With the economy taking a nosedive the past few weeks (months? years?), plenty of wine drinkers are wondering whether they'll be able to afford their Bordeaux and Burgundy with retirement accounts shrinking and daily living more expensive than ever. Dr. Vino, a wine author and blogger, did a poll this week to find out if and how wine drinkers will cut back.
Not all winemakers are responding by dropping prices (a BBC news report says chocolate and Champagne have steady sales even in times of economic distress), but one company is embracing the socio-economic situation and turning lemons into lemonade (or, technically, grapes into wine). Recession Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon from California sell for around $5 a bottle. The company says they taste like $10 wines, explaining that the value comes from using lighter-weight glass bottles, saving on shipping costs, and using a recycled synthetic closure instead of cork, which costs $1 per bottle.
I tried the wines recently and really liked the Merlot, which was smoky on the nose, not too flabby like most cheap Merlot from California, and a little green peppery, like it had some Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend. The vegetal aspect could definitely fool you into thinking you're drinking a much more spendy wine. My husband and I rated what we thought the prices would be if we didn't know they were $5, and here's what we came up with: Chardonnay, $9; Merlot, $14; Cabernet Sauvignon, $6.
The wines are currently available all over New York and will roll out nationally soon--unless our lawmakers can get it together and save the economy.
This past Monday was the beginning of autumn, which in years past been somewhat of a sad time for my meat and fire loving alter ego, Joey Deckle, because it marks the end of the competitive barbecuing season. But not this time around. For in addition to being the start of fall and the autumnal equinox, Monday was also Il Buco's fifth annual Sagra del Maiale, or pig festival. There's nothing quite like an afternoon spent on a downtown Manhattan street eating roast pork with a bunch of like-minded carnivores to cure the end-of-summer blues.
This wasn't just any old roast pig though, it was a heritage breed called a Farmer's Cross, or Crossabaw. For those of you not up on heritage hogs, a Crossabaw is breed based on the Ossabaw blood line, the very pig Peter Kaminsky praised in his book Pig Perfect. It yields exceptionally rich moist meat and luscious fat. Lest I forget, it wasn't exactly a tiny pig either, it weighed in at 200 pounds. Such a beast would take a good 24 hours if it were to be cooked over smoke. When I asked Chef Ignacio Mattos how long it would take, he responded, "That's a good question. Hopefully about six-and-a-half hours. It's going on at 6 a.m."
The reason behind such a relatively short cooking time for such a large hog? A cooking method known as infernillo, literally little hell. When Chef Mattos told me that it took some 400 pounds of fuel, including lump charcoal and oak and cherry wood to cook the beast, I thought it sounded more like a big hell. Infernillo, is an Incan method of cooking that Chef Mattos learned from his mentor, the Uruguayan chef, Frances Mallmann. Essentially it involves roasting the pig on a shelf with an intense wood fire above and another below. Chef Mattos butterflied his Crossabaw and then seasoned it with rosemary, fennel pollen, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. The intense heat yielded some incredibly crunchy skin.
Saturday was the 13th day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, so I decided to celebrate by visiting a Malaysian burger shack. And I didn't need to hop on a plane to do it either. Thanks to Dave Cook of Eating in Translation I learned of Bazaar Ramadhan just hours before the event kicked off. It was held in the Banquet Hall of the Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the United Nations. There was all manner of Malaysian home cooking on offer, including several varieties of the famous rice dish, nasi lemak. In addition to the traditional accompaniments of salty dried fish, peanuts, cucumber and hard-boiled egg I got some sambal sotong, a dark black mess of squid that had been cooked in the pungent Malaysian paste, sambal. It was good, but as you've no doubt guessed by now the food that excited me most was Malaysian hamburgers.
I first heard of Malaysian hamburgers from my friend Zak Pelaccio whose restaurant Fatty Crab slings some wonderfully juicy and well-spiced Malaysian-inflected sliders. He'd always told me they were inspired by the Ramly Burger, a traditional Malaysian street food. Until I saw this video detailing the construction of "The Sloppiest Burger in Malaysia," I had no idea what a Ramly Burger was. Apparently it involves grilling an egg in a pool of margarine dropping a slice of cheese on top of the egg and enfolding a patty inside.
When I approached the cheerful group of kids working the Burger Shack stall my heart skipped a beat as I saw copious amounts of margarine being spread on to whole-wheat buns that were being griddled alongside beef patties and eggs in ring molds. "Ramly burger?," I asked. There was no response but the kid in the blue shirt kept calling out, "Get your genuine Malaysian fast food right here."
The French are still getting over the 1976 Judgment of Paris, when some uppity California wineries took the top awards in a blind tasting between their wines and France's best. Now it's a New York winery that's sweeping the underdog awards: Fox Run Vineyards of the Finger Lakes Wine Region was named one of the top 100 wineries of the year by Wine and Spirits magazine.
Why is this significant, you ask? Mainly because, while wine critics like to pat New York fondly on the head, saying their wines are "up-and-coming" and "getting there," no one has yet gone so far as to say that New York wineries can compete on a global scale. California proved itself in '76; Oregon and Washington made it in the '90s or so. Now it's the Finger Lakes' turn to shine.
Hey, we're American; we always root for the underdog.
I had a bottle of the 2006 Dry Riesling in my rack, so I popped it in the fridge to see if it was worth all the hype (in addition to the Wine & Spirits kudos, this particular bottle got a nod for a "best American wine $15 and under" from Food and Wine magazine in April). The wine is good--fragrant and floral, with racy acidity and balanced fruit that comes from its cool-climate location in the middle of the state. It definitely has the potential to stand up to other cool-climate Rieslings from Germany, Austria, and New Zealand in a blind tasting.
Have you tasted any New York wines? Do you think they're the next big thing or more hype than heft?
Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter picks up his second restaurant, Monkey Bar. His first, the Waverly Inn, has been luring a high wattage crowd for two years, despite not being officially open.
L.A.'s fast food moratorium raises questions about choice and personal responsibility.
Soft-serve gets a makeover at upscale ice cream joints. Think spiced cantaloupe topping, balsalmic cherries, a "creamsicle" of white nectarine granita and jasmine tea soft-serve.
The Slow Food movement plans a Labor Day Slow Food Nation festival, to be the "Woodstock" of food festivals. Hope they bring more porta-potties than the original.
The Rutgers Tomato Project brings back the Jersey tomato.
The Minimalist does a no-bake summer cheesecake with blueberries.
The French are still getting over the 1976 Judgment of Paris, when some uppity California wineries took the top awards in a blind tasting between their wines and France's best. Now it's a New York winery that's sweeping the underdog awards: Fox Run Vineyards of the Finger Lakes Wine Region was named one of the top 100 wineries of the year by Wine and Spirits magazine. 
A preview of the new NYC restaurants opening this fall. 
Can't make it to the Olympics this year? Go for some authentic Beijing cuisine in Flushing, Queens instead. 
Soy and chickpeas might help stroke victims
The world of pie and tart crusts
Starbucks launches the Piadini 
