we are open." 
     Within seconds we were whisked to a corner booth in the eye-popping, Art Nouveau space and had menus in our hands. At this hour, only a skeleton crew was holding down the fort, and a young French couple were the only other diners basking in its Belle Époque splendor — by equal parts spacious, romantic, dramatic and cozy. No mean feat that. But the tuxedo-ed waiters treated us like we were regulars, and within minutes we were being happily sated.
      The menu is as comfortable as the design is spectacular. Nothing fancy, just French comfort classics like blanquette de veau, smoked salmon with blinis, Breton skate wing swimming in butter with capers (right), and the ever-present île flottante (left), which we could eat every day (and almost did). We polished these off with an alacrity that probably confirmed a few stereotypes to our hosts, but they served everything in good cheer to a couple of famished, appreciative Americans. A half-carafe of house Sancerre rounded things out, and it was as satisfying a meal as we could've hoped for at that hour. (All of it coming to 131 well-spent Euros.)
     Le Grand Colbert wears its casual elegance the way only a one-hundred and twenty-two year old Parisian icon can. It is one of those places where everyone looks great bathed in its golden glow, and you can just as easily envision people dressed to the nines there as you can a bunch of businessmen or a mysterious couple pursuing an affaire de coeur. No wonder Jack Nicolson, Diane Keaton and Keanu Reeves rendezvous at the restaurant in the 2003 movie “Something’s Gotta Give.”
     There's nothing stuffy about it, the service is sincere and the cooking keeps everyone happy, whether you're a local or a hungry tourist looking for a plate of honest grub. Restaurants like this simply do not exist in the United States. They are one of the great treasures of France, and reason enough, all by themselves, to hop a plane across the pond.

 

 



CHEZ L’AMI JEAN

27 Rue Malar, 75007
+33 1 47 05 86 89

       “I have been in Paris for almost a week and I have not heard anyone say calories, or cholesterol, or even arterial plaque. The French do not season their food with regret.”– Mary-Lou Weisman

 

       Watching your calories is the last thing you want to do at L’Ami Jean,  the au courant favorite of Parisian foodies and a bistro that resists mightily the Brooklynization of casual Parisian dining, preferring instead to dish up gargantuan portions of French comfort food. As with L’Ami Louis, its slightly older cousin across the Seine, you enter something of a time warp when you cross the threshold into a crowded, narrow room whose general appearance hasn’t changed since Maurice Chevalier was breaking into talkies. Unlike Cousin Louis, Jean was given an infusion of new cooking blood twenty years ago when Basque legend Stéphane Jégo took over the kitchen, apparently bringing his “too much is not enough” philosophy with him. Now he commands his tiny brigade from an open window for all to see, and when he isn’t barking out orders and expediting plates, amuses himself by watching his customers waddle out the door.
     Cheek-by-jowl everyone sits, the crowd being a mixture of internet-educated gastronauts and local trenchermen who’ve been expanding their ample bellies at these tables since the 1970s. (From our vantage point, the ratio of men-to-women diners seemed to be running at about 10-1.) The effect is one of a raucous eating club in a cramped space where appreciating rib-sticking rustic fare is the ticket for admission.
       Having taken serious umbrage to AA Gill’s evisceration of L’Ami Louis, I must now posit an objection in the other direction, in this case to the lavish praise universally heaped upon Jégo’s ode to excess. We have nothing against wild boar stews, pork bellies with lentils, and roasted pigeons drenched in wine. And we are hardly one to quibble with rough-hewn bricks of pâté de campagne or puffy lobes of sweetbreads roasted with thyme (right). But when we considered our meal as a whole at this temple of bistronomy, what stuck with us was the textural, taste and visual sameness of our multiple courses, more cuisine bourgeois than restaurant cooking, finesse-free food heaped into bowls. Nothing wrong with any of it, mind you, but a certain flatness pervaded our meals, with no stand-outs. Perhaps we just ordered wrong—all five of us.
     Service was the definition of “harried” but also as accommodating as the bustling surroundings allow, and almost preternaturally fast. They screwed up our white wine order, but the “wrong” bottle happened to go beautifully with the food at the same price.
     For dessert, get the enormous signature rice pudding with caramel sauce, even if your ribs are pleading for something less to stick to them.     
    
