http://www.joe-ray.com/motherland/ Food writer and photographer Joe Ray's gastronomic visits in Europe - the home of his ancestors - and beyond. en joearay@gmail.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-04T21:31:51+00:00 http://www.joe-ray.com/site/lobene_wing_recipe/ http://www.joe-ray.com/site/lobene_wing_recipe/#When:21:31:51Z New wing story bonus #2! You’ll have to go to DBGB to try chef Kevin Lobene’s smoked BBQ wings, but I got him to share his sriracha hot sauce recipe… WINGS 20-30 wings, cut into flats and drumettes SAUCE ¼ lb. (one stick) melted butter 2 cups sriracha hot sauce ½ cup honey crushed red pepper 1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds BLUE CHEESE DRESSING 2 cups sour cream 1 cup mayonnaise 1 cup blue cheese crumbles ¼ cup red wine vinegar ½ cup lemon juice Celery & Carrots, cut into sticks. Combine melted butter, sriracha, honey and a pinch of crushed red pepper in a saucepan and set aside. Combine all dressing ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Bring 1.5 qt of canola oil to 350 degrees in a wok or Dutch oven and lower wings in with a metal skimmer or strainer. Fry, stirring occasionally for 13-15 minutes. Dry wings on a paper towel, then transfer to a metal mixing bowl. Coat wings with hot sauce and serve in a bowl, sprinkled with sesame seeds. Serve with a side of blue cheese dressing, carrots and celery. 2012-02-04T21:31:51+00:00 http://www.joe-ray.com/site/buffalo_if_go/ http://www.joe-ray.com/site/buffalo_if_go/#When:21:06:50Z As a little bonus for my chicken wing story in The Daily, here are a few of favorite places to visit for wings in Buffalo. To avoid fights, I’ll just say here that this is neither an exhaustive list, nor a top ten, but they’re all good! Anchor Bar 1047 Main Street Buffalo, New York anchorbar.com Kelly’s Korner 2526 Delaware Ave. (716) 877-9466 Papa Jake’s 1672 Elmwood Ave. (716) 874-3878 Casa di Pizza 477 Elmwood Ave. (716) 883-8200 casadipizza.com Gabriel’s Gate 145 Allen Street (716) 886-0602 DBGB 253 Allen St. (716) 240-9359 dukesbohemiangrovebar.com And when you can take no more… Allen Street Hardware 245 Allen St. (716) 882-8843 allenstreethardware.com 2012-02-04T21:06:50+00:00 http://www.joe-ray.com/site/is_paris_the_world_champion_of_gastronomy/ http://www.joe-ray.com/site/is_paris_the_world_champion_of_gastronomy/#When:17:16:39Z That’s the question French food critic Francois Simon posed to a little panel: Nick Lander, Carlo Petrini, Ken Hom, Anissa Helou, Yumiko Inukai and…yours truly. For a recent article in Le Figaro’s magazine, Figaroscope. Here’s my response in Version Originale… World capital? That’s loaded question. Twenty years – even 10 – ago, the question was bandied about for fun but we already knew the answer, but now, just using the places I know well, it’s a legitimate debate. Barcelona combines an unquenchable curiosity and solid base to keep themselves on cuisine’s front edge. Sicily combines incredible raw ingredients with solid value and New York could win on sheer numbers yet it is Paris’ equal in quality and exponentially more diverse. India is a time machine whose cuisine never ages. Plus, in Paris, coffee is awful and the beer second rate. It’s also pricey. That said, you forget all problems instantly when the former butcher who can hold four bottles of wine in one hand and owns Le Severo puts a côte de boeuf aged 40 days under your nose. You forget it when Pierre Gagnaire boils down a great vat of red wine to make a tiny component of a sauce. You forget it when Laetitia at Le Bistro Paul Bert greets you with a smile, seats you at your favorite table and gifts you with a glass of wine and when it comes to choosing a bottle of wine doesn’t foist something you can’t afford on you. You forget it when three bottles, two glasses of Calvados and one conversation into a meal, you realize with a start that it’s 5 a.m. and you’ve been at the table for nine hours. Undeniable world champ? Not anymore. However, the French exception still reigns. Let’s call Paris first among equals. Follow me on Twitter: @joe_diner and on Facebook. 2012-01-26T17:16:39+00:00 http://www.joe-ray.com/site/daily_diners/ http://www.joe-ray.com/site/daily_diners/#When:05:40:09Z Walking into Vancouver’s Red Wagon, I spied one of the largest men I’ve ever seen. He had a twinkle in his eye, as if the waitress had just served him his favorite dish. Ever. Under his nose, a mound of buttermilk pancakes rose from an oval plate, interspersed with layer upon thick layer of pulled pork. Pinned to the side of the mound with a toothpick was a pair of butter pats. If a customer so wishes, he can also have a pair of eggs, sunny side up or over easy, atop it all for good measure. The man at the table certainly did. Whether they have been around for a while, or are new spots simply conjuring an older ethos, a handful of diners across North America are shaking things up, putting smarter, better food on the Formica while keeping prices within reach. ... read the rest here in The Daily. 