In Praise of Chardonnay

I had eagerly been awaiting my delivery of wines from Passaggio. I dutifully tracked my package on the UPS website. Expected delivery was Thursday.  I waited.  I waited and waited. At 7PM I went on the UPS website again and it still said – on the truck for delivery. I waited. 8PM. No wine. I gave up for the night. Disappointed and not sure what happened; I figured I would call UPS in the morning. At 9PM there was a knock at the door. I peered through the window and saw a figure in brown. WINE!!! Yes!!! Wow,  those guys work late. He told me he still had 8 more stops to make before he could call it a day. Wow and thank you.

Now my biggest decision was which wine I would try first. I had ordered both the Unoaked Chardonnay, of which I had heard so much about, and the Unmarked Code Seven Pinot Noir. I loved the name of that one; kind of mysterious and intriguing.

In the end the Chardonnay won out. I planned on making a nice dinner and doing a little pairing.

We had flounder in a lemon and butter sauce with grilled asparagus and orzo.

Most of the time I follow my rule of keeping my wine purchases under $20.00 . This one squeaked in at just over that. Well worth the money. This Chardonnay is a lovely burst of lemon, lime and grapefruit with a hint of pear on the finish. Crisp and bright with great minerality on the nose. I loved this wine. And although I don’t know Cynthia Cosco personally, we’ve talked back and forth on various social media platforms, I feel as though she is a friend. Her warm personality shines through her Passaggio Wines blog and Passaggio Wines website  where you can buy her wines and Passaggio Wine Facebook page in much the same way that the fruit shines through on it’s own in this wine.

I love her story and I am always inspired by a life well lived, a life inspired by passion and the pursuit of one’s dreams. Her motto is “follow your passion”. Passaggio means passageway in Italian. It is an homage to her roots and to her beliefs about life.

So if you know what is good for you and you love a crisp clean Chardonnay, go to her website and order some of her wine. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Thanks Cynthia for creating this wonderful Chardonnay.

George’s comment- ” Delicious dinner. Nice wine. ”

Cheers!

Loving My Weekend- New York Wine Expo Style!!

This Saturday I attended the New York Wine Expo. Hundreds of wines to taste and some interesting foods to sample.

We got there just as the Expo opened on Saturday and for that first hour it was not as crowded as it got a bit later. It gave us a little more time to talk to some of the vintners that were there.

We had some interesting and different wines. I had two personal favorites and I must admit I went back to try them both more than once.

The first was Passages Pinotage 2011. This wine is a very unique wine that is only created in South Africa. It is a cross between Pinot Noir and Hermitage. On the nose there is wonderful dark chocolate and spice. Take a sip and there is chocolate, plum, cherry and spice. Absolutely delicious and very different.

I loved this wine. Here is a word from their website that explains the name Passages- “Our passages through life have been often serendipitous, many times sweet, and always soul-satisfying. We have drunk from the waters and the wines of the world, settling in South Africa, where its people have enhanced our taste for all things good. Our wine, Passages, speaks to our embrace of new people, places and things, and our desire to share the joy of our ongoing journey to the horizons”. Love that!!!

Next was an Amarone from Corte Moschina that was absolutely scrumptious!

Full bodied and fabulously intensely flavored, this wine will rock your world!! Very dark, very ripe and fruit filled with warm spices. Magic in a bottle!

Let me share some pictures with you and maybe next time you will get to be there in person.

So very glad to have had this opportunity to be an official blogger for the New York
Wine Expo!

Just a side note- the very next day I went to the Javits Center again for the International Restaurant and Food Show. Oh my!! Don’t know why I bothered to eat breakfast because I ate my way through this show and had a blast!!

Loving my weekend- wine and food galore!! What could be better! And I got to share it with my sister and George! Very grateful for my life!! Cheers!

My Big Fat Fish Sauce Wine Pairing

I have had a bottle of fish sauce sitting on my kitchen counter for awhile now. It continues to beckon to me but I really have been consciously avoiding it. I bought it because I wanted to experiment with Asian flavors. I’ve avoided it because, truthfully, I really don’t know what to do with it. Asian cooking is not something I am comfortable with. I love it but I just don’t get it.

