The
terrorists bombings in Paris
aimed deliberately at people
enjoying themselves at cafes,
bistros, stadiums and theaters
reminded me, sadly yet again, of
the real importance of such
leisure activities at a time
when they must be
treasured. The article
below originally appeared on the
occasion of the 9/11
bombings. I feel it worth
while publishing again today.
On the day the day the World
Trade Center was destroyed, Sirio Maccioni, owner of
New York’s famous restaurant, Le Cirque 2000, called
then Mayor Rudy Giuliani to ask how he might help in
the crisis. Giuliani said two words: “Stay
open.” That
night Le Cirque did only 65 covers. Two weeks later,
on a Saturday night, the restaurant served
260.
That sentiment has
always carried weight with me, not only because
sitting down to a meal requires the harried mind to
re-focus attention on a basic human ritual
but because it truly helps to return to a
normal need. After hearing of a tragedy, the
appetite may flag, eating may be the last thing on
one’s mind, and dining seems downright
frivolous. But to restore one’s appetite is to
restore one’s strength, as anyone who has long been
sick knows. A year earlier when I heard the news
that my mother had passed away overnight, I was
tying my tie in a room at the Crillon Hotel in
Paris, ready to go down to dinner. The news had the
obvious effect of bringing me to my knees, but after
commiserating with my wife, I determined that going
down to dinner would be the very best thing, rather
than stay in the room and weep. We went to
dinner, sure that my mother, who gave me life,
nurtured me as an infant, and imbued me with a love
of good food, a woman who was a great hostess and
loved nothing more than going out to a fine
restaurant, would have insisted I do so. And
so, we ate very well and drank a very fine wine,
toasting my mother as she so richly deserved.
As a food
and travel writer what I do for a living may seem
odd (T.S. Eliot wrote, “We measure out our
lives in coffee spoons,” but I measure out mine in
morsels of foie gras), but, whenever I think of it
as ephemeral to the great issues of the day, I am
reminded of a scene in the play based on The
Diary of Anne Frank, in which the family,
isolated for months in an attic but still believing
they will soon be out, fantasizes about the first
thing they’ll do when they return to the world
outside. Anne (left) says she yearns to go to a
dance. The teenage boy wants to go to a movie, a
western movie! And the adults all start remembering
and dreaming of a wonderful pastry shop, a good stew,
a romantic restaurant with thick linen and fine
wines. None, not one, declares that the first
thing he wants to do is to change the political
structure of Europe. This scene made me
realize not only that deprivation takes away
freedoms of movement but also access to the most
wonderful sights, sounds, and tastes of life--the
very things we live for until they are taken away
from us. Every human being on earth who has ever
gone hungry thinks first of survival, then of doing
something seemingly superficial--a dance, a western
movie, a visit to a restaurant. For when all
goes well, when the doctor cuts out the cancer, when
debt is retired, when the debris is cleared away,
returning to normal means returning to those things
that make life worth living. During World War II director Frank
Capra made a series of powerful propaganda films
entitled “Why We Fight,” and if seeing yet again the
cheesecake photos (an interesting turn of phrase) of
Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable in servicemen’s
lockers seems pointedly nostalgic, that does not
destroy its touching allure. “Why We Dine” is
as reasonable a proposition as any other, once we
survive the inevitable rigors and horrors of life
that must be endured. “Animals feed, man
eats,” said Brillat-Savarin, “but only a man of
culture knows how to dine.”
So I carry on extolling and criticizing our world’s
food culture, sometimes whimsically, sometimes with
vitriol. For the importance of dining out, and
drinking good wine, and falling in love under the
spell of candlelight at the dinner table is to enjoy
all that terrorists--especially those whose
religious fanaticism seeks to deprive people of all
pleasure--would seek to destroy. By indulging
in life’s passions we do much more than live out our
lives. We gain strength in the belief that
they are part of the goodness of man.
Eat well, be well.
