The best thing about the Florida stone crab last night at Tony’s in Houston was watching cousin Marty scarf it down with gusto!
I was in town for a Ribera del Duero tasting and he let me crash a celebratory dinner for his research assistant, who just landed a fancy schmancy federal court clerkship (mazel tov!).
He’s not quite done with his treatment but, man, it was great to see that panache that we all love him for… You should have seen him munching on that crab knuckle (in the foreground)!
The list at one of me and Tracie P’s FAVORITE restaurants in the world, Fonda San Miguel (Austin), is OFF THE CHARTS ROCKING right now. Earlier this week, a close friend treated us to dinner and a bottle of the 2000 Gravonia white by López de Heredia. Man, that wine is INSANE right now. Wonderful fruit, great acidity, and the oxidative note that takes those wines over the top. Great pairing with the queso and the sopecitos.
Next we paired the 09 Produttori del Barbaresco Langhe Nebbiolo with our entrées. I had the carne asada tampiqueña… A match made in heaven (I wrote about it today over at the Houston Press for my “Odd Pair” rubric).
Produttori’s 09 Langhe Nebbiolo is one of the more light-bodied vintages in recent years and its bright fruit and acidity were fantastic with the dish and stood up beautifully to its intense flavors and spiciness. Seriously, one of the best meals of the year so far…
How cool is that? The best Mexican restaurant in the U.S. and they have Produttori del Barbaresco on their list! Love it…
Buon weekend yall…
The Neapolitan pizza at Sotto is imho one of the best in the U.S. today. Just had to share this photo of chef and pizzaiolo Zach Pollack and his bubby.
Panelle (Sicilian chickpea fritters).
Griddle-fired sardines with Sicilian winter citrus salad, shaved fennel, crushed olive-pistachio vinaigrette.
Grilled mackerel in scapece with cauliflower, cured lemons, pesto pantesco (Pantelleria’s tomato and basil relish for fish).
Grilled pork meatballs. I believe that chef Steve Samson’s extraordinary talent in all things pork-related is owed to his Bolognese origins (he and I have been friends for more than 20 years, stretching back to our college days in Italy).
This was one Tracie P’s favorites and mine, too. Ciceri e Tria, chick peas and long noodles, a classic dish of Apulia. Chef Zach strays from tradition here by deliciously folding in baccalà, adding another layer of flavor and texture.
Squid ink (long-noodle) fusilli with pistachios, bottarga, and mint. This dish is a true show stopper. Extremely difficult to photograph well and utterly delectable.
One of my privileges as wine director is that I get to put some of my favorite wines on the list! The 2006 skin-contact, wild fermented, unfiltered, and impeccably Natural 100% Vermentino by Dettori continues to “astound” me (to borrow Saignée’s tasting note). Alessandro Dettori wrote me earlier this year explaining that one of the things that makes this vintage stand out is the fact that he chose not to destem and he macerated for two days with the stems as well as the skins. The wine is gorgeously fresh and bright and its balance of fruit and minerality is stunning. And… It makes you poop good the next day… No joke… I LOVE LOVE LOVE this wine.
Devil’s Gulch fennel-crusted pork porterhouse with green tomato mostarda.
Are those some good-looking cannoli or what???!!!
In case you haven’t heard, I curate the list at Sotto and work the floor there a few nights each month. The list is devoted exclusively to southern Italian wine, with a short appendix of rigorously Natural California producers (chemical-free farming, wild fermentation). My next visit is scheduled for June 21 and 22. Hope to see you there!
You only have one mother… One of my favorite expressions in Italian…
Grandson Oscar poured milk into mama Judy’s coffee for an early family breakfast.
There were eleven of us for eggs in all kinds of styles and lox and Bloody Marys at Nine Ten, the restaurant in the hotel where Tracie P and I got married in La Jolla, the Grand Colonial, home of the Parzen family’s official Sunday brunch.
Next came some clothes shopping with mama Judy and Tracie P and a visit to our favorite Chinese restaurant in San Diego, Spicy City in Kearny Mesa (and yes, California Chinese is also better than anywhere else in the U.S. imho). The rice noodles were DELICIOUS!
Happy mother’s day, yall! Buona festa della mamma!
I’m sorry but the sushi in California (and the west coast in general) is just better than everywhere else in the U.S.
New York has its Masa (ho hum) and Austin has its Uchi (yes, sushi in Texas), but there’s just nothing and nowhere that comes close to the wide range of styles and price points and ubiquity of Southern California sushi and Japanese cuisine.
Popped into K-ZO Japanese and French restaurant in Culver City for quick working lunch with a friend and colleague today and man, that shit rocks… The live sweet shrimp — tails served raw and heads dredged in flour and deep-fried (lower left hand corner) — were friggin’ amazing…
I’ll be “working the floor,” as we say in the biz, pouring and talking about wine tonight and tomorrow at Sotto in Los Angeles…
Please come by and say hello and I’ll pour you something great!
Flew in to San Diego yesterday from Texas to begin shipping and delivering wine for Do Bianchi Wine Selections and just had to stop at JV’s Mexican, just a few blocks from my warehouse, for lunch. Like all great Mexican joints, JV’s — which has been around since I was a kid — makes all of its salsas and condiments in-house.
The salsa bar = AWESOME.
They’re not kidding about the “reasonable” prices. Love this place…
Three rolled tacos — flautas — stuffed with chicken and topped with creamy guacamole and shredded cheese is just $2.25 (only 25 cents more than when I was 18 years old!). Cannot have the flautas without the horchata.
I’ve had some of the best Mexican food of my life since I moved to Texas, but, man, California will also be my number one. Love this place…
Above: The social media was orgiastic last night at Diane Dixon’s excellent Somms Under Fire event at the W Hotel in downtown Austin. That’s top Austin food blooger Miso Hungry (center) with her better half and photographer @HopSafari.
