I’ve been traveling all over the place, for work and for pleasure, hence the lack of restaurant and cooking project posts in January. Once I got back from Savannah yesterday afternoon, I spent the rest of the day cooking and watching football, and it was pure pleasure spending some time in the dojo.

As I’ve been getting settled in this morning, I realized I do have a bunch of miscellaneous photos from the last few weeks. So here you go, get ready for a bunch of ‘em.

First up, my brother and I took my father to Bern’s for his birthday. The wine and service were amazing, as was this large strip steak that we split three ways (pictured is just part of my portion).

The next day we went to Arco Iris, where these crispy braised pork nuggets were the jam.

The next week I visited Miso Izakaya again with some friends. I loved the oden dish they were trying out (I don’t think it’s on the menu), though we ate it early in the meal and it sat quite heavy. Tons of luscious soft bone marrow and firm root veggies.

I finally tried their ramen, which was good, though a touch sweet for my tastes. I have no idea if this was a good representation of this dish though; the kitchen was slammed and we were told they didn’t have ramen, then they brought it out later in the evening.

Last week I took a tour of Inland seafood. They sent me home with some crab dips and such, though I was hoping for a case of these Shigoku oysters. Shit, I would have even accepted a case of beau soleils from Nova Scotia. I requested this tour for a post I’m working on – more on that in the coming weeks.

I also got together with friends for some home cooked pizza and wine. My friend John is apparently on a mission to keep me in the poor house, as he continues to introduce me to expensive things which I desire. Old Barolo is amazing. It’s like dirty, mulchy, tar-laden Burgundy.

I stopped at Chat Patti (Vegetarian Indian) for the first time in a while. The thali special is always a good deal. Not as flavorful (or spicy) vegetables as I remember, but still chock full of great breads and vibrant sauces.

There’s now an excellent coffee shop in Columbia, called Drip. They serve breakfast and lunch too – I tried a duck confit biscuit with honey that is crave-worthy. Flaky, sweet, fatty, etc.

On the way to the coast I stopped in Orangeburg SC at the famous Duke’s Bar-B-Q. They told me it was the best I’d ever try, though in my experience 90% of SC BBQ is terrible (I’ve yet to try Sweatman’s or Scott’s). It’s mostly buffets and steam tray pork. Duke’s was no different. The tomato-rich hash was fine, in a I-don’t-get-to-eat-this-very-often sort of way. It was like a pureed Brunswick stew. And look at that sweet and cloying yellow mustard sauce – looks appetizing, huh?

I ate mussels and fried shrimp at 11th Street Dockside in Beaufort, it was serviceable. I’d order the shrimp again.

And I took a boat ride in Savannah, then ate steamed oysters and drank $3 margaritas at Bonna Bella Yacht Club. It was 77F and sunny with a gorgeous sunset and plenty of frosty Miller High Life on the boat. Perfect day.

Finally I got home and cooked. During the dreary ride back I was struck with a craving for Beef Bourguignon. It was fairly well done though the sauce wasn’t quite on point. Hopefully the flavors came together a little more overnight, and I may add more demi-glace today.

I have another 1.5lbs of beef chuck in my sous vide machine, which has been running at 140F since 4PM yesterday. Tonight I’m going to compare with the four hour braised beef and see who wins.

Moving on from cooking, we guzzle on over to booze. Mostly wine, some spirits. If you are not a wine geek, or aspire to be one, it may be best to just skip this post. And I realize listing some of these wines is a touch braggadocio, but let’s be real, food blogging is often virtually akin to whipping it out next to the tape measure.

But for serious, a lot of these potables had a special meaning to me, be it for the wine itself, or for the experience surrounding the drink. Most were consumed with friends; kind cohorts with greater means than my own, who for some reason seem to enjoy my company well enough and allow me to share a drink. These experiences have had a direct impact in my taste preference, and my spending habits, and I’m thankful. I think. Let me check my bank balance…

