The Profussor is In – Round Two
I would like to thank you all again for your ongoing contributions to the FLB. You may have noticed today there is a small addition to the home page “Contact the FLB.” There you will find the super secret email address to reach me privately. Why you would want to do that, I have no idea. But I’m looking forward to seeing what comes of it.
In the past few weeks I have not been able to answer all of the questions or comments that have been received. So here is my semi-regular attempt to get current with things:
How Dyson DeMara Orders Wine
Who?
Everyone has people who help them along their own personal journeys. Often there are many people. Luke had Obi Wan and Yoda. One of the guides I encountered at an early stage of my wine education was Dyson DeMara.
At the time Dyson was in charge of wine education at Robert Mondavi. Through a long a convoluted chain of events I was lucky enough to get to tag along on a private tour and tasting led by Mr. DeMara.
I learned more in a few hours with that man than in years of reading and experimentation with my friends.
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When to Pass on a Glass
You go to a restaurant. Look at the menu. Figure out what you want as an appetizer. See what looks good as an entrée. Then decide what you want to drink. Likely you are there with at least one other person who is going through the very same process.
Unless you are like Dyson DeMara, but that’s a different story.
If you are with wine drinkers, now you are on the horns of a dilemma. “Should we get a bottle, or order wine by the glass?” There is something about getting a bottle of wine at a restaurant that is a bit more celebratory than wine by the glass. Additionally, you have the option of choosing any bottle from the list – that falls within your budget of course. And there may be some very interesting bottles on that list you would love to try.
But you would have to agree on one wine for everyone. And generally, if you go the bottle route, someone is going to get the short straw and have a dicey pairing.
And wine by the glass offers such promise. Everyone can choose the wine they prefer. Plus you can have one type of wine for your appetizer, a second for your entrée, and possibly even a third with dessert if you plan on waddling home. On top of it all, so many wonderful restaurants have developed interesting and thoughtful flights of wine by the glass to go with their multi-course tasting menus.
Wine by the glass couldn’t possibly be a bad thing.
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It’s Fair to Compare
About eight months ago my local paper, the Albany Times Union, published what could be described as their policy for restaurant reviews.
It was tacked onto the end of an unfavorable review of a joint where I believe you can get some of the best food in the city. I am not going to parse that review today. Instead, I’d prefer to talk about the policy. Here it is:
You may be scratching your head, and wondering “what on Earth could be wrong with this?” And I admit, it is great that the paper isn’t focusing all of its attention on the most expensive restaurants in the area.
It is the last sentence of their policy that I take issue with. Here is why.
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Junk in a Box
This is embarrassing. And that’s just for starters. It gets worse at the end. But I feel it’s important for me to explain a bullet point from the Fussy Manifesto.
No, I do not love it because “it’s the cheesiest.” It most certainly is not.
I know I shouldn’t love it because it goes against everything I believe food should be.
But I love it still.
I love it for all of its cardboardy noodles and brilliant orange cheese sauce package goodness.
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Abuela’s Frijoles Negros
For the sake of full disclosure, this is not technically my abuela’s black bean recipe.
Occasionally you may see an extraordinarily fussy commenter who goes by the handle of Raf. Well, Raf and I go way back, so you may be hearing more about him in the future. And food, and disagreeing about food, has always been central to of our relationship. Although sometimes we agree.
We agree on these black beans. The recipe comes from his abuela. And if we really want to split hairs, we could call her his ex-step-abuela. Families are complicated. But our friends were very excited when Dan’s father remarried into a Cuban family, because it meant that we might all be the beneficiaries of firsthand knowledge of the cuisine.
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One Book Shall Outfuss Them All
I’ve mentioned this before: I love Cook’s Illustrated Magazine. And it’s not because it has no ads or huge advertorial sections that junk up the magazine. It is because their methods are so fastidious.
They try everything. They adjust oven temperatures. They vary the ratios of key ingredients. They try different cooking techniques. They are like the Consumer Reports of recipes.
If you do not subscribe to them in print, you should subscribe to them online. They are fussy. They may even be a dozen steps beyond fussy.
Well, the founder of Cook’s Illustrated is named Christopher Kimball, and he wrote a book in 1996 called The Cook’s Bible: The Best of American Home Cooking. And it is.
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Vodka Farm
When I was inspired to start visiting farms from the Honest Weight Food Coop film series, this was not exactly the kind of farm I had in mind. In fact, inexplicably Harvest Spirits was not even on the HWFC local farm info sheet. It’s a fantastic place, so I could imagine someone wanting to keep it a secret.
I suppose it’s not really a vodka farm. Really, it’s an apple farm. If you really want to get technical, it’s Golden Harvest Farm.
Some of their apples get blemished or bruised. Apparently hail has been a problem and more and more apples are too ugly to sell at full price. So the farm ordered a custom-made column still, and now takes those ugly apples and makes vodka.
Vodka?
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Making the List
I was recently asked about how to find good values when out at a restaurant. And as I was thinking about strategies, I realized that some are dependent on the quality of the list itself.
A wine list does not have to be big to be good.
Yes, a lot of fancy restaurants have wine lists that resemble Russian novels. But in fact a focused wine list can really be a pleasure. It can mean that someone has put a lot of thought into what wines will be served. And given the thousands they had to choose from, they determined that these 10 bottles would be the best to complement the chef’s food.
It could also mean that nobody wanted to deal with the storage and organization of dozens of bottles, not to mention training the staff.
So how can you tell the difference? Most times the clues are there in the list itself to determine the quality of the wine program.
There is No Martini Glass
I will try to make this as short and painless as possible. But this is another pet peeve of mine, and I need to get it off my chest.
Thank you in advance for your patience.
That glass. You know, the one that Martinis come in? That stemmed glass with the funnel shaped bowl. It’s called a Cocktail Glass.
Seriously.
Yes. Martinis are served in them. But so are an endless list of cocktails that include Daiquiris, Manhattans and Sidecars (some of my favorites).
I think much of the problem will be solved if everyone just stopped saying “martini” and said “cocktail” instead. You say, “I’d like a pomegranate cocktail,” and I have no problem with that. Ok, maybe just a small problem. But if you say, “I’d like a pomegranate martini,” now we’ve got a big problem.
Why? Because a Martini is a thing. And pomegranate has nothing to do with it.
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