Amazing how some things have traction, and people clearly love trivia - especially the food and wine related factoids. So back by popular demand is our third installment of tidbits selected from Gourmet Magazine’s regular feature “Good Living: Tastes, Tools, Gifts, Travel, Trends and Shopping”. Enjoy!

In ancient Rome, the upper classes disdained meat, but distributed pork to the street poor in an attempt to maintain order (April 2008)… So much for letting them eat cake!

14,000 (the number of convenience stores in Texas alone and that’s one tenth of the US total) (February 2006)… Can anyone say 7-11 y’all?

In an American supermarket, a soft drink is 52% larger, a hot dog is 62% larger and a carton of yogurt is 82% larger than in France (March 2008)… Sacre bleu! Continue reading »

Like many of you, I have been glued to the Olympics over the past week or so, reveling in the amazing success of Michael Phelps, our basketball teams, and the girl’s softball, among the standout play. And that’s just the US team - there have been so many efforts by other nations and other individuals that are all noteworthy. It occurred to me that there is a parallel to be found by those that selectively find merit in certain types of sports, and those that are only impressed with certain styles of wines. Continue reading »

My kids were bummed out when it became evident that this summer was going to be more “staycation” then “vacation”. Not that we weren’t going to be busy, doing fun family activities and enjoying some R&R but that we would not be doing the “big” trip - Europe, Asia etc.

The reasons are, in our case, multi fold. My daughter is an active softball player and we spend a chunk of the summer traveling around to different cities for tournaments (she playing, us watching). Then, this new business of my partner’s and mine, Full Circle Wine Solutions, has been ramping up and requiring a lot of work and ample biz travel. Finally there’s the current American nightmare… the dollar is weak abroad, transportation (by car or plane) is expensive and seemingly more so each and every day, and it’s undeniably cheaper to be at home and be “local” than it is to adventure out. Even if you go to places where the dollar is (relatively) strong, the cost to get there is high - South East Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the old standby Canada… Well, there are more Canadians streaming into San Francisco taking advantage of our weak dollar than there are Americans flooding north to take advantage of their dollar! Continue reading »

I guess sometimes I just get too close to it- it being the “food and wine” pairing think. Let me explain…

In crafting the menu for a meal I was going to be speaking at this past week, the chef was very deferential to my thinking and took the offered direction quite well. I was personally delighted that he was so accommodating because the wines, in my opinion, had very idiosyncratic personalities and required a food think that would allow them to shine in context but would also not stifle the creativity of the chef and not make him feel as if his own opinions on matching wine and food together hadn’t been given ample consideration. He came through with a mutually agreed menu and we went to print. Continue reading »

Sometimes you discover something you thought highly of might have a downside. And sometimes you find that there may be a bit more urban myth than meets the eye. I discovered both over my morning coffee the other day from two well respected sources- the UK’s Daily Telegraph and the beloved NY Times of…well, New York.

The downside first. Like many in food and wine, I have been intrigued by the emergence of molecular gastronomy. The wild “airs, foams, gels, and encapsulated beads” of food which emanate from such temples of cuisine as Moto (Chicago), WD50 (New York), Alinea (Chicago) and the mack daddy of them all El Bulli (Spain), are fascinating. These modern restaurants challenge our senses with their deconstructed foods and have garnered lots of attention, ample ink and throngs of curious epicures who fight to get reservations. Continue reading »