1. ’99 Drouhin Clos de Mouches – I bought a couple of these for a very fair price and both were acidic and wonderful and I’m sad I didn’t buy a case of them. My brother made a fine French meal to eat with it.
2. The Castro Monk at Ecco – Benedictine and bourbon. Ironic and tasty.
3. ’99 Chateau Musar - The highly famous and highly volatile wine of Lebanon, everyone should try it once. Most people love them or find the Brett and VA offensive. I have a high tolerance for both.
4. Magnum of ’02 Sauzet Puligny - For whatever reason, mags drink differently and are perfect for parties, such as this one a friend had during the High Wine Auction. I think we blew some California wine peeps minds with spicy fried chicken, moonshine, BBQ hash, and killer wine.
5. ’96 H. Lignier Morey-St-Denis La Riotte – Katie and I shared this at Eleven Madison, probably my favorite meal ever. I’d never had a Hubert Lignier wine at that time, and I ache to try another.
6. The Canary Islands – I had just read about Canary Island wines prior to my visit to Terroir in NYC. It was a somewhat simple wine, but it’d be delightful with certain seafoods, rich in mineral and acid, from the volcanic soil of the islands.
7. 1991 Rousseau Chambertin – A mind boggling wine, and silly enough as it may sound, an even more gorgeous label. I have this bottle in candle form now.
8. Edmunds St. John ’87 Les Cotes Sauvages - Old school California wines that can age, and very affordable. Steve Edmunds makes some very cool wines.
9. 91 Chapoutier Ermitage – In magnum. I’m not worthy. Northern Rhone Syrah as art.
10. Paleo margarita at urban pl8 – No sugar, no mix, just stellar tequila, lime juice, agave syrup, and a splash of soda water. Fantastic. None of that sweet corn syrup crap.
11. ’99 Vilmart Cuvee Creation – Drunk on a hot day this past summer, the most refreshing Champagne in recollection. A great day for hanging out outside, grilling and boozing.
12. ’91 Ridge Monte Bello – My new benchmark for California wines, it is up there with the best of any Bordeaux style wine. Really game changing regarding my opinion of California. I only hope there are people making wines now which will show like this in twenty years.
13. ’92 Gagnard Delegrange Batard – Ughhhh why does white Burgundy torture me so?? The reason I keep going back to the well.
14. The Socialist at Pura Vida - Award winning, Paul rocks.
15. In Beaune – Katie and I toted this bottle around the Cote de Nuits, drinking it almost warm from paper cups as we sat on the wall outside Clos Vougeot, eating cheese, bread, and meats from the Beaune market. A memory I cherish.
16. Rasim – A delicious dessert wine we sampled at Comerç 24 in Barcelona. Our waiter explained that the chef had a special relationship with this producer, who offered work to people with mental disease and retardation.
17. The orange and wild wines of Le Caveau - just fun stuff.
18. Indian Summer – Refreshing and tight bourbon cocktail at Woodfire Grill. Blake’s new creation didn’t have a name until about fifteen minutes into my visit at the bar.
19. Lopez de Heredia – this year was my introduction to these fantastic wines from Spain. Gah, more money down the gullet!
20. “The contest” – a simple Leroy
Bourgogne vs Montrachet. Well of course the Montrachet was better, but I purchased a ’99 and ’02 of the purportedly plebeian Village wines, and they were both damn good. Goes to show, great producers can make age worthy and enjoyable wines with unclassified grapes.
21. St. George Gin – I tried these at the Quality Wine Show. I didn’t like gin after some bad experiences in college, but these new artisan styles are smooth and aromatic and quite badass.
22. ’97 Roty Charmes-Chambertin – Not so great vintage, excellent producer, in magnum = ohmamma I like the red Burgs.
23. ’08 S. Riffault Sancerre – Oxidized, metallic, acidic, juicy, and downright weird. I love it. I have a few in my cellar, but also drank it at L’Agape Substance in Paris on my honeymoon.
24. ’85 Poderi Aldo Conterno Barolo – Dammit. Yet another type of wine to love and drive me to the poor house. 2011 was the first year I was exposed to great barolo. They age softly like Burgundy, with a haunting streak of tar and bitterness.

There are a lot of distinctions in wine, some not so subtle, which is to be expected when we’re talking about a marketed, profit generating product. I won’t say they are intended to confuse the average consumer, but there are often trends and well-known names with an inherent value to be leveraged. Beaujolais is a fine example.

Even one who does not know much about wine will possibly have heard this word, even if they don’t know that Beaujolais is a French appellation (AOC) which technically is in the South of Burgundy. But instead of pinot noir, the wines are made with gamay, and tend to be less complicated, more approachable, cheaper, and in some cases, mass produced.

As is the case when talking about Beaujolais Nouveau, a big to-do where wine from grapes picked just weeks earlier are released the 3rd Thursday of November. They are simple, light, “fresh” wines with a release which happens to occur right before Thanksgiving, allowing for some serious cross marketing. As the release of these wines and BS marketing reached critical mass in the 90′s, demand became quite high, and the wine makers (particularly Georges Debueof) were content to supply a bunch of crap wine, which over time ruined the “Beaujolais”  brand, a fate similarly bestowed upon Australian wine over the last five years as they pumped out millions of gallons of Yellow Tail swill and the like.