Years ago, when I first started living with my first future ex-husband,  I had no idea how to cook at all. Sure I had occasionally made eggs or grilled cheese but that was about the extent of it. I grew up in  a home where cooking was just something you did in order to eat. It was perfunctory at best. So, after many consecutive nights of eating hamburgers fried up in a pan by my future ex,  I happened upon an copy of Julia Child’s Art of French Cooking. It had been abandoned by a previous tenant. I worked my way through that book until cooking became like breathing, natural and integral. But the flavors and ingredients I am comfortable with and base my cooking on are those of garlic, onion, celery, carrot and yes, wine. So fish sauce… totally foreign.

This cold, wintry, February day seemed like the day to begin experimenting.

I did some research. I came up with this recipe for Vietnamese Noodle Salad with Grilled Pork or Beef. Time to go food shopping! May be perfect for that Riesling I just received!

George took one look at all that greenery and politely excused himself.

I should have realized, while I was laying it all out on the counter, that there would be a lot of prep involved in this recipe. I am all about shortcuts and improvising when I cook. There would be none of that today. I was too unfamiliar with the flavors to do that. Not my favorite type of cooking.  I do not like having to adhere strictly to directions.

First I cooked the noodles.

Next up was the marinade for the beef.

I took out some frustration with my mortar and pestle.

I pounded away at the shallots while the marinade was cooking down.

While the meat sat in the marinade I prepped the rest of the ingredients.

I followed the recipe for the Nuoc Cham – Vietnamese Dipping Sauce.

Spicy stuff.  As I pounded away at the garlic and chile pepper I was overcome. I choked and coughed my way through this one. I finished this part up as quickly as I could. George, who was sitting in the next room, never even asked if I was okay. I think he was really worried about coming into contact with all those herbs and vegetables. I was on my own.

At this point the meat was ready for the grill.

I poured a glass of the Keuka Spring Riesling.

This is priced at under $15.00 This Riesling is off-dry and refreshing with plenty of  fruit. There is peach and lime on the finish. This particular wine has won several awards. It is from the Finger Lakes region in New York.

Best White Wine Sweepstakes Award, San Francisco Chronicle Competition

Chairman’s Award (unanimous Gold Medal) & Best in Class, Riverside International Wine Competition
Double Gold Medal, Florida State Fair Competition
Silver Medal, Tasters Guild International

Silver Medal, New York Wine & Food Classic

Bronze Medal, International Eastern Wine Competition

I received it as part of a recent wine club shipment. What a wonderful treat and it paired perfectly with the spiciness of this dish.

The Vietnamese Noodle Salad was so green and bright with lively flavors. The spice level was perfect.; not in your face, just a subtle zing in your mouth.

I loved it. It was just too much work for me. But if you have a few hours and love to putter around in the kitchen on a wintry Sunday afternoon this one is perfect to expand your cooking horizons with.

Here is the link for the recipe. Not sure how to say ‘good appetite’ in Vietnamese so let me just say Buon Appetito! Enjoy!

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/vietnamese_grilled_pork.aspx

 

A Valentine for Wine Lovers

Okay – can you stand one more of these? I promise this is the last one. But very soon it will be Valentine’s Day and what better than chocolate and wine to celebrate. Let me say that again. Chocolate and wine. Yes- and in one very easy recipe. This recipe is so simple and it will make y0u look like you worked hard. It will score you Valentine points. And that is a good thing.

So let’s get started. There are very few ingredients to this recipe. You might even already have them in your pantry. The recipe makes about 25 truffles- that is if you can resist and not eat any while you are making them. Then you can just tell everyone that it makes 25 less whatever the quantity that you ate. In my case it made 20 truffles.

I didn’t know what 200 grams of chocolate would equate to so I used a little less than 2 bars. I used the wine I happened to have had open and miraculously there was enough left in the bottle for this recipe and half a glass to enjoy while I was waiting for the chocolate to be ready to roll.

