Asian food in general, and Thai in particular is murderously difficult to pair with wine.
My fave with spicy food is Amontillado sherry served ice cold, but I’ve never yet found that on a menu. Jammy Australian wine works well. There’s no point in getting too expensive as the spice will overpower most wines. [...]
A fly fishing friend passed this on to me. He makes the sandwich, presses it, puts it in his vest pocket and goes fishing. It’s easy to make, tastes great, and dense in calories. (Think of it as the tasty version of a protein bar.) It keeps at least 8 hrs, [...]
IF music soothes the savage breast, then why not drink what soothed the composers?
Let’s start with Tokaji (pr. tow-kay). This was once a wine sought after by all wine lovers, and afforded only by royalty. A favourite of Beethoven, Schubert and Rossini (who was richer than royalty) Tokaj fell into disrepute under the [...]
For a number of reasons, I drink more French and Italian whites than New World whites.
Oh there are exceptions: Canadian Riesling and Gewurztraminer, are pretty much perfect regardless of the maker. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is justly world famous. McWilliam’s Semillon from Australia is extraordinary. But the rest… well, frankly [...]
Okay, there comes a time, in the dark of January, where frankly you don’t give a damn about fat, diet, exercise etc. You want Meat! and Fat! and to be Warm!
Following this dictum, we strolled through a small blizzard to Carvers, the steak house in the Sheraton, some 3 blocks from the [...]
Well the weather outside is frightful, but here it’s so delightful…
The balcony door froze shut yesterday, so no barbecuing till I defrost it, which might involve the weather getting about 15 degrees warmer.
I have a box of Aussie Shiraz sitting on the counter, the remnant of the first round of cheap wine tasting. [...]
It seems an easy use of leftovers and winter veg. Buy a squash (mine cost me $2.50). Fill with rice etc.
My recipe was:
- 1/2 lb prosciutto butt
- 1 onion
- 1/4 cup cooked chick peas
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 200 mls (4 shots) amontillado sherry
- 1/4 nutmeg, grated (maybe an 1/8 tsp)
- 5 mls cinammon
- [...]
I’ve been flying a fair bit this year. During this ‘The Best Recession Ever!’ the first thing that got hammered was the food and wine in biz class. Curiously, the cheap seats wine on Air Canada kept quite decent French reds and whites.
Commuter lines have gone to cheap bulk like Barefoot (and for [...]
A few years ago, a friend of mine (Hi Freddy!) who represented sherries at the time, told me he had taken to coming home from work, sitting on the deck and having a bottle of sherry in an ice bucket, some olives and some cold sausage, and watching the sun go down.
It sounded good so [...]
Well it was probably a good thing I mortified my spirit by marathon tasting of cheap wine before the holiday. Yesterday (Xmas) we went through a couple of bottles of Cattier Blanc de blanc, a decent IGT, and a bottle of inexpensive but interesting Torrontes bubbly from argentina.
