Wegmans Liquor Part III - Overheard

I made the horrible decision to go to Trader Joe's at 5:00 o'clock on Saturday. Seriously, I should be punched in the head for that bright idea. The parking lot was a war zone, the inside of the store looked like a Soviet bread line, and my three year-old had an EPIC meltdown re: being forced to ride in the cart. As if there was some other option while shopping in what felt like a mosh pit at a Fugazi show circa 1993.

But aside from the sheer hell of it all, I overheard no less than three groups of people talking with excitement about the proposed liquor store slated to open in Wegmans and the hopes that it would move Maryland toward more sensible alcohol laws. I'd be a happy boy buying wine at my local Trader Joe's rather than stocking up when I visit friends in VA. One can dream... hocofood@@@

Kids Love a Liquor Store

If you follow this blog, you no doubt have noticed that I really enjoy beer, wine, and whiskey. I like to think I’m pretty good at pairing wine and beer with food. So at many meals, I will comment to Mrs. P90 about how a certain beer or wine complements said meal. As a result, my young daughters frequently hear us talk about wine and beer.

I also happen to be a homebrewer. It seams that the girls see that as just another type of “cooking that daddy does.” It’s not unusual when they are playing house to overhear them saying “I’m making pork ribs, I’m making meatballs, I’m making beer.” And since the girls do a lot of shopping with us, it’s not uncommon for them to join us on trips to the beer or wine store. So sometimes when playing together, they will say things like “I’m going to Trader Joe’s and then the beer store.”

I try not to get weirded out by this. After all, I hope we’re leading by example and teaching the girls that alcohol should be enjoyed with friends, family, and good food, and not pounded in the alley or the back of a movie theater (i.e. there is no reason for a product like Four Loco to exist). My general philosophy is that if you are bothered about my kids talking about beer or wine, that’s your problem. It’s not like they drink the stuff, they know it’s for “mommies and daddies.”

However, recently, my five year-old started telling my wife that she “wanted to go to the liquor store.” At every afternoon pick-up, she’d say “mom, I want to go to the liquor store! We have not been there in a while.” She was saying this a lot, and it started to get a little troubling. So a few weeks ago, we sat her down, and explained that the liquor store is for adults and that kids shouldn’t really be talking about it. My five year-old burst into tears and ran away. We didn’t understand the severity of her reaction, but she did stop talking about going to the liquor store.

Then yesterday she said to my wife “I want to go to the store where we got the Halloween stuff and the batteries* for daddy.” My wife said “Oh, you mean the dollar store?” Five year-old responds “The dollar store? That’s what I thought was called the liquor store!” I guess that explains the tears when we told her she couldn’t talk about it and it was for adults only…

*I don’t know why $150+ fuzz pedals sound better with crappy dollar store 2-for$1 9-volt batteries, but they do.

Plum Deal - $15 for $30 at Perfect Pour

Today, Plum District is running a deal for $15 for $30 at Perfect Pour. Seems like too good of a deal to pass up. hocofood@@@

Tasting Room Wine

Anybody tried TastingRoom.Com? In short, they sell packs of "tasting size" bottles of various wines. Each pack has six little bottles and typically focuses on a grape variety or a region. Mrs. P90 and I ordered two packs, one of Zinfandels and one that focuses on Mendocino County.

We did the first tasting (the Mendocino wines) last weekend, and it was a lot of fun. Tasting Room provides tasting notes for each wine and a form for recording your own notes and comments. We tasted first, made our own notes, and then compared to the professional notes.

We learned two things. 1. We should be drinking more wines from Mendocino, especially the Carol Shelton Wing Thing Zin. 2. Apparently, we don't know the aroma of enough fruits. I can't remember the last time I smelled a boysenberry...

The Straight Truth on Mayan Palace - The Restaurants

Dessert at Tramonto

The Straight Truth on Mayan Palace - The Restaurants
The restaurants and wait staff at Mayan Palace are great.

Gong - Gong is Asian Fusion and has a good mix of Japanese noodle dishes, sushi, and other “Asian” food. We ate a light dinner there on our first night and it was delicious. We had steamed edamame and some various maki rolls. The Tabasco roll is simply amazing. I would never have thought to wrap a roll in grilled plantain, but it was nothing short of amazing. There is a sommelier who serves both Gong and Tramonto and he did an outstanding job of recommending a red wine that would overpower the sushi (I wasn’t in the mood for sake and didn’t want to splurge for champagne on our first night). We ended the meal with a dessert of grilled bananas and gingered dark chocolate. YUM.

