OYSTERS, CHAMPAGNE AND PASTA WITH BOTTARGA. CUE THE MISSING.
Showing posts with label NAVARRE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NAVARRE. Show all posts
Oct 28, 2010
Oct 17, 2010
Oct 8, 2010
LOS LONCHES
I mostly hate food blogs. The recipes are wrong, they are cluttered with bullshit and they make eating feel like a bad commercial. What a pleasure to finally uncover Alex and Lizzie's secret gem La Casetita de los Lonches. Simple and unpretentious, their posts leave you hungry. It helps that I know these are two of the best people to eat, drink and cook with - ever. Hurry up and post more, please!
Plus, I really love prawns.
Plus, I really love prawns.
Jun 27, 2010
SPRING INTO SUMMER
It was such a peculiar spring here in the northwest, and although peas and strawberries all but missed me altogether, walks this weekend showed the sun is creating the beginnings of summer berries after all and maybe we will even get something besides a green in from the farm soon.
May 2, 2010
SNOB
"Students who pass the Advanced Course (on the average about 25%-30%) are eligible to take the Master Sommelier Examination itself. The pass rate for the Master Sommelier Examination is approximately 10%. [...] Knowledge of cigar production, with special reference to Havanas, will be required."
-From Master Sommeliers.org
My favorite part of my job (besides eating dinner) is talking about + drinking wine with people. I love it. Especially because I am continually amazed by all the bullshit and elitism that still surrounds the subject. People are often afraid of wine to the point of catatonics, or have to show off by undermining your every move. I think Navarre is unique in pairing a huge, intimidating glass pour list with service casual enough that people don't feel too afraid to ask questions or ask for something to be chosen for them (which might even be part of the fun). I feel lucky that through working there and through my parents I have learned a lot from people who are genuinely interested in wine and who have passion for it, for having connected with growers and salespersons alike and to have been spoiled rotten with the good stuff - without being made to feel like a peon. I have been encouraged to learn - and to help customers learn - through the actual process of taste... to make wine approachable, and hopefully even meaningful, through one's own experience - versus this preconceived idea about what it is supposed to be.
And this is the beginning, no? In the 1970s California growers shocked everyone by proving Americans could make wine (and great wine at that), and I think it's time us hillbillies start being known for drinking more than bud light and bad chardonnay at the party. It's the system of wine that's the problem I think. We are taught to believe that certain people just have incredible taste buds instead of ever trusting our own. We have these crazy regulations on how wine (and all alcohol) travels from state to state. Boring, overweight men talk to us in points rather than telling us to just go out and have dinner. Even the whole rarified ritual of restaurant bottle service seems passe in many regards. Much hangs upon the small pour, laden with expectation, produced for an anxious diner at a table upon whom the success or failure of an evening can be pinned.
I would like to continue to have wine jobs, so I would like to get "certified," to become a sommelier, but so far the cost eludes me. So in the meantime... how can wine be more approachable? How can people feel empowered about their knowledge of it? I'm not sure. I'm surely fascinated, though.
(Pictures from harvest at Antica Terra, Fall 2009, the most mornings I've even been up before 6.)
-From Master Sommeliers.org
My favorite part of my job (besides eating dinner) is talking about + drinking wine with people. I love it. Especially because I am continually amazed by all the bullshit and elitism that still surrounds the subject. People are often afraid of wine to the point of catatonics, or have to show off by undermining your every move. I think Navarre is unique in pairing a huge, intimidating glass pour list with service casual enough that people don't feel too afraid to ask questions or ask for something to be chosen for them (which might even be part of the fun). I feel lucky that through working there and through my parents I have learned a lot from people who are genuinely interested in wine and who have passion for it, for having connected with growers and salespersons alike and to have been spoiled rotten with the good stuff - without being made to feel like a peon. I have been encouraged to learn - and to help customers learn - through the actual process of taste... to make wine approachable, and hopefully even meaningful, through one's own experience - versus this preconceived idea about what it is supposed to be.
And this is the beginning, no? In the 1970s California growers shocked everyone by proving Americans could make wine (and great wine at that), and I think it's time us hillbillies start being known for drinking more than bud light and bad chardonnay at the party. It's the system of wine that's the problem I think. We are taught to believe that certain people just have incredible taste buds instead of ever trusting our own. We have these crazy regulations on how wine (and all alcohol) travels from state to state. Boring, overweight men talk to us in points rather than telling us to just go out and have dinner. Even the whole rarified ritual of restaurant bottle service seems passe in many regards. Much hangs upon the small pour, laden with expectation, produced for an anxious diner at a table upon whom the success or failure of an evening can be pinned.
I would like to continue to have wine jobs, so I would like to get "certified," to become a sommelier, but so far the cost eludes me. So in the meantime... how can wine be more approachable? How can people feel empowered about their knowledge of it? I'm not sure. I'm surely fascinated, though.
(Pictures from harvest at Antica Terra, Fall 2009, the most mornings I've even been up before 6.)
Apr 21, 2010
Apr 15, 2010
JONATHAN'S LAST NIGHT.
Fish cooked in banana leaves. Coconut black rice with mango. Green beans. Spicy shrimp with green sauce, mostly to be consumed by myself. Coconut pudding in roasted squash. Lots of champagne.
Mar 21, 2010
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