Yesterday, we brought the kids to my friend Julie’s kids’ birthday party.

Did ya get that? Too many apostrophes and plurals in that sentence. Anyways, the birthday party was held at Mixon Fruit Farms & Wildlife Refuge.

The kids got to ride on the back of this big tortoise, who didn’t seem to mind at all. He just kept doin’ his thing.

This is Mr. Matthews, the keeper of the animals and tour guide. And here is his pet opossum.

These critters normally freak me out – but I gotta say, this guy is pretty darn cute. Except for those freaky-sharp nails. Oh and the teeth. Or the rodent-nose. Or the cross-eyedness (which, I just learned from Matthews, is why they end up as roadkill so often)

Okay, never mind. the really aren’t cute at all.

Only in Florida would you ever have a beautiful fruit orchard destination that includes a tram tour of their roadkill refuge.

Matthews wrestles alligators, sleeps with deer and the kids just love him because he lets ‘em do things their parents would never let them do.

Like pet baby alligators. At first, Nathan looked pretty concerned and wouldn’t touch the thing. He’s thinkin’ “Didn’t your mama tell you not to touch alligators?!”

But after seeing that everyone still had all 10 fingers after petting, he went ahead and poked it too.

The baby gator reminds me of that annoying Geico gecko.

Stupid human tricks. Let’s open the mouth of an alligator!

Stupider still was that I had a macro lens and I got real close. He coulda snapped my nose off.

Oh YES.

Speaking of stupid.

Julie egged me on to put the BIG SNAKE around my neck. BIG GIANT SNAKE.

How easily I am influenced.

I have no idea WHY I agreed to put this human-eating poisonous python rattler around my neck.

And the only explanation that I have was to dig deep into my past. I was 25 years old and took a trip to New Orleans with a boyfriend. We went on one of those swamp tours and right in front of the ticket booth, they had this dead stuffed alligator.

I think this is one time where a picture is worth a thousand words.

1. Feeling lazy? The Ultimate Breakfast Machine will deliver continental breakfast at the push of a button. Only problem — no bacon.
2. These are meant for baking, but colorful dual-compartment squeezy bottles SCREAM ketchup + mustard. Two condiments, two bottles? So passe.
3. Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to. Thought you knew what those tubers were all about? Think again.
4. Hitchcock’s The Birds meets Guy’s Big Bite for a tragic ending in this hilarious SNL skit.
5. You say it’s for the kids, but really who can pass up a gumball machine + foosball table rolled into one.
6. And ending on an upbeat note — try this music video for your next jazzercise session.

I’m a big fan of Japanese artisan sake and wanted to post an article about sake and food pairing. But I’m not the expert, so when author, instructor and publisher of one of the most comprehensive websites about Japanese sake (SakeWorld.com), John Gauntner,  offered to write a post, I practically did a back-flip! And then, to top it all off, Morgan of Vine Connections (a former client of mine) came over and brought a caseful of sake for me to try. So, I invited friends Michael, Debbie and Barry to come by and party. Our meal was non-Japanese, which was perfect because we really got a chance to experience how clean, crisp Japanese sake plays so well with other foods, especially cheese, manicotti, smoked wild boar and home made bread ~Jaden

by John Gauntner

I’ll just come right out and say it: sake holds as much potential for pairing with food as wine. It’s true. And the rules and principles are the same.

Sure, it has its limitations. Sake is subtle; it has a much smaller presence or “footprint” than wine. It’s generally more demure, more delicate. And it has a lower overall acidity and no tannins. All this limits it in some ways, but helps its pairing potential in others.

But know this: sake is NOT limited to Japanese food, nor even to Asian food. Perish the thought! Sure, sake has limitations. Food that is too strong in any facet – spicy, rich, hot – will overpower sake. But take away those obvious mismatches, and what remains in western cuisine works very well indeed with sake.

Sake and food is hardly rocket science. It works just like wine does. You want to compare and contrast. So you look for similarities or contrasts that bring out the best of both the food and the sake. If you’re lucky, you get a synergy that makes both food and drink better than they would have been alone.

Interestingly, though, traditionally in Japan sake and food have not been paired as precisely as wine and food in the west. Sure, they have always enjoyed sake with food in Japan. But sake was used to support the food, taking a supporting role. “Ryori ni jama shinai,” they say. “Sake that does not interfere with the food.” Sure; this is changing. But historically, and often today as well, this was the thinking.

So what do you look for? What do you latch on to when pairing? Lots of things. Sweetness or dryness, fruity aromas or earthy ones, flavors that can run from rice-like to herbal or nutty. Structure, volume, acidity, texture, and length of finish are valid too.

