Bill Klapp

Signora, I defend your honor most vigorously! Literally, "What do the words "true wine geek" mean? I don't understand. Truly, NOT signora Loeb! I understand well "frizzante" and I enjoyed very much Ms. Loeb's thoughts. Well-spoken, Ms. Loeb! And also, let us not forget the Moscatos of Giorgio Rivetti...and ALWAYS the Moscato of Paolo Saracco." But I lie. Being a true wine geek myself, it would be hard for me to deny knowing what the words mean. And it hurts so much when others speak them to me! Actually, I wanted to see if Craig Camp is paying attention. I would have expected him to post a translation (or at the very least, correct my poor Italian grammar). I think that a guiding principle of one's life should be to like anyone who likes Moscato, and shun those who just don't get it!

Jim, in the interest of full and fair disclosure, I drank my last bottle two years ago, and thus, the comment! You're with me on the rustic, though, aren't you? Dino Gastaldi is an original, and that is saying a lot, considering that Neive also harbors the likes of Bruno Giacosa! Craig, I will walk down the hill and suck up bigtime in June. If there is any more '89 in his cellar, I'll beg for it! Just don't wait for any to show up on Winebid-not precious likely at this point in time. Jim, I find it most interesting that the tannins seemingly just went away like that. I never would have expected that in the wine's youth.

I suspect that this thread will be going on for the rest of the year, so I'll offer the following: I couldn't agree more re: Canada, especially if you factor in the currency exchange rate. In Europe, at least you can eliminate currency as a factor in many cases (and I would like to forget the fact that I could have bought the Euro at $.85 and now face $1.15!). I will shock many by proposing Italy as a candidate. Before the old Da Guido closed recently, you could do the "full monte" there for 55-65 Euro a person plus wine. Three antipasti, pasta, a secondo, cheese and dessert (with white truffles in season), and some of the greatest of all traditional Piemontese cuisine available. Outside of the big cities, most Italians have not yet learned the Franco-American art of charging whatever they think that the market will bear. The survival of ristoranti like Guido depends upon local patronage, and the frugal Piemontese place absolute limits on what they are willing to pay for most things. Charge more, and they have the willpower to decide that they no longer need or want the item. I think such decisions are fairly easy in a place where, if white truffles are too expensive to suit you, you can buy (admittedly inferior) black truffles for a relative pittance. The same philosophy seems to apply from the top ristoranti to the lowliest osterie. That is not to say that price gouging is unknown in Italy-Enoteca Pinchiorri in Firenze comes to mind. The food is very good indeed, but you can drop $50 on soup and a glass of wine there. And Harry's Bar in Venezia? Those are places that have become tourist destinations in and of themselves, and they charge accordingly. Thank God most of Italy is still farmland!

Che cosa vuol' dire le parole "true wine geek"? Non ho capito! Veramente, non la signora Loeb! Capisco bene "frizzante" e mi piace molto i pensieri della signora Loeb! Bravissima, signora! Ed anche, non dimenticariamo i Moscati di Giorgio Rivetti (La Spinetta), Bricco Quaglia e Vigneto Biancospino, e SEMPRE il Moscato di Paolo Saracco!

Hey, are you guys talking about my neighbor Dino? He lives just down the hill from our place in Italy. Our first winter there, he had to pull us out of a snowdrift. The Rosso is one huge, rustic wine, and to my mind, nowhere near ready to drink. I have heard that he has some land in Barolo (or maybe just a source of grapes, I'm not certain), and will be releasing a Barolo in the future. Our house white is his Langhe Bianco Gastaldi (80% Sauvignon Blanc/20% Chardonnay). Around $20 and impossible to find, even in the neighborhood in Italy. (I can never find Dino at home inorder to try and buy direct.) Terrific stuff, and a wonderful food wine to boot. I do note, however, that I have found more than average bottle variation in his wines.

