The feta cheese recipe from the "Wine and Mediterranean Diet" Tasting

I am delighted this was so popular!

Here's what you need:

1 pound of Bulgarian feta -- it's cheaper than French or Greek and to my mind has the best flavor. Buy it in blocks at a cheesemonger and DO NOT USE those plastic containers of horrible crumbs of feta that supermarkets sell in the dairy aisle.

1/3 cup or more of extra-virgin olive oil; the cheese should be moist but not runny.

Zest of 2 lemons

2 or 3 gloves of garlic, chopped, hopefully not hideous Chinese garlic but New York State or New Jersey grown, but use what you have

2 or 3 branches' worth of rosemary leaves.

1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper flakes, more to taste if you wish

A lot of freshly ground black pepper. You should grind enough that you hand should hurt.

Break the feta into smallish chunks. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and thoroughly blend with a wooden spoon or a very large fork, breaking up the bigger chunks of feta as you go. Cover, refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight or longer, shaking the bowl every so often. Serve with good South Philly style bread or plain crackers. Plan on making more than you think people will eat, because they will eat more. Watermelon or other sweet fruit makes a fine companion. The cheese will last in the icebox for quite some time.

NOTES: There are infinite variations here: for hotter cheese, use a teaspoon or more of your favorite hot sauce or Tabasco. For a funkier cheese, add a tablespoon of pickapeppa or Worchestershire sauce. A shallot or two, finely chopped, would add crunch. Make it vaguely Asian by using lime zest and oyster sauce. The herb could be thyme, sage, or basil.

Brad's Montreal/New York Odyssey -- Days Nine and Ten

Said goodbye to my hotel, where I would happily stay again, though my advice would be to skip the "free" breakfast, which was dreadful (tasteless croissants, awful coffee, third-rate orange juice) and not worth the price. Much better to walk 10 minutes to Brulerie St. Denis for the best cafe au lait I have ever had.
To Central Station for the train back to New York. VIA has men to help with baggage, the station is roomy and pleasant -- so much better the third-level-of-hell that is Penn Station in New York.
The ride back is long, but lovely scenery along Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. I saw a huge wild turkey strutting serenely in a field near Fort Ticonderoga. I can't imagine a better train for scenery east of the Mississippi.
Amtrak uses old Amfleet I coaches on the Adirondack, which are weary and tired (the carpeting in the cars is badly worn) but quite comfortable. The car was about half full and I was able to stretch out. U.S. customs was no more annoying than usual.
Amtrak sometimes gets a bad rap for indifferent service, but on this train both the train crew and the cafe car attendant were friendly, witty and helpful. Amtrak's cafe-car food is awful -- its dining car food can be good, though -- but then again the food is dreadful on FRENCH trains, so maybe Amtrak gets a pass.
I only need the beverages from the cafe car, though, which are OK (even the coffee is acceptable, if barely so) because I have a picnic packed of raw-milk cheeses, hot Quebecois sausage and crackers. The Langres, from Champagne, was stinky and runny and gooey and yuuuuuuumy. Also had well-aged Prince Edward Island cheddar, a wonderful Camembert, a ripe St. Marcellin and perfect Pont L'Eveque.
Due to Canadian Pacific track work we were about 20 minutes late into New York, but so what, I got more reading done. Cab to my hotel, The Jane, along the Hudson in the Village and chill for a bit before a short walk for dinner at the Corner Bistro.
The Bistro, one of the last old landmarks of the pre-zillionaire West Village left, is slightly misnamed; it's a dive bar with a cool neon sign, cheap booze, an ancient and sagging wooden bar, a jukebox packed with jazz and blues and a menu that offers chili, grilled cheese, a grilled chicken sandwich (which in 20 years of drinking there I think I have seen one person order), french fries, and burgers.
