Sneakeater

I don't eat enough fish kidneys.

You know, that chicken looks really good.

As an intentional and committed non-reproducer I don't know why this makes me cheerful. But in what will probably be his last string of concerts, Gilberto Gil has been accompanied not just by his children but his grandchildren.

As I was eating dinner last night, I realized that the dinner I had planned for tonight was very close to last night's in flavor. Too close to have them two nights in succession. Fortunately, I had a stack of leftovers festering in the refrigerator from which I could pull a substitute. Pappardelle with rabbit ragu. On the side, some green beans cooked too little for Jacque Pepin's and my taste, but to a turn for everybody else's. Sautéed with onions and, at the end, basil. Drizzled with Saba. The question wasn't what wine to drink with this, but which. 2006 Isole e Olena Chianti Classico The back story of this producer is, if you don't know, that the De Marchi family, who had a small estate in Lessona in the Alta Piemonte, bought a rundown property in Tuscany in maybe the 1950s and relocated there. The son of the family, Paolo, took over in the 1970s and was a major success, becoming one of the most successful and respected winemakers in Tuscany. For all his prominence, he was a little bit of a Zelig, in that in the '80s and '90s he was a proponent of blending international "noble" grapes with his Sangiovese but now he's pretty committed to localized viticulture (he began to keep his international grapes out of his Chiantis and to bottle them separately -- and they were pretty splendid). Paolo Di Marchi sold off Isola e Olena last year to retire. Where he retired to is interesting. Twenty years or so ago, Di Marchi reacquired his family's old holdings in Lessona. He sent his son Luca up to manage them. And Luca has been almost as major a success with the family's Proprieta Sperino estate in Lessona as his father was in Tuscany (it's gobbling up other local estates). Paolo retired to Lessona, where, his handlers said, he could lend his son Luca his wisdom and experience. One wonders how Luca feels about that. Especially in view of the famous (and of course possibly apocryphal) story behind Luca's single most successful wine. It's a Rosado made from the local Nebbiolo blend. When Luca mooted the idea to his father, Paolo reputedly said that it would be idiotic to make a Rosado out of Nebbiolo and threatened to disown Luca if he went ahead and tried. So Luca proceeded behind his father's back (this is where this gets a little hard to believe), and the wine, called Rosa del Rosa, was and remains a smash hit, selling out almost immediately upon release every year. When he saw the financials, Paolo evidently decided not to disown Luca. But back to this wine. In 2006, I doubt Paolo De Marchi could even have imagined ever retiring. This wine was made at the tail end Di Marchi's tenure as a proponent of internationalizing. So it's mainly the trad blend of Sangiovese and Canaiolo -- but there's a splash of Syrah, which Di Marchi even now continues to believe can lend structure and substance to the somewhat loosely wrought Chianti blend. (As for me, as much as I very strongly support the local approach in theory, I think Sangiovese tastes very good blended with Syrah or Merlot. So shoot me.) Anyway, it's only a splash of Syrah: in this vintage, I think something like 3%. Now Syrah is nobody's idea of a dream date with rabbit. But Sangiovese and Canaiolo certainly are -- and as I said, there's just a tiny bit of Syrah here, deepening the wine's color as much as anything else. Now there are people who'll tell you that Chiantis don't age. And sure, they don't age like Barolos. But nobody who insists against aging them period had dinner at my apartment tonight. It's the usual story. What this wine lost in fruity exuberance -- and let's face it, young Chiantis aren't very exuberant (maybe let's say "freshness" then) (but young Chiantis aren't that fresh) -- it gained in coherence. There's still fruit there (and it's pretty nice). But that fruit now moves seamlessly into the herbs of the Tuscan countryside. Which is exactly why I like to drink aged -- even overaged -- wines. (Although, to be fair, 2006 is recognized as one of the most ageworthy vintages of Chianti like ever.) And probably thanks to the Syrah, this is still dark purple. Not even bricking at the edges.

Smoked duck fried rice. On the side, slow-sautéed bok choi-mustard green cross (it's called Dragon something) with garlic chives. My first thought was of course a Riesling. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted a red. 2010 Vignoble Guillaume Pinot Noir This is a Vin du Pays de Franche-Comté. Which I guess makes it at least Jura-adjacent. This is a straightforward Pinot Noir. But still a French one. Which means that the fruit is less exuberant than even in a refined Central Coast Pinot. (We'll get to the wine's age in a moment.) So there's very cherry fruit, a little reserved but lots of it. And not really much else. No profundity, no mystery, no real forest sweepings. But the fruit, the fruit is lovely. Now this $20 bottle wasn't really intended to be drunk 13 years on. I only stil lhave this one through the vagaries of placement in my storage unit. I can't remember what the other bottles I had from this vintage, drunk long ago, tasted like. But I remember being less impressed by them than I am by this one now. What I like about it is that the fruit is just where I like it: recessed but still THERE. It's almost like a highly refined Hawaiian Punch. And it did turn out to be a good pairing for the smoked duck fried rice. (Pinot Noir going with smoked duck? Who'da thunk? [sarcasm emoji]

Yeah one of these nights. Mao Mao looks SO fucking cool.