I second Pixelchef on the Moscato, by itself or with dessert. For the Arneis lovers, try Giovanni Almondo's Bricco delle Ciliegie. I am also a fan of Gini's Soaves, La Frosca and Contrada Salvarenza Vecchie Vigna. But when Craig Camp is paying, I prefer a crisp Meursault Perrieres from Coche-Dury or perhaps one of the better-quality Montrachets!

As Mr. Brown is more or less a local (and having read his take on El Bulli!) and paints a picture of a declining Baia, I think your best bet, Peter, is just to drive on up to the Piemonte. We'll take good care of you there!

I'll second Carletto!

Craig, let me console you. I paid $900 for one of my Synchrony machines when it first came out! Also, oraklet, I disagree that espresso SHOULD be 100% Arabica. It CAN be. It is almost NEVER 100% in your average cafe in Italy, as pure Arabica has zero bite. I find it delicious, to be sure, but ultimately a little boring. I think the best espresso has a little robusto to create a complex and interesting flavor.

Let me solve this mystery for you, Craig. First, go on line and drop $600 for a Gaggia Synchrony COMPLETELY automatic espresso maker. You drop beans in one bin, water in the other, and push a button. I can hear the moans already, but trust me on this: it makes perfect espresso EVERY time. Not merely "pretty good for an automatic machine, and worth the convenience"-PERFECT. The thing was developed by a Swiss guy for Gaggia. He devoted his entire life to it. He is a genius. I own two of these machines-one here, one in Italy. Then, for my taste, forget about Illy, forget about Lavazza, good as they can be. Go on-line to www.essetti.com. Buy Mauro beans. They have 6 or so grades, including decaf. Top of the line is Atto Primo, which is 100% Arabica, and the richest, mellowest cup you will ever taste. I need the mellowness cut by the characteristic bitter edge of espresso, so I buy De Luxe. The further down the line you go, the stronger and ultimately harsher the blend, as the percentage of Arabica drops. I also believe that the Mauro people are geniuses. But then again, I also believe that Jeffrey Steingarten is a genius! Even if you think that I am a madman for advocating an automatic machine, still try the Mauro.

Jonathan: I follow a number of different reviewers, and while I have not been to Baia Beniamin, it is neck and neck with Balzi Rossi with all but Michelin, who took away its star. Gambero Rosso likes it 4 points better than Balzi Rossi, and most of the other Italian guides give them the same score. I found the service at Balzi a little cold and detached (not to say rude or anti-American, etc.) and the food not quite up to its Michelin star. I still think I want to go to Paolo e Barbara and eat some raw seafood! Peter, since it's you, let me add Giappun dal 1918 for seafood simply prepared, La Conchiglia in Arma di Taggia if you decide to roam a little further east, La Via Romana in Bordighera (all Michelin-starred, but selected not for that reason, but because all 3 are concensual favorites with all of the Italian critics as well) and Bacchus for wine and snacks in San Remo.

Balzi Rossi is in a pretty spot, but we found it disappointing. For the high-end treat, I would try Baia Benamin next time, or maybe go on to San Remo and do Paolo e Barbara.

Good work on those additional local wines, Camp! I forgot about the Chambave Rouge! Just in case somebody asks in the future, start lining up your Ligurian wines. I would respond "Pigato and Piemontese wines" there! I also want to second La Cave (I have to cut myself off somewhere!). Glad to hear from Peter, but apparently he didn't eat as much of the Filippo ham as I did!

If you hit Lucca, don't miss the hot focaccia coming out of the oven early AM or when they open in the afternoon at the Giusti bakery. Get the salted variety with just olive oil. From another world, that stuff!

