Gluttons Club

NYT: The lead article talks about Healdsburg, CA where proximity to several notable wine appelations has turned the town into a froofy wine tourist destination. Located near the Alexander and Russian River valleys, it has more than 100 wineries within 20 miles. The interesting part is how the town itself changed. It reads like a republican attack ad: "The feed stores are gone from downtown Healdsburg, along with the fellows who sell farm implements, hardware and cheap haircuts. There seems to be a pottery maker or an antiques dealer on every corner now, and the hotel newsstand sells The New York Review of Books. Coffee shops have become coffee bars pushing grand latte and, on their walls, the earnest efforts of local artists."

The rest of the section seems a little thin this week. The Chef column does fritters, Mini-man makes ginger jam, a program trains teens to wait tables and the season for celebrating the tomato is ushered in. Inexplicably, the "tastings" column is MIA.

SF Chronicle: The SF Gate page is also pretty thin this week. I guess even food writers go on vacation sometimes...

The top article is about Hmong immigrants and their farming practices which are at risk to the ravages of modernity. The rest is fairly pedestrian; ice cream, chilled avocado soup, tomato juice taste test, gadgets.

In wine, the lead is on the complexities of old vine zins and the history imbued within. Tastings this week are meritages (bourdeaux-style blends of cab, merlot, cab franc and petit verdot) NOT from Sonoma or Napa. The cheese course is grilled, the buying guide is bargain italians and the cocktail is the Seelbach. Again, I have to mention how cool the cocktail column is in this section. The writer really knows his stuff and wonderfully sets up a scenario to draw you in and make you thirsty.


Ah, poop. I can't find a decent food section in a guest paper this week. I had several ideas but they didn't work out. I'll take any suggestions from your hometown papers for next week.