Strange Pairings: Gołąbki & Absinthe

Gołąbki

My homeland is famous for bread, sausage and vodka. But those do not make for a cuisine of world renown.

A signature Polish food is (or more correctly, “are“) Gołąbki (go-WOHMB-kee). It literally means “little pigeons”. A good synopsis of the history of these little cabbage rolls is found here.

This sturdy farm food is both satisfying and very tasty. The variations are mostly in the stuffing but consist of a grain (typically barley, but also rice) and a meat or mushrooms. The sauces are either tomato- or mushroom based. In either case, the cabbage is a prominent component in the dish.

Poland, being considerably to the north of the 45th parallel is not wine country (with a few tiny exceptions). We grew grains and potatoes and found that those make a fine base for distilling liquor. And so, the culture of imbibing is very different. The average family (at least when I was growing up) would not have alcoholic beverages at the dinner table. Vodka is not part of every meal, but a bottle could liven up an evening when company was over, gathered around a nice spread on the coffee table. 50 ml shot glasses are raised in toast every so often – in between bites of cold cuts, bread, bigos, and pickled foods.

Living La Vida Wine Country

It’s an age old complaint no matter where you live, “There’s nothing to do here.”  What most of us mean to say is, “I’m too lazy to do anything here.”

I’ve heard this said (okay, I’ve said it) my whole life.  When I lived in New York (imagine saying there’s nothing to do in NYC) I did not partake in the theatre as much as I should have, only went to the Met when there was a specific exhibit to see and spent most of my time within walking distance of my own neighborhood at 34th & 3rd.

It got worse when I moved to LA and as any Angelino who’s had to listen to some ex-New Yorker whine that there’s nothing to do in LA, that there’s no good bagels, or pizza, or you can’t get Chinese food at 2am, the proper response from now on should simply be, “Shut up.”

For as I’ve learned in the last eighteen years out here, there is in fact stuff to do everywhere and no matter what you are looking for, there it is.  So after being told about it for months, I finally visited Malibu Family Wines for one of their last summer winery gatherings for 2008.

Yes, this is what it looked like five minutes after we arrived.   People with picnic blankets, people on big comfy wooden chairs, people with spreads from Whole Foods, and Gelsons and Bristol Farms, and Trader Joes, people with instruments (the live music) kids on tire swings, everyone with wine glasses in their hands.

Heaven.

Okay so they established an ideal setting, gave me a shady, cool place to sit down, introduced my kids to some other kids who they could run around with leaving Linda and I alone to relax.  But how were the wines?  For nothing would ruin this idyllic landscape more than a few sips of some mediocre juice.

I had heard of Malibu Wines before and was admittedly skeptical.  Not for any other reason than the cynical belief that if I owned grape bearing land in Malibu, slapping such a world famous cities name on it would be all that was necessary to bring the hordes in.  Somehow I don’t think putting “Newark” in front of “Wines” on a label would have nearly the pleasant impact of that glittering jewel off PCH.

I looked at the wine list with nothing but the desire to find a varietal I could leisurely sip for an hour or two and I quickly landed on their 2002 Semler Syrah.  At $24.00 it was reasonably priced and I bought it, along with their Saddlerock Rose, a steal at $14.00 for Linda.  Part of their summer programs is that you can’t bring in outside wine but are encouraged to purchase theirs, where they’ll pop the cork for you and if you do not have glasses, give you as many as you need just by leaving your driver’s license.  Easy.

I poured the first glass with minimal expectation, mostly (and this is the key here) because they already had me at hello.  The environment they’ve created just off Mullholland Highway is one where you’d never guess you were six miles from the 101 freeway.  You felt as though you were just off the 29.

As luck would have it (or really, raising a glass to their winemaker), the wines were wonderful, exactly what was needed to complete the perfect early Saturday evening in the city I now call home, a city we all seem to love to hate.

But the good life is out here, I promise, and I got through the next two hours without thinking about traffic, reality shows or the election (see: reality shows).

All you have to do is stop being lazy…

To Live and di(n)e in LA

I’m such an LA foodie hipster, I had a reservation at Osteria Mozza this past Saturday night and cancelled on them.

Now, I’ve no doubt they were able to fill our coveted 5:30pm slot. You know, the one normally reserved for those over 65 and usually found at a deli in Boca. Still, it felt good.

I’m surely not the first person to write about this phenomenon, the two choice reservation. Go ahead, try this. Pick up the phone and call (insert hot restaurant here) to reserve a table. In the case of either Mozza option, this of course must be done a month in advance, and only after 10am. For those fond of radio station contests this will feel familiar.

Vessia Ristorante, Irvine.

Vessia

Being as we’re not long for this part of California (we’re moving 50 miles to the north in a few weeks), we wanted to take advantage of a little time and visit one of our favorite restaurants: Vessia, in Irvine. We go often enough to be regulars but don’t get a “Hi Norm!”, nor does the staff chatter excitedly in hushed voices: “THEY‘re here” when we walk in. I am totally fine with that.

I do not intend to start writing restaurant reviews. And this is not meant to be a review of Vessia, but we are fond of the place. It’s big, but cozy feeling and the food is great. The wine list emphasizes Italian wines and is pretty nice for a bedroom community.

L.A. Wine – the concept.

Hi Folks

My idea for this site stems from the LA Times ditching regular local wine coverage.

One thing I was thinking about doing is a hybrid site like http://foodandwineblog.com/ that covers wine and food in LA but looks at the more obscure or atypical angle: a-la Tony Bourdain meets “Bizarre Foods” with Andrew Zimmern.

We could cover wine events, restaurants, tastings bars, etc – whatever we define as the format of the site.

Let’s use the comments section below to talk about ideas and possibilities.

This site can be reached with these URLs:

www.wine-la.com and www.la-wine.com

Whatever the format of this site will be (as a product of our collaboration) I would like this site to fill the void in food and wine writing that the LA Times recently created.

Another point I’d like to bring up is what to we want to accomplish with this site?

• Do we want a casual community blog that chronicles our experiences and foibles in wine and offers opinion-driven content from enthusiast-authors?

• Do we want something with a journalistic culture, an editorial direction and with potential permanence – a journalistic serious player that follows these principles: http://www.redwinebuzz.com/faq.htm#wiaip?

Let’s see where we go with this.