THIS WEEK
GRAZ, AUSTRIA, Part Two By John Mariani NEW YORK CORNER
EMPIRE STEAK HOUSE
By John Mariani
GOING AFTER HARRY LIME
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
By John Mariani
NOTES FROM THE SPIRITS
LOCKER
The New Gins, Part Two By John Mariani
ANNOUNCEMENT:
There will be no issue of Mariani's Virtual
Gourmet next week (Nov. 12) because Mariani
will be visiting and eating around San Antonio,
Texas.
❖❖❖
GRAZ, AUSTRIA, Part Two By John Mariani
The Long Table Celebration. Photo by
Larry Schiffer, Graz Tourism
As
the second largest city in Austria (after
Vienna), Graz’s cultural history is rife
with the old and the new in the baroque town
of 300,000 people. Dating back to 800 AD,
its historic center alone boasts a thousand
buildings of interest—fifty percent of them
damaged in the war. But today the center
city is vibrant, as beautiful as ever, and
once-derelict neighborhoods across the Mur
river have been reclaimed and gentrified for
the better.Graz’s indigenous gastro-scene is very
diverse, and the locals revel in the bounty of
Styrian farms and wineries. There are several
walking and bus tours of the city’s breweries,
including a progressive pub crawl on
Lendplatz. There is an annual truffle festival
in fall, and in summer Graz holds its
astonishing Long Table celebration at the
Hauptplatz main square, where all the trams
converge, with dozens of food purveyors,
restaurants and breweries serving thousands of
people in the open air (next year’s is
schedule for August 8). What I found
so delightful about eating around Graz was
that there is hardly a street or corner where
the combination of a cultural site, sculpture
garden, food store, bakery or restaurant is
not right next to each other, all easily
reachable within minutes by those
ever-efficient trams. The Halle
für Kunst is a contemporary art museum
set within a minimalist white structure
featuring modern Styrian artists. Even more strikingly
modern, the Kunsthaus
Graz (left),
which has been variously compared to a huge
blue pickle and an extraterrestrial frog, is
the city’s unique modern art museum with
changing exhibitions, just steps from the
remarkable artificial “floating island” of Murinsel
(right),
designed by New York architect Vito Acconci in
the form of a large steel and glass seashell
47 meters long connected by tunnels on either
side of the river. At night both landmarks are
gorgeously lighted and shimmer in the rippling
river run. One
of the city’s most popular restaurants, Der
Steirer (Belgiergasse
1; 43-316-703654), is just blocks away.
It’s a large, spacious traditional restaurant
(though it also serves “Stryian tapas”), with
tall ceiling archways, an excellent wine list
and justifiable fame for its fried chicken, a
platter of six crisp pieces with a green salad
and lemon (€15.90). I thought the Tafelspitz
(€29.90) of tender boiled beef preceded by
a rich broth (left) teeming with meat
and vegetables was one of the best I had in Graz, and its roast
pork with wonderful bread dumplings and warm
cabbage salad (€19.50) can readily feed two.
Only beer, cider and wine is served. Also in the neighborhood is
El
Pescador (Landhausgasse
6; 43-316-829030), a pleasing diversion
from the meat-rich diet of Graz and the city’s
best for seafood with a Mediterranean slant (right).
The fish species are the day’s specials, and
my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed fillet of
branzino (€26) and the fine pink lake trout
called char (€26), along with a large bowl of
tender gnocchi with September truffles (€15).
And, off a busy shopping street in the
Landhaus neighborhood is LandhauskellerRestaurant
(Schmiedgasse
9; 43-316-839276), whose large courtyard
with wide umbrellas (below) is an
enchanting and relaxing place to dine in good
weather.The food is hearty—the Wiener
Schnitzel (€22.90) is fried in
butter—and they have one of the best wine
lists for Austrian bottlings in the city.
