hathor

I love Muller Thurgaus! Really good with a strongly flavored fish dish. Kevin, I'm surprised at the use of ginger. Was that part of the recipe or part of the inspired by? Whatever, the meal looks wonderful and I like the idea of blueberry and ginger, very compatible flavor playmates, I would think.

Do you remember in the summer when we were eating swordfish, and capers, and tomatoes and pine nuts? With mint. This is a winter version. I'm going to go to the 'not-eating-in-season' purgatory....I'm sure, but it was worth it.

Daniel, I have been wanting one of those green eggy grilly things for years....your meals look amazing. Nice quail going on Laureim! Also, I would like some kamamouto oysters, please Ling. And a side of C.Sapidus chili shrimp. Speaking of shrimp, Whole Foods had these lovely Maine shrimp...they were just so pink. Simply steamed with a soy/lime/chili dipping sauce. The only thing missing was their little heads. What fun is it w/out the heads? We've been on a swiss chard kick. And a pomegranate kick. And we always eat pork. So, there you have it. Purplewiz: hope you are feeling better! edit because I'm having an arguement with Image Gullet

All good questions. What's an example of a Victorian preconception that you would like debunked?

Katie...that was a score! At those prices it would be cheaper for me to drive down from NYC!!

What on earth is a fresh jujube?? Jujubes come in a box, are sold in theaters and stick to your teeth. A 10 cm jujube would pull out an entire jawful of fillings!!

I just did a big batch of duck confit and have a question. Is curing like brining in that the temperature of the meat/spice mixture would benefit from being very cold, near freezing? My house smelled so good yesterday, all garlicky and meaty. Its so hard to wait a week before devouring the confit!

Excellent article, thank you. Answered my questions, and cool photos, what more could you ask for?

Thanks for replying. So, if your glass was dried in a vacum, and was completely smooth on the interior....there would be no neat little streams of bubbles? Just random bubbles caused by excess Co2? We had some Proseco last night, and I observed my bubbles a little closer. Why do the bubble streams all start at the bottom of the glass? If anything, the bubbles should be concentrated on the sides of the glass where I was able to reach them with the drying cloth. And what of the glasses that were dried in the dishwasher? Etched interiors?

Does Albergo Centrale still have the great fish tank in the coffee room? And the man at the front desk who is very friendly, but whose vision is bad that he can see the reservation book? We've stayed there a bunch of times, great location. Wonderful writeup! Thanks for taking the time and effort.

Who says home chefs are a dying breed?? Look at what is going on here!! Chufi, that Shaya shaped pasta looks gorgeous! It needs a name, how about the "Shayallini" big ones would be called "Shayaloni". I love seeing how people use and re-use what is at hand; that is always inspirational. Some dinners this week: Braised bunny with olives and potatoes. I have to say, this is my first time cooking bunny in the States, its a once-a-weeker in Italy, and the bunny here was sooo soft, tender and completely lacking in bunny flavor. How come? The bunniness had been bred out of it, methinks. This was delicious, but looks really 'regrettable' in the photos! A whole chicken is encased in a salt pastry crust (its like making herb scented PlayDoh...really fun!). The chicken winds up being almost steamed, and the flesh becomes pale white, tender, and delicately flavored. Its my new favorite roast chicken method. Yesterday's lunch: Potato leek soup with chorizo 'croutons'

Serve it alone, simple, sparkling like a jewel meant to cleanse the palate.

And if the person asking the mindless question was a physicist, who was dragged to the party by his trophy wife, and there was that uncomfortable pause while you had your internal rant, could you not respond, “So, how about that string theory?” My point being: why so elitist? Not everyone has the time, wherewithal, proclivity, desire, means or access to be a foodie, or a computer geek, or a fashionista. Speaking of, god only knows what you were wearing to that party, as it could very well have sent the fashionistas into spasms of bitchiness. A question: Does this sense of elitism contribute to your exhaustion with an author in Phoenix who had a French food revelation? In no way did your article fail, look at the intriguing discussion that has ensued. Thank you.

Normally, I'm totally in step with you. But. Wine and cuisine could not have developed independently: the little old wine maker was married to the little old wife. The wine and the cusine had to develop in lockstep. They (the winemaker and the wife) had no other resources, so the chicken followed the egg or vice versa. I'm working from the bottom up assumption...peasant food begat haute. The local dish and the local wine sprang up, grew up, matured together. Maybe someone from Venice came through with a bit of cinnamon, but day after day, they had the same grapes, the same pigs, and the same eggs. As far as food in 1900: it was probably much more intense in flavor...bad and good. The flavors could not have been as constant or dependable...one chicken may not have tasted the same as the next; depending on diet, butchering or other constraints. By 1900 food was being tampered with in not very nice ways: kerosene to cut milk, for instance. I suspect that 1900 in Europe was a far different culinary experience than it was in NY. Europe had the weight of tradition, and NY had the YAHOO! feeling of being the new world. But, I'm probably romanticizing, I'm really not that old. And where this puts wine/food pairing is anybody's luxurious guess. Accent on luxury.

