MARIANI’S

Virtual Gourmet


  NOVEMBER 27, 2022                                                                                            NEWSLETTER



Founded in 1996 

ARCHIVE


        

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IN THIS ISSUE
PUGLIA, Part One
By John Mariani

NEW YORK CORNER
KATZ'S DELI

By John Mariani

ANOTHER VERMEER
CHAPTER 46
By John Mariani


NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
BOUCHAINE
By John Mariani




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On this week's episode of my WVOX Radio Show "Almost Golden," on Wed. November 30,  at 11AM EST,I will be interviewing authorand Zyedeco musician Bryan Miller on CAJUN MUSIC.  Go to: WVOX.com. The episode will also be archived at: almostgolden.







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PUGLIA

 
Part One

By John Mariani




Melendugno

        Once Poor and Its Olive Trees Dying, Puglia in Southern Italy Now Grows Rich on Tourism, Fine Wines and Padre Pio.

 

 

        The last time I was in Puglia, four years ago, it was palpable that this eastern toe of Italy bordering on both the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas, was quickly acquiring a reputation for being a region with the magnetic appeal of being as yet undiscovered. Since then, Puglia has become recognized for its beautiful cities, artistic culture, food and wine, and a slew of very fine, very high-end palazzos and resorts that have opened up and down its coasts and in its interior.
        The province’s unique attraction is
the Shrine of Padre Pio (left), the second most visited Catholic shrine in the world (after Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City), which honors the revered stigmatist saint who spent most of his life as a priest in the town of San Giovanni Rotondo.
    Long among Italy’s poor southern provinces, with next to no industry and cooperative wineries turning out a bulk product, Puglia did have a thriving olive oil export industry, but ten years ago a pestilence began destroying the trees (below), which since have been replaced with rootstocks and grafts from resistant varieties of olives not indigenous to the area but quickly produce fruit within two or three years.
            The region’s history began with settlement by Greekswho gave it the name lapygia, referring to the tribes that emigrated there in the first century BC, and even today in nine small villages in the south a Greek dialect is spoken. Rome dominated Puglia’s  early history, but as in all of Italy, Puglia has had many masters, from the Saracens and Turks to the kingdoms of Sicily and Naples, the Spanish and Napoleon; pirates once sacked the city of Vieste and left with 7,000 slaves. When Italy was united in 1861, Puglia became an integral part. Under Mussolini, the region was developed for agriculture but suffered under the German occupation of World War II until liberated by the Allies in 1943. Its principal port cities, like Bari, Brindisi and Taranto, were heavily damaged by bombings.
        As with most southern provinces, economic progress was slow after the war, and many young people left to find work in the north. But in the last decade considerable efforts have been made to focus on the region’s accessibility to beaches, cities like Lecce of baroque magnificence (left) and the folkloric trulli structures found in Alberobello, dry limestone huts with pyramid-like corbelled roofs that look like tea cozies (below; photo by Carlo Elmiro Bevilacqua).
      These are now among the five World Heritage Sites in Puglia, which also include the medieval Castel del Monte and Sanctuary of San Michele Arcangelo outside of Bari , the National Gargano Forest, and,  though just  over the provincial line in Basilicata, the unique Sassi cave structures of the town of Matera, which were featured in the last James Bond movie, No Time to Die, though the motorcycle scene was filmed in nearby Gravina di Puglia.
      Puglia is largely a flat landscape without mountains—which means no volcanic eruptions—although there was an earthquake in 2016—but its long seashore has become a great attraction for northern Europeans and, recently, Americans who had heretofore flocked to the usual tourist centers of Rome, Florence and Venice. Those who now come to Puglia are also in search of history and culture very different from those western and northern Italian cities.
        What they find are city centers of great and varied beauty—Bari (below; photo by Joe Vitone) looks nothing like Lecce, and Polignano nothing like Monopoli—but all of them now share a commitment to restoration and polishing that only enhances the natural sheen and glow of cities with broad avenues and piazzas that lead to winding, narrow inner streets of extraordinary quiet and cleanliness. One of the reasons for Puglia’s cities not becoming darkened by centuries of soot and auto fumes, as in other regions, is that strong, salt-rich sea winds have had a natural cleansing effect on the buildings’ façades, which are largely soft limestone; and its streets are kept tidy by the locals.
        Puglia has its local contrasts that distinguish it from the overrun tourist cities like Rome and the maddening, traffic-clogged streets of Naples. By ten o’clock in a city like Bari—Puglia’s capital—you may hear little else but an occasional motorcycle or Vespa passing by. In the small hillside town of Castro di Marina the street was blocked by a four-foot-high mass of firewood just delivered at someone’s front door for use throughout the winter by a homeowner who was in no hurry to bring inside more than one log at a time. Maybe his neighbors would help him. Maybe not. Patience is a virtue in Puglia, and its residents will tell  you again and again, “Remember, this is southern Italy.”
        I shall be writing in the coming months about all aspects of Puglia—its culture, resorts, restaurants, magnificent sea food and wines that are now among Italy’s best.