Our party of five ordered enough food for eight and ended up spending 160 euros/pp, including too much wine from the short but very accessible wine list.

 

 


WILLI’S WINE BAR
13 Rue des Petits Champs
+33 1 42 61 05 09

 

    “In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.”– Benjamin Franklin

 

     Calling the First Arrondissement a “target-rich environment” for oenophiles is like referring to the Louvre as a nice art gallery. The same advice I give about cafés above applies to wine bars: Find one, make it your daily watering hole, and you’ll be quaffing like a native in no time.  There is wine aplenty in the area — Juveniles, Le Rubis, À L’Heure du Vin — so finding one is as easy as stepping in dog poop. (Yes, it is still a problem, and the only thing we dislike about Paris.)
     Oh, Willi’s Wine Bar, how do we love thee? Let us count the ways: Your wine, of course, specializing in Rhônes by the glass or bottle, both new and old, always interesting at a fair price. Trophy hunters head straight to the reserve Côte-Rôties; those of more modest means will find plenty to love at all price points. The food (classic bistro, but made with flair and good groceries by chef François Yon); excellent bread; exceptional cheese; and best of all, a friendly welcome (whether you are known or unknown) by a cheerful and knowledgeable staff whose patience (with idiotic Americans who can’t decide what to order) is as long as the white-oak bar. In other words, Willi’s is just about perfect. Whether you’re hungry for a full meal, seeking a snack, or thirsty for a glass of something special, it will send you away smiling.
     English is freely spoken (it’s still owned by the Brit Mark Williamson, who founded it in 1980), but don’t let this home for ex-pats fool you: It is as French as the Marseillaise when it comes to the food and wine being served. Of course, there are also those iconic posters, and finally, the location in the heart of where-it’s-at Paris. We’re more Right Bank than Left Bank these days, and our favorite hotel (the Grand Hotel du Palais Royale) is only a few blocks away, so it’s a no-brainer to make Willi’s our home away from home.
     Victor Hugo said, “Paris nourishes the soul,” and Willi’s fills that bill for us. You’ll have a hard time spending more than 50 euros/pp on food, and whether you opt for a glass at the bar or a ’07 Jamet Côte-Rôtie (170 euros), it will be money well spent on refreshing your weary bones, and reviving your joie de vivre for the tastiest city on earth.

 

 

  

 

John A. Curtas is a food writer and author of Eating Las Vegas: The 52 Essential Restaurants


 







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NEW YORK CORNER


KANOPI

                                                                            The Opus Westchester Hotel

                                                                   1 Renaissance Square, White Plains, NY

                                                                                           914-761-4242


 
By John Mariani

 