Excellent write up Pontormo!! I was just going thru my notes and sources when I saw your post...excellent! Listen to what Waverly Root has to say in The Food of Italy, "It is evident that though Alto Aldige cooking exists within the political boundaries of Italy, it is not Italian cooking and since it is an alien element, we need not look at it as a whole." Really now! Although geographically, its been a ping pong going back and forth between Austria and Italy...its in Italy now, and thanks to the UN, it looks like it will stay there. (There was a terrorist German separatist movement in 1960). So contrary to Mr. Root, I say it firmly belongs in with the rest of the crazy quilt that is Italy. Weinoo, thanks, I think I'll head over to Clinton and Stanton to check out the wine shop. Random wine notes: Three quarters of the wine produced in TAA is DOC. That is a huge percentage! Indigenous grapes are: Nosiola, Teroldego Rotoliano ( ) andMarzemino. I have 2 premonitions: Elie is going to dazzle us with some bread, and Shaya will continue to be the gnocchi queen! This should be a fun region, we all have to dig a little harder to find the info. Genepy! That's the name of the alpine wormwood based digestive that I fell in love with. But that was in Alagna...which is Lombardia...I think. The borders seem to get hazier up in the mountains... or it could just be the altitude playing games with me.

Now, that is a very good question!

Today's NY Times has an article by Harold McGee about Absinthe and the cocktail Death in the Afternoon. In the article, he explains that champagne bubbles are caused by dust motes, and fibers. Not particularly romantic or appealing, but science is science. My question is, does that mean that examining the 'perlage' or bubbles, and looking for even, constant bubbles, actually has no bearing on the quality of the wine?

What about combining it with balsamic vinegar? A layer of champagne gelee, that a layer of balsamic gelee? with strawberries or chocolate?

I'm in agreement with Craig, drinking local wines can lead to some amazing discoveries. No, I wouldn't drink Lambrusco with E-R's lasagne bolognese, but a Brachetto with those salty, delicious E-R salumi's is an unexpected match made in heaven. I'm not sure that I agree that many European recipes are not centuries old. Poor transportation has existed for many centuries, so there was no choice but to make do with what you had on hand. Both for food and for wine, so who is to say that the development of the dishes wasn't influenced by the wine that was available to drink?

Are we discussing the merits of French food, or the perception of the merits of French food? In a previous life, I had to travel quite a bit to Paris and London, and I 'shopped stores' looking for fashion. I know, poor me. But, the experience meant that I was on the streets at lunchtime and would have to find lunch wherever I happened to be. I kept trying London pubs, or something that seemed organically English and it was, in a word, awful. Now, if you spent some real money, the food was excellent (I had a revelation over outstanding mushy peas.) In Paris, everywhere you looked there was an opportunity for an outstanding lunch. This is at the medium level...not down and out cheap, and not haute. So, for me, I'm hard pressed to say the English have just gotten a bum rap. There might be a little more to it.

How cool that you are blogging!! The photos are beautiful...I think my favorite so far, is the woman balancing the piles of plates. Remember our conversation about the similarites between VietNam and Italy? The vegetable vendors, the neighbors looking out for you, the friends scolding you for paying too much, the traffic! How true it is. But those piles of chilis and limes....that I would die for! I'm sorry I found this blog so late in the week...now the week will go by much too quickly. Thanks for sharing....and may your internet connection be fast and steady!!

Elie, thank you so much for sharing those production photos. When I opened this thread, it opened to the photos of the finished sausage...and as I'm reading I'm thinking how much I would like to see the making of the sausage...that's when I realized I'd missing the beginning. And voila...my wish was granted! What was the diameter of the finished sausage? Is there a discernible 'crunch' to the skin inside the sausage, or does it just sort of meld into the whole? Now I'm hungry for lentils... not that rolling it in parm doesn't sound pretty darn good as well. One day, I would love to watch you do this, in real time! Thanks again!

I went to bed with visions of FatGuy, Pedro, Craig Camp and Docsconz and the rest of us, all dancing like putti on the head of a pin debating the merits of micro-pairing; when I had an inspiration. A rare fillet mignon, blue bloody soft at the center radiating out until you reach the crusty, salty exterior. You serve only one wine…only its 6 bottles of the same wine, BUT each glass has been aerated for a different amount of time. The blue bloody part gets 2 sips of the freshly opened wine, radiating out to the overnight aged wine for the crusty exterior. So, am I onto something or what?? I’m with Docsconz and Kounin: if you aren’t having fun with the concept, its not for you. Cin-cin! P.S. There is no 'perfection', only perception. If you are chasing perfection, you might want to hire Sancho Panza as your sidekick.

Thanks Kevin! Nothing shoddy about your intro at all. What I'm finding interesting about these threads, is that we are going back to previous threads and using them as an ongoing reference. What could be better than that? We're creating some sort of ongoing regional reference guide. Bravi! There are some very interesting wines in Trentino AA, I hope I can find some here. That and some of those really good game salamis.

Kevin, next time can you make enough calzoncielli to send around to your friends?? please....