MARIANI’S

Virtual Gourmet


  MAY 3,  2015                                                                                             NEWSLETTER




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"Cafe Scene Paris" (1872) by Henri Gervex

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IN THIS ISSUE
GIVING DALLAS ITS DUE 
By John Mariani


NEW YORK CORNER

BKB
By John Mariani


NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR

WHAT I'M DRINKING NOW

By John Mariani


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GIVING DALLAS ITS DUE
By John Mariani

"Blue Bonnet Spring" (2014) by Rick Turner

    I’ve spent a good deal of time rolling my eyes whenever my friends and colleagues in the food and travel media show their ignorance about Dallas by referencing stereotypes that might just as easily be applied to anywhere in Texas, so I’m not about to do that here.  For, not only is Dallas very different from any other city in Texas, including nearby Fort Worth, it is now the state’s most diversified, having weathered both the recession and the recent drop in oil prices far better than other cities so intimately tied to the oil industry.
     Texas needs no apologists. Hell, its favorite sons and daughters carp loudly enough to drown out the city’s rampant boosterism--none more than the late Dallas-based Molly Ivins, who once said, “I dearly love the state of Texas, but I consider that a harmless perversion on my part, and discuss it only with consenting adults.”  Indeed, I’ve found Dallasites far more introspective about themselves and their city than a boom town mentality requires.
 
                                            Trinity River (photo: Rick Turner)
    Now that it’s springtime and the blue bonnets are blooming,  it’s the ideal time to visit what I wincingly will call, just once, Big D, for come summer, the weather gets brutally hot and as humid as Guatemala.  Right now the Texas sun’s brightness makes the whole city gleam, nowhere more impressively than in the Dallas Arts District--the largest in the U.S.--lined with the Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center (below, left), Crow Collection of Asian Art, and the Winspear Opera House, whose architects include international masters like Edward Larrabee Barnes, Renzo Piano, I. M. Pei, and Norman Foster.  In fact, the sun gets so intense that the reflective glass from a building across from the Nasher has been damaging the statues.

    Not far away is the stunning Perot Museum of Nature and Science (below), founded with a $50 million gift from the children of hi-tech billionaire Ross Perot and built by Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate Thom Mayne as a cube of  pre-cast concrete panels on whose façade a tilted 54-foot escalator runs within a 150-foot glass-encased tube.

    Such spaces of course beg for major arts events, which include Broadway shows at the Opera House; an adaption of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility at the Dallas Theater Center; and staged readings of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.
    There is also the funkier Bishop Arts District, composed of 60 boutiques, eateries, cafés and art galleries, which hold upcoming events like the Brew Riot (May 17), the Wine Walk (June 4), and the annual celebration of Bastille Day (July 14) with a mussels competition, outdoor markets, wine tastings, Vespa rally, crêpe stands, pétanque courts, French music, and dancing.
    The architecture of downtown, which three decades ago included fine examples of the post-international style, is again gaining stature from a slew of new buildings soon to be topped off.  This is Texas, however, so size matters, especially when Dallas comes in as the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the nation, with a population of 1.2 million people.  Odd then, that at midday, you could throw a horseshoe down most streets and not hit anyone.  By comparison with  New York, Chicago or Boston, Dallas can seem something like a ghost town, even if traffic coming into the city in the morning can be irksome. DFW Airport is a royal pain to get to, but Love Field is fifteen minutes from downtown.
    The city fathers, led by a progressive Democrat mayor named  Michael Rawlings, proudly boast that Dallas is the number one tourist destination in the state, with 14 entertainment districts, and that its diversity comes from 18 area Fortune 500 companies, which include AT&T, Southwest Airlines, Texas Instruments, and Wal-Mart, as well as Exxon-Mobil. Everything here is measured by factors of being the tallest, biggest, widest, deepest, and most-est, including the kitschy totem of “Big Tex,” a 52-foot statue of a cowboy at the entrance to the State Fair of Texas. With the roof closed, the Statue of Liberty, torch and all, could fit into Cowboys Stadium. The Galleria is home to the country’s largest indoor Christmas tree. The largest permanent model train exhibit in the country is on display in the lobby of the Children's Medical Center.  When completed, the Trinity River Corridor Project will be more than 10 times the size of  New York's Central Park. They even brag that Dallas is the largest metropolitan area in the nation not on a navigable body of water. And, of course, the city is home to five pro sports teams—the Cowboys, the Texas Rangers, the Stars, the Mavericks, and FC Dallas soccer.

