Dom Pérignon, 1996
This Champagne was a gift, and it was wonderful. As I poked around the Internet, I noticed that more than one person suggested that this was the finest Dom Pérignon ever made.
Everyone in the party loved it! One of my friends has tended to go for slightly sweeter Champagnes, and this certainly did not have the aggressive acidity that one often associates with lesser bone dry Champagnes. He absolutely loved it.
The initial taste definitely had that doughy, bready smell and taste. It had nice citrus flavors with notes of nuts — almonds and hazel nuts. The balance between complex fruit and acidity was perfect.
The bubbles made their way up the glass in a seemingly never-ending stream of fine mousse. This is the kind of Champagne that red wine drinkers like — full bodied. This wine is made with approximately equal proportions of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. (Pinot Meunier, the other legal grape in Champagne was not used.)
May 12, 2010 No Comments
Dolcezza, Georgeton, Washington, DC
Dolcezza
1560 Wisconsin Avenue
Washington, DC 2007
202 333 4646
Dolcezza in Georgetown
This is a seriously amazing place. Seasonal ingredients, local fruits, and supporting local farms. The gelatos here are to die for! Dolcezza ia an Argentinian sorbet store.
Exciting Sorbets!
I don’t know if you ever feel like a little walk after dinner. You want dessert, but a stretch, and a walk would make you feel so much better. This is the place to go in Georgetown — have your dinner somewhere else, and come here for your dessert.elat
I have always been a bit of a traditionalist with my gelato. In Italy, I will usually go for a simple lemon and usually avoid the more fancy mixtures. Not here! They have all sorts of really exciting sounding flavors — and they don’t disappoint.
I usually get the small size, which gives you the opportunity to try two of their flavors. Last time I had Sicilian Blood Orange and Grapefruit Campari. Another exciting one is Avocado Honey Orange.
The flavors of the gelatos are intense, delicious, and they somehow manage to convey the texture of the fruit as well. This alone is a good reason to try the Avocado Honey Orange — amazing to have the texture of an avocado in a sorbet.
For a gelato shop, it is expensive — I can’t remember exactly how much — but it’s a lot cheaper than eating your dessert in the restaurant, and probably healthier as well.
Dolcezza has another branch in Bethesda, which I have never been to, but I am sure it is just as good as the excellent branch in Georgetown.
May 12, 2010 1 Comment
Cabbages and Condoms
Lots of my friends ask me about the pictures that appear randomly at the top of the page when you access the site. At some stage, I’ll get round to labeling them so people know where they come from.
But the picture that I get asked about more than any other is the Cabbages and Condoms picture, and the picture below shows Iran, Roya, and Hannah standing outside this intriguing Bangkok establishment.
Cabbages and Condoms -- Bangkok
Cabbages and Condoms is a restaurant run by The Population and Community Development Association [PDA]. PDA’s description on their web site is as follows:
Founded in 1974, PDA is one of Thailand’s most well established and diverse non-government organisations. Operating from Bangkok, 16 regional development centres and and branch offices in rural Thailand, PDA’s programs are based on the belief that local people are best suited to shape and sustain their own development. PDA has pioneered grassroots growth marked by extensive villager involvement not only as beneficiaries but also as planners, managers and leaders.
With over 30 years experience PDA looks forward with renewed commitment to respond to current social and economic dilemmas with the innovation and ingenuity that have marked its achievements through the years.
PDA was first active in promoting family planning in urban and rural areas of Thailand, where knowledge of and access to such services were scarce. PDA recruited and trained respected members of local urban and rural neighbourhoods to distribute and provide information on affordable contraceptives directly to their communities. Other campaigns were tailored to the health of specific target groups such as factory workers, hill tribe villagers and adolescents. In total 12,000 volunteers plus several mobile health units distributed contraceptives to over 10,000 villages. Today PDA programs cover over one third of the country, helping to lower the national population growth rate from 3.2% to 1%.
The restaurant serves excellent Thai food at very good prices, and customers get additional satisfaction from knowing that the profits from the restaurant go to a good cause. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal at Cabbages and Condoms and recommend it to anyone visiting Bangkok.
Cabbages and Condoms is located in the Sukhumvit business district and you can get there easily from the Asok Skytrain stop.
After you have eaten, instead of being given the customary mints, you get a condom!
No mints! Take a condom instead!
And the whole place is decorated with condoms as you can see in the photo of the condom Santa below.
May 10, 2010 No Comments
Cos d’Estournel, 1989
Cos d'Estournel 1989
I think I sometimes need to remind myself that wines are really not supposed to be collected. They are meant to be drunk.
So it was with great happiness that I decided to celebrate a friend’s birthday by opening a bottle of the 1989 Cos d’Estournel, indisputably one of the best châteaux in Bordeaux.
