Where are John & Dottie?
My reasons for reading the Wall Street Journal are dwindling.
First Eric Felten’s “How’s Your Drink” column was suspended. He was among my favorite cocktail and spirits writers. And every Saturday I would look forward to opening the paper to find out the cocktail of the week.
Then recently John & Dottie said goodbye after their final “Tastings” column. To make matters worse, it appears their departure was a business decision from the management of the paper. So after twelve years, they are gone. Just like that. And so far as I can tell, nobody knows what they will be up to next.
For years I looked forward to reading the findings from their most recent blind tasting every week. John & Dottie had a unique method for writing about wine. Instead of focusing on individual bottles or producers, they would taste a broad selection of a certain type of wine, and report on your chances of finding a good wine from among that type. Their readers knew to avoid California chardonnay, look for value in Bordeaux, and that vintage port makes a good gift.
Whisky, Eh?
I enjoy a good whisky. I also enjoy a good whiskey. Whether you keep or drop the “e” before the “y” traditionally depends on what you are drinking.
The Irish keep the “e” while their neighbors in Scotland drop the vowel. Down in the United States we make Bourbon whiskey, while that other North American country makes Canadian whisky.
Regardless, we are in the grips of winter, and now is the time to break out the brown spirits. But good whiskies are expensive. Great whiskies are phenomenally expensive. Still, price does not always go hand in hand with quality. The drivers of price also include scarcity and demand. If you know anyone who is a fan of the spirit, they are most likely into Scotch, and probably not just any Scotch but single malt Scotch (versus blended).
With the rejuvenation of the classic American cocktail, classic American spirits are also growing in popularity. There are more great Bourbon and rye whiskeys available today than there have been in some time. And they too are in demand.
You may even bump into someone who will talk your ear off about the joys of Irish whiskey.
But find me someone who is talking about the premier whisky of Canada. I dare you. It can’t be done.
Coffee Confession Number One
Before we talk about coffee, I need to make sure we are on the same page. As a general rule of thumb, when I say “coffee” I am referring to brewed coffee. Espresso and all of its cousins fall in their own categories.
True, coffee beans are at the heart of all these beverages. But I have decided to focus the majority of my attention on the preparation of these drinks and not the cultivation and roasting of the beans. This is primarily because most coffee sellers do not roast their own beans, and instead just brew beans procured from a central source.
That said, I think Starbucks coffee is vastly underrated.
Crashing the Party
I love that this blog is a giant evolving conversation about food. And I love that you all are participating in it. Mrs. Fussy once broke up with me well over a decade ago because all I did was talk about food. Very little has changed, except that now she doesn’t mind as much. But I digress.
Yesterday I wrote about being an interloper in small-town restaurants. And a curious reader had a question. Sarah M. asked, “Do you really feel like other patrons (or the ownership) sees you as an interloper? If yes, do you think it has to do with the photo-snapping or something else?”
And it made me think of a few specific examples where I absolutely knew I was an interloper. Although these examples are a bit different than the ones I detailed yesterday.
Allow me to explain. It is my contention that the most authentic ethnic food (in my eyes the best ethnic food) is cooked by people of that ethnic tradition for people who grew up eating the food. I am sure in this great big world of ours there are some notable exceptions.
In these restaurants if you are not a member of the community they serve it can be painfully obvious. I think of it as crashing the party. And thus, I take no umbrage in the comments, stares, and lack of service. I am just happy to be eating the wonderful food.
Kissing Frogs
You are a stranger in a strange land. And you are hungry. What do you do? Do you play it safe and go to a chain, because you know what you are going to get? Or do you make the leap and go native, unsure if you will get a warm welcome or a steely gaze that comes from suspicion of strangers?
I have always been in the camp of the latter. Mrs. Fussy regretfully is more comfortable with the former.