    The Dallas entertainment and food scene is exploding right now, and next week I’ll write about where to stay and eat in town.

    By now I think you should have gotten my drift on how the city trumps all stereotypes lodged against it as some relic of that trashy eponymous TV show that was at first filmed out at the Southfork Ranch (you can still visit it) but later shifted production entirely to a Hollywood studio lot.  Indeed, if I’d take the name “Dallas” out of this article, one might not think I was speaking about a city in Texas at all.

    One of the enduring reminders, however, of the Dallas of another, darker era is the stretch of Elm Street at Dealey Plaza (left), site of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald, who fired a rifle from the sixth floor of the Book Depository Building above the route.  Everything is still pretty much as it was on that grim afternoon of November 22, 1963--two “x’s” mark the spots on the route where the bullets hit Kennedy, and the infamous grassy knoll is still there. And the Book Depository now has a museum devoted to the event.

    Talk to any ten Dallasites and you’ll still, after all these years, get ten different stories of what happened that day, ranging from yarns about numerous shooters at every angle to the notion that Oswald was really trying to kill Texas Governor John Connolly.  The whole ghastly story has become part of American folklore, but, when you’re standing right there,where it always quiet,  it still carries the power to make your heart sink.

    A few blocks away a somber, colorless concrete monument to Kennedy by Philip Johnson sits on Memorial Plaza.  Intended to be a place for quiet reflection, the monument is stark, without any sense or reminder of the President himself, whose assassination tainted Dallas’s image for decades.

    Which is why I recommend going next door to the Old Red Museum of Dallas County History & Culture--a splendid red sandstone Victorian structure dating to 1892 as the city’s original County Courthouse.  Today it is a museum of wide-ranging exhibits (through June 8 it has a show of “The Architectural Styles of Dallas”).  But what I love most about this beautiful space is the oversized (of course) neon sculpture of Pegasus (right), the flying horse of Greek mythology that was once the icon of Mobil Oil (formerly Magnolia) gas stations.  Displayed in a large room with an arching ceiling, it glows with a fiery symbolism that seems as much Texan as it is Hellenic.
  Photo: Rick Turner
    What’s more, the original porcelain and enamel Pegasus, created in 1934 to sit atop the Magnolia  Hotel, has been again mounted for everyone in Dallas to see, hoisted onto an oil derrick-like structure outside the vast Omni Hotel.  Watching the shiny red horse turn slowly, like a weather vane, you’ll get a true sense of where Dallas came from while imagining which way it goes from here.  




                                                                                                                                            Photo: Rick Turner

 



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NEW YORK CORNER
By John Mariani


BKB
321    East    73
rd Street (near Second Avenue)
212-861-1038

www.bkbrestaurant.com 

        The likelihood of my trekking out to the Hamptons during the summer is somewhat less than the prospect of my climbing Mount McKinley in winter. Getting there is sheer agony. 
      
