Appassimento. Hard to spell. Easy to drink.

Appassimento. Hard to spell. Easy to drink.

There is no winery in my opinion more emblematic of the Veronese style than Masi Agricola. Still family-owned, Masi is one of the largest wineries in Valpolicella, producing over 12 million bottles a year. 47 of those bottles were opened last week at Firenze, one of...
The Restaurant. Because there’s no friend like an old friend.

The Restaurant. Because there’s no friend like an old friend.

I had an old friend visiting this week. We go back a long way. To when “having a ball” meant owning a treasured piece of pigskin. And going long, up-and-down the avenue, was our favorite pastime. “Though a dragon lives for ever, not so little boys”,...
It was grass-fed versus grain-fed beef at the filet cook-off.

It was grass-fed versus grain-fed beef at the filet cook-off.

A few weeks ago I came to the conclusion that certain beef cuts, specifically the ones that don’t have much marbling from fat, were just as tender and tasty from grass-fed cows as they were from cows that were finished in a feedlot on corn or other grains. In a little...
New Zumo chef shows off his Mexicasian menu.

New Zumo chef shows off his Mexicasian menu.

It was gambling that paid for my dinner last week. At Ghouls For Schools, the Hallowe’en benefit for the charity Feed The Hungry, there was a raffle. And guess whose number they pulled for dinner for two at Zumo? I’d really wanted to return to Zumo. They had made some...
Art on the wall. Art on the plate. Mestizo.

Art on the wall. Art on the plate. Mestizo.

If you asked me which restaurant In San Miguel I think is the most attractive, I’d find it difficult, perhaps impossible, to answer. But if you broadened the geography to Guanajuato, the answer would be easy. My choice would be Mestizo. There is nothing hanging on...
A scientific San Miguel study: Are oysters really an aphrodisiac?

A scientific San Miguel study: Are oysters really an aphrodisiac?

“I placed the shell on the edge of her lips and after a good deal of laughing, she sucked in the oyster, which she held between her lips. I instantly recovered it by placing my lips on hers.” Casanova. The guy who wrote that. You’ve heard of him. Right?...