The Universalmuseum
Joanneum is actually a collection of
museums, housingthe world’s largest historic armory
since 1644, with13,400 small arms and accessories,
volley guns, mortars, cannons, falconets, and
more than 2,000 edged weapons, along with
3,844 items of horse armor. Also well worth a visit is the Natural
History Museum, one of the best
maintained, lighted and descriptive in Europe,
where such museums tend to be dark and musty.
The collection is rich in well-posed, lifelike
animal displays relating to geology—the rocks
and gems section is unexpectedly
fascinating—zoology and botany. Everything worth seeing in Graz is
close by and walkable, the only exception
being the baroque Schloss
Eggenberg palace (right), just
outside the city and reachable by tram. It has
the curious distinction of having 24
staterooms decorated by Styrian artist Hans
Adam Weissenkircher where invited guests of
the Eggenberg family could merely walk through
for the sole purpose of being amazed by the
lavish display. Nothing else went on in those rooms.
The banquet hall was elsewhere, as were the
family’s living quarters no one ever got to
see. There is a 45-minute tour with a guide
that you can take of all the rooms, though
about halfway through the idea behind them
becomes more numbing than amazing. Below that
floor, however, is a superb museum of the Alte
Gallerie of 17th century Dutch masters.
Then you may stroll the vast manicured
grounds, overseen by a flock of disinterested
peacocks. All that walking
makes a person hungry, but turn any corner in
Graz and there will be a pretty bakery, a
wurst store, a café, a wine room, even a sushi
bar, if you’re up for it. Graz is very much an
international city and a European gem, but its
character is truly Styrian, invested with rich
agricultural, vinicultural and brewery
traditions that distinguish it from all else
in Austria.
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NEW YORK CORNER
EMPIRE
STEAK HOUSE
233
W 49th Street
212-355-5542
By John Mariani
The
proliferation of high-end, New York-style
steakhouses shows no let-up. The newest (since
July) is the third unit of Empire Steak House,
whose owners, Jack, Russ and JeffSinanaj,
have established themselves near the head of
the national chains, few of which are any
longer connected with the original founders.
The Sinanajes came to the U.S. in the 1980s
from Montenegro and worked their way up the
usual restaurant totem pole with pluck and
great energy, pooling resources to open their
first steakhouse early in this century. They
are building a small empire, with
international designs, and it is that family
commitment that has kept theirs from feeling
as if conceived in a corporate board room. Now there
are the three New York Empire restaurants—on E.
50th Street, W. 54th Street and now in the
Theater District, along with their Chazz
Palminteri Italian Restaurant (with a branch in
White Plains) in New York, and one in Tokyo,
with plans for Singapore and Hawaii.I
don’t envy them their jetlag. The new Empire sits right across the
street from the theater where “Chicago” has
played for ages, and within a block of a slew of
other shows, so it’s drawing a pre-theater crowd
by 5:45. Unfortunately, Empire has not yet
received its full liquor license, so for now
only wine, from a strong list, and beer are
available. The interior, with its L-shaped marble
bar up front, and a dining room done in
traditional wood-paneled wainscotting, wood
floor, bentwood chairs and spacious, well-set
tables in view of historic photos of New York
landmarks. At the moment the noise level is just
fine, though as business increases, I can’t
vouch for that pleasure much longer. The menus at all the Empires are the
same, and priced that way. Aside from a couple
of nightly specials, you’ll always find exactly
what you expect and had last time. No one goes
to a New York steakhouse to be surprised, even
if one offers, say, a lot of pastas, sushi or
five-pound lobsters. They
always have two soups, the rich lobster bisque
and, one night, rarely seen lentil soup
($21.95). The tuna tartare with avocado cream
and seaweed salad ($29.50) makes for a good,
spicy appetite stirrer, and the jumbo lump
crabmeat cocktail(market price) truly lives up to
its name when it says “jumbo.” The “Empire’s Hot
Platter” of shrimp scampi, stuffed mushrooms and
baked clams is a pretty good buy at $30.50,
while the grilled octopus is first rate, a
fatted portion served with sauteed spinach,
cherry peppers, garlic, capers and
spiced olive oil. ($30.95). Of course,
they offer sizzling Canadian bacon by the thick
slice ($8.95). Pasta portions are meant to be shared,
like the one piled high with sauteed calamari,
shrimp, clams and fish in a white wine tomato
sauce ($46.95), and all the Empire restaurants
pride themselves on their bucatini
alla carbonara ($36.95). There
are plenty of options for cuts of steak,
including American and Japanese wagyu, though I
always opt for the USDA Prime porterhouse for
two ($139.95) that will easily feed three. So,
too, the double-cut rack of lamb is massive,
with three large chops that can serve three
people ($69.95). Chicken parmigiana ($41.95) is
another item only a trencherman could attempt to
finish on his own. Empire, like all its
competitors, charges a high price for its food,
but splitting a dish for two or more cuts way
down on the tab. The only real
disappointment when I visited was the Dover sole
in a caper-strewn white wine-lemon sauce
($69.95). Since the best Dover sole is a rarity,
a chef has to gauge how many he can obtain of
first quality and serve every one that night.
