Sun Aug 30, 2009
Mike's Soups
This summer has been a deep study in soup. I have learned nothing about making them. I only learned about enjoying them.
I try to honor them with a chalk sign. My hands are shaky and the board is oddly textured, but I try my best. I want people to notice the soup.
The photo was taken by John Dones at least 6 weeks ago (on a hobbled but nice SLR digital, Nikon I think). Today's soup, coincidentally, is also split pea, but with rough chunks of ham and smoked chicken.
Fri Aug 28, 2009
Will I Work the Patio Today?
Thu Aug 27, 2009
Revisit
I'm drinking the Oremus at home for the first time after this professional sampling.
With whole wheet pasta diavolo/carbonara thing, without the ham. Tomatoes, sage, habaneros and cream.
Actually, I think this wine makes sense on the dessert wine shelf.
More...
Wait.
Wait. No. I'm pretty sure that feeling is melancholy, not depression.
Woo hoo!
Question
Did beer bongs give a bad reputation to regular bongs?
0 comments (177 views) | Posted by: putnam | Aug 27, 09 | 9:46 pmMe
I have a cold.
0 comments (179 views) | Posted by: putnam | Aug 27, 09 | 9:44 pmSun Aug 23, 2009
Discipline
"...throughout history, wine-making, like cheese-making, has been about exploiting a partnership between the raw material and a particular microflora. Squeaky-clean wine-making claims to enhance the nuances of difference between vineyard sites; I think this is wrong and that we need local micro-organisms to transmit and accentuate the differences in the grape juice in order to bring them above the threshold of detection."
-Patrick Matthews, The Wild Bunch: Great Wines from Small Producers
http://bit.ly/2Kbbno
Tue Aug 18, 2009
Ecker
My internet broke yesterday. I had to read books of all things.
This muggy heat reminds me of the requirement to maintain personal stocks of Gruner Veltliner in liter bottles.
That's what the tall shelf in the fridge is for - three or four bottles of Ecker. So. Refreshing. It's not over-crowded with notes and flavors. It's not quite 'filled' with lime and hazy field flower aromas. It's like a cascade of water and mineral infused with nourishing white and green fruit.
Sun Aug 16, 2009
Personal Protestations of Faith
I heard David Brooks use the phrase that forms the title of this post on the radio, twice today.
It's deeply rooted:
vegan causes earnestly listed on t-shirts,
Save Our Pond lawn signs.
This is my Ann Arbor.
In Detroit it's different, but not by much.
t-shirt messages are obliged to be ambiguous,
which often means forced irony.
Laughter is a defense.
Play, on the other hand,
that's like behavioral vitamins.
Don't play with your food - maybe -
but seriously consider playing with your wine and beer.
Faith is a piece on a board not structured and goal-oriented,
So it is not in a "game" - literal interpretations of the Bible notwithstanding.
Faith and imagination - where do they cleave?
"Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play ..." - the UN, November 29, 1989
One thing I've learned this year: I'm not quite grown up. Neither are most people. That's OK. The UN will shelter us when it's time to sleep. And the sun will come up tomorrow.
Not now.
I forgot. Tomorrow is Stone Beer Dinner at Slows. I can't resign yet.
3 comments (250 views) | Posted by: putnam | Aug 16, 09 | 10:01 amI resign this blog
What else is there to say?
Except, maybe this (WARNING - REPOST!):
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A trip out teh front door.
Yo, internet. I'm still here. I'm just chillin' - it is August. What are you up to? Did you have a nice vacation?
Enjoy some tacos. Buy a bottle of wine with the money you save. I mean a nice $17 bottle, yo.
Somehow, wine pays for tacos and requires them.
Advertise your brand. Here. Advertise your band here for chrissakes ...
There's more:
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Sat Aug 08, 2009
Wayne County Rain
Radar suggests Slows' patio will be closed tonight. I think I'll grab some Supino pizza and open a bottle of Marechal Cuvee Gravel. Ok doggy?
Mon Aug 03, 2009
Last Tuesday
Last Tuesday I was invited to taste delicious drinks at three different locations: Cloverleaf Fine Wine in Royal Oak, Everyday Wines in Ann Arbor (where I work part-time beginning yesterday), and Roast in Detroit.
Over the course of the day we tasted several dozen items, moving gradually from wine to beer and culminating in a sour/barrel-aged beer extravaganza in one of Roast's private dining rooms.
The drink I remember most and most desire to drink again was a wine that shared some traits of the most funky, cellar-raw beers. David Alvarez of Vega Sicilia revitalized the Oremos vineyards in the 1990s which now produce sweet and dry Tokaji from the Furmint variety. This was a 2005 dry bottling.
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