Forty Four: From Campaign to Champagne

I received a most peculiar e-mail today from Bacchus Wine shop for a sparkler called “Forty Four: Barack Obama Sparkling Wine.” It’s a blend of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Ugni blanc (the grape typically used in Cognac) which sounds quite odd to me. I guess it doesn’t matter what it tastes like since most people will buy it as a collectible for their shelves. The name derives from the fact that Obama is soon to be the country’s 44th president.

“On November 4th, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, as the first minority person to achieve the great office since the founding of the union. This commemorative bottle of Sparkling Wine celebrates Obama’s historic achievement; a toast to the human spirit’s ability to accomplish great deeds despite the odds. Reflect and enjoy!”

It’s available at the Bacchus online store or for direct purchase via Google Checkout.

I’m sure this isn’t the first Obama themed potable on the market. Have you found any other Obama commemorative bottlings? Consumed any?

Wild Mushroom Hunter’s Soup

Since Wine Blogging Wednesday: Baked Goods, when I tasted a wonderful Amontillado, I’ve been having fun cooking with sherry.  Sherry is a wonderful ingredient for food as it adds great savory flavor and it lasts for months without spoiling. I made this recipe for New Years Eve dinner last week and I was amazed at the simple preparation and complex, rich result. A lot of soups can require significant chopping or blending work, while this one was very low maintenance.  The exotic mushrooms, sherry, and caramelized onions are a fantastic mix. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 1/2 cups thinly sliced onions
2 tablespoons thinly sliced garlic
1 1/2 pounds fresh wild mushrooms (any kind that you like will do, I used mainly shiitake)
1 1/2 cups fresh tomatoes, diced, or canned diced tomatoes in juice
6 cups chicken or mushroom stock, or low-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup amontillado sherry
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan (this is optional, I omitted it)
fresh parsley, chives, basil and/or chervil chopped for garnish

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large, deep pan over medium-low heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring, until they are light golden.

While the onion mixture is cooking, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a separate pan over high heat; add the mushrooms and saute until they are lightly browned. Add the sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes and stock to the onion mixture. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the sherry and lemon zest and season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with cheese and/or herbs.

This recipe is from the Wine Enthusiast Magazine Wine & Food Pairings Cookbook. It features 80 recipes and wine recommendations. What I love about our book is that the recipes are organized by wine so you’ll find recipes for “light, aromatic white wines” (like this one) as well as “big, powerful red wines” for example. It was written by our editors and has great photos too, like the one above

Cycle for Survival 2009

Cycle for Survival is an annual indoor cycling event to raise money for research on rare, “orphan cancers” that are particularly low in funding. Though thousands of people are inflicted with these diseases every year, research is a long way from developing any kind of effective treatment. Once again this year, as I did last year, I’m participating in Cycle for Survival as a captain for the “Sunday Spinners” group, comprised of myself and three of my loyal Sunday spin class devotees. I know times are tough but if you can donate a few dollars to the cause, it would really mean a lot to me. As one of my cousins was at Memorial Sloan-Kettering this year, supporting cancer research is more personally relevant. You can donate directly here.

Thanks again, and I promise to get back to the great food and wine with my next post!

Pure Food and Wine

No oven. No stove. No grill. No meat. No dairy. Sound like a hellish dining experience? The divine kitchen at Pure Food and Wine proves that it doesn’t have to be. The cooking at Pure is really not “cooking” at all, as nothing gets heated above 118F. The folks at Pure say that this “preserves the food’s natural enzymes which catalyze digestion.” Essentially, eating raw food is supposed to maintain a lot of the great nutrients that are present, rather than having them released by heat. Like I said, Pure has no heat-conducting kitchen appliances. What they do have is a few dehydrators which slowly dehydrate ingredients at a very low temperature.

The cuisine at Pure Food and Wine takes influences from all over the world including some Southwestern flavors in chili lime tortilla wraps with avocado and pico de gallo or Asian elements in a Lapsang smoked portabella mushroom. They do seem to love their mushrooms as a myriad of species were on the list from trumpet to shiitake and chanterelle. I’m a mushroom freak so this was OK by me! They serve wine, sake, and hard cider but no beer or spirits due to the high temperature at which these are fermented. I’m not entirely satisfied with that explanation. Wine can be fermented at a pretty wide range of temperatures and I don’t know it’s true that all beer is fermented at a higher temperature. This sounded strange. Anyway, I ordered a fig sake martini and E had a hard cider and we moved on.