Not only is Diane Dixon one of sweetest and most generous souls I’ve met in the nearly three years I’ve lived in Texas, she is also the first lady of Texas food and wine. Her events — like the Somms Under Fire dinner and competition, held last night at the swank W Hotel in downtown Austin — bring together the best and the brightest of the Texas food and wine scene. They offer young food and wine professionals the chance to interact with top names in the field and they give the public an opportunity to meet food and wine celebrities and get a peek behind the scenes.
Above: Top Austin sommelier June Rodil took home yet another title last night. That’s her with presenter and local wine celebrity in his own right, Devon Broglie.
When I left New York City back in 2007 and then abandoned my beloved California in 2008 to come to Texas, many of my well-meaning friends expressed their concern: what will you drink?
Well, I’m here to tell you that we get some good vino out here in Texas, too!
My highlight was this 1996 Mongeard-Mugneret Grand Échezeaux that somehow made it to my table. Still very tight but what a thrill to drink a glass of that wine…
I was also geeked to see and taste the 08 Rosso di Montalcino by Il Poggione, which showed great last night… always a great value for real Sangiovese…
There were roughly 10 bottles of wine — samples from the competition — on each table of eight persons and even the VIP tickets for the four-course dinner were under $60! A pretty good value IMHO for the experience…
Chapeau bas, Diane, for another great event and for another chapter in your noble quest to inform the next generation of food and wine lovers in Texas! I enjoyed myself thoroughly…
And when I woke this morning to read that Esquire has called my friend and client Tony Vallone (Houston) one the top Italian restaurateurs in the U.S., I couldn’t help but think to myself, we’ve got a pretty good thing going down here in Texas, don’t we?
Googling around the internets this morning, reflecting on a fascinating dinner and conversation last night with legendary Texas food writer Robb Walsh and his protégé Katharine Shilcutt (both magister and alumna have been nominated for this year’s James Beard food writing awards, btw), I found the above and wonderful photograph Tula Borunda Guttierez in an archived copy of Texas Monthly, January 1986.
Robb wisely insisted that I have the Enchiladas Borunda last night at his newly opened, living and breathing, museum of “vintage” Tex-Mex cuisine and restaurant, El Real in Houston: stacked as opposed to rolled enchiladas, a signature dish of the Old Cafe Borunda in Marfa, Texas, a restaurant that he calls the historic epicenter of Tex-Mex cuisine.
I also found this utterly riveting high school essay, dated 1965 and composed in Marfa, by Lupe Lujan, “Love, Laughter, and Enchiladas: A History of The Old Borunda Cafe and the Women Who Made it Famous.” I devoured the entire essay this morning over my coffee (don’t miss the episode where the café is visited by Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor!).
El Real is the most-talked-about restaurant in Houston right now. It is, after all, the brainchild of Houston restaurateur aristocracy (from the dudes at Reef et alia) and el rey of tejano food writing, Robb, who literally wrote the book on Tex-Mex cuisine.
I’ll leave the punditry to the pundits and will merely inform you that the stacked Enchiladas Borunda (above, stuffed with braised pork and topped with fried egg) were delicious (“I’m glad to see we made you sweat,” said Robb.). They were preceded by the sine qua non of Tex-Mex cuisine, Queso with Picadillo (made rigorously with
Velveeta, noted Robb), and an excellent heaping ladleful of Posoles (below).
Be sure not to miss the Tex-Mex museum in the gallery above the dining room floor and don’t hesitate to grill Robb with questions about Tex-Mex cuisine and its place in the culinary canon of Americana (as I did). He’s there every night and he loves to talk about this super fun project.
It was remarkable to watch and hear the interaction between Robb and his hand-picked successor Katharine, now the food critic at the Houston Press, the city’s weekly alternative rag. She worked in corporate America until Robb discovered her awesome blog, She Eats. Now they’re both up for James Beard awards!
Robb talked about his background in advertising and how his early gigs in food writing didn’t pay. As we got up from the table, he looked around the packed dining room and waxed, “Isn’t it incredible? I made money while I was having dinner!”
Above: Rome is the most beautiful city in the world, imho, and it’s the greatest place in the world to drink Italian wine. I snapped this shot of the Colosseum when I was there last September.
Quo vadis romae? (Where are you going, Rome-bound pilgrim?)
It seems that nearly every week I receive a message from a romeo or romea — a Rome-bound pilgrim (pronounced roh-MEH-oh, btw), the original meaning of the proper name that Shakespeare’s play made so famous in the English language.
Yesterday, I received two (no kidding)! In both emails, the romeos asked me where to eat and drink in the Eternal City.
Above: Katie Parla is my go-to when I go to Rome. Here’s the post about our amazing dinner at Pizzeria La Fucina last year.
As much I know and love Rome (I spent six months studying the Petrarchan manuscripts at the Vatican library when I was a Fulbright fellow) and as much I know and love the wine and restaurant scene there (it is, imho, the greatest city of Italian wine), ubi major, minor cessat: my favorite expert on all things Roman, the inimitable (and aptly named) Katie Parla has released a Rome guide app for smartphones.
I highly recommend her blog and her app. She is my number-one resource for what’s cool and cutting edge in the Roman food and wine scene.
Above: Rome always takes my breath away. I snapped the above photo in September.
On this Good Friday, it seemed appropriate to post about Rome and Katie’s blog.
My best advice about visiting Rome? When a Roman cab driver takes you the long way so that he can charge you a little bit extra, he’s not ripping you off: he’s showing you around the most beautiful city on earth.
Do Bianchi 