2011-12-31T05:40:09+00:00 http://www.joe-ray.com/site/daily_cristal/ http://www.joe-ray.com/site/daily_cristal/#When:05:18:49Z The Eiffel Tower and the snowglobe weren’t the only great legacies of the Paris World’s Fairs, though one of the longest-lasting icons spawned there resembles both. Louis Roederer’s Cristal champagne was the result of a meal hosted by Russian Czar Alexander II at the fair’s 1867 edition. More than a century later, the wine’s history would bubble over into a controversy involving one of America’s richest MCs — a tale that began with some serious bling and ended with a boycott. Cristal is arguably the most desirable bottle of champagne in the world, a pure status symbol. It’s what economists call a Veblen good — something like a Rolls-Royce or a Hermès Birkin bag, whose desirability increases with its price. That kind of exclusivity was exactly what Alexander II had in mind. ... read the rest here in The Daily. 2011-12-31T05:18:49+00:00 http://www.joe-ray.com/site/carbonating_at_home/ http://www.joe-ray.com/site/carbonating_at_home/#When:05:07:46Z The steel briefcase arrived inside two other boxes, Russian doll-style. Its combination-lock latches flipped skyward with a gratifying snap. In the briefcase, snug inside custom-shaped foam, lay a device that looked like it was designed by a committee made of Steve Jobs, Q from James Bond lore and a sex therapist. My therapy, however, would be the liquid kind — I’d be carbonating cocktails at home. ... read the rest here on WIRED.com. 2011-12-28T05:07:46+00:00 http://www.joe-ray.com/site/afp_sicily_wine1/ http://www.joe-ray.com/site/afp_sicily_wine1/#When:07:02:07Z LINGUAGLOSSA, Italy — When a would-be winegrower comes to Salvo Foti, Sicily’s top wine consultant, for tips on starting a vineyard, he begins with a warning: to make good wine you have to be in it for the long haul. “When they ask me ‘What’s the first thing I should do?’. I say ‘Have children’,” Foti told AFP, as he strolled among the thick, knotted vines of his own property on Mount Etna’s northern slope. The son and grandson of Sicilian winemakers, Foti believes that getting the Italian island to shine requires a long-term commitment. His teenage son is at his side to oversee the harvest, learning just as he once did. “Many winemakers are not thinking of the future,” says Foti. “If you’re thinking about money right now, you’re not thinking about terroir and what’s good for the vineyard.” ... read the rest here with AFP. 2011-12-10T07:02:07+00:00 http://www.joe-ray.com/site/daily_solomonov/ http://www.joe-ray.com/site/daily_solomonov/#When:05:50:44Z When a towheaded 3-year-old crossed the threshold of Federal Donuts, she beamed as if someone had hit a switch. “Does she ever turn that off?” the cashier asked of the girl’s smile. The answer turned out to be “Not while she’s here.” Chef Michael Solomonov opened the Philadelphia hot spot in mid-October. The budding restaurateur also opened a sandwich joint, Percy Street Barbecue, in early November, a satellite of the South Street original he opened two years ago. (For good measure, he had his first kid, David, in August.) Solomonov, 33, also owns Zahav, a three-year-old, high-end Israeli street food restaurant. Every venue, whether takeout or sit-down, is tops in its class. ... read the rest here in The Daily. 2011-12-03T05:50:44+00:00 http://www.joe-ray.com/site/morgenthaler/ http://www.joe-ray.com/site/morgenthaler/#When:16:20:19Z Before I visited Portland to meet bartender extraordinaire Jeffrey Morgenthaler, I visited his blog. One distracting post, now two years old, offered video of a man giving the health department all the reasons it needs to send an inspector. In the post, titled “How to Make a Daiquiri – The American Bartending School Way,” Morgenthaler recaps “the way” with a 10-point breakdown, including steps like: 1) Chill an 8-ounce cocktail glass; 2) Pick your nose, and wipe the resulting findings on the back of your hand; 5) Wipe nose on back of hand for four full seconds; and 10) Enjoy! Morgenthaler’s subtle jabs make a sharp point about his craft. Along with descriptions of new products like Xanté Pear Liqueur — headline: “Not A Sex Toy!” — Morgenthaler uses his blog as a platform to announce what he’s doing at the bar in Clyde Common, a Portland restaurant. The drinks and styles he writes about tend to become cocktail-world trends. ... read the rest here in The Daily. 2011-11-12T16:20:19+00:00 http://www.joe-ray.com/site/news_flash_early_christmas_in_cobble_hill/ http://www.joe-ray.com/site/news_flash_early_christmas_in_cobble_hill/#When:03:08:30Z The Txikito gang has been doing some early Christmas shopping. Alex Raij and Eder Montero, the couple who made Chelsea a better place by opening both Txikito and El Quinto Pino, signed a lease on Monday for a new Brooklyn restaurant, La Vara, slated to open in early 2012. Located in the spot recently vacated by the ill-fated Breuckelen restaurant at 268 Clinton St. - next to the lovely Ted & Honey Café - Raij says the cuisine will be “Spanish food seen through its Moorish and Jewish roots.” The food will be a mix of small plates and shareable larger dishes. “The basis will be home cooking, not the traditional ‘meat, starch, veg,’” says Raij. Who’ll be running the line? “We will, for now,” she says. Somewhere in there, Raij will also be having a baby. “We did our last opening like that,” she jokes. Why change now? Follow me on Twitter: @joe_diner and on Facebook. 2011-11-10T03:08:30+00:00