slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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My point, Matt, was simply that there are shitloads of inexpensive great wines out there. And you don't need to be a "wine expert" to find them... you only need to find a decent wine store near you and avail yourself of their advice. Similarly, the best way to get a great wine in a restaurant is to make friends with the wine guy and ask his/her advice.
I also very much recommend the book by Willie Gluckstern I mentioned earlier in this thread. "Experts" may not agree with everything he says in there, but reading his (quite short and easy to read) book will immediately bump you up a level in your wine appreciation and expertise.
Two things he turned me on to are: 1. riesling is a practically-can't-miss white wine for food; and 2. barbera d'asti is a practically-can't-miss red wine for food.
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2. it's cheap. at least, relatively cheap. i'm not rich, and can't afford to buy a couple cases of petrus or duckhorn.
I'll take a 10 dollar bottle of Barbera d'Asti over a 20 dollar bottle of merlot every time. The fact is that there are plenty of reasonably-priced excellent non-merlot red wines out there. Nancy's wines here in NYC has five reds at under $20/bottle in their "perfect case sampler. They feature over 180 excellent wines, both red and white, priced under $10.
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I really would like to have a self contained icecream maker. Something where I can just pour in the ingredients and flip a switch.
Rachel and I want one of those really nice mandolins, and we've been talking about buying one for years.Jason, I got a great deal on the Mafter mandoline (which I like better than the Braun anyway) out in Arizona once. If you're still wanting one the next time I'm out there, maybe I can pick one up. I think I got mine for less than 75.
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Most of the older generation of Italians I know who cook (i.e., grandmothers) rarely if ever use a cutting board. Almost everything is done in the air with a small knife.
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It seems to me it's not about "merlot" or "chardonnay," it's about how some people make merlot and chardonnay....
Well, exactly... and 99% of it is one dimensional, low-acid, over oaked crap.
One would have to be very naive about wine to suggest that there are no first-rate merlots of chardonnays. But these are the exeptions rather than the rule and one will end up spending an arm and a leg for most such examples.
The unhipness of merlot and chardonnay, needless to say, is founded upon the popularity of the quotidian crap, not the rare treasures. Willie was, in my understanding, directing his comments to the ubiquitous bottlings of merlot. I also wonder how many 100% merlots there are out there that are any good. I'm guessing not many. There is no question that merlot is a valuable grape for blends.
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Plus: Sam, you need to find some fresher wine, dude! Those old corks are a pain.
Yea yea yea... I know... I really have to drink up what I have, too. I've got a case of 1969 Ch. Figeac, St.-Emilion I inherited that I really must drink before it turns into vinegar.
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Edit: Jeez...how could I have forgotten corkscrews? Although I'm faint with lust when I see a Rabbit in the hands of one of my oeno buddies (Guajolote? Awbrig? My cousin Cort) an eight dollar corkscrew can open a bottle of wine. Just fine.
As someone who has a Screwpull (got it as a gift) I can say that there is a significant difference. There are many corks that would crumble or tear with a regular corkscrew that come out no problem with the Screwpull. I actually tested this side-by-side using some bottles I had where the corks were in not-so-great shape.
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I second what others are saying about good deals to be had at Ikea. The best for me are the large cutting boards they sell that are actual end grain, which is getting harder and harder to find these days. 25 bucks a pop. Not only is this cheap, but I am not sure I have seen end grain cutting boards anywhere else.
I have three of them.
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My feelings on merlot are neatly summed up by Willie Gluckstern in his book The Wine Avenger, so I might as well make a small quote:
- As a red grape, Merlot is the "un-red wine," the twin to Chardonnay in its use as a neutral, low-acid base for oak flavoring.- Like Chardonnay, Merlot has a one-dimensional flavor profile (some nonspecific melange of plumlike fruits liberally dosed with chocolaty oak).
- Like Chardonnay, they all taste virtually the same -- like wood.
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Foam Pants: IMO yeast raised waffles are significantly crisper and significantly lighter than the regular kind. The batter is much thinner than regular waffle batter and so once the liquids have cooked off there is more air in a yeast waffle. One of the great things about this is that you can eat more of them! However, on the downside, due to their more etherial nature I am not sure they would freeze very well.
As for making waffles with friut... I don't think fresh fruit would work very well, but small pieces of dried friuit might. Maybe dried blueberry or dried cranberry waffles? Driet currant waffles? I make pecan waffles all the time.
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Aren't there can openers that cut the seal between the can and the lid?
Something like this?
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Per my post in the waffle thread...
Most wafflophiles I know -- and this includes myself -- think that the 1960s era Sunbeam Waffle Baker and Sandwich Grill is the best of all time. As it so happens, there are a few up for auction on eBay right now (click and click and click some more).I find that the Sunbeam has the best depth of waffle pockets (if that makes any sense) and thickness of waffle. Most modern waffle irons make what I see as "waffle crackers." The other nice thing about the Sunbeam is that it has separate waffle and griddle plates. This is good for two reasons: 1. you are not burning the griddle plate with the heating element every time you make waffles (or vice-versa); and 2. the griddle plates are wonderful for making pancakes, grilled cheese/cubano/"panino-style" sandwiches.
(edited to add below)
Oops! just noticed you wanted one for Belgian waffles. Hmmm. That is a different story, although I have used my Sunbeam to make pretty good Belgian-esque waffles (the pockets are smaller, of course) four at a time that I serve with the usual Belgian waffle accoutrements.
