A Food Post With a Soup, a Stew, and Some Buns, Part II

Last night, I provided most of the wine for Bob and Jen's New Year's Eve dinner party. (I'll write more about my Christmas in South Jersey and New Year's here in Brooklyn in a later post.) I was pleased with all of my selections: the 2006 Trumpeter Malbec, the 2007 de 2 (de Dos) Mencía from the Bierzo region of Spain, the 2005 Twenty Bench Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2005 Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc, and, for midnight, François Pinon Vouvray Pétillant Brut.

I bought a couple of the Trumpeter Malbecs for Dad for Christmas, among a few other kinds, because malbec is still his go-to red wine and he's taken up the trumpet again in his retirement. And I got one to try for myself, too.

I'd put Bierzos (and/or aglianicos and/or malbecs) on my Christmas wish list for Dad and Tracey. From Dad and Jean, I got a couple of bottles of 2007 Bodega Norton Malbec, which I know I'll enjoy, but there weren't any Bierzos under the tree.* Admittedly, they aren't terribly easy to find. I went to a few wine shops in the Slope this past week, and the only Bierzo I found was de 2.

Nashville, Tennessee, wine merchant Will Motley selected Bierzo as his "best value region" in this article in Food & Wine, and I think that's what really lodged Bierzos in my brain. In addition, Ray Isle placed the mencía grape within the Asteroid Belt in the clever Wine Universe he created for F&W's October issue. And Lettie Teague, F&W's executive wine editor, mentioned mencía (and aglianico, too) in this article about reasonably priced wines with great character.

I don't think I tried the Twenty Bench. And we didn't open the sauvignon blanc, but it's from New Zealand's Marlborough region, so I'm sure it'll be good.

I enjoyed the sparkling Vouvray about as much as I've enjoyed any sparkling wine, which I'm not usually a fan of. It tasted of apple, and I learned from the link above that it's organic. I figured a wine made from chenin blanc was a pretty safe bet for us.

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I took the 2006 MacMurray Ranch Russian River Valley Pinot Noir down to South Jersey to enjoy during my Christmas visit. I liked it just fine. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm a sophisticated enough wine drinker yet to be able to ascertain why MR thinks it should be worth about $10 more at retail than its other pinots. I guess I'll have to keep drinking lots of all three of them to try to figure it out. :-) 

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I have a love/love-to- ... well, "hate," is definitely too strong of a word. Maybe love/love-to-roll-my-eyes-at. Yeah, I have a love/love-to-roll-my-eyes-at relationship with Sweet Melissa, the neighborhood bakery/cafe that's closest to my apartment. I complain about the prices, but I'm usually there buying something every weekend day—and sometimes on weekdays, too, on the way home from work, if I need a caffeinated pick-me-up. SM sells coffee it says is both organic and fair trade. The service is often pretty slow because it seems like there are never enough employees to keep up with the demands of both walk-in and table-service customers. One woman who works there, though, is particularly sweet, and the store has such a nice atmosphere.

 

SM really went over-the-top with its prices for Thanksgiving and Christmas: $32 for certain varieties of pie! And $29 for the others. The $32 ones were all fruit varieties, with the exception of the Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie, which does sound divine.

 

I snapped this photo of SM's display case Thanksgiving morning and sent it to Dad while the Gerbers and I were at Preakness. I joked that we should listen for the sound of Pop Pop's head exploding, all the way from South Jersey, over the notion of a regular-sized pie that costs $32.

At Christmastime, SM offered Bûche de Noël in two sizes. The smaller one, which serves 6–8, was $55, and the larger one, which serves 10–12, was $78. You could also get a Golden Almond Fruitcake—which contained marzipan, golden raisins, apricots, sour cherries, currants, and dried pineapple in addition to the almonds—for $18. I say meh to both of those.

 

I got hooked instead on SM's delicious—and at $10, a relative bargain—Guiness Gingerbread, the recipe for which appears in The Sweet Melissa Baking Book, which I bought last March for both Tracey and me. And haven't made a single thing out of yet.** Maybe because I've been buying too much stuff from Sweet Melissa to warrant making my own. :-)

 

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Speaking of pies, I've been digging the Chicken and Vegetable and Chunky Beef pies at The Pie Shop in Windsor Terrace. With a bowl of Pumpkin Ginger Soup, either one of these Australian/New Zealand–style pies makes for a hearty and tasty meal.

 

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I've never enjoyed cakes as much as the ones Judy got for Anna's birthday party. Birthday cake is usually something I eat out of obligation to the guest of honor; it's not typically anything I go crazy over. But the two cakes Judy got for the party, from Billy's Bakery in Manhattan, were sensational. One was Billy's Banana Cake, with cream cheese frosting, and the other consisted of chocolate wafer cookies layered with whipped cream. Judy's home-made macaroni and cheese, which I eagerly gobbled down before the cakes were brought out, was mighty damn good, too. Strangely enough, macs and cheese is a dish I've never made even once. I'll have to remedy that oversight sometime this winter.

 

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And speaking of delicious desserts, after the Schultieses and I had our usual dinner of La Villa salad and pizza last Friday, Bob and I tore into Jen's Black Bottom Cupcakes like we were being shipped off with the French Foreign Legion. (I mentioned them in the post I linked to above that references the Sweet Melissa book.) I still haven't made them for myself. Jen's were so good—and so small; she used mini muffin pans—that I really had to eat five to get my fill. I was literally given no choice in the matter. :-)

 

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Le Gamin is a French cafe/crêperie with three outposts in the city, including one in Eugene's neighborhood, Prospect Heights, and one location upstate. Robert Arbor, LG's founder and apparent corgi enthusiast, has been parking his new mobile cafe on Union Street near the Greenmarket on many recent Saturdays. Let me tell you, there's nothing better to warm you up after a chilling morning of picking out your spinach leaf by leaf than a café au lait and a lemon sugar crepe. :-)

 

*I never get what I really want. When I woke up on Christmas morning at Granny's house, neither Hunter nor Jon nor Jake was lying next to me. Look, Santa, I'd even "settle for" the Broadway star instead of the TV or movie star. :-) Maybe next year.

 

**CORRECTION on March 29: That's not actually true. I made Black Bottom Brownies last year using a recipe from TSMBB. I even mentioned that in the "bought last March"–linked post. *sigh*