Sip Quips

Recently my husband has had to work late a few evenings, leaving me on my own for dinner. Rather than resorting to fast food, or ‘college food’ (you know….ramen, frozen pizza, mac and cheese…the foods that are easy, mindless, and generally soulless as well), I’ve been trying to make the same types of meals I would for my husband and I, when it’s just me.

I figure it is a good habit to get into now that I’m a parent, because I don’t remember my mom cooking up MSG laden ramen whenever my dad was out of town or had to work late. Parents do things like make a well-balanced, nutritious meal every night of the week. I should figure out all of these good parent habits now before my little girl is old enough to realize that mommy would normally just indulge her bizarre food cravings (American cheese, pickles, a few slices of salami, and a half-pint of ice cream) when daddy works late.

Last night I made myself a grown-up meal of lamb chops, lemon orzo salad, and summer squash hash. Granted, it was a little bit of a cheat because the orzo salad was leftover, so all I really had to do was grill a couple of lamb chops and sauté some grated summer squash in olive oil with garlic. But, as a new mom, I think I’m entitled to take a shortcut to get dinner on the table. Especially when I’m cooking with only one hand since my wee one is a burgeoning gourmand, and loves to watch me cook. 

Dinner was so quick and easy to get on the table, I wondered why lamb chops aren’t on the menus of more busy American families. I know, I know, picturing a big-eyed, wobbly-legged lamb on your dinner table can be hard to swallow (pun shamelessly intended), but lamb packs so much flavor into those quick cooking little chops. With fifteen minutes of total cooking time I had a delicious meal to rival many a restaurant menu. Nothing more than salt, pepper, garlic powder and a smoking hot grill pan, pour a glass of Pinot Noir rosé, and dinner is served. So very quick, so very easy, so very tasty. 

Leave it to the Italians to be resourseful enough to look at what you’d normally throw away after you make wine and instead think – hey, I bet that would make a delicious after dinner drink! Grappa, in a sense, picks up where wine leaves off. Once you have pressed the juice, or wine, away from the skins, you are left with stems, skins and seeds. To make grappa, you take all of the leftovers from winemaking, the skins, stems and seeds and distill them. Sounds delicious doesn’t it?

My first experience with grappa was at a celebratory dinner at Aureole, in Las Vegas, after passing my sommelier test. I was in Vegas with two of my friends and coworkers who were also there for the somm test, and since all three of us passed we decided to go out for a fabulous meal. We opted for the seven course celebration tasting menu, paired with wines naturally. After enjoying an absolutely perfect meal, one of my friends opted to order a grappa as a digestif.

Curious, I asked him what it tasted like to which he responded, ‘It’s like perfect grapes and gasoline, but in a good way.’ Naturally, after a description like that, I had to try it. To this day, I cannot think of a more succinct way to describe grappa than, ’It’s like perfect grapes and gasoline, but in a good way.’ Being a distilled spirit it has a burn similar to brandy, but the amount of fresh grape flavor that you get from the stems, et al, is remarkable.

Most grappa is clear, and fairly harsh (think moonshine, but with a distinct grape taste), although soma producers will age the grappa in oak casks, giving it a yellowish to amber color and mellower flavor (think bourbon). If you are interested in trying grappa I would strongly recommend paying restaurant prices and order it after a nice meal sometime, rather than going out and buying a bottle. It is a bit of an acquired taste, and you’d hate to be stuck finishing the whole bottle if you cannot find the ‘good way’ it tastes like gasoline and grapes. If you do decide to try it – lift a glass to grapes and gasoline, cin cin! 

The server approaches your table, bottle in hand, and you freeze. You know that you and your server are about to begin a ritualized dance – but you don’t know the choreography. Not to worry, I’m here to show you the steps. 

First, the server will present the bottle to you. Your job is to take a look at the label and make sure that it is the wine that you ordered. Occasionally a restaurant will have two labels both from the same producer, so this is a chance for both you and your server to verify that the bottle she is holding is the bottle you want.

Next the server will open the bottle and offer you the cork. There is little more pretentious than smelling the cork. You want to know what it’s going to smell like? Cork. There is a lot that you can tell from the cork, but by looking at it, not smelling it.

When looking at the cork check to verify that the name and vintage on the cork (if there is a name and/or vintage) matches the bottle. If it doesn’t the bottle was likely recorked, or mislabeled – either way it is a problem and should be sent back. You also want to make sure that the cork is free of visible defects – cracks, mold, wine stains running the length of the cork. These are not guarantees that the wine within is bad, but they are definitely red flags. Make sure that you smell the wine carefully and thoughtfully if you see any of these warning signs.

