Hir; Eclipsed; Chinatown, NY, Street Eats at The Borgata

What Millennials Drink

Lettie Teague wrote an interesting article recently in the WSJ http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-millennials-are-changing-wine-1446748945
Have you noticed that these days wine is sold by "the story". Wine merchants tell you about the winemaker, the land, the region; everything except the wine! Two things are at work here, first, people like to think that what they are buying is special and unique and second, it appears that "good by association" the opposite of "guilt by association" is at work. If the winemaker has some affiliation with a top winery or the vineyards border good vineyards then a wine must be good.

I am more of a traditionalist. I want a wine from a winery that has some history of producing good wines. I love to experiment but I am not looking for a small "boutique winery" that makes a small amount of reasonably priced wine that I can be one of the "few" to own. I am interested in finding good wine not status or pretty labels.

I find the same is true for "craft beers. Just because someone make a small amount of beer, does not make it good. Lots of people cook but there are very few people that I know that can produce good food.

A good example of wines that I enjoy are wines from Beaujolais. The region is making a small comeback. However is has not become trendy. Cru Beaujolais(wines from distinct towns in the regions such as Morgon and Fleurie) are excellent wines and are reasonably priced. You can purchase top of the line wines for $16 to $30. I visited the region a few years ago. (see my post about Lyon and Beaujolais) Some good producers are Chateau de la Chaize, Brun, Dubeouf (he makes some good wines). 2011  and 2014 produced some very good wines but good producers make good wines in most vintages.

Eclipsed

We saw Eclipsed at the Public Theater in NYC. The play stars Lupita Nyong'o. The play is now moving to Broadway. http://eclipsedbroadway.com/?gclid=CjwKEAiA7MWyBRDpi5TFqqmm6hMSJAD6GLeA6AAlUmVl4_bpfvNIkU2kc3ljYF8wm3P2GjEMPZX5ZxoC7n7w_wcB The play is about women during the recent Liberian civil war. The play has gotten raves. We enjoyed the play, the acting is very good but it is not a must see. Not sure if a "small" play like this will be effective in a Broadway theater.

We walked down to Chinatown afterwards. Just follow Mulberry Street for a food tour. We found a restaurant Shanghai Heping Restaurant at 104 Mott Street.We had steamed tiny buns with pork, $5, and steamed vegetable dumplings $4.95. The place is clean and the service was good. The dumplings were light, fresh and had great flavor. We also took home some more dumplings. I then went to NY Noodletown, the old reliable, for roast duck. I bought a whole duck for $20 and some ribs. Both were outstanding. I then bought assorted fresh veggies at the street stands. We then went to Ferrara's http://www.ferraranyc.com/ for dessert -rainbow cookies and some pastries. We brought it all home for a feast.

Hir

The week before we saw Hir http://www.playwrightshorizons.org/shows/plays/hir/ at the Playwrights Horizons on 42nd street. Hir is written by Taylor Mac, a fav on ours. This play has also gotten great reviews and is about gender. If you love Sam Shepherd plays you might love this. The acting is great but we were not overly impressed. Taylor Mac is a better performer than writer. Think a Woody Allen movie without Woody.

After this play we went to Chinatown and Little Italy again. We went to a restaurant called 456 on Mott Street for dumplings. They were good but not great. 456 has very good food, is nicely set out and is reasonably priced. I would encourage you to experiment in Chinatown as there are many good places to eat.

Street Eats at the Borgata.

The Borgata in AC has a food weekend every year and we attended this year. On Saturday their main event is in the big event center and is centered on street food from all over the world. Each of the Borgata restaurants serve food at the event and Bobby Flay, Wolfgang Puck and Geoffrey Zakarian were in attendance. Bobby Flay gave a food demonstration.

 The fried quail.

 Some great chocolates.

 How to cook a steak.

 I like this beer and it is made in NJ.

 Desserts. They look better than they tasted.

 The Borgata does things first class. Everything was well organized and it was not overly crowded . There was a line for the food by Bobby Flay and Wolfgang Puck. The best thing of the evening was fried quail by someone not famous.

I have been trying lots of new wines lately. Nothing overly impressive.I did buy a few top Cru Beaujolais from  Astor Wine  http://www.astorwines.com/which is down the block from the Public Theater. They have a good selection of wines from all over and their prices are decent. They also deliver and your first purchase gets free delivery.

 Interestingly the 2006 Moet Champagne just received a 93 from the Wine Spectator. Will be trying it later this week. Moet is such a cliche but they can make some great Champagne. Dom Perignon is made by Moet.

Thanksgiving is coming up. Lots of good food and wine.

Enjoy.