From Bantam comes this very satisfying creation in which fat chunks of crispy Fogline pork belly share the plate with roasted grapes and a luscious lentil and grape vinegar reduction. Intense flavor in every bite. This dish was the absolute star of my recent dinner at Bantam. Eleven bucks.
Okay, I’ll say it: this is a destination dish. Period.
In this case, it is a white wine from the Spanish district of Bizkaiko Txakolina (this last is pronounced “chocolina”), from the house of Berroia. At 12.5% alcohol it is a mineral dream, with a nose of kumquat and rose, pushed back with chalk and silvery minerals. The salty finish so refreshes your palate that you’ll feel like immediately pouring a second glass.
This lovely bright wine is full of life, and while extremely easy to drink, it offers gossamer complexity rarely found outside a Riesling. Most of the grapes in this disarming wine are something called Hondarrabi Zuri, the name alone suggests an exotic mountain hideaway.
For $20 a bottle @ Soif, this could be the very wine for a crab or oyster appetizer at your next holiday meal.
Life’s too short not to savor the Santa Cruz Mountains terroir as exemplified in this appealing 2009 Pinot Noir from Clos Tita. Highly approachable, the lovely creation weaves the essence of the redwood forest—along with notes of mint, nutmeg and plums—onto its balanced tannins and 14.2 % alcohol. At $21.99 (Shoppers again) it is one of the more affordable fine pinot noirs produced in our appellation. Seek it out, and save a few bottles for Thanksgiving.
I’ve written many remembrances of beloved friends over the years, but none has been harder than this one. Words can’t reach the passionate heart and brilliant intellect of Saul Landau, a man who made the world a more vibrant place every single minute that he breathed.
Last month we lost that rare individual to whom the word “authentic” well and truly applies. Everyone who knew him mourns his loss. I know I will for the rest of my life. An elegant guy in a second hand wardrobe, he was very sexy. Very.
Saul Landau was the complete king of the risqué Jewish joke, and almost every phone call, dinner, rendezvous, interview, and meeting I shared with him began with a joke worthy of the Borscht Belt. What a pleasure to watch him unleash his punchlines! It was his way of greeting the world, making us all feel like insiders and immediate friends. Jokes aside, Saul spent his life, as he often told me, committed to “love and work.” What else mattered? he would ask.
The work was work for social justice, equality, freedom from hunger and oppression—freedom from hypocrisy and unnecessary shopping! And it took the form of a non-stop body of journalism, political commentary, filmmaking, writing, lecturing, travel, and personal outreach. He never stopped hassling corrupt politicians, imperialist stooges, and the incurably stupid. A champion of human rights, the dignity of the oppressed and especially his beloved Cuba and Latin America, Saul gave and gave of his superb political instincts, his wit, and his robust analysis. Surely, we all thought, those fiery Progreso editorials he churned out, even when gravely ill, would continue on forever. Somewhere—in the heaven in which he claimed not to believe—Saul must still be brandishing his political expertise. (And admonishing past popes for hoarding the spoils of the Crusades!)
Saul was a graceful and gifted athlete—he loved to boast that (more…)
September might just be the most splendid month for travel – and the past three weeks on the Jersey Shore lived up to our expectations, and then some.
We hit Mud City Crab Shack in Manahawkin (yes, one of the many parts of the Jersey shore and marshlands that were seriously damaged during last year’s hurricane). Here we enjoyed definitive crab cakes, crab cakes so utterly packed with huge chunks of lump crab meat that there was almost no room left for seasonings and gravitational forces. Major crab cakes, moist inside, crisp on the outside—served with luscious, sweet crispy slaw.
Plantation, on Long Beach Island, seduced us (more…)
A book of sensory adventure: The rituals, passions and discoveries of an engaged life.