Château Cos d’Estournel is often called a “super second.” This refers to the classification of Bordeaux wines in 1855, which organized the wines of Bordeaux in terms of perceived quality mostly based on the prices they were fetching at the time. The top wines were classed as first, second, third, fourth and fifth growths. Four wines made it to the top as first growth or premiers crus and fifteen had the distinction of being second growths. This classification has barely changed since that time. The important change was the “promotion” of Château Mouton Rothschild from a second to a first growth in 1973, which, incidentally, was a dreadful wine for Bordeaux in general and Mouton in particular.
A “super second” is an unofficial term used to identify the top second growths. Wines such as Léoville-Barton and Cos d’Estournel (among others) that exhibit pretty much the quality of the first growths are considered to be super seconds. Cos d’Estournel comes from the commune called Saint-Estèphe, one of six communal appellations in the Médoc. Wines from Saint-Estèphe are reputed to be a little more tannic than other Médoc wines initially. People often think of them as a little difficult and unapproachable when young, but careful aging rewards you with intensely flavored, elegant wines. My bottle had been carefully stored since its infancy in a wine refrigerator.
Not only were we drinking wine from a very distinguished maker in a great area, but 1989 was considered a very good year in this part of Bordeaux. Grapes were picked early and the wine was put into new oak barrels and blended as 68% Cabernet Sauvignonn, 30% Merlot, and 2% Cabernet Franc. Most critics rated the 1989 Cos d’Estournel very highly although Robert Parker, tasting it in 2005, called it “very good but uninspiring” with a rating of only 88, and a suggestion that it should be drunk now. I will never forget the very pretentious description of this wine in the Wine Spectator, which gave this wine 95 points:
A designer wine that wears its oak like an Armani suit. Shows an impressive concentration of spice, berry and vanilla aromas and flavors and an excellent tannin structure. (Wine Spectator, 3/15/92)
I bet the writer of that line (James Suckling?) cringes with embarrassment whenever he sees this description quoted!
I found that the tannins had definitely softened and it seemed to be a wonderfully balanced wine exhibiting fresh ripe black fruit and some spicy vanilla on the nose. It had a mineral (lead pencil?) taste that often characterizes Bordeaux wines that are made predominantly with Cabernet Sauvignon. One of our group found it pleasant, but not outstanding — perhaps a little one dimensional. He contrasted it with the 2000 Sociando Mallet that he had drunk the week before, and pronounced the Sociando Mallet a much more enjoyable wine.
The color of the wine was still bright and ruby with barely a hint of browning although we all agreed that possibly this wine, although known for its long aging potential, was possibly past its peak.
So what was wrong? Well nothing really! This is simply a wine that promised to be remembered for ever — and it was just another good wine.
In summary, this was a bit of a disappointing wine. There is no doubt that it was very good, but my expectations were extremely high as I considered this to be one of the jewels in my collection.
May 8, 2010 2 Comments
Megabus Parking Passes, White Marsh (Baltimore)
The Megabus from Baltimore to New York leaves from a shopping center about twelve miles north of Baltimore called White Marsh. When you get a ticket on the Megabus, you get a link to a spot on the Megabus website that gives you access to a parking pass. If you don’t print it out immediately, it is a little bit difficult to find again, so here’s the link:
Click here to access the Megabus Parking Pass for the White Marsh parking lot.
Be a little bit careful when you park, and make sure you leave nothing of value in the car. Any indication that you are going to be away — at least until the next Megabus arrives — does not seem like very good security, and I have heard of cars getting broken into.
April 25, 2010 24 Comments
Train: Toulouse to Barcelona via La Tour de Carol (or La Tor de Querol)
The route they suggest is roughly like this:
Whilst I was staying with a French family near Tarascon, I was informed, however, that there was in fact a railway that went straight over the Pyrenees, just east of Andorra, with French and Spanish trains meeting at a stop called La Tour de Carol-Entveitg near to the Spanish border. Intrigued, I went back to the French sncf site and this time searched Tarascon-sur-Ariège to Barcelona via Latour-de-Carol. No results came up. I tried Toulouse to Barcelona via Latour-de-Carol instead in case it was more likely to give me information for a main station. This time a result did come up, but it said there was one train per day that would take you 8 hours and cost you 85€ a single. It also said you needed to change at Beziers (most definitely not on the line between Toulouse and La Tour de Carol) which confirmed my suspicions that it was messing me about.
