If there was ever a wine that screams summer, this is it. Come back here tonight at 7 and join Angela Moon of Kirby Wines & Liquors and me as we thoroughly enjoy this easy drinking wine from Portugal. It's light, it's unbelievably cheap, and it's perfect for pool or patio. Spicy food would be good, a nice salad would work, and so would gazpacho. But my mom brought by some gorgeous tomatoes, so I'm going to whip up some BLTs (well, no L--I go for the B and the T with Duke's).

See you at 7 tonight.

 

My aunt's birthday is July 6, so we have a joint celebration in our family--and our 4th tradition is a shrimp boil. But I'm craving both ribs and burgers (and when I crave meat, now that I've cut it down so much in my diet, I REALLY crave it), so at some point over this long weekend--mine started today--I see some of both. What are your food plans?

If you haven't made it out for one of our Cafe Society wine tastings, you really need to go ahead and book for July. Each month on Whining & Dining, we pick a region (for this month, a theme of summer wines instead) and taste wines from the country online on Thursday nights. On the last Tuesday of the month, John Vego with Buster's hosts a wine tasting at Cafe Society featuring six additional wines from the region. Cafe Society owner/chef Cullen Kent prepares small plates for $5, which are a GREAT DEAL. Last night veal sweetbreads were among the selection, and they were superb. Here's a picture of an arugula salad, which I happened to catch when the sun was coming through the windows.

It's a good, relaxed time and at $25 for the wine and cheese, a nice way to drink new wines and meet new people. Call Cafe Society at 722-2177 for reservations.

When my brother-in-law comes from Tokyo, he always brings sweet bean pastries that his wife packs for us. They're popular both in Japan and her native China, but not so much in my kitchen. My husband eats them, but not me--I'm no fan of the sweet bean.

Last night I had dinner with my friend known to you as Jane Wine Box (and you thought she was gone!), who wanted to try a dessert at a Vietnamese restaurant. I told her she wasn't going to like it. I told her I already KNEW I didn't like it, but she went for a mixture of beans in a sweet liquid, served over ice, topped with sweetened coconut milk and topped with strips of green gelatin flavored with pandan (though no one believed me when I told them at the time).

I had a delightful slice of pound cake flavored with pandan at Lotus a few months back, and the coconut/leafy taste stayed with me. It was fine--but hold the sweet beans for me.

Restaurants make mistakes, even the best of them. It's how the management remedies the situation that often makes a difference between keeping a customer and losing one. A friend just told me about her dinner Saturday night and I'm going to pass the story on to you.

She went with friends to get pizza. They arrived, with their own wine, and ordered appetizers. It was crowded, so they weren't alarmed when their pizzas didn't arrive in a timely fashion. They noticed, though, that patrons at other tables who had arrived after they did were already eating, so they called their server over.

It turns out their order wasn't entered, but the server apologized and promised to do it right away. Unfortunately, she came back and said that they were out of pizza dough and it would be 1 1/2 hours before the new dough would be ready. Obviously, had the order been entered on time, my friends would have gotten their pizzas ahead of the other people.

They decided to stay, ordered more appetizers, and drank their wine. The manager came over several times to apologize, offered dessert (which was declined), and said he would comp the pizza. When the check came, there was a corkage fee for the wine and one of the women asked if it could be waived. Her reasoning was that the restaurant wasn't out any money by waiving it. The server went to the manager, who waived it--but he complained about it and my friends heard it. That left them with a negative impression.

Was it enough or should the management have done more?

I must have deleted it, but I got an email earlier this week promoting "Southern" barbecue from Virginia that was a mix of smoked pork and country ham! I'm torn on this. While I love both foods, I tend to be a purist. I'd love to hear from you if you've tried this.

At 7 tonight, we'll be back here and we'll all be drinking rose wine--but we might not all be drinking the same thing.... This has been one confused tasting thus far, which makes me wonder if picking the wines at the start of each month is such a good idea. We started with a plan to drink the Alexander Valley Dry Rose of Sangiovese 2007, but it turns out that what was in stock was the 2006 and no 2007 was coming. Next we discovered that there's no 2008 in town right now, so we switched to a Clos du Bois 2006 for those who didn't already have the Alexander Valley.

I got home last night and noticed that my Clos du Bois was a 2007. And Benito, tonight's expert, went with something else altogether. But the good news is that Benito recently toured Sonoma, is a huge fan of dry roses and will tell us all about 'em. Come on back.

 

 

 

A few weeks ago, my editor found a small bug in her to-go order from a popular restaurant. Not naming it--unless it happens again, in which case I think it would be fair. She just walked over with the menu in her hand and asked if I thought it would be OK for her to order there today. I said that one small bug wouldn't keep me away (really, it was tiny--some kind of flying insect about the size of a gnat) from a place that we've eaten at without incident on many occasions. She was uncertain, but I think she's ordering.

What's your policy on this?

I went to a little dive with friends for lunch and I'm not naming the place because it wasn't bad and this will make it sound like it was. The problem is that now we all smell of grease and CANNOT escape the smell. Yuck!

Years ago some of my coworkers went to a soul food/country cooking restaurant just after it opened and when they got back to work, I couldn't believe how overpowering the greasy smell was. When I get home tonight, it'll be like coming home from the barbecue--the clothes will go straight to the wash!. A friend who ate lunch with me just sent this email:

"This is just like that Seinfeld episode where Jerry and Elaine go to a restaurant and he gets valet parking and the guy who parks the car has tremendous B.O., which invades the car and latches onto both Jerry and Elaine.

It was brutal and Jerry eventually called it The Beast.

IT WOULD NOT LEAVE...

THIS IS THE SAME!!!"

I was determined to take a week off from food as well as work, and I largely succeeded. We grilled out once or twice and I went out to lunch two times, but that's a light week for me. I stocked up on some of my favorite convenience foods at the beginning of the week: Holiday Ham sliced ham and pimiento cheese (with a nice seeded rye bread); a good selection of cheeses from here and there and proscuitto; avocados, tomatoes and sprouts (and good whole wheat); salt and pepper chips and so on--something in between junk food and OK food.

On Saturday night, we were beat after a yard sale. I was too tired to cook and too achy to leave the house. For dinner I gathered all the ends of the cheeses and made this killer mac and cheese. In with a bit of half and half went a bit of extra sharp cheddar, ullekasse, feta, chevre, d'affinois, tallegio, and a brie-like cheese that I can't remember the name of. I sauteed the little bit of leftover ham, added it, then made buttery bread crumbs from the leftover rye.

I poured a couple of glasses left from Thursday's bottle of zinfandel, and I tell you this: We ate one of the best meals ever--all from leftovers.