Still, there are some good restaurants out there, so I am delighted that one of the most highly regarded has now opened a year-round outpost on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, many of whose residents brave the traffic jams on the Long Island Expressway every weekend in summer.
     BKB derives from the Bay Kitchen Bar, owned by
Eric Miller and his son Adam (below) in East Hampton, and while the Manhattan branch looks little like the seaside original it is a very handsome 44-seat dining room indeed, with walnut herringbone flooring, stainless steel accents, bentwood chairs with cobalt blue fabric, and wall-to-wall gray curtains that, along with buffering panels under the wooden tables, soak up the noise, making this a civilized place to have a conversation.  There is also a beautiful glass bar where beverage director Maura  McGuigan works her magic with signature and classic cocktails. (She’s one of the few bartenders who admirably still muddle drink ingredients. A daiquri I requested was perfect.)
     Eric, along with chef de cuisine Keith Rennie, oversees the downstairs kitchen (the wait staff must develop tremendous calf muscles carrying plates up and down all night), and his culinary slant is Mediterranean, with a focus on seafood he gets from a wide variety of established sources, not least Montauk, where some of the best fish on the Atlantic coast are landed.
    Some of that falls into the “Raw and Chilled” and “Marinated” sections of the menu, including a selection of Little Neck clams and Eastern oysters ($6), fluke with citrus-watermelon salsa ($18), and a tartare of lustrous yellowfin tuna mixed with crab, avocado, tomato, fennel, cucumber and a spiking of mustard oil ($18).  There is also a “Snacks” listing on the menu, but the portions are too generous to be thought of as mere nibbles.  The shortrib (below) with baby carrots and crisp corn flour shallots ($18) makes for a savory appetizer, and the lump crab cake with gold rice salad, corn, tomato, avocado and chili crème is a true harbinger of summer fare.
   The “First Courses,” then, are proportioned accordingly, including a platter of
fritto misto ($19)--chickpea-crusted mixed seafood with slowly cooked tomato and basil--which was pretty standard without bettering so many other examples you’d find around town.
   It is nearly impossible for me to turn down a lobster roll (below) if it’s on a menu, and BKB’s is outstanding--a big, hot, toasted potato bun chock full of lobster meat blended subtly with mayonnaise and seasonings ($28).  (Now a digression about lobster rolls: The first appearance of the item was in Milford, CT, at an eatery named Perry’s in the 1920s but was well established throughout New England a decade later, usually as a cold lobster sandwich sold at seaside stands.  The heated lobster roll is more of a Long Island variant, and it’s more to my taste, especially in the evening.  That said, BKB’s version--lobster served cold in a hot bun--is still one of the best I’ve had. It would be better still if it came with fries or chips.)
    Fluke, from Hampton Harbor, is a wonderful, silky fish cooked here to a turn, with tangy Sicilian capers, aromatic herbs, an abundance of buttered orzo, and crisp rainbow chard ($34). I did try one non-fish dish, roasted duck ($34), and got half of the bird, roasted to achieve a crisp skin and succulent interior, with wilted greens and dried cherries.  The sauce had a fine balance of sweetness and sourness; in fact, I found one of the subtle pleasures of Eric Miller’s cooking is its acidic components that keep dishes bright and piquant.
    Do not forgo dessert. Pastry chef Lukas Pohl, acquired from the Czech restaurant Hospoda that formerly occupied BKB’s space, shows a deep understanding of the rigors of making perfect strudel ($12) and the wonderful texture of a rhubarb crumble ($14), though his awkward upside down Key lime tart might be better right side up.
    Adam Miller, the general manager, was not on the premises when I visited, but he has a very amiable wait staff.  Odd, then, that we repeatedly had to ask for tablespoons for both sharing dishes and scooping up the wonderful sides, and then spoons alone--no forks?--were brought for dessert.
    The wine list at BKB has real intelligence behind it, thanks to Eric Heine, who is certified by the Court of Master Sommeliers.  His choices all make sense, and there’s much to admire in the number of bottles under $75. Wines by the glass are also of good quality.
    BKB may not have the ocean air of its Long Island original, but it has the credibility to become a favorite on the Upper East Side, where for the moment you don’t have to fret about getting a reservation and you surely don’t have to take hours to get there.  

Open nightly for dinner.



 

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NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR

WHAT I'M DRINKING NOW
By John Mariani

I suppose I drink nearly as much white wine as red, but I find the former rarely impresses me as does the latter for the distinctions within varietals and for the importance of terroir and microclimates.  Thus, over the last few weeks, these reds have given me as much pleasure as wine for thought.

 

Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 ($165)—Always in the Big Leagues of Napa Valley winemaking, Beringer’s Private Reserve has been winning prizes since the early 1980s for this big, chewy cab, now made by Laurie Hook in a more balanced way than in the past.   At 14.6 percent alcohol it skirts being a blithering blockbuster, and it shows strong evidence it will only get better in the next five to ten years.

 

Virna Lisi in "The Secret of Santa Vittorio" (1969)



Grand Bertrand La Forge Corbières 2011
($80)—The parcel of land that grows the Syrah and Carignan grapes for this sturdy, dark red wine are in the Corbières region in the South of France, and Gérard Bertrand, which pioneered the Boutenac appellation, traditionally neither presses nor filters its wines, keeping the grip firm with tannin and 14.5 percent alcohol. Few wines of the region can command this price, and it's wise to keep it around for a few years to soften it up.

