I have always been conscious of spending my money with independent retailers and restaurants. Independent studies have shown that up to 40% of the money spent in a locally owned business goes to directly back into the community. Even more than that though is the unique perspective independents bring to their craft. Food and wine is not created with the idea of being exactly replicated across the country and with that comes the freedom to be creative. All great reasons to forgo the big boxes and patronize the small guy/gal.
That’s why I love downtown’s restaurant week so much. The Road to Salivation allows anyone to sample the best of what independents have to offer.

From January 22-31, the city of Fredericksburg will host its 4th annual Restaurant Week: The Road to Salivation. During the week, indulge on three-course prix fixe meals from some of the city’s finest restaurants. Lunches are just $10.08 and dinners are only $20.08. Chefs will feature special menus to showcase their house specialties. Participating restaurants include: Claiborne’s, Bistro Bethem, Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen, kybecca Wine Bar, Capital Ale House, Kenmore Inn and Caroline Street Cafe. Fredericksburg’s charming historical district boasts more than 40 chef-owned restaurants.

We went to Poppy Hill last night and sampled their offerings, it was fantastic. At kybecca wine bar we are serving:

• Gougères – cumin scented cheese puffs
• Lolla Rosa Salad – brightly colored greens with our house-made Buttermilk blue dressing
• Braised Lamb Shank with leeks and carrots
• Choice of artisan cheese with fresh fruit or house-made dark chocolate mousse

I bet you didn’t know I was an egg expert. It’s true, I love eggs and over the many years I have been buying and preparing them I have learned a few things.

• Very few things compare to the pleasure of eating a properly cooked, fresh egg.
• Pasture-raised chickens that feed on bugs and feed produce the absolute best tasting eggs.
• Egg white omelette’s are an abomination (plus all the nutrition is in the yolk).
• Learning to make egg dishes takes years of practice, and is totally worth the effort.
• The darker the yolk, the fresher, tastier and higher quality the egg.

Eggs are so versatile and inexpensive that I cook them frequently for breakfast and dinner. I do know that it pays to find the freshest, best eggs you can get. Farmer’s markets are the best place, but barring that cage-free, organic eggs are the next best thing. Just be sure to buy them from a place that moves their produce, you don’t want to be stuck with product that has been sitting on the shelf for a long time.
My favorite egg cook book is The Good Egg which a James Beard award winning book. Tons of fantastic recipes plus step-by-step instructions to make perfect eggs.
My favorite dinner egg recipe is Michael Chiarello’s Bitter Greens with Poached Egg and Prosciutto Bits. I have made this many times, always with great results. Plus it’s healthy and it has bacon. Sigh, did I mention I love bacon?

I am a wine lover, but not a wine geek (i.e. interestested in the intricacies of production). I realized this while having dinner with a friend last night at Granville Moore’s in DC (which will be another post unto itself). The distinction is that I really couldn’t care less about this village versus another, how many hectares, how long the wine sat in oak, whether the harvest happened at night, and so on. It’s the winemaker’s job to care about all that. Unfortunately this type of recitation has become such a part of wine-speak that I can’t seem to avoid it. When reps come by to sample their wines with me I can hardly avoid having my eyes glaze over when I get all the facts and figures of a wine recited to me. I further think that because all of this wine-speak has become such a big part of marketing that people think they have to know about these things and care about them to appreciate wine. It isn’t true. You go to the farmer’s market and pick up a perfect heirloom tomato and put it in your favorite salad recipe. You eat and savor it. Are you thinking about this farmer’s low yields, soil composition and where exactly his farm is located (except maybe to get another tomato)? Probably not, but that tomato is damn good.

My job is to care about taste, number one. Is it delicious? Will it make my food taste better? I care about small production wines because they tend to taste better, take chances with their wine making and support small businesses. That’s it. In the end every wine, beer and food memory sticks out because of the sheer pleasure of the moment. Cherished time off, eating a beautiful meal and connecting with people I care about.

To those who know me this message will not be a new one. I believe that eating real food, as unprocessed as possible is not only better for your health, but easier, cheaper, more delicious and better for the planet.
It is astounding how many chemicals are used in processed foods and even the “light” varieties have ingredient lists that make me cringe. Sugar everywhere, gelatins, yeasts and more, all to replicate foods that taste better with real ingredients anyway.
When I saw this article in the Times today by Mark Bittman (of the Minimalist cookbook fame) I nearly jumped out of my chair. Beans, yes! real stock, yes! bacon, yes! fresh herbs, yes!

In addition there is such a thing as real wine. Wines made organically with no additives or sulfites and from indigenous yeasts. We are big fans of the Puzelat wines that are made this way.

YOU SHOULD ALSO STOCK:

REAL BACON OR PROSCIUTTO Or other traditionally smoked or cured meat of some kind. If you have a quarter pound of prosciutto in the house at all times you can make almost anything — simple cooked grains, beans, vegetables, tomato sauces, soups — taste better. And, tightly wrapped, it’ll keep for weeks in the fridge or months in the freezer.

FISH SAUCE You have soy sauce, presumably; this is different, stronger, cruder (or should I say “less refined”?) in a way — and absolutely delicious. Use sparingly, but use; start by sprinkling a little over plain steamed vegetables, along with a lot of black pepper.

CANNED COCONUT MILK Try this: cook some onions in oil with curry powder; stir in coconut milk; poach chicken, fish, tofu, or even meat in that. Serve over rice.

