New Wine

This year, I was the happy recipient of a Wine of the Month Club gift from my wife for Christmas. This particular one is from amazingclubs.com and gets you one bottle of white and one bottle of red per month. Last week, I received my first shipment, which contained a French Sauvignon Blanc (more about that some other time, I haven't opened it yet) and a bottle of Cary Talbot Cabernet Sauvignon 2003, Lodi California. Neither of us had heard of this wine before, but we were both excited to try it. I had a strong feeling that the first bottle I opened from this club would let us know if I was getting 2 bottles of so-so wine a month, or 2 bottles I'd be looking forward to uncorking. Well, if I was right, I'm in for a treat. This bottle was terrific. This wine had a nice aroma straight from the get-go. It has flavors of cherries and dark fruits and a little spice too. There was no harshness at all, and it went very well with our meal of cheeseburgers and fries. We'll see how the rest of the club goes.

NP: Cathedral, Van Halen

Get Together

This weekend, we had a little family party at the Agata and Valentina Ristorante on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. I have to admit, that after living up here for the past few years, I've become sick of the crappy supermarkets we have and try to go to places like Agata and Citarella whenever I can. Sure, I still need to go to the local Gristede's or D'Agostino's to get milk and canned goods, but I'm tired of the too-expensive bland or brown fruit and the meat that smells bad the second I open up the plastic. I'd rather pay above-average prices and at least get food that's fresh.
Anyway, we decided to have the party at the restaurant after having only one meal at the place last year after it opened. We remembered that meal being very good, so we went for it.
We had a set menu for the affair (it was a weekend brunch) which included:

Baskets of mini-muffins, croissants and other breads with assorted jams on the tables

First course (choice of)

Fresh fruit salad (mixed berry salad)
Insalata Mista (mixed greens with grape tomatoes, red onions, shaved Parmigiano and balsamic vinaigrette)

Main course (choice of)

Challah French Toast (with fresh berries)
Verdura Frittata (asparagus, mushrooms, roasted tomato and Parmigiano Reggiano)
Cavatelli al Ragu (Cavatelli with meat sauce)
Pollo all Griglia con Pesto (chicken breast with pesto sauce on bed of greens)

Dessert

Torta gianduja (flourless chocolate hazelnut cake with hazelnut gelato and orange sauce)

Drinks (choice of)

Bellini, Prosecco, or Soda and
Tea, Coffee, Soda or Juice

Overall, I thought the meal was great. I had the Insalata Mista and the Cavatelli. Going into it, I was sure I was getting the French Toast, but after sitting down, I realized I wasn't into breakfast anymore. I had a glass of Prosecco with my meal, which was terrific, but I forgot to ask what it was. The service could have been a little bit better (we waited about 45 minutes for a high chair for my nephew, among other things), but we all had a really nice time.

Bacon, Lettuce and...

In or never-ending search for the perfect meal, we ended up at a new spot (for us) last night for my wife's birthday. Luckily, her grandmother and aunt are with us for the weekend, so they offered to babysit. We took them up on their offer and we were out by ourselves for the first time since the baby was born.
This year, I decided to take my wife to BLT Prime for her birthday celebration. It's one of the many NYC restaurants owned/run by Chef Laurent Tourondel (the others are BLT Steak, BLT Burger and BLT Fish). We made the reservation a while ago, and although the freezing weather dimmed our excitement about heading out last night, we weren't about to give up a night of babysitting.
After sitting down for dinner we were handed our menus and a wine list that could rival Webster's Dictionary. At first I was kind of in awe, but then I knew we were getting steaks and I narrowed down my choices to a Cabernet, a Bordeaux or a Brunello. The wine list was extensive but also very expensive, so I had decided to forget about skimping and throw down for a nice Brunello. However my wife decided we should consult with the staff. Our waitress actually suggested a bottle of Rosso di Montalcino "Tirso" Villa Le Prata 2003, Italy. It's a spicier wine made from Sangiovese grapes (which I love). We both really enjoyed this wine, and it went terrific with our meal (of course, my Google search for it shows me it's much cheaper on Lupa's winelist than at BLT).
Anyway... on to the food. They gave us a little muse bouche of toasty breads and chicken liver pate to start things off. I have to admit, I was a little scared at first (it didn't smell all that great), but we decided to go for it, and it was really good. Then we got a pair of gigantic cheese popovers with fresh butter and sea salt on the side. They were full of just-baked goodness. I decided to have an appetizer - it was a special - of duck confit with greens and a black truffle dressing. This was great, and was the size of duck confit meals I ate in Paris. For a main course, we both had New York Strip Steaks (mine was medium, while my wife's medium-well). They came with a pat of herbed butter on top and your choice of sauce. I had the three mustards and my wife had the Roquefort. For sides, we got the creamy spinach and parmesan gnocchi. Overall, the dinner was very good. I really enjoyed my steak and the spinach was terrific. The gnocchi had a little too much cheese on them (never thought I would say that) and they kind of got lost in the mix. The 3 mustards weren't that great though. I would have picked 3 different mustards to have with a steak. I still haven't found a steak house better than Sparks in NYC, but I'm trying.
Finally, for desert, we chose the banana bread pudding with rum caramel ice cream. This was very good (although they did put raisins in their bread pudding). However, they also gave us a "free" tasting of some little brownies covered in some crispy coating. Those were fantastic. This was all finally washed down with a nice cappuccino to end the meal. It was terrific. A meal can be ruined by a bad cup of coffee at the end, and this one ended nicely.
So... BLT Prime. I had a great meal, but it was the most I've ever spent on dinner for my wife and I. I know I've been to better restaurants and had better meals than this one, so I don't know if I'll go back. NYC has too many other places to try.

