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Food Thread: "Wine Of Color" And Other Nonsense

Yes, I admit it; I am sick of cooking. And that's why there was a large porterhouse in front of me last night...a porterhouse that did not come off my grill! And it's not that I can't cook two of the three things in that picture.* Creamed spinach is pretty easy, and I pride myself on my steak grilling ability. But the stars aligned, and I happily ordered the steak. It's a combination of months of Wuhan Flu lunacy that closed the restaurants, so I HAD to cook, and the closing of my favorite butcher, so getting good beef is a much bigger deal, and often hit-or-miss.

And a lot of it was the simple pleasure of sitting at a bar...something that I missed over the last five plus months. It is interesting how social situations often revolve around food, but my lazy thoughts about that were centered around food making socializing easier, rather than socializing making food better.

We are social animals, and the artificial and unnatural constraints that the Wuhan Flu overreaction has forced upon us has diminished us. The simple pleasures of a meal shared with friends; the quite contemplation of a well-mixed cocktail in a quiet, dark bar, the raucous joy of a family get-together...whether it is over a grill in the backyard or around a big table in the back of your favorite pizza joint...all have been taken from us by the confluence of events and evil.

Food may not be important for many people in and of itself, but as a part of the social fabric it is indispensable. And the more we push back against the stupidity and wickedness of those who have forced this upon us, the sooner we can return to a more normal world.

A world in which I am not ordering porterhouses in restaurants!

* Those shaved onions are grand; they are a perfect accompaniment to steak, and this restaurant executes them flawlessly. And thank God for that, because what a mess they must make!

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Sadly, this isn't a joke. Apparently the wine industry is too White, and must be destroyed on the altar of Black Supremacy^TM.

The Whiteness Problem of White Wine

Articles warn, The Wine Industry is Overwhelmingly White.” and they frantically urge, "It’s Time to Decolonize Wine" and "It’s Time: Diversity in Wine".

Wine is actually very diverse. Not only does wine come from all over the world, but it comes in different colors and shades, it originates from different cultures and exists in different languages. It’s mentioned in the Bible, in ancient Chinese poems, and in 2,000 year old verses from India.

But now wine, the universal solvent of cultures across human history, is not diverse enough. At least not once George Floyd’s death while high on fentanyl cast light on the whiteness of wine.

"In the two months since the June George Floyd protests, some Black winemakers have called out the racism in their industry," Mother Jones exclaimed.

What does Floyd have to do with wine? Not a whole lot.

I have no idea of the skin color or backgrounds of the men and women who make the wine I drink. I don't know. I don't care.

If my favorite beverages are made by syphilitic dwarves with Black mothers and Apache fathers...that's fine. And if they are made by descendants of the Lowells and the Cabots...that's fine too. I will judge them only by the quality of their work. Unless they inject politics into their wine, in which case I will move on to other, more deserving producers, who want my money but aren't interested in hectoring me about my politics.

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From a reader who actually knows what he is doing! A classic recipe for Halibut Grenobloise. That is a relatively simple but glorious preparation that is used for several different fish. I like it best with monkfish, but I am definitely going to try it with halibut.

I enjoy the Sunday food thread so I thought I'd pass on this recipe of a dish I made last night. The sides are smashed baby yellow potatoes and fresh string beans. I owned and operated a restaurant for 28 years and I referred to a technique by David (my chef) in the recipe. You definitely should use a thermometer to obtain the 130-135 temperature. Really is not that hard.

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This man is a lunatic. A funny lunatic. But still...this is just wrong.

I DRY AGED Steaks in NUTELLA and this happened!

He gets such joy from eating steak. I think that's the best part of his videos, but he also is methodical, which makes the empiricist in me smile.

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Commenter "JT" sent this along, and while it looks like it works quite well, especially in the video embedded in the Amazon page, I know from bitter experience that these things never work. it's just too easy looking!

Anyone ever use one of these things?

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I watched this with morbid fascination. It is way too much work for the end result, but if someone else wants to make it for me I will bring the beer.

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Food and cooking tips, Large-breasted Muscovy ducks, young wild pigs, bartenders who use vermouth in Martinis (but not too much), pork belly that doesn't have 5-spice, low-temperature-roast chicken, and good tomatoes that aren't square, pale pink and covered with Mestizo E.coli: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com. Any advocacy of French Toast with syrup will result in disciplinary action up to and including being nuked from orbit. And yes, shaking a Manhattan is blasphemy...it's in the Bible!