Really Nice!

You would think this is a no-brainer but a guy at work a couple of days ago sliced off half of his fingernail using a mandolin. It was pretty gross.

I've had the butter-poached lobster at The French Laundry and have also made it out of the cookbook after visiting the restaurant. When we were served the dish our waiter told us that the kitchen cooks it in Beurre Monté (see page 135 in the book) at 190°F for about 6 or 7 minutes. He said that it comes out so tender that some people think it's undercooked and send it back. I've made it at home and the texture has been wonderful every time.

I don't have a Bron but I do have three mandolines. They all function on the same principle. I took a look at several models on Amazon and it appears to have similar functionality. What problems are you having? Why is it more challenging?

Foie Gras Caviar Truffles

I got this through the K&L Wines newsletter. This action might be coming to your state soon. --------------------- Special Interests Attempting to Limit Your Selection and Pocket Your Money SB 118 (Chesbro) is a bill in reaction to the US Supreme Court direct wine shipping decision that prohibited discriminatory legislation. The bill originally would have created a permit that could be applied for by anyone licensed to sell wine to consumers (wineries and wine retailers) in any state. The permit would require registration with the California ABC, payment of California taxes, the same protections against delivery to minors that currently exist for CA wineries and retailers, limitations on shipment volume and would give the ABC the authority to regulate the shipments. However, the mega-wholesale distributor interests in CA (Southern Wine and Spirits and Young's Market Company) have called in their political muscle in order to remove out-of-state retailers from the permit system. Under the version of the bill approved on June 14th, only a select few retailers outside of the state of California may even apply for a permit. This is WRONG. The proposed permit system MUST provide for the ability of all retail licensees (wherever located) to participate freely. If retailers outside of CA are excluded from the CA market system, other states would retaliate by excluding California retailers from their markets. The goal of the bill was to encourage the creation of a national system of permits and licenses that provides the opportunity for every licensed merchant to participate, no matter where that merchant is located. This would be in the interest of all consumers, whether in CA or elsewhere. Retailers in all states invest significant sums of money in inventory from multiple winery and importer sources. Retailers hold that inventory (often for years) and make it available in a convenient way to consumers who know and trust the merchant. Those customers could be across the street or across the country. That is the reality of the current market, especially for the expensive, limited production and usually allocated, collectible wines from California and the rest of the world. Requiring these wines to go back up through the three-tier system after they have already traversed it once (if they even could, currently they would just be unavailable outside of California, or unavailable to California if they are located in another state) would give the wholesalers a double profit margin; certainly good for the wholesalers, but not very good for the retailer or for the consumer. Who pays? You bet that the consumer pays. The Supreme Court in the Granholm case condemned state laws that discriminated against out-of-state interests in favor of identically situated in-state interests. This statute would perpetuate discrimination WITHIN the California market by attempting to keep retailers from outside of California OUT of the market. While we think that any such effort would be unconstitutional as to retailers outside of California under Granholm, we do not want to fight the statute after it is written. Our goal is to make sure that the statute doesn't get passed with that flaw in the first place! The interests of the wholesale tier, by proposing to take retail licensees out of the statute, is NOT to benefit California retailers by keeping them safe from competition from outside of the state. It is aimed at PREVENTING California retailers from servicing customers outside of California unless the transaction is run through the wholesale tier at a significant cost. Their goal is to have this bill emulated throughout the US. If California creates a discriminatory licensing or permit scheme, the wholesalers will use that example as a bludgeon in every other legislature in the US to keep those markets closed to California retailers. The proposed bill can be found online at: http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/bills/SB_118 There is a link on that page for you to take action and contact legislators about the bill, or you can go directly to: http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/act/billle...AL+ORGANIZATION Most importantly - spread the word about this proposed bill. For a wine lover or wine retailer this is special interest politics at its worst.

Actually they reflect the prices the wines fetched in the market place. Check out the book.

Well said Vinfidel. I've said this before on this board but if anyone is interested in reading about how the classification came to be, pick up 1855 : A History of the Bordeaux Classification by Dewey Markham. It's truly a facinating read. I pick it up about once a year and read through it again; it's that enjoyable.

I'm in a wine club, which meets once a month, and I pretty much swallow it all. However, I also visit wine country once or twice a year. When I'm out there I spit. Napa and Sonoma (and perhaps all of CA, but I don't know) have a 0.05 percent BAL. In most tasting rooms, you’ll receive about 3 2-ounce glasses of wine. In terms of health and DUIs, a drink (or glass) of wine is 5 ounces. A 160 pound male who consumes 2 drinks in one hour is at 0.05 BAL. It's a bit risky, even if you're sober, driving up and down CA 29 with all those cars darting in or out of the wineries. And in Eastern Washington the wineries are in small clusters but spread out far enough that you have to take the highway. That too can be challenging after a couple hours. Visit three or four wineries in three or four hours and you can take in almost a whole bottle (5 drinks). It's under these conditions that I take the option of using the dump bucket rather than consuming the wine. No one takes offense. Besides, early in my visits I found that after the third drink my wallet opened up much easier to buy wines that I could buy at my local wine shop for about 20 percent less. Keep the wallet in the pocket and spit, spit, spit.

