[TN] '05 Chidaine Vouvray

Sounds great Mark but I have a question. I've always thought that by it's nature Insalata Caprese was already deconstructed since basically it's just sliced tomato, mozzerella and basil with a little olive oil. How do you further deconstruct that?

I was TEMPTED to make a similar comment, but figured there was some clever bit of molecular rearranging that I had not thought about. Maybe the tomato was white and the mozzarella red? Maybe the olive oil was solid and the other ingredients liquid?

Good question, Bill. As I make it, insalata caprese usually has sliced tomato and mozzarella layered. In this case, the heirloom tomatoes (not ripe, my one and only complaint) were wedged, the mozzarella, in one slab, breaded and fried with basil oil drizzled over both. "Deconstructed" may not be the best word to describe it, but I couldn't think of better.

Mark Lipton

Sounds more constructivist than deconstructivist...

Of course, how can heirloom tomatoes be ripe in April? They don't ripen till june-july in our hemisphere... unless they are hothouse heirloom tomatoes, a bit of an oxymoron...

cheers

Mike

Thanks for the explanation Mark. I feel your pain in regards to the unripe tomato. Insalata Caprese is one of my summertime favorites when I can pluck a ripe tomato still warm from the sun from my garden and pair it with fresh mozzerella (I buy the curd from a local deli and make my own) with fresh basil from the garden and a drizzle of good olive oil. A nice glass of chilled Rose and I'm happy.

Well, while I find seasonal tomatoes the best, I don't think that hothouse heirloom tomatoes would actually be an oxymoron. Still an heirloom variety, right?

Thanks for report Mark. A Chidaine bottling that I haven't run across yet.

Well, yes, but to give you an example in France I can buy Giant Ox Heart tomatoes from a plastic tunnel in Brittany that taste like coloured water. Heirloom to me implies taste :-)

Yeah, I don't really see the sense of making a classic summertime dish in April, but the chef's judgment seemed sound enough on the other items, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. It wasn't a bad creation, but just lacking in comparison to the memory of the Real Thing.

Mark Lipton

Sorry for being completely OffT, but this immediately reminded me of an Austrian jazz clarinettist whose stage name was "Fatty George" ... ;-)

M.

Mike Tommasi wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

Will confess to being a little bit of a criminal here, I like mine done at 20 (or occassionally 21 as I find that adding things sometimes cools the risssotto during cooking and produces the need for longer cooking) but would as soon pour in coffee as some cream.

Thank you for reaffirming what I "always" knew but have scant evidence in the food business to prove! Throw out the cream.

My particular peeve is the insistence on deep frying eggpant when making any dish called eggplant parmesan or the like. eggplant bakes very well thank you. the deep fried eith sauce pouted on is easy to make quickly in a restaurant but it has nothing of the flavour of a baked eggplant which has had a chance to meld with the sauce.

The Australians always add a dose of chocolate to a Cappuccino, lovely result

I'm with you on this~

So this is a variation, perfectly OK. It does not alter the basic structure. Vive l'Australie !

great post. Mark, ordered a bottle of the Argiles, you made it sound tempting!

Other Patients on Wine Therapy disagreed with my assessment of this wine as crisp. It seems that Chidaine's '05 Vouvrays have become rather controversial on the Wine Internet, so be prepared to disagree with me, too ;-) FWIW, I think that our bottle was a trifle colder than most people may drink their Vouvrays, so perhaps that accounts for some of the difference in perception...

Mark Lipton

Anyone I know? I tend to trust those I've found common ground with more than random tasters. Just looked up Gilman's comments on '05 Argiles. I won't post whole thing here, but includes:

3 g/l RS, On the palate the wine is medium-full,,,,,,,with beautiful focus and zest, and a very long, very minerally backend that displays outstanding grip and cut. 92" We'll see!