Yesterday’s decision to dine at Animal was a last-minute one.  We had originally planned to have dinner with some of J’s friends, who were in town for the wedding nuptials of some mutual business school friends (congrats again, LY and JM!!).  When those plans fell through, we tossed around a few restaurant ideas, some on LA’s West Side, some not, before finally deciding on Animal at around 5:00 pm.  J called to see if we could actually get a reservation, and, of course, their earliest reservation was for 10:30 – a bit late for two people still recovering from wedding fun.  But, said the hostess, there is a first-come-first-served bar where you can order from the full dinner menu.  Done, we thought.

We arrived at the restaurant just before 7:00 pm – a bit later than we had hoped, but it is LA, after all.  As we put our name on the waiting list for the bar, we noticed that there were at least 3 empty tables.  Hmmm, we thought.  That’s interesting.  We ordered a glass of wine each and stepped outside to wait for our spot at the tiny bar.  Though the wine was quite delightful – a 2008 Mâcon-Fuissé from Domaine Cheveau – we waited 45 minutes for spots at the bar even though there were never fewer than 3 empty tables on the floor the entire night.  The hostess was attentive, letting us know every so often how much longer she expected our wait to be, but it still struck us as odd that such a tiny restaurant would allow tables to sit empty while people are waiting outside.

Once we sat down, however, our backs to the half-full dining room, the experience immediately improved.  The staff behind the bar was friendly and relaxed, clearly enjoying themselves but not at the expense of the guests.  We ordered a bottle of 2005 Paul Jeune Côtes du Ventoux from Château Valcombe, and although it needed a few minutes to open up, it proved to be a nice choice, with a fair amount of acidity to cut through what was sure to be one of the richest meals either of us had enjoyed in a while.

The menu at Animal is a selection of small plates that changes daily depending upon what’s in season.  The focus is, of course, on meat (with a few seafood selections as well), so if you’re not a meat eater, go somewhere else and let the rest of us enjoy on your behalf.  We had spent a fair amount of time combing through the Yelp reviews while we waited for our table, so we pretty much knew what our selections would be.

We started with the grilled octopus with chorizo and the melted petit basque with chorizo and grilled bread.  The octopus had a fantastic char on the outside but was melt-in-the-mouth tender, though I’m not sure that the chorizo chunks added much to the dish.  The melted petit basque (a kind of sheep’s milk cheese from the Pyrenees Mountains along the border between Spain and France) with chorizo was exactly what it sounds like – a ramekin filled with a layer of caramelized onions, a layer of thinly sliced Spanish-style chorizo, and a layer of bubbling cheese.  Served with a few slices of crusty grilled bread (my fave!), this is a simple but decadent dish in which attention was clearly paid to both flavor and texture.  Indeed, the sweetness of the onion plays perfectly off the saltiness of the chorizo while the crunch of the bread provides a perfect foil to the creaminess of the melted cheese.

Next, we tried the marrow bone with chimichurri sauce, also served with crusty grilled bread.  This was, by far, my favorite dish of the night.  The acid and spice in the chimichurri brighten the rich, decadent marrow and make this a truly unique dish.  Amazing.

But that’s not all.  Following the bone marrow, we moved on to the pork belly sandwiches, J’s favorite dish.  Served on fantastically light brioche buns with a tangy slaw and a delicious vinegar-based barbecue sauce, the pork belly was perfectly cooked and just fell apart on the tongue.  I was losing steam at this point in the meal, so J actually polished off about half of my sandwich.

Though we probably should have stopped with the sandwiches, we simply couldn’t skip the balsamic pork ribs, as I am a sucker for anything with balsamic vinegar, and I’m pretty sure J has an extra stomach for anything made of pork.  I made it through one rib before I had to cry uncle, but J pretty much inhaled the other four.  ‘Nuff said.

And, of course, though neither of us could have shoved another piece of food in our mouths if our lives depended on it, we ordered the bacon chocolate crunch bar – to go.  A heavenly mix of creamy chocolate ganache and just a sprinkle of crunchy bacon, this is chocolate for the bacon lover.