I thought the beef cheek was served on a menu.

More leftover Creole Cassoulet. Wow this just turned out so well. This is almost restaurant-quality. (I mean, not Foxface Natural: a normal restaurant.) On the side, some fried green tomatoes with Comeback Sauce. I don't think you're actually supposed to have Comeback Sauce with them. But now that we know that fried green tomatoes are actually Jewish, I feel freer to take ownership and improvise. (I don't think the originating Jews had them alongside a stew of pork sausage and two kinds of shrimp, though.) Albariño's affinity for seafood is proverbial. But it's also well known for standing up well to spice -- and the hidden kick provided by the Ghost Pepper soak the dried shrimp got before their incorporation into the cassoulet (with all the soaking liquid going into the gravy) (with the Ghost Pepper carefully removed, of course) gave the cassoulet a solid underlying kick. 2022 Nanclares y Prieto Albariño "Pergola Dandelion" Alberto Nanclares makes fancier Albariños than this. And in the cold light of day, they're better. But this junior cuvée is such a pleasure to drink. It's racy. It's REALLY racy. It's Speed Racer. Tart front end. Grapefruit and gooseberry. Tons of acid underlaid by slatey minerals. That's it. It's enough. As a pairing, it did work. It has enough crisp flavor not to be overwhelmed by the extremely flavorful main dish. And the acid of course works with the spice. Something different for the next batch. Stay tuned.

I was just listening to Tony Bennett/Lady Gaga duets, and you know what? Lady Gaga is Really Fucking Great.

That almost sounds like Eliot!

MORNING AFTER UPDATE I HATE high-ABV wines.

Belated Happy Indigenous People's Day! North American Surf 'n' Turf: Hickory-Smoked Bison Steak with a Dried Louisiana Shrimp Garlic-Sage Butter Sauce. On the side, roasted squash, tomatillo, and chili pepper. When I became obsessed yesterday afternoon with smoking the bison steak I had planned to eat today (the better to join the dried shrimp I planned to top it with in a huge Umami-Fest), the problem that immediately presented itself was how lean bison meat is. I was afraid I'd end up with something like pemmican. After a lot of deep thought while I was ostensibly working, I hit on the expedient of marinating the bison steak in oil for a long time before cooking it. So it spent most of today marinating, salted and peppered, in olive oil with its own blood, garlic, and the obligatory bits of Ghost Pepper. Did that work? Well, the meat wasn't leathery, so I guess it did. But as wonderful as the smoke flavor was with the bison meat, I have to conclude that bison, like venison, is a meat that's best sous-vided. That's really the way to keep it from drying. You could put Liquid Smoke on it afterwards. (Kidding!) I'm sure there's something else, that I don't know about, that could have minimized this. I seared the steak after smoking it. Which not only gave it the requisite crust, but provided a fond for a pan sauce. The dried shrimp really were excellent with the smoked bison: I'll give myself that. There was A LOT of butter in that pan sauce. The wine pairing proved the importance of food and wine liking each other. 2007 Orin Swift The Prisoner I've established my doubts about this wine. But with a dish like this, it's Just The Thing. Not tannic enough for its size? Well bison has almost no fat. Too hyped-up flavor? Well drink it with an umami bomb like I made tonight. One thing I'm feeling as I drink down the dregs by themselves afterward is that the fact that this wine is a little over the hill saves it. Its worst aspects are tempered, and you now get a decent amount of flavor that isn't too in-your-face. So drink up -- with the right food.

Kathy Chan had nothing to do with the following dinner.

It's clearly not true. The writer clearly doesn't know the difference between "banned" and "excluded".

