Dr Vino's wine blog

Dwight Garner, the astute book reviewer for the NYT (be sure to check out his hilarious review of The 4-hour Body from last year), ventures into the food section this week with what he calls a “thrifty and unacknowledged American classic”: the peanut butter and pickle sandwich. Or PB&P, if you will. He delights in the “vinegary snap of chilled pickle cuts, like a dash of irony, against the stoic unctuousness of peanut butter.”

I can’t say that I’m swayed by this description and remain skeptical of the appeals. Nonetheless, given that the NYT spotlight is now focusing on this, the question everybody’s going to be asking–sort of the Rule 34 for bizarre foods–is which wine goes with PB&P, or is it impossible?!?

Hit the comments with your thoughts! Thanks, @trouty for the suggestion!

Behold the douche burger, a “a f—ing burger filled and topped with rich people s–-t.”

The $666 burger has gotten a lot of media attention but for the description, we’ll cut right to the owner of 666 Burger, a food truck (yes, this burger comes from a truck, presumably relocated to the Hamptons for the season):

“Kobe beef patty (wrapped in gold leaf), foie gras, caviar, lobster, truffles, imported aged gruyere cheese (melted with champagne steam) kopi luwak bbq sauce and Himalayan rock salt. It may not taste good, but it will make you feel rich as f–k. Douche.”

Hey-oh! That’s some spicy talk to go with the champagne-melted gruyere! Even though the 666 burger man only sold one burger and more or less admits it’s a hoax, which wine would you pair with this burger? Something to go with the lobster, the caviar, the kopi luwak sauce? Or match the minerality of the gold leaf? Goldschlaeger? Ace of Spades, the “gold bottle”? Or just a magnum douchy wine? Or is it…impossible?!?

Okay, we just did an “impossible” challenge but it reeked of pipi and April foolery. So here’s something more useful: five veggie burger recipes via the Times, where the article was as high as number two on the most emailed article list over the weekend.

Seeing it on the way to the Trade Joe’s, we decided we would try it out here at the Dr. Vino World Headquarters. We made the “curried lentil, rice and carrot burgers” and they were pretty good (though the cumin smell will linger in the kitchen for days). It was so impossible for me to pair with wine that I went with a Bengali Tiger, the supremely balanced and utterly delicious IPA from Sixpoint brewery in Brooklyn.

There are other challenges on the list: Beet, Rice and Goat Cheese Burgers; Quinoa and Vegetable Burgers With Asian Flavors; Mushroom and Grain Cheeseburgers. Each has a particular aspect making it difficult, but at least a couple can offer some fun red wine pairings for vegetarians. Unless you think they are…impossible?!?

Ah, spring is in the air. And people around the world are thinking about eggs. Here, we have bunnies who lay colored and chocolate eggs. In China, it turns out, the springtime air in Dongyang fills with the smell of hot urine and the gastronome’s mind in that city then turns to…eggs. Let’s hear the recipe for this “delicacy” from Reuters: “Basins and buckets of boys’ urine are collected from primary school toilets. Eggs are then soaked and cooked in the urine.” A vendor touted the health properties, saying “If you eat this, you will not get heat stroke.” A shopper who was buying 20 eggs pushed the health angle further: “we will not have any pain in our waists, legs and joints. Also, you will have more energy when you work.”

Given China’s growing interest in wine, perhaps they need a little help with the wine pairing? If you were a sommelier in Dongyang, what would you serve with urine-boiled eggs–or is it impossible?!! A sauvignon blanc with notes of pipi de chat?

Chef Yannick Alléno, recipient of three Michelin stars, adores New York hot dogs. According to a piece in the NYT Dining section, he loves the hot dog so much that he wanted to make a French version, out of calf heads. Instead of calling it literally a “chien chaud,” he opted for truth in labeling, going with “veau chaud” (hot calf). Site reader Caleb Ganzer writes in to see if we might try to pair it up. And to that we reply “fo sho with the veau chaud”

So here’s a bit more on the dish that can be eaten without a plate. The nine-inch sausage is made from “edible bits of a cooked calf head, or tête de veau” (brains and eyes excluded). Served on a mulitgrain (!) baguette, the dog, or calf, is topped with gribiche sauce, which is a vinaigrette with capers, cornichons, and hard boiled egg, herbs and mustard.

“I have adapted the ‘dog’ to the true ambience of Paris,” Alléno told the Times. “There is nothing more Parisian than tête de veau.”

And there’s nothing more French than wine! So which wine would you pair with it? Or is it…impossible?!?

Over the weekend I was out to dinner at a nice restaurant and encountered something I hadn’t seen for a while: the iceberg wedge slathered in blue cheese and bits of bacon. I told my cousin sitting next to me that I was surprised to see this retro dish on the menu, remarking that the last place I had read about it was when Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft with a net worth of $14 billion, was “dipping bits of iceberg lettuce into a ramekin of blue cheese dressing” at his canteen, a private dining room at a Seattle steakhouse. My cousin assured me that is coming back thought not as comfort food as I had suspected, but as an ironic appetizer. Yes, ironic!

Well, no matter why it’s coming back, the dish is appearing on tables again. And if that’s the case, then let’s help the Steve Ballmer and others. Which wine would you pair with an iceberg wedge and blue cheese dressing (bacon optional)? Or does that blue cheese dressing make it…impossible?

Recipe and photo credit at seriouseats.com

Is food-wine pairing dead? Never! And the same is true of our “impossible” pairings. So by request, we kick off 2012 with an easy one for you: grilled cheese.

Yes, it’s comfort food. And, no, it’s not impossible as the bread-cheese duo is the basis of so many delicious staples from pizza to ravioli. So raise the degree of difficulty, if you so desire, by adding a twist to the classic by suggesting your favorite cheese. (Incidentally, Ruth Reichl gave some tips last week on Gilt Taste about how to make grilled cheese better, including grating the cheese and adding a thin layer of mayo!) Who knows, maybe your grilled cheese will be graced by a depiction of the Virgin Mary it and you can sell it for $28k on eBay!

Bryan, who asked the question originally, said he went with Australian cheddar and a Simon Bize Savigny-les-Beaune 2009. How would you spin it?

A team from National Geographic ventures into a pharmacy in Hong Kong. They try to discern the medicinal from the “magic potions.”

Bringing back memories of The Great White North, they crack open a bottle of mouse wine–yes, it is what you think it is. Then they sample three penis wine described as “a delicate blend of dog, deer, and seal penis” that helps kidneys and “male sexual power.” They describe it as “creamier” than the mouse wine. Go figure.

We usually try to pair wines with wacky foods, but what dish would you pair with three penis wine? Or is it too hard, nay, impossible?!?!

ht guyawoodward