In today’s Washington Post there was a review of Firestone’s Market on Market. The reviewer generally liked their sandwiches and the pastrami in particular. Until I read the article I had no idea Market on Market had added sandwiches now. In the past I have gone there for their gourmet and unique foodstuffs. I have found it’s a great place to get those little gifts.
You can read the full review here.
As you can probably guess I have a large collection of books on food and drinking and cookbooks in particular. In fact we had some custom built-ins added to our kitchen to accommodate our ever-expanding pile of books. Of course we have outgrown that and the collection spills into the pantry and onto other shelves throughout stately Fred Manor. So I have slowed my cook book acquisition of late. After all how many recipes do you need for gazpacho? What I tend to do now is try to get a book I’m interested in through the library, review it, cook some recipes and only add it to my collection if I like it or feel that it fills a hole. A few months back I heard an interview on the Splendid Table with Roberto Santibañez, author of the book Truly Mexican: Essential Recipes and Techniques for Authentic Mexican Cooking
VERDICT: Worth making space on your kitchen shelf for. Get it!
I just finished reading Joe Bastianich’s autobiography Restaurant Man
For those of you that don’t know Joe, he is Lidia Bastianich’s son, an Italian winemaker, importer and enthusiast as well as Mario Batali’s longtime partner on some of New York’s most successful restaurants. Overall is was an enjoyable, although uneven read. Joe was brutally honest, about himself and others. In fact I think it was pretty clear that he settled a few scores in this book, which would have come off as mean and petty if he had not been so honest about himself. I found the parts about running and opening restaurants fascinating. His relationship with his mom and Mario was really endearing. He writes with a direct, f-bomb laden style that had me laughing out loud at times. He once spilled wine on the Pope! He is definitely a person I would love to hang out with on a New York stoop with a bottle or two of wine. If nothing else we could talk about our former lives as Deadheads!
VERDICT: A fun, fun read. If you like restaurants, Italian food or wine or enjoyed Kitchen Confidential then this book is for you. Makes me want to go to Babbo in the worst way.
Filed under Reading, Restaurant- misc.
I just wanted to pass along a blog I discovered. Food & Frederick. It’s been going on since March 2011 but somehow it has been off my radar until I saw it mentioned on the excellent McCutcheons blog. McCutcheons, which I read all the time, has been mentioned here and long been on my blog roll. Food & Frederick is new to me. Both are worth reading and following. I really like the photography on Food & Frederick and Sarah has inspired me to try to do a little better than my crappy iPhone pictures.
Filed under Food, Reading, The Good Life
I just finished reading a very good book: What’s a Wine Lover to Do?
Consisting of 334 paragraph sized entries on all aspects of wine it is not a book that you can easily read from start to finish. At least I could not. However it is an excellent book for picking up, reading a few entries here and there and learning. This book would give a novice a fantastic foundation but do not assume that it is just for newbies. I guarantee anyone from beginner to expert will learn a lot from reading this book. I consider myself a fairly advanced amateur when it comes to wine and I felt like I learned a lot from it. I really liked the section on wine retailers; not something you find in your average wine book. Verdict: a worthy addition to any wine lover’s bookshelf.
Filed under Reading
I came across a great article in the May 2012 Atlantic Magazine by Tyler Cowen. Its called Six Rules for Dining Out and I found it fascinating. Amongst the rules are: in the fanciest restaurants, order what sounds least appetizing. Sound nonsensical? Read the article and see his logical explanation. I also loved his take on Thai food. It reinforces my concerns about Thai food that I’ve expressed here previously- do I really know what authentic Thai food tastes like? Give it a read. I also saw at the end of the article that this was adapted from his forthcoming book: An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies
. FCPL has it on order and I’m third in the holds line, so number one and two read quickly!
Filed under Reading, Restaurant- misc., The Good Life
Nine days after my post the Frederick News Post had an article about Bryan Voltaggio looking to open a second restaurant. Which was three days later than the Washington Post article that referenced this blog. OK maybe I got the possible location wrong but time will tell. Anyway I never promised you I was a journalist. Whole thing was pretty cool though.
PS Thanks to the Washington Post and Twitter for helping me set a new record for the most page hits per day.
Filed under Reading, Restaurant- misc.
Wine Spectator is making their website free (you know how I love THAT word) from November 15th through the 28th. I think they normally charge around $50 a year for access. They are doing this so that people can see the unveiling of their top 100 wines of the year. The real attraction to me is that you can check out their searchable database of over 236,000 wine ratings.
