Rebel Rose

Congratulations, Susan! This is an exciting development for the whole site. I'm very pleased that you will be hosting here and also in Beer!

I asked my SO to please shoot me if I ever attempted to write another cookbook. He agreed wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, he doesn't keep firearms around and won't even empty mouse traps. So I have one more to write. The concept is so clear to me in every detail that it feels as if I'm preventing reality from happening if I don't write it--like some sort of blocked astral gate. I hope to have the text compiled, edited, tested and done by August, and I have a photographer lined up for September. I'm writing my book proposal now. It won't be a literary masterpiece, or unique like chefzadi's project, but I hope to have fun with this one, now that I know a little more about what to expect.

I think I am on both sides of the fence about this. Some people dine out almost every night of the week, particularly in a metropolis where travel can be complicated and shopping almost as expensive as dining. It also saves time as one can eat and network with associates or visit with friends. Mr. Shaw mentioned that he takes bottles out 'several nights' a week, so if he has a regular table night with friends who look forward to his contributions and do appreciate the cost savings over the restaurant offerings, why not? On the other hand, we have an, ahem, family friend who is always bringing us 'old' wines as if they were rare treasures, but he doesn't know anything about wine, really, and has generally terrible taste. Plus, he can't seem to tell when a wine is past its peak and will happily trudge through it, expecting us to like it as well. My SO, a winemaker, will be very blunt about it which leaves me in the tedious position of playing family peacemaker and saying, "Oh, but I like it." We learned early on not to dine out, because FF would bring 6 bottles, sometimes magnums, to the table. Now we always suggest dining at home, so SO can pull out some other wines (not necessarily ours, but from our cellar) and I can cook, which gives me opportunities to keep misplacing my glass.

Okay, at $17. 99 at my favorite SoCal wine store, it may be a little pricey, but the staff assures me that this brut champagne is their fave of the South African choices. Next month we will be hosting Philip van Zyl, editor of the John Platter Guide to South African Wines. So get out your bush hat and mosquito repellent and let's go on a wine safari. Graham Beck Brut Champagne Pinot Noir and Chardonnay "A Wine of the Western Cape" Available from Wade's Wines, 818.597.WINE Wade's also has a very reasonably priced selection of South African cabernet, merlot and pinotage.

Sinful. I love crispy skin. I've never thought about making it specifically for salads! I'd forgotten about couscous and miso. I used to buy them more often when I was single--good for making quick, one-person meals. And I heartily endorse making lots of vegetables. We usually barely steam them, so they're still bright and crunchy, which makes them more pleasant as leftovers. Say no to soggy vegies. Lunch was leftover broccoli with diced red and yellow peppers, warmed in the microwave and sprinkled heavily with sesame oil and sesame seeds. Served in a pretty bowl with chopsticks.

Great article, as always, Jon. It's refreshing to see consumer interest swinging away from oaky wines. Please write about sangiovese. I love that grape and I think California versions are getting short shrift in the wine press.

We love pasta, too, jgm. My favorite is penne, and when I'm really, really tired all I can eat is plain penne with butter and Parmesan--maybe a little garlic and tomato. We generally avoid eating lots of carbs, especially potatoes and flour products, but when I'm exhausted I crave starch. And with a growing teenager in the house we have to have some carbalicious foods around. There's also the fact that pasta is just so quick, and it doesn't need to be the whole meal. From my cookbook: We also make bruschetta on a regular basis, especially when I have no idea what to make for dinner. I'll just start warming some olive oil and garlic and chopping vegetables. Tortillas are another household staple, especially since we have a perpetually hungry yet hypoglycemic teenager. Beans, cheese, eggs, tomatoes, whatever--roll it up in a tortilla and microwave it for 40 seconds and you've got a healthy, filling snack. Even a warm tortilla with a little butter and salt is good. I like mine with just butter, salt and tomatoes. We never buy corn dogs, tater tots, frozen Mexican foods, etc. Aside from all the junk in that type of processed food, we'd go broke feeding him.