All in all, J and I both agreed that Animal is, for our taste, one of the best restaurants in LA right now.  Just be sure to make a reservation….

5 forks!!

Cheers!

J and I have brainstormed a few general concepts, including:

• CorkPopper Goes Locavore: Each month would focus on a different California wine region, highlighting the regions’ signature varietals and best (though not necessarily most widely known) wineries. Each week would also include recipes highlighting seasonal ingredients and local specialties inspired by each region’s wines.
• 12 Months, 12 Varietals: Each month would focus on a different major grape varietal (e.g., Cabernet Sauvignon), and each week would explore how the terroir and winemaking traditions of a different region (e.g., California vs. Chile vs. Australia vs. France) can turn the same grape into something different than the wines made in other regions. Each week would also include a unique recipe developed to highlight the characteristics of that week’s grape varietal.
• CorkPopper All-Stars: Each week I would take one of the original CorkPopper Project’s “winning” wines (i.e., the wine garnering the highest CorkPopper score in any given week) and develop 1-2 new recipes inspired by that wine.

What do you think? Do you love/hate/not care about any of these ideas more/less than the others? Is there something else you’d love for me to tackle as a year-long project? Any and all ideas and input are welcome! Just leave a comment below or send an email to corkpopper.blog@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you!!

Cheers!

The locavore movement, which has been growing in size and steam for years now, has long preached that eating foods (both produce and meat products) that are in season and grown or raised nearby without the use of pesticides, antibiotics or genetic modification is, in simple terms, the responsible thing to do, both for our bodies and for our planet.  The benefits of eating locally, locavores argue, range from decreasing fossil fuel consumption by getting trucks off the roads to impacting the increase in childhood obesity by encouraging children and their families to eat fresh, unprocessed foods to avoiding potential threats to our health by ensuring that more than just a few giant producers process our food.

But, as with all things in life, there is more than one side to the locavore story.  As Stephen Budiansky argued in a recent New York Times Op-Ed, the locavore movement tends to ignore the fact that buying locally doesn’t necessarily save energy, as the energy consumed by trucking produce cross-country pales in comparison to, for example, the energy consumed by the average American’s refrigerator or by the local farmer’s greenhouse as he attempts to cultivate a crop in high local demand but not naturally suited to his local climate.  Budiansky wasn’t arguing that people shouldn’t eat locally, of course.  (Indeed, he’s got his own backyard garden that “keeps [his] family supplied nine months of the year with a modest cornucopia” of produce.)  On the contrary, his point was simply that eating locally shouldn’t be considered an end in itself and that every choice we make has a multitude of consequences that we must acknowledge and weigh if we want to call ourselves informed citizens.  With that, I absolutely agree.

So, what is an environmentally sensitive amateur cook and food/wine blogger to do?  I’ve read all the arguments and find value in all of the various perspectives.  (Surprise, surprise.  The lawyer sees more than one side of an argument.)  I see how industrial agriculture and importation of produce has made fundamentally healthy foods available to the masses year-round and has made it possible for hundreds of thousands of people to pursue their dreams rather than break their backs on subsistence farms.  I also see, however, that those same industrial farms have grown so large and powerful that even the government seems powerless to step in when their foods cause thousands to become sick.  And I’ve seen the face of a child when she takes her first bite of an organic tomato, picked at the height of its ripeness, a look of pure shock and delight at the discovery that the same fruit she had always known as tasteless and mushy could actually be delicious.

The decision I’ve made with regard to this issue is a fundamentally personal one.  To put it simply, I love the flavors and colors and scents of fresh, ripe, local organic produce.  As you can see from the photos I took at Seattle’s Pike Place Market last weekend, I have a deep-seated love for farmers’ markets.  I love everything about them – the colors, the smells, the flavors, the hardy producers that dedicate their lives to bringing such amazing foods to people like you and me.  In fact, I often find myself overwhelmed by the vast array of options available at such markets and end up walking home with the same few types of products I always get.  Yes, I love them, but I’ve been feeling lately like I’ve been in a bit of a produce rut.

