russ parsons

i understand the theory, but i haven't found this to be necessary. Once in the last 10 years, I've had a batch of vinegar start to show some acetone--i added water and it recovered. For the most part, though, i make the straight vinegar, then dilute it to taste (since most wines are 13% to 14% alcohol, before watering vinegars end up being 7% to 8% acid, as opposed to 5%, which is the normal commercial strength).

i wasn't part of it, but there was a panel on dried mushrooms at the mendocino mushroom festival a couple of years ago, and they found that they actually improved with age. the flavor got deeper and more intense.

it was fun, but we don't do things like that that often. i certainly wouldn't dispute the rankings, but my personal favorites were the sherry yard macaroons, the alain giraud madeleines and the biscotti from la terza. great cookies!

you can still find some good buys on old rieslings--though certainly not the '71s! i've been buying them from Darrel Corti at Corti Bros. in Sacramento. He's usually got a good selection of stuff from the mid-90s, which is drinking really nice right now, at around $25.

i agree with brad, but i can't help but wonder at a topsy-turvy world where suddenly bordeaux is considered affordable.

much of my wine education came from a dear friend who had presciently bought up a bunch of the '71s. old rieslings are wonderful by themselves. the best accompaniment is crisp night air. usher everyone outside, pour them a glass, then tell them to breathe deep. failing that, a mild, ripened cheese such as taleggio might be ok.

sandy, i agree with most of what you said, but this really stopped me cold. of course it would depend on the crop and the location, and i'm not aware of any statistics to argue one way or another, but based on my neighborhood and how often the lawns get watered, this seems highly doubtful. To say nothing of the fact that most farming acres lack flush toilets, washing machines, sinks, faucets, etc. on the other hand, see you in Fresno!

there once was a minor craze for zinfandel ports, and there are still a few made. but, of course, botrytized wines and sweet wines are not necessarily the same thing

botrytis does infect both red and white grapes. but only in white sweet wines is it regarded as favorable. i have tasted it in dry white wines, there's a noticable "burriness",. but it wasn't pleasing. i don't remember ever tasting it in a red wine.

hmmm, i know he was talking about phasing it out at one point, but the los carneros merlot is the one that's listed on the website.

It may only be a few cents difference--i'm inclined to think it's a lot more since the cost of farming is far greater than the cost of transportation--but even so, that's the measure by which most americans buy their food today. you can bemoan it all you want (and i do, frequently), but the fact is that we pay 11% of take-home pay for food--less than half of the wwii figure-- and yet most people's primary concern about the food supply is that it costs too much. if i might suggest a solution, it would be to dump the cherries, get out of line at costco and go to the farmers market and support the few people who are still growing those new york apples you love so much. it's more trouble and it might wind up being a few cents more, but you'll almost certainly have better tasting apples. if you're not willing to do that, you really shouldn't be complaining.

it seems to me the real trick would be finding kool-aid that was locally grown and in season.

would that be the fat guy, or the mrs. fat guy who is going to give up their job to manage the homestead?

i'd hate for people to think it was only the french that made good merlot. check out my buddy rob sinskey's from carneros. incredibly elegant (and, yes, a little light). but great, well-defined fruit and absolutely delicious.

there is no easy formula because so much depends on the type of crop, the type of soil, the climate and even the specifics of year-to-year variation. While it's true that most of the peaches and almost all of the nectarines in the united states are grown in a 50-mile belt between fresno and bakersfield, it would be foolish to think that you could easily transpose those figures to new york. there are many reasons that agriculture migrated west last century and urban pressures are just one of them (like we don't have those here?). to use the peaches and nectarines as an example, they do best in an area that has cool wet winters and hot dry summers (humidity encourages all sorts of bad things). More to the point for New York, that's the same reason the pear and apple industries, which once thrived in new york, moved to eastern washington. still, i say the ideal solution is for each of us to grow everything we eat in our back yards. there's no transportation cost (well, maybe tennis shoes); you can control exactly the inputs you want; and you can be assured of always having exactly what you want to eat (as long as nothing bad happens). Short of that, I'm afraid, we're all just compromising.

i'd really recommend dinner at the Farm House Inn on the Russian River. That guy can really cook.

mine is called "The Best From New Mexico Kitchens" it was published in 1978 by New Mexico Magazine.

though food safety is indeed a concern these days, that might not be the main reason. different poultry have been well-cooked well before anyone heard of salmonella. one thing that can't be overlooked is that cooking changes flavor and texture--rare or raw chicken is something that most of us would find distasteful (i do seem to recall hearing about a japanese restaurant in la that serves chicken sushi). cooking turns the meat from stringy to firm and takes away the metallic flavor. i'd have to do more research to find out why duck, quail and squab are regarded differently, but i do know from experience that eating a medium-rare duck breast or a slightly bloody grilled quail is not at all distasteful.

there's another good oaxacan restaurant in venice, right on pico (next to vidiots, if you know where that is). It's called Texate. I wouldn't get in a "which one's better" argument (though I will stand for the original Guelaguetza over the others). But it is a really good alternative if you're tired of the others. they make a mean brains quesadilla.

man, i'd completely forgotten that book! i've got one from the '60s or '70s and it really is the bible when it comes to my new mexican cooking. in other words, that's where i learned to make my red and green sauces.

anybody remember a short-lived restaurant in santa fe called cafe escalera? amazing. david tanis was the chef, went on to be chef at chez panisse; deb madison was the pastry chef.

in my experience, uni is a little tough to cook with. though it certainly seems to have a very forceful flavor by itself, it really disappears into other ingredients. i worked for a couple of weeks trying to do an uni panna cotta or custard, which seemed like a natural. never could get enough flavor. a friend finally did one, but it involved basically pureeing a whole raft of uni and thickening it with a little kombu broth. he's a chef, so that made sense. i could see doing a dinner party when each appetizer basically cost me about $20. it works well in pasta sauces, but only if you add just a little cream and let it melt into it. i did one that was based on something michel richard does--slice cuttlefish steaks really, really thin, then flash them in boiling water and sauce them with uni and cream--it looks like pasta. i've come down to the point where i serve uni a couple of times a year, usually in the most basic way--bruschetta with a little lemon juice. that seems to really give people the full effect of the ingredient.

there was a thread on this recently. quickly, the salting draws the moisture from the bird, but then it is re-absorbed. it's a technique i learned from judy rodgers at zuni cafe. air-drying a brined bird typically only takes a half-day or so. the refrigerator fan is very efficient that way.

i air-dry my birds after brining, too. it's the moisture absorbed by the skin that keeps it from browning uniformly. but now i've been dry-salting and getting much better results all around.

good old acres! still rolling along, i'm happy to report. erna fergusson was a distinguished regional author from old new mexican stock (her grandfather was franz huning who was one of the first important traders on the Santa Fe Trail, her father was a congressman). the book, which was published in the '30s, is one of the few detailed looks at new mexican cuisine as it existed before the influx of outsiders following world war ii. the recipes can be a bit of a challenge (she was an author, not a recipe writer), but the ideas are there.