1. On Thurs.
March 8, John Mariani will moderate a panel at The
French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)
with César Award winner, former Chanel model,
and expert wine producer Carole Bouquet for a special talk on
the occasion of International Women’s Day at 7 PM at
FIAF’s Le Skyroom. The iconic actress and
personality, recently decorated Commander of the
Order of Arts and Letters, will speak with noted
food writer and historian John Mariani about her
prolific career as an actress, her passion for
gastronomy and art, and her delicate wine, Sangue
d’Oro, produced on the island of Pantelleria, south
of Sicily. Le Skyroom, 22 E 60th Street (between
Park and Madison Avenue); FIAF Members $20,
Non-Members $25; | 800 982 2787.
2.
On Sunday, March 11, John Mariani will give a
lecture and book signing of his book How Italian Food
Conquered the Worldat Tomasso
Trattoria Enoteca in Southborough,
Massachusetts from 5 PM-8 PM; Call
508-481-8484.
❖❖❖
THIS WEEK
SHOULD YOU GO TO
MEXICO CITY RIGHT NOW? by John Mariani
NEW YORK CORNER
Tromphe by
John Mariani
Wines
of the Rhône Valley Are Difficult to Know
But Easy to Love
by John Mariani
❖❖❖
SHOULD YOU GO
TO
MEXICO CITY RIGHT NOW?
by John Mariani
It's a
reasonable question and one I was asked by friends
before I went to Mexico City: "Is it safe?" "Aren't
you afraid of being kidnapped?"
Having gone
ahead with my plans, I can very easily answer the last
question and give some perspective to the
former. The idea of kidnapping a tourist on a
whim--as in "Hey, Miguel, look at that gringo coming
out of the hotel. Why don't we just kidnap him?"--is
both farcical at face value and completely unrealistic
in fact, simply because the traffic in Mexico City,
from early morning till well into the evening, is so
terrible that there would be no way whatsoever for a
prospective kidnapper to toss you in the back seat of
a car and zoom off to a hideaway. Also, the city has
installed 8,000 video cameras to aid in crime
prevention in high-traffic locations.
Every time I got into a car to go
anywhere--even half a mile, in any direction--it was a
45-minute ordeal through the worst bumper-to-bumper
traffic I've ever encountered. Traffic, thus, is like
a security blanket over the city, so that while
pickpockets or muggers might lurk in the shadows,
Mexico City is as safe, or dangerous, as any major
city. In fact, a February 8th traveler's advisory by
the U.S. Government notes that "millions of U.S. citizens safely visit
Mexico each year for study, tourism, and business [and] there is
no evidence that Transnational Criminal Organizations
have targeted U.S. visitors and residents based on
their nationality. Resort areas and tourist
destinations in Mexico generally do not see the levels
of drug-related violence and crime reported in the
border region and in areas along major trafficking
routes." Nevertheless, outside of Mexico City, in 14
Mexican states including Chihuahua and Sonora, "crime
and violence are serious problems throughout the
country and can occur anywhere. U.S. citizens have
fallen victim to TCO activity, including homicide, gun
battles, kidnapping, carjacking and highway robbery."
According to the warning, the reported number of U.S.
citizens murdered in Mexico increased from 35 in 2007
to 120 in 2011." Ouch!
So. Over my recent week's visit to
Mexico City I never felt in any way coerced or unsafe,
and the pleasures of this great capital (traffic
excepted) are as historic as any in the Western
Hemisphere. I stayed at a modern boutique hotel
named Condesa DF
(above), set
in a 1928 French Neo-Classical Building, with a
snappy antique car out front, in the neighborhood of
the same name, near the Avenida Amsterdam lined with
cafés, eateries and shops. The rooms are
not large but they are quiet, and there's a very
popular rooftop garden where you can take cocktails
before heading out to dinner. (I will be reporting on
restaurants in an upcoming issue.)
Having been to Mexico City--there
called Ciudad ("the City")--several times over the
years, my first impression on this visit was that, as
ever, it is expanding at an amazing rate; the
official, probably conservative figure for population
is around 20 million, with the average household
spending is now $50,000, the highest in Latin
America. Its GDP is based largely on financial
and professional services, and there are 844 hospitals
and 500 public and private universities. A new Ecobici
bicycle-loaning system has been established.
Given its horrendous history of air pollution, the
city has implemented a 15-year Green Plan, with 59% of
the total area of the Federal District designated as
conservation lands, and a new subway system under
construction.
