Steaming Platefuls of Smut, and Other Diversions

originally posted by Michel Abood:
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Chris Coad:
a Coche-Dury Meursault 1996, which, it turns out, is wine to de-smut by, as its flaws will distract you from any lingering smut in your ears or on your socks. Really, this smells like popcorn and gunpowder dusted with lemoncream, it's lost the taut composure it had a few years back. "A movie theater in Beirut!" exclaims Ben. Crisp, taut, medium bodied and firm, but the firecracker/popcorn flavors swamp any potential fruitiness. Chardonnay gone bad; undrinkable. And if you know me, that's saying a lot.

I'm shocked at how icky this tastes, I remember it being significantly more not-icky when it was young. Perhaps some weird chemical flaw? "Joe, Joe, what's going on with this? What's happened to this wine?"

Joe shrugs. "It fell in the popper?"

Makes sense to me. Okay, time to sit down now, pass the chicken and let's get to work.
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Minor footnote. A restaurant recently opened around the corner from the Chateauneuf, and I was wondering whether to go, so I browsed their wine list online. Quite extensive, lots of Burgundy, and the above wine is available for only $500. Can you imagine the letdown?

I haven't had a chance to try the restaurant yet.
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Good God. Being half-French, it would be a genetic imperative to go on strike at such obvious gouging. I don't mind subtle gouging. But that's obscene.

Great write-up Chris, but where are Kane's pics? Is he hoarding them to be sold on EBay when we all grow up and become famous?
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Kane's pics? Please don't encourage him. He was insufferable enough before he became Jimmy Olsen, cub photographer. Snap snap snap, flash flash flash, are we having fun at the table now?
 
originally posted by Chris Coad:

Kane's pics? Please don't encourage him. He was insufferable enough before he became Jimmy Olsen, cub photographer. Snap snap snap, flash flash flash, are we having fun at the table now?
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Oh stop. You insufferable ex-actor types love the attention.

Smile!
 
You should have seen him at lunch yesterday, I swear I thought he was going to fold his sandwhich so it looked like it was smiling. And let's not forget his pics of his lobster dinner... Soon he'll just glue the camera to his face and take pictures of everything.
 
originally posted by Michel Abood:
You should have seen him at lunch yesterday, I swear I thought he was going to fold his sandwhich so it looked like it was smiling. And let's not forget his pics of his lobster dinner... Soon he'll just glue the camera to his face and take pictures of everything.
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Uh, huh. Like you don't take copious pictures for the three people that read your blog.
 
For those that want to see lunch yesterday, it's one of the best deals in the city. Banh mi is $3.75, the Vietnamese iced coffee, $2.

Banh_Mi_I.jpg
Banh_Mi_II.jpg
 
For those that want to see lunch yesterday
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Brad, you need to start your own website where you can take care of this audience's insatiable thirst for photos of your meals.

Amazingly, picsofwhatbradatetoday.com is still available!
 
Yes, it's sad, but true. Brilliant wine writer that you are, Coad, you are not a foodie. Most disappointing. In fact, that answers why I sometimes take pics at dinners; because you give the food short shrift, much to a certain Chateauneuf dweller's chagrin.
 
I consider myself a foodie but I generally prefer to eat my food rather than look at it. And I find pictures of food to be tasteless, so to speak. Maybe that's just me. I usually don't like to look at pictures of wine bottles either.
 
originally posted by mlawton:
And I find pictures of food to be tasteless, so to speak. Maybe that's just me. I usually don't like to look at pictures of wine bottles either.
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To be fair, there is a difference between images of food and images of wine bottles as you don't actually consume the bottle itself.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
originally posted by mlawton:
And I find pictures of food to be tasteless, so to speak. Maybe that's just me. I usually don't like to look at pictures of wine bottles either.
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To be fair, there is a difference between images of food and images of wine bottles as you don't actually consume the bottle itself.
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True that, but to be pedantic, have you ever tried to take a picture of wine without including the bottle (or a glass)? I imagine that could get messy.

