Putnam Weekley presents Detroit Drinks

Thu Aug 26, 2010

Idiots Text

Tennis. Aluminum bike frames. 12 year-old-like trigger finger. Coriander. North wind. Purple beefsteak tomatoes. Colorado. Stumpid. (New word!) More...

1 comments (57 views) | Posted by: putnam | Aug 26, 10 | 2:49 am

Sat Aug 21, 2010

Haute II Death

Cooking for oneself is different than sharing food. This is why blogs were invented.

Produce has been phenomenal lately. And it's fun to eat it raw, or minimally flavored. But so is it fun to use little baby squashes like they were some kind of science fiction-inspired eggroll, filled with alternating vegetable textures and ready to be drizzled with strong flavored sauces. More...

4 comments (181 views) | Posted by: putnam | Aug 21, 10 | 6:55 pm

Thu Aug 19, 2010

Truth, Art, Taste, and The Fight

kt's quinta do infantado ruby porto

Everyone eats, and taste is the claim agriculture makes on our senses. Harvest surpluses compel our species to discriminate ever more finely between what is well preserved and what is too rotten to eat (or drink).

js's '100 year-old' egg, presumably from neighborhood noodles

In fact, humans are so preoccupied with "taste" that we practice it in the abstract: in architecture, music, fashion, dance and even with people.

If eating is a human necessity, then so is art. Art is the pursuit and expression of truth, and like food it is mediated by our sense of taste. Let me stress this: truth is something different from accuracy. Your driver's license photo may be accurate, but I'm willing to bet it does not resonate with truth. More...

1 comments (383 views) | Posted by: putnam | Aug 19, 10 | 11:04 am

Tour De Troit

There is nothing I like more than to hop on my Cannondale and glide through the wide open streets of Detroit. The road rules for bikes are less constraining than for cars, and the 360-degree full contact with the air and scenery can be quite exhilarating. Also, there are many places to go, and ways to get there. It's interactive and fulfilling in a ways that other forms of travel can't remotely approach.

So it should be no surprise that I would never contemplate joining with a mass of other bikers for a tour of this great city. More...

0 comments (67 views) | Posted by: putnam | Aug 19, 10 | 10:46 am

Wed Aug 18, 2010

Union Street

It seems like most of my colleagues at Slows formerly worked at Union Street. So when we needed to carry over the good feeling from the "wine class" I taught today, we reconnoitered there. I mention this because I encountered one of the most spicy, delicious foods I ever met. It's called a dragon egg, a chicken parcel, filled with blue cheese and fried. Very spicy. Pair it only with beer, nothing stronger or warmer please.

More...

0 comments (47 views) | Posted by: putnam | Aug 18, 10 | 7:14 pm

Mustard

Wednesday Lunches at Pot and Box (in Ann Arbor) was a hit today. One couple celebrated their anniversary. Mary and I talked wine import strategies. I gluttonously celebrated the eggplant and the chicken. Selfish, I know.

More...

0 comments (90 views) | Posted by: putnam | Aug 18, 10 | 6:44 pm

Big News

Some kind of big event is in the works for October. In Eastern Market. Exclusive party. You will be informed of the details here shortly.

5 comments (54 views) | Posted by: putnam | Aug 18, 10 | 10:24 am

Sun Aug 15, 2010

Out Of Left Field

Unlike most restaurants, Supino does not code it's dining room with table numbers. Tables there are named by analogy to a baseball diamond. Home plate is the cash register. (Or maybe it's the oven. I forget.) Left field is next to the front door.

Cost Plus Wine Shoppe is over the left field fence and across the piazza. For decades it has been Detroit's one and only ostensible retail wine specialist. I think there should be another choice, and now we have Motor City Wine, operated by my old friend Dave, above Grand Trunk Pub and Foran's on Woodward and Griswold. A little competition could be helpful just here. More...

2 comments (112 views) | Posted by: putnam | Aug 15, 10 | 7:01 pm

Too Dave Matthewsy?

listen to this Nathaniel Rateliff song.

I've listened to it 74 times today. So. Whatever.

You Should've Seen The Other Guy

'f we get out of this fight
you gonna help me wrap my hands
a' stitching up my eyes
you know that blood can blind

More...

0 comments (112 views) | Posted by: putnam | Aug 15, 10 | 7:01 pm

Fri Aug 13, 2010

Wine Movie Award

1987's Withnail and I

Marwood: I must go home at once and discuss his problems in depth.

(later)

Withnail: (draining a bottle of Bordeaux) I have some extremely distressing news.

Marwood: I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear anything. My god, it's a nightmare out there. I tell you.

Withnail: We've just run out of wine. What are we going to do about it? More...

0 comments (73 views) | Posted by: putnam | Aug 13, 10 | 1:15 pm

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