Assumingall these improvements
actually take hold--after all, this is
Mexico--the modernity of this 700-year-old city should
make what is already so attractive about it much
moreso, so that visiting the historic monuments and
world-class museums here will become easier than in
the past. The Centro Historico, anchored by the
vast Plaza de la Constitucíon (above), known as
the Zócalo ("pedestal"), is the site of the
Aztec Templo Mayor (accidentally discovered by
telephone repairmen) as well as Latin America's
largest Catholic Church, the Metropolitan Cathedral, recently
stabilized after centuries of sinking into the
soil. Its architecture, reflecting the passage
of Spanish colonial rule and the independence
movement, is symbolized by the liberty bell by Padre
Hidalgo in the Palacio Nacional.
It is impossible to do more than list a handful
of Mexico City’s 160 unique museums, from the Museo
Nacional de Arte to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, from
the Museo
Nacional de Antropologia (right) to the
Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo.
This time in town I visited the remarkable
Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño in
Xochimilco, famous for its collection of Diego Rivera
and Frida Kahlo works (Kahlo is more intimately
represented at the Museo
de Frida Kahlo’s “Blue House,” her birthplace in
Coyocán).Set within extensive gardens, the museum, built
from a 16th
Century structure by one of Rivera’s favorite and
wealthiest models and patrons, Ms.
Patiño, and opened in 1994, the museum
also contains 900 archaeological pieces from ancient
cultures, and offers concerts, recitals, and craft
fairs.When
I was there, the Museum had an exhibition of the
riotously colorful, hilariously eerie Day of the Dead
artwork (below),
which extended in dioramas of entire rooms.
Mexico City is indeed its neighborhoods, each
of which has been evolving over the past decade, many
to become the most fashionable in Latin America.(Pick up a
free copy of Stylemap Mexico City,
published by the city.)There
is a tremendous amount of green space inCondesa,
as well as grand homes and condos, attracting new
cafés and restaurants on a daily basis.
Zona Rosa, also
with its bounty of greenery, though not the center of
the city, was once the most fashionable district,
centered by the beautiful Independence Monument topped
by the beloved El Angel figure and flanked by broad
avenues including the Champs Elysée-like Paseo
de la Reforma.
Polanca is Mexico City’s high-end, very wealthy
sector, with lavish Mission-style homes set behind
high walls.Here
you’ll find the best stores, though these days “best”
means less indigenous than it does global, with all
the international names, from Gucci to Chanel, arrayed
along its chic boulevards, especially the Boulevard
Presidente Masaryk. An even wealthier neighborhood,
Las Lomas, is where ambassadors live, whereas Santa Fe
is the quickly developing, high-rise apartment
building region on the city’s western edge, said to
resemble Houston more than traditional Mexico.
Change and modernism is inevitable in Mexico
City, but the old reasons one came here—glorious
Mexican architecture, great artwork, charming strolls
along the avenues, and interconnection with the
people—are still the main attractions, if you can just
get through the traffic.
An article on Mexico City’s
cuisine and restaurants will appear in an upcoming
issue.
❖❖❖
NEW
YORK CORNER
TRIOMPHE Iroquois Hotel
49 West 44th Street
212-840-3080 www.iroquoisny.com
West 44th Street between Fifth and Sixth
Avenues has two historic hotels named after Indian
tribes--the more famous Algonquin and the
Iroquois, which opened at the beginning of the
last century. Its Wigwam Bar debuted in 1939, and it's had its share of
celebrity guests, including James Dean (who now
has a suite named after him), who stayed there for
two years in the early 1950s. A decade later its
cabaret was a popular venue at which to see the
best new comedians, like Woody Allen Joan Rivers
and Rodney Dangerfield.
There have, of course, been many
changes and upgrades at the hotel, one of which is
the intimate new Triomphe restaurant, headed by
executive chef Jason Tilman, whose
résumé includes stints at Le Cirque,
Morimoto, and David Burke's restaurants. Now,
with breakfast, lunch, dinner and room service on
his plate, he has his hands full with pleasing
everyone, but he is striking some very personal
chords of his own at Triomphe.
The room, just past the lounge,
is an oasis of civilized dining in a NYC scene of
outrageously loud restaurants. Here the
atmosphere is provided by the sound of people simply
enjoying their own company, the food and
wine. Trim, well-set tables with crisp linens
and good stemware stand against rust-colored
banquettes and on polished hardwood floors, and
wall-sized mirrors open up the small interior
beneath a beautiful ceiling of intricate moldings.
Inset within the opposite wall are lighted ceramic
art, with abstract art on the third wall. The
service staff is attentive but not obtrusive.
(Incidentally, the lighting is lower and warmer at
night than the photos here indicate.) The wine
list is more than adequate to the menu, with some
good, fairly priced bottles throughout the
categories. Triomphe's
menu is wholly contemporary--New York modern with a
few Asian flourishes, and there is a richness about
Tilman's cooking that nevertheless doesn't come off
as heavy. To whit, his creamy but impeccably
pan-fried chicken livers with garlic crostini and
onions that have been braised in Sherry, a
fine dish that spotlights a neglected ingredient and
adds just the right components to remind you how
good humble chicken livers can be. Asian
shrimp dumplings are delicate, with a wakame salad
and a splash of ginger butter. Lobster bisque shows
Tilman's sure hand with the classics, here
served with wintry acorn squash and tangy-sweet
roasted apples. Seared sea scallops come with porcini
mushrooms and a lush bath of foie gras butter.
