Chicago Foodies

De Lozar - Ribera Del Duero | Genestiere Chante Cigale

One of the things I do honestly enjoy doing is asking for help at Sam's Wine and Spirits – especially at their Marcey Street location. I was initally looking for a specific syrah and when I found out it was long gone got into one of those conversations you have with a bookseller or a collector who shares a common interest. To put it mildly it was a more engaging process to find a couple of choice wines than the one I typically have buying shoes, athletic or dress.

I took him up on two specifically. The first was in lieu of a $20 Chateauneuf du Pap. The other was kind of a leap of faith based on a tempranillo conversation.

López de Heredia: One of the Ultimate Riojas

Sunday I walked into Sam's and got a little carried away...for good reason.  Buying López de Heredia Viña Tondonia..it's about as old school as it gets for Spanish Rioja.  The Reserva is sold after six years in oak and six more in bottle.   And get this.. the Gran Reserva is aged even more, so the 1987 was released after close to 20 years after harvest!  Spanish DOC regulations require Gran Reservas be aged two years in oak and three in bottle, but like the remaining traditional producers Lopez de Heredia far exceeds these standards.

Persille de Beaujolais

If I were in Chicago during the week, I would load up on cheese at Pastoral on Broadway.  Traveling for work, I rely on Whole Foods and their $3 and under cheese bin.  This week I picked up Persille de Beaujolais.  A nice creamy cow's milk cheese with edible rind, it has a nutty character.  Unlike the saltier blues it is not the acquired taste that puts off some.  At $18 a pound it is on the high side, but the bold flavor and long finish makes every bite last a long time.

Persille de Beaujolais / Cow's milk / France / at Whole Foods

11 pc. Roaster Set for $4

Sears has a "Wish for Joy" roaster set for $4 after a rebate. That's kinda crazy. If you're looking for something to use outside and maybe crap up this may be the way to go. Baster, Oven mitt, cutting board, roaster, pair of skewers and a knife/fork in addition to other weird stuff I can't quite make out.

Buy it here or in store to save on shipping. Click on "Rebate Details" to get the low-down on the $4 price.

The Butcher Hook-Up: Ground Beef...

The next time you're perusing your meat counter. If there happens to be a sale on, shall we say, top round (sometimes called London Broil) but you really only want ground beef here's what to do. Buy the steak and ask the butcher to grind it.

You can even be more specific and ask for half ground and half ground twice. Use the twice ground to make some Iowa-Style loosemeat sammies, or shall we say (again), sloppy joes. Or Cincinnati Chili. Or, what I did, a modified Italian meat sauce with onions (see post below), fresh mushrooms, oregano (stem that oregano before using it!) and grated Romano. MMMMmmmmeat.

Stinky Onion Hand

I chopped a half an onion last night and my hand still smells like it. I washed my hands a couple of times, showered, tried rubbing stainless steel and no luck. The steel seemed to work for a bit but the smell came back. I've heard gritty toothpaste, not gel, is a sure fire way to solve this problem. We'll see. So far the plain old white Colgate that I rubbed on my dry hands and rinsed off smells pretty dental.

*UPDATE - Still smells. Onion & toothpaste. It's almost worse now.
**UPDATE - Seems to have subsided. Is that time or toothpaste. The toothpaste smell still lingers.

Quinto dos Roques

From the Dao region of Portugal, this wine is great with both food and on its own.  I love a mix of old-fashioned European wine know-how and quality without gimmicky labels and so-called “modern” styles with new oak. With just the right amount of oak (i.e., very little),  Quinto dos Roques has cherry, plum, and chocolate notes, and it was a good pairing with a tomato sauce and gnocchi dish.

 

Best of all it’s $11.99 at Sam’s.

Wing Hoe: Northside Chinese Delivery Redemption

This is a follow-up to my lamenting over many awful Chinese delivery experiences. I had several helpful comments and decided last night on Wing Hoe. My aunt lives across the street on Sheridan and shares the love. As we were fairly hungry we just went with the plain old dinner for two. Mongolian beef, empress chicken, egg rolls, steamed rice, spare ribs, fried shrimp... it was enough food even as we subbed the steamed rice in for the pork fried. They let you subsititute as well which is awesome so I'll give it another shot soon with dishes that I tend to like more. It was good. The egg rolls actually were great.

Look Who's Coming For Dinner: Frank Brunacci at the Trump

Aussie chef Frank Brunacci will be manning the helm at the Trump Tower restaurant. Is he just wacked-out enough to fit in? With dishes like Lima Bean Cream with Duck Ham and Basil Oil soup and interesting ingredients like veal bacon he seems well equipped to create extravagant courses without going for wholesale whimsy.

Flattery will get you places he says, "Chicago has got the cosmopolitan aura of San Francisco but the sophistication and city life of New York..."