I used Silver Palm Cabernet Sauvignon. Priced at just over $20.00, this wine is full of cherry, blackberry and spice. It’s been a favorite of mine. Easy drinking- pair it with a meal or just enjoy on it’s own.

Here are the ingredients:

200 g good quality bittersweet chocolate

10 tablespoons heavy cream at room temperature

3 tablespoons dry red wine

big pinch of salt

cocoa powder for coating  – about 3-4 tablespoons

The recipe said to melt the chocolate over a water bath. I think they meant a double boiler. I don’t have a double boiler. So I improvised. I held a smaller sauce pan over a larger one in which I had water boiling. A little awkward but it worked. More awkward because I was trying to take pictures for you so you could see what I was doing. I probably could have used an extra hand. Or two.

This first part of the recipe was done in a very short time. Less than 5 minutes.

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler.

Slowly add the cream. Keep mixing. When the cream and chocolate combine add the wine and salt. Mix until smooth. That’s it. Then pour the mixture into a flat dish and leave in the fridge for a few hours.

After you take it out of the fridge use a small spoon to dish out the chocolate and then roll the chocolate into little balls. Roll the balls into the cocoa powder and put it on a plate.

This was the really messy part. Your hands will be covered in melting chocolate. You will be smelling the chocolate and it will be impossible to not take even one little taste. You will try a ball without the cocoa and another one with the cocoa. And then maybe another one or two just to be sure that they were okay. At least that is what I did. One small trick is to rinse off your hands with very cold water after every few balls otherwise they turn into soft wet melting blobs. I tried to minimize the chocolate to hand time so after I rolled the balls I put them in the dish of cocoa powder and just moved the dish around a bit to coat the balls.

As you can see, my truffles grew in size as I continued making them.

Place the plate in the fridge for another few hours. Voila -ready for some decadent sharing!!

These sinful, simple, easy to make and even easier to eat red wine truffles are lush and winey. Perfect for lushes and winos! Cheers!! And Happy Valentine’s Day.

New York Wine Expo

It wasn’t all that long ago that I was a wine tasting virgin. That’s right -I said wine tasting, not wine drinking. Wine drinking is something I’ve been doing for a long time. It all started with a little Boone’s Farm and Cold Duck; and that was a long time ago!

A few years ago, right about the time that I got into the wine accessories business, I went to the New York Wine Expo.

I have to admit it was a little intimidating. It was my first foray into anything like that. I had no idea how the S’s went. Swirl, Smell, Sip, Savor and finally Spit. This last one is important because if you don’t spit, your wine tasting trip may end a little abruptly.  I felt a little silly. I wasn’t sure I was doing it right. And then there was all that wine…But I think you can see by the smile on my face that I’d found heaven.I still feel a bit insecure. I may not always smell or taste the things I read that others have smelled or tasted in a wine. But I do know what I like. I have tried a lot of different varietals. I have learned a lot more about wine and wine making. And most of all I still have a great love for wine and all things wine related.

That is why I am looking forward to attending the New York Wine Expo this year. This year I get to go as one of the official bloggers. What wine god smiled on me to allow me the pleasure and thrill of that experience I do not know. But I am grateful for the opportunity.

Here is a list of some of the wineries who will be pouring on March 1-2.

http://www.wine-expos.com/Wine/NY/tasting-wine/InventoryDisplay.asp?PID=608671618&SHID=103027707.56879258

and some more information about the event-

http://www.wine-expos.com/Wine/NY/tasting-wine/?SHID=103027707.56879258

I will be attending with my sister and fellow wine lover. She is traveling up from Virginia just for this. George took a pass. He is not much of a wine lover and there is just too much foofoo for him.

I will be blogging and live tweeting.

Hope to see some of you there. I’ll be wearing my Wine On My Mind t-shirt. Say hey and maybe we can enjoy a sip together.

PS- stay tuned for some coupon codes for discount tickets! I’ll be posting them on Twitter and Facebook .

Cheers!!

