sicilian overload

otto is never crowded at lunch, the vegetables are good, and the pastas are usually excellent. bucatini all'amatriciana seems to be a menu staple and is always portioned with restraint and generously supplied with guanciale. the list of wines by the bottle is intimidatingly long, but worth attention. munjebel 8 is 100% nerello mascalese grown on the slopes of mt. etna, from frank cornelissen's 2010 vintage. extraordinarily intense, and with the scent of freshly wetted tephra—carbonic, limestoney, ashy. full of unexpected contradictions, it is rich and deep, brittle and vibratory, dense and weightless. but maybe more dense than weightless. a single glass would have been perfect; three at lunch was perhaps a bridge too far.

4-napkin snack

i took my bike over to the north end today to spend a lot of someone else's money on wine—which is the best way to do it. but before that, a slice and a panzarotto (potato variant) at umberto, and a plain cannolo, no icing sugar, from modern.



also, public interest announcement: the la clarine "sumu kaw" syrah and piedi grandi (nebbiolo, syrah, and mourvedre) are available at the wine bottega.

changing my mind about california

baklava della nonna

idle conversation in dwelltime about how easy it is to make baklava led to baklava made in north cambridge by channeling the spirit of a turkish grandmother who relocated to italy for the weather: the baklava method, applied to ricotta, raisins, and pine nuts. why is there not a thai baklava, stuffed with roasted coconut, crushed peanuts, lime, a bit of sweet fried onion, palm sugar, and topped with powdered shrimp and sweet mint?

way off strip

it is unfair that las vegas has two of the country's best thai restaurants, and more unfair still that both of them also have lovingly assembled wine lists that allow the rare pleasure of eating great thai food while drinking something other than beer or a thai iced tea. lotus of siam you already know about. the other one is a new spot across town located, as many good vegas restaurants are, in a stripmall shoebox way off the strip. chada thai and wine is the new project by the guy who used to be lotus's wine director. his wine list at chada is smaller but filled with tantalising and fairly priced prospects, none of which i got to try.

he's also cooking the food, and the food was wonderful while being less expensive than a mediocre takeout thai restaurant. intensely flavoured, beautifully balanced stuff in small portions. many elements reminded me of the cooking of southern china and the malay archipelago: less sour, more sweet, more not-chili spice, less heat, more coconut, the use of sweetly acid fruit like plums instead of acidly sweet fruit like tamarind, a different fermentary flavour profile. we were on our way to the airport and only had time to try a few things, but each was a marvel. a dry crab, roasted coconut, and ginger salad portioned into romaine cups; the dipping sauce was unnecessary. fine rice noodles, soaked, wound into skeins, steamed, then served next to a small bowl of turmeric-filled crab red curry. and a spice-heavy kua kling that was a textbook example of how to fry-render ground meat.

the right order

despite the FAA sequester, we managed to converge on the lotus of siam for lunch on friday and i managed to order just enough food.

outstanding: fried dried beef (nua dad deaw), a uniquely textured and tenderly fibrous dish of wok-cooked pounded jackfruit and pork (thum-ka-noon), and a warm salad of fermented sausage and fried rice (nam kao tod).

late in the game, after the lunch crowd had dispersed, we really splashed out. the scholium project's nutty blend of cabernet, merlot, and petite sirah from separate vineyards (the 2005 "satrapies of the east") needed more air than we had time to give it. it was tangy and vibrating but quiet and reflective nonetheless; lighter-seeming than its 15% of alcohol. filled with dark purple fruit and plenty of tannins still, a wondrous, confusing silk purse made from a sow's ear.

stuffed

viva las arepas is on the strip a couple of miles south of downtown. i went there to continue my commitment on this trip to getting around entirely by human-powered means while eating only interesting foods. these arepas are freshly griddled, with crunchy outsides and delicate crumb; not dense and leathery masa-pucks. the pernil is rich with flavour and fat, but the grease is well under control. they are generous with the arepa stuffings, to a fault. if you enjoy fresh corn and cheese, you will enjoy their cachapa. it travels poorly, mostly because it is so delicious fresh off the griddle. for dessert, have a guava and cheese pastelito, which they will fry for you on demand. the salsas are outstanding. with your arepas come squeezebottles. one contains a bright green raw salsa of parsley, jalapeno, garlic, lettuce, cilantro and water—a completely pureed chimichurri. the other is a brilliant, lush, cooked salsa of roasted red tomatillos, jalapenos, serranos, garlic, parsley, and chicken stock.

worth the walk through the the tacky wedding chapel district.

taco de adobada

i found my way to tacos el gordo thanks to dave feldman, who points out that it's excellent even when it has no need to be. this taco is serious: freshly-made corn tortilla griddled in pork drippings, then filled with just-sliced shavings of chile-spiced grilled pork, dressed with salsas of tomatillo and avocado, chopped onion and cilantro, and topped with a warm raw pineapple baton. i went back for another.

"treat yourself to deliciousness daily!"

the remains of a bowl of khao soi and a plate of nam prik noom, at the lotus of siam. it is worth mentioning that the coconut cream on their sweet sticky rice is lightly flavoured with something that makes it improbably tasty. galangal? and let's not forget their wine list containing a slew of rieslings from rebholz. extraordinary.

eating is believing

james thurber, further fables for our time

underdog

every famous wine region has an Underdog Grape. burgundy's is aligoté. malolactic fermentation supposedly went to completion in this vintage, but it sure doesn't taste that way. perfectly clean with beautifully balanced acidity and a touch of austere and dusty herbage. another glass always seems like a good idea. and maybe another piece of something chalky, creamy, and goaty.

blanc bleu de rizet

courtesy of our man at murray's. chalky, unctuous, briny, delicious, good for arteries and cholesterol count.

creams and ices

with 4x cardamaro, followed by yet another spectacular tart (rhubarb this time) and a cheese whose name i forget.

the sausage looked like meatballs, the meatballs like salami

at regina, the correct number of large pizzas to order for a 6-person group is 3, not 4. while some may ask the kitchen for extra oil on the mediterranean, it may be prudent to add it at the table instead.

a relaxed rectangularity

angiolino maule's sassaia is a nice garganega from gambellara in the veneto, all coppery nosed and cloudy, and used to be trivially priced. no longer: it's up in the mid-$20s now, from $11-ish. three apartments ago in 2009, having enjoyed the sassaia, i splashed out for a bottle of 2004 pico (the bottle has a tag on it that says $29.95). i had just begun to explore natural wines and it felt like a lot of money. so it stayed unopened in a succession of basements, rolling around in a box next to my bags of dovetail chisels and handplanes. i finally opened it today to celebrate certain events in the universe. the cork resisted but was eventually persuaded to exit with grace. the wine is surprising but not outlandish and quite fine: the smell of cooling blood, a relaxed rectangularity, sweetness with a touch of apple acid and resin, warmth in the back of the palate and the throat. i'd drink it with rare venison and walnuts; one out of two ain't bad.