IN THIS ISSUE DINING OUT IN
BELFAST
By John Mariani
NEW YORK CORNER
KURRY QULTURE
By John Mariani
NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
KENDALL-JACKSON'S
WIDE RANGE OF WINES
By John Mariani
❖❖❖
DINING OUT
IN BELFAST By John Mariani
Deanes Meat Locker
The thing that baffles me
as to why it took so long for Ireland to have a
first-rate gastronomy is that ever since the
once ice-bound island separated from mainland
Europe around 12,000 BC, its rippling coastline
has provided those who eventually settled there
with an enormous sea bounty.Tribal
strife, Nordic and Normaninvasions,
and centuries of British domination stifled a
healthy farming economy, but that has revived,
not least among the small farms and dairies
whose fine products now flood into the Irish
cities, both north and south.
Now Belfast is as rich in
provender and seafood as any country in Europe,
and it is splendidly manifest in the current
restaurant scene, which has as much tradition
behind it as it has international influences at
its forefront.Here are several that would compete with
the food scene anywhere.
DEANES MEAT LOCKER
36-40 Howard Street
00 44 28 9033 1134
True, it sounds a bit like one of
those movies in which unwitting teenagers wander
into a dungeon to be tortured, but in fact Deanes
Meat Locker is one of the most attractive and
convivial restaurants in Belfast.Its
rosy walls, spanking white tablecloths, black
wooden chairs and window onto the kitchen are
beautifully lighted by small crystal chandeliers,
and the staff is engaging at every level.It’s
also one of the few new restaurants in Belfast to
use cloth napkins, bless their hearts.
`Michael Deane has a growing empire of restaurants
since opening his first, Eipic (another odd name)
in 1997, now added to by the Meat Locker, Deanes
Love Fish, Deanes Deli Bistro, Deanes at Queens,
Deanes Deli Vin Café, and Deane & Decano.Obviously,
the food business in Belfast has been good
to him.
The Meat Locker’s menu is
straightforward and wholly unpretentious in
presentation, so very creamy, fat-rimmed duck
liver parfait (left)
comes with an honest smear of chutney and
excellent sourdough (£8).(Psst!
The service of bread and wonderful Abernathy
butter comes with a £4.50 charge, but you get
slices of it with the parfait, mussels, and other
dishes gratis.)
You’ll not find better salmon (right) than
that from Walter Ewing’s Belfast Fishmongers,
which here is smoked lightly and served with dill
crackers and capers (£9).
Deane’s
meats are cooked over an asador grill, which
allows the meat to be lowered and lifted to and
from the fire, so it gets a perfect char.The
meat itself is from Bóruma, called the “high king
of Irish beef” (left). It is
grass-fed and therefore lacks the fat marbling of
American corn-fed beef, but this is a very good
product, impeccably cooked.My
dry-aged sirloin (£30) was very delicious indeed,
as were the accompanying French fried potatoes.
For dessert go with the
Valrhona chocolate pot, salted caramel and milk
ice cream (£6) or the bracing lemon tart with pink
pepper meringue and gin and tonic sorbet (£6).
The wine list is of modest size
(there is also a “private cellar list”) but all
bottlings are well chosen, and prices are not
unreasonable at all.
Open
Mon.-Sat. for lunch and dinner. Fixed price
lunch from £6.50 for one course and £18 for
three courses; £18 three-course prix fixe
dinner.
MOURNE SEAFOOD BAR 34-36
Bank
Street
44 28 9024 8544
Mourne Seafood Bar, with a
branch in Dundrum, clearly aims to please its
guests, first by a display of genuine friendliness
upon entering, then a delightfully casual
ambiance, a wine bar feeling, and a long menu
appended with numerous specials each night
depending on what was best in the seafood market.
Factor in very fair prices and there’s much to
love about this out-of-the-way spot.Reservations
are highly recommended. Chef-owner
Andy Rae knows well enough to leave his seafood
well enough alone, creating flavors, accents and
textures on the plate through vegetables, sauces
and good bread on the side.You may
begin with oysters (£8.5) or peel and eat
langoustines (£9), or mussels in white wine and
garlic sauce (£8.5).Smoked eel comes from Lough
Neagh and is served with a Niçoise salad and
horseradish aïoli (£8).Of course, there’s fish and
chips (£11), and I’m sure they’re very good, but I
went with the specials on my visit.
