Food Thread: Bread And Butter...A Match Made In Heaven

That color is amazing...it conjures visions of buxom farm maidens herding cows through idyllic pastures, then milking them gently for perfect, fatty, delicious milk. Then on to the creamery where the cream is churned lovingly into perfect, beautiful, delicious butter!

Add in a fresh sourdough loaf cooling on the counter, and life doesn't get much better! Well, I added a great NY strip steak and a nice green salad, and some grilled broccoli slices to placate my inner Vegan.

That butter is from a spectacular Paris department store called Le Bon Marché, which has an amazing food department...two floors of food and wine that is rivaled only by another Parisian department store! They have prepared foods and places to eat there and fresh produce and meats and cheese and fish and butter! about 25 feet of refrigerated displays filled with butter of all kinds, from everywhere in France.

They also vacuum pack it, so it has been preserved quite well! I was a bit apprehensive, but one bite of this perfectly salted butter with some of that sourdough bread eased my concern. It was perfect, even after nine months in the freezer!

That's the wrapper, and it really doesn't say much, other than the name of the company! There are dozens of these small creameries all across France, and they survive because the quality is usually quite high, and the flavor of the butter (and milk) varies by region, so the market is highly segmented. They do it with cheese and yogurt too...

I don't like the sound of cereal hitting the bowl

It's un-American!

Is your fridge broken?

Those were gifts for Easter!

Nuts!

Travel changes the menu. Meals while traveling become part of the memory of the trip. Those that live in rural areas and don’t have access to the variety found in large cities understand this immediately. It doesn’t have to be exotic food or trendy restaurants either. Sometimes it’s just the things you can’t get back home - or more accurately, can’t get prepared correctly back home.

Spent last weekend in Chicago. Nephew graduated from law school - nice to have a lawyer in the family. Maybe.

The cravings started about three days before departure: a simple, authentic Italian beef sammich. Thin-sliced beef soaked in jus, good giardiniera, paper giving way before the first bite. Shortly after came the craving for a proper Chicago dog - dragged through the garden, all the right fixings. Ordinary food that somehow becomes the entire point of the trip.

First food stop was for the Italian beef sammich. Seasoned beef shaved thin, melted provolone, spicy giardiniera piled on top. Jus dripping through the wrapper and a bit of it down the wrist. Food Valhalla for a country boy. Pic is a bit blurry, about the same as my mental state after the first bite.

Next up: the Chicago dog. Yellow mustard, pickle, celery salt, and the criminally underrated sport peppers. Dog charred just enough and hanging over both ends of the bun. No onions, no tomatoes, no glow-in-the-dark relish - those toppings are for the unwashed. Dog was fine, but the homemade chips stole the show. Should have ordered a 10lb bag to go.

Tavern pizza for the finale? Sort of.

Knew the place was good the second we sat down. Small menu. Maybe seven appetizers, four salads, and 14-inch pizzas offered two ways: Tavern Style or Artisan. Efficient. No need to rewrite a novel/War and Peace when you know what you’re doing.

The Tavern pizza itself was solid - thin crust with burnt edges. Soppressata and smoked pancetta on all, garlic on one half, giardiniera on the other. Waiter gave a knowing nod – or you’re an idiot nod, but I’ll humor you. Tourist.

The surprise winner was the Sunday Salad.

Big plate. Awkward oversized tongs like something borrowed from an ear, nose, and throat doctor’s office. Little gem lettuce base, balanced amounts of salami, ditalini, cheeses, firm beans, finely chopped vegetables, and a red wine vinegar-sweet Italian dressing that tied the whole operation together. Damnit, it worked. For about fifteen minutes, I was half vegan.

Rumor has it that the Bourbon Bubble is bursting. I have seen no evidence of decreasing prices, but maybe the bursting started somewhere else! I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.

The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!

posted by CBD at 04:00 PM

| Access Comments