 



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NEW YORK CORNER


KATZ’S DELICATESSEN
205 East Houston Street
212-254-2246


By John Mariani


 

        Anyone who goes to Katz’s for the first time will come away with sensory memories that will last forever. Outside, the old neon sign glows like a beacon, day and night, seven days a week; Thanksgiving, Christmas and on weekends twenty-four hours a day. The place is big, and barebones, unadorned, except for more than 750 patrons’ photos—including Mikhail Gorbachev’s—and old New York beer brand signs like Piels, Schlitz and Schaefer.
        The noise is from people shuffling in and out, pulling back chairs and tables, ordering, plates hitting the worn Formica tables. The mingling of aromas of steaming beef, franks and beans, pickling juices, sauerkraut, roasting turkeys, French fries is inebriating.
        You get a ticket on the way in, the countermen make your food—all meats are still hand-carved by masters who have been slicing for decades—then clip your ticket, and you move along quickly to get potatoes and drinks.  And, if you lose the ticket, tough beans, you pay a $50 charge. 

      And then there’s the sound of the swoon from those tasting the world’s greatest Jewish deli food. The most famous of swoons, of course, is that of the very WASP-y Meg Ryan faking an orgasm for the very Jewish Billy Crystal over pastrami sandwiches in When Harry Met Sally (1989), followed by an older woman customer watching and telling the waiter, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
        There is table service (for which you can use a credit card, otherwise cash only). So, you sit where countless others have plopped down for 130 years—who knows if Jerry Lewis or Leonard B Bernstein sat there?—and look down at the massive amount of pastrami, tongue, brisket, turkey and other meats tucked into two slices of rye bread reaching a height of about four inches. To eat at Katz’s is to become part of a savory immigrant history only New York could embrace.
            Katz’s began in 1888 as a small deli named Iceland Brothers on the Lower East Side, then the principal neighborhood for immigrant Jews from eastern Europe. In 1903 Willy Katz joined the store, along with Harry Tarowsky, and the name was officially changed to "Iceland & Katz.” Then, when Willy’s cousin Benny joined him in 1910, they bought out the brothers and it became just Katz’s Delicatessen and moved across the street in April 1917.
       