❖❖❖
CHICAGO SHINES
By John Mariani
If
Chicago isn’t America’s best restaurant town, it
is certainly the most rollicking about its food
scene and, with the exception of those
exorbitantly priced modernist salons, the city
also gives you a square meal for a square
deal.
This becomes most obvious each
fall when the city holds its Chicago Gourmet—this is
its eighth year—easily the nation’s premier culinary
experience. Instead of bringing in the same tired
celebrity faces from other cities, Chicago’sfocus is
on the local chefs and their restaurants. The event
was created by the Illinois Restaurant
Association and the Anton Family Foundation
“to celebrate and honor both Chicago’s culinary
achievements and the creative vision of the chefs,
Master Sommeliers, and wine-, spirit-, and
beer-makers who participate. It also spotlights
Chicago as an international culinary destination via
its unparalleled epicurean talent.”Fair
enough. I attended and was delighted by each of the
sold-out events in tents and the Hamburger
Hop, a kick-off evening among 15 grill masters (won
by Chef Dino Tsaknis of David Burke’s Primehouse).
There was also a charity toast to the late Charlie
Trotter, a Grand Cru Tasting, and much more. And
holding it all in that gloriousMillennium
Park made it all the more enticing.
I had a ball at the gala, but of
course I also ate around Chicago, and I managed to
visit severalrestaurants while in the city.Here’s
Part One of where I ate with pleasure.
Ashlee Aubin (below) has a
résumé that was bound to get him investors to open
Salero, where he is chef-partner.Wisely
dropping out of law school to cook instead, he did
stints at two ofChicago’s most avant-garde restaurants, Zealous and
Alinea, then opened his own place, an American
bistro named Wood, in Lakeview, which he still runs.
Salero is a modern
Spanish restaurant in the West Loop, but if I had
any fears that Aubin was going to follow the El
Bulli molecular route, I was happy to be wrong.Salero is
every bit an expression of Aubin’s own personality,
but it shows rigorous respect for the traditions of
Spanish cooking. He calls it “Midwest, inspired by
Spain.”And
that seems about right.
It was an early autumn evening
when I dined at Salero (which means “salt shaker”)
and I was able to sit outside on a restaurant-rich
patch of Randolph Street, which was a lot less noisy
than inside the dining room.The
interior of white stucco is handsomely designed,
with a high ceiling and lights set within rustic
iron chandeliers;a set of bull’s horns
reminds you this is a Spanish place.There is
a bar that seats 20 people, with 50 seats in the
rest of the room, and the array of tapas, or
pintxos,
is lavish, from grilled shishito peppers with an
appropriate sea salt crunch ($5) to a tempura-fried
pimento pepper stuffed with more shishitos and
housemade cheese. Unusual was the fried hominy
dusted with cumin and pimentón
($3).
I simply left myself in Aubin’s
hands and those of his chef de cuisine, Anderson
Hardy, and the entradas
(appetizers) came out with dispatch, beginning with
olives marinated with
citrus, garlic, chili pepper ($5) and marvelous
chorizo-stuffed quail (below) with wilted spinach,
garlic, golden raisins, pine nuts, piquillo
pepper puree ($14), a small dish with very big
aspirations to please.Gulf shrimp, heads on and very
juicy, were quickly grilled à la plancha
and served with a grits cake, pepitas, huitlacoche mushroom
puree and a spicy piperade ($15). One
is very tempted to just keep the entradas coming,
but there is so muchmore on the platos fuertes main course menu, you
wouldn’t want to miss the confit of potatoes à la plancha
with a sunny-side-up egg, green romesco, sweet
grilled eggplant and tetilla
cheese ($25), or the juicy, nicely chewy hanger
steak with crispy zucchini fritter, tender
sweetbreads, roasted carrots, black garlic and
grilled tomato,all gilded with a lush Béarnaise ($29). Force yourself to try at least one dessert
(all $10), either the flan with fresh cheese,
annatto seed, blood orange gel and saba
caramel, or the piping hot churros fingers with
whipped, salted chocolate, espresso pudding and milk
jam. The
wine list at Salero is decidedly chosen to go with
such food and if you are a fan of Sherries, there’s
a very impressive list of them, from finos to palo cortados.