I scoured the internet googling various combinations of the words trains, Toulouse, Barcelona and La Tour de Carol, but still found nothing. Eventually, the lady I am staying with told me that her sister might have a timetable for the Spanish side of the border at least. She did. This is the link for the timetable for trains from La Tor de Querol to Barcelona.
http://www20.gencat.cat/docs/msi-dgac/Rodalies/PDF/Horari%20R3_obres.pdf
To find out about trains from France to La Tour de Carol, you basically have 4 options:
1) go to your nearest tourist office and they should give you a timetable (I was given one for Toulouse to La Tour de Carol
2) Ask for a timetable at any train station in the Midi-Pyrénées
3) Ring the number for the Midi-Pyrénées section of railway on 0891 677 677 for a cost of 0,23€ a min and ask about trains to La Tour de Carol
4) Use this tool to search the next departures from any station in the Midi-Pyrénées
To give a rough idea, there are 6 trains per day from Toulouse to La Tour de Carol, leaving at 6.47, 8.49, 10.50, 14.50, 16.50 and 18.50. It takes just under 3 hours and costs less than 20€.
The train from La Tour de Carol to Barcelona St. Andreu Arenal also takes just under 3 hours and costs about 10€.
By taking this little known route, you will only be saving about an hour of your time, but financially, you will be saving about 50€ each way, which, for me at least, was the difference between deciding whether to go or not!
The route you take is less than half the distance of the route proposed on the SNCF website and looks roughly like this:
April 23, 2010 6 Comments
Breathing life into expiring miles
Current rules surrounding frequent flier miles are much stricter than they used to be. For example, at United, your miles expire after 18 months if there is no activity in the account. So what do you do, if you don’t fly.
I have miles in accounts with United, British Airways and Continental. This article is focused mostly on United, but the principles apply to pretty much all frequent flier plans.
There are a number of options. Here are a few:
- Rent a car. You may not get many miles, but at least you will create a transaction in your account. Weekend car rentals can be really cheap too.
- Get a Visa card that is affiliated with an airline, and use it every month. This eliminates the problem altogether since you can make sure that you purchase something every month.
- Stay in a hotel. Hilton gives you points in their HHONORS plan and also puts miles into your account.
- Buy some miles. This is a last resort option as airlines charge a lot of money when they sell you miles.
- Donate some miles. Although this forces you to give up a few miles, it costs you nothing, and donating 1,000 miles is a much better option than allowing several thousand to expire. Almost every airline allows you to donate miles to a charity of your choice — and this triggers a transaction in your account giving you another 18 months.
- Take a trip. Earn some miles in the program that is about to expire.
- Spend your miles. Miles don’t collect interest, and, as the airlines make economies, it becomes increasingly difficult and expensive to spend your miles. So don’t let miles hang about in your account. Book a trip as soon as you have enough to do something nice.
If you follow one of these tips, you can be sure that the miles you have accumulated never expire.
April 22, 2010 No Comments
Auberge de Pommayrac
Chemin de Pommayrac
11250
Verzeille
L’Auberge de Pommayrac, a smart little restaurant about 12km south of Carcassonne, and just outside the quiet village of Verzeille, opens for business from March to November every year.
The restaurant is run solely by one couple, one of whom cooks, whilst the other serves. The lady, who serves, was charming and professional, and tried to make everything as easy and pleasant as she could for us.
The most economical way to eat at the restaurant is by having the ‘menu du jour’ for €18, which consistes of starter, main course and dessert, each of which is specified but changes every day, and is always an addition to the choices on the à la carte menu, as opposed to merely a dish plucked from it.
This is just as well, however, as the à la carte menu offers only four choices for each course. If you are after a 3 course meal then eating this way is not cheap, with all starters and desserts priced at €10, and all main courses at €15.
I decided to have two courses: for the main, I plumped for the papillon de cabillaud et legumes (literally a cod and vegetable parcel), which was cod and caramalised vegetables, all wrapped up together and steamed in a little transparent package which is tied loosely at the top, in a manner vaguely reminiscent of a butterfly.
The cod was beautifully cooked: flavoursome, and flaky to just the right extent; and the vegeteables (a mix of leeks, onions and peppers) were sweet, soft and succulent, without being sticky or sickly. A beautiful dish.
My only quibble would be that I would have liked to see a little more food and a little less plasticky, butterfly-like parcel on the plate. I doubt a small piece of fish and a small quantity of vegetables, however delicious, would even half fill the stomach of the majority of people, and after paying €15 for a dish, you shouldn’t really go away hungry. This is obviously a menu decised to make people eat 3 courses, and therefore part with €35 euros per meal!
My second (and final) course was a dessert of ‘Crème à la violette’. This was simulataneously a gorgeous and impressive, but rather flawed creation.
Firstly, its presentation, despite effectively being a blob of purplish grey stuff, with something grey on top, was in fact stunning, rescued by the addition of a beautfiul, vibrant purple, sugared violet leaf, and the splash of red provided by the strawberries.