 

G 2011 Tribute to C.P.  ($320) –South African vintners have been working very hard to give their country’s wines the cred of the Old World’s, so when Denis Dubourdieu and Giorgio Dalla Cia teamed up winemaker Mia Fischer to  make this oddly named blend of  Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot, they were out to match the Premier Crus of Bordeaux. With grapes selected from five different vineyards across the Western Cape area (with only 1,943 bottles produced), the producers are extremely selective in the vineyards, picking and sorting the best, healthiest grapes, which are then hand crushed. I found this bottling very impressive, big, bold and a little high in alcohol (15%) but showing abundant dark fruitiness and tannins tamed by the Merlot component. It’s boldly priced along the lines of French cru appellations.

 

Il Fauno di Arcanum 2010  ($30)—This Tuscan estate was purchased in 1994 by the Jackson family in the Chianti Classico region, whence come many of the so-called “Super Tuscan” Bordeaux-style blends.  That hyper-inflated moniker has pretty much been dismissed by now, but Arcanum is definitely producing a Bordeaux blend—56% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Franc, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 1% Petit Verdot--that still shows its rustic Italian style.  “Il Fauno” was supposedly a guardian god of the territory, where the grapes often ripen early in rich, clay soils. Winemaker Pierre Seillan capitalizes on the terroir to produce a truly luscious I.G.T. wine that rides on its own name for recognition, and it’s been very successful in the market at a price far below other Tuscan beauties of its kind.


Josh Cellars Pinot Noir  ($17) –Ever surprising for its consistency, balance, fruit and price, Josh Cellars produces an array of wines to be enjoyed any night of the week, and the Pinot Noir has plenty of cherry flavors that make it so good with lamb, pork and wild salmon.  Producer Joseph Carr wants more people to drink wine, and if that’s going to be the case, he wants most of them to drink his.

 

Blank Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 ($116) –The Grace Family Vineyards name, begun by stockbroker Dick Grace, is one of the most respected in California viticulture, having established their reputation in partnering with Caymus and Hartwell Estate Vineyards. Other estates used their grapes, which began with one acre back in 1976. The newest arrangement is with Blank Vineyard, owned by Alan and Chotsie Blank, in Rutherford, dating back to the 2001 vintage.  With just 13.8% alcohol this Cabernet Sauvignon is soft even now.  The price is actually down from some of the earlier vintages, and I see this on the web for $75 and up. 

 

Tenuta di Ghizzano Il Ghizzano  2012 ($15-$19)—Seven centuries seems long enough to pretty much guarantee consistency, and Tenuta di Ghizzano has been made by the Peciolini family that dates its viticultural heritage to the 14th century. The estate is in the Colline Pisane region, near Pisa, and all the family’s wines are certified organic.  By long tradition the grapes (85% Sangiovese, 15% Merlot) are crushed underfoot, using indigenous yeasts, and the finished wines come in at a delightful 13.5% alcohol. Such a wine distinguishes those of the Colline Pisane tradition, which is to make wines that are easy to drink and difficult to forget.

Maison Roche de Bellene Volnay Vielles Vignes 2011   ($35)—This is a new maison negoçiant bought by Nicolas Potel, who is focusing on vielles vignes (vines 40 years old or more)  and terroir  and farming according to the principles of lutte raisonée (“sustainable viticulture”).  The name derives from "Belenos," a Greek god of sun and beauty and the origin of the city name, Beaune.  The Pinot Noir vines in this parcel run 46 to 62 years of age, with clay and limestone soil that gives it excellent minerality. The wine spends 15 months in oak barrels, 20% of them new, and the end result is an enchanting Volnay with characteristic Pinot Noir fruit, liveliness, and an admirable 13 percent alcohol.

 


 

Melka CJ 2012 ($65)—With 20 years experience under their belts,  Philippe and Cherie Melka have been making single vineyard wines in Napa with names like Jumping Goat, Mekerra, and CJ, their largest production wine, which draws on the best local producers.  The CJ (an acronym of their children’s names) is made unblushingly in a big Cabernet Sauvignon style, at 15.2% alcohol, and it’s going to make those who love that style very happy without knocking them off their seats.  Philippe trained in Bordeaux vineyards, Cherie studied microbiology in Arizona, and the two make a good match, as shown in their distinctive, terroir-driven wines with value in mind. Even today only 1,500 cases are made and are 100% Cab—something you don’t see all that often anymore in Napa.