I started with a napolean of thick pumpkin seed crisps, cashew cheese and mushrooms (trumpet I think). I’ve never had cheese made from nuts but the cashew cheese tasted like real, creamy goat cheese. It was a delectable bite with the earthy pumpkin seed crisps. E had the marinated shiitake and avocado sushi rolls served with freshly sliced, pungent ginger (not pickled). I’m amazed at how soft and sticky the rice was, of course without the use of a rice cooker. For entrees I had tamales filled with a soft white corn mash studded with marinated mushrooms (pictured below). There was a rich, raw cacao mole that I dragged each bite into along with a tomatillo cilantro salsa for balanced acidity. E had the tostada with mushroom, cabbage, pico de gallo and guacamole. The flavors harmonized beautifully in all of the dishes.

from VeggieGirl

I was in awe at how phenomenal the food was. Pure Food and Wine is not just good for its category, it’s a great dining experience in and of itself. Raw food is unforgiving. Think of the difference in flavor between a raw carrot and a cooked carrot. How fresh must the ingredients be at Pure for them to craft these involved dishes, without the cloak of heat? I will warn that Pure is on the pricey side, but even in this economy it’s worth it to pay for the freshest of organic ingredients, wisely prepared and served in a friendly, elegant setting. What’s better than that?

Pure Food and Wine: 54 Irving Place
Cuisine: Raw Food, Vegan, Eclectic
Average App/Entree Price: $14/$25
Word to the Wise: Pure also has a casual, takeout option for lunch (restaurant is only open for dinner) called Pure Food and Juice and a vegan product site called One Lucky Duck

How Restaurants Must Evolve for the Changing Wine Consumer

I had a great meal last night at Trestle on Tenth, a cozy Swiss restaurant around the corner from my apartment. I was with my immediate family plus my aunt, uncle, and cousin, who love collecting wine as well. Between my Dad and my Uncle, we brought seven bottles of wine to dinner. We started with a buttery Far Niente Chardonnay then had a complex White Chateauneuf-du-Pape. For reds we had a hardy Remirez de Ganuza 1994 Rioja, a South African Shiraz, and a Walla Walla Washington State Cabernet. The wines were as diverse as can be so not all of them pleased everybody. But it didn’t matter, there was little risk involved with the $20 corkage fee assigned to each bottle. We weren’t paying a 100% markup for each bottle like we normally would, had we ordered from the wine list.

The restaurant was near empty on a Sunday night at 7:30. Despite our rowdiness and our quirks, I think they were glad to have our business. Nobody questioned the fact that we brought our own wine. Truthfully, how could they? In today’s economy, avoiding a restaurant markup is an easy way to save money. A recent survey by the Wine Market Council showed the majority of participants were eating out less, with the most significant decline (39%) in fine dining.

Of course everybody needs a reprieve from the stress that all of this causes and people may still be gripping the bottle to calm their woes. But they aren’t buying $100 bottles, they’re looking for the sweet spot of great wines at affordable prices in the $15 range. I know this from experience, promoting wine every day on WineExpress.com, but it’s no secret. Knowing all this, fewer people will needlessly pay $45 in a restaurant for a wine that’s on sale for $15 at the wine shop around the corner. Restaurants will need to wise up to meet the changing consumer, or risk facing empty tables.

My predictions for what needs to happen:

• BYOB will become more of a standard habit, with nominal corkage fees
• If not, prices will have to come down. Consumers are smart and know what a wine should cost and what it costs on a menu. They simply won’t pay double.
• If not, menu prices will have to come down. I get that restaurants make most of their money on drinks. Maybe it’s unreasonable to expect prices to come down on wine, but people need some incentive to open their wallets. Maybe more prixe-fixe meals or weekly specials?

Something’s gotta give, or I’m afraid restaurants might have a painful year (or more?) ahead of them.