Just received word that the magazine Edible Chesapeake is ceasing publication. That’s sad as I always looked for it at the Common Market and enjoyed reading it. From the release:
I will no longer be publishing Edible Chesapeake magazine. The decision is the result of much reflection on how best to balance the needs of my family and myself as a small business owner, with the needs of the local food community of which Edible Chesapeake has been an important part since 2005. The recently published Fall 2009 issue, with the incredibly scrumptious apple cider donuts on the cover, is the last of my tenure as publisher and editor. It is uncertain at this time whether Edible Chesapeake will return under a new publisher.
Frederick Wine House is having a number of interesting looking wine classes over the next month. The Champagne and sparkling wine course looks great!
As promised in my earlier post there is one book that I find invaluable in helping me turn farmer’s market finds into delicious food on the table. That is Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini: The Essential Reference by Elizabeth Schneider. This is a huge book (800+ pages!) that covers every vegetable you are likely to encounter in the United States. Do you know the difference between true (French) shallots and most of what you find in US grocery stores? I didn’t until I read that entry. Alphabetically organized it covers more than 350 vegetables. Each vegetable has its own section which goes over the history, the varieties and what to look for in selecting perfect vegetables. Beautiful color pictures illustrate throughout. Following each entry it gives a bunch of recipes using the vegetable and then finishes each section with chef’s perspectives on using the vegetable. With this book if you see something, you can buy it and take it home and be confident that you will have recipes and a strong starting point to maximize your find.
You can find it here on Amazon. Not cheap but very worthwhile.
When I grow up I want to be a blog just like this one. Seriously, this is a phenomenal blog that I read regularly even though I don’t do much in Howard County except drive through it. This is a true labor of love, very informative and it shows. A model for all wanna-be local food bloggers. I always feel inferior after visiting here yet I still check it out regularly.
Filed under Food, Reading, Restaurant Reviews
Loyal reader(s?) may remember my review of the book The Billionaire’s Vinegar. As a follow up to the story I saw that the venerable British wine critic Micheal Broadbent settled his libel and defamation suit against Random House, the publisher of the book. The book was less than flattering to Mr. Broadbent. The amount of the monetary settlement is undisclosed, but Random House issued an apology and has agreed not to distribute the book any more in the United Kingdom. The New York Times story can be found here. Decanter (which he writes for) had a different take on it but did say that he was going to celebrate with a magnum of 1990 Mouton while pondering whether to seek an injunction about the film based on the book.
I just finished reading Neil Rosenthal’s book Reflections of a Wine Merchant (from FCPL). Mr. Rosenthal is a thirty year plus veteran of the wine importing business, dealing mainly in European wines and especially fine Burgundies. The book was so-so. I almost put it down which is very unusual for me. Unless you are a hard-core wine geek (guilty!) you probably won’t get a lot out of this book. I did enjoy Mr. Rosenthal’s views on wine styles and the modern trend of wine reviewers become raw statisticians instead of writers. However, the majority of the book was filled with tales of soured business relationships and what appeared to me to be a settling of old scores on the part of Mr. Rosenthal. Weirdly enough there seemed to be a lot of tragedies in this book: early death by brain tumor, paralysis in a motorcycle accident, drowning in an upturned car in a water filled ditch to name a few. About halfway through the book I came to the conclusion that based on the way he portrays himself in the book I wouldn’t really like Mr. Rosenthal a whole lot if I met him and would have no desire to hang out with him. Of course what do I know right? I’m just some anonymous guy with access to the Internet. But I still think that a much better example of the genre is this book, which I reviewed last summer.
I don’t think anyone is envious of those poor souls labouring in the newspaper business right now. However one of my favorite abuse pinatas: the Frederick News Post is really plumbing the depths. Yes in their current “In Good Taste” column [Cue announcers voice: "In Good Taste reports on an unannounced dining experience and is not meant to be a critical review"] they review ,excuse me, report on…cue drum roll… the Waffle House. Good God those budget cuts must really be hurting.
Should you have questions about the fare at Waffle House you can see the review unannounced dining experience here. Some highlights include ”the portions were generous” and “the prices were modest.” Coming next week: The FNP reviews McDonald’s Value Menu.