Now the server will pour a small taste of wine in your glass. You swirl, sniff and taste the wine. You are checking to be sure that the wine has not spoiled, not whether or not you like it. If the wine is good it will smell like, well….wine. If it smells like vinegar, nail polish remover, onions, wet cardboard or otherwise ‘off’ tell the waiter. In the case of a spoiled bottle the waiter will bring another bottle of the same wine and you will start the dance all over again.

In the vast majority of bottles the wine will be just fine, and you should indicate this to the server. With a simple nod from you the server will pour the wine, set the remainder of the bottle on the table, and you have made it to the end of the dance without a stumble. Now it’s time to sit back and enjoy dinner.

Mindfulness is a mental state, characterized by focused awareness of one’s thoughts, actions or motivations (so that’s what my minor in religious studies is good for). Now, I’m not turning this into a Buddhist blog, and I fully think that pop culture  overuses the term mindfulness, but that won’t stop me from being one more person to exploit a noble religious ideal for my own purpose.

People let themselves become so overwhelmed by their day to day lives that many stop being present in their daily activities. Mealtime is often the first casualty, forfeiting a sit down dinner for the convenience of a fast one. It seems to me that amid the chaos of a hectic schedule taking time for a simple meal and a nice glass of wine would do more to help than it ever could hurt.

If you take a few minutes and really focus your attention on your meal, meal prep, and wine pairing, suddenly the worries of the day fade away, and you become aware of the simple pleasure of dinner. Once you are aware at the dinner table, you become more aware of what you are tasting. Once you are aware of what you are tasting you become a better taster. Once you become a better taster you enjoy your dinner more. Once you enjoy your dinner more you relax more during the meal. See where I am going with this?

Being aware during meals can be a form of stress relief in itself. Hmm… meditation and deep breathing or chanterelle mushrooms and PInot Noir? It’s an easy choice for me. I’ll meditate at the dinner table every night of the week.

Pornography: creative activity (writing or pictures or films etc.) of no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire. Food Porn, according to wikipedia, is a sarcastic term variously applied to a spectacular visual presentation of cooking or eating in advertisements, infomercials, cooking shows or other visual media, foods boasting a high fat and calorie content, exotic dishes that arouse a desire to eat, or the glorification of food as a substitute for sex. 

If you happened to see the Anthony Bourdain Food Porn special last night you may question the sarcasm of the term. Damn – that was hot! And honestly how often do you here the comment, ‘ooh…that is better than sex,’ at the dinner table? It’s really not a stretch to tie up sensual side of food with the sensual nature of, well, sex. It also makes sense that the puritanical sensibility of American society would be scandalized by the immense pleasure that people derive from food.  

Granted Tony Bourdain does cross the line a bit, but honestly would we love him if he didn’t? The cheesy 70s porn was a bit much, but it did prove the point. The scandalous, sexy side of food is obviously still something we feel a little dirty about, otherwise the segment wouldn’t have worked.

Yes, its true that food is sexy but that’s no reason to feel dirty about it. Enjoy the pleasures that food has to offer, hell even lick the spoon. It’s good isn’t it? Good and oh so bad.

And yes, it is an art. Some come by it easily, and for others it is a real challenge. We all have a friend, or a relative who eats dinner in 7.5 minutes flat. Typically they also approach cooking with the enthusiasm usually reserved for term papers on Pride and Prejudice (coming from one who spent an entire college semester writing papers on Ms. Austen’s fine work, believe me I know how little enthusiasm this is).

For some of these folks the change of scenery to a nice restaurant allows them to relax and enjoy the meals. Usually this is the same subset that has an irrational fear of microplanes and thinks that a great amount of closet space is foregone in favor of in kitchen cabinets. They may not be able to enjoy the art of dining at home, but they get it. 

But there are those that never let themselves take time to enjoy a meal. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with these folks. There is no ordinance that requires that you savor your meals. Heck, I probably spend too much time contemplating herbs, time that could be put to much better use, like saving the world.

But superhero powers aside, I must say that I feel a bit sad for those that don’t get a bit weak in the knees when someone says bacon (or truffle, insert your own culinary Achilles heel here). There can be so much pleasure derived from good food, good wine, and good company. There is little more primal than the need to break bread, and well, the survival of the human race depends on those more primal needs (and that’s another blog). If we have to spend all of this time cooking and eating every day I think we should derive as much pleasure out of it as possible. 

I’ve begun to approach meals at home much the same as dining out. Perhaps it is because I love to cook, or perhaps it is because we live a half an hour drive from the nearest decent restaurant, but I have begun to take a more thoughtful approach to our meals at home. I’ve found that not only does it give my husband and me a chance to reconnect, it makes it easier for us to turn off the tv during dinner and actually connect with each other. Now, what to make for dinner tonight?