Though, it seems that in the last few years, higher quality wines from Beaujolais (with a “Cru” and often a specific vineyard designation) are making a comeback, with many people realizing they have the ability to be complex, age worthy French wines, at a reasonable cost. Last week I sampled this wine from the Fluerie, and thought it was excellent.

Back to my story. The Beaujolais popularity wave was so big in the 90′s, a few California producers were like, hey, we like money. We should grow gamay and call it Beaujolais too! I found this bottle of Beringer in my father’s cellar, I wonder how it’s drinking??

The practice of producing an artisan product (often wine, meat, cheese) and applying a name of an internationally known region is something you don’t see much anymore, as these names have become protected and infringements are generally enforced by reasonable countries.

There are some people that are grandfathered in though, and can continue to use these names. Which is why even though wine snobs like me will say “if it’s from California, it’s sparkling wine, not Champagne, idiot”, you will still see the word used on sparklers like this abortion of a wine below.

Don’t fall for the sham-pagne. True ballers only drink real Champagne, like Cristal, vintage Krug, or farmer fizz (Grower Champagne).

But really, I find it quite funny when I come across 90′s California Beaujolais, or say, 1960′s Australian Burgundy (it’s happened). It’s sort of like when you’re traveling abroad and you come across one of those reject shirts that announce some event that didn’t happen.

Congrats Lebron!

For this post I also considered the title “Jock out with my stock out”, as this past Saturday also included a good bit of college football watching while making demi-glace with my friend Dude. See, it would have worked two ways.

This was my first attempt at a true demi-glace, a rich sauce made by mixing brown stock and Espagnole sauce and reducing until it’s almost a slick glaze. Espagnole (“Spanish” in French, debates exist re the naming) is the same brown sauce, with a brown roux and tomato paste or puree, and is one of the french mother sauces created by Antonin Carême, later updated by Auguste Escoffier. Though, I’ve read that many modern chefs forgo the roux in favor of a straight up reduction to obtain the thick demi-glace.

On it’s own, the name demi-glace implies the use of veal bones, but we had to take what we could get and produced a beef demi-glace using marrow bones from Dekalb Farmer’s market, $2/lb. We actually used an Emeril recipe, but no shame in my game, it’s very similar to Escoffier’s recipe.

I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking, it’s self explanatory. We had a fun time talking through the recipe, handling YDFM on a Satuday, and of course, eating and drinking all through the day. The photos at the bottom of the post are a Caw Caw pork shoulder Dude cooked on the Big Green Egg for the Momofuku Bo Ssäm recipe, which include really tasty fermented bean/gochujang and ginger scallion sauces.

I’ve amassed a bunch of crappy iphone pics (and crappy good camera pics) to share with internet-land. Operation photo barf commencing.

How about the above bar near Lake Burton? I’m considering opening a satellite location in College Park.

The wines I’ve tasted lately have continued to be an embarrassment of riches. Le Montrachet (right) is one of the most prized vineyards in the world, while the Leroy (left) one of the best producers. But this ’02 Leroy is simply a bourgogne (unclassified grapes, not necessarily from a particular vineyard). The Grand Cru is clearly better, but the lowly Bourgogne held its ground. And it costs 1/5th the price.

Columbia has food truck parking lot get-togethers, just like Atlanta. And just like Atlanta, it’s hot, and the lines are long and the food takes a while.

Georgia Tech football has been fun. Can’t beat a night game in Midtown.

The Quality Wine & Spirits / Inland Seafood show was a few weeks ago. This is Kevin O’Connor of LIOCO. They make good chardonnay and pinot noir that you will see around town.

The Jon-David Headrick table was where all the cool kids were hanging.

These St. George gins were amazing. Gotta find me some of these.

Two dogs waiting on their owner at Octane.

Really nice white blend. I had this in South Carolina, but the Au Bon Climat wines are recently available at Holeman & Finch bottle shop.

A few tacos from the new location of Verde. The shrimp and grits special on the left was tasty, and the schlong looking buffalo chicken was way better than it looks below. Pulled pork was surprisingly tender with a few chunks of bark. When I want “fusion tacos”, I much prefer Verde to Taqueria del Sol. I hate standing in line.