Dinner at the Bistro is an easy call: a bowl of chili, meaty in a rich stewish broth, topped with onions and cheese and best with about 6 serious jolts of Tabasco, followed by the Bistro Burger, which you want medium rare. It comes with lettuce, onions, tomato, cheese and bacon and is the best burger you will ever have. Period. I like extra onion on mine. I'd skip the fries, though they can be good later to soak up booze. They have wine, which I wouldn't order.
Wash it all down with a mug of McSorley's Dark Ale, have a Bushmills for an after-dinner drink and you have not spent $25. This would be a deal anywhere, but in Manhattan it is an epochal, epic bargain.
It helps that the place is often full of oddball Village characters, and the bartenders are classy, clever, fast and characters themselves; one is a playwright and actor, another a superb photographer who has had gallery shows of his work.
The Bistro is open until 4 a.m. every night, no matter what, and the kitchen closes at 3:30 a.m.
Manhattan has been Disneyified, gentrified and transformed by staggering amounts of money into a playground for the world's wealthy, but if you look the old Manhattan is hanging on in a place or two. The Bistro is as old-Manhattan as you can get.
Next day, sleep late and decide to have breakfast at the Cafe Gitane in my hotel before going to an art exhibit.
The cafe tries for, and pretty well hits, a French Mediterranean vibe. High ceilings, lazy ceiling fans, walls painted in soft-pastel washes, big windows, lots of sunshine. A gleaming and glistening full bar is attractive. A neat place to sit and while some time away.
Breakfast was very good. I had a carrot salad, grated carrots in olive oil, orange juice and mint, that, topped with fresh pepper, I could have eaten a huge bowl of by itself. Main was three eggs baked in tomato and basil and topped with grilled merguez sausage, a tasty combo though the sausage was a bit overcooked. Cappuccino was fine, and my Ricard pastis - a necessity in such an environment, which may as well have been Marseilles, if a rich neighborhood there, was served absolutely perfectly, in a Ricard glass with clear ice cubes in a small basket and water on the side in an adorable yellow Ricard-branded pot. This was the best Ricard service ever outside of France. Service in general was friendly if a bit languid; there's another Cafe Gitane in NoLita but the Jane location is far superior.
Off to the Asia Society for a terrific and highly-recommended exhibit of 17th century Chinese painting - running through 2 June; a real eye-opener for me about Chinese art, which I know little about. Also enjoyed an exhibition of statues and pottery from their permanent collection.
To Grand Central via cattle-car No. 6 train for lunch at -- where else? -- the Oyster Bar. The name tells you what to eat there: the raw bar, stews and panroasts; the fancier seafood is probably to be avoided.
A dozen perfect oysters - Cotuits and Martha's Vineyards from Massachusetts, Blueberry Points from Prince Edward Island and East Beach Blondes from Rhode Island, which is where, I must say, my favorite oysters, briny and richly flavorful, are coming from these days.
Unfortunately, the glass of Sancerre I chose to drink with the oysters - Domaine Fournier 2011 - was a dud. Sancerre goes with oysters because of its flinty minerality but this example was far too sweet and lacked any acidity. Very poor, and surprising at the Oyster Bar, where the wine program is outstanding. Stick with Muscadet or Chablis there.
Ran an errand or two then off to Carnegie Hall for the Staatskapelle Dresden under Christian Thielemann delivering a marvelous Bruckner 8th Symphony. Finished up with a late dinner at the Bistro, same as the previous night, then drive out of Manhattan and back to the real after a glorious vacation. Sigh.