Creperia – Inside the market/gift shop, downstairs from Gong and Tramonto is a creperia. Most of the crepes are good. The Mexicana (salsa verde, roasted poblano peppers, pumpkin blossoms, etc) and the banana y nutella are out of this world! Don’t miss them.

Balche and Frida’s Mexican Grill – The outdoor café by the pool is called Balche by day and Frida’s Mexican Grill by night. Our beach waiter served us everyday and the food is fine. It’s not amazing, but it’s not bad. The grilled fish sandwich is great. At night, when it turns into Fridas, that’s another story. At that point, they begin serving some of the best Mexican food you have ever had (and yes, I have had great authentic Mexican in Mexico and the US, including going to all of the Rick Bayless restaurants).  The Cochinita pibil is out of this world. It’s basically little chunks of pork shoulder, seasoned with achiote, wrapped in banana leaves, and roasted until it almost melts. The green chile sauce at Fridas is some of the best I have ever had as is the mole. My wife and I joked that the chef should offer a cooking class just to teach those two sauces. Other items not to miss are the tamale appetizer (four different types of tamales) and the tacos al pastor. If you get the The Cochinita pibil, consider pairing it with a Mexican red wine. We had a nebbiolo from the Guadalupe Valley that was really good. Fridas is closed on Thursday – I’m guessing to encourage people to do the “Mexican Feast” at Del Lago.

Tramonto – The Italian restaurant is also great. It was our favorite last time, and we saved it for our last night. Our biggest complaint of our trip is that we couldn’t go to every restaurant twice. We saved Tramonto for our actual anniversary and we had a great meal. Everything on the menu sounds amazing and it’s hard to narrow things down. The bruschetta is great. One thing we noticed all week long is that any time we had peppers (red, green, poblano, fresh, roasted, whatever) they had so much more flavor than the peppers we get at home (even more so than the fancy Whole Foods peppers). I don’t think words can really describe the meal we had. Our server was amazing, our wine (a Mexican Merlot) was amazing. Everything was perfect.

Coconut Curry Shrimp at Havana Moon

Havana Moon – They call Havana Moon a Cuban restaurant, but there isn’t a whole lot of Cuban food on the menu. We felt that Havana Moon was the weakest of the restaurants. My wife ordered the pad thai and it was just ok. I ordered the coconut curry shrimp and they were amazing – coconut fried shrimp with a great curry dipping sauce and an asian slaw on the side. Our dessert that night was also a let down. It was called the Coco Cubico (Coconut Cube). You’d think with a name like that you couldn’t lose, but it was bland and boring. Also, the tables and chair at Havana Moon are not very comfortable, the tables are low and the supports cut into your legs forcing you to sit at odd angles. However, the show was amazing – mostly just because it was crazy and we didn’t know there would be a show. Without much warning, a group of dancers busted in doing what could best be described as a seen from Eyes Wide Shut – scantily clad dancers with animal head costumes. Surreal!

Something Fish – The name of this one is escaping me, but tucked in the pool area in the Grand Mayan is a little cevicheria. We ate lunch there one day and had the fish tacos and the smoked marlin burrito. The fish tacos were pretty good. The marlin burrito would have been good if it didn’t have cheese. Then again, we might have blown our appetites on pina coladas and chips…

The Burger Custom Made – hidden in Luxe is a “hip burger joint” that’s all L.A. and South Beach inspired. We never ate there, but some of the burgers sounded pretty good. Next time…

Coconut - Freshly Cut from the Tree

None of the restaurants are “Mexico cheap.” The maki rolls at Gong are in the $8-15 range and entrees are probably $15-40. Crepes are $8-10 (but 3 for the price of 2 from 3:00-9:00). At Tramonto, Fridas, and Havana Moon entrees are $12-50. But that $50 at Tramonto will get you a Chateaubriand. I threatened all week to get it. But something about eating a pound of beef didn’t seem like what I wanted to do on my ten year wedding anniversary. I settled for a lighter dinner, the first cognac of my life, and a great evening.

So all of these things are great, but what really holds it altogether is the staff. The staff at Mayan Palace is friendly and professional. You couldn’t ask for better folks. From the housekeeping staff, to the bartenders, to the beach waiters, to the waiters in the restaurant everyone was friendly and welcoming.