Lobster and prawn cakes with a
tomato and pepper salsa and red pepper mayonnaise
(£7.50) was crunchy and good but I’d like a little
more kick to the salsa.There were two whole fish
offered as specials that night, a megrim sole with
mussel-herb butter and roast potatoes (£12.50) and
my choice of whole brill with crab, tomato, basil
and a white wine cream, chips and salad (£13).Brill
is a bony fish but it’s got its own distinctive
flavor, enhanced by the rest of the ingredients on
the plate.
For
dessert I slowly polished off a gooey, sticky
toffee pudding (right)
with toffee sauce and vanilla ice cream(£5.5).
A better ending was impossible for me to imagine
at that point in a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
Open daily
for lunch and dinner.
HOWARD STREET
56 Howard Street
02890-248-362
The spacious premises of
Howard Street, now going on four years, provide
for a buoyant atmosphere every evening, and it can
get a little loud at peak hours, though not enough
to prevent good conversation over the well-made
cocktails at a well-tended bar. (The woman
bartender muddles the ingredients, which you
rarely see anymore.)Rough brick walls, candles,
antique mirrors, sturdy bentwood chairs and nicely
separated tables add to the conviviality.
The quality of ingredients I
keep harping on is critical to Chef Marty Murphy’s
kitchen, especially in the fish of the day, which
might be the roast
hake I enjoyedwith a celeriac fondant, Serrano ham,
prawns and peas in a wild mushroom broth
(MP)—imaginative, sensible food that is very easy
to love. You might begin with a good classic
French onion soup with Gruyère croutons (£6) or a
creamy chicken liver parfait with toasted brioche,
stewed grapes, crispy chicken skin to add textural
interest, and a hazelnut vinaigrette (£8.50).Do have
the butter-rich champ potatoes and scallions on
the side (£3.50).
Desserts
(all £6.50) include a luscious apple crumble with
toffee ice cream,and a toasted coconut and lemon grass crème
brûlée with coconut shortbread. But there is also
an excellent selection of cheeses (four for £7.50)
from all over the region, including Wicklow Blue,
Corleggy, Coolattin Cheddar, and Humming Bark,
which is aged in spruce bark, from County Wexford.
The wine list, as in many good
restaurants in Belfast, is of modest interest,
with most bottles under £35. There are pre-theater
menus at £17.50 or £23.
Howard
Street is open for lunch and dinner Tues.-Sat.
HADSKIS 33 Donegall Street
02890-325-444
Located on a quiet lane near
St. Anne’s Church and Commercial Court, Hadskis is
minimalist and modern, a long strip of a room,
with tables outside, all of it done in bold
colors, and a bar and counter central to the
proceedings. Here the wine list is quite
creditable, with loads of bottles under £30.
The restaurant is named after
Stewart Hadskis, who in the 18th century had an
iron foundry nearby and made pots and pans in this
building. There is a remarkably priced £6.50 lunch
(Mon.-Fri.), but even à la carte, the prices are
very reasonable, beginning with crisp squid with
romesco sauce and fines herbes
(£8.50).The
spiced meatballs with orechiette
pasta and Parmigiano (£6.75 or£13)
was a bit bland, despite a dose of hot harissa.I was
delighted with a perfectly grilledstone
basswith
grilled lettuce, peas and broad beans (£17.50),
and harissa entered again with a first-rate
flatiron steak with well-wrought potato gnocchi
(£20).
Open Mon.-Sat. for lunch and
dinner. 6.50 lunch.
. . .
AND A SWEET DIVERSION
Among
the pleasures of strolling through Belfast is to
come upon an enchanting small place like Co Couture (7 Chichester Street;
078-8889-9647), a new chocolate shop as
perfectly small and as darling as you might wish,
its wares arrayed like luscious jewels, with
superb chocolates and a hot chocolate service
that, for me, puts the idea of afternoon tea
wholly out of mind.
