Mise en Place

Month: June 2017

‘If They Want To Drink Merlot, We’re Drinking Merlot!’

June 20, 2017 / / 0 Comments

I know what I like, of course, and one of the things I like is the wonderfully gigantic variety of wines that exist in this world. From Albariño to Dornfelder, Riesling to Rkatsiteli, and Xynomavro to Godello, exploring the wine universe is a pleasure and an adventure. I’ve said before that one should never bring hard and fast preconceptions or prejudices to a tasting, dinner, or wine merchant. Try. Sample. Taste. Don’t like white wine? That is, frankly, nonsense. Sure, we all have our favorites, the stuff we go back to again and again and put in our inventories and Eurocaves or closets. But if you don’t color outside the lines, you’re depriving yourself of a lot of life.

Which brings me to Merlot, and a wine I tasted recently. It’s the 2013 Merlot from Swanson Vineyards, and I loved it. So did a woman with whom I shared it, a woman who had told me on more than one occasion that she did not care for Merlot.

You can read my take (and hers) on the Swanson Vineyards Merlot by clicking here.

And if you want more wine, check out these pieces:

French Couple Make a Sauvignon Blanc in California
A Perfect Afternoon Chardonnay
Terry Theise Talks Reisling
A New Wine Wonderland
Paris Wine Goddess Tells All
Rice Village Wine Bar Has a Cleveland Touch
A Texas White Blend for Your Table
A Pinot Noir Full of Flavor
This Pinot Gris From Oregon Pairs Well With Cheese
Willamette, Dammit!
A Value Rioja
Drink Pink!
Underbelly Veteran Goes for Grenache
A Man of Letters and Wine
Ms. Champagne Wants a Nebuchadnezzar
The Wine Artist Goes for Chardonnay
This American Loves Spain and Its Wines
Houston’s Wine Whisperer Has a Soft Touch
Blackberry Farm’s Somm Pours in Splendor
Mr. Pinot Noir: Donald Patz of Patz & Hall
A Cork Dork Wants to Spend More Time in Tuscany
Sommelier Turned Restaurateur Daringly Goes Greek
Texas Master Sommelier Debunks Wine Geeks
A Bottle From Gigondas Changed This Houston Man’s Life
Oil Man Falls in Love, and the Rest is Good-Taste History
Ryan Cooper of Camerata is a Riesling Man
Mixing It Up With Jeremy Parzen, an Ambassador of Italy
Sommelier at One of Houston’s Top Wine Bars Loves Underdogs

It's a duck kind of weekend.

Of Duck, Brisket Tacos, and a Good Sauvignon Blanc (Plus a Fine Bartender Makes a Good Cocktail)

June 16, 2017 / / 0 Comments

I like duck. I like to eat it, and I like to cook it. I like to confit it. I love the legs and the breast. I love it all — duck feet and beaks in Hong Kong as well. (During one of my residences in Paris, the grocery store near my apartment sold a wonderful confit de canard in the refrigerated section, two pieces for, as I recollect, five or so euros. Ahh, we’ll always have Paris … )

A week or so ago, I had a very good plate of duck confit in Houston, at Toulouse, a restaurant whose Dallas location (the original one in the two-location mini-chain) was once one of Angela’s favorites. Here’s my take on that duck, and the rest of the meal. The lentils were excellent, by the way.

You like tacos? Yes, don’t we all. Texas is home to its fair share of them, and you would have to eat at a different place daily for years to get to all of them. A new restaurant in Houston is serving a great brisket taco at the moment, and I ordered it last week. I recommend you try one or several. Read about it and see it here.

Now to some wine. I not long ago opened a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, a 2016 Sauvignon Blanc from Ehlers Estate, and was, in a word, refreshed. It was clean and crisp, it was balanced impeccably, and it was oh so good with the chicken I had cooked. So good it was that I’m going to open another bottle this weekend. Read about it here.

Finally, as I write this, it’s cocktail time. A good bartender I know, who works at one of my favorite restaurants in Houston, this week accepted the challenge of creating a cocktail that included Ancho Reyes Verde, a rather spicy liqueur made of poblano chilis. She did quite well, and if you want to watch her make it, see this.

Eat well, and with people you love.

Pescado Zarandeado, a treasure from Baja.

Take A Culinary Journey Along The Tropic of Cancer Without Leaving Houston

June 4, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Travel does wonders for the soul. You wake up in one city, and go to bed that evening in another locale halfway across the world, in a completely different environment, surrounded by new sounds, scents, people. You walk down alleys and streets, beaches or trails, and you take it all in, the tastes and sights and the emotions. You sit at foreign tables and allow the days and nights to wash over you, luxuriating in the commonplace, the slower unfolding of your life. Unfortunately, most people find it impossible to get away as often as they want … but there are sometimes others ways.

I recently traveled to Baja, Mexico, and tasted the foods of that beautiful area, all without leaving Houston. Angela and I dined at SaltAir Seafood Kitchen, and it was good. You can read all about it here. (And you’re in luck, because Brandi Key’s Tropic of Cancer Series continues through July 1 … get your ticket to India, China, Hawaii, and Cuba, and eat well.)

 

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