bleachboy

I guess I don't "get" it...

Argh!!! Sounds like an awful night.

What a cool slide of the tripod popsicles!

Nope. The "Dr. M. Prum" was Rudi Wiest. The Terry Theise selections always seem to be a safe bet, though. A couple of nights ago I served their 1995 Donnhoff Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Spatlese as an apertif and it was simply wonderful. Even my "wine hater" aunt-in-law liked it.

Wow, thanks for the info, guys! eGullet comes through again. dlc: Not this time -- this wine came from Nashville Wine and Spirits? in Belle Meade.

Admittedly, I'm a gigantic fan of Germanic whites. I probably have 15-20 bottles right now in my tiny apartment. But this didn't taste like a mistake -- it was really delightful just how it was. I will probably buy a few bottles of this wine again once I make it back to the "we carry obscure wines" shop here in Nashville. The only word on the label I didn't understand was "Erzeugerabfullung" which could mean "very lightly carbonated German white" for all I know. There's none of the normal indications on the label, i.e. "Kabinett", "Spatslese", etc.

I don't know, man. This weekend I made a birthday dinner for a very good friend of mine that involved a very fancy chile con queso. Everybody present agreed that they would rather have the "Velveeta and Ro-Tel" kind. My group of friends calls this phenomenon "grossalicious".

There was no sediment, but you may be on to something. The bubbles were very small, only noticeable when you first poured the glass, but I could definitely feel them on my tongue, and my wife agreed. I brought up this topic because at a tasting of Spanish wines a few weeks ago, the person conducting the tasting seemed to mention something offhand about the winemaker adding CO2 before corking the bottles, and I thought maybe it was the same case. German wines are frequently high in sugar (but also acid, and this one was mouthwateringly acidic) so although I don't know jack about yeast, it sounds plausible to me.

So there's a left bank and right bank now? Eek!!!

I just finished a bottle of 2001 "Dr. M Prum" Riesling (spectacular, BTW) and I swear it was ever so lightly carbonated. Do winemakers ever add carbon dioxide to the equation in a non-"sparkling" wine?

Well, I tried to make the chicken stock yesterday. Heck, I even somehow managed to buy the same 16-qt stock pot that Fat Guy has (from BB&B). Anyway, it was taking an eternity on my electric stove to even start to simmer, so I left the room for a few minutes, came back, and it was boiling like crazy with a caramel-colored scum on top of the soapy bubbles. I plowed ahead anyway (what do I have to lose?) and today (after chilling in the fridge overnight in an 8-qt pot) there is absolutely no fat on top. I know there should be, I know that fat. The stock is crazy chickeny, but leaves an unpleasant greasy feel in the mouth. Is there anything I can do to correct, or did I ruin it? p.s. I had thrown two duck backs, necks, and wings in there too, in case that might have screwed something up.

My wife loves to make potato-kale soup. She's crazy about it the way I am about potato-leek soup. Indeed, I think the recipes are pretty much the same, just using kale instead of leek. Give it a shot, it's a ridiculously simple yet very satisfying dish for cold lazy nights.

Marissa and I (and another friend) are gonna be down there for the festival on Friday, April 30 and Saturday, May 1. Anything planned for a get-together during those dates?

I'm 31 and I agree with you. There are about two bars in Nashville that can make a martini as good (to me) as the ones I make at home. I have discovered that the correct way to order is "Beefeater martini, wet, with a twist". After getting on a first-name basis with the bartenders, though, I can now just order "a martini". Joy! My wife will vouch for me here -- due to your constant reminders, I have been making a concerted effort to never call it a "martini glass". By now I have to correct myself only about half the time.

Thanks for this post, doc! I can't say there's much maple collection going on down here, but I would love to taste the results on a stack of pancakes!

Marissa and I will come. Preferably for a Fri-Sat type three day weekend. Let's decide when the eGulleters will be there. Would love to meet some of y'all and maybe get a tour guide.

Really, Emeril doesn't bother me at all. A lot of people seem to be irritated at his enthusiasm for various food items. Well, shit. I love pork fat and shellfish, too! What bothers me, and probably most people, is his audience. Emeril: "Also, I'll add two cloves of minced garlic..." Audience: "OMGWTF!!@! Woof! Woof! etc" I rather like the straightforward cooking show he does on FTV, "Emeril in the Kitchen" or whatever it's called. Will probably not check out the show tonight, due to it being Friday night and my best friend's birthday tomorrow, so I'm trying to get a cake baked and the such. Tomorrow I'm also going to try preparing Emeril's recipe for Chili con Queso, as Rick Bayless or Diana Kennedy don't seem to have one, and I've been craving. It looks easier than the "Chipotle con Queso" from recipeGullet, too. Sorry for the rambling. It's Friday!

Emeril's Delmonico's is very, very good. Sit at the bar and order a handful of appetizers to share with a friend. Make sure to munch on the parmesan potato chips, which are to die for. The steaks are not the highlight of this place, though, in my opinion. Vongerichten's Prime at the Bellagio serves a better steak. Lutece is not that wonderful overall, but do sit at the bar and have a gimlet and an order of their sauteed foie gras with chocolate sauce and marmalade, which is very good. Can you tell I like to sit at the bar? I've only eaten at the Royal Star (Kevin Wu's Chinese place) twice, but their Peking Duck is extremely tasty, and their fried rice makes a good drunken-late-night snack.

From The Vegetarian Society's Fact Sheet on the subject:

Vodka is almost always filtered through an animal product, bones or charcoal or something -- my vegetarian wife would know exactly what. But it doesn't stop her from drinking it. Some people are hardcore, however.

I'll double the recommendation for Nashville Wine and Spirits. Great selection of obscure wines. I shop at Village Wines, however, in Hillsboro Village. Proprietor Hoyt Hill knows his stuff, and specializes in getting you (the consumer) the best bang for the buck.

I have made that recipe, and it is indeed quite good. I just used the standard removable-bottom tartlet pans, like you said. Flan rings have a straight side instead of a fluted/scalloped side. I believe that's the proper French style for a tart, but I may be wrong. Regardless, the tart recipe will turn out just fine if you use what you already have.

Well, the people boycotting French products etc (I have a cousin like this) never bought French products to begin with. The people who love French products (such as wine, cheeses, vodka, etc) are (IMO) very, very unlikely to quit. Hell, even laws against items like raw milk Camembert are routinely broken, and the US government, to their credit, does seem to take a "turn the other cheek" attitude most of the time in regards to minor, harmless infractions.

This is bullshit. Bullshit I say!! As buddy-buddy as Bush is with US agribusiness, my guess is that he's doing this solely to eliminate competition for US meatpackers. "[don't] conform with U.S. food safety requirements" my eye! US meatpackers don't conform with those requirements either. I'm so mad I could picket!

I may be the exception to the rule, but I rarely order wine at mid-level restaurants, to be honest. I do love a good cocktail!! However, at home my wife and I both drink wine almost every day. I typically serve both red and white wines at the same temperature -- I usually put them in the fridge for about a half hour, which brings them down to about 60 degrees or so. I usually chill non-French chardonnay (which I don't often drink) or sauvignon blanc a few extra minutes, but not much more. This week I had a bottle of Sardinian wine which was terrible (it may have been flawed, but I have no benchmark for Sardinian wines) that was drinkable only after chilling to ice-cold. Currently I have been on a tasting binge, attending something like three tastings in the last two weeks. I'll post notes if anybody's interested, but I'm a novice taster and so may be far off mark. Probably OT here.