Sneakeater

You must know that there's very little that age hasn't done.

On a short hop up the coast in Alaska, you deserve a hot breakfast.

During the prep, as I was cutting up the Ghost Pepper and dropping the pieces into the mixing bowl, I accidentally touched some directly. THAT was a mistake!

I was pretty sure I'd be working past midnight tonight. And I was right! So it's a good thing I planned a supper that involved almost no cooking and almost no prep. Ham and Swiss (OK gruyère) on rye (OK Blue Duck German horseradish rye) with Süßer Senf. Közmatikally flame-roasted dragon's tongue beans with a just-crazy-enough-to-work drizzle of olive oil and LOTS of honey in which little tiny bits of Ghost Pepper had been steeped. You can see what I was trying to do here: sweet stuff to counteract the Ghost Peppers. If I had some sweet Homadama bread instead of the rye, I'd have used that. So of course the wine was an off-dry Riesling. And in keeping with my need to get things on the table quickly, it was one with a screw cap! 2022 Peter Lauer Barrel X This is the entry-level cuvée of this great Natural winemaker from the Saar. It's a Feinherb: only just off-dry. For this meal, I probably should have had a Spätlese or even an Auslese. But then I'd have had to pull a cork. In keeping with this cuvée's junior status, the grapes are sourced from all over the place (I mean, "all over the place" locally). This wine isn't deep or intensely rooted. It's just the kind of thing you'd knock back with a sandwich. In a way, it works the opposite of how you'd expect: it's a little sweet at the front, and then tangily sour at the finish. In between, you don't get one of those magic Riesling Journeys Into Variegated Flavors. It's really pretty linear. But it's a very enjoyable line. I'd only complain that this bottle should be a little less than $20 instead of a little more. But nobody's gonna cry rip-off.

"Life in the Fast Lane" isn't ironic.

A stupendous musician.

Tell me what's not great about this cut?

How many screaming dizbusters were in The Eagles? Not seven, I'll tell you THAT.

First few years, Blue Öyster Cult were GREAT!

And this is why LAZY was invented in response!

French dips are great, though!

I'll still never forgive you for The Eagles.

And then, after dinner: Germain-Robin Viognier Grappa I hate to praise anything coming out of California, but we really lost something when Germain-Robin stopped distilling. A really first-rate grappa is smooth, but with a bite at the end. This lacks that final bite. But the variegated flavors up until the finish are having a major -- if overly polite -- party.

Normally I wouldn't write up a total retread dinner tonight, where even the wine was a leftover. Except it wasn't a total retread. Leftover Positano-style pasta topping on (fresh) cappellini (believe me, "fresh" isn't a given in my house when it comes to leftover pasta dishes). I was in some doubt as to whether this topping of uncooked vegetables and barely cooked shrimp soaking in oil would improve the way cooked sauces/ragus do. It seemed like it might get worse, even kind of disgusting. I'm relieved to say it improved. The flavors really melded. Also, I've become a rabid fan of rock shrimp. They taste even more lobstery to me than langoustines (do I feel a scampi coming on?). Do they have rock shrimp in Europe? Are there French and Italian names for them I'd know? But the reason this gets a write-up is that I added a contorno. I'm not sure whether I've ever previously roasted radicchio. But it turns out to be really good. The caramelization tames the bitterness (as does drizzling it with some balsamic at the end) (and topping it with Parmagiana cheese). I roasted an orange aji amarillo alongside it, which was just perfect, as those peppers have a sweet flavor component alongside their mild heat. (This roasting occurred in the oven: I wasn't sure the Közmatik would work well here.) The remainder of Friday's bottle, started then along with the original iteration of the pasta (I only drank a couple of glasses on Friday because I went out to a concert after dinner). 2022 FontaAvecchia Falanghina del Sannio Unfortunately, unlike the pasta topping, this wine did not benefit from sitting in my refrigerator since Friday.

This is completely irrelevant (and mawkish to boot), but I really missed you guys.

Oh! I saw that production on Broadway! And then, years later, Spacey as Hickey in Iceman (in a production that also played the Old Vic if you were still in London then). That was a performance for the life list. Spacey's greatness as an actor (how about The Usual Suspects?) raises all kinds of questions about the artist v. their art of course.

I'm sure I've said this before, but in the early '80s I saw this play called A Soldier's Play. It had one of those classic great ensemble casts. But even so, two actors, then unknown to me, stood out. One was named Denzel Washington. The other was named Samuel Jackson. I remember hoping I'd be able to see each of them acting again. Little did I realize.

If unlike me you have hair on your head, keeping it off is work.

Something that always interests me is that a good Rioja's descriptors are almost always exactly the same as you'd expect for a good Bordeaux. But the wines don't taste the same.

He was 89??????????????????

When this first played here several years ago, I just didn't like it. I thought I would. But I didn't.

Thanks to @MitchW for pointing me to an inexpensive Turkish direct import in place of the overpriced one Chris Kimball sells on Milk Street.

SHIT I forgot the glass of Sherry I was gonna start with!

Morcilla (which my high thchool Thpanith teacher La Theñora Pereth would have inthithted I pronounth Morthilla, in Cathtillan) con patatas (oopth patatath). Out of the many wonderful ways there are to cook potatoes, frying them (parboiled) in the olive oil you just removed a Spanish sausage from is one of the most wonderful. My hipster butcher's sausages are inconsistent. (OK, one more and I'll thtop: my hipthter butcher'th thauthageth are inconthithtent.) You never know which ones will work. This one, although a good deal denser than I ideally prefer my blood sausages, tasted very good. (Thorry, La Theñora Pereth!) Also on the side, some green beans flame-roasted with garlic and Aji Amarillo. (Can you tell I just got a közmatik?) The Aji Amarillo seemed almost wimpy after last night's Ghost Chili. But it was nice to deal with a chili pepper I could touch without feeling intense pain. What do you THINK I drank with this? 2004 R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Reserva Well THIS wine is in a good place! Tangy but by now recessed cherry/berry fruit at the start. A very slight hint of tobacco, and I'm also tasting a little chocolate. Some eucalyptus. A LOT of acid (nice when olive oil loomed so large in the preparation of the food). The fruit may be recessed, but it laaaaaasssssssttttttssssss! What a good wine to go with a very enjoyable dinner!

I was very happy to see the large number of clicks Foxface Natural got the last time I mentioned it in my newsletter -- until I noticed that at least one of them was by Sivan.