Playing around with the Tartine Bread pizza dough recipe with Rowdy. This was late night. He can make them look way prettier than this.

My former roommate got married last weekend, this was his groom’s cake.

Wine lunch at One Eared Stag. This one was one of my favorites.

And this one.

And this one too.

Bone marrow at OES.

Catfish at OES was extra dirty tasting (it IS a bottom feeder), but the creamed cabbage it was served on…beat still my arteries!!

Pork sandwich.

Salt and pepper shrimp. Best thing I’ve had in a while.

Crab cakes a friend sent from G&M as a wedding present. MASSIVE lumps of crab, very little batter. I made a yuzu kosho mayo to go with them. If you don’t have yuzu kosho, buy some, it’s citrusy and spicy and powerful.

Two winners from Tim Gaddis’ (Star Provisions) cheese week. The goat cheese feta from Carrolton made me never wanna turn back to the mass produced stuff at the grocery store.

I’ve been cooking bomba (Spanish) rice in the paella style, then scraping up the rice from the pan once the socarrat (the crispy layer on the bottom) has formed. Then I eat it with normal fried rice accompaniments, or just a splash of soy sauce and sriracha. It’s uber crunchy and the short rice is so resilient with good chew and absorbs flavors like no other. I don’t want normal long grain fried rice anymore.

There something so satisfying about the appearance of a cold beverage as it sweats in the seatbelt scalding summertime in Atlanta. You know just by looking at it that it’s going to be cold and refreshing. I sat outside with a friend this past Sunday, ate some smoked wings and enjoyed this amazing bottle of ’99 Vilmart Cuvee Creation. Light bubbles, crisp, acidic, and a little tart, this straw color stunner drinks like effervescent Burgundy. I was told it can be found at H&F bottle shop. Cellartracker prices are around $90 so I’d assume it’s a little more than that locally. (We always pay more here in Georgia, all those hippies in California make wine so they are unsurprisingly less prone to taxing and regulating it).

Related, at a recent party the host had this great spread of icy booze. It’s one of those buffet carts you’d see at a Chinese restaurant, repurposed as a highly portable booze train. I bet you could find one of these cheap at a restaurant supply depot kinda place. It’s not the sort of thing a high quality restaurant would need, and not really visually appealing, that is, until you fill it with champagne and beer.

I tried some non-Champagne bubbles (weird, right?) the other week at a party. I did have some Duval-Leroy too, which is always nice for the money. I feel really snobby pronouncing it “luh-wha”, but I think I sound like a rube if I say “lee roy”. Unless I’m trying be ironic, then it’s funny.

The Argyle (Dundee, Oregon) Brut was surprisingly nice. Dry, crisp, a bit yeasty (all the basic stuff). I’ve since learned they have a solid track record of making good sparkling wine. Let’s put it this way, they get 89-92 points depending on who you read. Some guy who works for a distributor will put up a shelf talker at your local liquor store saying he thinks it’s 98 points, so you know it’s legit.

The sparkler from Australia was not my thing though. Nice ruby color, lots of bubbles, but eck, so sweet. I can’t deal with it. I’m learning I like very mild or non-dosage.

I think it’s natural to start out liking flavors that are sweeter, more in line with the candy and sugar you grow up with, but the palate get beats down and your tastes become more “grown up” and you start to seek out subtlety. At least, that’s me.

Jay McInerney touches on the topic of the fickleness and more than occasional heartbreak of Burgundy. The wines of Burgundy have their share of corked or otherwise tainted bottles (especially the Chardonnay, which is a post for another day), but the pain of Burgundy is not necessarily due to a fault in the wine. Sometimes they are just flat, or unexciting, but at premium prices. Paying $100 for a bottle that doesn’t do much for me is, suffice it to say, a major bummer.

The crux of Burgundy is that occasionally the stars align and there’s a wine you’d pay hundreds of dollars just to sniff. After each sip whites doves fill the air, meteors shower the sky, Lez Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song blasts at eleven, and I can’t stand up in public due to my half chub.

Then there’s the even rarer evening where you try three or four wines like this, without a single dead soldier. These wines rocked my world. It was a fine night for Burgundy.

Photos by Rowdyfood.com

This year I may have learned more about wine than I did food, having developed a much firmer opinion of the wines that I like to drink and purchase. I’ve learned a bit more of book knowledge, but mostly I drank and drank again and tasted a large variety of very nice wines, some of which I have no business sniffing at my age or income or level of wine experience. To the very kind friends that shared some of these wines with me…to say thanks doesn’t feel like enough. I hope I’m one day in a position to be as hospitable.

