Thursday, September 10, 2009
Julie and Julia
Monday, May 11, 2009
A Divine Pairing
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
I Want to North Fork on the Table
I surveyed the selection of cheeses in order to know what I wanted to pick up on our way out of town the following morning. The Stinky Bishop, which I have read is one cheese to use to impress your friends, was there. By the next morning they were sold out of it. That didn’t stop me from buying some other cheeses. I picked up Lamb Chopper, Langres and the Drunk Monk.
Lamb Chopper is made from sheep’s milk. Adverstised as coming from Cypress Grove in California, this cheese is actually made in the Netherlands and imported to Cypress Grove. It’s mild, custardy and buttery flavor lingers in your mouth for the perfect amount of time, giving off an almost sweet taste. This cheese is recommended as using for cooking. I’ll keep it on the table, thank you. Langres is a French cow’s milk that is produced in the Champagne- Ardenne region. It manages to be a soft and creamy but still have a crumbly texture to it. The yellowish rind is made with penicillium candidum. I don’t know what the hell that is, but sounds as bad as the ingredients listed on a can old diet coke. Good thing I can easily ignore this when I am schmearing it on a flax seed and honey flatbread. Yum!
The third cheese is the Drunk Monk hailing from Connecticut. Always falling for those witty names of cheeses and pretty wine labels, I decided to try it. I found out later that Drunk Monk was Hooligan after it’s been given a rub down in brown ale from the Willmantic CT Brewing Co. No wonder it tastes so good. I know some people who need this treatment. The cheese is very pungent with a hint of peanut butter.
A fun and relaxing time had by all, we are planning another trip for the fall.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Restaurant Review II- Blue Hill at Stone Barns
The menu is very unusual, where you see all of the ingredients Chef Barber may use in your meal. The participants at the table let the waiter know if there are any allergies or dislikes, such as liver or brain (which we excluded) from our repertoire. Let the eating begin!
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Sunday, March 15, 2009
Restaurant Review 1- Morgans Fish House
Morgans Fish House
22 Elm Place
Rye, NY 10580
914.921.8190
http://www.morganfishhouse.net/
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Organic and Biodynamic Wines
Our first two assumptions about organic wines were that they do not cellar, meaning you can’t keep it in your basement for twenty years and open it and have an extremely better wine then you had twenty years prior, like a Brunello. FALSE. Second, that on the average they cost much more then other wines because of the labor intensity that is involved in their creation. FALSE. The majority of the wines we tasted were in the $12-$25 range. Very reasonable. We also learned that biodynamic farming means treating the farm and all of its living organisms as one entity. It works on a self-nourishing system so whatever you are taking out of the ground is then put back into it. Biodynamic farming also has to do with the moon patterns. Picking and cultivating is only done at certain times depending on the position of the moon.
Three of my favorites were Podere Concori’s 2006 Toscana. The vines are grown on land of pebbles, boulders and standstone, giving it a very interesting and smooth finish. It is why I like Italian wines so much. This vineyard also had a white Melograno which was a fresh palate cleansing wine. Full of acidity, it could easily be drank as an aperitif in the summer months. They work very hard to make these wines organic and biodynamic.
Second was an Austrian wine named Meinklang. Angela and Werner Michlits (who are my age) run this family wine estate. They age the wine in ceramic barrels in their basement and you can definitely taste the love and passion that they put into it. All of their wines were delish but in particular was this sparkling Pinot Noir. It had no label and was in a bottle like the one my mom makes her lethal limoncello in. Just when you thought the bubbles were coming, they would cut off. We stayed at this table for awhile. Meinklang is an organic and biodynamic winery.
Lastly, was a higher end wine from Rutherford, Napa Valley called Frogs Leap. Their 2006 Merlot was full of everything: currants, cherry, tobacco, herbs and plum. They use all of the fruits from around their vineyard. They have been practicing organic, sustainable and dry farming since 1988 which makes it well worth the big bucks.
What would be wine without cheese? France’s Comte (con-TAY) made a special appearance along with cheese from the nearby Hawthorne Valley Farm in Ghent, NY. Both cheeses were very tasty, firm, strong and organic. They were a nice change from the dozens of wines we were refusing to spit.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
My Future tis of Cheese, Sweet Land of Liberty
http://www.blacksheepcheese.com/
The second cheese was one in its own. Truffle Tremor will make you tremble. Produced in Humboldt County, California, this pasteurized goat cheese appears to be the mixing of two cheeses together. Mary Keehen is responsible for this velvety, creamy and runny cheese. Filled with specks of truffles, this cheese is one of the newer cheeses of Cypress Grove Creamery. With all due respect, I still favor the Pecorino Tartufo in regards to truffle cheeses. This cheese should be paired with a buttery California Chardonnay.
http://www.cypressgrovechevre.com/
Third was Haystack Mountain’s Red Cloud. This raw goat’s milk cheese is washed in brine which gives it a stinky aroma. Surprisingly, it has a very clean and balanced flavor that can be enjoyed with a Riesling or Gewürztraminer. It seems that all of their cheeses are given names related to nature. It’s is like a haiku in your mouth. http://www.haystackgoatcheese.com/
Lastly was my definite favorite of the four. Constant Bliss (which it surely was) is a small white mountain of bloomy raw cheese made from the lovely cows in Greensboro, Vermont. It was assertive, fluffy, moist, springy and clean. It simply, made me happy. The story behind the name of the cheese is told as, “We named Constant Bliss after a revolutionary war scout killed in Greensboro by native Americans in 1781. He was guarding the Bayley Hazen Military Road with his compatriot Moses Sleeper, who died with him.” They continued with this tradition and named another one of their cheeses Bayley Hazen. I must hunt this one down. War has never tasted so good.
http://www.jasperhillfarm.com/
Tasting cheeses that have something in common whether its animal, country, cheese type or raw versus pasteurized allows one to have a better understanding of what you are tasting and gives you something to compare it to. For me, I like themes because I think you can be much more concentrated and can learn a lot more from it. So, what will be my next theme???