Above: Potatoes that had been simmered for eight hours and then fried at Genoa in Portland where I spoke at a wine dinner on Tuesday night. They were delicate and creamy in the middle, gently crunch on the outside and the caviar gave just the right amount of saltiness.

By the time I got to Oregon on Tuesday, I had been in eight cities in nine days: New York, Philadelphia, Houston, Austin, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland. The lines from the Simon & Garfunkel song never rang more true: everyday’s an endless stream/of cigarettes and magazines/and each town looks the same to me/the movies and the factories…

Back in the “day,” when my band Nous Non Plus and the band that came before it used to tour aggressively, I was accustomed to the intense travel and a different hotel room every night, often waking up without remembering what town we were in.

But back then I was in my mid-thirties. Now I’m in my mid-forties.

Back then it was cheap beer and crappy food. Today, it’s fine wine and haute cuisine.

Back then I didn’t have anyone to go home to. Now I have a loving family more beautiful than I could ever have dreamed of.

Above: I loved the way the chefs at Genoa used color in their dishes. I had been invited by the restaurant’s wine director, Michael Garofola, to co-present his second annual Orange Wine dinner. It turned out I had to be in Seattle the day before so it worked out nicely.

On each night of the trip (except the last), my friend and client Paolo Cantele and I ate in a fabulous restaurant and met with local media to talk up his family’s wines and his new cooking school iSensi.

I’ve been documenting and will continue to post about our trip over on his CanteleUSA blog.

We called it the “Rolling Thunder Cantele USA 2013 Tour” and although the food was a lot better, it reminded me of my rock ‘n’ roll days, especially for the camaraderie between the two of us in the face of prolonged fatigue, weight-gain, and the disorientation that comes with such a heavy travel schedule.

Above: The pappardelle at Genoa were light in body but firm to the bite. I was so impressed by their food and it was wonderful to see what a vibrant food scene they have in Portland. It was also a thrilled to meet wine writers Allison Jones of Portland Monthly and Katherine Cole (whose newest book is called Complete Wine Selector), both such gracious ambassadors of Oregon wine and Portland’s gastronomy.

The last night I was on my own in Portland with a great group of wine and food lovers, who were so welcoming and so hospitable.

As much as a missed home and my girls, as much as my digestion took a beating (for the fatigue and over-indulgence, not the high caliber of the food), as much as I missed my own bed and my good-night kisses and good-morning hugs, I know that I am very fortunate to have the work that I do and to be living in the U.S.A. during this unrivaled renaissance of enogastronomy.

In eight cities, I saw, tasted, conversed, traded notes, and learned, learned, learned so much about what’s going on in our country culinarily speaking.

And in eight cities, I connected with people whom I know through our food and wine blogging community. This was a trip of hugs and “so great to finally meet you,” not handshakes and “thanks for your time.”

Above: I’d never met Genoa’s wine director Michael before. But thanks to social media, he and I knew that our palates align nearly seamlessly. Case in point was the Keber Collio that we drank at the end of the night after the dinner guests went home.

Still in a daze as I catch my breath and catch up on hugs, kisses, burps, diapers, and meals with my beautiful girls and my beautiful Tracie P, I find myself thinking about another song from the 60s, not as well known but one of my favorites.

Without going out of my door
I can know all things on Earth
Without looking out of my window
I could know the ways of Heaven

The farther one travels
The less one knows
The less one really knows

The meals were nearly all excellent and some truly superb. And I love the excitement of travel and meeting new people.

But I know that all these experiences are all the richer because of the virtual community that we’ve created over the last five years or so.

The experiences would mean so much but they mean even more because we’ve all connected through our computer screens and smart devices long before we ever met in person. And we’ll stay connected after our goodbyes.

Thanks for reading and keeping up with it all. I’ll begin posting more trip highlights next week.

Now it’s time to catch up on some spit up, a burp, a poopy diaper… and many, many, many overdue I-love-yous…

Everyday’s an endless stream
Of cigarettes and magazines
And each town looks the same to me
The movies and the factories
And every stranger’s face I see
Reminds me that I long to be…

Home, where my love lies waiting, silently for me…

See you on the other side…

As Merle Haggard sang it…

I wish Coke was still Cola
And a joint was a bad place to be
It was back before Nixon lied to us all on TV

And Brunello di Montalcino was still brightly colored, transparent Sangiovese…

What a thrill to taste this perfect bottle of 1971 Brunello di Montalcino by Argiano, shared with us on Saturday night at Jaynes Gastropub by San Diego wine writer and friend Robert Whitley (aka @WineGuru).

The wine was fresh and brilliant, with the classic Sangiovese flavors and balance that you expect from pre-climate change Montalcino. Unforgettable…

Thank you again, Robert!

Posting in a hurry on the last day of the ROLLING THUNDER CANTELE USA 2013 TOUR. Last night we were in San Francisco and today we’re on our way to Seattle.

So much to tell and so little time… Stay tuned…

“Following September 11, 2001, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created to strengthen the security of the nation’s transportation systems and ensure the freedom of movement for people and commerce. Today, TSA secures the nation’s airports and screens all commercial airline passengers and baggage.”

(Source: TSA.gov.)

On Friday, Paolo and I waited for six hours at the Austin airport until our Los Angeles-bound flight was finally allowed to depart. Our plane was among the first to land at LAX after the airport had been closed in the wake of Friday morning’s shooting, a terrible and terrifying episode that took the life of a TSA agent.

