Lunch and swimming in Perivolos, Santorini

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Great swimming in the Aegean and fantastic lunch at Notos in Perivolos, on the south shore of Santorini (hence the name Notos, south), with Stavros (Santorini sales manager), Petros (vineyard manager), and Marina (owner) of Boutari. Fascinating conversation ranged from Sophocles to the Venetian rule of Santorini, from the origins of the name Santorini to the relationship of Italian Vin Santo and Santorini’s Vinsanto.

Too much to relate now and so I’ll let the images tell the story. But one wonderful moment I cannot refrain from retelling.

At one point, Marina asked me about my relationship with Italy and what I studied there. I answered, “I studied philology” and was about to begin my spiel about what philology is (since most people in the U.S. aren’t familiar with this field of study). But then it dawned on me: I was speaking with Greeks and they know exactly what philology is because its name is Greek… ϕιλο (philo) λόγος (logos)… love of words. When, instead of explaining its meaning, I shared my thrill at speaking with fellow lovers of words, we raised a glass of Assyrtiko in celebration… :)

Here’s what we ate (the first photo is of bourekakia, btw).

The Caldera of Santorini breathtaking

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This is the view from the hotel where we’re staying for the next two days. My Boutari colleagues explained to me that the “Caldera” of Santorini is the mouth of the ancient and still active volcano, which last erupted in 1952.

Life could be worse!

Btw, over the next 6 days, I’ll be posting as often as possible here and over at the Boutari Social Media Project blog. Stay tuned!

Avgotaraho — Greek bottarga with orange and fava bean fritter

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In any other city in the world, you’d expect a restaurant named Dionysos to be another cookie-cutter tourist trap. But when the main dining terrace offers one of the world’s greatest views — the Acropolis! — I become the world’s most unabashed tourist.

You can imagine my thrill at finally viewing this magical place last night and my pleasant surprise in discovering that the food at the elegant Dionysos restaurant is excellent.

I LOVED the avgotaraho — the Greek bottarga, in this case a loaf of cured red mullet roe served over a fava bean fritter and topped with a delicate slice of orange and orange zest.

Our host, Cristina Boutari, insisted that we get the moussaka, saying that it was probably the best to be had in one of Athens’s many tourist restaurants and it was superb: the béchamel and ground lamb were light and delicately seasoned and the eggplant, while keeping its shape, literally melted in your mouth.

And with such a view, the food could have been terrible and I still would have loved it!

Today we leave by plane for Santorini… Another dream come true… Stay tuned!

On my way to Greece…

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When I told Alfonso that I’d be heading to Greece this week, he shared this wonderful photo of his mother, probably taken in the 80s.

I’m heading back to the Mediterranean (not far from Apulia, where I visited earlier this month) for the Boutari Social Media Project — a virtual media program I have curated for the Boutari group of wineries for the last 14 months.

I’ll be covering the adventure here and on the Boutari blog.

It should be an interesting trip. Stay tuned and see you on the other side!

Mazel tov, Jayne and Jon! Welcome baby Erickson!

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Tracie P and I are OVERJOYED to share the news that in the early hours of Friday June 24, Jayne and Jon gave birth to a healthy baby girl! 10 lbs, 14 ounces!

We are so happy for our friends… :)

We’re sending lots of love to San Diego, California where Baby Erickson made her way into this world…

Sotto’s pasta con le sarde stopped the show last night

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Chefs Steve and Zach literally combed the Malibu foothills foraging for wild fennel flowers — finocchietto — to complete their pasta con le sarde, traditional Sicilian noodles with sardines, pine nuts, raisins, and — de rigeuer — finocchietto.

The occasion was a wine dinner at Sotto in Los Angeles in honor of my good friend Giampaolo Venica who wrote on the Twitter today What a great pasta with sarde last night @sottoLA, probably best ever had.”

Tracie P and I simply adore Giampaolo and Chiara, who are celebrating their first wedding anniversary on Sunday! Mazel tov! :) Photo by Alfonso, who also joined us.

Things behind the bar were getting steamy last night. Amazing cocktails…

I just had to ask the parents of these happy children for permission to snap their photo. Pizza is a wonderfully universal dish, isn’t it? Who doesn’t like pizza?

Now that Tracie P and I are expecting, I find myself thinking all the time about nutrition and Baby P. It was great to see these super polite kids enjoying the wholesome Neapolitan stuff!

A bottle of red, a bottle of white… some things never change in La Jolla

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Before heading up to Los Angeles this week to work at Sotto where I curate the wine list, I stopped in my hometown of La Jolla, California, to have dinner with father Zane who was in from Indiana visiting my brothers down there. We decided to go to Carino’s Pizza on La Jolla Boulevard, a restaurant where the décor has not changed since 1971, when the current owner bought the joint and when my family moved to Southern California from Chicago (Remember when Annie Hall moves to LA eats in a vegetarian restaurant, smokes pot and uses black soap? That’s essentially what happened.) The place looks like a movie set and is still adorned by murals of Mt. Vesuvius.

The food at Carino’s is nothing to write home about. But then again, I was at home. I hadn’t been there in literally 16 years. The antipasto was exactly as I remembered it. Over breakfast the next morning mama Judy said, “honey, I hate to tell you this, but you smell like garlic. You should do something about that before you start your day,” she added. I guess it’s the kinda food that “sticks with you.”

Carino’s has a moderate corkage fee of $8 and so I brought this excellent bottle of 09 Toni Jost Riesling that my buddy Jesse sold me. I’ve been drinking a lot of Riesling this summer (and posting about it over at the Houston Press blog, Eating Our Words).The wine was bright and delicious, with a wonderful 12% alcohol. Great pairing for the antipasto.

The pizza hasn’t changed either. We had the peperoni with jalapeños.

I popped a bottle of 05 Benanti Nerello Mascalese from Etna, Sicily. This has been one of my favorite red wines this year: earth and black and red and berry fruit, with bright bright acidity, and that wonderful balance of elegance, lightness, and power that you find in the pharmacist’s wine (Benanti made his fortune in pharmaceuticals before becoming a winemaker).

Zane doesn’t drink red wine, so he didn’t have any.

He talked to me about the usual subjects: his expertise in aerophysics and the recordings arts, Israeli politics, and his legacy as a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Some things never change… Es muss sein…

The 06 Dettori Romangia Vermentino just keeps on giving

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One of my favorite things about the Do Bianchi Wine Selections wine club is sharing wines with the folks who buy wine from us. And one of the fringe benefits of running the program is that sometimes my clients generously open some of my favorite wines when I visit to deliver their wines.

Such was the case when Chrissa and Dan popped one of my all-time favs, the 06 Dettori Romangia Bianco yesterday evening.

Man, that wine just keeps getting better and I imagine it won’t hit its peak for another 5 to 10 years, at least. It was crunchy and salty and its acidity was nervy (as the Italian say), with dried and fresh citrus notes and even richer tones of honey than the last time I tasted this stunner…

Chrissa and Dan have begun raising their own pigs on a San Diego County farm and they treated me to some Pig Pickin’ with apple-cider Bogue sauce and corn spoon bread. The pig, I was told, was a “red wattle.” The couple have launched a home butchering educational program called Carne Knowledge and they make some mean pickles, too (from homegrown cucumbers).

Thanks again, guys! LOVE LOVE LOVE that wine…

In case you want to taste the Dettori, I have a few bottles left on my list at Sotto in Los Angeles, where I’ll be working the floor tonight and tomorrow. If you happen to be in town, please stop by…