Roger Lee x

Whoa. Is there some kind of empirical evidence I've missed seeing about what "most" of Iron Chef's audience are getting out of this show? Most of the people I've personally spoken to about the show are astonished by the quantity and quality of what gets produced in just one hour, bemused by the almost comical seriousness of the competition, and fascinated by the range of ingredients that the show uses. As for asian racial stereotypes, well let's face it, the Japanese are lovely people with a beautiful and unique culture, but a bit odd. Even other asians tend to feel that way about them. After all we are talking about a country that went from keeping all things foreign resolutely out for hundreds of years to adopting and adapting all things foreign in a historical blink of an eye, a people who went from being rapacious conquerors and warriors who neither asked for nor gave quarter to the most tractable and biddable of conquered peoples in literally a day.

Hmm. It appears that Spiegelau now makes many more shapes than I recalled. I guess I'm still hearkening back to Spiegelau's first generation Riedel knock-offs which had a distinct clunkiness in the stem and foot.

Just checking, cause this one is so much older than the others - is this a typo or are we talking 101 year old Armaganac and if it so, what does this cost at retail? My understanding about very old spirits is that, unlike wine, they don't really change much once they've been bottled. How long were these ancient Bas-Armagnacs aged in cask?

Hmm. Brandies never remind me of gasoline at all. White truffle oil used too liberally - now THAT reminds me of gasoline.

A cursory web survey of the better local wine & spirit merchants reveals the following under ุ Armagnacs. Which ones do you recommend? Astor Wines: Armagnac Dom. Grassa 3 Star #05864 (750ml) ศ.99/bottle 趼.90/case Dom. Grassa VSOP Armagnac #05515 (750ml) า.99/bottle า.99/case Sherry Lehmann: Nothing under ์ Garnet: De Montal VSOP stock number 2294 price ั.00 Larresingle VSOP stock number 14905 price ั.00 Loubère Napoléon stock number 14916 price ิ.00 Montesquieu Napoléon stock number 14962 price ำ.00 St-Vivant stock number 25323 price ส.00 BTW Jason, Garnet's prices for Ferrand are the lowest I've seen: Ferrand Ambre stock number 31522 price อ.99 Ferrand Réserve stock number 31263 price ฽.00 IMO Also good in Cognac: Gabriel & Andreu Borderies stock number 100197 price ฼.00 (The Fins Bois is good if you can find it and cheaper) Léopold Gourmel Age des Saveurs stock number 31214 price ฮ.99 (I haven't tried this particular one but Gourmel is a good producer) Finally, for something completely different, the solera aged Brandies de Jerez are quite nice Cardenal Mendoza stock number 12598 price ื.99

Although the Spiegelaus are good glasses and cheaper than the Riedel, I prefer the Riedels. I find the Riedels to be more graceful in appearance and there is a wider selection of shapes. Most of my glasses are from the Vinum series and they include the Bordeaux, Burgundy, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, Rheingau, Champagne and Everyday (gourmet). The one Sommelier series glass that I highly recommend is the Montrachet (Mature Burgundy) glass. Prices for Riedel have come down considerably under competitive pressure from Spiegelau they are currently at about ป-ฝ a stem for Vinum and อ-฻ a stem for Sommeliers with most of them around ะ. Look at http://www.brownderby.com/ and http://www.winex.com/, but be sure to find out about the shipping and handling charges as they can be quite substantial.