     I have long followed the culinary career of Anthony Gonçalves since, as a self-taught chef, he owned a popular restaurant in the New York suburb of White Plains named Trotters, before being hired as executive chef at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel that went up nearby. His talent was evident immediately, proudly based on Iberian traditions, although in the aerie on the 42nd and 43rd floors of the hotel, his cuisine became more expansive and a bit self-consciously modernist, based on the fad for extravagant compositions pioneered by Spanish chef Ferran Adrià. Gonçalves also had an adjunct where he served tapas in wistful ways.
     Now, with a new owner and a name change to the Opus Westchester as of last  May, the former dining room is all event space, with an adjacent hallway that is now Gonçalves’s most impressive and personal effort yet, called Kanopi, whose altitude (reached by taking two elevators) and wall of windows allows a panorama that stretches from the Hudson River to the cityscape of Manhattan. As spring comes on, a table at twilight is quite beautiful.
    The space itself, with just six tables, each oddly blocked from view of each other, used to have a bright open kitchen on the opposite wall, but Gonçalves says he hated being gawked at and now it’s just a gray wall. The table settings, with white tablecloths, set with little Jeff Koons-style figurines, glow nicely in the soft lighting. Stemware is of good quality, and various dishes are served on various china.
      Kanopi offers three tasting menus, whose dishes change often. (Gonçalves says he keeps track of guests’ meals and vows never to repeat a dish when they return.) The six-course vegan menu is $145, with $100 wine pairings available; the five-course “Bem Vindos” menu of mixed foods is $145, with wines at $95; the seven-course Chef’s Tasting Voyage is $195, with wines at $125.
      While I have my reservations about proselytizing vegans, I am as delighted as any to feast on vegetable presentations as delectable as Gonçalves’s, all of them richly flavorful (without dairy) and texturally refined.
    I haven’t the space to do justice in describing all the many dishes  from the three menus my party of three enjoyed, so I’ll focus on those most representative of the innovation and quality of ingredients.
    We began with richly creamy cow’s milk cheese, roasted garlic, lardo and anchovies (these last extremely salty) as a fine rustic beginning squarely in the tapas tradition, as was tempura-fried shiitake mushrooms, string beans and eggplant with Marcona almond butter and a touch of Catalonian honey mustard. There was more goat’s cheese with beautiful magenta beets, lightly smoked trout roe and yogurt, and then a hamachi ceviche tangy with finger limes and a Meyer lemon-honey vinaigrette. Ricotta was combined with black truffles along with São Jorge cheese tortellini in a sprightly, refreshing lemon-dashi cacio e pepe rendition. A nicely chewy risotto obtained its chocolate brown color from mushrooms.
     Perfectly grilled branzino with a crispy skin came with sweet  parsnips, the scent of garlic and an enoki mushroom escabeche. A beef dish was made from the deckle (which is the basis of pastrami) sliced away from the loins and possessing a tremendous amount of sweet fatty marbling, accompanied by Yukon gold potato, scallions and grilled romaine lettuce.
     The desserts were playful: banana flan and ice cream, chocolate, chestnut, pistachio and black truffles; and a surprisingly tasty foie gras macaron, with tomato and toasted sesame seeds.
         The menu says that a meal at Kanopi may take two to three hours, and the latter is far more likely, and, with many glasses of wine (there is a specialty cocktail list, too) and so much food, it may seem laborious to some. Service is cordial and sommelier Danny Martins is very knowledgeable about the extensive wine list of Portugal’s finest bottlings. 
       
I keep my use of the word “extraordinary” to a minimum in my reports, but no other word so well describes the food that Gonçalves is producing at Kanopi, with every dish impeccably thought through, balanced and presented with imagination and remarkable technique.
      Although the Michelin Guide has little of the credibility it used to, the company has in recent years recommended a few Westchester County restaurants as good choices. With the opening of Kanopi, the Guide might well want to award a star or two this year and suggest a trip to White Plains for anyone interested in food at this level.

 

Kanopi is open for dinner Wed.-Sat. Free valet parking.

      

 






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ANOTHER VERMEER

By John Mariani

To read previous chapters of ANOTHER VERMEER, go to the archive

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

         While Katie was at Art Today, David was sleeping off his jet lag, rousing himself around noon, having something to eat, then heading to the local library to use the files of The New York Times on microfiche, first using the printed index, then winding the wide negative film strips to articles on art forgery published over the past few decades. There wasn’t much, but he took notes, along with checking out the only book on the subject in the stacks. He needed to bone up fast on the general nature of forging art works and seeing what kind of people were involved, since he was pretty sure they all had to have had much better brains than the thugs and mobsters he’d gone after during his police career.
         Indeed, he loved regaling Katie with just how stupid the wiseguys he put away actually were. If a thug managed to live past forty, David called it “survival of the fastest,” those who could get away, far away, when he wanted out of the mob life. For some, that was the Witness Protection Program, for others, just getting on a plane to Patagonia. But David always insisted that the smartest gangsters—the capos—had the I.Q. of an ox, while their inferiors’ brain power rarely rose above that of a gnat.
         But forgers had to be very smart, very canny, very, very good at what they did, not least the guys who could reproduce to near perfection twenty- and fifty-dollar bills, with which David had a bit more familiarity than he did about art forgery.
        