Corner Bistro, 331 W. 4th St., New York. 212-242-9502. Open until 4 a.m. daily, kitchen closes at 3:30 a.m.

Cafe Gitane at the Jane Hotel, 113 Jane St., New York. 212-255-4143. Open 7 a.m.-midnight, until 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Oyster Bar, Grand Central Terminal, 89 E. 42nd St., New York. 212-490-6650. Open 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Mon-Saturday. 

Brad's Montreal Odyessey -- Day 7 , 16 Avril 2013

The seventh of the dailuy blogs, featuring food and drink, from Montreal!

Tuesday it rained.
A lot.
Pelting down, cold rain. Not a day for exploring neighborhoods, though I had the foresight the day before to buy a cheap umbrella on St. Viateur Street at a Jean Coutu, the Duane Reade of Montreal.I had a concert at night too so dinner plans had to take that into account.
Still, I had plans for a rainy day. I went to the Marche Atwater in the Little Burgundy neighborhood, a more "Anglo" area, as they say, west of downtown. It was a short, but soaking, three-block walk from the Metro. Once there, I found a smaller version of the Jean Talon market, perhaps more upscale. It had some hardy maple syrup vendors in outside, but covered stalls.
I wound up buying cheese at Fromagerie Atwater, including a Langres de Champagne that was the disovery of the trip among French cheeses, plus some Saint-Justin, Montreal's local sparkling water I saw only at this shop the whole trip and quite good, coffee and Cuban (!) chocolate, rich and silky and not too sweet, 70 percent cocoa.
Then I got a baguette at the city's premier local bakery, Premiere Moisson, and that was one awesome piece of bread, ttangy, good crust, nicely chewy. VERY friendly ladies work there too, tolerated my French (most Francophones just broke into English when they heard me speak French).
Lunch, or really breakfast the way things went, was a delicious sandwich from a stand in the market called Charcuterie de Tours that had every kind of sausage and cured meat imaginable. I had a strong German-style sausage with really good, sinus-clearing Dijon mustard and topped with fresh sauerkraut and pickles on a tasty hard roll. Washed that down with the Saint-Justin.
On the way out I bought a can of Quebec No. 1 maple syrup and a bit of maple syrup candy, a tasty sucker-style treat.
Slog through the rain to the Burgundy Lion pub to watch my Everton boys play Arsenal, a game Everton should have won but ended in a scoreless draw.
The pub was pure English. They could speak French, but the lingua franca here was English and I heard little French. Awesome selection of Scotch and Irish whisk(e)ys - but oddly no Dewar's, which is really rare in Montreal, and apparently no one drinks Scotch and sodas because when you order one people ask if you want it with Jameson. Uhhhh....
The beer selection was strong and I had pints of the Quebecois Blanche de Chambly -- crisp, refreshing, not sweet as some wheat beers can be -- and of Okanagan Spring ale from British Columbia, which seemed under-hopped and under-powered, kind of bland.
Ate dinner at the Lion after the game. Stayed with the beer for a vegetable curry, nice and spicy and served piping hot over rice. The veggies could have been more varied, seemed like a lot of eggplant.
Bangers and mash was two house-made crumbly pork sausages with a coriander tang, very fresh and nicely cooked over good chunky mashed potatoes to covered with a very dark but perhaps underseasoned gravy. Service from two very, very attractive young lady bartenders was very friendly, even chatty, and prompt with refills of my beers and soda water.
I'm not sure I'd schlep too far out of my way to eat at the Burgundy Lion but if I lived nearby it would a fine local. Also finding soccer bars in Montreal is not all that easy so I'd certainly recommend going for that, big TVs and good beer.
That summed up the food day; I enjoyed the eclectic and nicely varied concert of the Montreal Chamber Orchestra that featured a concerto (more or less) for a 2-stringed Chinese instrument called the erhu (pronounced, as we were told by the soloist. errrrrrrrhhhh---WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!) on themes written around 200 AD in western China. It's the kind of thing I usually hate but this was enjoyable and didn't outstay its welcome The rest of the program was pleasing if not profound even if the Mozart 1st Symphony seemed flattish and tossed off. The  orchestration of Debussy's Petite Suite is always welcome.
Went home, ate some cheese and that good baguette as a snack with a couple of glasses of 2011 La Sablette Muscadet Sevre et Maine Sur Lie, a cheapie pickup at the liquor store and a good example of its kind. Tangy, lemony, some exotic spices on the finish. Paired well with aged goat cheese. In its price range ($12) Muscadet is the best white going these days.
Not bad for a rainy day eh?

Brad's Montreal Odyssey -- Day 3

The third of the daily blogs, stressing food and drink, from Montreal!