On a Mission

I am a woman on a mission. Wine Salt. Red Wine Cake and now… Biscotti with Wine!!! I am on a quest for all things wine.  You all know the old saying – ” I cook with wine – sometimes I even add it to the food.” Well I am the embodiment of that philosophy in my daily cooking. Now I see that I can push the envelope and do even more with wine.

I saw this recipe from Passaggio Wines for The Passaggio Passionistas Biscotti  and noticed right away that it included reduced Chardonnay as one of it’s elements. Notice how I noticed that. I am huge fan of biscotti. I am a huge fan of wine.  I venture into the Bronx to Arthur Ave. and buy pounds of biscotti to dunk in my morning coffee and evening wine. And now I found the startling and wonderful combination of wine and cookie incorporated.

I tried to buy the Passaggio Unoaked Chardonnay. I went to my favorite wine store haunts. I searched online. I could not find a bottle on Long Island. I had to make my first improvisation to the recipe. Sorry my friends at Passaggio. I will however be ordering their wine directly from them for future tasting. http://www.passaggiowines.com/

I did the next best thing and used a bottle of one of my personal favorites- Comtesse de Marion Chardonnay. This wine is vinified in stainless steel. Crisp and clean with great minerality. Apple and pear on the nose. Priced at under $10.00. It is a great wine. My sister from Virginia loves it. I always buy a few bottles when she comes up for a visit.

Ingredients as follows:

1/2 cup roasted unsalted almonds

1/4 sugar

1/3 cup butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

2 teaspoons lemon zest

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons reduced unoaked Chardonnay

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Reduce about 1 cup of unoaked Chardonnay and set aside to cool.

I enjoyed a little tasting of my own paired with potato chips- my favorite tasting of all- while the wine was reducing.

In a mixing bowl cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, vanilla, almond extract and lemon zest.

Add the reduced Chardonnay.

In another bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Add this mixture to your creamed mixture until blended.

Now the recipe called for 1/2 cup of whole almonds chopped into halves or thirds. I did this but couldn’t resist adding 1/2 cup of  chopped dried blueberries as well. Blueberries, roasted almonds and lemon seemed to be a heavenly combination.

Fold this into your mixture.

Divide the dough in half and place on a greased and floured baking sheet. Using floured hands, shape the dough into logs about 1/2 inch thick. 1 1/2 inches wide and 12 inches long.

Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Let cool on a rack for 5 minutes.

Hey – wait a minute- this is the mandelbread my grandmother made. You say biscotti. I say mandelbread. This is the exact same way you bake mandelbread. You shape the logs. You bake it and then you slice the logs and bake again; turning them once while in the oven for the second time so that both sides toast. Yes. Wow. Moment of silence. And a moment of inspiration. I will dust the slices with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon just like my grandmother did.

So – slice the logs, using a serrated knife,  into pieces that are approximately 1/2 inch thick.

Lay them flat on the baking pan and place back in the oven for about 10 minutes, turning them once. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.

Lemony and crisp, with just a hint of the reduced wine, these biscotti were a perfect choice for dessert or an anytime treat. Enjoy them with some of the leftover wine (did I just say that?)  or a cup of coffee.

George stole a few while they were cooling and for the man of few words he was pretty damn poetic about these cookies. ” These are delicious. You should make these every day! “

My Weakness for Wine

I try to be a healthful eater. My diet consists of three liquids – in order of the day; coffee, water, wine.

In the mornings I usually have a cookie with my coffee. I love to start the day with something sweet. It is generally the only sweet I eat all day. Much more of a crunchy, salty, cheesy girl. Never give me a bag of Smart Food Popcorn! Lunch is a salad. At dinner I enjoy puttering around in the kitchen and inventing a meal. And then there is wine…wine while I am cooking and wine with the meal and maybe, depending on the day, a little more wine after dinner.

I have always heard about Red Wine Cake. Not being a big cake or sweet eater I never put much thought into baking one. Baking is not something I enjoy too much anyway. It’s such an exacting science. I may be a Virgo but I am not Virgo enough to enjoy all that measuring and following of directions. I am much more a little of this and a little of that school of cook.