MISO PASTE Never goes bad, as far as I can tell, and its flavor is incomparable. Whisk into boiling water for real soup in three minutes; thin a bit (with sake if you have it), and smear on meat or fish that’s almost done broiling; add a spoonful to vinaigrette. Etc.

CAPERS, GOOD OLIVES (BUY IN BULK, NOT CANS) AND GOOD ANCHOVIES (IN OLIVE OIL, PLEASE) The combination of the three makes a powerful paste, or pasta sauce, or dip.

WALNUTS And/or other nuts, but walnuts are most basic and useful. Try a purée with garlic, oil and a little water, as a pasta sauce, or just add to salads or cooked grains.

PIGNOLI With raisins, they make any dish Sicilian.

DRIED FRUIT For snacking, in braises (braised pork with prunes is a classic winter dish), or just soaked in water (or booze) or poached for dessert. Don’t forget dried tomatoes, too.

DRIED MUSHROOMS Don’t even bother to reconstitute if you’re cooking with liquid; just toss them in.

FROZEN SHRIMP Incredibly convenient.

WINTER SQUASH AND SWEET POTATOES These store almost as well as potatoes and are more nutritious and equally interesting. A sweet potato roasted until the exterior is nearly blackened and the interior is mush is a wonderful snack. The best winter squashes (delicata, for example) have edible skins and are amazing just chunked and roasted with a little oil (and maybe some ginger or garlic). For butternut- or acorn-type squashes, poke holes through to the center with a skewer in a few places and roast in a 400 degree oven until soft. Let cool, then peel and seed.

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In preparation to unveil our Bison & Blue Cheese sliders at the wine bar, Kyle and I took a trip to Cibola Farms in Culpeper, Virginia to check out the facility and the beasts we might be eating. If you have not seen a bison up close, that is quite an experience. They are huge! We have always been interested in supporting local farmers and using bison in our cooking, so sourcing our meat from them seemed like an easy fit. At Cibola Farms they grass-feed their bison through a thoughtful program of field rotation, not unlike what New Zealand farmers do with lamb. This results in a leaner, more flavorful and healthful meat. All sounds good to us.

It has always struck me as odd how American culture separates drinking and faith, as if to have one you must abstain from the other. While this is a gross generalization, it is not inaccurate either. While having breakfast at Eilleen’s (again, yum!) this morning my Father was telling me about the gorgeous Churches in Germany that had rowdy (and fun) beer halls in the basement. No way we would see such a thing here, but no one seems to question their faith for partaking. I can’t help but think how much more fun Church might be if there were beer halls in the basement.

As a retailer who has spoken to a great many people about their red wine preferences I have learned to put people into two separate categories. Lean and earthy or rich and jammy. It might be a bit unfair of me to categorize everyone one way or another, but for the most part this does hold true. I confess I find it a bit frustrating. While I understand people like what they like, I think correct context for appreciating a wine can go a long way towards enjoying it.

Leaner, earthier styles tend to come from Old World sources such as France and Italy. They are more acidic on entry and tend to reveal themselves on the finish. These wines prime your palate for food and take a back seat to your meal. The higher acidity helps to make the flavors of your food more pronounced and create harmony with the dish. As the French say, food is the star of the show and wine is the supporting cast.

Rich, and jammy wines have a place too, but it is rarely with the meal. My complaint on this front is that sometimes the flavors are over-ripe and sugary (which is the dirty, little secret of their appeal) and the corresponding alcohol is just too up front. Longer hang times for the fruit result in more sugar, which results is more alcohol produced during fermentation. If done well these wines can be great sit-by-the-fire and sip wines. My favorites of this category are the wines of Torbreck, a great Australian producer who manages to create depth and mask the alcohol quite well.

I think both styles have a place, and that is just the point.

It may seem counterintuitive to be planning a large, premium meal when times are as tough as they are, but this is the one area I refuse to cut back. We are not buying clothes or taking trips but for Thanksgiving I wanted a big, beautiful meal and that’s exactly what we made. Even better we spent it with family and close friends.
Apparently we are not the only ones, the NY Times has an article today called In Lean Times, A Bountiful Meal.

As promised we have put our first prized bottle in the Enomatics. The 2002 Colonial Estates ‘Exile’ which received a whopping 98 points from Robert Parker.

Produced from a dry-farmed, single vineyard of old vine Shiraz (some of which are 120 years old), the stunning, inky/purple-tinged 2002 Shiraz Exile was aged in 100% new French oak. A sweet nose of black fruits, flowers, melted licorice, and espresso roast precedes a wine of amazing concentration, compelling intensity, and a tremendous finish of more than 60 seconds. Although expensive, readers must take into consideration the age of the vines as well as the limited production. This exquisite Shiraz is approachable, but promises to hit its peak in 3-5 years, and last for two decades. Kudos to proprietor Jonathan Malthus for his work in the Barossa.

I have seen many of you look longingly at the bottle on the shelf, and now is your opportunity to taste something truly unique and special. This is one of the reasons I love the Enomatics so much. We would not be able to offer this wine by the sample, half-pour or full-pour without this technology. It has taken a wine that previously only a few get to enjoy and offered it to everyone.

We have known since last December when Southern Living came around that there would be a piece on Fredericksburg’s downtown and now it is finally out. As picked by veteran Southern Living travel reporter Tanner Latahm we have been included in his top five picks.

Click here to check out the piece.