Been A While

Well, it's been a bunch of days since I posted anything on here. It's not that I haven't had anything to say, but I've been really busy. Working like a dog and there have been some family things that have needed attention. Today, I'm off from work, so I've got a second to breathe. It's nice.

One of my Christmas presents this year from my dad was a bottle of wine. It's something that he remembered being very good (from years ago), so he wanted me to try it. It was Chateau La Jorine Lussac Saint-Emilion 2002, France. Yesterday it was really cold in NYC (and from what I hear, the rest of the Northeast), so for dinner I made some boeuf bourguignon. This was the first time I ever made that, and although I changed the recipe a bit, it turned out really good. Anyway, to go along with this meal, we decided to open this bottle of wine. It went really well. The wine is ruby in color and had a really smooth feel and finish. It had some woody taste along with the fruit. I've heard it's a little difficult to find, but it's a good Bordeaux on the less expensive side if you see it.

Another wine I had recently that I wanted to mention was actually a desert wine. We went to our friends' house for dinner a couple of weekends ago and they opened this for us after our meal. It was a bottle of Pirramimma Late Harvest Riesling 2004, Australia. This wine had a really nice taste and no harshness. It is a nice yellow-amber color and has flavors of honey and apricots. We liked it so much, they gave us a bottle to take home with us.
With dinner we had a couple of bottles of Zinfandel from Turley Wines, however I really don't remember which ones we had. I know I liked the first bottle a lot better than the second, but I can't remember which was which.

Now on a completely different note, I downloaded the premiere episode of The Dresden Files onto my iPod free from iTunes the other day. I have to say, I liked the show. It's nice to have something else to add to the DVR so when I'm bored, there's something else to watch.

NP: Flying High Again, Ozzy Osbourne

Fantastic

Yesterday was really not the best day for me. At the end of it all I just wanted to eat my dinner and relax. Then I realized I needed a drink. We had already ordered some Chinese take-out, and I remembered from my Champagne class that the instructor kept saying that he loved champagne with Chinese food. So... we opened a bottle of Louis Roedere Brut Rose Champagne 2000. This was the second time I've had this, and I loved it just as much as the first. We were saving it for a special occasion, but who knows when that will come along. The Chinese food was great too. Gotta love the boneless spare ribs. Mmmm...

Zombies

So, when I was younger I was a huge comic book fan. I collected a ton of them (mostly X-Men titles). This was like 20 years ago (actually more, if you count when I started collecting them). Anyway, I stopped buying them when I went away to college. It was more because I didn't know where to get them at first, and then I had better things to spend my money on when I found a comic-book shop. Nowadays, I might check out a graphic novel here or there, or I may look at a web-page if I'm bored and want to see what's up. For the most part, I am lost. There are 35 different "X-Comics" out there, and I don't know how many are in alternate realities or not. I haven't bought an actual comic book in over 15 years, but today I found one that made me want to go and get one. Marvel Zombies.
I hadn't heard of this before. It sounds like the basic concept is an alien virus comes to Earth, infecting all of the super-heroes in Marvel-Comic-Land. This virus turns them into brain-eating zombies! Nice! They all go out and try and eat as many brains as possible. This is one I think I have to check out. I think it's in graphic novel format now, so maybe I'll go down to Borders when I have a 20% off coupon and pick it up.
Oh, and now they're planning a Marvel Zombies and Evil Dead crossover. Nice.

