Hey, remember Freedom Fries? No? Good.

Because the best executions of this BELGIAN dish (like many Belgian things, regrettably colloquialized as ‘French…’ Jacques Brel, for example) ignore cultural and political boundaries, finding endless expression in double-frying, seasoning and topping the Luther Burbank hybridized potato. My, I’m using big words today, aren’t I?

Well, maybe not so much song. But the Universal Whisky Experience, which gathered together dozens of distilled malt beverages from around the world at the Wynn resort in Las Vegas March 19-20 2010, was both educational and entertaining. Covering for The Tasting Panel, I took some candid snaps. Here’s the album:
And here’s my Tasting Panel [...]

One of the best kept secrets of the wine world is the fact that there is a steadily growing high-quality wine industry right across the US border in Baja, Mexico’s Valle de Guadalupe, just outside Ensenada. Owing to Mexican government export tariffs favoring tequilas, and a general disbelief in Mexican dedication to quality, most of these wines never make it out of their country. But things are changing, aided by growing attention to the Valle de Guadalupe’s annual Fiestas de la Vendimia every August. I got the opportunity to visit one of the top producers, Monte Xanic, and taste many of its competitors during a crush season visit a few months ago for a story in The Tasting Panel.

Would you believe me if I told you one of the most creative, satisfying and entertaining dinners I’ve had so far this year was at a country club? In Palm Desert, no less? I’ll avoid repeating what I wrote in the article for The Tasting Panel (see below) and just post some pics… Chef Ralph Fernandez, I like your style.

I rarely endorse corporate branded foods. Even if they might be found in my home pantry, I’m always a little bit suspect of what goes in with mass food production. But I’m making an exception for this recent random discovery: Lay’s Lightly Salted.

Had a chance to attend the Paso Robles Grand Tasting on March 2 in downtown LA’s unique former cathedral Vibiana—and I have to admit, I was a bit unprepared for the sheer number of wineries represented. Though Saxum (on the cover of the current Wine Spectator) was missing, there were dozens of others, some well established (J. Lohr), others total mom-n-pop operations with case numbers in the three digits. PR has been slowly but steadily gaining ground as a respected wine region, with widely varying potential, and what I tasted reflected that diversity of product and approach.

Sometimes you have to take a stand. Sometimes you have to accept a difficult task. The kind of task that just can’t be left to amateurs. Sometimes, you have to judge a hot salsa contest. And that sometime, for me, came on February 15.