What are your favorite 10-minute meals? What do you like to make when you're too tired/broke/bored/busy to really cook? We like frittatas, especially during crush when we're working 16-hour days and sometimes aren't done cleaning the press until 2 am. Scramble some eggs, throw in whatever we have from the garden or vegetable crisper, pour it all in a round non-stick pan, sprinkle with cheese, and bake until the middle is set and the edges are crispy. Voila! Please suggest your favorite fast dishes that use only fresh ingredients, healthy staples like pasta, beans, etc., and maybe one din-in-a-tin food. For instance, I made a salad yesterday with mixed greens from a bag, fresh arugula, tomatoes, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and topped it with crab from one of those cool foil packets. Very handy.

Let me just warn you, Pam. Like The Little Red Hen, you'll have plenty of volunteers and input during recipe testing, but when it comes to copyreading . . .

Ah, but the California forum is not just for people who live in California--it's about California food, cooking and cuisine. So thanks for the post on Rancho Gordo. I have not tried June Taylor's yet but as I am a marmalade freak (good for bagels and marinades) I will have to order some right away.

This isn't a direct-to-producer link, but it's a great site for artisanal and sustainable California products. Savor California It's still a young business, but they already have a great selection of California products. I am definitely getting some of Tierra Vegetables' grapevine-smoke chipotles and chile jams. Their website says they appear year-round at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market. ::envy::

Burnt rubber aromas are generally caused by poor fermentation techniques or poor quality fruit. But even when the fruit is perfect and technique is good--well, grapes are like children, they're complex and even the most docile fruit can suddenly develop an attitude. It's very important for a winemaker to choose the correct yeast, and once a lot is inoculated, to monitor it closely during fermentation to make sure that fermentation is proceeding well, that the must is kept at the right temperature, that no other foreign matter is introduced, and that the yeasts have enough (but not too much) nutrient. From the ETS Labswebsite: See also Disgusting Things in Wine

I wonder if different cities have different cultural attitudes toward food shopping. When I'm in SF, I get the impression that being into food and food shopping is trendy. In LA, it generally seems to be eh, get some shrimp for the barbie and some box wine or Bob White (Mondavi chardonnay) and we have a party. Which is a shame because LA is such a melting pot, and as artisan02 pointed out there's huge scope for some great food markets. It's also much easier to sell central coast wines in San Francisco than in Los Angeles. LA restaurants are very publicity-driven and trend-conscious, whereas SF restaurants seem to have more confidence and a willingness to explore other wine regions. On the other hand, restaurant snobbery in SF reaches an almost comical state--I much prefer the laidback attitude of LA and the South Coast!

From Decanter: Mondovino director launches savage counter attack on Parker website. Get ready for a 4,500 word diatribe, plus responses. The Mondovino thread is here in Food Media and News. This post is locked, so please go to the Mondovino thread and share your thoughts! Mark Squires' Wine Bulletin Board at eRobertParker.com

That's a very good point, Tongo. Extended cold maceration and slow, controlled fermentations are much more common now than even a few decades. Many wineries now have jacketed stainless fermentation tanks that cool the fermenting must to keep the rate of fermentation down. A hot, fast fermentation is like boiling your pasta sauce to hurry it to the table--it results in off flavors and a loss of quality. Slow fermentations produce more pigment, body and flavor. At Dover, assuming we're working with quality fruit picked at the moment it most expresses its varietal character, we hope to end up with a wine that is full of character, with a proper balance of acidity and pH, and medium tannins. We shoot for final alcohol in the 12-14% range, although some releases go beyond that. I do agree that it's alarming to see a wineries producing a lot of 15% plus wines. There's a fine line between giving grapes a chance to fully ripen and picking them a week too late. There's also the issue of acidity or pH in a high alcohol wine--a high alc wine can still be graceful (for those of us who don't mind high alc) if it is buoyed by plenty of fruit acid. There's a current trend to produce high pH red wines (see pHat Wines, EnupH is enupH!) but when this style is combined with higher alcohols I always sense a hot mouthfeel, and sometimes mercaptans (burnt rubber). But that's just me, rattling off some wine geek stuff. I love any well made wine, low, high, dry, sweet, pink, purple. It would be fun to have a lower alcohol wine as a wine of the week.