At first Katz’s clientele was mostly local Jews, although it was never a kosher deli, including performers from the Yiddish theater, and the National Theater on Houston Street. You’ll still find their photos on the walls. By the ‘30s Katz’s was attracting the show biz crowd from uptown (many of whom had once lived downtown).   During World War II, with three owners’ sons in the service, Katz’s began the  tradition of sending food to them  under the (now trademarked) banner, “Send A Salami To Your Boy In The Army.”
        Later on, when Willy and Benny Katz  passed away, the store was left to Benny's son-in-law Artie Maxstein and Harry's son Izzy Tarowsky. A new generation found that they had no relatives to whom they could give the store, so long-time friend and restaurateur Martin Dell, along with son Alan and son-in-law Fred Austin, officially bought into the partnership in 1988 on the 100th anniversary of the store. Alan’s son Jake (below) officially joined the store in late 2009 and is currently in charge of all major operations.
        Given its history as a true New York icon, it’s no wonder so many filmmakers have dragged their cameras into Katz’s for a scene that immediately establishes a connection to old New York food culture. The deli was in Contract on Cherry Street (1977), Donny Brasco (1997), Across the Universe (2007), We Own the Night (2007), Enchanted (2002), even a French film, Nous York (2012).
        Things move swiftly along the counter line at Katz’s, with a staff of
140 making it run. That counter goes through 30,000 pounds of meat each week, and the prep process hasn’t changed: "Our corned beef and pastrami is cured using a slower method, which best flavors the meat, without injecting chemicals, water, or other additives to speed the process. Our finished product can take up to a full 30 days to cure, while commercially prepared corned beef is often pressure-injected (or “pumped”) to cure in 36 hours. Yep, you read that right. 30 days vs. 36 hours."
         What to order? Anything, but the pastrami and corned beef are requisite to get the unique flavor of what Katz’s does better than any other deli in town. Alas, part of that is a result of the attrition among delis, which once proliferated, many strict Glatt kosher, with strict rules of never serving meat with dairy. Those were called “appetizing” stores. Few were as big or so devoted to sandwiches as Katz’s; most were small and served lox, smoked fish, bagels and pastries.
      A few notable names still exist: the 2nd Avenue Deli, Sarge’s and Barney Greengrass in Manhattan, Frankel’s in Brooklyn and Liebman’s in the Bronx. To one degree or another, they all do many items well. But only Katz’s, which has had well more than a century to first perfect, then to maintain, great deli, has every flavor down pat.
         All the delis are now expensive, but, as every aficionado knows, you’re going to bring at least half a sandwich home for another meal.
        Oh, and Katz’s is likely to be there whenever you go. They own the building.

 

Katz’s

205 East Houston Street

212-254-2246








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ANOTHER VERMEER

By John Mariani



To read previous chapters of ANOTHER VERMEER, go to the archive
 
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

 

 

         David called Kiley, telling him briefly about their kidnapping and asking what was new about the Shui case.           “Jesus, I’m glad you two are okay. Shui is a criminal of the first rank, David.  Chin’s been yakking his head off, with counsel, of course, trying to make as good a deal as he can with the feds, who have pretty much taken over that part of the case. We’ve been in charge of having the Taiwan police and our Interpol guys over there arrest Shui.”
         “You got him?”
         “Not yet, but soon. While you were off on your pleasure cruise, the cops had a warrant for his arrest. Turns out that when his thugs, who I’m sure were local mobsters, didn’t come back that night, he figured things would move fast against him. He left his office on Tuesday, and the cops have been tracking him down since then. He can’t get out of the country, so it’s just a matter of time before they nab him.”
         “Has the news about Chin and Lauden hit the newspapers?”
         “Yeah, the Times and Wall Street Journal had stories, fairly basic facts, about Chin and his connection to Shui. The Journal will follow up with more as an international business story.”
         “So, did the newspapers make the link of Shui to the Vermeer auction?”
         “Chin said he didn’t know anything about that. He was just a hired gun. Shui never told him why he wanted Lauden out of the way. The less Chin knew, the better.”
         “Anything about Correia?”
         “Not yet. But our sources say Stepanossky is recovering nicely and he’s gonna find out about Shui soon enough, and I wonder what that will ignite. Nothing new on Dorenbosch or Danielides.”
         “Well, Gerry, I may have you or the feds make another arrest tomorrow.”
         “Who’s that?”
         “John Coleman, editor of Art Today.
         “How’s he involved?”
         “Well, for one thing, he warned Shui that Katie and I were convinced Shui was behind the criminal activity. What we don’t know yet is if he had any inkling of that before we flew to Taiwan. I don’t think he’s an accomplice in any of the attempted murders, but he’s in deep shit just being associated with Shui.”
         “You think we should pick him up?”
         “I’d appreciate it if you don’t do that for a day or two. Coleman probably doesn’t know Shui wanted to murder us, and Katie will have some choice words for him. Me, I’m going to break his neck, if Katie lets me.”
         “Hey, it’s my bedtime, David. I’ll sleep on it and we’ll talk tomorrow.  And, David, I’m really very happy to hear you and Katie are okay. I’d hate to have to drag Taiwan Strait to find you.”
         “Glad we—or at least the Hong Kong police—saved you the trouble.  So, get a good night’s sleep, Gerry.”
         “What time is it there?”
         “About 10:30 in the morning.”
         “Okay. Hey, David, if you need a new suit, I know a tailor in Hong Kong who’ll whip one up for you cheap in two days.”
         David thought that’s the last thing he’d be doing in Hong Kong, until he realized that all his and Katie’s clothes were still back at the Grand Hotel in Taipei.
       “Not a bad idea,” said David. “Gimme the guy’s name and address,” thinking Katie was going to have to do some serious shopping, too.
         Katie waited for David to fill her in on the news before calling Dobell, knowing he’d still be in the office closing the next issue of the magazine. When she did reach him, she said, “Alan, you’re going to be so happy with this article.”
         “What happened?” asked her editor.
         “David and I almost got tossed into the Taiwan Strait wearing handcuffs and sandbags on our ankles.”
         “What the hell are you talking about?”
         “I’ll call you with the details tomorrow, but for now I’ll just say that our dear Mr. Shui tried to have us killed, by drowning.”
         “Well, goddamn it, Katie, this is going to be a great story!”