Recently a Facebook follower asked me about Red Wine Cake. I admitted I had never tried it. I did a little research and found a recipe that sounded interesting. It came with the warning that “not all the alcohol in the recipe cooks out”. Oh yes – this seemed like the one to try!!!

I had most of the ingredients. I used Apothic Red for the wine. This is a wonderful red that I tasted for the first time at the NY Wine Expo last year. It is a great red blend of Zinfandel, Syrah, Cabernet and Merlot. Lush and loaded with berries, mocha, chocolate and spice. It seemed like the one to use for this recipe. It is priced at under $15.00

Here is what you need:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup  white granulated sugar
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
3/4 cup  red wine, any kind you like

1 teaspoon  vanilla extract
1 cup + 1 tablespoon  all-purpose flour
1/2 cup  Dutch cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Line the bottom of a 9 inch round cake pan with parchment paper. Spray paper and sides of pan with non stick spray.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and yolk and beat well, then the red wine and vanilla.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together, right over your wet ingredients.

Mix until 3/4 combined, then fold the rest together with a rubber spatula. Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool on a rack for about 10 minutes and then invert and continue cooling on a rack until completely cool.

I sprinkled the top with some confectioners sugar.

You can make some whipping cream for a topping when you are ready to serve the cake.

Ingredients for the whipped cream:

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup chilled heavy or whipping cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whip all ingredients together until soft peaks form.

Dollop on cake and enjoy!!!

A happy man!!

This was a simple and easy recipe. The cake is a dense, moist, chocolatey, winey slice of awesomeness. I didn’t tell George that it was a red wine cake and he picked right up on it. Can’t fool that guy. He knows his desserts! You can definitely taste the wine so this is not a cake for the kiddies. Our January birthday week is rolling up again soon – so Emily, Jordan and George be prepared. I might just have to make another one of these.  And Rachel, my pastry sous chef daughter, is coming in from Chicago to help us celebrate. Maybe I can impress her with MY baking skills…

I wonder if I can have this cake with my coffee in the morning. Coffee and a red wine baked sweet treat together. What a way to start the day!

Thanks to Smitten Kitchen for this recipe which she adapted from a recipe for Everyday
Chocolate Cake.

Wine and Salt = Heaven!

I came across a recipe for wine salt several months ago. I hung on to it because I knew that someday I would have to try it. What could possibly be more wonderful than wine and salt. Together in one recipe. Amazing awesomeness. Two of my most favorite things. Let me say and savor that again – wine and salt – together!!!How many nights have I foregone dinner and had a glass of wine and some chips?

Tonight was the night to experiment.

The recipe I had called for a pork loin to be cooked on the grill. Now I do have to say that I am a true grill believer but tonight- being 29 windy degrees in New York- I did a little improvising and used pork chops that I could saute indoors.  I know. I have a brand new Weber grill sitting on the porch. On most nights I would tough it out but tonight was not one of those nights. I just couldn’t face it.

Here is the recipe adapted from John Eisenhart, executive chef at Pazzo in Portland Oregon. It was originally published in the New York Times by Melissa Clark.

2 cups fruity white wine, such as Riesling or Gewurtzraminer

3/4 cup coarse sea salt

8 thyme sprigs, leaves stripped ( about 2 tablespoons )

2 strips lemon zest, finely chopped

1 cup sugar

1. In a heavy bottomed skillet simmer the wine over medium heat until it is reduced by half,    about 20-30 minutes; adjust heat to low and continue to cook down to 2 tablespoons. Here is where you get to enjoy that leftover wine in the bottle you just opened to make this glorious wine salt! Reducing takes time. I had a glass of the Chateau
Ste. Michelle Riesling that I used.  Lots of peach and pear with nice acidity. Great sipper. Cheers!

Cool the wine reduction completely.