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I second what others have said about separating the eggs and whipping the whites. My experience has also been that yeast raised waffles are significaltly lighter and crisper than baking powder raised waffles. I use a modification of Shirley Corriher's recipe in CookWise, where the sponge is actually fermented overnight. My modification is that I still separate the eggs and beat the whites (the eggs are added to the sponge in the morning). Recipes for Marion Cunningham's yeast waffle batter and Shirley Corriher's overnight yeast waffle batter may be found here.
Of course, the waffle iron makes a very big difference as well. Most wafflophiles I know -- and this includes myself -- think that the 1960s era Sunbeam Waffle Baker and Sandwich Grill is the best of all time. As it so happens, there are a few up for auction on eBay right now (click and click and click some more).
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For me, it's always #3: a towel. Not that I haven't tried #4 a time or two when I wasn't paying attention.
"Mmmmmm... smells like bacon... AAAAAUGH! MY HAAAAAAAAAAAAND!"
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This is, I think, one of the arguments of the fat and protein diets.
Look at it this way: one glass of Metamucil contains three grams of dietary fiber (primarily from Psyllium husk). One tablespoon of olive oil contains 14 grams of fat. Which do you think would be more filling: four and a half glasses of Metamucil or one tablespoon of olive oil?
I think it is more of an issue that fat is more satiating than fiber, which is different from filling.
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Thanks for the reply. I guess my questions comes down to this:
1. If you have excess calories in the diet, we agree that they are stored as fat, yes?
2. Protein, carbohydrates and fat differ as to their efficiency in being converted to stored fat, yes?
3. Given a situation in which there are excess calories in the diet, the body will selectively store the fat first and then go looking for calories to store in the other two forms, yes?
This last one would seem to be the logical conclusion of the quote in my last post which seems to suggest that almost any time the body says, "I have 50 more calories floating around in the blood than I really need," the fat cells will tend to grab 50 calories worth of fat (fat fractions, I gather... but I am simplifying) from the bloodstream rather than 50 of protein, 50 of carbohydrates or some mixture of the three. By extension, this suggests that the fat cells will only try to grab some carbohydrate or protein and convert them to fat storage when there is no fat to be had floating around in the blood or when there are unusual circumstances that dictate otherwise.
Since allmost any lifestyle except for those impossible zero fat diets would seem to provide enough fat in the blood to be stored in the fat cells when such a situation arose, wouldn't this tend to suggest that the general real world efficiency by which excess calories are stored as fat is fairly close to the efficiency for fat? Say 95% efficiency or so? Does this seem like a reasonable assumption? Of course, I imagine that there are all kinds of hypothetical special case situations where this might not be true (absolutely zero carbohydrates, for example)... but I am thinking more of real world situations.
On the other hand, your comments about protein being converted to energy only as a last resort in starvation conditions tends to suggest that this might not always be the case -- that the body might normally prefer to burn fat and store protein. Then again, maybe this works differently in hypercaloric as opposed to hypocaloric diets? Really, I guess the whole thing hinges a bit on the "protein into fat or energy" question.
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but still, they ain't that cheap 'round my parts. but i only shop at the most expensive of stores.
Well, naturally. I assumed you were speaking of the heirloom limes you buy that come individually protected in spider silk wrappings woven by blind virgins. I know that's the only kind I use. I was only using those quotidian limes to make an example.
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wha? you're joking, yes? limes are about 3 for a dollar here in northern NJ. i'll be right over...
They are?! Man... I think limes were something like 8 for a buck the last time I was at Fairway... and the Korean owned/Mexican staffed market on 104th and Amsterdam has them for something like 12 for a buck. $5.31 would get me almost my weight in limes!
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But, FG... it can be so much fun to make fun of these people when they do that...
Jason, I know exactly what you're saying. Since I find myself in North Carolina and Texas on a fairly regular basis, this is the precise reason I never eat barbeque in NYC.
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I find it hard to grasp how anything could possibly be better than Katz's. Maybe in heaven?
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My inital reaction was the dish looked like the flying face sucker creature they had to pry off Spock's face in one of those old episodes of Star Trek.
Is that the same as those flying over-easy fried eggs where one of them landed on Spock's back and took over his mind?
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Hundreds of thousands of Swiss, French and Germans can't all be wrong, now can they?
Hey, they're right about coo-coo clocks and berets and... oh, never mind...
:detestable smiley:
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There is a very good explanation of the variables involved in thin/crispy versus thick/chewey cookies in CookWise by Shirley Corriher. When I get home, I'll take a look and see what she says.
What's wrong with Merlot?
in Wine
Posted · Edited by slkinsey (log)
Hmmm... all I can say is that I've never had a barbera d'asti or riesling over here that I would put down in the same category with most similarly-priced merlot. It's all been pretty good. But maybe the stuff making its way into American stores is some of the better stuff...
Oh, I completely agree. But, it must be pointed out, that most people want to know just enough about wine to make reasonably informed choices which will lead to getting a decent drink to go with their food without doing any homework. God knows, I've got enough homework to do without spending a lot of my spare time keeping up on wine. I like wine, but there are too many other things to which I am giving my attention. This is, I think most people would agree, the major stumbling block for most people in developing a better appreciation for wine.