The Uva From La Mancha
Octavo Arte Verdejo, La Mancha, Spain
I stumbled upon this wine at a dinner in Ha Noi this past week and found it absolutely delightful. Matched as it was with...
Tasting with Thibault
A fascinating tasting of Troplong Mondot wines with my old friend and great man of wine, Thibault Odent. Thibault is genuinely funny, irreverent, and cheekily mischievous; tasting wine with him is...
ODE to Joy
The Moors arrived on the Iberian Peninsula from North Africa in 711 AD, establishing a civilization known as al-Andalus, which was ruled by a series of caliphates for over 400 years.
On...
CRAB FEST -CODA & EPILOGUE: Decapoda Brachyura
"To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art!"
— Grimod de La Reynière
Decapoda Brachyura
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter in the brain, sometimes referred to as...
CRAB FEST -ACT FOUR: The Claw Who Came to Dinner
“Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.”
― Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
The Claw at the Table
Born into a wealthy family,...
CRAB FEST -ACT TWO: A Crab at the Dentist
“Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat.”
-Jean-Paul Sartre
‘Pour-Soi’ & ‘En-Soi’
Crabs even found their way into Sartre’s formative work on existentialism,...
"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating." -Grimod de la Reynière
Crustaceans and Alsatians
One evening, a...
On The Bench
I dined in esteemed company last evening, in the private room at the rear of purveyor of fine wine and bon vivant Mr. Vibol Thach’s new wine salon. Vibol is a gentleman...