Pomme Couronnee in Aosta (Gressan) offers a funky but fun menu based entirely on local apples. The best restaurant is Aosta is Vecchio Ristoro da Alfio e Katia (Michelin-starred and higher end). Lo Dzerby in Arnad (Locanda Pied de Ville) gives you the authentic home-cooking on a working farm experience. Gambero Rosso thinks Le Petit Restaurant in the Hotel Bellevue in Cogne (Localita Valnontey) and La Tour in Saint Pierre are the best restaurants in the province, while Lou Ressignon in Cogne gives you the local osteria experience. (Another local osteria, Lou Tchappe, seems to be in decline these days.) Pizza du Tunnel in Courmayeur is a great family-run pizza place, but do not hesitate to go for the meals other than pizza here. Otherwise, the ski towns of Courmayeur and Breuil-Cervinia don't offer much in quality dining at any level. One of my all-time favorites is Maison de Filippo in Entreves (a crarming medieval village right next door to Courmayeur), which alleges a dinner of 40 courses of purely local and mostly great stuff. (They get to 40 courses by counting every salami on the antipasto plate-it's not really too much. I still dream about their baked ham and trout!) Nuovo Batezar-Da Renato in Saint Vincent is another Michelin-starred attraction., as is the newer Maison Laurent in La Thuile (Localita Thovex). I finish with Locanda La Clusaz in Gignod for local cuisine, and you now know everything that Michelin, willinger, Plotkin and 7 Italian restaurant guides know! Look for the wines of Les Cretes, particularly the Cuvee Frissoniere Les Cretes Cuvee Bois Chardonnay, and a red wine they make that has something to do with the devil in the name (Iwant to say L' Enfer). Not a great wine area. Try to drink Piemontese reds with this hearty meat-and-cheese cuisine.

Go to Badia a Coltibuono (it should be on the map). It is an ancient abbey high up in the hills, with a great restaurant for lunch. The estate is owned by Lonenza de Medici and her husband, and her son runs the restaurant. She also does her $7,000/week cooking classes on the premises. The estate also produces a famous Chianti Classico and great olive oil. Absolutely beautiful spot!

I'm firmly in the "seed the tomatoes" camp, for the reasons Craig has articulated. However, all of this tannin discussion raises an interesting point: by analogy to wine, does your tomato sauce age more gracefully and develop secondary aromas and flavors if you leave the seeds in? A tomato is a fruit, after all! (But maybe your sauce would have to be fermented to get the benefits, and then I suppose you have to address the question as to whether stainless steel, large chestnut casks or barrique is the best material for elevage, then new oak vs. old oak, then new wave vs. traditionalist-there would be no end to this thread!)

Great article, Craig! But this thread could go on forever! Don't forget that no self-respecting pizza place is open for lunch (at least in the north). No cappucino after 10:00AM, but never hesitate to put a quarter-pound of sugar in a single espresso! Never bring wine as a gift to an Italian host who produces his or her own! It is a lifetime's work NOT to give yourself away as being American. Even if you do not speak and wear fine Italian threads, you are destined to do something at the table that will sell you out! Thank God the Italians are as tolerant as they are.

The El Bulli piece is nothing short of brilliant! Kudos to you both, and count me in on the next trip!

I second weinoo's opinion on this. If your tomatoes are not outstanding (and in the U.S., that would be, sadly, 95% of the time), you are better served by using the best quality canned tomatoes (but beware the fraud that goes on in canned San Marzano tomatoes imported from Italy-for example, the corporate conglomerate masquerading as a health food market, Whole Foods, markets its own "San Marzano" tomatoes, but if you read the can carefully, you discover that the tomatoes are not imported, but instead come from California and merely aspire to the quality attributed to San Marzano tomatoes!). And Bond Girl has it right when she says that oven roasting will concentrate flavor and sweetness of any tomato. However, when I have great tomatoes, I don't cook them at all. I make spaghetti alla checca: Seed and chop the tomatoes to a large dice (1/4 inch square or larger, as you prefer). Salt them with sea salt, and put in a colander at room temperature for an hour to drain out much of the water. Then combine the tomatoes with fresh basil (julienne or in larger pieces if you like a different texture to your basil), a little minced garlic and enough EVOO to create a marinade, plus pepper and additional sea salt to taste. (I often add a pinch of sugar as well, as I find that salt and sugar together have a flavor-enhancing effect on most vegetables similar to MSG-the goal being to balance the quantities of each so the taste is neither sweet nor salty. Try this with steamed broccoli or sauteed spinach sometime.) Let the mixture marinate for 2 or 3 more hours (the longer the better). Next, cut up the best mozzarella you can find (buffala is good, but sometimes, a fresh, locally available artisanal product can be better) into no larger than 1/4 inch dice. Cook up some pasta (I prefer cappellini d' angelo) al dente, and drain, but do not rinse to stop the cooking. Toss the mozzarella cubes in the hot pasta, then toss in the tomato-basil-garlic sauce. Serve with a little fresh-grated Parmignano if you like.

