King Ranch Chicken and Jura

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If some of yall never been down South too much,
I’m gonna tell you a little bit about this,
So that you’ll understand
What I’m talking about
Down there we have a casserole called King Ranch Chicken…

Posted today over at the Houston Press on a wonderful pairing of Tracie P’s off-the-charts good King Ranch Chicken, which she made a few nights before I left for Italy, and a bottle of Montbourgeau Savagnin.

Man, it’s good to be back home in Texas… :)

Eric the Red, I’ve got the Pearl beer on ice waiting for you…

(Who gets the song reference?)

Daybreak in New Jersey and a lonely saxophone…

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Like a whole lot of likewise very unhappy people, I was stranded at Newark Airport in New Jersey last night (after a thunder storm had shut the place down and we all missed our connections).

With so many shipwrecked travelers, there were no hotel rooms to be found anywhere in the vicinity. But the nice folks at the Hilton Woodbridge in Iselin, NJ had a room and a beer for me when I finally made it down there (yeah, I had to go THAT far to find a room).

Especially now, it’s so tough to be away from Tracie P and adding yet another night to our separation, New Jersey was not where I wanted to be.

As we say to each other when shit like this happens, mwah… actually, MWAH!!!

My 6 a.m. ride back to the airport was ushered by the New Jersey sunrise and a lonely saxophone (above). Man, am I glad to “go home with the armadillo,” as we like to say in Texas. Wish me luck… because at this point, it couldn’t get any worse! I feel just like that saxophone playing over the Hilton’s speakers…

Eggplant lasagne with 3-tomato sauce

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Last night, this dish at the famous Al Fornello da Ricci blew my mind: baked and fried eggplant layered with lasagne and drowned in a tomato sauce made from ciliegino, ramato, and macone tomatoes (I’d never heard of the latter and I’m guessing that it’s a local cultivar).

Amazing… Much more to tell about last night but now off to Ostuni — the “white city” for some sightseeing before tonight’s conference (where I’ll be speaking as well).

Thanks to our sommeliers (219 wines tasted!)

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These nice gentlemen did a truly superb job serving our “jury” the 219 competing wines we tasted for the Radici Wines festival over the last three days.

They’re all locally based professional sommeliers except for one…

Paolo Patruno (above) is a doctor and a local winemaker. He is one of the many layperson sommeliers who has achieved his certification through the Apulia chapter of the Italian Sommelier Association.

His service was impeccable and he and I talked about a wide range of topics after each session — from my Eastern European origins to his residency at a hospital in Israel (where he treated wounded Israeli soldiers among his patients), from the historic immigration crisis in Albania (across the sea from Apulia) to the current African migration, from the recent changes in the Primitivo di Manduria DOC to Apulian traditions of hospitality.

It’s my favorite thing about what I do for a living: meeting new people and learning about their lives through and in wine.

Our jury included writers and wine experts from America, England, Poland, France, and Italy.

Jancis (center) was our presidentessa (she is super cool!) and it was thrilling to taste and share impressions with so many interesting wine personalities.

Classic homey orecchiette and Sassicaia’s new enologist

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You really can’t eat too many orecchiette, can you? I LOVED the classic, homey orecchiette they served us last night at the beautiful Vallone winery after we tasted a vertical of Graticiaia — the Amarone-style Negroamaro that many Apulians call “the greatest wine” from their region. The hand-rolled dumplings were dressed with a fresh tomato sauce and freshly grated ricotta salata. Delicious…

The Castello di Serranova — home to the Vallone winery and a vibrant “living” castle — was in full bloom. Gorgeous.

It was fascinating to talk with Vallone enologist Graziana Grassini (above, second from left, photo by Jedi wine blogger Ryan) who is now — news to me — the enologist at Sassicaia (since last year). She was mentored by Giacomo Tachis and I was riveted by her anecdotes about him (more on that later).

Not much time for blogging today: we tasted 60 competing wines this morning and we have another 40 to taste this afternoon before we head out to dinner this afternoon…

Stay tuned!

Judging southern Italian wines

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This morning we began tasting and scoring wines in the competitive sessions of the Radici Wines festival. We have to blind taste more than 200 labels between today and Wednesday, when the winners will be announced. All of the wines are made from indigenous grape varieties from Southern Italy.

They’ve gathered a remarkable group of judges for the media jury — Italian and international (there’s also an Italian restaurant and wine professional jury). This morning I was seated next to Jancis Robinson (she’s “number 1” and I’m “number 2”; how cool is that???!!!). That’s Franco Ziliani center addressing the “jury” and our excellent interpreter, Marilena Balletta, who’s been doing a great job interpreting for the solely English speakers of our group (as a veteran interpreter at events like this, I can’t say that I envy her!).

It’s been great to rub shoulders with über-cool wine blogger Ryan Opaz (in the foreground, sitting to my right, “number 3”).

And I’ve also had a lot of fun horsing around with Jo Cooke, David Berry Green, and Kyle Philips. And I’ve also been enjoying sharing thoughts on Marxist ideology and Latin epithets with Maurzio Gily.

The Borgo Egnazia resort where we’re staying is pretty incredible but so far we haven’t had much time to enjoy it…

And as Alfonso can imagine, there’s no internet in the rooms…

But, honestly, life could be worse… :-)

Waiter, waiter! There’s a worm in my chive flower! FANTASTIC cavatelli with mussels and chickpeas

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My dining companions were more alarmed by the worm in my chive flower than was I. The flower and worm arrived atop a truly fantastic dish of cavatelli with mussels and chickpeas at the Borgo Egnazia, a fancy schmancy resort on the eastern coast of Apulia where we’re staying for the judging.

This was probably my favorite dish so far on this trip. I viewed the worm as a sign of nature and, frankly, I probably would have eaten it in the spirit of experiencing the terroir. But the however sweet lady seated to my right was thoroughly dismayed by its appearance and it was subsequently whisked away after being betrayed by her moan.

I also really loved the chef’s pistachio ice cream drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil.

Onion porn from Apulia

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If ever there were a food photo worthy of being called “porn” on my blog, it would surely be this one: this fava bean purée and toasted bread round pie topped with a delicately battered and fried red onion round and accompanied by a lightly roasted shishito pepper (for lunch at the Masseria Le Fabriche yesterday on the western coast of Apulia). Sexy and delicious…

Primitivo (two ways): Italian grape name and appellation pronunciation project

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CLICK HERE FOR ALL EPISODES

Since I’ve spent the last week in Apulia, it only seemed appropriate to feature an Apulian grape this week for the Italian Grape Name and Appellation Pronunciation Project. And since we’ve already done Negroamaro, it seemed a propos to feature another one of the most widely planted grapes here, Primitivo. And so, the other day when we went swimming the other day in the Adriatic (at Torre dell’Orso, not far from Lecce), I asked Paolo to pronounce Primitivo for my camera.

Of course, Primitivo is one of the easiest for English-speakers to pronounce. And so I thought it would be fun to spice things up with a dialectal pronunciation.

I’m waiting until after the Radici Wines festival ends to start posting on the wines I’ve tasted, but I’ll give a little preview by revealing that I LOVED the Primitivo by Pasquale Petrera (Fatalone, Gioia del Colle). As it so happens, he uses the dialectal name of the grape on one of the labels of his excellent wines (and I’ll post on my tasting down the road): u Pr’matìv (Il Primitivo, in Italian, the Primitivo [grape]). And so I asked him to take a break from one of the preview tastings and pose for my camera.

Buona visione! And thanks for speaking and drinking Italian grapes!