Otherwise, like this example, it lacks
freshness, flavor and texture. For
side dishes, the baked potato ($9.95) must weigh
a pound, and the creamed spinach ($15.95) and
onion rings ($13.95) are both excellent. The
home fries ($15.95) are a house specialty (left)
for good reason, rich with onions and seasoning.
Desserts ($12), made in house, are
enormous and a table of four need only order
two. Of particular interest are the apple
strudel, the chocolate lava cake, the pecan pie
and the crème brûlée, which go with a long
list of dessert wines. Empire’s
wine list is first rate for a steakhouse, rich
in every category, with three dozen wines by the
glass, many under $20, along with a slew of
half-bottles, magnums and large format bottles
that offer the best value on the list. Mark-ups
are about average for New York, with several
bottlings under $75. I hope the
Sinanajes don’t spread themselves too thin in
foreign ports of call, because it is their
personal attention to detail that has won them a
faithful crowd in New York.
Open for lunch
Mon.-Fri.; dinner nightly.
❖❖❖
GOING AFTER
HARRY LIME
By John
Mariani
To read previous
chapters of GOING AFTER HARRY LIME go
to thearchive
CHAPTER
FORTY-FIVE
Suddenly with a loud blast the front
door blew off its hinges and the room filled
with gray smoke, making it impossible to see
what was about to happen. David knew it was not
tear gas, but everyone started coughing. Then
someone shouted something in Hungarian and there
seemed to be three intruders in the room. Toth’s
men swung their hands behind their heads and
turned their backs to the intruders as the smoke
began to dissipate. Now Toth and the Americans could see three
men dressed in dark clothes with black ski masks
covering their faces. One of the men rushed over
to Toth and shoved him on the couch, telling him
not to make a move and handcuffing him. The other
men were already handcuffing Toth’s thugs. David
could see one of the intruders was armed with a
Russian Makarov pistol—standard issue to FSS
agents. The other men had Bizon submachine guns,
also Russian, designed to be very destructive at
close range. The smoke, which had come from a grenade,
had mostly dropped to the floor, and Katie and
David could see their captors were now thecaptives.
Toth was screaming at them in Hungarian, which the
Americans assumed was to tell the intruders how
important a man he was and that they’d never get
away with this. “Do any of you speak English?” Katie asked
of the intruders. The man with the pistol,
standing over Toth, said in a thick accent, “Yes,
you are safe now, but you must come with us,
quickly.” David, whose rushing adrenaline had helped
keep any effects of the drug at bay, said, “Not
until we know who the hell you are. Your guns are
Russian. You FSS?” “That should not concern you now,” said the
man with the pistol, which he put back into a
holster. “All that matters is you come with us.