Aubin manifests all the virtues
of contemporary Chicago dining—big flavors, big
portions, moderate prices, all within a personalized
framework of dishes that are all his yet owe so much
to the traditions he loves.
“We believe that you should feel
good about your food—where it comes from, how it’s
prepared, how it is served and by whom. So when
you eat our chicken, our sides and desserts, we
hope you’ll spend some time thinking about the
ideas behind every bite.”
So reads the home page of Honey
Butter Fried Chicken, written by owners Joshua Kulp
(once a fifth grade teacher in the Bronx) and
Christine Cikowski (who believes in fortune
cookies).But
you really need not read any further—about where
they buy their antibiotic-free chickens (Miller
Amish Farms in Indiana) or how all their disposables
are environmentally friendly (their used frying oil
is converted into bio-fuel).All you
have to do is go through the door of their little
restaurant, be greeted with a huge smile, order
anything on the blackboard and prepare yourself for
bliss.
To some people, making fried
chicken is not all that difficult, but, in fact,
without first-rate chicken of a kind they buy here,
you might as well eat at KFC. Treating great
ingredients the right way, from chicken to desserts,
makes an enormous difference easily understood from
your first bite of creamed corn with Thai green
curry ($3.75) to the chocolate toffee cocoa
nib cookie ($2).The glory of Honey Butter Fried Chicken is,
of course, meaty pieces of poultry slathered with
their housemade honey butter, which almost brought
me to tears because the first time I had such a dish
was fifty years ago, when my family visited
Disneyland upon its opening in Anaheim, California.
Honey
Butter’s is probably a lot better than I recall of
Disneyland’s, and I’d rate it as among the best
fried chicken I’ve had, largely because of the
flavor of the bird itself (two pieces with corn
muffins $8, four pieces $15, 8 pieces $28). It's got audible
crunch, the batter stays on the meat, the inside
is juicy, and the whole of it is not greasy. There’s
also a fried chicken sandwich with candied jalapeño
mayo and crunchy slaw on a buttered bun ($8).They add
schmaltz (chicken fat) to the smashed potatoes
($3.75), and the collards get a dose of bacon and a
tang of preserved lemon ($3.50).I have to
say I’m not yet past my puzzlement as to why pimento
cheese is such a Southern favorite, but the version
here comes melted over macaroni with garlicky
breadcrumbs ($3.75), so I’ll give it a begrudging
but amiable shrug. And, thank heavens, they have booze and beer,
even fountain sodas and lemonade.
We all know how Midwestern
hospitality can be infectious, so ten minutes after
you’re inside, you’ll feel like an old friend to the
owners and servers.Half an hour later, you might be singing
their playlist right along with them.
Open for lunch
and dinner Wed.-Sun.
PUB ROYALE 2049 W Division
Street
773-661-6874
You need search no
further for Anglo-Indian fare in Chicago than Pub
Royale because nowhere else will you find it.Fortunately,
what Matt Eisler and Kevin Hiesner, along with
culinary developer Jason Vaughan, have fashioned in
this neighborhood that straddles Wicker Park and
Ukrainian Village is a winning example of this
not-so-unusual amalgam of food and drink, the latter
in the Anglo camp, the former in the
Indian.
The place, whose doors open to
the street in good weather, is basically a cheery,
six-month old gastropub (80 seats, with patio hedged
with flower boxes), with dozens of beers on tap and
in bottle, along with cider and wines, and “Royale
Cup” cocktails using Pimm’s Cup.