That is why I’ve recently decided to join a community sponsored agriculture program (“CSA”).  Each week, the folks over at Farm Box LA will deliver to my home a box teeming with a variety of fresh, ripe organic produce from various local producers.  Though I can tell Farm Box LA not to include certain items that I know I don’t like or to which I am allergic, the contents of each week’s box will generally be a complete surprise to me.  This, I am hoping, will inspire me to be more creative as a cook and to really explore that which I, as a Californian, am so lucky to have at my fingertips.

I received my first Farm Box LA delivery yesterday, and, as you can see, there is much to be inspired by here….

Cheers!

Flying high above Seattle.

Morgan Spurlock speaking to the International Food Bloggers Conference

Baby Octopus with Chickpeas and Chorizo Sauce

Theo Chocolate

James Oseland: Keynote Speaker at International Food Bloggers Conference

Early morning at Pike Place Market

Pike Place before the hordes arrive

Pickled Goodies at Pike Place Market

Flowers at Pike Place Market

Pike Place Fish Mongers

Pike Place Seafood Bounty

Pike Place Crab

The fruits of Pike Place

Carrots and beefsteak tomatoes at Pike Place.

Summer salad, anyone?

Piroshky Piroshky

Seattle Food Truck.... oink!

I realize this little journey is Pike Place-heavy, but that market just screams to be photographed!

Cheers!

I start at one end of the market, coffee (not Starbucks) in hand. The exotic smell of flowers greets me. Good place to start, I think to myself. The colors – every shade in the biggest Crayola box – are arranged for maximum impact and virtually melt into one another, leaving me feeling like I’m on some sort of psychedelic trip through a rainbow. Arrangements that look like they took hours to create (though these experts probably threw them together in seconds) make me wish I didn’t have to get on a plane in a matter of hours. I touch the velvet petal of a giant orange and yellow dahlia, and the vendor smiles, knowing.

I keep walking, slowly, of course, taking in every change in scent and sound as I progress further down the market. I pass a produce stand, and a vendor hands me a slice of peach so deliciously juicy that I chuckle as I try to figure out whether that’s juice or drool dripping down my chin. I buy one of those peaches, holding the fuzzy globe in my hand for a moment, taking in that unmistakable scent of summer before virtually inhaling it whole.

I continue walking and pass a bakery, the scent of freshly baked croissants filling my nose. I buy one of those, too. How could I not? A flake sticks to my lip as the first bite melts on my tongue. This is what Sunday morning tastes like.

The market continues to fill up as more and more vendors and shops finish setting up their wares. A chocolate vendor entices me with the call of a sample of early morning chocolate. I pass, but only because I consumed my weight in chocolate yesterday at the Theo Chocolate Factory.

Finally, I approach my first fishmonger stand. Mussels and clams peek out from the crushed ice, and a giant salmon stares at me blankly. Sorry, dude. I’m not a big salmon fan. I picture all the amazing things I could do with those dungeness crabs curled up in rows before me and think just for a second about not going home tonight and becoming an LA ex-pat in Seattle.

But no. There are too many other markets in too many other cities left to explore. So, I move along, chasing the smell of sourdough…

Cheers

P.S. Check back later for photos.

I’m off now to learn about The Art of Recipe Writing. To keep up with the happenings here at the International Food Bloggers Conference, follow me on Twitter @corkpopperblog or check out my CorkPopper Facebook page.

Cheers!

This week’s first California Cabernet Sauvignon was a 2006 Chateau Souverain from Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley, which offers warm days and cool nights tempered by the Russian River winding its way along the valley floor. This particular wine is huge, with a rich aroma of dark fruit and cedar and an enormous palate full of juicy black cherries, anise, and bitter chocolate. There’s a slightly odd aftertaste that threw me off a bit, though it mellowed out a bit with some time in the glass. You can find this wine at wine.com for $19.99/bottle.

3 corks popped!

