Tue Jul 22, 2008
Author Q&A - WSJ.com
Natural winemakers are breaking out of the rules, which is an exciting movement. It's forcing the naming committee to think about what they are doing and these rule breakers have enough determination to do what they want to do even if they are penalized for it. There are a growing number of producers that don't give a rip about the grading system and are making better, more compelling wines.0 comments (903 views) | Posted by: putnam | Jul 22, 08 | 8:34 am
Fri Jul 18, 2008
Tiger Stadium
It is being torn down now. I wonder: how many gallons of Red Pelican mustard were consumed in this building?
But wait! There's
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Wed Jul 16, 2008
Feasts for the Eyes, Foods for Thought
As I begin to build this blog I want to touch on some things that I think are important and basic. The following 11-page article paved the way for my understanding about taste and aesthetics. If you follow his argument, Leonard Barkan may have you convinced not only may food and wine be considered "art," but that they might be a privileged type of art, the most universal and elaborated of them all. But food and drink are ephemeral. In apprehending them as objects our organs transform them into vulgar waste. To accept Barkan's idea it may be necessary to discard sometimes invisible assumptions (ideology) about the value of "keeping" art objects. Obviously this is an attack on the common meaning of the word "art," but I believe it belongs to a coherent and honorable tradition of such attacks. Imagine art without ownership.
When viewed in the shadow of world hunger, the bio-chemistry of nutrition, and the eating habits that identify distinct immigrant populations, the conjunction of food and art runs the risk of seeming both vague and frivolous: vague because it might cover both food in art and food as art, and frivolous because each of these terms seems to bring out the trivial side of the other. The esthetics of food looks unimportant in comparison to the biological and social imperatives that surround the subject, while, within the realm of art, the edible can hardly count as constituting the loftiest of media. This set of paradoxes and constraints gives me all the excuse I need to make large arcs of movement within a territory that, in my view, has not been very fully mapped. Not that I am necessarily the ideal cartographer. Regarding such respectable academic subjects as the history of food, dining as an art form, and the sociology of the feast, I am no expert. I speak rather as a historian of esthetic culture--particularly literature and the visual arts as they interrelate from antiquity to the Renaissance--who likes to eat and drink. Even when I do write about food, and more often about wine, it is not as a chronicle of the past but as something to be experienced in the immediate and timeless present. So I find myself, somewhat jaggedly, the historian of one thing--certain aspects of pre-modern European high culture--and the phenomenologist of another--what tastes good.0 comments (487 views) | Posted by: putnam | Jul 16, 08 | 10:57 am
Tue Jul 15, 2008
Cocktails
ANDELUSION (the ingredients are from Andalusia in Spain)
1 part good Spanish brandy (Carlos I, Cardenal Mendoza)
1 part dry, brown sherry (Amontillado is best, but options include Palo Cortado and Oloroso — make sure it’s dry)
dash of orange bitters
agitate with ice and strain into a frozen martini glass.
LUCID
1 part decent, dry gin (Plymouth, Old Raj, Tanqueray — skip the mod, sweetened brands like Sapphire, Tanqueray 10 etc.)
1 part late harvest rosé from Anjou. These are rare, but at least two producers make them: Agnes and René Mosse and Mark Angeli of Domaine Sansonniere. The type of wine you want is “Rosé d’un Jour.” If you can’t find these, use the best white Zinfandel you can find (Buehler is fine), or don’t bother. DON’T settle for “Rosé d’Anjou” which is industrial crap.
This drink requires no garnish, just make it blistering cold and watch the pretty color. The flavors can’t be described but they will tend to arouse an aesthetic trance that will slowly, deliberately lead to over-consumption. Lucid inebriation. (The dreamstate does not come with the White Zin substitution, but it tastes fine enough.)
Mon Jul 14, 2008
Chablis vs. Un-oaked Chardonnay
Along with Arugula, Volvos, and Latte, Chablis is commonly used to illustrate by association a particular cultural segment of American society: educated, well-traveled, successful, bourgeois-bohemian. Chablis is an icon, a chic badge of cosmopolitan taste. As a symbol, it is so separated from its original meaning that a prominent news blogger could be heard recently denying she had a taste for it, expressing a preference instead for "un-oaked Chardonnay." The fact that the reporter did not know Chablis is un-oaked Chardonnay (almost always), well, that only helped secure her claim to "regular Joe" status. Only an elitist wine sipper would know something like that!
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Anheuser-Busch being sold to InBev for $52B - Yahoo! News
Anheuser Busch Cos. said early Monday it had agreed to a sweetened $52 billion takeover bid from Inbev, heading off what had promised to be a long and acrimonious fight for the maker of Budweiser and Bud Light beers.
Now the most place-less beers in the world are one big, big family.
. 0 comments (614 views) | Posted by: putnam | Jul 14, 08 | 8:47 am
Sun Jul 13, 2008
Photo Gallery: Metro Detroit's best sandwiches
25 photos of Detroit's best sandwiches. A great set of photos.
The ham is sliced thick and piled high on sandwiches at Mike's Famous Ham Place in Detroit. (MARCIN SZCZEPANSKI/DFP)
But why no Telway sliders? Maybe burgers are belong in a separate category.
So then why three items from Steve's Deli (which is a fine sandwich source) but no Chicken Shawarma?
. 0 comments (1176 views) | Posted by: putnam | Jul 13, 08 | 7:47 pm
A History of Hooch
Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol
One of Drink’s most fascinating subplots, as it turns out, is humanity’s apparently universal contempt for water. In ancient Greece, water drinkers “were believed not only to lack passion but also to exude a noxious odor”; in post-WWI France, they were thought to be fat, weak, and pimply—hurtful prejudices that I, having once been publicly berated by an Irishwoman for ordering a pint of water at a pub, can confirm still exist today. In fact, such enduring hydrophobia might make for a good popular history of its own, if only we could get someone to write it.
. 0 comments (579 views) | Posted by: putnam | Jul 13, 08 | 3:37 pm
How Many Detroit Coney Islands are There?
Coney Detroit asks and answers:
That is hard to say.
Maybe impossible.
0 comments (762 views) | Posted by: putnam | Jul 13, 08 | 12:36 pm
Gleaners Community Food Bank: Nourishing Communities By Feeding Hungry People: Join Us for the Iron Chef 4 Competition
Chef Jody Brunori of The French Laundry in Fenton will compete against Chef Steven Grostick of Five Lakes Grill in Milford.
The pair will be challenged to create an appetizer, entree, and dessert that is not only pleasing to the discerning palates of the panel of local celebrity judges, but also makes creative use of the "mystery ingredient." This year's competition will be emceed together by Neal Rubin of The Detroit News reporting directly from within the battle and Steve Garagiola of WDIV Channel 4 moderating the competition.
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Urban farming takes root in Detroit - This might solve the world food price rise! | The News is NowPublic.com
"We used to do this in our backyards. This used to be a culture, a way of life, so we're restoring that through urban farming." More...
0 comments (1303 views) | Posted by: putnam | Jul 13, 08 | 11:06 amFri Jul 11, 2008
Taste is Local
Let's start by meeting the neighbors.
Birmingham loves Champagne, but has never heard of Ale.
Ypsilanti cares more about organic than burgers or tacos. Clinton Township, not so much.
West Bloomfield likes mom slightly more than drugs or alcohol. Mount Pleasant prefers alcohol by a factor of 2:1 over either alternative.