Great Deal on Direct Shipping Wine in MD

This week, I finally took advantage of the new Maryland direct shipping wine law.

I ordered two cases of Zin from the Diageo Employee Sale (the name is confusing, it's open to anyone). And today, I took advantage of free shipping from Lot 18 and ordered two bottles of Sonoma Merlot (for a grand total of $7.69 since I had a $25 credit).

If you have not yet checked out Lot 18, I urge you to do so. A lot of the wines they have are not available for shipping to MD, but they always have great deals! And last week they had an amazing deal on some delicious sounding heritage breed pork and sausage.

Pigs and Zin

I’ve been  meaning to do a post about BBQ ribs for a few weeks now. I smoked ribs a few weekends ago and they were nothing short of amazing. That’s not a boast of my smoking prowess – I’m an amateur at best. No, it’s a testament to the classic combination of low smokey heat and delicious ribs.

So in honor of 4th of July and the fact that just about everyone will be grilling this weekend, I urge you to try making ribs.

I could write about my technique, but this recipe from the Post is better written than anything I can do. In fact, I’d recommend reading this whole article on ribs.

The advice I will give is:

1. Try to do this on a Weber kettle if that’s an option for you, and
2. If you like the results, splurge for a entry-level smoker.

My $150 smoker that I bought about four years ago has proven to be one of my best investments ever. With a little patience and practice, I consistently produce BBQ that is far superior to anything available nearby.

Oh, and my other advice is buy a decent bottle of California Zinfandel to pair with the ribs. Beer might seem like the right mate for BBQ, but nothing beats ribs and zin. You can’t go wrong with Bogle Zin, but Ridge, Rosenblum, and Sobon are all great as well. Especially the Ridge York Creek and the Sobon ReZerve (their spelling, not an error).

I promise that the ribs and wine will blow your mind. And if you want to make your own sauce, try my recipe here. If you want to tailor it to the wine pairing replace the beer with some zinfandel. If you want to get real fancy, use Dijon mustard in place of the yellow mustard. I did it once. It was good. It also felt a little fussy for BBQ.

Saturday Night's Alright for Grilling

Saturday nights are usually a “nice meal” night at the P90 house. Often times, the Mrs. and I make something simple for the girls and then have a nice, quiet, relaxed, adult dinner after they go to bed. I prep dinner while she puts the girls to bed. And we enjoy a leisurely meal without complaints about the food, demands for refills, and fights about who got the pink cup and who got the purple plate, etc.

As the weather gets warmer we have these meals on deck and relax with a bottle of wine. It’s a nice way to have an inexpensive date night.

This week, I grilled zinfandel marinated petit fillet mignons and lemon balsamic asparagus. We paired it with Napa cabernet and listened to some M. Ward, Fleet Foxes, Head and the Heart, and Iron & Wine. And only once were we interrupted by a little girl complaining “I tried to sleep, but my sister isn’t letting me…”

Zinfandel Marinated Petit Filet (serves 2)
2 6-8 oz. filets (we usually split a 12 oz. filet)
2 cups Red Zinfandel (I used the Big House Cardinal Zin in a box)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 sprig of rosemary

• Marinate for 2-8 hours
• Grill on high for 3 minutes per side – because you’d be crazy to eat filet at anything more than medium-rare.  
• Let rest on a warm plate under foil for 5-10 minutes.

Lemon Balsamic Asparagus
1 lb. Asparagus trimmed and rinsed
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp White Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Zest from half of a lemon
2 tsp Dijon Mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

• Use a shallow pan to toss the asparagus with the marinade. 
• Grill the asparagus over high heat for 5-10 minutes (depending on your preference). I usually do about seven minutes. 
• You can then return the asparagus to the same pan after grilling and re-toss with the marinade. Obviously, you would never use a technique like this with meat or anything you wouldn’t eat raw…

Starting the asparagus when you flip the steak works well timing wise. You’ll end up with perfectly hot asparagus and a well-rested steak. hocofood@@@

Aida Featured in the Post

Dave McIntyre, the Washington Post's Wine Columnist wrote about Aida Bistro's kegged wine in the All You Can Eat blog. I've yet to visit the new Aida. I guess I better get a move on before all of the Washingtonians crowd me out... ;-) hocofood@@@