Next, I tasted a 2006 Benziger Cabernet Sauvignon from Sonoma County, which lies between Napa County and the Pacific Ocean. Like the Chateau Souverain, this wine has a hefty aroma of dark berries, along with a nice earthy component, which I actually really enjoy. The palate is typical of a California Cabernet Sauvignon, with lots of dark cherry, blackberry, and tobacco, topped off with a touch of oakiness. The finish is smooth and long, making this a pretty decent sipper, especially at just $17.99/bottle from wine.com.

3.5 corks popped!

Finally, we have a 2006 Louis Martini Cabernet Sauvignon, which hails from the Napa Valley. Napa, being further from the Pacific Ocean or the San Francisco Bay, tends to be warmer than Sonoma County, and, as such, produces riper fruit with (in general) lower acid levels. True to form, the fruit is pretty huge in this wine. The aroma is, once again, dominated by ripe black cherries, though there are nice undertones of anise and dried tobacco to bring the fruit back down to earth. On the palate, there’s lots of intense cherry and plum, along with some baking spice and a bit of smoke. If you’d like to check this one out for yourself you can find it at wine.com for $19.99/bottle.

3.5 corks popped!

I was actually worried that none of this week’s wines would inspire a CorkPopper Dinner. You see, the CorkPopper Project is never just about the wine. Indeed, my favorite thing about wine is its intimate relationship with food – how pairing a particular wine with a particular food can elevate both far beyond their individual qualities. And while most people start with a food and try to figure out what kind of wine with which to pair it, I prefer to start from the opposite end, taking a wine and designing a meal around it. Some wines, of course, are easy to design recipes for. They have one or two really distinctive characteristics that instantly call a particular food or flavor to mind. Other wines require a bit more creativity but are still fundamentally food-friendly. Yet others are not really suitable for drinking with food at all, as they are either too big (or tannic) to really pair well with anything or are too light and simple and are really better suited for simply sipping on their own.

The Chateau Souverain, for me, fell in this final category. It was just so big and interesting on its own that I couldn’t really picture a food that it wouldn’t overpower. The Benziger was more mellow, yes, but didn’t really inspire me to rush into the kitchen. Luckily, the smoky notes in the Louis Martini finally lit a little spark of something for me, and I suddenly found myself craving…. wait for it…. Barbecue Beef Ribs! Strange? Maybe. Delicious? Absolutely!

Barbecue Beef Ribs with Spicy Red Wine Barbecue Sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 full rack of beef back ribs (8 individual ribs)
• 2 medium carrots, coarsely chopped
• 2 celery ribs, coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 large brown onion, peeled and quartered
• 2 bay leaves
• About 12 whole black peppercorns
• About 1.5 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground chipotle chile pepper powder*
• 2/3 cup dry red wine (hello, California Cabernet Sauvignon!)
• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce

Preparation

Cut the rib rack in half. Place the rib rack and the next seven ingredients in a large pot. Fill with enough water to cover the ribs entirely. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium and allow it to simmer until the meat is tender. (I cooked it for an hour and it still wasn’t quite tender enough, so be sure to give yourself PLENTY of time for this step. You can always do it the day before, if necessary. Just cool, cover, and refrigerate.)

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and shallot and saute until translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add the cumin and chile powder and stir for another minute or so. Add the red wine and stir another 2 minutes, allowing the alcohol to cook off. Add the ketchup, vinegar, and soy sauce. Turn the heat down to low and continue to simmer another 5 minutes or so. (Note: The sauce can also be made a day ahead. Just cool, cover and refrigerate.)

Preheat the grill to medium heat.

Once the meat is tender, remove them from the pot using a pair of tongs. Cut the rack into individual ribs and slather generously with sauce. (Be sure to save some sauce for the table!) Grill over medium heat, turning and basting occasionally until the ribs are nicely glazed. This shouldn’t take more than about 10 minutes or so.

Serve with grilled corn on the cob, some grilled red onion, and plenty of paper towels!

I’m giving this one 4 forks

And 4 corked forks!

