Posts Tagged as ‘reviews’

January 6, 2010

Washington Post Reviews Black Hog

And it wasn’t good.  Tom Sietsema didn’t like it very much calling the food “mixed.”  In fact he says the best thing is the service: “At Black Hog, a new barbecue joint in Frederick, the service is warm but the food is not.” I can’t confirm this as despite the name (of a heritage breed of pigs) the meat [...]

November 4, 2009

Flying Dog Road Dog Porter

Continuing my tour of Flying Dog Brewery beers with their Road Dog Porter.  Nice dark mahogany color, with a creamy brown head.  Nice malty aroma.  Has a good malty flavor as well, with a hint of coffee.  Finishes with a touch of bitterness.  This struck me as a bit lighter than some other porters I have tasted [...]

October 22, 2009

More Ethics

I had talked about ethics in an earlier post.  So it was interesting to see that in early October the Federal Trade Commission ruled that bloggers who made endorsements had to disclose any payments they received from subjects of their reviews.  Those that did not could face penalties of up to $11,000 per violation.   Of course the first thing [...]

October 12, 2009

In A Wine Slump

As you know wine is a passion of mine and I really enjoy finding wines that excite me and letting you know about them.   I have been really eager to add some more wine reviews up here, but lately all of the wines I’ve tried I really can’t recommend for one reason or another.  Generally I only [...]

June 5, 2009

Budget Cuts and the Fourth Estate

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 [...]

May 26, 2009

Ethics

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 [...]

July 9, 2008

A Matter of Taste

Had an interesting experience that just highlighted the subjectivity of wine and taste.  Usually Mrs. F and I are in sync with our feelings on a wine.  Very often we write down our ratings so as to compare them to each other fairly and I would estimate about 95% of the time we are within [...]

June 12, 2008

Screw The Rules

Chardonnay with fish, pinot noir with turkey, cabernet sauvignon with steak.  We’ve all seen the lists of rules for pairing food with wine.  If you want to waste your time you can find whole books devoted to this subject.  This idea that certain wines must be drunk only with certain foods is ridiculous and is [...]

May 29, 2008

Quote of The Day (and brief history lesson)

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 [...]

May 9, 2008

Great Wine Resource

Hey check this out.  Not Frederick specific (again), but it’s a great tasting card developed by a person named Alder Yarrow who runs a San Francisco-oriented wine blog called Vinography.  It’s really handy for those times when you can’t put a word on the taste you are experiencing.  You can print it out and keep it [...]