Friday, February 29, 2008

I met Ed Levine, April Bloomfield and spotted Josh Hartnett at The Spotted Pig

Here are snippets from Ed's post on Serious Eats on 2.28 so you can see how my day started out. After his post, see my note about The Spotted Pig.

We were having an important meeting at Serious Eats headquarters starting at 11 a.m. that would likely go all day, so I bought a few breakfast items for our guests at Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery:

  • A cinnamon-honey scone
  • A caramel macaroon
  • A coconut-pineapple macaroon
  • A brown-butter-pecan macaroon
  • Two pesto croissants
  • A small coffee cake
  • An exotic-fruit danish
  • A pistachio-cherry brioche
  • Pain au chocolat
A late lunch followed three hours later at The Spotted Pig.I ordered two desserts for the table to share—a banana toffee pie and a ginger cake—and had two forkfuls of each.

I think I had about five forkfuls of each. So I hadn't had meat in a number of months but when Ed started singing praises of the Serious Sandwich, the Cubano, at The Spotted Pig, I had to indulge and order it. It was a triple indulgence. I'll never forget it. He reports that April Bloomfield uses heritage pork shoulder and brines it for three days, slow-roasting it, and then cooking it in duck and pork fat.

See Ed's take here.

Not only was that ginger cake divine, there was also a little eye candy for dessert, Josh Hartnett across the room.


Friday, February 22, 2008

Wells Ales and the weekend of brews

2.22
Legacy Hoptimus Prime Double IPA
Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel Hybrid
Green Flash West Coast IPA

2.23
Grand Cru @ Radegast, Williamsburg

2.24
Captain Lawrence Imperial IPA @ Blind Tiger

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Boston Beer Hop Sharing Program 20,000

A nod to Jim Koch and what is continues to do for the craft beer industry. This is a tremendous testament of his genuine concern for the industry that he has helped build over the years. For a couple of months, brewers have been facing unprecedented hops shortages. Boston Beer looked at their own supplies and decided they could share some of their hops with other craft brewers who are struggling to get hops this year. They are offering 20,000 pounds at their cost to brewers who need them. These include East Kent Goldings from Tony Redsell, a top English grower featured by Michael Jackson in Michael Jackson’s Beer Companion and German Noble hop Tettnang Tettnanger from small farms in the Tettnang region in Germany.


Sunday, February 17, 2008

Extreme Beer '08

Extreme Beer Fest in Boston has become one of my favorite beer
fests and this is only year two I have attended. It will remain on
my "to do" each year. It's an extremely well executed event, never too crowded and Night of the Barrels is a must on Friday night.

There is always a great panel session to attend. This year, we attended the Session Two panel and the speaker was Shane Welch, Sixpoint BROOKLYN. Food is provided by Sunset Grill and Tap (included in the price of the ticket too!). Last but not least, another favorite is what you see to the right, a waffle from Waffle Haus of Vermont. It's made with fresh yeast dough and sugar and is intoxicating. So bummed for Shaun who had a cold and lost some of his taste buds. Next year!

The favorites of the weekend:
Friday Night: Night of the Barrels, where all the beer has touched wood
Sam Adams Utopias this year aged on Cacao Nibs (The only time I get to taste!) ****
Rodenbach Grand Cru ***
Boulder Beer Co. Oak- Aged Never Summer Strong Ale **
Magic Hat Brewing Co. Braggot, made with clover honey, malt, chamomile flowers **
Ithaca Beer Co. Old Habit *
Saturday Session 2:
Boston Beer Sam Adams Imperial Stout **
Boulder Beer Co. Mojo RISin' Double IPA w Amarillo Hops ***
Brewery Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence Stout **
Lagunitas Brewing Co. Hop Stoopid Imperial IPA **
Magic Hat Brewing Co. American Sour Ale *
Oskar Blues Grill & Brewery Gordon somewhere between double IPA and Imperial Red *
Rogue Ales Brew 10k brewed with Vienna, French Special Aroma and Maris Otter Pale Malts; Yakima Summit and German Saphir Hops, coastal waters and that special PacMan yeast. **
Rogue Ales Morimoto Imperial Pilsner **
Sixpoint Craft Ales Gran'dad's Nerve Tonic "GNT" ******
Southern Tier Brewing Co. Choklat Imperial Stout **
Southern Tier Brewing Co. Unearthly IPA *

Saturday night finish was at Mella Modern Indian on Tremont. Not sure if it was all the extreme beers, but I think we both thought it was the best Indian we have had to date!

Of course the yearly trip would NOT be complete without a visit to the Sam Adams Brewery which we did on Saturday. What I didn't realize is that now that the staff has come and gone, and come and gone again in the ten years since I used to work at the Brewery, "I used to work here" means nothing, I actually had to get tickets for the tour! :-0 Ah, but it used to be a place I called home...

Saturday, February 09, 2008

RouXbarb- Knoxville


On North Shore Drive in Knoxville, TN is this little restaurant that could next to the train tracks. It seems off the beaten path for a tourist but I was here for work and the entire team met at RouXbarb for dinner.

It's always exciting to see where the locals go and find the hidden restaurants in different cities across the country. RouXbarb is a place I would return. It's sustainable, local, seasonal and all of the above. Everything is made from scratch and all the dishes have a southern hint to them, with dishes like pimento mac and cheese. They seem to have vegetarian specials daily. It's cozy and BYOB.




Friday, February 08, 2008

The Sunsphere!

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Hot Beer, the latest from Japan

"Kirin introduces its new "Hot Beer" that's consumed in a steaming cup like coffee. Based on the company's Ichiban Shibori Stout dark beer, the drink is served with a stick of cinnamon and sugar cubes on the side. The heat of the beer is supposed to bring out flavors not present when served cold, including a deep aroma not unlike that of coffee. The beer is being test-marketed at the Kirin factory in Yokohama, but the company suggests that curious beer aficionados can try it by microwaving beer to about 120 degrees Farenheit (50 degrees Celsius) and stirring it rapidly to give the beer a Cuppochino-like foamy head on top. It's supposedly good poured over vanilla ice cream, too." - From J-List Side Blog