Vin Chaud: Heavenly Mulled Wine - I once attended Christmas Eve Mass in an old cathedral built in the 1100s in Lausanne Switzerland. What I loved the most about this was the musty, mystical feel of the church filled with villagers in the cold night, the fact that I could understand much of the sermon in French, and the vin chaud […]
Summer Wines: Rosé from Provence, Rioja & Santa Ynez - My favorite summer wine is rosé. Its lovely pink hue and delicate flavor win me over at almost every meal, as it flirts with me from the bottle; I just can’t’ say no to it. It’s as refreshing as a crisp white on a hot day, but slightly big enough with a few tannins and […]
Chateau Gruyeres + Gruyere Cheese = Swiss Heaven - The Castle of Gruyères — Château de Gruyères in French — is located in the tiny medieval town of Gruyères in the canton of Fribourg. It is one of the most famous places in Switzerland, not only for the castle and the historical town, but also for the cheese. Visiting Gruyères is a very Swiss experience. […]
Culinary in the Country: Gourmet Food & Wine in North Carolina - There’s at least one winery in every state, but that doesn’t mean you should taste the local wine when you’re driving through Oklahoma. But in North Carolina, they’ve been slowly converting tobacco crops to grape vines over the last 10 years, thanks in part to an incentive by the state government to do so. In […]
The Ham & High: Locally Sourced Ingredients in Montgomery - Montgomery Alabama is, as one would expect, full of down home cookin’ and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. Being from a central mid-western state myself, I loved the barbecue, mashed potatoes with mounds of butter, baked beans and hot dogs with all the fixin’s. And don’t forget the grits! But I was very excited to find […]
Wine Cocktail: White Peachy Bloody Mary - In the South, cold drinks are mandatory near the close of each work day…or maybe I should say just somewhere around 3 pm, when the day is at its hottest… and its humidest (and this is what humidity does to your brain in Alabama). This is featured in the new book The New Bloody Mary: […]
Txakolina: Basque Wine with the World’s Best Grilled Food - On my recent trip to Spain, I got to eat at the world famous Asador Etxebarri (Anthony Bourdain’s best meal of his life – and mine now too) in the middle of Basque country in Spain. Home of the world’s Grill Master Victor Arguinzoniz, he’s known for cooking with fire over coals and wood, and […]
Michel Guerard: Heaven’s Delight for One More Night - As the pleasure of the Baker’s company had already begun its slow, steady decline, the town of Eugénie-les-Bains, in France’s southwest corner, just outside the French Basque region, came just in the nick of time. This town has long been celebrated for its healing spring waters and tranquil valley setting, and as we coasted into […]
The Best Meal I Ever Ate: Etxebarri, the Grill Master & the Baker - I’d heard and read so much about Etxebarri from Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations (he also said it was the best meal of his life) to Chez Pim’s journey there, it was a must on my recent eating/drinking tour of northern Spain. Like Pim, I was grateful to get to eat at various starry restaurants on […]
Jamón, Octopus & Garlic Fish: Cantabria Restaurant - Staying in Cantabria, Spain has its benefits: it’s a 30-minute drive to the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, it has luscious green countryside dotted with caves containing early human paintings, and it’s unspoilt by foreign tourists – meaning it still has some really great, secret Cantabria restaurants. One of them is La Lonja in the fishing/port […]