For entrees, another classic is
very welcome--sole meunière (below), lightly
floured and sautéed in good butter and served
with a generous shower of equally buttery
almonds. Australian rack of lamb with a
coriander crust came with foie gras-stuffed prunes
and a silky Port wine reduction, while branzino is
crisped and served with celeriac puree,
chanterelles, zucchini chips for texture, and a lush
Champagne beurre
blanc. Duck is seasoned
with black pepper and served with fried red rice,
grilled bok choy and pomegranate nectar. This
is not predictable fare, as it so easily and so
often is in a hotel restaurant, and it's an added
attraction in that Triomphe has a completely
separate entrance from the street.
Desserts seem more conventional
but with items like flourless chocolate cake, Tilman
adds the novelty of white chocolate "risotto" and
peanut brittle, and his cheesecake takes on cinnamon
apples and a honey almond granola.
Owing to its central address,
Triomphe is ideal for a pre-theater dinner before
heading west to Broadway and as a good place for a
meal in the Grand Central Terminal area. It's ideal
for a quite business lunch. Those looking for
pizzazz and trendy foods might wander west into
Times Square, but those with an enduring penchant
for fine food served hospitably will find Triomphe
far more to their liking.
Triomphe
is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Dinner starters $11-$18, main courses
$28-$40, with a fixed price 6-course tasting menu
at $95, with wines $145.
❖❖❖
NOTES
FROM THE WINE CELLAR
Wines of the Rhône
Valley Are Difficult to Know But Easy to Love
by John Mariani
The Rhône River
Valley at St. Joseph
I can’t recall the last time I took so
much pleasure in the tasting of an array of wines from
a single region—the Rhône Valley in France--as I
did this past week with dinners at home. As difficult
to get to know as any wine region in Europe, the
Côtes du Rhône wines do share a hearty
spiciness, rich in tannins and acid, that make them so
enjoyable without thinking too much about their
provenance.
Bordeaux is relatively easy to know
because its better wines are made at individual
chateaux; burgundy is tougher because so many
vineyards have multiple owners and merchants with
their own labels. But becoming familiar with
Côtes-du-Rhône wines, with their northern
and southern regions (which alone plants 23 grape
varieties), and names like Côte Rotie, Condrieu,
Crozes Hermitage, Gigondas, Châteauneuf-du-Pape,
Beaumes-des-Venise and many others, can be a lifetime
study, and there’s not much help out there. Robert M.
Parker, Jr.’s Wines
of the Rhône Valley has not been
updated in 15 years, and John Livingston-Learmonth has
not followed up his monumental 720-page The Wines of the
Northern Rhône of 2005 with a
companion volume on the South. Then, too, not until the 1980s did Côtes
du Rhône begin to develop anything close to the
historic reputation of the more illustrious Bordeaux
and Burgundy estates. Starting in the 1970s,
forward-looking merchants like E. Guigal
(controversial for introducing new oak to the aging),
Jaboulet, Chapoutier and Délas, modernized the
estates, while winemakers like Gérard Chave,
famous for his Hermitage, became local heroes for
their rigorous commitment to better Rhône wines. This column is not the place to launch into a
discussion of terroirs and Côtes du Rhône
history—the Gauls were making wine there by the first
century AD--but only to mention that the red wines of
the north are dominated by syrah while those in the
south are usually a blend of local grapes, mostly
grenache, syrah, mourvèdre, and cinsault. They
also tend to have slightly higher alcohol levels than
other French wines. The wines I chose
for my sampling were not random, though a January sale
prompted me to try some I was unfamiliar with. All but
one was from the 2009 vintage (now in the market for a
year), a warm, and drought-stricken year that tended
to make for higher alcohol levels, though I avoided
any wines above 14.5 percent.I also
tried one 2007, an excellent vintage, to see how it
was coming along.
Côte
Rotie terraced vineyards
The 2007
Les Halos de Jupiter
Vacqueyras par Philippe Cambie ($31), from
the south, was very powerful, still dense in tannins,
with a big bouquet and plenty of grenache fruit (about
85 percent), made more enticing by its blending with
syrah. I’d hang onto this for another two or three
years.Domaine de la Janasse
2009 Côtes du Rhône ($20) had enormous
charm, a joyous nose and plenty of fruit balanced by
easy acids, with just 50 percent grenache, making this
a fine red wine for just about any meat dish I can
think of but not with any seafood that leaps to mind.
