Artichokes and Wine

Artichokes are like the Great Satan of wine pairings. They should be shunned according to any food and wine pairing manual like this recent Food & Wine blog.

I'm not really sure why, but as in many things we follow like sheep anyway, though I confess to a few transgressions, when I innocently forget and a a devilish artichoke or two slips in a dish, while washing it down with my Chablis or Riesling. I would realize the grave error only too late as I'd be on the next course.

Rules are too much work for me, and so I'm really all for discarding rules of food and wine pairings, not for iconoclastic reasons, but because when I'm eating I just don't want to be bothered.

Imagine my liberation, when a godsend, as far as drinking wine with artichokes is concerned, materialized in the form of Garçon chef Arthur Wall's preparation of baby artichokes in his grilled sardines plate. He revealed to me that marinading the artichokes in wine for several hours purifies them, so to speak, forcing them to be wine converts whether they like it or not.

Indeed, Chef Wall's plate of grilled sardines with baby artichokes was perfect with a 2010 Muscadet from Jo Landron of Domaine de la Louvetrie and a 1997 Meursault from Michel Lafarge. And best of all, my dinner didn't have to be disturbed by any food and wine pairing rule.

Suppers at Il Cane Rosso

I'm confused. Il Cane Rosso is a tasty new eatery in the foodie chic Ferry Building, fronting the wharf with an unobstructed view of the Bay and Treasure Island. It started just four months ago, a brainchild of Daniel Patterson of Coi and on-site chef, Lauren Kiino, formerly of East Coast Grill in Cambridge, Mass.

A highly praised chef and literate commentator on food trends, Daniel Patterson has decried the lack of creativity among trendy Bay Area restaurants, describing the sameness of Bay Area cuisine as nothing more than glorifying purveyor-driven dishes. Ouch!

Patterson is not alone with this complaint. A few weeks ago, Momofuku chef David Chang's dismissive "figs on a plate" comment with Anthony Bourdain was an instant cause célèbre among San Francisco foodies.

Yet, this kind of fare is exactly what Patterson dishes out at Cane Rosso. Not that I'm complaining, far from it, as I've enjoyed a number of meals there already. I guess if you can't beat them, then join them. But to Patterson's credit, he's made this kind of Bay Area cooking, first championed by Chez Panisse, accessible to the masses and definitely more affordable.

The restaurant's patio is the wharf deck where one can enjoy alfresco dining (where's Amy?)...

...basking in the magnificent view of San Francisco Bay.

A Fentiman's Orange Jigger soda ($4.50) is pricey but a refreshing way to start

Long and Bailey Farms Porchetta Sandwich with Bell Pepperonata, Mustard Greens and Aioli ($9)

Dirty Girl Beet and Farro Salad with Kale and Ricotta salada ($7.50). Farro appears to be the current grain du jour. No?

The 3-course menu is just $25 and started off with this heartwarming Butternut and Cannellini Bean Minestrone with Garlic Crostino. It paired well with the 2007 Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare. Rosés are great with soup!

Braised Marin Sun Farms Lamb Shoulder with Umbrian Lentils and Mirepoix. 19-year-old Châteauneuf du Pape was the perfect match for this fall dish.

Chocolate Crumb "Tiramisu". Tiramisu is so '90s but, hey, this is imaginative!

And to end the meal, a Gibraltar from Blue Bottle Coffee next door.

Small carafe of 2007 Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare. A Provençal-like rosé blend of mainly Grenache, Cinsault, and Syrah with a dollop of white wines--Grenache Blanc and Roussanne--mixed in. The red blends are bled from Bonny Doon's Le Cigare Volant. Brilliant!

1990 Domaine Charvin Châteauneuf du Pape Rouge, perfect with the braised lamb shoulder

I cellared this at 54-55 degrees F since release. At 19 years it's drinking very well, though there's noticeable baby fat. A few months ago, a friend opened a 1957 Domaine de Mont-Redon Châteaueuf du Pape Rouge, now that's mature Châteauneuf!

Late in 2000, Vineyard Gate hosted a 1998 Châteauneuf du Pape wine dinner. 1998 is a great, classic vintage in Châteauneuf and my admiration grows each time I get a chance to taste one. I remembered someone asking me at the dinner, "how would these wines age?" He couldn't believe that a wine that's so fruity and lush could go beyond a few years. But I've always said, Châteauneuf has the widest window of drinkability of any wine that I know of.

Last weekend, Vineyard Gate featured a small tasting of 2007 Châteauneufs, another highly acclaimed and classic year. I love many of the wines in this vintage. But I do find it amusing to read comments saying the top wines of the vintage could go up to twenty years. As if that's news!


Il Cane Rosso
One Ferry Building, # 41
San Francisco, CA 94111
415.391.7599
Open daily for lunch, starting this week supper served nightly

Mooncake Festival

Last night's eve of the full moon was the Mooncake Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional celebration of the harvest moon in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, and among the Chinese in Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. 2009 is looking to be a vintage-of-the-century type year in the wine regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy, California, and Piemonte, and so this year's harvest moon is truly auspicious.

As expected all the best Chinese restos in the Bay Area were booked solid last night and we had no reservations. But luck smiled on us as my friends and I found a table at the Crouching Tiger Restaurant in the old downtown of Redwood City. Nothing could have been more heartwarming on a chilly, blustery night than the spicy Sichuan and Hunan dishes of eastern China that the resto specializes in.

We started with a plate of Sichuan Cold Noodles ($6.45) dressed in chili oil and Sichuan peppercorn, and also ordered companion plates of cold Spicy Beef Tendon ($6.95) and warm Spicy Pork Dumplings ($6.95). Together these fiery starters were numbing and irresistible to the palate! Relief came in the cool and refreshing Domaine François Jobard 2001 Bourgogne Blanc that I brought. A genius pairing: white Burgundy and Sichuan food.

By this juncture we could have ended the meal, as we were quickly getting full, and paid the resto a little over $20 plus tax and service for four people! But we forged on, determined to explore other dishes and to discover how a couple of 2000 red Bordeaux tasting-left-overs that I also brought would pair with the food.

The tasty Hunan Preserved Pork ($8.95), stir-fried slices of ham and cabbage, together with a half-order of house-special Tea Smoked Duck ($9.50) paired gloriously with the garagiste 2000 Château de Valandraud ($248.00 at Vineyard Gate). I found the velvety, dark ripe fruit and oaky flavors of the modern-style St.-Emilion complementing the sweet, smoky, mildly spicy duck and pork dishes.

But one of the clearest reasons for returning to Crouching Tiger is the Xingjiang Lamb ($10.50). Another fiery dish that's fragrant with cumin. What a perfect pairing with the powerful and elegant 2000 Margaux from Château Palmer ($195.00 at Vineyard Gate). I savored the long, graceful finish of the Palmer while gazing at the old painting on the wall of Shaolin monks practicing wushu, then I understood. These unexpected and clever wine pairings are what "crouching tiger, hidden dragon" is all about.




Crouching Tiger Restaurant
2644 Broadway Street
Redwood City, CA 94063
Monday thru Thursday 11:00am-9:30pm
Friday thru Saturday 11:00am-10:00pm
Sunday 11:00am-9:00pm
Phone: (650) 298-8881