Nice Malbec, Great Beer and Jiri's Unit

Well I haven't blogged for awhile but that's hardly unusual.

Halloween came and went, daughter was a "Car wreck victim witch" and we had about 70 kids come to the house. Many of these kids ask if they can pick out their own candy, I feel that's sort of a "cake and eat it" proposition and refuse, wife thinks I am an asshole for doing this but hey, I am an Asshole so that settles the issue.

I've been trying out a few new wines and have two which I can recommend.

The first is one that I would normally avoid like the plague but I tried it and quite enjoy it so it just goes to show that sometimes we should look past our initial reservations, especially when the wine is only $10.99. The wine is question is called Mon Ami Rascal which in and of itself would normally have me passing it by on the "Don't buy wines with Stupid Names" theory, secondly it is highly regarded by Robert Parker and thirdly it is a Vins de Pay de Porte de la Mediterranee which means it can come from pretty much anywhere in France between Switzerland and the Pyrenees.

Given all these circumstances how did I end up with said bottle you might ask ? Well I was in a hurry, I was having Salmon for supper and the Private Wine store I was in had no drinkable Pinot Noir under $20, so I saw Mon Ami was a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre, and then it hit me that this is the "House Blend" made for Earl's restaurants by the venerable Perrin family. Now I have my issues with Earl's but they've always provided good value with their house blends so Mon Ami came home with me and I was happy he did. The wine is light to medium bodied with nice red fruit flavours, soft tannins and a longish finish, the acidity is a little low but it worked well with the salmon and has since partnered nicely with roast chicken. This is only available in private stores and retails for $10.99, it's recommended.

The second wine came from the same store, however it is more in tune with my normal buying practices. Looking for something to partner with braised beef I spotted a Argentinean Malbec from the reputable firm Nieto Senetiner. Once again this wine is not available in Government stores, but is worth seeking out. The wine is labeled as Benjamin, Nieto Senetiner, Malbec 2006 and retails for $12.99. Malbec can be very earthy and tannic but this wine is made in a softer "New World" style which emphasizes the black fruits and spicy pepper/clove character of the grape. The wine was lovely with the braise and has become a bit of a staple around the house as we move into the winter with more ragouts and braises, I highly recommend this wine.

One more beverage note, the BCLDB is discounting the finest example of English "Bitter" that I know this month. Fuller's ESB is a classic English "Bitter", which of course means it isn't bitter at all in fact it is golden and malty and caramelly and delicious. Michael Jackson, the world famous beer writer not the pedophile singer, perhaps best describes Fuller's ESB as "perilously drinkable". Greatness doesn't come cheaply however so even discounted a 500ml bottle of ESB will set you back $3.79 but that's not much to pay for the "best in show" - BCLDB, CSPC#636902, $3.79 reasonable distribution.

On another note Toronto Maple Leafs rookie Jiri Tlusty has been making a lot of headlines lately. The 13th overall pick in the 2006 draft Tlusty is a Czech forward with great offensive skills and a solid two way game. Most hockey observers ranked Tlusty as Toronto's #2 prospect heading into the 2007 campaign, behind goalie Justin Pogge, Tlusty had scored 17 points in 13 OHL playoff games in the spring and earned a promotion to the AHL Toronto Marlies.

Early seaon injuries on the Leafs roster prompted a call-up for Jiri and he scored a pair of goals in his first NHL game, and has stuck with the Leafs since his recall tallying four points in nine games while playing a solid defensive game (+3).

Recently however Jiri has been getting much more press for the naked pictures of him floating around the internet plus a shot of another man and Jiri touching tongues. Jiri states that the pictures, taken last year while he was playing in Sault Ste. Marie were sent to a girl and she made them available to the media.

A couple of things to note:

1) If camera phones and digital photography were around in my teen years my naked body would be everywhere.

2) It is sad indeed that this is considered "news"

3) at least we know how to pronounce his name now - it's obviously "T" Lusty.