BELFAST’S
PUBS
As
in every modern Irish city, the pubs of Belfast
range from the very basic taverns with a good
array of Irish whiskies, Guinness flowing like
water, and the usual basic pub fare to more
contemporary gastropubs that put much more
effort into their menus. Many have Monty
Python-esque names like The Barking Dog, Lobe
& Death Inc., Molly’s Yard and The Sooty
Olive. One of the best
for its astonishing collection of spirits is Duke of York (above) on
one of the quaintest little cobbled streets in
the Half Bap neighborhood. It has a lot of
history, including the fact that Sinn Fein
leader Gerry Adams used to be barman. Even
more famous is The
Crown Bar (or Crown Liquor Saloon) on
Great Victoria Street near the modern Europa
Hotel. Originally opened as The Railway Tavern,
it became the Crown in 1885, set just across
from the Opera House and all the more popular
for that before and after theater. In 1978,
the National Trustpurchased the property and did a
£400,000 rehab, bringing back all the original
Victorian artwork and woodwork, with its red granite bar, etched
glass,cheery
yellow and polychromatic tiled façade and Roman
pillars. There are ten booths—called
snugs—inside with the original bell system for
alerting the servers. (In the movie Odd Man Out,
an IRA gunman played by James Mason takes refuge
in one of them.) The menu actually has a large
selection of sausages and chops, with a liquor
list as strong in gins as it is in whiskies and
more than a dozen ales.
❖❖❖
NEW
YORK CORNER
By
John Mariani
KURRY QULTURE
36-05 30th Avenue
718-674-1212
The
evolution of Indian cuisine over the past two years
in NYC is as impressive for its variety as it is for
its dispersion throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn and
Queens.This
last borough has long had thriving Indian
neighborhoods where storefront restaurants have
thrived, but they all have been largely of a
stripe—Pan-Indian, with the same long menus offering
beef, chicken, or lamb in the same array of six
sauces, along with numerous tandoori items,
mulligatawny soup, and wonderful breads.
Few zero in on a particular
region, and there were none I knew of until the
opening in Astoria two years ago of Kurry Qulture,
which features the cuisine of Punjab, a state of 27
million people.Known for its basmati rice and freshwater
fish, Punjab—called the “land of five rivers”—is
where the tandoori clay oven was created, becoming
popular elsewhere in India after the 1947 partition,
when Punjabis moved to other regions and brought the
cooking technique with them.
Kurry Qulture’s owner, Sonny Solomon, worked
his way up at some of NYC’s well-established
Indian restaurants like Dawat, as well as being
part of the opening team at the outstanding
restaurants Devi and Tulsi. Executive Chef Binder
Saini also worked at Dawat and Tulsi, as well as
Bukhara Grill.
The
restaurant’s interior goes well beyond the clichés
of Indian décor, with a long front room and bar
decorated with striking artwork and photos of
Punjabi festivals. The main dining room is in the
middle, and beyond is an outdoor patio that is just
beginning to open up to the season’s sunshine.
There is a $60 six-course chef’s
tasting available, so I just asked Solomon to choose
for our table of four.
You will certainly not find
elsewhere the fabulous pav bhajbuttered bread rolls
with vegetable gravy ($8), which went fast at our
table, even though we knew tandoori-baked breads
were coming later.Acharu
chicken tikka ($9) took its flavors mainly from a
pickling spice marinade, while shrimp chettinad
($9), a dish from the south, had plenty of tang from
mustard seeds, along with coconut and a tapioca
wafer for texture.
There are several kababs here,
and we loved both the chicken bukhni with a fiery
three-chili marinade sweetened by pineapple chutney
($9), and perfectly tender cauliflower florets with
garlic and tomato chutney ($8).These
kinds of hot, sweet, spicy, tangy flavors are a
signature of the kitchen’s method, so baby eggplant
($14) is given the treatment via a tomato-tamarind
sauce.
All the
food is made to specific spicings and long cooking,
not just a slew of stews and all-purpose sauces.Thus,
chicken kali mirch
($15) incorporates black pepper and pungent garam
masala into luscious, thick yogurt, and duck bihari ($20)
uses grilled duck breast carefully cooked and paired
with cumin-scented rice and tomato gravy.The very
traditional lamb rogan
josh ($20) comes not as the usual morsels
of overcooked, gray lamb but as a whole succulent
shank, glistening in its marinade while retaining
all the flavor of the meat itself. Salmon is given
the tandoori treatment ($20), but it came out dry
and overcooked, and the fish itself was not of the
finest quality.
All of this was accompanied by
the steamy, puffy, seared breads like onion and
garlic naan ($4) and a surprise—onion kulcha dusted
with parmesan cheese ($6).
I’m a fan of freshly made Indian
desserts but was not impressed with the mango
cheesecake ($7) or the run-of-the-mill gulab jamun ($5).