When I lived in LA for about five years, I encountered what I felt was a really strange attitude from my suburbanite family and friends. They stay in their suburb, and are shocked and frightened at the idea of shopping elsewhere. If you live in Manhattan Beach, you shop in MB. If you live in El Segundo, you stay in El Segundo. Personally, I relished the thought of getting out of "town" and into the countryside or even just across the city to explore new shops and restaurants. Another part of their attitude toward shopping was that they felt that crime happened everywhere else in LA except where they live, and that they were only safe when they stayed near home.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that Philip van Zyl, editor of the John Platter South African Wine Guide has agreed to join us for a Wine Forum chat the week of May 23-27, 2005. So let's grab a Guide and a machete and prepare to do some research! Later this year, John and Erica Platter will also join us to discuss their book, Africa Uncorked: Travels in Extreme Wine Territory.

Actually, Jason, even though we make higher alcohol wines at Dover Canyon, I agree that lower alcohols are more food friendly. The 14%ers are better fireside wines--good for a game of chess or a murder mystery when I just want to savor a really rich wine. However, I continue to notice that most discussions about higher alcohol wines tend to omit the Rhones, which are often high in alcohol, whether European or American. I also find that I gravitate to wines with gentler tannins for food, like sangiovese and pinot noir. The sangios and pinots can still be high in alcohol as far as I'm concerned, as long as they have plenty of fruit acid and not too much oak. If a pinot, for instance, is 13% to 14%, and fleshy with fruit, mushroom and spice flavors, but still with a little acidic zing and no planky over-oaked character, I'm a happy camper indeed. So let's remember to include some other varietals in our discussion. . .

From Decanter: Mondovino director launches savage counter attack on Parker website. Get ready for a 4,500 word diatribe, plus responses. Mark Squires' Wine Bulletin Board at eRobertParker.com

Is it a passing fad? Is it a new expression of physiological ripening? An expression of terroir? Do only California wineries produce wines over 13%? Can it be done gracefully? Do big-alcohol wines have a place on your shelf? Eric Asimov tackles the issue in today's New York Times: The Hard Stuff Now Includes Wine Related Topic: East Coast vs. West Coast palates

I have just recently been introduced to gruner veltliners. Wow. A light-colored wine with a sauvignon blanc character and a strong black pepper essence! According to a friend who is a gv enthusiast, all the best gruner veltliners exhibit this character. I ordered a glass with dinner and everyone else at the table followed suit, even though they had been drinking heavy reds while waiting for our table. But we all agreed it was an easy transition and went well with a variety of foods, even the spicy moles at Villa Creek. Dr. Unger, Gruner Veltliner, Reserve, Kremstal, ’02 $30 at Villa Creek Restaurant in Paso Robles.

The Department of Food Science and Technology, Virginia Tech has just released results from their ongoing research. The bar charts demonstrate the measurable volatile aromas and esters in the headspace of the bottle. Evaluation preferences performed by a group of 60 people are written below each chart.

We watched part of it last night--up until the part that they were going back to their sister boat to pull two men out of the water and two helicopters arrived. Granted, these waters are so cold that survival time with a survival coat is less than twenty minutes, and granted, filming in rough weather is almost impossible, and granted, no helicopter pilot in his right mind is going to go out in rough weather just for a film, and granted, the actual conditions are undoubtedly rough, but . . .my SO said, "What the h***? How did the guy fall in the water in the first place? There's not a cloud in the sky and there's no waves." And he changed the channel. Back to Rachel Ray. I hope someone else got to see the whole thing.

So what's wrong with applying? It's called "submitting" in our circles. Uh . . . oh dear, radiators and all that. What would the equivalent eGullet Society award be? And I think we should have an official, sanctioned eGullet mudpie wrestling contest with the two most contentious posters of the year throwing each other around, barely clothed of course. No loafers or leather. In melted chocolate.