The décor has
the cast of a Hollywood set trying to look like it
was somewhere in the Punjab in the 1930s, with
artifacts of Indian pop culture, including a white
peacock. The booths are comfortable, the stools are
stools.I
can’t comment on the noise level because I was there
at lunch, but I can imagine it’s not like a tea
party after 6 p.m.
The menu is arranged on a
broadsheet almost like a game board, with squares of
dishes around the edges.At prices that range from $4
to $13, you are likely to binge, and the portions
are of good enough size to share.There’s a
tilt toward vegetables in dishes like crisp fried
samosas filled with potatoes, onion and peas, and
delicious peanut noodles with eggplant, long beans
and shredded cilantro. The Gobi Manchurian is a fine
dish of cauliflower, sweet and spicy Manchurian
sauce, sesame and cashew, and there’s a terrific
garlic-scented, smoky naan bread
with fried onion, butter and touch of coriander.
My companion and I ate greedily,
scarfing up everything on every plate, not least a
marvelously aromatic India hot chicken (right) with
“crazy pickles” and “chewy” naan. For dessert
there’s a very large donut flavored with tea and
dulce de leche, and the “banoffee sweet stack” is
everything it suggests—bananas, peanut butter,
caramel, and whole wheat flatbread, rather like an
IHOP brunch item.
It’s fair
enough to say that the food at Pub Royale would pass
for contemporary Indian, but the owners and kitchen
have given everything a distinct twist that shies
deliberately away from the muddy-sauced staples of
so many Indian restaurants inChicago,
where chicken, lamb and shrimp can all be found in
the same five preparations.Pub
Royale is far more inventive, more concentrated on
textures, and whatever the Anglo connection, it’s
really more about the amusing décor than about the
good old days of the Raj.
Add in some perky, sometimes
funky servers, and you’ve got a pub quite
distinguished from all others on this very crowded
street of competitors.
Open for lunch and
dinner Mon.-Fri., for brunch Sat. & Sun.
PART
TWO WILL APPEAR NEXT WEEK
❖❖❖
NEW YORK
CORNER
By John Mariani
KAT
& THEO
5 W 21st Street (near
Fifth Avenue)
212-380-1950 katandtheo.com
When
I heard that Kat & Theo’s executive chef,
Paras Shah, had proudly listed on his résumé a
stint at Ferran Adria’s El Bulli in Spain and
Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York, I assumed I was
in for a rollicking trip through molecular idiocy,
trying to figure out what I was eating and why I
was bothering to do so. So it came as a very
welcome surprise when I sat down at this new
Flatiron District restaurant to find a wholly
sensible menu with a good number of items I was
dying to try.
I wouldn’t call the food
simple, but Shah’s use of fewer rather than more
ingredients on a plate makes a world of difference
between chefs who wish to please guests and those
who wish to dazzle them.His menu consists of four
raw dishes, six small plates (like appetizers),
seven main courses, three side dishes, and
desserts—a good number for a restaurant this size,
which seats 70 and is long and narrow, with an
open kitchen facing the favored booths.
The décor has the usual brick
walls, here nicely lighted, in this part of town,
along with sea foam-colored tufted booths and some
art déco-ish metal trellis work supporting the tin
ceiling.Unfortunately,
the decorator chose to paint much of the room
charcoal gray, also the color of the tables, so
there is an absence of color at night.The
actual color in the room comes from a waitstaff
whose hairstyles you will find either hilarious or
just plain silly. What
I found annoying is K&T’s archaic host’s
command that those who arrive before the rest of
their party must wait up front or at the bar—which
is a wholly uncordial way of saying, “We don’t
want you two to sit down and occupy a table if
your late-arriving friends never show up.”Nice.
Yet, ever at hand to smooth
feathers is owner Renée Typaldos, who with her
husband, Andreas, named the restaurant after his
parents, Katerina and Theodosius.