One more biggie with sake and food is umami – that elusive savoriness that some call a fifth flavor element. Without it, sake is too simple. Too much umami and it’s cloying. But matching umami in sake and food is a great pairing principle.

There are a number of situations where wine doesn’t quite work, but sake is near perfect. Vinegar-laden food is one example, including leafy green salads. Soy-tinged food is another, which is important as that important flavor element finds its way into more and more dishes. And sake asks no quarter of wine when oysters are on the table.

One thing you can’t do is pair a sake to a dish based on the label alone. That works for wine quite often; not so with sake. Why not? Flavors and aromas are not consistent enough across regions, nor across grades of sake. The label alone will not tell you enough. You have to taste it to know how to pair it.

Fortunately, it is hard to have a real mismatch with sake: even if the pairing is not perfect, you have leeway. So feel free to experiment.

See the chart for a few suggested pairing strategies, starting with either the sake profile or the food. These are just examples; the principles will take you off on your own. Try appealing pairings for yourself and discover just how food-friendly sake truly is.

Sake – Food Pairing Chart – Starting with Sake

(I’m working on getting these charts bigger and downloadable)

Sake – Food Pairing Chart – Starting with Food

More information on Japanese Sake

Japanese Sake Grades
How is Sake Made?
How to Read the Labels
How to Serve Sake
Sparkling Sake: sake2me
Sake World – John’s  website about sake
esake.com – Over 350 pages and 400 photos. A great resource!
The Sake Notebook – list of 250 recommended Japanese sake and Sake’s Hidden Stories – an ebook by John Gauntner

1. A man’s heart is through his stomach, not his laundry! This Halloween, ditch the French Maid Costume, how about a sexy-ishy Strawberry Shortcake.

 

 

 

2. This is an actual commercial from Fiji for the Fiji Meat Man. Can you imagine if this ran in the U.S.!??? Creepola!

 

 

 

 

3. Must have for milk-lovers: an udderly cool pitcher.

 

 

 

 

4. For your next dinner party, serve your guest Muppet meat. Hilarious video.

 

 

 

 

5. Guess who Anthony Bourdain has a man-crush on?

Friday Favorites this week are from Jess Daniel!

A shoutout to Oktoberfest 2009: When I was sixteen, I spent a summer in a tiny town in Bavaria, just South of Munich. It was a summer of many firsts: first kiss, first schnitzel, first glimpse of H&M, and perhaps most importantly, my introduction to the joy of German beer. Ever since, I’ve had a special place in my heart for a heavy Stein, a lusty Fraulein, and long nights of loud singing and jumping on tables. For those of us who can’t hop a flight to Munich in the next 48 hours, consider checking out this guy’s reviews of Oktoberfest style beers.

My new dream job is to work as a coordinator for Outstanding in the Field. This traveling team sets up its table in all sorts of unexpected places, often in farms or gardens, and hosts magical dinner parties that feature local farmers and food artisans at the center of the dining experience. From what I hear, the food is exquisite and the feeling in keeping with the purpose of the event: there’s often a tour of the farm or ranch where the event is hosted, each person brings her own plate, everyone eats “family style.” My thoughts of graduate school fly out the window as I imagine traveling from place to place opening a magic bag of food joy wherever I land.

Trouble choosing when you’re out for dinner? Imagine the added pressure if you knew someone was watching carefully to record whether you chose the green beans or gratin. At the Restaurant of the Future at Wageningen University in Holland, not only do they keep track of what you choose, but they also weigh you at the register, register your facial expressions while you’re eating, check out who you eat with, and how much you leave on your plate. All in the name of food science!

Slightly less scientific, but perhaps less creepy more useful to us everyday folks was this awesome run down of cheap olive oil options.

The folks over at Serious Eats did a great job categorizing nine different options. I was so psyched to hear that I’m not the only one who bought Trader Joe’s Spanish for the “pretty tree artwork,” and even happier to hear that it actually ended up stacking up well against the contenders.

On Tuesday, my box of goodies arrived for the official kick-off Scharffen Berger Chocolate Adventure Contest and in it was a little metal container of dried red thing-a-ma-bobbers. So I stuck one in my mouth and whoosh lemony fruity clove-y goodness. Super tasty — turns out, they were dried sumac seeds, renowned for adding their zesty goodness to Middle Eastern dishes. As a kid, I’d learned about sumac by another name: lemonade berries — after the tart drink that Native Americans would make from the fresh berries.

By the way, do you want to enter the Chocolate Adventure Contest? First place is $10K!

With chocolate on the mind, I have to mention one of my favorite places in Bar-the-lona, the chocolate museum. The history of cacao plus replicas in chocolate of Michaelangelo’s Pieta, and the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona. Need I say more?