I have never vacationed  in a blasting, full-grade, kick-ass winter storm.
Until Friday.
The manager at the jazz club, Diese Onze, that I was Thursday noted as I left that eight to 10 inches were coming Friday. I didn't pay much attention, it wouldn't storm on my vacation, would it?
It would. And did.
A pelting, heavy, slippery, wet, messy snow, very difficult to walk in.  Howling winds. Thank goodness I had packed my heavy winter coat and a scarf but no gloves.
Slept late again, after Scotches and local Quebecois stout at the jazz club. Headed for a highly-recommended coffee shop just past L'Express, which had been a pleasant walk Wednesday night. Not so in the storm. Yuck. Montreal doesn't much believe in shoveling snow, apparently. A-slippin' and a-slidin' I was in a sleet-ish snow.
But Brulerie St. Denis was worth every snowflake that trickled down my neck. A true coffee heaven for devotees of the bean, this. A huge room filled with beans and baked goods opened into a pleasant seating area. I enjoyed a rich, perfectly-drawn espresso, a perfect, touch-sweet bowl of cafe au lait and a smallish but sweet almond croissant while catching up on blogging and my journal. I couldn't imagine better cafe au lait, which is often thin and too milky, so I had another bowl.
Then, caffeine-fueled, I made probably the day's worst decision. I was determined to get to Fromagerie - cheese store - Hamel, highly recommended by everybody, for cheeses to have in my hotel room. It didn't seem that far from the Jean-Talon metro station.
But -- here's the mistake -- instead of walking south to the Sherbrooke metro I walked north from the Brulerie to the Mont-Royal metro, which seemed just a but further but was in the right direction.
But "a bit" further on a nice day was sheer agony in the teeth of the storm. I did get there, looking like the Yeti, and then at Jean-Talon slogged more blocks to Hamel.
This had better be good.
Good? No. Great? No. The fromagerie of my dreams? Yes.
Nothing against Philadelphia mainstays Claudio's and DiBruno's, but Hamel simply blows them away.
And it's not just because they can sell imported raw-milk cheeses, mostly from France, that the stupid, nanny U.S. Department of Agriculture bans from America - now that's big government to hate!  They do sell those cheeses, though they have less Reblochon, Epoisses, Camembert and  Maroilles than they did Friday.
It's the whole operation - a number system for orderly service, a huge selection of French, Italian, Canadian, English, and American cheeses, sausages, salami, hams, all of sorts; a wall of mustards; mind-blowing bread: a full selection of bottled waters and the like; and a helpful, knowledgeable staff that offers generous tastes of anything you like. The staff will ask you, when you buy St. Marcellin, say, if you mean to enjoy it today; if so, they sell you a ripe one. If it is for later, you get one that needs time. Ditto with other cheeses; the clerk recommended against me buying his Munster because it would not be ready by Wednesday.
And it's all done at reasonable prices - the French cheeses that are available in the U.S., such as Pont L'Eveque, were cheaper here.
Now weighted down by a heavy sac of cheese, I went into the adjacent Marche Jean-Talon, one Montreal's several - really - versions of the Reading Terminal Market.
I was much more tired than I thought I was so I just gave it a cursory glance. I will be back, but I saw some awesomely marbled pork, brilliantly fresh fish and all kinds of ciders, cheeses, spices and produce. I want to go when not exhausted and soaked.
The trip back to the hotel was sheer misery, with the gutters flooded with water and slush, the sidewalks extremely slippery and the wind blasting snow in your face. I didn't fall, but my feet were soaked and I was drenched to the skin.
After drying out at my hotel and a lunch of baguette, spicy mustard, Badoit sparkling water and Louis d'Or, a Tomme-esque cheese from Quebec and lusciously nutty, I read for a bit and then headed out.
I was heading to break one of my oldest rules - don't eat at a jazz club. In New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Toronto, Antwerp, and Paris, this has consistently proven to be a terrible idea.
But Gary Tremblay, the manager at Diese Onze just north of the Brulerie, had talked me into coming for dinner. I wanted to see the band - the Matt Herskowitz Trio, Herskowitz is a pianist who combines classical and jazz. And the music was terrific, original, respectful of both genres, exciting, and furiously rhythmic. Herskowitz mixed adapations of Bach, Chopin, Beethoven and Gershwin with original compositions including a stunningly beautitful ballad 'Bella's Lament', and the occasional blues.
But you know the music in a quality club - this one is small, downstairs, atmospheric, dark, what I like in jazz clubs, with a reasonable noise level, in a city with perhaps the world's best jazz festival - will be good.
The question would be, how was the food?
The French-inspired menu had a selection of small plates - "appetizers" is what they used to be called - five mains, with additional specials.
The wine list was smallish - this was a small place, after all, with little storage - but had a good selection across France, Italy and the U.S. and there were 10 wines by the glass. The bar was well-stocked with bourbon, rum, gin, cordials and liqueurs but was very short on Scotch and Irish. My aperitif was a well-served Ricard.
I opened with chicken liver mousse whipped with port, which came with warm rounds of bread, a nice touch, and a small salad. The portion was generous. The mousses was light, with a fruit accent from the port but still earthy., It went well with a glass of 2007 Loupiac from Domaine de Noble, which was sweetish more than sweet, a touch of acidity and a really firm, grapey finish.
My main was risotto with mushrooms, topped with sliced parmesan. It was served hot as could be, again a generous portion. It needed some fresh black pepper to come alive, but there were a nice mix of mushrooms amid the well-cooked and tasty rice. If not as creamy as some  risottos, this one was deeply flavored and intensely satisfying. The glass of 2010 Coudoulet de Beaucastel Cotes du Rhone that went with it, though, was very disappointing; flat, with little acidity or grip, just  barely enough fruit to maintain interest. A stiff from a prestigious producer. Wine by the glass is always a crapshoot, but I saw a lot of wine being opened, so my guess was that this hadn't sat around very long; it just was not very good.
No dessert, instead I had a couple of pints of St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout from McAuslan Brewery in Montreal - one fine stout.
Service was well-paced and efficient but since the manager and I had become friendly the evening before and he had reserved me the best seat in the house while pointing me put specially to the bartender, I certainly may have received special treatment.
So guess what? You CAN eat in this jazz club, and the music is great. You could dine better, sure, but the convenience of eating where the music is, and the quality of the food, earns Dieze Onze a solid recommendation.
The manager then invited me to join him at a bar near my hotel for a nightcap, which he drove to to spare us a slog through the slush. L'Ile Noire had a fine beer selection, cider on tap and over 140 single-malt Scotches at reasonable prices. I enjoyed a half-dram of Highland Park fifteen-year-old and a couple of pints of Quebec cider. Service was warm and fast. Visiting Scotch hounds, make a beeline here!!!
I got back to my place at 4 a.m. and had a bite of cheese,. Quite a day; I am glad I didn't let the weather snow on my parade!

