The Rest of Us

[Sneakeater]

In all innocence, without thinking, I put on Ornette Coleman's first two LA albums on during dinner.

At one point I thought how sweet a trumpet solo was.  Then it hit me . . . .

Perfect pairing.

[Wilfrid]

I was wondering today when Nathaniel Mackey is going to drop his Double Quartet in homage to Coleman, and he should not hurry, but I believe he will do it.

[AaronS]

people love that wöffler estate cider.

 

 

 

 

[Sneakeater]

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

[joethefoodie]

7 hours ago, AaronS said:

people love that wöffler estate cider.

I just find their ciders a little sweet, preferring a little more funky dryness. Better ciders/cidres abound.

They do have cute bottles, however.

[Sneakeater]

Repetitious, but I had a bottle open from last night so needed to match it.  (While I hate matching my food to my wine rather than the other way around, at least I had something that needed eating that was a textbook pairing.)

First, though:  NO NEW CATCH HERRING COURSE.  I'd reached the end.  Funny how, if you have two fillets a day, the herring just swims away.  I actually missed it.

Salt and Pepper Sausage on (you'll never guess) a bed of Tepary beans.

On the side, some accidentally charred Asian collard-like-thing.  I like it like this.  I have to learn how to do it on purpose.

The wine duh.

2018 Domaine de Robert (Patrick Brunet) Fleurie "Cuvée Tradition"

A night of sitting around has brought this more into line with what I like.

Glug.

[voyager]

11 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

....charred Asian collard-like-thing.  I like it like this. 

So do we.

[Sneakeater]

Bacalhau à Bràs.

This is a dish I would press on everyone who thinks they can't cook.  It's so stupid easy.  It's so stupid delicious.

I can't imagine anyone's not liking this.

I guess the problem is that the name is scary, being in a foreign language and all (and not just any foreign language, but a really weird one).  And I guess salt cod might seem a bit um exotic.

But really:  fish potatoes eggs olives (onions garlic).  What's not to like?  And it's SO easy -- while the flavor payoff is off the charts.

The only thing to have on the side with this is a salad.  Mine was mustard greens.

In Portugal they'd probably drink a red with this.  But come the fuck on.  It's hot out.  It's eggs and fish and olives.  I want a white.

Of course the best thing would've been some obscure Lusitanian white.  But if you put geography aside, it immediately becomes apparent that what this rich flavorful dish wants is a very lightly oaked Chardonnay.

OK!

2017 Domaine Corsin Saint-Véran "Vielles Vignes"

Another of my stable of overperforming under-$20 house faves.

These wines tend to be Unnatural, although usually organic or even biodynamic.  (This one's just organic, I think.)  They also tend to be highly typical, and this is that in spades.  You taste it and you think, Bourgogne Blanc.

They tend -- like this one -- to be a good deal less complex and refined than a top wine -- but a good deal more complex and refined than a relatively cheap wine has any right to be.  As I frequently say about them, they're still REAL WINE.

This is just like that.

[Sneakeater]

Wait, it may be sub-$30 rather than sub-$20.

Still a bargain for its quality.

[Wilfrid]

I bet you soaked the salt cod for 24 hours even though I told you not to.

[Sneakeater]

Nope.  I got lazy and bought pre-desalted.

[Sneakeater]

Desalted salt cod is a funny concept when you think about it.

[Sneakeater]

But the main thing is, these are deslalted salt cod tongues (are they REALLY tongues I wonder?).  And they are so collagen-y that I can only marvel at how the Pil-Pil I'm making with the remainder is gonna come out.

[Sneakeater]

The most fun part of making this dish was cutting the potato (a carefully selected Golden Russet in this new age of potato connoisseurship) up into little matchsticks.

But unprecedentedly, I managed to do it this time without also chopping my fingers into little matchsticks.

I'm not sure that didn't detract from the ultimate flavor of the dish.  But it's nice to still have my full fingers and no ocean of blood on my counter.

[Sneakeater]

New York Strip Steak with some vesuvio pasta with Vaquero beans and also some steamed string beans on the side.

I was going to open up something rather grand, this being one of those gorgeous pieces of dry-aged beef from Flannery.  But in the end I couldn't overcome my curiosity about how that Wöllfer table wine would be at cellar temp as the producer recommends.

2019 Wöllfer Estate Classic Red Blend

Yeah they're right.  This is MUCH better with a slight chill.  No longer overbearing.

Still not exactly what I like, but a nice quaff.

AND, it's got an umlaut.