Posted in alcohol on Aug 17th, 2008
When, two months ago, during a post on vin santo I mentioned the British holiday/vacation tradition of buying a bottle of the local firewater and then leaving it rot in the dark recesses of the liquor cabinet upon returning, I was thinking primarily of the kind of bottles that are simply unavailable anywhere else: artisanal […]
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For this month’s drink, I considered writing about several summer classics, and was nearly persuaded that a paean to my proletarian love — cold beer — might suffice in both the “pure sunshine in a glass” sense, and because it’s typically my leading beverage in terms of volume consumed between June and September.
The problem with […]
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Posted in Food Commentary, Italian, Italy, Tuscan, Vin Santo, alcohol, alcoholic drink, beverage, biscotti, delicacy, dessert, drink, food, grapes, madeira, malvasia, sweet, tourism, tradition, travel, trebbiano, tuscany, wine on May 29th, 2008
Regular readers must find us horrible bores as we bang on about our wedding and honeymoon in Italy last year almost constantly. On our penultimate day of our three week trip, we raided an enormous supermarket in the suburbs of Montevarchi for the Tuscan products we cannot find or cannot afford here in NYC, and […]
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Posted in America, Bourdain, England, Fergus Henderson, Food Commentary, Gabrielle Hamilton, London, Mark Bittman, Prune, Restaurant Review, alcohol, batter, bone-marrow, butter, celebrity, chefs, cornichons, delicacy, dining, diversity, eating, food, game, gherkins, indulgent meal, offal, philosophy, podcast, quail, rabbit, restaurant, squab, sweetbreads on Apr 24th, 2008
Normally, when I think of prunes my first thought is the familiar TV commercial showing the side-by-side comparison of someone experiencing “bloating and discomfort” and someone enjoying the verve and gaiety brought on by just one bowlful of California prunes. However, since last Thursday, my first thought is now “when can I have some more?”. […]
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Posted in Food Commentary, Korean, Potato, alcohol, alcoholic drink, beer, beverage, culture, drink, history, language, rice, tradition on Apr 2nd, 2008
To us, and we’re sure to many who enjoy eating, the pairing of a meal with a complementary beverage is a beautiful thing, but one which often seems intimidating. After all, haute cuisine restaurants can either prosper or fail on the recommendations of their sommeliers. Just imagine you ordered a $500 bottle of vintage Burgundy […]
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I should’ve written this drunk, as it may be a funnier, better post. You see, like many of you out there, I tend to get loved up when I’m drunk. This is exactly why I was specifically told not to use the phone ‘back in the day’ after a night out on the piss (to […]
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Posted in Asturias, Chorizo, Europe, Food Commentary, Madrid, Spain, alcohol, alcoholic drink, appetizer, beans, beverage, blood, chops, embarrassment, fabada, food, indulgent meal, lunch, morcilla, offal, pigs, pork, sausage, tapas, tourism, tradition, travel, unhealthy on Mar 7th, 2008
“The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”
- William Blake
Have you ever thought, as you sit red-faced, breathing shallowly, “just… one… more… bite”? Have you ever then taken that extra bite and thought to yourself — in your blood-starved brain — “maybe, after all, I could manage another one”? And, finally, upon swallowing […]
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Posted in Asian, British, England, New York City, Pub, Recipe, Recipes, South Africa, alcohol, alcoholic drink, culture, drink, easy, embarrassment, food, ginger, history, honey, hot toddy, juice, lemon, red bush, rooibos, rooibosh, sugar, tea, tradition, water, weather on Jan 22nd, 2008
It’s freezing here in New York. Freezing! Yesterday, it didn’t get above 26F/-3C. Just the kind of weather when you need something to warm (as they say in London’s East End) the cockles of your heart. Years ago, on a freezing January day I took a walk with a friend around Alexandra Palace in north […]
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Posted in Castillano, Europe, Madrid, Spain, alcohol, alcoholic drink, beverage, castille, culture, drink, entertainment, food, holiday, tapas, tourism, tradition, travel, vermouth, vermut on Jan 17th, 2008
As regular readers will know, we recently visited Madrid and gorged ourselves at its myriad restaurants, tascas, bars and any other hostelry we could find. Because of this excessive consumption, we’re currently going through what can only be described as a traumatic process of catharsis, in which we’re avoiding all meat and all booze for […]
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Posted in Food Commentary, Italian, Italy, Tuscan, alcohol, alcoholic drink, communications, culture, food, holiday, tourism, tradition, travel, tuscany on Apr 26th, 2007
Ahead of our recent wedding in Italy, I penned this blog post because I wanted to write about Italian potables other than wine in the expectation that after a week of chianti, our wedding guests would be ready for something different. As it turned out, many became worryingly wine-dependent over the course of their stay […]
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