I recommend the fancifully named cocktails, and the
wine list is pretty good, though I prefer Indian
beers with this food.
I’ve always found the hospitality
at Indian restaurants of good cheer, and Sonny
Solomon’s enthusiasm is a great part of the charm at
Kurry Qulture.Do ask to meet the chef, if he’s not too
busy, because, like Solomon, he is very proud of
what they’re doing at their fine and innovativerestaurant.
Open nightly for
dinner, Sat. & Sun. for brunch.
❖❖❖
NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
KENDALL-JACKSON'S PRIDE IN A
WIDE RANGE OF WINES By John Mariani
I suppose
that back in 1974 a longshoreman-police officer
who came out of the Great Depression and put
himself through law school could actually dream
of owning a California vineyard. For that’s what
Jess Jackson (left)
did, starting with 80
acres of a Lakeport fruit and nut orchard in
Sonoma County,then turning it into a vineyard that
produced its first vintage in 1982.That
first wine was Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve
Chardonnay, which grew to become the most
popular California Chardonnay in the world.
They still make it—now on
14,000 acres—and it sells for a very digestible
$17.In
addition, the company has expanded to more than 50
brands, with an immensely popular Fulton Road Wine
Center that offers fine food and tastings of
bottlings available only at the winery itself.There
is also the Kendall-Jackson Estate Gardens (below, left),
as much devoted to sheer beauty as to inspiration
for wine and food marriages.
The cool climate of K-J’s
chosen estates in Sonoma, Monterey, Santa Barbara
County, Anderson Valley, Alexander Valley and Napa
County has made its wines more consistent and less
prone to the effects of too much California
sunshine and heat.Yields are kept lower than many
competitors’ and the blockbuster alcohol levels
sought by others is not something K-J’s winemaker,
Randy Ullom, seeks in his wines, though it occurs after a
long hang time for the grapes.
“I’m always looking for
freshness and good fruit in our wines,” says Ullom
(right),
who came to K-J after more than a decade at De
Loach Vineyards in Sonoma.Growing
up in Michigan, he watched his father make
homemade wine, but the appetite for a career in
the wine business came to him after spending three
years in Chile, afterwards earning his degree in
viticulture from Ohio State University in 1975.
Jess Jackson hired him first to
reopen Edmeades in Mendocino in 1992 and as
winemaker for a new family label called Camelot
Vineyards.Ullom
then returned to Chile to manage J-K’s Vina Calina
there as well as wineries in Argentina and
Australia.In
2006 he was appointed COO of the entire company.
The mantra at K-J has always
been to stress fruit and to make wines that are
affordable for a wide range of people, although
their Stature Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon
sell for $100 and $125, respectively. Over
dinner in New York I asked Ullom why K-J makes so
many different wines. "I
look at all of the vineyards we own, and all of
the individual lots of wines that we make, and the
thousands of barrels we have sitting in our
cellar,” said Ullom, who with his white hair and
sheriff’s mustache looks more than a little like
the actor Sam Elliott. “And sometimes I think, you
gotta be kidding me! After I've sufficiently
recovered from my daily panic attack, I take off
my coat, dig in my heels and take it one barrel at
a time. It's a rewarding job that I love." Ullom insists that each
wine he makes shows a different expression of where the
grapes come from and its climate—the terroir—and
K-J owns a lot
of acreage in a lot of
regions.
“We may
specialize in Chardonnay, but we try to make the
best Zinfandel, Merlot, Pinot Gris, Riesling, even
Muscat Canelli, we possibly can,” he said. “Then
we sell it at prices that give people a good
reason to try these varietals. The Muscat Canelli
is only $13.We make a K-J Avant line California red
blend from Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and
Merlot, and it’s just $17. People will take a
chance at that price level. It’s worked out pretty
well for the brand.”
In the lower priced lines K-J
may use screwcaps, while corks are standard with
the wines that can take some age in the bottle.Ullom
wishes corks were more foolproof but, contrary to
Portuguese cork producers’ insistence that it’s
getting better, Ullom said that in his experience,
“Eleven percent of corks still have TCA [a potent
taint compound], and three percent have it bad.
Still, people think the corks have some romantic
allure.”
Over dinner we tasted three K-J
Chardonnays, including the world’s best seller,
Vintner’s Reserve 2015 ($17), from grapes grown in
Monterey and Santa Barbara counties.Leaving
the wine on the lees and stirring them (a process
called battonage) gives the wine its characteristic
creaminess, and seven months in French and
American oak barrels give it oak-rich flavors. The
result is, as Ullom notes, full of tropical
flavors “like pineapple and mango,” along with
“vanilla and honey.”