Now.” Katie said, “But my friend was just
injected with a drug that might kill him in the
next hour. We have to get him to a hospital as
quickly as possible.” The man shook his head and said there
wasn’t enough time. Then one of the other men took
the English-speaking intruder aside. Katie
couldn’t hear what language they spoke, but it
looked from their movements as if they were
arguing over whether David was to be treated or
not. Then Katie remembered. “Wait! Hold on! Toth
here said that the antidote to the drug was an
acid, like vinegar.” She turned to Toth and
shouted, “That’s what you said right? Vinegar?” Toth said nothing. The English-speaking
intruder pushed his pistol against Toth’s knee.The man
said, “Is this true? You have three seconds to
tell me or I shall blow off your knee. Then the
other one.” Toth said, “All right, all right. Yes,
vinegar will probably work if it’s injected
quickly. But it’s never been tried with a human
being.” “You have vinegar here?” asked the man,
digging his pistol deeper into the flesh of Toth’s
knee. Toth answered, “I don’t know. I’m not the
bloody cook here. If we have it, it’s somewhere in
the kitchen.” David and Katie rushed into the kitchen and
began opening every cabinet. “I think I found
some!” said David, twisting off the cap to smell
if it was vinegar. “Here, give it to Toth.” The man with the pistol shouted at Toth,
“Do it. Now!” “I can’t do anything with these fucking
handcuffs on,” said Toth. “Let me up.” The man
holstered his pistol and brusquely dragged Toth to
his feet, then undid the handcuffs, saying, “If
you do not make this injection within one minute,
I shall smash your face in, understand?” Toth said, “How do I know if this vinegar
is fresh or sterile. It could kill him as quickly
as the drug.” David said, “I’ll take the chance.” Katie said, “Don’t trust him, David. I’ll
give you the shot.” “You know how to do that?” “I had to learn to give my father shots of
insulin for his diabetes.I’m
pretty good at it.” Then she turned to Toth and
said, “How much do I give him?” Toth, believing the intruders did not want
to kill him, said, “I have no bloody idea. I’ve
never used it before. Just give him the whole
syringe.” Katie had no reason to believe or not
believe Toth at that point.She
looked in the refrigerator and found another
couple of fresh syringes. “You’ve got to boil it for five minutes,”
said Toth, trying to be helpful if it would save
him from having his face bashed in. Katie took a syringe and put it in a small
pan of water and brought it to a boil. She glanced
over at David, who seemed to be showing signs of
the drug taking effect. His was blinking his eyes,
his mouth was slightly drooping. “David, you O.K.?” He nodded and waved his
hand. While waiting for what seemed like an
eternity for the syringe to be made sterile, Toth
spoke to the man with the pistol in Hungarian,
probably offering him a bribe to let him go, but
the man said nothing in return, except to ask
where Toth’s coat was. Toth motioned to a closet.
The man went to it, grabbed a large winter coat
and wrapped it around Toth’s shoulders. “Where are we going?” Toth asked in English
but got no answer. The man turned to Katie and
barked, “It has been five minutes. We must go.Do what
you have to do.” Katie removed the syringe and extracted
vinegar that she had also put in a pot to boil,
hoping that would not lessen its effectiveness.
She filled the syringe and said to David, “You
ready?” He nodded, looking very sleepy now.Katie
gave him the injection, swabbed the puncture with
some of the vinegar and said, “Here’s hoping.” The man with the pistol barked, “O.K., we
go, now.” By then the other two intruders had marched
Toth’s men to the cellar and tied their feet, then
ran upstairs and hustled Toth, Katie and David out
the front door. Two cars were parked out of sight
to the rear of the house, a Mercedes sedan and an
Audi SUV with its windows blacked out. Inside each
was a driver; another man, also with a ski mask,
stood outside the SUV. The man with the pistol said to the
Americans, “You go in the Mercedes.” “Where are we going?” asked David, who
still showed signs of grogginess. “The less you know the
better,” said the man, who then shoved Toth into
the SUV. The two men with the sub-machine guns
brought Katie and David to the Mercedes and opened
the back door for them. Inside was the driver and
another man, who was cradling a sub-machine gun in
his lap.One
of the men outside said something in Russian to
the driver and closed the back door.Then he
said to the Americans, “Give me your passports.” “Please,” said Katie to the men up front, “please
tell us who you are and what’s happening.” There
was silence. Thefrosted
window was up, and just as the driver put the car
into gear, one of the men outside took his glove
off and with his finger wrote three letters on the
frosted window, which Katie and David read as “UYN.” The Mercedes bolted forward, as
did the SUV at the same moment, in a different
direction. “What’s ‘UYN’ supposed to mean?” said David. “Is
it Russian?” “I don’t know,” said Katie. “Driver, what
does ‘UYN’ mean? It’s Russian?” The driver shrugged and said nothing. David glanced at the window again, his face
slightly brightening, and said, “Katie, it’s not ‘UYN.’ We’re reading it backwards from
this side of the window.” Katie looked again and her jaw dropped.