        

         Michael Curren’s home was indeed spacious and beautifully decorated in an amalgam of Chinese, American and personal styles, and the guest rooms were extremely comfortable in a familiar way Katie and David were craving. Mrs. Elizabeth Curren was gracious in the way that diplomats’ spouses enjoyed their roles.
         “Consider this your home,” she told Katie and David. “Whatever you need, just ask. I’ve provided you with some casual clothes—I had to guess at your sizes—and I’m happy to go with you to buy some new ones.
         “We have a kitchen staff who loves nothing better than making our guests happy, but feel free to putter around in the kitchen, if you like.  Robert’s always out of the house by six a.m., but there’s no reason for you to wake up when we do.”
         Katie asked Curren if it was all right for her and David to visit Hong Kong at their leisure. “I assume we’ll be safe from any repercussions from the kidnapping,” she added.
         “Oh, Hong Kong is a very safe city,” said Curren, “and they love Americans. I can’t imagine Shui has any roaming assassins over here.  From what I hear, he’s trying to keep completely out of sight. They should pick him up soon though.”
         Mrs. Curren gave her guests tourist info on what to visit in the city as well as a list of her favorite restaurants, which included a few American, Italian and French selections—“in case you get tired of going out for Chinese.”
         Having gathered her thoughts and calmed herself, Katie was ready to call John Coleman, hoping to get him at home.  As soon as he picked up the phone, before he had a chance to say hello, Katie ripped into her old friend.
         “It’s Katie, John. Surprised I’m still alive, you little shit?”
         Coleman stammered, “Katie, you’re okay? Oh, thank God. When I didn’t hear from you, I got worried.”
         “You got worried? So you’re saying you didn’t know that your friend Shui tried to have us murdered—twice?”
         “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
         “Really?  You send David and me to interview Shui, knowing the guy has already tried to kill a lot of other people?”
         “Katie, I didn’t know that until you told me before you left. You said Lauden and Stepanossky were targets. Who else?”
         “Maybe every person on the list of seven, the one I gave you and no one else but Interpol had. How is it that Shui was targeting those people?”
         “Come on, Katie, Shui would know the biggest players among his billionaire friends. If he wanted to get to them, he didn’t need the list.”
        “Hold on, John. You told me that your arrangement with Shui was just to fly over and interview him and get his side of the story, right?”
         “Right.”
         “But when you wrote the profiles of everyone else on the list you were really rough on them and their backgrounds, but Shui got off easy.”
         “I mentioned his shadowy past.”
       “Barely,” Katie replied. “And then, after you hooked us up with Shui and I told you about our suspicions about him, you called him and warned him we were going to try to really dig into what he was doing.”
         “Who told you that?”
         “Shui did, John, just before he had his thugs take us away to be drowned at sea.” Katie heard Coleman gasp. “And that was after he tried to gas us to death in a hotel room he planned for us to stay in, but we had already moved to another room. So, two other Americans died instead of us.”
         Coleman was stammering, saying, “Oh My God, Katie, you’ve . . . you’ve . . . got to believe I had no knowledge, not an inkling, of what happened to you. I swear to God, Katie.”
         “Maybe you didn’t, John, but you telling Shui we were coming after him caused him to set our murders in operation by the time we were on the flight over.  Had you not told him what you did, we might have gotten away with just a no-comment interview. Instead we were almost murdered by the bastard.”
         Coleman just kept repeating “Oh, my God, oh, my God,” feeling totally bewildered by finding out only the barest details of Katie and David’s close call.  “Katie, what can I say? I’m so, so sorry.”
         “Just tell me what did happen with you and Shui. The whole thing.”
         Coleman couldn’t think fast enough. It hadn’t yet hit him that he was an accessory to at least four attempted murders. So, instead of shutting up, he began telling Katie everything, maybe hoping she would understand he had nothing to do with the crimes.
         “All right,” he said, “here’s what happened. You remember that Art Today was the first to break this whole Vermeer story, right?”
         “Yes, you said a woman was calling you with the information.”
         “At first it was, but she was one of Shui’s representatives.”
         “You never spoke to Shui?”
         “I did, a little later, and he said he’d do anything to get the Vermeer. I never in a million years thought he meant he was willing to murder anyone. He told me he’d pay me very well if I helped him get the news out about the Vermeer and then, when I got the list of his competitors from you, he said he wanted me to write highly negative profiles of them all.”
         “All except him.”
         “Yeah, all except him.  I can see now that he was getting me and Art Today to sully the others’ reputations so that they would drop out of the auction, rather than face further press coverage of their past and present dealings.”
         “Even though they would probably be bidding secretly, through other people or by phone?”
         “I don’t know, but maybe Shui figured who would and would not attempt to bid on the painting.”
         “And the ones he thought most likely to—Saito, Lauden, and Stepanossky—needed to be eliminated.”
         “I don’t know about Saito,” said Coleman. “He died before I had the list. I assumed it was just natural causes.”
         “Helped along with a little arsenic. So, what else did Shui tell you when you flew to Taipei?”
         “Just that he appreciated what I’d been doing on his behalf and—”
         “And what, John?”
         “And that he had set up a bank account for me with the International Bank of Taipei that I could draw money from without anyone tracing it.”
         “And just how much blood money was there?”
         “Oh, please, Katie. I didn’t know what was going on. The money was beyond what I make in a year at the magazine. It was a chance for me to get out of the business and start fresh at something. ”
         “Well, I can guarantee you, John, when this all spills out, you will be out of the business forever and your next job may be sorting laundry in a federal prison. That’s if David doesn’t drown you in the Hudson River first. You better save your money for a good criminal lawyer.”
         Katie slammed down the phone and said, “Shit! Shit shit shit!”