4) at least it wasn't pictures sent to another guy so despite the "tongue" picture he's probably not gay

On the final point, I finally gave in to "Big Firm Partner" and put some Toad the Wet Sprocket on my I-Pod, not that there's anything wrong with that.

After the Apocolypse - Day #1

It's been almost twelve hours since the Red Sox won their second World Series in the 21st Century and the world has not ended, unless of course your name is Blair Wilson. The new Evil Empire, Boston not Wilson, have now won as many World Series in the last ten years as the Florida Marlins, and one less than the Yankees.

It should be noted that:

A) on August 24th I declared the Red Sox mortal locks

B) neither the Marlins or Yankees ever subjected the world to Green Shamrock Caps.


Since last I blogged I visited Disneyland along with wife, daughter and god daughter. It was an excellent vacation, despite a few meltdowns by daughter and me, and I highly recommend a trip for anyone with children.

A couple of points regarding the Magic Kingdom, first they don't sell gum and secondly they have marketing down to a finer art than I've ever seen before. As far as the spectacles, well the parades are killer and my top three rides were: Indiana Jones, Soaring over California and Pirates of the Caribbean (4 times with daughter - singing "Yo Ho" pretty much word for word by the end).

My wine drinking has been limited to House Wine mostly as there is little new and exciting in the BC Liquor emporiums but I'll try and list a few faves in the next post.

A new feature in the blog is going to be Stupid Restaurant Terms and my first two nominations are:

Oven Roasted - hello what other device do you use to roast things in ?

Slow Braised - as opposed to what ? Fast Braising ?

The restaurant industry, and menus in particular, are rife with this kind of stuff, I once worked at a restaurant where we printed up the Features daily on a Fresh Sheet. The kicker was that our General Manager refused to allow the word "sauce" to be used on the menu or fresh sheet, feeling the term was pedestrian. The fresh sheet was therefore riddled with "demis" and "reductions" and "remoulades" but never a sauce was seen - I printed a copy of the fresh sheet one day, as a joke, offering a "gravy" just to watch his face turn to that cute shade of crimson.

Please feel free to send in your own favourite restaurant malapropisms, or just plain "stupids", via the comment section ...... or not.

Bachelor Week - Part 2

Okay so after the success of my first Bachelor FilmFest entry I was eager for day two.

I had a laze around day, no surprise, and ate huge sloppy Buffalo Burgers with steamed broccoli and cheap red for dinner. After a spirited round of "Math and Spelling" Race with daughter - you really had to be there, I tucked daughter into bed, cracked a cold beer and got ready for The Watcher, a 2000, or is it 2001?, thriller starring James Spader, Marisa Tomei and Keanu Reeves.

I wanted to like this movie, I like Spader a lot and the plot lines of urban alienation, serial killers and the thin line between hunter and hunted are all well worked but appealing. Then there is the Keanu factor. I want to like Keanu, I want him to have that epiphany as a performer, after all he starred in two tremendous movies The Matrix and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure plus there are redeeming moments in Speed, Little Buddha and even The Replacements. Still I can't shake the fact that he always seems stiff and unemoting in his work.

Anyway the film is bad, bad plot, badly lit, cliched scripting even Spader is mediocre and exactly when did Marisa Tomei get frumpy ? There are no connections between many events and ooooh Keanu as a serial killer is ...... well stiff and unemotional.

A Big Bachelor Thumbs Down.

On a happier note - the Yankees clinched their 13th consecutive playoff berth last night and the Leafs scored two goals against Buffalo.

In my LTO wine notes I forgot that a nice little Spanish Garnacha/Carignena blend from the Emporda region, Espelt Saulo is down a buck to $13.99, well worth a purchase.

The strength of the Canadian dollar is wreaking havoc with marijuana exports from British Columbia, and if you don't think that is a serious problem then you aren't very aware of how big the drug economy and its' spinoffs are. Hell, the drop in the sale of Humvees alone will cost 100 jobs. I urge you to lobby your local MP for some guarantee of currency stabilization immediately, well not exactly immediately ...... let's wait until mid October after I get back from California.