Tag: Wine

A culinary journey through Sicily’s food and wine, in the shadow of Mount Etna

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This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).

It’s closing time at the gelateria, but Giovanna Musumeci is waiting patiently as I pick the flavour to crown my cone. It’s a tricky choice: will it be pistachio from nearby Bronte? Yellow raspberries, grown on the slopes of Mount Etna? Or local walnuts, toasted in their shells by Giovanna?

In the end, I opt for the triumvirate of Sicilian ingredients. Oro Verde della Sicilia (Sicilian Green Gold) is an award-winning mix of pistachio, mandarin and caramelised almonds. It’s fresh and tangy but with a creamy base.

The tasting isn’t over. Giovanna and sister Sandra want to introduce me to something even better than gelato. At Santo Musumeci – the gelateria founded by their late father – they’re known for their granita: shaved ice swirled with fruit. Figs, raspberries, prickly pears, those yellow raspberries and creamy toasted almonds – I try them all.

Here, in the shadow of Mount Etna, things hit differently. People are warmer, flavours are more pronounced, the landscape is more dramatic. Opposite Giovanna’s gelateria in Randazzo stands a gothic church built of dark volcanic stone. Rearing up above an alleyway is Etna herself. To Giovanna, she’s “mamma Etna”. The Musumeci family has always sourced their ingredients from producers working on the slopes of what Sicilians call ‘idda’ – simply, ‘her’. “Turning fresh fruit into gelato is a real responsibility – not just to the producers, but to Etna herself,” says Giovanna with some seriousness.

She’s not alone. All around the volcano, Mamma Etna’s charges are using her fertile land to produce things to make a mother proud. Santo Musumeci’s gelato has won countless awards. Foodies flock to nearby Linguaglossa, where the Pennisi family of butchers has a Michelin-starred restaurant, Shalai, in their hotel of the same name. At Dai Pennisi, a tiny trattoria inside their butcher’s shop,

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Fort Worth Food items + Wine Pageant Rolls on Just as the Co-Founder Envisioned

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Russell Kirkpatrick’s wife Jennifer designed her solemn vows earnestly in agreeing to have and to hold, for superior, for even worse, for richer, poorer, in sickness and wellbeing till the cloaked skeleton wielding a substantial scythe comes a-knockin’ at the door.

Having said that, she did not agree to listen to her husband’s wonderful ideas advert nauseam.

So, a few of photographs of liquid courage later on, and a prompting from the missus, Russell, the normal supervisor at Reata, at last went to talk to his boss, Mike Micallef, about bringing a foodstuff and wine festival to Fort Truly worth.

Voila.

“Oddly sufficient we were at a co-worker’s birthday occasion one particular afternoon and, I had just ample cocktails, and my wife’s like, ‘Mike’s in this article. You are below. Go pitch it to him.’ And so, I form of bought him. I was like, ‘I feel this would operate. I imagine we could get this point off the floor.’ And really what I essential from him had been some names in his Rolodex because, you know, Mike understands all people in town.”

The Fort Value Wine + Meals Competition has been a smashing results, anything the co-founder, Kirkpatrick, believed it would be as an event celebrating Fort Worth’s culinary scene. This year’s occasion, March 30-April 2, is the 10th since takeoff in 2014. It will be conducted largely at the Coronary heart of the Ranch at Clearfork, with a few gatherings getting place somewhere else.

The competition, in accordance to its site, has elevated a lot more than $325,000 for grants and scholarships for culinary pupils from Fort Value, as perfectly as a service-business reduction fund for workforce out of get the job done for the duration of the pandemic shutdown.

As importantly, the competition offers nearby cooks a raise in publicity.

For nine years, the Fort Truly worth Meals + Wine Festival has highlighted the edibles and grapes that, to borrow a phrase, maketh happy the heart of person.

And female, too, it goes without the need of declaring.

“The considered was if we produce one thing

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This fizzy purple wine conjures up an Italian holiday

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Remark

This week’s wines all had me cheering from the 1st sip to the very last. And it could be a little bit contrarian — though that has never stopped me — to recommend these for your Valentine’s Working day supper. No one will fault you for heading for champagne, of course, but why not go for the unforeseen? The Italians know how to make crimson wine sparkle. Here are two illustrations that will add the fizz to your night with no expenditure, pretense or strain. They exude comfort and leisure. (If you are proposing, go for the champagne.)

And for our 3rd wine this week, a reminder that a glass of rosé is as expressive as roses. Effectively, ok, you may will need to incorporate some personal flair to pull that off, the Inman Household Infinite Crush, which I raved about final summer, would be eminently correct here, as would this magnificent rosé from Ridgecrest Vineyards in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Salvatore Martusciello OttoUve Gragnano Della Penisola Sorrentina 2021

(3.5 stars)

This rosso frizzante hails from the Sorrento Peninsula south of Naples — assume Amalfi coast, passionate vistas and, of class, pizza. Imagine of it as a holiday in a bottle. The Washington-location importer, Michael R. Downey Options, to start with introduced this wine in for 2 Amys restaurant at the launch of the Neapolitan pizza craze. Fruitier than its far more northerly cousins from Emilia Romagna, this wine has a dried plum character that reminds me of — dare I say it? — Dr Pepper. But it is an Italian Dr Pepper. And a terrific value at the cost. Liquor by volume: 11.5 p.c. Bottle fat: 631 grams (Glowing).

Imported and dispersed regionally by Michael R. Downey Picks.

Medici Ermete Le Tenute Solo Reggiano 2018

(3.5 stars)

This “vino frizzante rosso secco” arrives from a main Lambrusco producer in Emilia Romagna. The wine is vibrantly ruby in shade, earthy and fruity in aroma, and beautifully well balanced on the palate with

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5 items you missed at the Courier Journal’s Wine & Foodstuff function

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With colorful plastic carrying trays at the all set, Beverly Coleman, Michelle Torrens and Tamiya Wilson arrived organized for Saturday’s Courier Journal Wine & Food Working experience.