This was the year in wine for me where I confirmed I’m truly a Francophile with a preference for finesse and balance over power and intensity. A trip to Napa in November, along with some tastes of a few other Robert Parker lauded wines confirmed this. I did have some nice wines from Napa this year, though they were around 13% alcohol and were made in the 80′s.

So a few affirmations regarding my wine selections and what they represent:

1. High quality vintage Champagne is an amazing treat and is worth the investment. Be it a special/long-term purchase, or a case of daily-drinking caliber bubbles, Champagne needs to be more proportionally represented in my small collection.
2. As much as I like to say that I dig Burgundy over Bordeaux, it too also has a place in my cellar. Fine examples with age, to be exact. I realize that’s not an inexpensive prospect, but if I’m only going to taste it a few times a year, I want to taste wines the likes of the Conseillante, the Mouton, and the l’Évangile I tried. The balanced fruit is unreal.
3. I’ve finally reached a point where I’m beginning to be able to pick out a few specific Burgundy vineyards that I can say I distinctly enjoy. Les Suchots in Vosne-Romanee is one of those. The Arnoux was probably my favorite red Burgundy of the year. Awesome.
4. “Natural wine” is a controversial movement to some, but they’ve been doing it quietly for years in France. The young Sebastien Riffault, of a long-standing wine making family in the Loire valley, is making some of the more interesting and funky Sauvignon Blancs I’ve tried. Deep yellow, honeyed, rich but with a heavy streak of acid, his wines are just fun to drink.
5. Sweeter Chenin Blanc is delicious, easily found, ages better than most of us will, and best of all, is extremely affordable.
6. White Burgundy is an expensive, volatile, and angry beast. But it’s my favorite of all wines lately. There are these few moments, which I’ve probably had three to four of this year, where the awesomeness enveloped me and I was in a daze where all I wanted to do was keep gently sipping the wine and write the great American novel or some shit. But what seemed like a few moments later, the bottle would be gone. A magnum of Chardonnay from Criots-Batard-Montrachet was the longest lasting of these experiences, and perhaps the beginning of my downfall.

If you are into wine, I hope you have some nice bottles in 2011, best served anytime with good friends.

1. ’90 Krug,
2. ’61 Mouton Rothschild,
3. ’96 Robert Arnoux Vosne-Romanee Les Suchots ,
4. ’07 Sebastien Riffault Sancerre,
5. ’90 Prince Poniatowski Vouvray,
6. ’04 Fontaine-Gagnard Criots-Batard-Montrachet

Hope everyone had a nice holiday. I’m still in Greenville, where we’ve had a bit of snow. I’m about to hit the road back to Atlanta, so hopefully it’s not too bad out there on the roads. Though we didn’t wake up to snow on Christmas morning, it contributed to a nice afternoon/evening with family.

One new tradition that my family picked up from my brother’s in-laws is having a country ham. The super salty ham is soaked for a few days in water to remove excess salt, warmed in the oven, then the fat is scored and seared. From then on, the cured ham stays on the counter for days for anyone to slice off a snack; sort of a Christmas yule log, but pork.

Wines and other drinks were had (understatement). This $35 pinot based Grower champagne was a solid value, especially for decent farmer fizz.

My father pulled a few wines with some age, including this Cab Franc from Virginia. Considering it’s 9 years old, only 11% alcohol, and from the East Coast, I was amazed at how well this was drinking. Eye opening.

The Cos D’Estournel Bordeaux may have been my wine of the night though, really good stuff. I don’t invest in Bordeaux much, but having a high caliber one with some age quickly reminds me why these wines are sought after. I love the subtly and balance.

I made pommes anna to go along with dinner. The ingredient list is this: potato, salt, butter. Slice thin, layer, cook in a cast iron skillet for 60-70 minutes then invert the pan. Super easy and the presentation is great.

My mom decided to make Beef Wellington, which she had never tried before, as the main dish of our Christmas dinner. The beef stock, madeira sauce, and the chicken liver pate/duxelles filling were all made from scratch. Helping her out in the kitchen is becoming one of my favorite holiday traditions. With the work that went into this, I was very happy to see that the dish was executed to perfection. As you can see below, it was cooked to exactly the desired temp, the puff pastry stayed crisp, and the rich flavor of the sauce and filling with the beef was a real treat.

The holidays give us a few days to get ambitious in the kitchen, I hope all of you that enjoy cooking got to have some fun with food and family.