A wine for fried okra, east-Texas style!

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My post today for the Houston Press…

Even in East Texas, where fried okra is to the culinary landscape what George the Gator is to Peggy’s on the Bayou, people simply can’t tell you what okra tastes like.

My wife Tracie P, an accomplished gastronome and native of Orange, Texas (where she grew up frying her okra in Nanna’s cast-iron skillet), is hard-pressed to describe the mallow’s sensorial virtues.

“It just takes like okra,” she’ll say. “It tastes slimy.”

And therein lies the rub: More often than not, when people describe the flavor of okra they actually refer to its texture (and in doing so, they employ a literary device known as synaesthesia, whereby we use one sense to describe another; but that’s another story for another day).

I didn’t grow up eating okra, but I’ve certainly had my share since moving to Texas nearly four years ago to be with Tracie P.

On my palate, it has a certain spiciness, more gentle but reminiscent of jalapeño and mint, and, of course, its unctuous texture is a unique experience in the gastronomic spectrum.

Okra’s in season right now and we’ve been receiving a heaping helping each week with our weekly CSA delivery. So, what wine to pair with okra (which is rigorously fried at our house)?

Click here to continue reading…

A Michelin guide for Houston? @TonyVallone @TerraUomoCielo

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Photo via Spread Some Awesome.

When I took Giovanni to eat at Tony’s last week, he turned to me mid-meal and asked discreetly, “how many stars does Tony have in the Michelin guide?”

When I explained to him that Michelin doesn’t have a guide for Houston (or Texas for that matter), he was genuinely surprised.

Today I posted my translation of his post on our lunch at Tony’s on Tony’s website (for the original in Italian click here).

In it, he makes his case for why Michelin should come to Texas and it’s a lot of fun to read his impressions of fine dining in the U.S.

Here’s the link.

Revisiting my research on Vinsanto (Greek) vs. Vin Santo (Italian)

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I’m taking a break from blogging for the next couple of days and so I thought I’d revisit my research on the etymologies of the enonyms Vinsanto (Greek) and Vin Santo (Italian) and their philological relationship (for anyone who missed it the first time around or for anyone who’s only recently started following here).

Here’s a link to the thread.

Happy reading, everyone! I hope you drink something great for the holiday and have a safe and fun Fourth of July!

a boysenberry jam frat party shit storm

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Above: I included the Copain Pinot Noir Tous Ensembles in my recommendations for the Houston Press today. The alcohol content — 12.9% (YES!) — is reported in lettering so small and faint that you’d think the winemaker was embarrassed by it.

I never thought in a million years that I’d find myself writing regularly about American wines.

But then again, I never imagined in a million years that I’d have an editor that would allow me to write things like “a boysenberry jam frat party shit storm” (thank you, Cathy! you rock!).

I didn’t write the line in reference to the Copain Pinot Noir (above). It was inspired by a sales rep that tried to hard sell a wine to Darrell Corti one day when I was visiting him in his store (Darrell is one of the people in the world I admire most and whose friendship I cherish most dearly).

When Darrell courteously asked the gentleman to leave the bottle for his weekly staff tasting, he responded saying, “you’ve got to taste this wine: it tastes like boysenberry jam!” After he left, Darrell showed me the label, pointing to the 16 percent alcohol. He just shook his head, as if to say they’ll never learn.

A few months later (I was in Sacramento on that occasion making a record at The Hangar), the earth-shaking story about Darrell prohibiting 14.5 percent Zinfandel broke in the blogosphere.

The editors at the Houston Press have been very supportive in my efforts to write about American wines with candor and honesty and in keeping with my steadfast belief that wines with high acidity, low alcohol, and wholesome (as opposed to chemically manipulated) flavors and aromas are the key to healthy and happy enjoyment of wine (and good pooping)… And while I can’t say that Tracie P and I serve the wines regularly in our home (where Italian prevails, pervades, and precludes, and French and Natural Californian appear more than occasionally), I can say that I only review wines that I’ve actually tasted and wines that I genuinely respect (and of course, I’m limited to wines that are available in the Houston market).

Click here for my “Top 5 All-American Red” recommendations today in the Houston Press.

Merle Haggard, “Back to Earth”

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Tracie P and I splurged on Friday night and treated ourselves to seventh row seats at the Merle Haggard show at the (bring your own booze ’cause they ain’t got none) River Bend Auditorium (and erstwhile church) in Austin.

We first saw him together in 2009 and the show brought back lots of memories of when I first moved to Austin and our hearts were brimming with dreams of building a financial future for ourselves and having a family (Friday was the first time we had a sitter!).

It was great to hear Merle play the hits and tell the stories again… But the song that moved me the most wasn’t one of his. It was Willie Nelson’s “Back to Earth.”

I found the clip below from a Ryman Auditorium (I don’t need to tell you where that is) performance from 2008.

It’s really a song about love lost… But it’s also about enduring, true love… It’s been nearly four years since I first came to Austin from California and I know that our song will never have a final verse… I wouldn’t trade these last four years of my life for anything in the world.