“The final time we arrived, 3 decades in the past, we experienced problems balancing all the food stuff samples and beverages, but we observed a person with a minor wood tray, and we built it our mission to locate trays for our subsequent time,” Coleman advised the Courier Journal.

“Of training course, we had no idea that the pandemic would strike, and it would be a couple of several years ahead of this function would be held once more. But below we are, it really is a gorgeous working day, we are with buddies and our trays are whole of meals and consume ― it can be fantastic.”

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Audience members enjoy a food demo by Matt Combs, culinary director of Bluegrass Hospitality Group at The Courier Journal Wine & Food Experience at Norton Commons on Oct. 1, 2022 in Louisville, Ky.

The meals and wine knowledge had to be canceled due to the fact of COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, so persons have been far more than completely ready for its return in this calendar year.

As the gates opened Saturday at Norton Commons’ Oval Park, 1,200 hungry and thirsty ticketed friends flowed into the event area.

“Tickets offered out as quickly as they went on sale,” reported Jared Bobkins, culinary director for the function. “We get this display to eight cities throughout the state, and Louisville offered out a lot quicker than any of them.”

If you failed to snag a ticket, no worries, the reputation of the celebration should bring it back again to Louisville in 2023. In the meantime, here is what you missed.

What was served at the Courier Journal Wine & Food items Exhibit?

The celebration, portion of an 8-metropolis tour, featured smaller bites from dozens of community places to eat, such as Malones, I Really like Tacos, Louvino, Pink Yeti and much more.

Company dined on goat cheese fritters with red pepper jelly at the Red Yeti tent. Wiesenberger cheesegrits and gulf shrimp with andouille gravy have been served by Cask

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Culinary gardens provide fresh, local produce for Napa Valley’s food and wine pairings | Local News

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Napa Valley has marketed itself as a food and wine pairing destination, but behind the carefully-curated plates and perfectly-positioned fruits, veggies and herbs are not only the chefs, but also the culinary gardeners keeping these farm-to-table offerings afloat.

Spending their days plucking microgreens, snipping flowers and watering vegetable beds, these farmers grow produce like leafy greens, fancy herbs and more to supply fresh and local ingredients to their teams of chefs, eventually landing in the mouths of visitors.

You won’t find any grapevines in these gardens — there are enough of those in the surrounding areas anyways — and now that spring has sprung, a lot of change is happening in the Napa Valley’s edible estates.

“Right now is sort of a transitional time,” said Tessa Henry, manager of the Clif Family Farm up on Howell Mountain. “We have spring plants growing, but then we have hot days where it doesn’t feel like spring anymore, so the lettuces and the spinach might not be so happy, but we are also preparing peppers and harvesting fava beans, green garlic, tatsoi and parsley.”

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Clif Family has one of Napa County’s approved culinary garden programs, and since Henry took over as farm manager after working as a gardener for Frog’s Leap Winery, she has been able to experiment with growing fruits, vegetables and flowers on the hillside property.

“Every season has been trial and error with what we can grow and what the kitchen likes and the amounts, because they like pretty much everything we give them, but they also want to make sure that there is room for it on the menu,” she said.

When miscalculations do happen, though, the chef team can get creative. 

Once, Henry and her fellow gardeners harvested far more sunchokes than expected, resulting in some innovation and an added soup item on the menu.

“When it becomes available, the kitchen team figures out what to do with it, and they always turn it into something really delicious,” she said.

Additionally, since Clif Family manages a food truck and sells food retail items

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Netflix Just Opened a ‘Bad Vegan’ Pure Food stuff & Wine Pop-Up Cafe

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Former New York Town vegan cafe Pure Food stuff and Wine—which is showcased in Netflix’s new docuseries Terrible Vegan—is bringing the eatery’s most popular dishes back to NYC supporters a person very last time. Netflix teamed up with delivery app Postmates and two former Pure Meals and Wine cooks to present a a few-training course meal for totally free until finally March 27. 

The Netflix pop-up, named “The Undesirable Vegan Kitchen,” features a few primary Pure Foodstuff and Wine dishes: the Caesar salad, the Signature Uncooked Lasagna, and Mallomars for dessert. Pure Food and Wine previous head chef Nikki King Bennet and former pastry chef Missy Maidana are cooking the foods in a ghost kitchen area in NYC’s Lessen East Facet all weekend extensive. NYC locals can position an order as a result of the Postmates shipping app whenever in the course of lunch or dinner for the future a few days—for absolutely free, such as no cost delivery—while materials final.

Postmates

Negative Vegan premiered on Netflix on March 16 as a four-episode documentary that chronicles the downfall of Sarma Melngailis, co-founder of Pure Food and Wine, a famed raw vegan restaurant in NYC that attracted superstar diners such as Alec Baldwin and Owen Wilson. The restaurant was forced to near in 2015 just after Melngailis was caught in a criminal scheme that concerned fraud, grand larceny, and violations of labor legislation. 

Lousy Vegan’s surprising story

It all started off when Melngailis fulfilled and married conman Anthony Strangis (who called himself Shane Fox). She alleged that he coerced her into thieving revenue from her have cafe and afterwards likely on the operate from authorities. 

About the program of two years, Melngailis wired neary $2 million to Strangis, who promised to fork out off her money owed and make her dog, Leon, immortal. Strangis ultimately took command of the restaurant when he and Melngailis traveled close to Europe. During this time, Pure Food and Wine stopped having to pay employees, who walked out in protest. Strangis was discovered to have expended the restaurant’s funds on gambling, touring, and searching. 

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