©
John Mariani, 2016



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NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR



KNOWN FOR ITS SIGNATURE PINOT NOIRS,
BOUCHAINE HAS A LOT MORE TO OFFER


By John Mariani



 

            Many Napa Valley wineries can claim a long history, despite successive ownership, and Bouchaine lays claim to being the oldest continuously operating winery in Carneros, at the southern tip of Napa Valley. In the late 1880s, a Missouri-born settler named Boon Fly planted grapes and fruit trees on the property, then in 1927 an Italian winemaker named Johnny Garetto bought the land and farmed it until 1961, when he sold to Beringer, which used it as a storage facility until purchased in 1981, along with other acreage, by Gerret and Tatiana Copeland, who built it into a leading label, now with 100 acres.
       
Recently Bouchaine
installed Cisco Industrial Asset Vision sensor technology to be more precise not just in its water use but in all its growing decisions. The result, for those visiting the winery, is an opportunity to experience a “Taste of Technology” that looks at the winery’s farming practices and technology. The winery also offers “Wine and Cheese: The Perfect Match” on Saturdays at 11 a.m.

         Bouchaine is well regarded for its Pinot Noirs, which are balanced and terroir-based, and their new Single Clone bottlings (Dijon, Swan, Pommard and Calera) are singular examples. As Gerrett Copeland puts it, “I have always adored the softness, roundness and the fleshiness of a great Pinot Noir. It is a wine of unique charms. In my family, wine was not part of our lifestyle—it was in our blood!” But Bouchaine is doing a wide range of varietals, including Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Meunier, Syrah, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon, most of them sold at the winery. 
        To find out what Bouchaine is doing now and for the future, I had dinner in New York with winemaker Chris Kajani.



What was your background before joining Bouchaine? What did you bring to Bouchaine?  