Indochine

In a city where fusion restaurants are about as exciting as vanilla ice cream, the staff at Indochine remain pretentious, despite their incompetence. French-Vietnamese cuisine was a novelty in 1984 when Indochine opened its doors but it has since become one of many fusion restaurants of every color and flavor imaginable. Indochine is a beautiful restaurant with large palm trees inside the room and bare white walls.  It feels like a special place. But if I returned I would serve the staff a slice of humble pie. What do I know though? The restaurant was packed on a Saturday evening at 8:30, so packed that we had to wait 15 minutes after our reservation time, for our table to be ready. I guess a lot of people sacrifice friendly service for good food.

I was there for a friend’s birthday so I sampled a lot from the menu. We started with a spicy beef salad special as well as tender and delicately spiced lamb loin, served atop shrimp crisps. Another standout for me was the filet mignon carpaccio with ginger scallion oil, one of the best I’ve had.  A steamed chilean sea bass marinated in black bean chili paste had just enough ginger broth to make the fish slick and flavorful, without drowning it. Unfortunately the sweet rice and sticky rice were a gloppy mess, lacking any elegance of seasoning or texture.  Stick with the steamed jasmine rice, a safer bet. Their extensive menu of specialty cocktails fared well: a friend had some kind of Maker’s Mark tangy berry concoction and I had a cucumber infused gin martini, both well-made.

Though the food was generally good it does not make up for the snub hostess or our bumbling waiter who forgot dishes without apology, all the while maintaining a thick attitude. Some might choose food over service but I’m not one of them, especially when the meal isn’t cheap.

Indochine: 430 Lafayette Street (between 4th and Astor Place)
Cuisine: French-Vietnamese
Average Entree Price: $18-$23

Le Marais

Le Marais is one of many great kosher restaurants in Manhattan that prove, you don’t have to serve dairy with meat to have a great meal. My second trip to Le Marais last week was better than the first as E and I sat at the bar, getting recommendations from the bartender on everything from his favorite beer, a double-fermented “Champagne” lager  to the perfect amount of tabasco to ask for in our beef tartare.

We’d heard that the beef tartare recipe was recently updated so I was intrigued to try it out. On our past visit it was overloaded with spicy Dijon mustard and though tasty, it was sloppy and cloaked the taste of the meat. Monday’s version was delicately seasoned and silky, with a hint of spice, served with a mountain of crispy frites and greens. We shared a risotto special to start, with salty leeks on top. The risotto did seem to be yearning for a hit of parmesan but the rice was creamy and rich without it.

The  menu features many other traditional French bistro dishes like duck confit salad and steak au poivre as well as more exotic offerings like merguez sausage with cous cous. You’ll even find non-dairy creme brulee! Even a fromage-head like myself was pleased with the meal.

Le Marais: 150 W 46th Street
Cuisine: Steakhouse, Kosher
Average Entree Price: $25-$35

Wine Blogging Wednesday #52: Chilean Reds Under $20

The 52nd edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday is hosted by the red-velvet-blazer-sporting Tim Lemke of Cheap Wine Ratings. The challenge was to pick any Chilean red under $20, not a tough feat since Chile is producing some killer Carmenere, Merlot, and Pinot Noir (amongst other things) at reasonable prices for this emerging region. My friend Josh Farrell, Wine Director for WineExpress.com, handed me a Viña Ventisquero Reserva 2004 Merlot from Maipo Valley and asked me “Is it any good? Should we bring it in?” Yes and yes.

The color is bright ruby and the nose is even brighter with loads of red fruits: strawberries and raspberries. I get some subtle earthy notes with a hint of cocoa as well. After some bottle aging the tannins are real soft and round. It’s an easy-drinking Merlot with a long, balanced finish. We plan on carrying it at $15, making it a great buy for casual meals during the week. Enjoy it with a rich tomato-based pasta dish or maybe some roast chicken. I don’t typically drink Merlot but I really liked this one. Maybe I have a newfound love for Merlot?

The Maipo Valley is located in Central Chile, just South of Santiago and is one of Chile’s oldest wine producing regions though Ventisquero was founded in 1998, making it pretty new. Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay are more typically planted here than Merlot.