NP: King Without A Crown, Matisyahu

Catching Up With 24

Ever since our trip to Virginia about a year and a half ago, my wife and I have been trying to catch up with 24. We had never watched it before then, and sitting in a cabin in the mountains of Virginia where there are bear warnings posted everywhere leaves little to do in the dark of night. So, we watched Season 1 of 24. Overall I've loved the show (except for Season 3 - that blew). We're finally almost caught up with the thing, having watched 4 out of the 6 disks of Season 5. With Season 6 starting next week, we'll have either caught up to finally watch them in "real time" or we'll only have to Tivo the first couple of episodes. However, I can't see what is going to happen in the new season because Season 5 is crazy. Great show though...

Even More Reds

Well, let's see what I can remember about these wines. First, we have Falasco Valpantena Valpolicella Ripasso Italy 2004. This bottle of wine, we received from some friends as a thank you for letting them stay in our apartment one weekend they wanted to visit NYC. We probably would have opened it then, but we were already drinking some white and decided to continue on in that vein. Anyway, my wife and I opened this the other night, and it was very nice. It's a lighter red from Italy without any big chewiness. Also, it started out with very little harshness that melted away as it sat in your glass. It had a lot of dark fruits and some licorice. The tasting notes I read say it goes well with meats, which is good since I had it with my own Italian beef stew. As an aside, RIPASSO has to do with the way the wine is made. It assumes the winemaker makes an amarone first: "Amarone is made with dehydrated grapes which have lost 30% or 40% of their juice. It is then pressed and that viscous liquid is put in barriques to age from 1 year to 18 months; with time the lees drop to the bottom and the wine is clear. After bottling the lees of the Amarone are kept in the cask which is then filled with Valpolicella. The new wine stays for about 3 months and the lees are still able to transfer aromatic elements to the new wine which becomes rounder and richer."
The other wine I wanted to put on here was another wine from Ruffino. It was Ruffino Il Ducale 2003. I had read some good things about this wine (mostly about its more expensive cousin Ruffino Ducale Chianti Classico Riserva Gold Label) and thought I would give it a try. Ruffino says that the grapes for its Ducale wines are grown in the most prestigious vine growing areas of Tuscany. Is it true? I really don't know. This wine is mostly Sangiovese grapes, with some Merlot (15%) and Cabernet Savignon (5%) added to it. It is a mellow wine, with some fruits, but with a hint of chocolate. A good, inexpensive wine. Personally, I enjoy the Ruffino wines, and this one was no exception.

NP: Baby's First Moves, Baby Einstein

Ringing In The New Year

Okay, so although my New Year's Eve plans weren't really exciting or anything, we did enjoy ourselves. A few hours before midnight, we broke into the champagne, because we weren't sure we were going to make it to see the ball drop. We decided to crack open one of the bottles we bought while we were in Paris. We figured why not have the Champagne direct from France. I carried this bottle out of France in my backpack into Newark Airport. It was Bollinger Special Cuvee Brut, Champagne. None of us really thought it was that great. I've actually had some of this before at my Champagne class, and I remember liking it then. This time it was dissappointing. I dont' know if we got a bad bottle, or something happened in storage, but overall, it was lackluster. What about it was so bad? I'm not really sure. My wife thought it tasted like apricots.
Anyway, after not enjoying our first bottle, we decided to open another when midnight came around. This time we had Perrier Jouet Grand Brut, Champagne. Now this was good champagne. Light and crisp and a little fruity. I thought this was a nice way to drink in the new year.

NP: Skulls, Misfits

2007!!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS 2007!!!

I hope everyone had a great time on New Years this year. Personally, I worked and I have to be at work in a few hours again. But I saw the new year ring in with my wife and son, and couldn't have spent it in a better way.

Here's wishing everyone a great one.