Cheers!!

* You should be able to find this in the “ethnic” aisle of the grocery store.

NOTE: The recipe above was adapted from several recipes I found on Epicurious.

California Cabernet Sauvignon is, as most serious wine drinkers will tell you, in a class virtually by itself.  It was a California Cabernet Sauvignon (a 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cab, to be precise), after all, that won at the famous 1976 blind tasting that took place in Paris and pitted some of California’s best wines against some of the most well-respected French wines.*  The panel was entirely comprised of French judges and included well-regarded journalists, academes, merchants, government officials, restaurateurs, and wine producers.  It was, and still is, the defining moment in California’s wine-producing history – when the Old World was finally forced to sit up and take notice of the wines coming out of this strange land.

Of course, the best of the best of California Cabernet Sauvignon comes nowhere near fitting within the CorkPopper budget of $25/bottle or less.  Indeed, such wines remain out of the financial reach of most normal wine drinkers, easily demanding upwards of $100/bottle.  As such, this week I’ll be checking out what three California wineries (one in Napa, one in Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley, and one in Sonoma) can do with the regal Cabernet Sauvignon grape for under $20/bottle.  Skeptics and naysayers will say, “Not much!”  But, as always, I reserve judgment until I’ve had a chance to taste.  So, without further delay, let’s meet this week’s contenders, shall we?

First, we have a 2006 Chateau Souverain Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which earned 91 points and an "Editor's Choice" designation from Wine Enthusiast and is available at wine.com for $19.99/bottle.

Next, I'll be checking out a 2006 Benziger Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon, which garnered 90 points from Wine Enthusiast and is available for $17.99/bottle at wine.com.

Finally, I'll be tasting a 2006 Louis Martini Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which garnered 90 points from Robert Parker and is available for $19.99/bottle at wine.com.

Cheers!

* The 2008 film “Bottle Shock” tells the story of the Paris tasting.  Sadly, the movie wasn’t all that good, but it’s still a phenomenal story if you’re at all interested.

It has been yet another fantastic week for the CorkPopper Project.  All three of this week’s wines (see them here, here and here) were delicious and, I believe, proved that there are indeed California winemakers making high quality Zinfandel with neither excessively high alcohol content nor overwhelmingly overripe fruit.  On the contrary, these wines are complex, balanced and perfectly drinkable, proving themselves excellent ambassadors for the varietal to the wine-drinking public.

This week’s winning wine – the 2008 Newsome-Harlow Calaveras County Zinfandel – shows a lot of the grape’s typical berry flavors, but it also has an intriguing savory undertone that I really wanted to highlight with this week’s recipe.  The solution?  Roasted Beef Tenderloin with a Raspberry-Red Wine Reduction and Sage and Fig Balsamic Mushrooms.  Hopefully Scott and Melanie Klann will approve….

Roasted Beef Tenderloin with a Raspberry-Red Wine Reduction

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 pounds beef tenderloin
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced
• Freshly ground pepper
• Sea salt
• 1 package fresh raspberries
• 2-3 cups dry red wine (Zinfandel!!)
• 1 branch fresh rosemary
• A few sprigs fresh thyme
• 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 small shallot, roughly chopped
• 1-2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preparation

Trim the tenderloin, and pat it dry with a paper towel.  Rub with a bit of olive oil and then season generously with salt and pepper and sprinkle with rosemary, pressing the seasoning into the meat so that it stays.  Allow to rest at room temperature 1-2 hours before cooking.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Place the tenderloin in a rack in your roasting pan (to keep it out of the drippings) and roast until the internal temperature of the beef reaches 130-140 degrees for medium-rare (about 25-30 minutes). Start checking the temperature at about 30 minutes so that you don’t overcook it.  When the beef is done, remove it to a cutting board and tent it with foil for at least 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small sauce pan, bring the wine to a boil then add the raspberries, rosemary and thyme, stirring occasionally, until the raspberries have broken down and the liquid has reduced by about half.  Season with salt and pepper.  Strain out the solids, squeezingout all possible liquid.  In the same sauce pan, heat another tablespoon of olive oil and saute the garlic and shallot until translucent.  Add the butter and allow it to melt but not brown, stirring constantly.  Add the sauce back to the sauce pan and continue to reduce until it has reached the desired thickness.  Using a food processor or blender, puree the sauce until smooth.

