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 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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Posted in California, Italian, Potato, Recipe, Recipes, breadcrumbs, butter, cheap meal, cheese, drink, easy, egg, flour, food, gnocchi, holiday, indulgent meal, quick meal, sage, sauce, travel, vegetarian, wine on Mar 1st, 2008
Last year, Amy and I spent a very enjoyable long weekend with her cousin and cousin’s husband visiting the Napa and Russian River Valley winelands. Throughout the course of the weekend we must have tasted fifty different wines at twelve or so different wineries, and I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I did not […]
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Posted in Europe, Food Commentary, France, French, French-ness, ban, cafe, culture, drink, healthy, news, restaurant, safety, smoking, tourism, tradition, travel on Feb 6th, 2008
You may have heard that France, like much of the rest of western Europe and the United States, has recently banned indoor smoking in public places - restaurants and the like. Clearly, for the bon sante of the French this is a good thing, but for us, the occasional tourists, seeking the most exquisite and […]
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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 Christmas, Food Network, Recipe, Recipes, alcoholic drink, cinnamon, drink, food, ginger ale, holiday on Dec 28th, 2007
Although we are still recovering from our 14-hour cooking fest that was Christmas Eve, we had an absolute blast and were proud of ourselves for successfully producing 6 courses for 11 people. It was EXHAUSTING, make no friggin’ mistake. We cooked from about noon till 7PM on Sunday and from 10AM till 5 on Christmas […]
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Posted in Brooklyn, Garlic, Los Pollitos, Meat, Mexican, New York City, Park Slope, beans, black beans, cheap meal, chicken, chile, chili, chilli, drink, easy, food, fried, pinto beans, red beans, restaurant, salad, soup, spicy on Dec 20th, 2007
Many a New Yorker has been heard to complain that the cost of living in the city is spiralling out of control, but there are very few residents who have complained that something is too cheap or that they get too good value for money. Well, this blog post is not a complaint, but it […]
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Posted in British, England, Europe, Food Commentary, Manchester, Pub, ale, beer, culture, drink, food, important details, television show, travel on Nov 30th, 2007
So, as the beautifully illustrated post by my wife (see below) attests, we were recently in the UK, and spent a good portion of that trip inside pubs enjoying traditional pub food and cask-conditioned, hand-pulled ales.
I describe the beers in this way for a reason. You see, the old joke that Americans never seem to […]
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