Clearly, given Vintner’s
Reserve’s popularity, that is a style Americans
love and many California Chardonnays are
criticized for.I, too, feel Chardonnay, which can be a
fairly neutral grape, should have more natural
complexity, not cellar-induced flavors.
Far more to my liking was the
2015 Grand Reserve ($22), which is crafted from
the top five percent of all the K-J lots, 70% of
the wine from the same vineyard blocks year after
year.It
still has the creaminess that defines the K-J
style, but I find this Chardonnay more layered and
with a far better balance of fruit and acid.It is
quite elegant, closer to a fine white Burgundy.
I also tasted
Jackson Estate Santa Maria Valley 2014 Chardonnay
($32), which comes from a cooler climate that
allows for better acidity.It
spends nine months in oak and reaches a high 14.5%
alcohol level, yet it doesn’t have the
overpowering wallop of some others in that range.
I really
loved the satiny bright fruit of the 2014 Grand
Reserve Pinot Noir (left), which at $26 is easily
one of the best priced varietals out of
California.Again, the cooler climate keeps this Pinot
Noir from tasting cooked, despite its 15.5%
alcohol, something too many examples from
California become.It’s definitely a California Pinot Noir but
shares an admirable finesse with Burgundian
bottlings.
Last, I tasted the K-J Jackson
Estate 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon ($38), which has
just enough age on it in bottle to open up nicely,
for this is not a very tannic wine, though its
dryness has loosened up over the last three years;
fruit predominates, and the blend of 94% Cabernet
Sauvignon, 2% Malbec, 2% Petit Verdot, 1.7%
Cabernet Franc and .3% Merlot provides the
complexity found in Bordeaux.This
one I’m looking forward to drinking in a few
years.
Even after Jess Jackson’s death
in 2011, K-J’s constant experimentation has led to
innovations all other vintners monitor carefully,
and with several family members still intimately
involved, including Jess’s wife, Barbara Banke,
their generational devotion to the land is not
likely ever to change.
❖❖❖
BOYS WILL BE BOYS,
OSAKA-STYLE
A 16-year-old
boy in Osaka, Japan, craving some
curry one night was so upset to discover the
restaurant was closed that he decided to light it on
fire. After his arrest, police asked him why he
had started the fires, and the suspect explained he went
to a curry restaurant to find it closed and was so angry
he used his cigarette lighter to start a fire at a car
dealership, then at a restaurant storehouse.
AND DID YOU
DRINK. . . SNAPPLE?
“Fried Chicken
at While We
Were Young (183
W. 10th St.). This
Instagram-worthy West Village gem opened largely under
the radar, but the dishes are anything but subtle. The
fried chicken sits atop green kale waffles and is
drizzled with house-made hot sauce—as savory as it is
snappable.” –Gabrielle
Pedriani, “What We Ate This February,” Gotham Magazine
(3/1/17)
❖❖❖
Sponsored
by Banfi Vintners SPRING IS HERE AND SO
ARE WONDERFUL CHILEAN WINES
As Spring finally kicks into
gear, we are reminded of the fragility of Mother
Earth and her bounty. As an importer
representing several family wine makers from around
the globe, I often like to point out that all the
wines that we represent are green, some of them
greener than others. The greenest of all are
classified as Biodynamic or certified Organic.
One of the most interesting selections of
eco-balanced, organic and biodynamic wines comes to
us from Chile and the vineyards of Emiliana.
Emiliana was founded by our
friends, the Guilisasti family, who have a long and
proud history of winemaking with their Concha y Toro
brand. Three decades ago, well ahead of the
curve that has made organic wines all the rage
today, they set up dedicated and, most important for
organic farming, isolated vineyards for this type of
agriculture. Many may picture the small farmer
as being the most “organic,” but in the reality of
our wine world, sometimes it takes the “big guys” to
act as a locomotive to get a movement such as this
on track. Organic farming is a
form of agriculture which avoids or largely excludes
the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides,
plant growth regulators, and livestock feed
additives.
Organic
farmers rely on crop rotation, crop residues, animal
manures--including llamas (below)--and
mechanical cultivation to maintain soils
productivity and health, to supply plant nutrients,
and to control weeds, insects and other pests.