Songs our love created I still sing
Love we knew still makes the rafters ring
Tonight I’ll sing for everything I’m worth
For all the hearts that have settled back to earth

Our song will never have a final verse
Our hearts just finally settled back to earth

Wine and the Sumpreme Court Health Care Ruling

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When I was a student in Italy in my early twenties, I ate twice a day in a university cafeteria, where 3,000 lire (roughly $2) got you a pasta or rice first course (usually topped with tomato sauce or tomato and meat sauce), a second course of fish or meat with a side of vegetables, a piece of bread, a small dessert, and one small glass of wine — white or red.

Like any red-blooded American college student, I had done my share of drinking. At that age, wine and (mostly) beer were a sine qua non component of adolescent socialization. And their sole purpose was inebriation: I can’t remember an instance when my companions or I stopped to say, wow, this beer is really hoppy! or this Chardonnay is really well balanced! (you get the picture and if you’re reading this, you’ve probably been there yourself).

And so when I first started eating at the university cafeteria, I was impressed by the fact that wine was served at lunch and dinner. Of course, the quantity wasn’t sufficient to “catch a buzz” or “get your drink on.” The serving size was just enough to allow the gentle alcohol in the wine to stimulate the acids in your stomach and the acidity to give you a jump start in digesting your food.

Click here to continue reading my post today for the Houston Press…

Georgia P reacts to health care ruling

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For as long as I live, I’ll never forget the moment I heard that the Supreme Court upheld President Obama’s health care reform and I’ll never forget watching President Obama address the nation on CNN with our baby girl.

From the time I became an adult in the eyes of the law to the time I filed my dissertation at UCLA in 1997 at thirty years of age, I was a student and was covered thanks to my affiliation with the university. But when I moved to New York and ultimately became a freelance translator and writer, affordable health insurance became a challenging personal issue for me: even in the toughest of times (like the years that followed the tragedy of the World Trade Center and the more recent financial crisis), health insurance was a luxury that I simply could not do without, lest my family be burdened with the cost of my care in the case I fell ill.

I’m fortunate to enjoy good health. And thanks be to G-d, Tracie and Georgia P are both healthy as well.

But now that I am a father and a business owner who insures his whole family, including our dear Georgia P, the news of the Supreme Court decision bolsters my hope that our daughter will grow up in a more “human” United States of America.

I thought that I was going to cry when the president said that insurers will no longer be allowed to deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions and that they will no longer be able to charge women more for coverage simply because they are women.

It’s still mind-boggling to me: we were the only rich country in the world that had yet to embrace a policy of universal coverage.

What a momentous day to hold our sweet baby in my arms and to change her diaper. What a glorious day for America.

I voted for Obama in 2008 and I’ll vote for him in November. I hope that you’ll do the same.

G-d bless the President and G-d bless America.

Quintarelli Valpolicella & Lucy’s fried chicken (Giovanni’s Easy Rider tour comes to an end)

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There was one sine qua non pillar of Americana that Giovanni had not yet experienced on his “Easy Rider USA Tour 2012”: fried chicken, the way its done in the South.

And so on his last day in Texas, we decided to take a ride to the south side of Austin to Lucy’s Fried Chicken, where irony and hipsterdom collide in a deep frier (photo above by Giovanni). We picked up a bucket of chicken, which, according to Lucy’s serves four but could easily accommodate a party of six (unless folks squabble over who gets the breast).

When we visited Houston on Tuesday, Giovanni had spied a bottle of Quintarelli 2000 Valpolicella, which he generously bought for us to share. As deep as our friendship may run, Giovanni — a top Italian winemaker — and I often disagree about wine. The “rough edges” of many of the Natural and old-school wines that Tracie P and I cherish preclude his nod of approval. He even turned his nose up at a bottle of 2006 Romangia Bianco by Dettori that we opened — one of our all-time favorite wines, showing gorgeously right now! Blasphemy at the Parzen residence!

But one thing we can all agree on is Quintarelli. And the superb bottle inspired an interesting conversation on the use of oxidation and filtration, with Giovanni pointing to Quintarelli as a master in both regards (where many Natural winemakers use excessive oxidation and don’t filter at all).

The richness of the wine (served slightly chilled) was simply brilliant with the fatty, juicy (and delicious) fried chicken and its dark red fruit ideal with the flavors of Tracie P’s mouth-watering fried okra (above) and mashed potatoes.

This morning I took Giovanni to the airport and he’ll be back in Brescia by lunchtime tomorrow. It was great to have him here and share our lives with him. (Italian-speaking readers, please check out his posts on Texas truck culture and his impressions of a Texan wine.)

Thanks again, Giovanni, for the visit and the Quintarelli! Travel safe, friend. As we say in the South, come back and see us, ya hear?

Best summer wines, Anywhere, USA

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Readers (and editors) love lists: today, the Houston Press posted my top five picks for under-$25 wines for the Texas summer.

It’s been really rewarding for me to share my palate with readers over there. I always keep it real, writing honestly and openly about wines we actually buy and drink and reviewing wines that I wouldn’t normally reach for.

The greatest reward comes when people either write me or stop me in a Houston restaurant to say, “now that I’m on to the low-alcohol and high acidity thing, I just can’t go back!”

Thanks, everyone, for reading and keeping up with it all.

Here’s the link to the post.

I can’t wait for Mrs. B. to taste the Darting Pfalz Scheurebe Spätlese Dürkheimer Spielberg!