As regards the actual taste of the dessert, the crème was absolutely delicious- rich and sumptuous,and thoroughly decandent- probably a little too dacedent for my tastes actually, as I would have enjoyed it more a tiny bit less creamy and a fair bit less sweet. The base was pleasant tasting, but had that horrid soggy cake texture of bad tiramisu or cheap trifles. Fortunately it was in a small enough proportion that it didn’t effect the rest of the dessert much.
The amount of violet was just right. I had feared it would either not taste of violets at all, or else be over-flavoured and be like eating perfume. In reality, it was just perfect. A delightful dessert.
All in all, I would say that the restaurant is classy and elegant and serves creative and well cooked food. The negatives are however that it is rather over-priced and slightly pretentious, and puts too much cream in the desserts and and not enough food on the plate.
It is somwhere that I enjoyed dining, but would not pay for a meal there in future, as it is rather out of my budget.
April 20, 2010 No Comments
That’s the Spirit
American, Delta, US Airways, United Airlines and Jet Blue have all made commitments that they will not charge passengers for their carry-on bags. Spirit Airlines has made this change, and is planning to charge up to $45 for carry-on luggage.
This might be in response to an initiative by six Democratic senators who have been talking about legislation that will designate carry-on luggage as a necessity for travelers and have even considered taxing revenue generated by these charges.
But it might also be a recognition that we have found that this trend towards “unbundling” fares has reached a limit. These extra charges are simply a way of raising fares, and travelers are weary of it.
I know I will continue to favor airlines that include baggage in the price of the ticket, and, of all the American domestic carriers, Southwest is the best airline in this regard.
April 19, 2010 No Comments
Coudoulet de Beaucastel, 2007
One of the most admired wines in Châteauneuf-du-Pape is Château Beaucastel. I have one bottle in my cellar, but at around $100 a bottle (a present from my beloved wife!), it is quite expensive. Coudoulet de Beaucastel is often known as a baby Beaucastel, and at only $32, it is a good way to get some insight into the kind of wine Beaucastel makes. 2007 was also an exceptional year in the southern Rhône, and this made it seem like a pretty good idea to buy a bottle.
Although Beaucastel is classified as a Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the Coudoulet is grown on 30 hectares of land outside the area to the east just on the other side of the A7 autoroute. For this reason, Coudoulet is classified as a Côtes du Rhône, which is usually cheap, cheerful, often delicious, and consumed soon after bottling. But Coudoulet is the kind of wine that is appealing to the serious wine lover — more like a Châteauneuf-du-Pape than a typical Côtes du Rhône.
The grape varieties that go into this wine include Grenache (30%), Mourvedre (30%), Syrah (20%), and Cinsault (20%). The high proportion of Mourvedre makes the wine more tannic and provides aromas of leather and tobacco that are characteristic in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Mourvedre also makes the wine resistant to oxidization giving it aging potential. Each varietal is vinified separately and reunited and matured in large wooden barrels. Before bottling, the wine is fined with egg whites.
The philosophy of Beaucastel is to make wine as organically as possible minimizing the use of chemicals and pesticides. The following extract is copied from their website.
We try to place the vine in its environment, that is to say in its relationship to the earth, to animal life and the stars, by which it is influenced
If a wild strawberry has more flavour than one grown in a hothouse it is because the former, even if smaller and less attractive visually, has grown in a natural environment. It has quintessential aromas, whilst the second, produced in a man-made environment, has its flavours diluted to favour its appearance.
The same goes for grapes. To make a wine of character, grapes must have flavours. All our decisions follow this logic of harvesting healthy, balanced grapes, intrinsically capable of producing a wine of great quality.
This is why, for example, we do not use chemical fertilisers, preferring a compost made on the property from a mixture of sheep’s manure and the previous year’s grape pressings (marc) which, once mixed into the soil, maintains its humus content and microbiological equilibrium.
Preventive treatments are reduced to a minimum; the natural nutrients in the soil improving the physiology of the plant and its natural resistance to disease. These conditions, which are desirable and which we try to obtain, enable us to avoid an escalation in chemical treatments. These are intended to destroy various parasites, but in fact produce a biological imbalance, engendering other parasites.
Through these organic methods, many natural diseases have been eradicated in the vineyard and we have now a strong population of birds, cicadas and lady-birds at Beaucastel.
Although we drank this wine young, it was simply delicious and you could identify the role of each of the varietals. Mourvedre gave the whole wine a sense of structure and balance. The wine has a big fruit feel with overtones of spicy pepper that probably comes off the Grenache. The Syrah and Cinsault provide deep red berry fruit, more tannin, and generally add to the complexity of this wine.
Robert Parker liked this wine very much indeed and gave it a score of 92. I second that very high recommendation, but I am about as inclined to give numeric scores to wine as I might to my friends!
April 18, 2010 No Comments