bods1000 Posted January 7, 2006 Author Share Posted January 7, 2006 Bods, Masi, Lips, Storm - I finally dug up some pics of the now-infamous kitchen remodel - and here they are!!! Taken just after we got the last applicances in but before we got everything back into the kitchen. You can still see the shipping and consumer notification tags. 48" Wolf range with 6 burners and the griddle. Drop-down warming racks on the backsplash and warming lights in the hood. 4 fans in the extra-deep hood pulling 1200 cfm to keep smoke out of the kitchen even when doing lots of frying. Sub-zero fridge (freezer below) keeps my white wine (there - no longer OT!!!) well chilled - so much so that I have to take it out a half hour before dinner to let it come up to 55 deg F. The granite is from Brazil and is called typhoon green - nothing boring about THAT stone! And it hides those wine spills really nice! I took out the small wine fridge I had under the counter in the old configuration in favor of the big Transtherm I got a few months back. I still have it, though and am trying to figure out where I can put it now.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> wow!I thought I was looking at some pages of Wine Spectator way to go, pare! great set-up you got there....makes us drool lesser mortals out here been away for so long - the pages have flew the way some elegant cab swiftly disappears from the bottle!greetings to everyone! Quote Link to comment
bods1000 Posted January 7, 2006 Author Share Posted January 7, 2006 Simple: The wine ref market is a very special niche. They believe that people who would like to keep wines can afford to pay an arm and a leg for such an appliance. Since there are only a few people who bring it in, it is a seller's market.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> well yes, pare, but in another sense, it's also one of the reasons why the wine industry and wine-drinking does not develop here...everything is expensive, and what's not expensive is mistakenly assumed as such. After all, when did wine get to be associated with snobbery, wealth and all such nonsense? In rural Italy or Spain or France, vino is such a commonplace, everyday drink - stripped of all its pretentiousness....Every year I wish that more people get over the hump and try wine for a change. After all it's such a simple drink from a simple berry which unfortunately got this way because a lot of people in the wine industry got it in their heads that wine is something for the elite and marketed it and priced it beyond the reach of everyday, common folks. Add to this the wine journalists who have seemingly concocted a new vocabulary alien to everyday people. cheers everyone! Quote Link to comment
bods1000 Posted January 7, 2006 Author Share Posted January 7, 2006 I'll relate it to my dad! I'm sure he'll love to hear that. Nope. It's a Hardys Nottage Hill Shiraz 2003. Avoid na lang this brand :thumbsdownsmiley: Hahahaha rin. I'm bursting with laughter while reading your post. Huwag na kamo siyang magmura. The resemblance is only skin deep. She has a lot more character and depth naman. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> when you mentioned in a previous post that you'll be having that Hardy's for Christmas, I was thinking it would ruin your evening, and it sure did....sayang kung online lang ako nun I would have warned you. I tried that Nottage Hill before and hindi ko na binalikan The Francine Prieto look-alike and I'm sure smell-alike would have more ooooomph than that wine :evil: Quote Link to comment
bods1000 Posted January 7, 2006 Author Share Posted January 7, 2006 Just a little additional information regarding the difference between Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon: Both wines are full-flavored, structured, and generally oak-aged. Flavor-wise, a Shiraz from Australia is typically expressive of darker fruit flavors (plums, prunes, blue and blackberries) with a a distinct black pepper spiciness. Grown in the Northern Rhone Valley of France, it has the added flavor profile reminiscent of leather and earth. Plus, the wine tends to be sutler in its fruit expression, higher in acidity, and tannic structure. All other Syrah/Shiraz variations owing to the different areas where the grape is grown will fall in between these two general flavor profiles. Cabernet Sauvignon is typically identified by its tell-tale aromas and flavors of blackcurrant and/or cassis. The spiciness- more licorice and cedar than black pepper- is not an innate character, rather it is imparted by the oak aging.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> very nicely said!welcome back, ms. chocolateandport! Quote Link to comment
bods1000 Posted January 7, 2006 Author Share Posted January 7, 2006 HAHAHA!!!! I cant imagine why people like their steaks well done unless they are testing the strength of their teeth and gums!!!! :boo: Done steaks are tough, tasteless, juiceless. :grr: Oh well, different strokes for different folks, I guess!!!! I once grilled a steak that was half-thawed and since it was in that state, I grilled it a bit longer and then transferred it to a baking pan and went to the oven. When I ate it, it had a crusty, chewy surface, and pink, juicy center. Just the way, it should be! Pareng FD, I also noticed that freshly gound pepper (either by mortar or by pepper mill) tastes better than bottled coursely ground. :thumbsupsmiley: Try sparkling shiraz or sparkling white shiraz! The latter, I have yet to try! Now can someone tell me if a Pinot Noir Chardonnay is a bubbly. The bottle and foil are like that of a sparkling - long, crumpled and you can feel the wire under the foil!<{POST_SNAPBACK}> In Bourdain's book, he tells of how his kitchen crew would be overjoyed when some rube would order well-done steak because then, they can use those old cuts with ligaments stored at the back of their freezers Quote Link to comment