The short wine list, printed
amiably on the back of the food menu, is by Stephen
An, formerly of Aquavit,and not one of the bottlings
is over $84, with many below $50.Cocktails($13)
are by Michael Timmons, plucked from The Lamb’s
Club. Our
finally seated party of four began with a fine
portion of raw fluke ($16) with a blood orange
citronette dressing, Buddha’s hand fruit and a
touch of dill. The most applauded appetizer at our
table epitomizes Shah’s approach to cooking: his ajo
(garlic) blanco
soup with pickled lemon and American-made Surryano
ham was a small masterpiece of subtle elements
whose richness of flavor was buoyed by citrus and
the salty luxury of the ham.
A dish called matrimonio à
la riojana ($10) was simpler still—anchovies
laid atop housemade flatbread with charred
shishito peppers and an aïoli—a rendition of a
popular tapa.Charred
octopus with a gigante bean
puree, sweet orange and oregano ($16) was also in
the tapas tradition. Curiously
enough, the main courses were more exciting than
the apps,
from a very good halibut of fine texture and
flavor, with fennel and sweet heirloom tomato in a
saffron broth ($28), to a first-rate, succulent
lamb shank ($34), which had echoes of North
Africa, incorporating figs, lamb belly and roasted
vegetables.On the same level of excellence was
carefully cooked skate wing with a lush corn
chowder, tangy pickled beet and a dash of chili
oil ($27), and a generous chunk of tender
Berkshire pork loin with kohlrabi and mustard
($27), yet again another nimble act of showing off
the ingredients rather than the technique. Serena Chow, formerly at Eleven Madison
Park and Pearl & Ash,follows
the same culinary pattern, creating some of the
best, unfussy desserts ($14) I’ve had in NYC,
including a cheesecake with berries, maple,
chestnut and Graham cracker, whose elements are
familiar but taste brand new. Kat & Theo has a real swing to it, and
the bustle can be a lot of fun.Happily,
the noise level is convivial, not ear splitting,
and it’s a pleasure to watch Shah run his kitchen
with that delicate dance of rhythm and urgency.The
Typaldos want their labor of love to feel like a
neighborhood spot, but Shah’s cooking should draw
gourmands from any NYC zip code.
Open
Tues.-Sat. for dinner.
❖❖❖
NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
WINES
TO DRINK FOR THANKSGIVING
By John Mariani
The
gastronomic
challenge to find wines that will go with the wide
array of flavors--from sweet potatoes with
marshmallows to cranberry sauce, from Brussels
sprouts to well-seasoned, herb-inflected stuffing
and marshmallows—makes choosing bottles for
Thanksgiving daunting.Especially since one's
extended families have their own preferences in
beverages on that holiday.
It would be easy enough just
to trot out a nice white wine and serve it
throughout the meal, but there are so many
distinct, often conflicting flavors inthe
traditional turkey dinner that one has a lot of
leeway to make the right or wrong decision.The
rich flavor of a good mahogany-skinned turkey with
a dark brown gravy is better served with a red
wine.But
the stuffing usually has several assertive herbs
and spices, and the sweet potatoes and cranberry
sauce are very sweet indeed.
Next week I shall be tying
Thanksgiving wines and spirits to those that might
actually have been enjoyed in the years that
followed the first feast, in 1621.For the
moment, these are a variety I have enjoyed this
far this fall and would happily drink on the third
Thursday of November.
FERRARI BRUT
($23)—For more than a century in the province of
Trentino, Ferrari has made one of Italy’s finest
sparkling wines, according to the traditional “metodo
classico.”Made from 100% chardonnay (and not to be
confused with Asti spumante, made from moscato), the
wine is matured at least 24 months on the lees, with
a gradual turning of the bottle to concentrate
sediment that is then disgorged, followed by a small
dosage of sugar liquid.At such a good price(there is
also a
reserva at $56), this sparkler is easily a
competitor for Champagnes three times its price, and
with a pleasant 12% alcohol and a delicious apple
ripeness, it is the perfect first wine of a
Thanksgiving dinner and will last all the way
through it, toast after toast.
