Kick Off Your High-Heeled Sneakers, It’s Party Time

One of the oldest wine shops in New York state is right here in Carroll Gardens, and with all the fancy new stores opening up around the neighborhood I forgot about Scotto’s for a while. But no more.

In no particular order, reasons I love Scotto’s

1. They carry Aperol to make this tasty drink.

2. It’s the perfect size: not so small as to feel boutique-y, not so big as to make your head swim before you drink your wine.

3. Everyone who works there is really nice and helpful, and will give you thoughtful suggestions if you’re looking for a wine to match your meal.

Go there now and stock up fpr Labor Day Weekend!
318 Court Street (between Sackett/Degraw Streets)
Brooklyn, NY 11231

Terrible, and such small portions!

Here is the Times review that piqued my interest about Little Dishes, a new restaurant in the old home of The Cornbread Cafe. I was excited to finally go, and we got there super early (the place is tiny and doesn't take reservations). Immediately impressed with the flawless service, and pleasantly surprised to find an old favorite, Altos Las Hormigas Malbec, on the wine list, I looked forward to a delicious parade of tiny dishes. Sadly, things started to go south as soon as they trotted out precious single slices of that fancy wood-oven bread with a crust so sharp it hurts my mouth.

Daltron and I ordered an assortment of the small stuff: sardines (WAY too marinated and vinegary. Why are you trying to disguise the lovely sardine-iness, Little Dishes?), fried cod cakes (bland), baby octopus over fennel salad (overdressed), an unpleasantly buttery heap of swiss chard, and a pretty good wedge of iceberg with cheesy dressing and above-average black olive spaetzle. The best thing I ate were two oysters (one of each of the varieties offered last night).

Counterintuitively, our dining companions (the Galvinatrix and Matty A) thoroughly enjoyed their meals, and they ordered "Big Dishes": the lamb shank and the cod special. Perhaps the old rule of thumb – appetizers are always the tastiest part of a meal – gets flipped on its head when the restaurant specializes in the small stuff.

I think I can safely say we were all disappointed that Little Dishes really stands by its name when it comes to dessert. We demurely ordered two – the ginger cake and the lemon biscuit with fruit compote. When the itty-bitty portions arrived, I felt like my mommy had hinted at a "treat" in my lunchbox, and noontime revealed it to be nothing more than one of those boxes of raisins so small you can barely wrench it open with your little eight-year-old hands.

I hate when food disappoints.

A happy, unrealted coda: Big Nose Full Body was still open when we left the restaurant, and we scored two bottles of Cantina Zaccagnini and a $10 bottle of the Altos Malbec.

Amontillado

We read Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado in my ESL class today. I remember reading (and hating) it in high school myself, but I decided to give it a second chance.

It’s a creepy tale (shocker) wherein a sherry varietal (the amontillado) serves as bait for the vain victim, who thinks-who-he-is when it comes to wines.

It was around 9:30 in the morning as we read the tale together, but I found myself curious about the amontillado itself. Here is the Wiki entry on the stuff:

Named after the Montilla region where this style of wine originated in the 18th century, an amontillado sherry begins as a fino, fortified to approximately 13.5 percent alcohol with a cap of flor yeast limiting its exposure to the air. A cask of fino will be reclassified as amontillado if the layer of flor fails to develop adequately or is intentionally killed by non-replenishment or additional fortification. Without the layer of flor, amontillado must be fortified to approximately 17.5 percent alcohol so that it does not oxidize too quickly. After the additional fortification, amontillado oxidizes slowly, exposed to oxygen through the slightly porous American or Canadian oak casks, and gains a darker color and richer flavor than fino.

I think I have a new thing that I want to try.

The (cause of and) solution to all my prolems

The “I’m-having-stroke-can’t-breathe” feeling that overwhelmed me on Friday is definitely weakening. Was it the lovely Sunny Saturday? The puritanical satisfaction of an early morning walk, a Pilates class (the Puritans loved the Pilates) and several hours of working at home? The therapeutic effects of hand-kneading the dough for the spinach roll? (see “Sunny Saturday”) The healthful lunch (Polenta Lasagna) and dinner (Salade Nicoise) I enjoyed?

Perhaps. But I think what really helped was the Aemilia Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. A nice young woman at Red, White and Bubbly recommended it when I told her of my love for the hard-to-find (except for the first time when I happened upon it) Cantina Zaccagnini. I’ll admit, I bought the CZ because the bottle has a twig on it.

Anyway, back to the Aemilia. I am beginning to believe the producers’ claim for the wine. Referencing Hannibal, they say “All of his horses, animals and soldiers were dying from “la scabbia della fame”, the disease of hunger, and once the horses and men drank the wine from Abruzzo, they were completely cured!”

Maybe it cures work-related ailments too.

Multi-tasking

I wanted to read this for our book club. But, when you skip book club, sometimes they get all Paul Auster-bashing (apparently they all hated Brooklyn Follies) and backlash by picking this. Sheesh. Granted, I’ve yet to read anything but the number on the last page, but still, I’ve got a bad attitude about the whole thing.

Does it count as multi-tasking if one of the things you’re doing is very actively avoiding something? Namely, five classes worth of tests that I gave today. Double sheesh. AND I promised to write for ten minutes a day. AND I’ve got to read 15.14 pages of the book club book a day to finish by our next meeting. I do believe it’s time to try today’s Smith and Vine selection (I picked it out without any assistance as all the wine genii in the store were discussing a batch of home-made wine that one of them had made, which one of them described as having a soucon of Smith Street) Chianti Colli Senesi.

Mmm… it is indeed dry and harmonious…

Ash Wednesday

I bought a weird cheese today. It’s called “gratin” and it’s from the Piedmont region of Italy. I asked the guy who sold it to me to reccommend a wine to complement it, and he rattled off a few whites (which I’m not nuts about in the winter) or, “if you must have a red,” a Barbera.

So I dutifully go to the nice little wine shop on Smith Street and look around. All the Barberae are more expensive than I want, but I don’t want to interrupt the two wine store guys because they’re eating and one of them is talking about a recent trip he took that involved both a wedding and a funeral (at least from what I could gather). Finally the phone rings, and I think it might be ok to ask the other for help.

And help he does! Not only does he gently mock the cheese store guy (“He said that? He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”), but he also recommends three wines in different price ranges that he thinks will go well with the cheese. I go with the Salice Salentino.

I love cheese with fruit, so I’m really digging the way this wine goes with the gratin.