Earlier in our day back in Texas, before news of the shooting broke, Paolo and I had watched a parade of Second World War veterans (see photo below) in wheel chairs as they passed through the main corridor of the airport to the applause of all those present.

When the veterans arrived at the terminal, they were greeted by a TSA honor guard.

Continue reading →

About to board for Los Angeles as the Rolling Thunder Cantele USA tour 2013 continues and cannot stop thinking about the mini soufflé filled with white Alba truffle sauce Tony treated us to the other night in Houston.

It’s going to be hard to beat the three meals we’ve had so far (last night doesn’t count because we ate BBQ in Austin). But Paolo and I will try…

See you on the other side!

Randall Grahm (above) needs no introduction from me. He’s one of the greatest authors, grape growers, and winemakers of our generation and he’s also one of the most lovely and fascinating personages I’ve ever had the opportunity to know. His erudition, humanity, and love of paronomasia are models for my own writing and I was thrilled that he agreed to do the following interview with me.

Randall will be pouring and talking about his wines at Sotto in Los Angeles (where I co-author the wine list) on Thursday, November 7 (6:30-7:30 p.m. and then talking tableside during the first dinner seating).

Registration is not yet online but you can snag a seat by emailing events@sottorestaurant.com.

I’ll be speaking at the Cantele tasting at the restaurant tomorrow night with my good friend winemaker Paolo Cantele. There are just a few spots left for our event. Please click here for registration and info.

Buona lettura! Happy reading!

DB: Last week, you tweeted the following: “The reality is Biodynamics cannot be explained scientifically.Yet empirically it works, ergo a practical solution.”

Can you talk about the blurred line between science and the “mystery” of biodynamics? Will we ever have an explanation of why it works? And what is spirituality’s role in biodynamics in America? What prompted the tweet?

RG: The tweet was prompted by Corby Kummer’s post on biodynamics, as he attempted to demystify the practice. As you know, there are still a lot of people who are utterly freaked out by the idea of drinking biodynamic wines, putatively made by superstitious, voodoo-practicing grape growers. I am not a psychologist, but there is something about biodynamic practice – maybe it’s the fact that these people are ingesting the final product in their bodies – that creates a sort of fear of contamination for them, or maybe they fear that they themselves might begin acting irrationally. It’s seemingly crazy – why should people be threatened by the fact that a grower is not applying synthetic pesticides and fertilizers to his plants? – but there you go. I’m fairly certain that we will not have an explanation of why biodynamics works in our lifetime. Western science has not yet really gotten a handle on the notion of subtle energetic forces – I think this may have to wait till the 22nd century. Of course there have been and are a number of theoretical physicists who speak to the correlation of spirituality and science, but they are still pretty marginalized. There is certainly a major taboo among scientists to broach the idea of spirituality; it would appear to fly in the face of the scientific method. But spirituality is really at the core of biodynamics; many practitioners will deny this, hoping not to scare away potential customers. But to really practice biodynamics properly, there is the need to do quite a bit of internal work. (I’m not a very rigorous practitioner in that regard, but aspire to some day be.)

You were among the first U.S. winemakers to list all the ingredients of your wines on the label. What feedback have you seen? Are other winemakers following your lead? Do you envision a day when all wines will be labeled like this?

Continue reading →

Above: Marrow served atop a bread “bone” and sprinkled with bottarga.

The food at Vetri in Philadelphia is simply breathtaking. I had the great fortune to dine there last night with my great friend and client Paolo Cantele (and I’ve just posted food photos on his blog CanteleUSA).

There were many extraordinary wines poured last night but the one I can’t stop thinking about was the Bonci 1998 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, selected by my friend Steve Wildy, the restaurant’s wine director (one of the sweetest and most gifted people in the trade).

This fifteen-year-old expression of Verdicchio seems to be drinking at its peak (and perhaps has more years ahead of it): rich and complex, it was such a great example of an indigenous Italian grape (one of the few) that benefits from small-cask aging. It was a brilliant choice by our sommelier and I loved its unctuous mouthfeel.

But the most extraordinary thing was how the staff — front and back of the house — literally danced around us.

That’s chef de cuisine Adam Leonti (above). When he saw that we tasted a Lazio wine (among the many wines we were served), he whipped up some pajata, a dish in which the digested mother’s milk of a calf is cooked in its small intestines, a classic of Roman cookery (he didn’t know that I am a huge fan of the dish and have written about it on many occasions).

Here’s the dish…

One of the best meals of my life…

Check out the other food photos on Paolo’s blog.

And a heartfelt thanks to Marc Vetri, Adam Leonti, and Steve Wildy for opening the doors of your wonderful restaurant to us. A truly sublime meal that I will never forget…

In my mind, I can already see my adoring wife Tracie P rolling her gorgeous green eyes: yes, even though I’m two nights into an “eat ’til we drop” tour of the U.S. with my buddy and client Paolo Cantele, I just had to have a cheese steak for lunch in Philadelphia.

So how’s your pancia doing? she’ll ask me when we speak later today.

Those are the fried pickles that went along with the cheese steak.

I know… I know… With the many epic meals in my near past and future (still working on my post on Vetri, one of the best meals I’ve ever had, period), I shouldn’t be throwing caution to the wind (literally).

I wish I would have taken a photo of the dude at Nick’s (in the Old City) who served me the sandwich. With his tattoos and 50s ‘do, he was straight out of central casting.

In Philly, they just call it cheese steak.