Got a response from the Château. It turns out that in the mid and late sixties, some portions of Château Margaux vintages were blended with barrels from the previous owners because the new owners did not want those barrels labeled as a first wine.

It is normal for Winbid to suggest to the buyer to drop the price when the wines aren't selling within the first two bids. Personally, I look for First Growths whose descriptions contain something about a stained and/or scuffed label as that usually means it won't sell the first time around and I'll get $20 off the initial bid. If someone else outbids me, I move on... It's a strategy that nets me about 15 First Growth bottles a year.

I had a bottle a few years ago. It should be easy to find. I think I bought it at Fine Wines and Cigars in Redmond Town Center.

I was a terrible first grade student and was forced to do my homework at the kitchen table while mom made dinner. I found that I could get out of doing homework once or twice a week by complimenting mom and her cooking, and then asking if I could help. The 2nd clue was on TV, also while in first grade. I'd get home at about 3:30 and watch Julia Child's The French Chef on WTTW and then switch to Speed Racer on WFLD, which was followed by The Galloping Gourmet. I couldn't understand why all those women in the audience made strange faces when Graham Kerr made stuff. I guess his menu was a bit unique for the '60s suburbia. The 3rd clue was that the first book I bought with my own hard-earned money was the Peanuts Cook Book. Best 60¢ I ever spent! I still have it.

Does the label have: mis en bouteille au château? This means it was bottled at the château. As I typed that sentence I decided to go directly to the source and e-mailed the château. --------------- Bonjour, The American Internet wine auction house, Winebid.com, is offering 10 bottles of non-vintage Margaux for auction. (http://www.winebid.com/buy_wine/search_results.aspx?SearchString=N.V.%20Margaux) What can you tell me about these wines. Are they affiliated with your château at all? Merci Michael --------------- Will post if I get a response.

This is a long shot, but Professor Shizuko Yamaguchi of the Tokyo University of Agriculture has done significant research on Umami over the past 20 years. You might want to contact the university to try and contact the professor with your questions.

Not to offend, but to me the Brooklyn has a 'good 'ol boys country club' presentation style to its dishes. Sauces are heavy, too much starch (and it always seems to be pureed or mashed), overcooked, out-of-season vegetables... That said I have dinner there about once a month. The duck is always nicely done and their fish is fresh and seasonal.

I've been seeing Non-Vintage Margaux on WineBid.com for awhile now. I'm not familar with their making a non-vintage wine, but I know what it is so, please, no explanation is necessary. Is anyone familar with their doing an NV? I've read my latest Robert Parker/Jancis Robinson/Oz Clark/Hugh Johnson books and none of them mention such a wine from Margaux. Anyone know about this who can provide more information?

Just reporting what they told me... :-)

I spent my 40th birthday at Serègo Alighieri and Masi just north of Verona. To start their wine tastings they would swirl a bit of wine in a unadulterated glass and pour it out. I was told this was to remove any residue from the dishwasher. I was with friends and was taken aback at this and my friend said "they" all do it as Craig points out. My friend had lived in Italy for three years at that time and had enough old world wine travel experience to witness that just about everywhere he went. I thought it was the soap residue, but I think it also has something to do with the hard water used in the dish washer. Just a hunch. In my wine club when the next wine is coming around I just swirl some water in the glass, drink it, and turn the glass upside down on a napkin for a minute. It works well for me. Regarding TCA, my experience has shown that once a TCA-tainted wine is in the glass, it'll remain in the glass no matter how many different wines are poured into it. If there's TCA in a glass, get a new glass.

Regular PN. We had two more break this week. Different people opening them, but the cork behaved the same way. I sent them an e-mail last week. No response yet. I never had a problem with them either. The cork has a tight, smooth grain.

Godito, I just learned that everything has a society! Happy reading and good luck.

The way it was described to me in culinary school was that Umami is richness without fat. It was discovered by Kikunae Ikeda, a chemistry professor at the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1906 (I think). The name for it comes from the Japanese adjective umai, meaning delicious. You can find umami in soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.

Just give me my glasses sans water stains or water spots. Nothing ruins a glass of fine wine more than having to look at it through the spots. <okay, lots of things can ruin a glass more, but it's really annoying to spend good money on wine and have it served in a dirty glass>

Walking to school tonight I see that a new meat shop is going into that vacant spot on Pike Place between Post Alley and Pine next to the Juice Emporium. It's going to be called Stewart's Meats. Can the market (both Pike Place Market and the economical market) support three meat shops? Edited for grammer, Kelsy Grammer.

If you ever want to know the "who's behind" a business opening go to the following locations: The Secretary of State's Online Corporations Database. This will tell you that Veil LLC is registered by Erik Lindstrom of Seattle. (It also includes his registered address, which I am not including here.) You can also check the Business Records Database. Here you will see that Veil LLC is located at 555 Aloha, STE 100 etc... There are more sites that provide this type of information out there... The best information to get off the posted license is the UBI/Tax Registration Number. That number will open many doors for your search.

Noticed yesterday that Tulley's Coffee Shop in the Market (Economy Market Building) on Union and First across the street from Union Restaurant is closed. The windows are papered up and the sign on the outside wall is gone. Also, it looks like the Crepe de France booth across from DiLaurenti's is going to be available soon.