 


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HE THEN ASKED FOR HEIDI KLUM'S CELL PHONE NUMBER
After being wrongfully imprisoned for 36 years, the first thing Michael Hanline (left) wanted to eat on getting releaased was a burger like he'd seen “in the commercials.” Accompanied by his defense team,  Michael arrived at Carl’s Jr. and ordered the Mile High Burger-- “the one that they showed on TV with the bacon on it.”  He told the waitress to make the burger “Just go as big as they go.” On taking his first bite, he said, "So this is what meat tastes like!"




THEN THEY JOINED MIKE HANLINE
AT CARL'S FOR A MILE-HIGH BURGER

According to the New York Post, while driving through Michigan,  sisters (left) Leslie Roy and Lee Marie Wright's SUV became mired in snow and wouldn’t budge.  There was no cell phone service, and the car eventually ran out of battery power. Trapped for two weeks, they lived on eight boxes of  Girl Scout cookies and a bag of cheese puffs stored in the car. In the end, a police helicopter spotted the car and rescued the women, who were in relatively good health, thanks in large part to all the cookies.










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 Any of John Mariani's books below may be ordered from amazon.com.



   I'm proud and happy to announce that my new book, The Hound in Heaven (21st Century Lion Books), has just been published through Amazon and Kindle. 
     It is a  novella, and for anyone who loves dogs, Christmas, romance, inspiration, even the supernatural, I hope you'll find this to be a treasured  favorite. The  story concerns how, after a New England teacher, his wife and their two daughters adopt a stray puppy found in their barn in northern Maine, their lives seem full of promise. But when tragedy strikes, their wonderful dog Lazarus and the spirit of Christmas are the only things that may bring back his master back from the edge of despair. 

WATCH THE VIDEO!

“What a huge surprise turn this story took! I was completely stunned! I truly enjoyed this book and its message.” – Actress Ali MacGraw

“He had me at Page One. The amount of heart, human insight, soul searching, and deft literary strength that John Mariani pours into this airtight novella is vertigo-inducing. Perhaps ‘wow’ would be the best comment.” – James Dalessandro, author of Bohemian Heart and 1906.


“John Mariani’s Hound in Heaven starts with a well-painted portrayal of an American family, along with the requisite dog. A surprise event flips the action of the novel and captures us for a voyage leading to a hopeful and heart-warming message. A page turning, one sitting read, it’s the perfect antidote for the winter and promotion of holiday celebration.” – Ann Pearlman, author of The Christmas Cookie Club and A Gift for my Sister.

“John Mariani’s concise, achingly beautiful novella pulls a literary rabbit out of a hat – a mash-up of the cosmic and the intimate, the tragic and the heart-warming – a Christmas tale for all ages, and all faiths. Read it to your children, read it to yourself… but read it. Early and often. Highly recommended.” – Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling author of Pinkerton’s War, The Sinking of The Eastland, and The Walking Dead: The Road To Woodbury.

“Amazing things happen when you open your heart to an animal. The Hound in Heaven delivers a powerful story of healing that is forged in the spiritual relationship between a man and his best friend. The book brings a message of hope that can enrich our images of family, love, and loss.” – Dr. Barbara Royal, author of The Royal Treatment.




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The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink by John F. Mariani (Bloomsbury USA, $35)

Modesty forbids me to praise my own new book, but let me proudly say that it is an extensive revision of the 4th edition that appeared more than a decade ago, before locavores, molecular cuisine, modernist cuisine, the Food Network and so much more, now included. Word origins have been completely updated, as have per capita consumption and production stats. Most important, for the first time since publication in the 1980s, the book includes more than 100 biographies of Americans who have changed the way we cook, eat and drink -- from Fannie Farmer and Julia Child to Robert Mondavi and Thomas Keller.


"This book is amazing! It has entries for everything from `abalone' to `zwieback,' plus more than 500 recipes for classic American dishes and drinks."--Devra First, The Boston Globe.

"Much needed in any kitchen library."--Bon Appetit.