“Holy shit, it’s ‘NYU!’” Despite everything
that had happened, they both burst out laughing.
Frank McHugh
and James Cagney in "The Roaring Twenties" (1939)
The market for new gins right now seems
to be where the market for single malt Scotches
was twenty years ago and American bourbons ten
years ago (vodka still rules at the top of sales
in the U.S.). And these new gins are not coming
solely from traditional producers like the
Netherlands and the UK. It seems everyone from
Vermont to New Zealand is getting on the
bandwagon, and, since gin can be made with any
number of botanicals, the field is open wider
than ever before. Here’s my second round-up of
new gins of interest.
ENGINE
PURE ORGANIC GIN ($42.99)—“Fueling the
Dream” is the motto of this very dry gin from
Torino Distillati in Langhe, Italy. Like so many
Italian designs, the “bottle” for Engine is
actually a tin can that looks like a gas additive,
and, in red, white and blue, it’s sleek and very
cool. The gin inside favors juniper, lemon,
licorice, rose and sage, at 42% alcohol, and makes
a perfect Martini for those who like them bone
dry.
LIGHTHOUSE
GIN ($34.99)—Crafted
byNew
Zealand’s first female head distiller, Rachel
Hall, in Cape Palliser (which has a lighthouse),
for the Sonoma
Valley-based Foley Family, it is known for its
use of Yen Ben Lemons, known for their strong
flavor and high acidity, along with eight other
botanicals. It’s double distilled as a
super-premium, very smooth style in a bottle
that represents the Fresnel lens layered prism
that concentrates light into a lighthouse’s
beacon.
MR. PICKLES NORTHWEST GIN ($54.99)—You’ve
got to admire a distiller, Ben Green, who names
his gin after a pit bull rescue dog, even if
the claim that it “reflects
the personality of the distillery’s gregarious
mascot and Oregon’s majestic mountains” may be a
stretch. In any case, it’s made from 100% winter
wheat from the nearby Camas Country Mill, triple
distilled, with the botanicals introduced in the
final distillation. There are 12 botanicals used
in addition to juniper. The bottle is very
beautifully decorated in a flowery style with
Mr. Pickles’s portrait thereon.
BARR
HILL ($39.99)—It all sounds very Vermont,
with a beekeeper and distiller bonding in 2011 to
produce a New England-style gin. Todd Hardie cared
for bee hives all over the world, and Ryan
Christiansen started in Hardwick with a single
15-gallon direct-fire copper still and sent its
gin to competitions in New York and Hong King,
winningDouble
Gold and a Best Gin of the Year awards. By the end
of 2012 they were making just three batches per
day, then in 2019 moved to Montpelier to build a
new state-of-the-art distillery. It is unique in
that it is distilled entirely with juniper and
finished with raw honey, whose aromatics
were carried by the bees. They also make a Tom Cat
gin ($54.99) that is aged six to nine months in
American oak.
❖❖❖
MOST STARTLING NEWS OF THE WEEK!
"Egg slicer
can be used for fruits and veggies" by Maryal
Carter, USA Today 8/6/23
❖❖❖
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.
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.