I worked in biotech after graduating from UC Davis.  A kismet meeting with a winemaker at a friend’s dinner party led me to look into UC Davis again for a Master’s in Viticulture and Enology.  My first winemaking position was with Pahlmeyer.  Lucky for me it was the first year they made Pinot Noir.  Once I stuck my nose in those tanks, I was hooked and knew what my focus would be. After two vintages, I moved over to Saintsbury and began to fully focus on Burgundian varieties (Pinot Noir and Chardonnay).  With nine vintages at Saintsbury under my belt, and a deep knowledge of all things Carneros, I came to Bouchaine ready to not only oversee winemaking but also take on the role of GM.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Photo: Brandon McGanty


What evolution has taken place since you came aboard?

 I was given the opportunity to push our viticulture to a higher level and replant parts of our vineyard, upgrade the winery and equipment, gain county approval and build a new hospitality center—and craft an awesome team to help get it all done!

Bouchaine makes more than 20 wines, but your single-clone Pinot Noirs are your stars. Tell me about the new line.

Pinot Noir clones are like roses, there are almost unlimited characteristics. We bottle a Swan Clone which is graceful, perfumed, and showcases fresh red fruits.  Contrast that with our Pommard bottling, which has an almost creamy texture and is driven by plum and mocha notes. Then the Dijon bottling goes to the dark side, briar and spice with incredible density and layers.

Your Pinot Noirs avoid the huge, overripe style of so many California Pinots. Why and how is that achieved?  

Our estate in Carneros overlooks the bay to San Francisco; we are only 35 miles north.  The wind, fog, and maritime influence off the bay keeps Carneros cool during the heat of the summer. This allows for long, even ripening and bright acidity in our grapes.  

You said that at Pahlmeyer, where you worked, you went for a massive style by design. How was that achieved?

Jason Pahlmeyer was a big personality and he wanted to make big wines to match that.  We picked riper and focused on additional pump overs and warmer fermentations to increase extractions.

What percentage of your wines are sold at the winery and tasting rooms?

We sell about 80% of our wines from the tasting rooms.  

In how many states are your wines available?

Twenty-five.

Are they sold through a wine club?

Absolutely, we love our club.  

Are higher alcohol levels inevitable?

I’m lucky to be making wine in Carneros, where I drive into a fog layer almost daily.  This is a wonderfully cool site.  To answer your question, heat certainly increases sugar levels in grapes and these sugars are converted to alcohol.  However, you can chose to pick earlier at a lower sugar level, resulting in lower alcohol.  We also see more shade cloth being used and vine canopies with less leaf removal, both of which decrease sun exposure on the grape, allowing for slower ripening and less raisins.  

What is Cisco Industrial Asset Vision sensor technology? What is “Wine and Cheese: The Perfect Match.” 

We began a wonderful relationship with Cisco during the shutdown by holding virtual tastings with their customers and employees.  When they were releasing this new sensor technology, they asked if they could use our vineyard as a living lab.  So we now have Cisco sensors throughout the vineyard, giving us access to temperature, humidity, wind speed, soil moisture and additional data that allows us to dial in farming techniques and water use.  As California is in a perpetual drought, mitigating water use is a big focus for us. And a stressed vine makes better wine. So keeping vine water stress within certain levels is a good thing.

 

You seem to be showcasing Riesling more from your Las Brisas Vineyard. Why? 

We love Riesling.  We love it so much that not only have we worked with Las Brisas Vineyard for over a decade, we also planted Riesling on our estate in 2017.  It’s a wonderfully intriguing variety and pairs so well with food.  Our obsession with Riesling is just getting started.  We now have it in tank, barrel, and even clay amphorae in our cellar.

 


 




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FURTHER SIGNS OF
THE DECLINE OF
WESTERN CIVILIZATION

French dairy makers are outraged by reports that Brussels wants to force all food shops in the European Union to adopt the voluntary French scheme that labels each item with a color code determined by an algorithm that assesses calories, fat, sugar and salt. According to the London Times: "Traditionalists fear that consumers will shun authentic French cheeses because they receive red or orange codes, which imply that they are less nutritious than chicken nuggets, on light green, frozen pizza and vanilla ice cream on yellow, or McCain’s oven chips, which have the best possible dark green rating." 






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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 two 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 scene since 1995. He is the author of EATING LAS VEGAS - The 52 Essential Restaurants, and his website can be found at www.EatingLV.com. You can find him on Instagram: @johncurtas and Twitter: @eatinglasvegas. 




              



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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