Slice the beef into 1/2 inch slices.  Place a few slices atop some Sage and Fig Balsamic Mushrooms (recipe below) and drizzle with sauce.

Sage and Fig Balsamic Mushrooms

Ingredients

• 1 pound wild mushrooms (go crazy with whatever varieties you like)
• 1 tablespoon fresh sage, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small shallot, minced
• Extra virgin olive oil
• A splash of Brandy
• 2/3 cup fig balsamic vinegar
• Freshly ground pepper
• Sea salt

Preparation

Clean the mushrooms by rubbing them gently with a wet paper towel.  Do not rinse them under water, as it makes them soggy.  Remove the stems and slice the mushrooms into thick (but relatively uniform) slices – about 1/4 inch.  In a large nonstick

saute pan, heat about 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add the garlic and shallot and saute until aromatic and translucent.  Add the mushrooms and saute until nearly soft.  Add a splash of Brandy and (very carefully) light it on fire.  Take the handle of the pan and slide the pan back and forth on the burner rapidly to mix and allow the flames to sear more of the mushrooms.

Once the flame has died out, add enough vinegar to nearly cover the mushrooms.  Turn the heat down to medium-low and allow the vinegar to thicken, stirring occasionally.

Pour yourself a glass of the 2008 Newsome-Harlow Calaveras County Zinfandel and propose a toast to a beautiful day, a beautiful meal, and a beautiful wine.

One word…. Yum!!

Cheers and buon appetito!!

Newsome-Harlow is the love child of winemaker Scott Klann (who also has a hand in making the wines at nearby Twisted Oak and Tanner) and his wife (and Chef) Melanie.*  Scott, as a local with long-standing relationships with the area growers, sources grapes from the region’s best vineyards and somehow manages every year to create some of the most complex yet balanced wines you’ll find anywhere in California.  Zinfandel is the winery’s perennial superstar; indeed, in addition to the Calaveras County Zinfandel, Scott makes several single-vineyard Zinfandels as well (Big John being my favorite) that are nothing short of phenomenal.  But Newsome Harlow is no one trick pony, no sir.  Each time I’ve visited (J’s family has a cabin just outside Murphys, so J and I have made it our mission to become Newsome-Harlow regulars), there has been a different wine on the tasting list that was there simply because Scott was curious as to what would happen if he bought, for example, some local Petite Sirah and played around with it a bit until produced something magical.

But this post isn’t about Newsome Harlow’s Petite Sirah (or Rose or Sauvignon Blanc or Syrah or Meritage or Dry Muscat Blend).  It’s about the 2008 Calaveras County Zinfandel, quite possibly one of the best examples of California Zin you’ll find at this price point ($20/bottle or $15 with wine club membership).  Dark, brilliant garnet in color with huge aromas of raspberry, anise, pepper and cedar, I just love how the palate on this wine starts out with a rush of juicy fruit and spice that stretches out to gradually expose an almost umami flavor that just screams for something meaty and earthy (steak and mushrooms, perhaps?).  Don’t get me wrong, though, this wine neither needs food to be enjoyable nor demands red meat as a pairing.  It is, in a word, delicious.

4 corks popped!

If you can’t make it to Murphys yourself, you can find Newsome-Harlow online here.  If you do wander up that way, however, look for me and J in the Newsome-Harlow courtyard!

Cheers!

* Sadly, J and I have never managed to make it up to Murphys for one of Newsome Harlow’s winemaker dinners, catered, of course, by Chef Melly.  I find myself salivating profusely, however, every time I hear about her menus, and you can be sure that we WILL make it to a dinner one of these days….  Melly does, after all, seem to share my philosophy that the best pairings of wine and food start with the wine.