Now in Paperback, too--How Italian Food Conquered the World (Palgrave Macmillan)  has won top prize  from the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.  It is a rollicking history of the food culture of Italy and its ravenous embrace in the 21st century by the entire world. From ancient Rome to la dolce vita of post-war Italy, from Italian immigrant cooks to celebrity chefs, from pizzerias to high-class ristoranti, this chronicle of a culinary diaspora is as much about the world's changing tastes, prejudices,  and dietary fads as about our obsessions with culinary fashion and style.--John Mariani

"Eating Italian will never be the same after reading John Mariani's entertaining and savory gastronomical history of the cuisine of Italy and how it won over appetites worldwide. . . . This book is such a tasteful narrative that it will literally make you hungry for Italian food and arouse your appetite for gastronomical history."--Don Oldenburg, USA Today. 

"Italian restaurants--some good, some glitzy--far outnumber their French rivals.  Many of these establishments are zestfully described in How Italian Food Conquered the World, an entertaining and fact-filled chronicle by food-and-wine correspondent John F. Mariani."--Aram Bakshian Jr., Wall Street Journal.


"Mariani admirably dishes out the story of Italy’s remarkable global ascent to virtual culinary hegemony....Like a chef gladly divulging a cherished family recipe, Mariani’s book reveals the secret sauce about how Italy’s cuisine put gusto in gusto!"--David Lincoln Ross, thedailybeast.com

"Equal parts history, sociology, gastronomy, and just plain fun, How Italian Food Conquered the World tells the captivating and delicious story of the (let's face it) everybody's favorite cuisine with clarity, verve and more than one surprise."--Colman Andrews, editorial director of The Daily Meal.com.

"A fantastic and fascinating read, covering everything from the influence of Venice's spice trade to the impact of Italian immigrants in America and the evolution of alta cucina. This book will serve as a terrific resource to anyone interested in the real story of Italian food."--Mary Ann Esposito, host of PBS-TV's Ciao Italia.

"John Mariani has written the definitive history of how Italians won their way into our hearts, minds, and stomachs.  It's a story of pleasure over pomp and taste over technique."--Danny Meyer, owner of NYC restaurants Union Square Cafe,  The Modern, and Maialino.

                                                                             





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FEATURED LINKS: I am happy to  report that the Virtual Gourmet is  linked to four excellent travel sites:

Everett Potter's Travel  Report

I consider this the best and savviest blog of its kind on the  web. Potter is a columnist for USA Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury  Spa Finder, a contributing editor for Ski and  a frequent contributor to National  Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com  and Elle Decor. "I’ve designed this site is for people who take their  travel seriously," says Potter. "For travelers who want to learn about special  places but don’t necessarily want to pay through the nose for the privilege of  staying there. Because at the end of the day, it’s not so much about five-star  places as five-star experiences."  THIS WEEK: NEPAL EARTHQUAKE; KENTUCKY DERBY; LATTER FROM PARIS; THE WHITNEY MUSEUM.






Eating Las Vegas is the new on-line site for Virtual Gourmet contributor John A. Curtas., who since 1995 has been commenting on the Las Vegas food scene and reviewing restaurants for Nevada Public Radio.  He is also the restaurant critic for KLAS TV, Channel 8 in Las Vegas, and his past reviews can be accessed at KNPR.org. Click on the logo below to go directly to his site.



                     




Tennis Resorts OnlineA Critical Guide to the World's Best Tennis Resorts and Tennis Camps, published by ROGER COX, who has spent more than two decades writing about tennis travel, including a 17-year stretch for Tennis magazine. He has also written for Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, New York Magazine, Travel & Leisure, Esquire, Money, USTA Magazine, Men's Journal, and The Robb Report. He has authored  two books-The World's Best Tennis Vacations (Stephen Greene Press/Viking Penguin, 1990) and The Best Places to  Stay in the Rockies (Houghton Mifflin, 1992 & 1994), and the Melbourne (Australia) chapter to the Wall Street Journal Business Guide to Cities of the Pacific Rim (Fodor's Travel Guides, 1991).





nickonwine: An engaging, interactive wine column by Nick Passmore, Artisanal Editor, Four Seasons Magazine; Wine Columnist, BusinessWeek.com;  nick@nickonwine.com; www.nickonwine.com.



MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly.  Editor/Publisher: John Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani, Robert Mariani,  Misha Mariani, John A. Curtas, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein, Andrew Chalk,  Dotty Griffith and Brian Freedman. Contributing Photographers: Galina Dargery,  Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.


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