Here, here! I'm in the great ham is great ham camp, and look forward to sampling some of the best Spanish hams you describe in your post. Like good Italian hams, the better Spanish hams are hard to come by in my neck of the woods.

Beware! Any minute now, Steve Plotnicki will weigh in and allow as how the French cure better hams than the Italian or the Spanish! There is no question that the Spanish cure a mean ham, and I think that the serrano in the U.S. is often better than the imported prosciutto, as it seems to travel better for some reason. If the Italians have the edge, it is not due to your average prosciutto crudo, but rather to the sheer variety of first-quality artisanal hams from Parma and San Danielle. In particular, there is a boneless heart-of-prosciutto product known as culatello (the authentic culatello is getting hard to find even in Italy these days) which cannot be described in mere words.

Craig has it right. The people in my area, the Piemonte, refer to the Tuscans as "the bean eaters"! The Tuscans, having never come up with a snappy retort, instead take out their hostility on the Bolognese, referring to Bologna as "Bologna the Fat". And so it goes. I, too, believe that Jim is right about the borlotti beans. It has always seemed particularly un-Italian to me to double up on the starches that way, but they do it to such good effect. See also ribolla, the famous Tuscan bread soup.

Although we eat mostly fresh and generally handmade pasta in my neck of the woods, some dishes are good only with dried pasta, especially when the success of the dish requires the "bite" of al dente pasta (not really possible with tajarin, for example, which is not only fresh and tender, but thinner than dried cappellini d' angelo). I love both. I subscribe to the "one is not superior to the other, they are merely different" school of thought. Speaking of pasta, I think Plotnicki stumped me on this one: he asked to name one famous pasta maker. I thought the question might be a little unfair, in that pasta is only a course (and sometimes only one of seven in Italy), and considering the history of pasta (China, Marco Polo, whatever version you like), Steve is no doubt right that ANYBODY can make pasta of some quality or other. So I tested it out by going to Amazon.com and searching "pasta". I only got 765 hits, and the names of the authors were virtual unknowns: the Hazans, Lorenza de' Medici Stucchi, Wolfgang Puck, Alice Waters, Bugialli, Biba Caggiano, Julia Della Croce and Irma Rombauer, to name a few. (I also searched "French cooking", "French cuisine" and similar terms, and the highest hit count I got was 691.) I also looked at the online menus of a few lesser-known French restaurants (none of Ducasse's for sure, as Steve assured me that, despite his 7 Michelin stars, he is really cooking Italian Riviera stuff and not to be taken seriously), and found a couple of curious things. Troisgros: RAVIOLIS de grenouilles; Taillevent: cebettes, artichauts, cepes d' Auvergne fins RAVIOLIS de pommes de terre; and this from Salon magazine, written about Guy Martin's recent third Michelin star at the venerable Grand Vefour-"What earned Martin his third star? Specialties like RAVIOLES de foie gras a l' emulsion de creme trufee." Isn't that ravioli stuffed with goose liver with a little truffle-flavored cream sauce? And no doubt black truffles at that, which they give away in the Piemonte and only eat if there are no superior white truffles to be had? What is going on here?

And now for this evening's news headlines: Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. And Steve Plotnicki is, well, still Steve Plotnicki, with all that may portend!