2. Heat oven to 200 degrees. In  a food processor, combine salt, thyme leaves, lemon zest and wine reduction. I used a Hawaiian Coarse Red Sea Salt that my sister brought me as a gift on Thanksgiving. It made me think of luaus and pig roasts and warm Hawaiian nights. Forgive my little fantasy – again. it was 29 cold and blustery degrees in New York! Pulse mixture until it has the consistency of sand. Add sugar and blend for 5 seconds. Spread mixture evenly on a sheet pan and dry out in oven for 30 minutes. Now I did read that some ovens, not necessarily being equal in temperature,  may possibly caramelize or melt the mixture instead of drying it. The alternative is to let it dry out naturally overnight on your countertop. That is what I did; since the wine reducing is somewhat time consuming I did not want to destroy my labor of love. You may use the mixture immediately if you choose and then dry out the remaining mixture and store it in airtight containers. This could be a great homemade gift for that wine loving home cook.

That is it. Really pretty easy.

I made some risotto.

I paired the meal with some Dasole Verdicchio Classico- crisp, dry and lemony- it seemed like a fitting complement to the lemony, herbal wine salt rub. Priced at under $10 this wine is a refreshing burst of citrus.

George’s comment- “Hey this is a good meal! It tastes good.” Wow, do I love that man!

Champagne and Latkes

This month’s TGTaste could not have come at a better time and could not have been a better choice of wine. What is more festive than champagne? Is there any wine that could possible get you more in the holiday mood?

I don’t know about you but, personally, I could drink champagne every day. It’s bubbliness inspires happiness and fun and I am always ready for some fun!!

So it was with great pleasure that I thought about sharing some Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut and Brut Rose with my family. To be truthful, I saved the Brut for a different night. Knowing my customers, I opened the Brut Rose to celebrate the last day of Hanukkah. Emily and even George love anything pink and bubbly.

It’s been so hectic lately that I opted out of a big family dinner and went for some appetizers. And of course, we had to have some latkes.

Everyone told me to make it easy on myself and just buy them but I could never do that. I need to savor the memories of my Grandmother. I need to grate. And fry. I need to have my house smell like hers did. Otherwise it’s really not a holiday.

Of course , next week the holiday will involve those seven fishes. But that will be a whole other blog.

This night we paired it with fresh mozzarella and grilled chicken tenders and  vegetables and dip.

We ate. We drank. We laughed. Mickey was happy to have his little nephew Samba come and visit.

Everyone loved the champagne. It is delicate pink in color. On the nose there is strawberry and raspberry and a bit of rose. Dry and delightful. A festive wine for the festive season but also one that would be fitting of a summer night.

Thanks Thirsty Girl for once again providing a fantastic wine to taste and thanks to Domaine Ste. Michelle for providing the samples. Merry and Happy to all!!

http://www.domaine-ste-michelle.com/

https://www.facebook.com/DSMsparkling

http://www.facebook.com/thirstygirl

Too many doggie treats later…..

one tired puppy ready to go home.

 

In The Mood for a Cabernet

Nothing gets me more in the mood for a glass of wine than holiday shopping at the mall…two weeks before Christmas…. on the eve of Hannukah… in the middle of the afternoon… on a Saturday!! Ugh!!! Guess I am a bit of a scrooge in that respect. Nothing pleasant about the experience. Not even the choraleers singing about “The First Night of Christmas” or the cute little kids dressed up for their picture with Santa. Some of them are screaming and I am feeling their pain.

The lines are ridiculous.

The lines for the restrooms and in the Food Court are crazy.

I am dodging and twisting my way through groups of people who seem as though they are out for a stroll in the park.

I admit my impatience.

I spend more time searching for the elusive George as he meanders his way behind me than I do searching for gifts to cross off my list.

This is not fun.

I am suddenly thirsty for a glass of wine. A large glass of wine.

Slowly we make our way down the list.

And back to the car through the sea of other cars where we collapse on the front seat and just look at one another.

Done!!

Can we go home now, please, to  that glass of wine I’ve been dreaming about that seems as wonderful and life saving as water in the desert.

Joel Gott Cabernet Sauvignon 815 2010. Priced around $20.00

This wine is good enough to make the memory of the past few hours dim and soften in it’s deliciousness. Cherry, plum,  raspberry and spice with hints of cocoa and leather on the finish. A great Cabernet. A very smooth finish. This would be wonderful with some pasta or meat or apres shopping.