Right at the start, David learned that forging art was as old as art itself. After the Greek master Praxiteles (above) became a renowned sculptor in 4th century B.C., the Romans copied his statues and tried to sell them as originals, with sellers, buyers and scholars all haggling over attributions.  David was surprised to find that even a very young Michelangelo, in 1496, carved a figure of a sleeping Cupid, washed it with dirt to make it look very old, and sold it to a dealer in Milan, who in turn sold it to a Renaissance cardinal. Even though caught in the fraud, Michelangelo had shown his artistic prowess, and the statue was held in high esteem until it disappeared in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
        
Reading on, David developed a real admiration for the ways so many forgers were able to fool the experts, and, as a former cop, he loved reading about how they were eventually caught. Katie had already suggested that he should research the most famous forger of the 20th century—Hans van Meergeren, who happened to be Dutch.
         Starting before World War II, van Meergeren had been painting copies of 17th century Dutch masters for sale as copies, but in the 1930s he turned to forgery, creating new works in the style of  Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch and Gerard ter Borch. All of them fooled the experts.  But his most notorious forgery was of seven Vermeers.
       Van Meergeren spent four years perfecting his technique of forgery. As Vermeer would have done, van Meergeren mixed his own paint colors from raw materials, like lapus lazuli, which produced a vibrant blue, white lead, indigo from India and a mercury sulfide called cinnabar to make an intense red. He wove his own paint brushes, and it was easy enough for him to find old canvases and frames dating back to the 17th century in flea markets. 
        
He would first scrape off the paint from an old canvas, create his fake, then, to make it look as if painted in the 17th century, he’d wash it with a phenyl formaldehyde resin that hardened the paints as if they’d dried out over hundreds of years. Then he’d further dry them out in a hot oven.  After that, by rolling the canvases up on a metal tube, he could produce cracks of varying degrees that all Vermeer paintings had acquired as they aged. Then van Meergeren rubbed black ink into the cracks.
         The first fake he did he called Supper at Emmaus (right), based on a similar painting by the Italian artist Caravaggio of Christ stopping to have dinner after rising from the dead. Van Meergeren cannily chose the subject because Vermeer scholars believed the artist might have once traveled to Italy to learn from the masters there, so choosing the Caravaggio painting to forge in the style of a young Vermeer gave van Meergeren the leeway to claim the painting was not in the “mature style” Vermeer became famous for.
         When Supper at Emmaus was finished, van Meergeren’s attorney obtained authentification by Vermeer scholar Abraham Bredius, who pronounced it not just a true Vermeer but “the masterpiece” by the artist.  The painting was then sold to The Rembrandt Society for 520,000 guilders and donated to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam (below).
         Van Meergeren followed up with several more fake Vermeers,
whose sales made him a millionaire. Even as World War II raged, van Meergeren prospered, especially by selling his forgeries, through an art dealer named Alois Miedl, to Nazi bankers, dealers and to Hermann Goering himself, whose appetite for European art, bought or stolen, was insatiable.  Goering bought van Meergeren’s Christ with the Adulteress (below) in 1943, but with the decline of the Third Reich pending, stored it in an Austrian salt mine, where it was discovered, along with 6,750 other works of art, in 1945 by a British Special Operations mission.
         Afterwards, Allied experts on stolen art began questioning van Meergeren’s dealer, Miedl, who confessed that he’d obtained the Vermeer from van Meergeren, which resulted in the forger’s arrest for fraud and for collaborating with the Nazis. Threatened with the death penalty, van Meergeren told the authorities he had faked the paintings; yet, even then some Vermeer scholars insisted the paintings were authentic.
         Then, in a bizarre turn, during his trial van Meergeren offered to prove his fraud by painting a “new” Vermeer—he called it Jesus Among the Doctors (below)in the middle of the courtroom,
with judges, lawyers and art experts watching.
         Embarrassed by the revelation, the experts and the court realized that van Meergeren could no longer be charged with selling state treasures to the Nazis (right), but he was still convicted of fraud and forgery and sentenced to the minimal one year in prison. Van Meergeren died in 1947 while awaiting an appeal. The final irony was that by then van Meergeren had become a quasi-hero by the Dutch, because he had so roundly duped the Nazis.
         By the time David had finished going through all this material, he had acquired a grudging respect for the Dutch forger’s talent and extraordinary chutzpah—something David had never felt about the mobsters he pursued and arrested. Sure, there were some pretty ingenious bank robberies, but mobsters like Joe Bonanno, Vito Genovese and John Gotti had never shown any ingenuity at all. They were simple thugs who got rich by extortion, bribery and murder. Creativity had nothing to do with any of it. In fact, David’s cop friends in Boston told him they believed the break-in at the Gardner Museum had been by a local mob that quickly discovered it would be impossible to fence such high-profile artworks.
         Feeling moderately boned up on 20th century art forgery, David decided to call Gerald Kiley at Interpol to ask who might be the most likely bidders at the auction of the Vermeer.
         Kiley said, “Y’know, David, you’re already assuming a crime has been perpetrated, or is in the process. Do you have reason to think the painting’s a forgery?”
         “I would tell you if I did,” said David. “I spent some time reading about forged art in the 20th century, like that guy van Meergeren, and I have to say I’m amazed that he got away with it as easily as he did. How could all these so-called experts put their reputations on the line and declare the paintings authentic? Even I—and I know nothing about Old Masters—even I could see the van Meergeren copies didn’t look much like Vermeers at all.”
         “Well, one thing you’ve got to understand,” said Kiley, “is that this was during the war, when a whole lot of stuff got stolen and sold and vouched for because there was money in it. The known Vermeers were scattered all over the world and not easy for an expert to have first-hand, detailed experience with. Most of the time they’d probably never seen the original, so they worked from photos, and in the case of private collectors, even photos were not available, or way out of date.”
         “Understood. But do you think a forger could get away with it today?”
         “Not as easily as van Meergeren. The experts today are far more expert at what they do, and now they have scientific methods at their disposal to check the age of things.”
         “You mean carbon dating?”
         “No, carbon dating works only if a piece is at least 40,0000 years old. The Vermeer’s, what? Less than four hundred?”
         “O.K.” said David, “I’m not going to take up your time asking you what other techniques they use today, but to get back to my first question, my colleague Katie Cavuto put in a lot of research time on, like, the hundred biggest art collectors, and I’d like to help her narrow it down to as few as possible who would have the kind of bankroll for a painting they say could go for $100 million.”
         “Give me a day or so, and I’ll see what I can come up with.”
         “I appreciate it. So will Katie.”
         “But I want to remind you again, David: As far as Interpol is concerned, there’s nothing about this sale—thus far—that’s setting off bells and whistles.”
         “But you’ll be keeping an eye on it?”
         “Routine business. And now, I am going to have lunch and afterwards try to track the bust of a fifth century B.C. Babylonian horse god that was stolen last year in Iraq.”       
         