Thank Tim, for hosting a fun WBW! I’m looking forward to reading everyone’s posts.

(It was a real challenge to find any information on this wine as their site is down and they did not send a spec sheet, so I apologize for not having more!)

Hill Country

I will be the first to admit that my BBQ knowledge is limited. I’ve only recently learned about all of the different styles i.e. Memphis, Texas and North Carolina. What I do know, is that I’ve yet to have REALLY good BBQ prior to my trip to Hill Country. Oddly enough, BBQ has been a bit of a NY trend lately, with old timers like Blue Smoke and Dinosaur BBQ continuing their popularity and new kids like Wildwood BBQ and Q in Westchester popping up. I’d tried a few of these places and for some reason, they fell flat. The  meat wasn’t moist enough, the sides were bland. Hill Country was the first place I’d heard was actually fantastic, said to be authentic Texas style BBQ in Chelsea. I’m not sure what made it authentic but it was DAMN GOOD, that’s for sure.

Hill Country is a lively duplex with large communal tables filled with hungry carnivores who rub elbows while watching the football game, projected onto the big screen or listening to regular band performances on stage. Upstairs, patrons line up with trays and butcher paper (no plates) and approach the counter to make selections from the meat masters behind. You order brisket, ribs, and chicken by the pound and the guys will pile it onto your plate while checking off your personal ticket, which serves as a bill at the end (leaving you free for seconds if you dare).

I ordered the brisket moist (fattier than the brisket lean) which was my favorite part of the meal. It was definitely moist, smokey, and perfectly tender. With a dash of hot sauce it was sublime. The gigantic beef ribs had a nice sweet, smokiness though they were a bit dry, I’ve heard the pork ribs are better. The sides I had were phenomenal: creamy, sharp mac and cheese plus string beans with salty fried onions. I tasted a yummy bite of the corn pudding too. They also run a special on a bucket of Lone Star beer, 6 beers for $30 I believe. If you love BBQ, you can’t miss Hill Country.

Hill Country: 30 W 26th Street (betw Broadway and 6th ave)
Cuisine: Texas BBQ
Average Entree Price: Anywhere from $15 to $50 depending on your appetite!

5 Ways to Save Cash and Have Fun in NYC (Part 2)

Now that the holiday season is upon is, saving money when you go out is all the more important. We’re even more squeezed when we have gifts to consider. Last month I listed a few great deals going on in the city, proving that you can still eat great food on a budget in Manhattan. Here’s a few more:

5) Fresh Direct’s Produce Code: If staying in during these cold months is more your bag, take advantage of Fresh Direct’s 10% off all produce code. Just enter code PRODUCE at checkout and you’ll save cash. I’m an unabashedly huge fan of Fresh Direct and I saved $12 on my last order. Gotta love that!

4) Use OpenTable.com: OpenTable has really expanded in the past year and now features a majority of the great resaurants in the city (maybe even the country?). You can save the hassle of calling the restaurant by booking online and earning points for each reservation you honor, which go toward “Dining Cheques” at any Open Table restaurant.

3) Use SeamlessWeb- SeamlessWeb is an online food delivery ordering service, currently available in New York as well as other major cities in the East Coast plus L.A, San Francisco, and even London. Ever had the experience of placing a delivery order and wondering just how badly the person misheard you? On SeamlessWeb you order electronically, so there is no room for error. It’s a great service and I think they’re just scratching the service of its potential. Use code SWNEW to get $5 off your first purchase.

2) Prixe-Fixe Meals- A lot of the nicer restaurants in the city are offering prix fixed deals right now, especially for lunch. Some examples: Jean Georges, Gotham Bar & Grill, Milos, Perry Street, Tabla and Grayz. Of course it won’t be a cheap meal, but you’ll get fine dining at a more reasonable price.

1) Go out for small plates- You can try some real unique dishes at small plates and tapas restaurants and be surprisingly full, if you monitor how much you order. The Senior Editor of the magazine, Sue Kostrzewa, recently wrote a piece on this for our blog UnReserved. Some great spots in the city include: Pipa, Stanton Social, and ‘Inoteca

How are you saving money and going out?