PAZO DAS BRUXAS RIAS
BAIXAS ALBARIÑO 2014 ($20)—This light (12% alcohol),
frisky wine from Spain’s Miguel Torres is named
after the bruxas
(witches) of Galicia, but they would seem to be very
convivial ones. Too many albariños—and there are far too
many—are bland and taste like sweet-sour water.This
example has much more flavor, and the tangy sour
apple component will most likely please every wine
drinker at your table and may be the only wine to
cut through sweet dishes like cranberry sauce and
sweet potatoes.
WENTE VINEYARDS
MORNING FOG CHARDONNAY 2014 ($15)—Here’s a price point for a
quality chardonnay that reminds me, perhaps
nostalgically, of the way a good, old-fashioned
California chard used to taste: a tad sweet, with a
little coconut flavor and some ripe tropical notes.
Wente has never wavered from producing wines easily
recognizable as their own, and the very reasonable
13.5% alcohol makes this a very good choice for
white meat turkey and most everything around it.
CAIRDEAN VINEYARDS
PICPOUL BLANC 2014 ($25)—Now here’s a varietal you
don’t run across every day: Picpoult
blanc, whose principal region
of production is the Languedoc, is one of those
wines you drink when you’re in the region, an easy,
light, almost astringently lemony little wine that
goes as easily with seafood as with poultry.
Cairdean (which means “friends” in Gaelic) is the
only California producer (Rutherford Valley) of the
varietal I know, and it’s an enchanting if modest
wine everyone will love. . The winery is owned by
Edwin and Stacia Williams, who also make a
well-regarded gewürztraminer.
FEL PINOT NOIR SAVOY
VINEYARD2013
($70)—While
I still decry out-of-balance, high alcohol
California pinot noirs, the Anderson Valley produces
the better examples in the state, and FEL proves it
with this young but vibrant wine at a not
unreasonable 14.4% alcohol.Remarkably
this
is one of FEL’s earlyefforts (the winery is named after proprietor
Cliff Lede’s mother, Florence Elsie Lede, “a home
winemaker who provided the early inspiration for
Lede’s love of wine.”)Their pinots usually sell out
quickly, but the 2013 is still in play,with 605
cases produced.The tannin is definitely there and the hint
of sweetness you find in California cabs, but it’s
also velvety right now and the fruit makes this
admirably priced pinot wonderful with turkey dinner.
DONNACHIARA TAURASI
RISERVA ($50)—Located in Montefalcione
in the province of Avellino, Italy, Donnachiara is
owned by the Petitto family, who also make the
DOCG wines fiano di avellino and greco di tufo.The
winery is only ten tears old but the vineyards have
been in the family for 150 years, named after a
great grandmother who maintained them through two
world wars. This is one of the finest, and most
expensive, Taurasis, made from 100% aglianico, with
the richness and refinement not always evident in
this big bold Campanian varietal.With the
dark meat and stuffing of the turkey, this is a
terrific match.
GOUGUENHEIM MALBEC
RESERVA 2014 ($20)—I continue to be impressed
with the wine of Mendoza, Argentina, especially its
malbecs, and this example, from the high desert
climate of the Oco Valley shows how fine a wine can
be when its grapes have to work for its nutrient. Patricio
Gouguenheim entered the business only in 2002,
producing small batches, so that the consistency of
the wines can be better gauged throughout the
seasons.Soft,
with a yielding backbone of tannin, the wine has the
right amount of acid and minerals to match up with
something like pumpkin soup, parsnips, chestnuts,
and even mild cheeses.
SUSANNA
BALBO CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2012($25)—A
true pioneer in Mendoza, Balbo began as an
enologist, then began making her own wines, always
experimenting with all the factors, from yeast to
oak, that effect grapes in the winery. She has
several lines at different price levels but her
signature series is top of her line.This
still young cabernet, with 5% merlot, aged first in
new French oak, then in old, surmounts the difficult
challenge of taming so much cabernet with just a
little merlot so that the wine is muscular without
being muscle-bound.I’d give it a year or two more time to
achieve greatness.