David went back to his house and called Katie.
         “What’re you up to?” he asked.
         “I loafed this weekend. Went to the movies last night, finished off  with a pizza.”
         As much as David wanted to know with whom and where Katie went for a movie and a pizza, he stifled the urge to ask.
       “What movie did you see?”
         Good Will Hunting, about a neurotic genius—a new actor named Matt Damon—with Robin Williams playing his psychiatrist. Pretty impressive work.”
         David thought it sounded like the kind of movie Katie would go to with her lawyer friend. The last movie David had seen was Copland, with Sylvester Stallone playing an honest policeman battling a corrupt precinct in New Jersey.
         “Well,” said David. “I’m expecting some info from the Interpol guy about possible bidders that might help narrow down your list.”
         “Jeez, I hope so,” said Katie. “I’m just not knowledgeable enough about this stuff to reduce the list by much. Best thing I could do was to see which ones were actual billionaires, because no mere multi-millionaire could afford to buy this painting. That got it down to about twenty individuals. Six Americans, three Brits, maybe three Russians, a couple of Chinese, and the rest in Europe or South America. You can’t believe how rich some Mexicans and Brazilians are.”
         “Well, maybe the Interpol list will help.”
         “Oh, by the way, on Thursday I’m going to see my old German history professor at Fordham. Y’know, the guy who was so helpful with us on the Capone case. You want to come with me?”
         David, feeling like a dog being let back in the house, said, “Sure, I liked your professor a lot. What’s his name, Mundt?”
         “Yeah, Karl Mundt. Can you get down to Fordham by four? That’s when he has office hours.”
         “Same place?”
         “Same place.”
         “See you then.” They hung up and David was happy he was going to see Katie in one of those same places they’d gone on the Capone case.  Why, he almost felt nostalgic about it. 

