Fri Jul 31, 2009
Tomato Season
log sub naught noted on Monday the news of tomato season 2009. I am mentally poised, gazpacho blender ready, blanch water too, jars, sheets for roasting and drying the surplus.
Fuck yeah!
35,364 Views. North Korean Beer Ad.
I hope this is just viral enough for you. Beer is Soma. You know it is.
And WTF is Max Fisher doing supplying such things?
Sun Jul 26, 2009
10 cents a click x 700
I get ten cents when you click on one of those ads. Art left a bottle of Santo Domingo Albarradas and I'm drinking a margarita made from it now. 700 clicks and I can buy a new bottle, which I will need fairly soon.
UPDATE: Please do not repeatedly click on the ads (should they reappear.) Click on them. Enjoy the messages and come back for more Detroit Drinks.
Sat Jul 25, 2009
Three dollars. Two for five.
The rain clouds cleared over Eastern Market by noon today. I've been dreaming about in-season blueberries, so I asked the vendor the price of one pint "picked yesterday."
"Three dollars. Two for five."
Give me two then. I can eat a quart. But why don't they pack them in quart containers? It's the same with the potatoes. I suspect this is a time tested pricing strategy - you feel like your getting more if you get "two" of something. And you are implicitly invited to share the surplus. Krispy Kreme made their fried dough rings viral that way.
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Thu Jul 23, 2009
Everything's Malbec
Everyone is drinking Malbec these days. If someone hands you a glass of unidentified wine just smell it, nod, and declare it to be a nice Malbec. Because that's what it is.
So why Malbec? And what does "Malbec" taste like? The answer to the first question has to do with global trade balances. Argentina - with much irrigation - can produce unlimited volumes of ripe, purple wine from Malbec, and Americans like unlimited volumes of ripe purple wine. But Malbec, unlike Syrah, say, or Zinfandel, doesn't exactly have a sassy, distinctive personality of its own, so it's easy for its character to be overwhelmed by process. The majority of Argentine Malbecs I encounter taste like careful formulations of oak, lab yeast-derived fruit flavors, and tannins with texture resembling bologna.
In commercial terms these are features, not flaws.
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Wed Jul 22, 2009
Thanks For Visiting Our Sponsors!
The money is rolling in. Thanks for the boost. Here's my goal:
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There
Evan taught me how to edit my blog. See the links on the side? Would you like me to link to your site? Why not!
And please click on some of the links in the ads, won't you? I'm not supposed to do it myself and I want to know if this advertising scheme actually works, in the sense of me getting paid money.
Tue Jul 21, 2009
Mac n' Cheese Pancakes
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Mon Jul 20, 2009
Talking about Talking about Tequila
Of course, there is a long history of tequila producing the appearance of philosophical discussion, as anyone who's attended the parking lot party prior to a Jimmy Buffett concert can attest. This is evident nowhere so clearly as outside the inevitable "shooters for hooters" booths set up by shameless young men who engage female college students in what appear to be Socratic dialogues about how they should not worry about the video camera being held as they barter for Jose Cuervo shots.
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Sun Jul 19, 2009
One Year Ago
I love Peanut and Buddy and Puzelat wines. Who doesn't?
Trinch
Last night I drank the swiftly depleting 2007 Bourgueil Trinch! from Western Market. It tasted fat with red and black currants. So delicious. Tonight I am drinking the newly arrived 2008. It's like a raw version of the latter, bursting with pepper and more precise. (In other words, hands off the 2007.) More...
0 comments (356 views) | Posted by: putnam | Jul 19, 09 | 12:14 amWed Jul 15, 2009
Wine Wednesday
Mark Didzik from Ferndale's Inyo visited Slows yesterday with his family. I remember Mark from Napa Market in Commerce Township where he made every effort to bring real farm wine to his customers. Like me, Mark left the retail wine trade for greater happiness and health. We've lost over 100 pounds between us.
Inyo serves two main wines by the glass. Qupe Bien Nacido Cuvee (red) and Botani dry muscat from Málaga. Dry Muscat from hot climates has intrigued me ever since I drank a 1996 Joao Pires. There's loads of Muscat planted to make sweet fortified wine, from Pantelleria to Portugal, and since the market for the traditional sweet strong stuff is experiencing an epochal collapse, it's not much of a leap to imagine how refrigeration and viticultural adaptations might allow many of these established vines to make liquids that mainstream modern table wine drinkers might happily use. See Grillo in Sicily, Verdelho on Madeira, etc.
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Sun Jul 12, 2009
Slovenia
My first taste of Slovenian wine was almost 10 years ago at a trade tasting. It was cheap (~$10 SRP) and it tasted like it could be expensive, $20 or more. I ordered 5 cases but it was never delivered (maybe I should have ordered 50?) Over the years I've been waiting in vain for Slovenia to arrive on wine store shelves in Michigan.
Then last week I saw an $11 Pinot Grigio from Brda at Everyday Wines in Ann Arbor. The package and name - "Giocato" - placed it squarely in the tradition of critter labels. On Mary's recommendation I bought a bottle.
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Wed Jul 08, 2009
Sorry, no Pictures
I discussed my options for late night snack with a Slows chef before I made it. We worked out something pretty good I think.
Chicken organs - liver, gizzard and hearts - obtained at Eastern Market from J & M for probably next to nothing. Thawed a few days ago and soaked yesterday in equal parts Tanqueray and Psenkova mead (I might have used straight brandy if I had it.) Drained and refigerated.
Tonight I salted them, rolled them in flour and fried them in butter like scallops - long on one side, short on the other. This went into a warm La Michoacana flour tortilla with industrial Munster cheese along with reduction of deglaze via an Eric Solomon red wine called "Este." As the liquid reduced and melded with the fat I mashed a few garbanzo beans into it to thicken the mix. It was the bean I had ready, though I could have used any bean.
Final ingredient: lots of finely ground black pepper.
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Mon Jul 06, 2009
shift drink: porto
After working a shift constantly on the move - hauling bus tubs and greeting guests - I usually want something pale and refreshing, like Muscadet, or Gruner Veltliner, or an Aviation cocktail. And sometimes I also want an infusion of fast calories, so on Sunday we all decided to drink Quinta do Infantado Ruby Porto.
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