Filed under Food, Reading, Restaurant Reviews
Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about two reviewers from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate accepting trips etc. from winemakers. One reviewer “vacationed and enjoyed lavish social dinners in the company of wine importers whose wines he reviews.” It raises some interesting ethical questions. I think the potential for abuse is especially ripe in the blogosphere. After all who knows where bloggers are coming from? I’ve mulled over what I would do. The closest I came is that I was offered a free bottle of wine from a local winery after one of my reviews. I didn’t accept it,but I thought about what would happen if I was offered a free meal or something like that.
So far this is all just speculation. Fred’s been looking to sell out for years, but nobody has been buying!
Link to the article here.
Filed under Reading, Restaurant Reviews
The sleeper hit of Christmas has to be the book I gave Mrs. F called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. In short this book is amazing. We have always dabbled in baking but this book is head and shoulders above any bread book we have in both ease and sheer deliciousness of the food. Basically the method in this book is to make a large batch of dough in a certain way, which you can then keep for up to two weeks. When you want some fresh bread you break off an appropriate amount add the supplemental ingredients and viola! There are many different types of dough and tons of recipes. We have had baguettes, focaccia, olive bread, sun dried tomato loaf ,brioche and beignets to name but a few. Without fail the bread has been phenomenal. The beignets, which we had last night, were better than Cafe du Monde on Jackson Square. They were so good that Mrs. declared that she will not make those again unless company is present since we scoffed down every last one of them last night. I was a model of restraint and limited myself to five or six.
Filed under Food, Reading, The Good Life
A bit of tooting my own Fred horn, but loyal readers heard about it here first. In today’s food section of the WashPo guess what wine is listed as “excellent” and “a good value?” Why the one right below this post that I blogged about yesterday: Willm Cuvée Leon IX Crémant d’Alsace. The author also comments on how it is “a beautiful package, inside and out.” Perhaps he’s a reader as well? I did notice that the Deck the Halls post got 15 hits right after I posted it. (Just a joke- call off the lawyers)
As an aside another “good value” mentioned in the article that was rated between very good and excellent was the Casteller Cava. I favorably reviewed the rose version of this last summer.
Link to full article along with sparkling wine recommendations is here. You have to register to see it though.
There was another nice article in today’s Frederick News Post about Linganore Winecellars. They must be paying them or something. Ostensibly it was about pairing the right wine with food, but all of the wines featured were from Linganore Winecellars. Honestly I’m not complaining though. As I said in my earlier post I am always excited when any local winery gets press. I figure anyone trying to make a go of it here in our region is certainly doing it for love and not with any hope of getting rich, so kudos to them and give them all the help they need.
I do have a couple of beefs- OK really maybe one thought and one gratuitous swipe. The first thought is that one of the reasons why I think wine intimidates people is they are afraid of breaking “the rules.” I have said before and I’ll stick by it: the only real rule you need to follow is drink what you like, but don’t be afraid to try new stuff. Articles on rules tend to perpetuate the myth. The only successful way to pair in my opinion, since there can be so much variation within the same varietal even, is to build up your own palate database and apply it to the dish on hand.
Now my swipe. And just like that last little sweet on the holiday platter I wanted to pass it by, but after standing there and staring at it I just couldn’t resist. FNP is one of my favorite targets. It is Pinot Noir not Pinot Noire! I guess they have been watching too much film noire.
I interrupt my planned series of anniversary posts to bring you the following rant. Maybe I am just feeling cranky today, but another FNP article about food and drink irritated me. As mentioned earlier the Beaujolais Nouveau season is almost upon us. In yesterdays Post there was an article about Linganore Wine Cellars releasing a new wine: their 2008 Nouveau. Really interesting and I am always thrilled to see local wineries getting publicity. However the author of the article was unnamed and it was clear they had no knowledge, or at least none that they wanted to impart to the reader, of wine. First the article said it was made with a “grape hybrid.” Well, duh. No mention of what variety of grape. Secondly and more importantly no one said what the wine tastes like. Now I know it is too much to ask the Post to rate the wine, and rating are generally useless anyway- one person’s nirvana can often be another person’s swill, but some general ideas of what the wine tasted like would have been nice. Is it light, medium bodied? Is it acidic, tannic? Dry, off dry or sweet? It said it was red, but after that who knows? I think this would be especially important to know since the wine is only available at the winery, so I’d like to have some idea to see if it is worth driving out there for.