Janasse is best known for his
Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but this lesser offering,
using just a little new oak, is a real bargain. Domaine La Milliere
Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2009 ($50) has
plenty of spice, from anise to cinnamon, in a dark,
intensity that comes from being made from “vieille vignes”
(old vines). It can certainly age well but it’s a
beauty right now, with the fire of 14 percent alcohol.
It’s worth every penny. Alain Graillot
Crozes Hermitage 2009 ($28) is typical of
its northern appellation, a Syrah-dominated wine with
well-knit elements of fruit and bold but softened
tannins and an excellent edge of acid that makes it so
good with food. Its 13 percent alcohol shows you don’t
have to go high to have heft. Graillot left a
corporate career to buy a vineyard in pig farm land,
whose excess of nitrogen was no virtue, but careful
upgrading drew praise for his first vintage, 1985 and
his reputation has steadily
grown.
Town
of Condrieu Château
Cambis 2009 Côtes du Rhône
Villages ($9) is that very rare thing—a beauty of a
French wine with little pedigree that sells for under
ten bucks. It’s got all the grenache fruit it needs
along with body and backbone. And it’s ready to drink
right now and for the next couple of years to come.
This is one of the best buys out there right now. Alain Jaume
& Fils Les Valais Rasteau 2009 ($22) is
from vineyards around the tiny, picturesque southern
village of Rasteau, made from 90 percent grenache, and
this 14.5 percent alcohol red is pretty
one-dimensional, without much of a nose, though the
wine went well with a rare porterhouse steak.
John Mariani's wine column appears
in Bloomberg
Muse News, from which this story was adapted.
Bloomberg News covers Culture from art, books, and
theater to wine, travel, and food on a daily basis.
❖❖❖
ONE
PICKY EATER, BRUTAL ASIAN TYRANT DIVISION
According to the LA
Times, the late "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il
used to send his personal chef to China to buy
mugwort-filled rice cakes and a pack of every single
brand of Japanese cigarettes.He
also had his rice cooked over a wood
fire, but onlyafter female workers inspected each grain of
rice to ensure they meet the leader's standards. Also, among his
favorite dishes was German giant rabbit, weighing 20
pounds.His liquor cellar
was stocked 10,000 bottles, spending up to$720,000 per year on
Cognac.
HOW
ABOUT, OH, NEVER?
"Pikanha's
scratches a deep carnivorous itch, for the
unapologetic diner who puts quantity before quality,
taste before health. But at the risk of discouraging
repeat customers, even Silva advocates restraint: `You
should not come here too much,' she says. `It is not
so good for you.' "--Jesse Hirsch, "How to Survive a
Brazilian Meat Party," East Bay Express.
❖❖❖
Any of John Mariani's
books below may be ordered from amazon.com.
My
latest book, which just won the prize for best
book from International Gourmand, written with
Jim Heimann and Steven Heller,Menu Design in America,1850-1985 (Taschen
Books), has just appeared, with nearly 1,000
beautiful, historic, hilarious, sometimes
shocking menus dating back to before the Civil
War and going through the Gilded Age, the Jazz
Age, the Depression, the nightclub era of the
1930s and 1940s, the Space Age era, and the age
when menus were a form of advertising in
innovative explosions of color and modern
design.The book is
a chronicle of changing tastes and mores and
says as much about America as about its food and
drink.
“Luxuriating
vicariously
in the pleasures of this book. . . you can’t
help but become hungry. . .for the food of
course, but also for something more: the bygone
days of our country’s splendidly rich and
complex past.Epicureans
of both good food and artful design will do well
to make it their coffee table’s main
course.”—Chip Kidd, Wall Street
Journal.
“[The
menus] reflect the amazing craftsmanship that
many restaurants applied to their bills of fare,
and suggest that today’s restaurateurs could
learn a lot from their predecessors.”—Rebecca
Marx, The Village Voice.
My new book, How Italian Food
Conquered the World (Palgrave
Macmillan) has just won top prize 2011 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,
Gotham Bar & Grill, The Modern, and
Maialino.
❖❖❖
FEATURED
LINKS: I am happy to report
that the Virtual
Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites:
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:
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 Online:
A 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).
The Family Travel Forum - A
community for those who "Have Kids, Still Travel" and
want to make family vacations more fun, less work and
better value. FTF's travel and parenting features,
including reviews of tropical and ski resorts, reunion
destinations, attractions, holiday weekends, family
festivals, cruises, and all kinds of vacation ideas
should be the first port of call for family vacation
planners. http://www.familytravelforum.com/index.html
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.
Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani, Robert Mariani,
John A. Curtas, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein,
Suzanne Wright,and Brian Freedman. Contributing
Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery,
Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.