Gluttons Club

Oops, it's been a couple of weeks. My bad.

NYT: I'm going to break tradition and mention restaurant review and related articles here and talk about the main feature on the Times today. It is a preview of the NYC restaurant scene for the "Fall and beyond" which will undoubtedly have an impact on restaurants throughout the country. I'm not naive enough to consider NY to be the marker that chefs and restarateurs across the country abide by but you have to admit that there is certainly influence. Most of the other articles also discuss the industry so I'm stuck anyway. In one, we find a chef who took a healthier approach to his menu after suffering a heart attack. Another reports the effort to improve the quality of table location in some restaurants. A very interesting, though predictably liberal, article discusses how the faces in todays best restaurants are nearly as homogenously white as they were 50 years ago.

Wines of the Times taste a selection of Languedoc wines. The d'oc, in southern france, produces a whole lot of wine that varies in quality but is far more diverse and wallet friendly than the better known French appelations. Florence does the honor of pairing duck and cassoulet with these wines. Suddenly, I'm very much looking forward to cold weather cuisine. Speaking of which, the Minimalist makes a late summer salad. Get out those sweaters and put away the short shorts, it's almost time to start braising! On second thought, keep the short shorts out...

SF Chronicle: Sometimes you're tempted to think that this whole foodie thing is a product of recent generations who were exposed to better and tastier things as a result of greater income and exposure to the world. The Gate reminds us that the legacy is in fact long and full. The lead articles are about the food and beverage history of San Fran and its impact on the nations taste. Good stuff. Thankfully, as far as the running theme of this column goes, they feature a picture of a farm stand from the 40's.

Speaking of farmers markets, another article relates the prevalence of native European produce in Bay area markets. In addition, memories of an orchards bounty prep readers for the Fall.

The lead wine article highlights the wines made by Napa vintner Cathy Corison who eschews the Parker influenced high alcohol wines in favor of more drinkable, subtle wines. Good for her. She has my full support. The selection reviews are Sonoma AVA (an American attempt at appelations) Cabernet Sauvignons. They are paired with "Oklahoma beef wellington," a sort of meatloaf sandwich made as a single unit. The cheese is Toma Piemontese, a DOP cheese (again with appelations, sheesh!) from, uh, the Piedmont. The cocktail column is about beertails. Proceed with caution.

Lastly, an article discusses the losses to the American menu caused by the hurricane. If the way people eat is an idication of how we're doing then the recovery of New Orleans will be interesting to view in this regard. I was in New Orleans while in college and we spent as much time planning our next meal as anything else. We ate crawfish in a join that was little more than a shack, had jambalaya at Mothers, beignets from that place whose name I forget, po' boys from an anonymous neighborhood sandwich shop, browsed the market for cajun spices and hot sauces and even had 'gator burritos. It was a great experience and I send my most earnest best wishes to all those who lost so much.


I'm going to forego a guest spot this week. I've run out of major papers to use and spent a lot of time with the above. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Thanks for reading.