Kathy Chan's Family's Garlic and Fish Sauce Eggplant (Grandma's version) That name is literally all there is in this dish (well, if you make it the way Grandma and I prefer, there's also an egg and a Thai chili). This dish is indestructible. I made so many errors I thought would fuck it up. But no, it was delish. (The least of my errors is that I thought I was putting in too much fish sauce. I'm thinking you can only put in the right amount when you think you're putting in too much.) On the side, Tokyo Bekana dressed with sesame oil and La Boite's Ana blend. Here's the best pairing for that eggplant dish. Valdespino Fino Sherry "Innocente" You know how it works: the salt and the oxidation match the fish sauce; the Fino sharpness cuts through it. And that's JUST how it works. After dinner: Cocchi Doppo Teatro This is a bitter Vermouth, Cocchi's answer to Carpano's (now Branca's) Punt e Mes. They're not identical -- I think the Cocchi is a bit more flavor-forward -- but there's not much to choose from between them. I prefer whichever is in front of me. (At least Cocchi's is still made in Turin.) (I remember the first time I had a bitter Vermouth. It was Punt e Mes. I was gobsmacked. What a perfect digestivo!)

You're good at being small!

You obvs don't listen to a lot of Arabic music.

I can't be too hard on them. In my kitchen, the food gets all over everything.

When I first became aware of John Rubinstein he was playing stoner cowboy Zachariah. Now he's playing Eisenhower. And not young Eisenhower, either.

I would have hoped they'd have wiped it off before distributing it to customers.

Tuscan-style rabbit ragù over papardella. This was a perfect example of the pasta-water-in-the-gravy thing. The gravy looked like an incoherent oily mess until, at the end, I tossed in some pasta water and let it reduce. Then I had a gravy. It never ceases to amaze me. The recipe I was looking at (I couldn't say it was "followed") seemed to me to clearly call for too much salt. Even after I greatly reduced the amount, I thought this still came out a little (only a little) too salty. But about midway through dinner, it hit me: if I were eating this along with a salt-free bland piece of faintly spongy bread, it would've been perfect. Cuisine works! The Tuscans actually know what they're doing. It's amazing. Despite the salt, this was quite good. I think braising must be the A-number-1 way to cook rabbit. Especially if you put in tons of panchetta to fatten things up. I forgot I had some leftover sautéed broccolini from the first round of this rabbit saddle. So even though I had broccolini last night, I heated it up and threw on some balsamic vinegar. It was fine. But even I have to admit that vegetables are better fresh. One of my very favorite wines. 2016 Poderi Sanguineto I e II Rosso di Montepulciano This is aging out of its window. It certainly now lacks the jumpy freshness that initially made this wine so special. But it's still real good. The fruit may no longer scream "boy howdy!" at you. But it's really good (black cherry, dark berries, and now some plums). The stuff that comes after hasn't gotten any more profound -- this isn't that kind of wine -- but it's still very pleasant: a little Natural funk and a little junior-cuvée muck. This wine really ought to be finished. I guess it's good I only have one more bottle.

It's sad (but true) that you say that, living right near Kossar's.

If I have a “sandwich” on a bialy it’s open faced. But most often I just have them with a schmear of butter.

POLITICAL POST ALERT: Admins feel free to delete Chickens: roost

This has to be my last striped bass of the season. Whatever (I mean we know what is) is freakishly extending the tomatoes shouldn't do the same for this fish. Broiled. With ginger-scallion oil. A recipe I found somewhere that is really great. The fish attained almost Santosian/Ripertian levels of undercooking. Those guys know what they're about: it was great this way. Some broccolini sautéed with lemon, garlic, and sesame oil on the side. Really an excellent dinner. I wasn't positive this pairing would actually work. 2019 Alexandre Bain Pierre Présieuse The backstory to my having this is that one morning a couple of weeks ago a friend texted asking if I know where you get Alexandre Bain Sauvingon Blancs in New York. I'm like, what have I memorized the stock lists of every wine shop in New York City? But then that afternoon I saw Bain's line on the shelf at my neighborhood wine store. Of course I had to get a bottle. If only for purposes of Lobster ala Risholm one-upmanship. This is Bain's entry-level cuvée (which does not mean it's cheap). I think (I'm not checking) it's the only one of his Pouilly-Fumé Sauvignon Blancs that isn't single-vineyard. No matter. It's fucking great. Usually when Sauvignon Blancs are thicker and heavier than usual, that kills them. You want these wines to be racy. This is the exception. Don't get me wrong: it isn't big like a New Zealand SB. It's just thicker and more complex than your average Loire Sauvignon Blanc. It's like a Natural Cotat. So you start with a very refined expression of grapefruit. You then sense some grass, and then some (no: A LOT OF) herbs. The minerals aren't particularly slatey: it's like you know they're there but can't really separate them out. Which is really this wine's appeal: it's incredibly integrated for a Loire Sauvignon Blanc. You don't usually see this seamless a flavor progression. Which was, in fact, the reason I feared this wouldn't work as a pairing. Your usual SB would be too blatant to work with the food I was pairing this with. This, this was, if not perfect, near perfect. I can see I'm going to have to acquire some of Bain's senior cuvées. Shit.