bods1000 Posted January 7, 2006 Author Share Posted January 7, 2006 I think it is us who miss so much by you not being here Mr. Agxo3! Looks like we all had our share of LEMONS this season. Hello choc n' port! Love your posts (yes the few early ones included), hoping to see you often in this thread We must Cyrano!! I've got another boite of that Ventisquero Grey and saving it for when we all get together again. I spent the New Year with a bad allergy attack caused by a bee sting. Was rushed to the ER and pumped with steroids and antihistamines. Was swollen and sober throughout the NYE celeb. I also had to stay away from my fave food --- SEAFOOD!! Talk about feeling sooooo deprived :cry:<{POST_SNAPBACK}> ano ba yang bahay nyo? Is the bee colony still there?? seems like every year would not be complete for the critters without getting their stingers in you anyway was also at St Luke's ER evening of January 1st as my kid had this nasty fever after our Quezon trip...hope you are well now... Quote Link to comment
agxo3 Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 I was awed by the new kitchen before you posted the old picture. Now I'm really impressed! Did you design the kitchen yourselves or did you get an interior designer to do it? The lower granite table top sure gave the kitchen a roomier look compared to the previous high back design. Congratulations again on your wonderful kitchen!<{POST_SNAPBACK}> We pretty much knew what we wanted but we got a kitchen designer to work with us and do some "what-if"s. Tested out the island idea and found it cut too much into the breakfast nook. Found we could do a 48" range instead of a 36". Things like that. Best change we made was to lose that ledge. Really opened things up and made the kitchen look lots bigger. Show syou just what a few small changes can do for you! The net effect is more motivation to cook and inspiration to try new things in the kitchen. No, Lips, not that!!! :boo: Thanks! Quote Link to comment
new2dabeat Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 well yes, pare, but in another sense, it's also one of the reasons why the wine industry and wine-drinking does not develop here...everything is expensive, and what's not expensive is mistakenly assumed as such. After all, when did wine get to be associated with snobbery, wealth and all such nonsense? In rural Italy or Spain or France, vino is such a commonplace, everyday drink - stripped of all its pretentiousness....Every year I wish that more people get over the hump and try wine for a change. After all it's such a simple drink from a simple berry which unfortunately got this way because a lot of people in the wine industry got it in their heads that wine is something for the elite and marketed it and priced it beyond the reach of everyday, common folks. Add to this the wine journalists who have seemingly concocted a new vocabulary alien to everyday people. cheers everyone!<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yup, it's one of the better reasons why I like living in California. Wine has pretty much become "European" consumption-wise here and there isn't any kind of froufrou pretentiousness associated with wine drinking. It's simply something good you have with a meal, or to sip and enjoy with friends. Quote Link to comment
new2dabeat Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 Welcome! The reason you see a lot about Aussie and Napa wines here is simple - some of us (myself, N2DB, Eagleyes) are all in the SF Bay Area, from which Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Livermore, Lodi (Amador County), Gold Country, Monterey and Santa Cruz Mountain wine areas are no more than two hours away. Paso Robles is 3 hours away. So there's where the Napa connection is. Aussie wines are plentiful in your neck of the woods, and certainly more affordable than most Old World wines (French in particular). I do have access to a LOT of French wines here, but with a few notable exceptions I've found that they are no more likely to be palatable, pleasing, or even exceptional, than a California wine. And in the lower price brackets, it's hard to beat the Aussie and Kiwi wines. French wines also tend to be more expensive here due to import duties - gotta protect that local wine industry, y'know! Notable exceptiuons would be - 1) Sauternes - yes, there are other sweet wines, other dessert wines. Bonny Doon Vin de Glacier, Inniskillin Ice Wines and others both from CA and Australia. But NOTHING compares to a good Sauternes, and certainly nothing compares to a Chateau d'Yquem.2) Vouvray - an off-dry petillant Vouvray is simply in a class by itself. Bright, slightly sweet, tangy and citrus-y, green apple and honeydew!3) Champagne - California sparklers tend to be a bit sweeter than the real thing, and while there's a time and a place for that, overall Iprefer the French style. A CA bubbly that come pretty damn close (and is my personal - and N2DB's as well - favorite) is J sparkling wine. Winery is in Healdsburg in Sonoma County.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Quite true. As agxo notes, while we do have access to Old World (and very good ones at that), the easier-access to quite exceptional local produce trumps the choice almost every time. I'm also in agreement with agxo's 'exceptions' list - although I'd probably add Gewurztraminer to the list (I find the local varieties rather tepid). I'd also throw in Argentinean Malbecs and some well-developed Medocs. Cheers! :thumbsupsmiley: Quote Link to comment