Carignan from the South of France

This isn’t exactly a common varietal of wine to taste. It's hard to find. Despite the French name origins of the grape are credited to Spain. There it is called Cariñena, and it is usually mixed with Grenache (or Garnacha in Spanish), a more common grape here in the U. S.

So, since I love to check out obscure varietals, the $6.99 special at Whole Foods jumped out at me. It was a vin de pays from Biziers in the Languedoc region of France. For those of you unfamiliar with Languedoc it was the source of the “Wine Lake”, where wine producers were dumping their product rather than selling it.

 

One fact not quite well known in the U.S. is that the Languedoc-Roussillon region produces more wine than any other region in France—more than Burgundy, Bordeaux, the Rhone Valley, or Champagne. 

Le Lan

For quite some time I have heard great things about Le Lan, a French-Asian restaurant in River North. It turned out to be a wonderful restaurant with personable and helpful staff, as well as an open plan atmosphere.  A gift certificate for Christmas made it easier to visit.

Herve Mons: Got Your Stinky Right Here...

An emergency trip to Whole Foods left me with a couple of real stinkers. Actually one sheep's milk that really stinks. It's an unpasteurized Tomme du Berger. It's much stinkier than I thought. I usually enjoy the reek but this one is unabashedly rotten. 1/4 bottle of saké has left me more than able to reminisce on those days as a child when I went to swimming lessons and the peculiar funk that I was privy to in the deepest of locker-room lockers. Boy is this one a farm-land winner.

Decanter Magazine: Honesty Trumps Hype

I admit I read Wine Spectator on the odd occasion and get sucked into their top 50 lists, especially with certain varietals and regions being foreign to me. Maybe I just don’t get it but it seems to be all about the marketing at the end of the day. 

Unfortunately, and I hate to admit I’ve done this myself in the past, people pick the wine based on the rating. When you don’t have enough information to make a decision you find yourself relying upon other sources. Unfortunately Wine Spectator ratings seem to somehow correlate with prices.

Tragic Cheeseburger

I don't know when this happened but I suspect cheeseburger sales to be much higher than hamburgers. I'd really like to know the percent difference. I had a burger from a friend's family ranch over a year ago and it was really good. Since then I've had good burgers and not so good burgers and have come to one conclusion - the cheese masks a good burger.

Bistrot Zinc: My Offal Meal This Past Weekend

One of my favorite haunts, Bistrot Zinc, changes its core menu once a month.  And with frequent $25 off coupons in the mail I come back quite often..and order the wine.  And appetizers.  And dessert.  And get a good meal for two for $60 after the discount, not including tip.

This month I'm pleased to announce the rognons on the menu, called Rognons de Veau à la Sauce Moutarde.  Not knowing much French I understood veau but had to ask what rognons were, and much to my delight they were...

Brescianella Aquivitae: Off the Stink Charts

Nearly a year ago I wrote about Morbier,  a stinky cheese that my now-wife was more than glad to throw away.   My love for the stink hasn't diminished in spite of it, and I have found a new love in a name I'll never remember, so if I write about it hopefully I can do a keyword search when I'm trying to recall what I ate. 

Unusual Bordeaux: 2003 Les Roches de Ferrand

Bordeaux reds usually scare me off.  The good ones are far too expensive--I've never put down money for a bottle, much less a case of Latour, Lafite, or Mouton-Roschild.  I did sample some courtesy of a business school classmate, but that was over a decade ago, and never appreciated the free offers of wine at the time, because back then I mostly drank beer. 

The Indispensible Toaster Oven

I've actually had several conversations about rice cookers these past couple of weeks. The topic spanned bread makers and vacuum sealers. I've been using a dehydrator very frequently. Dried banana chips are terrific. So maybe this heightened appreciation for kitchen electrics has got me going but I have to say my leftovers have never been so good.

My toaster broke months ago and short of using my oven's broiler to toast a few slices (which I've actually done – sorry Mr. Gore) I've been going without. So when I got a gift of that Hamilton Beach toaster/toaster oven, with the ridiculous name – Toastation, not only have I been able to enjoy toast (seen Nacho Libre?) but I rediscovered the benefits of the toaster oven.

A Good Cheap Red (and it's not Yellow Tail)

Hats off to Whole Foods for their occasional wine specials, and one thing I've noticed is their focus on the Iberian peninsula.  One recent special is the Castano Monastrell '06.  On sale for $7.99, it is from the Yecla region of Spain.  The what region? Exactly. 

Magnolia Café (dinner this time)

I’ve written before about Magnolia Café but for various reasons have frequented the place more for brunch than for dinner, and this is only the second time I have been there for dinner. The place has a pleasing ambiance that has a timeless contemporary feel, with exposed brick walls and wood parquet floors. Its small space was intimate but not cramped.