PS FNP: How about the cost?
Those of you that read this blog regularly know that I am a big fan of the library. However there are some books you just have to own. There are three such books that have been invaluble to me in my wine geekdom and form the core of my wine reference library. They are Oz Clarke’s Encyclopedia of Grapes by Oz Clarke [there is a newer paperback version out that is titled as Oz Clarke’s Grapes and Wines]; How to Taste: A Guide To Enjoying Wineby Jancis Robinson and Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia by Tom Stevenson. While my wine library has a lot more books, these are the ones I most often go to. More on these in future posts.
Continuing my summer reading I recently finished Passion on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Family in the Heart of Italyby Sergio Esposito which I picked up from FCPL. Every time I am in New York City I try to find a way to slip over to the Italian Wine Merchant: a store devoted to nothing but Italian wines, so I was really excited to see this book by the store’s founder. Part memoir, part travel guide, part my Big Fat Italian Family this book is a memorable account of how the author built his wine business through the unique relationships he forged with Italian wine makers and other personalities. Interspersed throughout is the tale of him growing up, first in Naples and then as an immigrant in upstate New York. His narrative about some of his family members had me laughing out loud at times- it especially resonated with my Italian-American heritage. An enjoyable read, my only complaint was it made me very thirsty!
I recently came across an article in the Wall Street Journal about an amazing phenomenon that I was unaware of. Its called cook through blogging, where a writer selects a cookbook and then works his way through every recipe in the book writing about their experiences. People are doing all sorts of books including the French Laundry Cookbook, Rick Bayless’ Mexican and the Gourmet Cookbook (all 1300+ recipes!!!) The WSJ has links to some of the blogs. French Laundry at Home is very good. Supposedly one is even being made into a movie starring Meryl Streep.
The question I have is which book would you choose?
Continuing my posts on books I’ve been reading: I just finished up The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Wine by Benjamin Wallace (also available from FCPL). It was an interesting, if a little dry at the beginning, read. Briefly it tells the story of the wine market for rare old (18th and 19th Century) wines. It focuses on a number of bottles sold by a German dealer to various individuals, including a billionaire, that were purported to be from Thomas Jefferson’s cellar in Paris. I enjoyed the book especially the last part where it becomes a detective story in trying to figure out the authenticity of the bottles. The story sweeps up so many eminences in the field of wine: Robert Parker, Michael Broadbent, and Jancis Robinson to name just a few. It was fascinating to see how they became vested in the authenticity or inauthenticity in the bottles and how some people turned a willful blind eye, or at least indifference, to the doubts about the bottles just so they could have bragging rights about tasting or owning such a bottle. Like all good tales it ultimately is about much more than just wine: ego, pride, greed and other facets of human nature. For someone who has a wine cellar for the sole purpose of keeping wine for drinking, it struck me how these rarefied collectors bore about as much relationship to the average wine drinker as big game hunting does to cooking. Without spoiling the ending by posting here I’d love to know what you think.
Fred
Most of you may not know that one of the first food critics and publisher of a best selling guide in 1935, Called Adventures in Good Eating was Duncan Hines. (yes that Duncan Hines- he ultimately sold the rights to use his name which ended up on Proctor & Gamble cake mixes). Anyway I came across a fantastic, in a bit non-PC, quote attributed to him:
“If the soup was as warm as the wine, if the wine was as old as the turkey, if the turkey had breasts like the maid, it would have been a fine dinner.” – Duncan Hines
I wish I could write something half as good as that some day.
Fred
I am in the middle of reading three food related books, which I will probably post about as I finish them. What do they have to do with Frederick? Honestly, nothing except that I got them all from the Frederick County Public Library.
The first one I have finished is Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France’s Cote d’Azur and Italy’s Costa Bella by David Shalleck. I just picked up this book on a lark, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. A light read it details the authors summer sailing as a chef for a wealthy Italian couple on their yacht as it travels the French and Italian Riveras and beyond. This memoir-travelogue-cooking book hit on three of my favorite things: the ocean/beach, food and Italy! The most impressive thing was how he cooked. Each morning he would put ashore and search the local markets, find what was local, fresh and in season and plan the days meals around that. It was great to read his thinking behind the creative process. As a top down cook (ie find a recipe, then search out the ingredients) who is striving to be more the other way, I was in awe of his ability to whip up a menu on the spot. There were some interesting recipes at the end of the book as well.