Let's just say that visual stimulation isn't normally what I'm searching for from my food or wine. I know that may be heresy to some, but I sincerely hope that I'm not in the minority here.
 
Yes, it's sad, but true. Brilliant wine writer that you are, Coad, you are not a foodie. Most disappointing. In fact, that answers why I sometimes take pics at dinners; because you give the food short shrift, much to a certain Chateauneuf dweller's chagrin.
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One might posit that anyone who spent a good part of a night coming up with innovative ways to misboil a potato ought not to cast aspersions on others' foodie status, but I'll settle for merely suggesting that you're projecting your own chagrin onto others, as I've certainly never noticed any coming from Joe's direction.
 
originally posted by mlawton:

Let's just say that visual stimulation isn't normally what I'm searching for from my food or wine. I know that may be heresy to some, but I sincerely hope that I'm not in the minority here.
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Years ago, a good friend asked me what my favorite sense was. After some thought, I put smell at the top, followed by taste, hearing, sight and touch (not that I'd willingly give up any of them, but that seemed to be my order of preference at the time). Of the group of 5 of us who were asked that, I was the only one to put sight so low.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by Chris Coad:

One might posit that anyone who spent a good part of a night coming up with innovative ways to misboil a potato ought not to cast aspersions on others' foodie status...
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Hey, somebody turned off my stove, so they were sitting in lukewarm water for a long time. I guess that's why Joe has a line of death in his kitchen.
 
originally posted by mlawton:
Let's just say that visual stimulation isn't normally what I'm searching for from my food or wine. I know that may be heresy to some, but I sincerely hope that I'm not in the minority here.
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Actually, I would sincerely hope that you are in the minority.

Lipton aside, visual stimulation seems to be a central part of enjoying food and wine. Perhaps not as central as smell. But it certainly sends clues to the senses about what to expect as well as providing its own delights.

And wouldn't you agree that everything tastes better when sitting next to an attractive woman? :)
 
originally posted by Brad Kane:
originally posted by Chris Coad:

One might posit that anyone who spent a good part of a night coming up with innovative ways to misboil a potato ought not to cast aspersions on others' foodie status...
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Hey, somebody turned off my stove, so they were sitting in lukewarm water for a long time. I guess that's why Joe has a line of death in his kitchen.
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Ah, of course, the ol' kitchen sabotage by mysterious enemies. You hear that one a lot on Top Chef, too.
 
originally posted by mlawton:
I consider myself a foodie but I generally prefer to eat my food rather than look at it. And I find pictures of food to be tasteless, so to speak. Maybe that's just me.
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To be honest, it doesn't sound like you're a foodie, but someone that likes to eat. Every "foodie" I know is pretty passionate about ingredient sourcing, how something is prepared, how it looks, smells and tastes, it's history, etc.

Fwiw, here are some definitions of foodie that I found on the web, but I would argue they all encompass more than just appreciating how food tastes.

epicure: a person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment (especially good food and drink)
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Foodie is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink. The word was coined in 1984 by Paul Levy, Ann Barr and Mat Sloan for their book The Official Foodie Handbook.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foodie

a person with a special interest or knowledge of food, a gourmet
 
originally posted by Chris Coad:
originally posted by Brad Kane:
originally posted by Chris Coad:

One might posit that anyone who spent a good part of a night coming up with innovative ways to misboil a potato ought not to cast aspersions on others' foodie status...
Click to expand...

Hey, somebody turned off my stove, so they were sitting in lukewarm water for a long time. I guess that's why Joe has a line of death in his kitchen.
Click to expand...

Ah, of course, the ol' kitchen sabotage by mysterious enemies. You hear that one a lot on Top Chef, too.
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It happens on Top Chef. Just the other week they told Ariane that her lemon meringue martini was fine when they privately told the camera it was too sweet. She almost had to pack her knives as a result. In fact, she probably should've since Padma literally spit her concoction out.

And yeah, I believe it when whoever it was said last season that someone turned the stove off on their rice.
 
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