ROBERT MONDAVI
RESERVE TO KALON VINEYARD 2012($155)—This is the
second vintage of Mondavi’s To Kalon
Vineyard-designated Reserve from the western edge of
Oakville. The
first vintage was named“Vineyard
of the Year” by the California State Farm Bureau in
2011. Mondavi’s Vineyard Manager, Matt Ashby, says
that “Following two cooler and wetter growing
seasons, the 2012 vintage was a walk in the park
with warm days and cool nights that slowly built of
the fruits and sugars to allow an ideal hang time,
hand-harvested between September 27th and October
26th.” The final blend was 90% cabernets sauvignon,
7% cabernet franc, and 3% petite verdot.Here’s an
example of California cab at its best, not overly
alcoholic, at 14.5%, with all the elements
integrated along with abundant spice notes.It will
go well throughout a Thanksgiving dinner.
❖❖❖
A KISS IS STILL A KISS,
EXCEPT WITH LI YONGZHI
Self-described “Chili King” Li
Yongzhi (left)
says he east five-and-a-half pounds of chile peppers a
day, even brushing his teeth with them.
"In the morning, other people always brush their teeth,
but the first thing I do is eat chili and rinse my mouse
with that," he said. "If the food has no spiciness then
it has no taste."
Li maintains that he is physically normal and suffers no
ill effects from his extraordinarily spicy diet.
"I don't have any supernatural powers," he said. “I just
like to eat them, so I eat them. The hospital checked
and they said that I am no different from anyone else."
TRAVEL ARTICLES WE
NEVER FINISHED READING
“I was in Dominica.
So why did everyone want to know why I wasn’t in
Trinidad?”-- Baz Dreisinger, "On Dominica, a Carnival
Celebration as It Was Meant to Be." NY Times (10/9/15).
❖❖❖
Any of John Mariani's
books below may be ordered from amazon.com.
I'm proud and happy to announce that my
new book, The Hound
in Heaven (21st Century Lion Books), has just
been published through Amazon and Kindle.
It 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
back his master back from the edge of despair.
“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.
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.
❖❖❖
FEATURED
LINKS: I am happy to report
that the Virtual
Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites:
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 is the new on-line site for
Virtual Gourmet contributor John A. Curtas.,
who since 1995 has been commenting on the
Las Vegas food scene and reviewing
restaurants for Nevada Public Radio.
He is also the restaurant critic for KLAS
TV, Channel 8 in Las Vegas, and his past
reviews can be accessed at KNPR.org.
Click on the logo below to go directly to
his site.
Tennis Resorts Online:
A Critical Guide to the
World's Best Tennis Resorts and Tennis Camps, published
by ROGER COX, who has spent more than two decades
writing about tennis travel, including a 17-year stretch
for Tennis magazine.
He has also written for Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, New York Magazine, Travel &
Leisure, Esquire, Money, USTA Magazine, Men's Journal,
and The Robb
Report. He has authored two books-The World's Best Tennis
Vacations (Stephen Greene Press/Viking
Penguin, 1990) and The
Best Places to Stay in the Rockies (Houghton Mifflin,
1992 & 1994), and the Melbourne (Australia) chapter
to the Wall Street
Journal Business Guide to Cities of the Pacific Rim (Fodor's
Travel Guides, 1991).
nickonwine:
An engaging, interactive
wine column by Nick Passmore, Artisanal Editor, Four
Seasons Magazine; Wine Columnist, BusinessWeek.com;
nick@nickonwine.com; www.nickonwine.com.
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John
Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani,
Robert Mariani,Misha
Mariani,
John A. Curtas, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein,
Andrew Chalk,Dotty Griffith and Brian Freedman. Contributing
Photographers: Galina Dargery, Bobby
Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.