To call a wine organic in the US, government
regulation says that it must be produced from 95%
organically grown ingredients with no added
sulfites. If you add sulfites in the
relatively minimal amount of 100 parts per million,
you can only say that the wine is “made from
organically grown grapes.” Now, not to go into
a chemistry lesson, but it is virtually impossible
to make a wine without that modest dose of sulfites,
at least if you want to drink it beyond ten feet of
the cellar it was made in and wish it to survive any
moderate amount of aging.
Biodynamic
farming adheres to the same principles, but takes it
one step further by relying on the cycles of the
moon and the sun to dictate much of what is done in
the field, and uses animal treatments such as
compost teas, horns buried with fertilizer, deer
bladders, etc.,
to treat the soil. It may sound a little hocus
pocus, but in reality it is very comparable to
homeopathic medicine, using the body’s (in this
case, the earth’s) own energy to heal
itself. Emiliana has four
distinct collections of lovingly crafted organic
wine now available in the US – the base line of
Natura, the next step up in Novas, a stand-alone
wine in Coyam, and the ne-plus-ultra of bio-dynamic
wines, Ge. One taste of any of these and you
too may find yourself turning green – not with envy,
but for a newfound love of organic winemaking!
Recommended
–
green wines for Spring:
Natura Chardonnay In the cool coastal Pacific
climate of the Casablanca Valley, organically grown
grapes are hand picked during the last week of
March, and vinified in stainless steel tanks, free
of the domineering influence of oak. On the
nose, tantalizing citrus aromas of grapefruit and
lime blend with notes of pineapple, all of which
reappear on the palate and finish with balance
thanks to the wine’s freshness and natural
acidity. Delicious with spring salads and
seafood dishes.
Natura Carmenere – From the rustic
isolation of the Colchagua Valley, this intense and
voluptuous offers aromas of cherries, chocolate and
spice, coming together in ramped up volume on the
palate with soft, round tannins and firm,
well-balanced structure. Great balance between
fruit and oak, with a long, juicy finish.
Novas Sauvignon Blanc
Gran Reserva – Hailing from the San Antonio Valley’s thin
rocky and clay soils, the organic grapes for this
wine are harvested by hand in March and undergo
fermentation in stainless steel to preserve their
bright fruit character. Herbal notes mixed
with citrus and soft floral hints fill the bouquet;
the taste is medium bodied with grapefruit flavors
joined by a delicate acidity and a touch of
minerality.
Novas Pinot Noir Gran
Reserva – The grapes for this wine are grown in the
cool, coastal Casablanca Valley’s permeable sandy
loam soils, and harvested by hand. After a
cold soak on the skins, the wine is aged for 8
months in French oak barrels to add character, depth
and roundness.
Bright
ruby
red in color with attractive aromas of berries,
strawberries and notes of spice and cocoa, this wine
bursts with fruit flavor, layered with earthiness.
Delicious with white meats, light sauces, full
flavored fish and shellfish, cured ham and sushi.
Coyam – A
blend dominated by Syrah with nearly equal parts of
Carmenere and Merlot balanced by “soupcons” of
Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvedre and Petit Verdot, from
the Colchagua Valley estate called Los Robles –
Spanish for the oaks, called “Coyam” by the
native Mapuche people in their own language. Hand
harvested certified biodynamic grapes are naturally
fermented in French oak barrels. Coyam is
largely unfiltered and aged for 13 months in
barrels. Aromas of ripe red and black fruits
integrate with notes of spice, earth and a hint of
vanilla bean. Elegant expressions of fruit are
delicately interwoven with oak, mineral and toffee.
Ge – Chile’s
first certified biodynamic wine, the name Ge is a
nod to Geos, the earthly environment pulling
together all the elements that surround us. Ge
is a blend of nearly equal parts of Syrah, Carmenere
and Cabernet Sauvignon grown in the deep soils of
colluvial origin in the coastal range, which lends
mineral complexity. Naturally fermented in oak
barrels, Ge is deep plum red with violet tones; it
offers intense aromas of black fruits and berries
alongside mineral notes and a soft touch of tobacco
leaf. Generously fruity with cedar notes, Ge
is well balanced with tremendous volume, well
rounded tannins and a long finish.
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.
“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
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.
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, Geoff Kalish, Mort
Hochstein, and
Brian Freedman. Contributing Photographers: Galina
Dargery. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.