new2dabeat Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 Kitchen before pictures - Lips, Bods, Storm, Masi, N2DB, I found a few before shots, so here's a couple of 'em! Now you can see just why I wanted to re-do the place...... from the family room - the range took the spot of the ref, the ref moved to where the ovens are in this pic. See that huge, blocky countertop? Replaced by that granite. I like the new place sooooooo much better!<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Whoa, really puts a perspective on the resulting conversion! Definite props to you! :cool: Quote Link to comment
bods1000 Posted January 8, 2006 Author Share Posted January 8, 2006 In the last few days, I've been having uneventful wines. It started with this bottle which Bods, Storm, Liberty and I consumed at Churchils on the penultimate nite before Christmas! It was supposedly an Australian Shiraz (the label skips me, though!). That bottle was simply one to forget!!! :grr: Good thing that Bods, Storm and Liberty were there to make the evening pleasant! :thumbsupsmiley: Fast forward to Christmas dinner at Taal Vista Hotel. I had a couple of glasses of a supposedly Spanish 2003 Tempranillo!!! Again, I forgot the label which effectively dictated an uneventful bottle. :grr: It had everything that would resemble a "green" merlot and nothing of a tempranillo! I guess, the year wouldn't end without my share of bad wine!!!! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> SALTRAM is the name, pare................the name to AVOID! I also had some disappointing experience with my wine last New Year's eve well not because the wine was bad per se but because it had developed a sizeable amount of sediment in the bottom - which I failed to notice when I opened it. I nearly drank some of it :sick: It was a 2000 Moss Brothers Shiraz - smooth and elegant in structure unlike those Barossa bruisers. It's maybe because it is a Western Australian wine from the Margaret River region and aged in French oak. It was the last bottle from the lot I kept and it did not disappoint. No tannins - just the peppery sting in the throat which I love so well. Finish is moderately good - just the right amount of fruit dancing in the mouth. Quote Link to comment
bods1000 Posted January 8, 2006 Author Share Posted January 8, 2006 It never cease to amaze me to watch chefs at work just like in Iron Chef America!!!! Wish I could do even just the slicing! FD, if you are not a chef as we write, well, just like me we're both on wrong careers!!! :boo:<{POST_SNAPBACK}> FD and masi - your muses are calling!What are you waiting for? Go for it! Wine and food and cooking - where can you go absolutely wrong? :cool: Quote Link to comment
bods1000 Posted January 8, 2006 Author Share Posted January 8, 2006 Yup, it's one of the better reasons why I like living in California. Wine has pretty much become "European" consumption-wise here and there isn't any kind of froufrou pretentiousness associated with wine drinking. It's simply something good you have with a meal, or to sip and enjoy with friends.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Oh! the joys of living somewhere else.................... I love it when agxo describes his cellar-hopping in those rural, back-of-the-road wineries - makes life (and wine-drinking) look so simple and enjoyable. I guess it's the same in Australia - where the landscape is chockfull of these small wineries where you can get a bottle or two of otherwise excellent wine - wines which you can't sometimes get in the usual retail outlets....well, I guess where wine grapes grow, there you have it - good wine trips and excellent everyday wines which would somehow erase the dubious glitter around it. Quote Link to comment
bods1000 Posted January 8, 2006 Author Share Posted January 8, 2006 Got hold of this book by Jay McInerney (who wrote Bright Lights, Big City). Turns out he knows his wine stuff that well to write a book about wine. It's called BACCHUS & ME - Adventures in the Wine Cellar. Here's some morsels from the book: On the difficulty of picking a wine for a vegetarian meal:Like boys and girls locked away in same-sex prep schools, most wines yearn for a bit of flesh. :evil: On the difference between a Burgundy and a Bordeaux:If it's red, French, costs too much and tastes like the water that's left in the vase after the flowers have died and rotted, it's probably Burgundy. Quote Link to comment
storm Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 when you mentioned in a previous post that you'll be having that Hardy's for Christmas, I was thinking it would ruin your evening, and it sure did....sayang kung online lang ako nun I would have warned you. I tried that Nottage Hill before and hindi ko na binalikan The Francine Prieto look-alike and I'm sure smell-alike would have more ooooomph than that wine :evil:<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Natawa talaga ako Cheers to Francine! Welcome back Pareng Bods. Quote Link to comment
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