Brulerie St. Denis, 3967 Rue St. Denis, Montreal H2W 2M4. Open 0700-2200 daily.

Fromagerie Hamel, 220 Rue Jean-Talon Est, Montreal, H2R 1S7. Open 0900-1800 daily, 1900 on Fridays.

Diese Onze, 4415-A 3967 Rue St. Denis, Montreal H2W 2M4. Music nightly. Covers under $10. Open until at least 0200.

L'Ile Noire, 1649 Rue St. Denis, Montreal H2X 3K4. Open daily 1500-0300.

A.C., ac, ac: The Report

Overall a successful and delightful tasting. Dave Wolf’s food was terrific and matched the wines well.

2005 Domaine de Petit Paris Monbazillac
Wow, what a way to start! Americans have an irrational aversion to sweet wine, and it’s almost unknown here to serve them as an aperitif. Europeans do so much more often – the French drink ruby port as an aperitif – and often serve cheese with sweet wines. With wines like this, you could see why. A honeyed, liquorous nectar that both satisfied and whetted the appetite. Rich nose of mead, wildflower and caramel, tropical fruit and peach and clover honey on the palate, endless flavor with acidity to support the richness, long, long finish of apricot tossed with vanilla. Improved as it breathed into the kind of nectar you could imagine Odysseus sipping on Ithaca. Heavenly – almost as deep and luscious as a really good Sauternes and better than some lesser Sauternes I have had. This wine also shows why vintages matter – I have had this house’s 2002 vintage and it was racy, dryish, short, not nearly as lush and sweet. 2005 was a glorious year all over France – this wine shows why. At $18, an utter steal, bargain of the year. Don’t serve too cold, but it needs a good chill. Went well with Gorgonzola dolce from Italy, a creamy blue cheese. ****3/4

2006 Domaine de Petit Paris Bergerac Sec
Semillon/Sauvignon blend, never sees oak, meant to be crisp and refreshing and basic and it is all of that. Pineappley, citrusy, nose covered by too much chill, eventually opened up as limey and tart. Good acidity keeps the semillion’s lusciousness in check, a little quince and grapefruit on the palate and zippy, clean if a tad short on the finish. Pleasant without being especially memorable, but, at $11, it’s a solid everyday wine with seafood, lighter cheeses, chicken, salads, even Caesar salad. Would be superb with simple fish dishes and ethnic cuisine as well. Paired well, if not perfectly, with a rich crabcake (sole, say, would have been better). Good bistro wine. **1/2

2006 Domaine de Petit Paris Bergerac Rouge
A clunker. Grassy, stalky, wet-leaves nose, bitter and unripe on first tasting, not much fruit, hot, jammy, short, bitterish, chemical finish. A shock after the first two wines. Mostly Merlot, which makes one wonder if the merlot did not ripen, how green was the Cabernet Sauvignon that went into this? Yikes. Mellowed slightly in the glass but never gained the sweetness and plumpness good Bergerac Rouge can have. Alcoholic, not in good balance. $11. Not worth it. Fortunately the beef daube with pearl onions survived anyway. *

NV Jean Filloux COQ Grande Champagne Cognac
One Cognac fan called this the best one he’d ever had. I wouldn’t go that far but it is surely, easily the best $38 Cognac I have ever had. Filloux uses no artificial colorings or additives common in industrial Cognacs and his grapes are situated in the best part of Cognac. Deep nose, not hot at all, a hint of creaminess on the palate, bracing, nutty, and a lovely, warm but not hot finish that went on and on. Well-balanced. The first Cognac I have had that you could call refreshing. Perhaps not a Cognac to go with a full-bodied cigar but with a lighter stogie (Dunhill, say) it would be fine. Because of its lightness and crispness, an outstanding digestif. Filloux also made the Pineau de Charentes that was a big hit at the rose tastings. He also makes Cognacs of higher grade than this, including some high-end ones that mist be spectacular. This could hardly be bettered; you can spend a lot more and get nothing as tasty as this. ****