 



©
John Mariani, 2016






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NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR



The Wines of Herdade do Esporão
By Geoff Kalish

 

 

 

    In preparation for a Webinar about the estate and its wines I recently had the opportunity to sample eight of the current offerings of Portuguese producer Herdade do Esporão. And, as discussed below, overall, I found the wines quite enjoyable and well worth their usual price. Also, while surprisingly little known by most American consumers, the wines are widely available at retail outlets in most regions of the country. Of note, while the original boundaries of Herade do Esporao were set in 1267, it was not until 1973, when José Roquette and Joaquim Bandiera purchased the property, that a commitment to produce wine there was initiated. So, with its first harvest in 1985 and a major emphasis on sustainability, the winery, now under the direction of CEO João Roquette (left) and winemaker Sandra Alves (below), is currently producing over 3 million cases annually.

 


WHITES

 

Monte Velho White 2020 ($10)—This simple white bargain from the Alentejo in southern Portugal shows a bouquet and taste of lemons and pears with hints of grapefruit in its finish. It mates well with pasta primavera, grilled shrimp or sea bream.

 

Esporão Colheita White 2020 ($15)—This wine was made from a blend of certified organic grapes and shows a bouquet and taste of ripe grapefruit and gooseberries with notes of pineapple and a long finish. It made good accompaniment for pork chops and grilled swordfish.

 

Esporão Reserva White 2020 ($17)—Made from a blend of organically farmed  grapes aged for six months in a combination of new American and French oak barrels, this wine’s bouquet and taste were similar to that of a South African Sauvignon Blanc with a bold bouquet and taste of grapefruit, lychee and pineapple. Try it with seafood stews, grilled trout or shrimp scampi.

 

Esporão Private Selection White 2017 ($31)—Fashioned from 100% hand-picked Semillon grapes, this elegant white shows a bouquet and taste of peaches and tangerines with notes of toasted oak and spice in its lingering finish. It marries well with grilled scallops, as well as paella and other fish stews.

                                                                                                           

REDS

 

Monte Velho Tinto 2020 ($10)—This light, easy drinking red shows a bouquet and taste of ripe cherries and plums, with some spice in its finish and goes well with hamburgers, pizza and spicy chicken wings.

 

Esporão Colheita Red 2020 ($18)—Made from organically farmed grapes, this wine has a bouquet and taste of ripe blueberries and plums, with a long, elegant fruity finish. It mates well with veal chops, duck breast and baked rock Cornish game hens.

 

Esporao Reserva Tinto 2019 ($20)—Aged for 12 months in oak barrels (60% American and 40% French) this blend shows a bouquet and taste of ripe plums and toast, with hints of chocolate and licorice in its long finish. Marry it with lamb or pork chops or brisket of beef.

 

Canto Do Ze Cruz Aragonez Tinto 2014 ( $38)—This elegant wine was made from 100% hand-harvested Aragonez (Tempranillo) grapes aged in new French oak barrels for 12 months before bottling. It has an intense bouquet and vibrant taste of ripe red berries and plums, with hints of cranberries and some tannin in its finish. It made great accompaniment for a range of fare from grilled swordfish  to veal Marsala, and even well-aged cheddar cheese.














Dr. Geoff Kalish has been writing professionally about wine, food and travel for over 40 years.















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HMM, YOU’D THINK WE WOULD HAVE NOTICED

“How Creole Cuisine Became the Unassuming Cornerstone of LA’s Food Landscape,” by Anneliese Wilson,  Eater.com (3/1/ 2022)

 












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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." 






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,  Misha Mariani, John A. Curtas, Gerry Dawes, Geoff Kalish. Contributing Photographer: Galina Dargery. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.

 

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© copyright John Mariani 2022