Every now and again, if I do a bit of homework, I can convince her to try someplace that might be a little dangerous. The places aren’t always great, but they are always colorful. Some of them aren’t much better than their national chain equivalents. But I can’t think of one that has been worse.
And of course, there are rules.
Pink Slime. You Know, For Kids.
The holidays are always a busy time. It’s time spent with family. Sometimes there is travel involved. And with that, some of the news of the day can fall through the cracks. Perhaps the news of Patrick Stewart’s impending knighthood was completely overlooked.
And maybe you missed a more pertinent article in the New York Times revealing the details of a disturbing meat processing method.
I would encourage you to read the article in its entirety. Especially if you have kids, and especially if they eat school lunches. You should also read it if you buy pre-packaged ground beef or products containing ground beef products at the supermarket. If you eat the occasional hamburger from McDonald’s, well, you should read the article too.
As luck would have it, I don’t fall into any of those groups. Yet still I read the article. And while I didn’t think it was possible to be more appalled at the shenanigans afoot within the food industry, they keep on finding new ways to surprise me.
Here’s the executive summary.
A Little Nutty
The family is still on vacation. We just made the long drive from western Pennsylvania to Connecticut. I love long distance driving. I like the pace of it. I like how you can set the car in cruise control and let your mind roll all kinds of thoughts around and around.
Especially when the baby is asleep, and there is no other sound but snow tires on dry road and Bob Dylan’s “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” on infinite repeat. That’s a story for some other bad parenting advice blog.
Today I was contemplating taste. Specifically, I was thinking about how one can describe the taste of common foods. For example, how can you describe what an almond tastes like, without using the word nutty?
To make it more interesting, I had a bag of mixed nuts: Almonds, cashews and macadamias. Peanuts are legumes.
The Great Pennsylvania Bitters Shortage of 2009
Small-town Pennsylvania has had some bad breaks. There was the great Johnstown flood. And then of course all the steel mills shut down. I suppose, in the grand scheme of things, the great bitters shortage of 2009 really pales in comparison.
But dammit, when it’s December 30th and you are hell-bent on making champagne cocktails for New Year’s Eve on the farm, it’s a big freaking deal.
I think it’s safe to say that Pennsylvania’s liquor laws are even more draconian than New York’s. All liquor sales are controlled by the state. If you want wine or liquor you need to go to a state store. State stores are closed on Election Day.
If you are one of those people who opposes Federal regulation and prefers things to be handled by the states, let me submit to you the example of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is out of aromatic cocktail bitters. That’s right. The whole state is out.
And here’s the punchline: they’ve been out of bitters for six weeks! At least that’s what several people at local state stores have told me.
What? How is that even possible?
Top 10 of ‘09
This top ten list is so loud it goes up to eleven.
It turns out writing on vacation is harder than I anticipated. Luckily at the close of the year, everyone’s attention turns backward, and list making becomes a popular pastime. I had hoped to be immune to this phenomenon, but the proof is in the pudding.
Looks like my follow-up posts on pretense and yogurt will just have to wait until 2010 when I can give them the attention they deserve.
Today, I will share with you the top 10 most-read posts of they year. Think you caught them all in the first go-around? Maybe you missed one. Or maybe your repeated viewing of a post is what edged it into the pantheon. You will just have to look at the list and see.
3 of 10
Today I am writing to you from the heart of rural Pennsylvania. I am three hours from Philadelphia, three hours from Pittsburgh and three hours from Baltimore. It makes being three hours from Boston, Manhattan and Montreal seem very cosmopolitan indeed.
Hopefully I will get a lot of writing done in the quiet of my in-laws farm, but somehow other things always seem to get in the way.
Last night it was catching up with my father-in-law over a few Scotches. Today we will go foraging for a good butcher to pick up some meat, and locate a state store to see if they have my favorite sparkling wine.
But while I was on the road yesterday, I received a text about a food article in Sunday’s Times-Union that I want to discuss. Did you see it? It’s their write-up on the Top 10 dishes from 2009
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