Maui; The Outer Space and Pasquale Jones

The Outer Space

We saw The Outer Space in Joe's Pub at the Public Theater http://www.publictheater.org/Public-Theater-Season/The-Outer-Space/ in Manhattan last week. It is a one man play (Ethan Lipton) with a 3 person band. It was creative and fun. After the play we went to Pasquale Jones http://www.pasqualejones.com/ for lunch. It is on Kenmare and Mulberry streets in the lower east side. They have 2 wood burning ovens and a great wine list. We had pizza and a chopped salad. The ingredients are first rate and the ambiance is great. Check it out.


Maui

Travelled to Maui once more. We love the place. We stayed in Wailea at the Wailea Ekahi Village condoshttp://waileaekahivillage.com/. Made reservations through AirBnb and everything worked out great. We had a one bedroom unit with a Lanai and it was about an 8 minute walk to the ocean. The development is on the ocean so they have a clubhouse and pool overlooking the ocean. It is on Keawakapu Beach is a gorgeous swimming friendly beach. The beach is one of a number of Wailea beaches that can be reached by walking.

Wailea is a planned resort that has golf courses, hotels , condos, shopping and beaches. We really like the area much more than the Kaanapali/Napili/ Kapalua resort area, the other major tourist area in Maui.There are a number of small beaches in Wailea - Wailea Beach, Mokapu, Ulua and Polo. Check out this map of the area. http://waileaekahivillage.com/ekahiresort/mauimaps-2/

There is a blacktop path along the beaches that connect the hotels and condos such as the Andaz, Four Seasons, Marriott, Fairmont Kea Lani, and the Grand Wailea. It is invigorating to take the morning walk along the beach. At night the sunsets are great. The area is not crowded.

We took a whale watching and snorkeling trip. We saw many whales and snorkeled at Molikini. It was very good trip and very reasonable. We sailed on the Pride of Maui out of Maalea, about 8 miles from Wailea.https://www.prideofmaui.com/

We stayed 5 nights in Wailea and then went off to Hana. We stayed 3 nights at the Travaasa Hotel Hana  http://travaasa.com/hana/?gclid=CjwKEAjw8ZzHBRCUwrrV59XinXUSJADSTE5kUUGWpHY-rrDxcJuWo7SSe6ZUYaWdhpmI6gqROd8zoRoC5dnw_wcBin a condo unit with a full kitchen.

The hotel is one of our favorite places. The grounds are beautiful. It is very quiet with no television or clocks in the rooms.





The hotel has changing rooms and beach equipment on Hamoa Beach. Hamoa is a great beach. There is some shade and great swimming if you like waves. It is never too crowded. The beach is about 2 miles from the hotel.
Hamoa Beach

 The grounds of the hotel.

 Food is limited in Hana although the last time we were there a  number trucks other interesting places had opened. However this time it appeared that food options have diminished. The hotel has a very expensive restaurant and a bar restaurant attached. Hana Ranch has a restaurant that seems to have improved. There had been pizza in the jungle at Hana Farms but this stopped the week before we arrived.

 We brought food for several meals.We ate lunches at Braddah's Hut (a permanent truck) and Pranee's Thai which is now in a permanent truck. Previously it had been in a small hut. Food takes time to prepare in these places as they cook to order. Pranees was great and Braddahs was very good.

Braddahs Hut

Pranees

Hana is about 10 miles from the National Park with the 7 Sacred Pools. (Haleakala National Park) https://www.nps.gov/hale/index.htmThe park has a great hike to a 400 foot waterfall. We did this hike about 15 years ago when it was less famous. We did the hike again and it is still great. It is about 3 miles each way and it goes through a bamboo forest.

 The bamboo forest.

 A hidden red beach in Hana. I had never gone there before. The short hike was much easier than I expected.

Single Vineyard Wines, Portuguese Wines, Phoenix

Single Vineyard Wine v Blended Wines

Lettie Teague   in the WSJ had an interesting article last week  https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-single-vineyard-wines-more-singular-1487261502comparing single vineyard wines with wines blended from many vineyards. I tend to agree with the article.  My feeling is that many single vineyard wines are overrated.  You still need good grapes to make good wine and good vineyards can produce exceptional wine.  The more selective the winery is with  the grapes used for a wine, the better a wine. But you still need  a talented winemaker to make a good wine. A good winemaker knows how to blend grapes from a number of sources to make the wine that he/she wants to make. The single vineyard wine can really tie the hands of the winemaker.

However, many times but not always, the more info on a wine label the better chance that you can determine if a wine is good. For example, a wine that says California can  have grapes from anywhere in California whereas a wine that say Napa Valley must have most of its grapes from Napa. So like many other things in life, single vineyard wines versus blended wines - it depends.

Portuguese Wines

I just want to remind everyone that Portuguese wines can be great values. Last time I mentioned the Planalto white wine for $10.99. Today I bought 2014 Dão Sul Dão Quinta de Cabriz Colheita Seleccionada for 7.99. It was #46 on the WS top 100 for 2016. Looking forward to trying it. When it comes to Portuguese wines, the newer and less expensive ,the better, especially white wines.

Phoenix/Scottsdale

If you are in the area The Parlor https://theparlor.us/  is a great place to eat. Prices are moderate with a reasonable and good wine list. They have good pizza and lots of other eclectic dishes on their menu, i.e. salads, pastas, a number of beers on tap and good wines by the glass. I had a tortellini special stuffed with lamb, roasted tomatoes, mushrooms in a pecorino cream sauce. It was quite good.

For breakfast try Butters Pancakes and Cafe. http://butterscafe.com/  They have great breakfast food. The menu is large, service very attentive and the food is yummy. I love the french toast but the pancakes and egg dishes look great. It is not cheap but the food is made the way it should be made. There is nothing like a good breakfast.

Recent Wines

2012 The Hess Collection Cabernet Sauvignon Mt. Veeder, This is medium bodied California cab packed with flavor, balanced with complexity but still a young wine, 14.6 alcohol but you don't taste it, It should develop nicely, about $50 retail and $112 in a restaurant which is not too bad for a Napa cab from a particular spot, Mt Veeder, a crowd pleaser. drank with steak, might drink again.


2012 Melville Pinot Noir Estate Sta. Rita Hills This wine was very good. I had not tasted it in a few years and it was better than the 2012 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir Laurène we recently drank, which surprised me. The  Laurene is twice the price which again shows that price is not everything when it comes to wine. Both wines are favs but the Melville was restrained in 2012 and is drinking beautifully. The Laurene lacks acid and thus lacks the brightness to keep you interested in drinking it.

More Maui coming soon.

Enjoy.

Tropicana OJ, Breyers Ice Cream, Uber tips, New wines

Tropicana Orange Juice

When I was growing up I loved Tropicana Orange Juice. I drank it for breakfast, lunch and snacks. Over the last 20 or so years I have not been able to drink it as it made me nauseous. Actually all store bought orange juice has made me sick even "fresh squeezed". Yet when I make fresh orange juice at home, I can drink it with no problem. I looked at the machines that make fresh orange juice and I noticed that they puncture the orange and press the entire orange. I cut my oranges in half and squeeze each half. The store machines squeeze the peel as well as the flesh. I figured out that the oils in the skin must be what bothers me.

Recently I was speaking with a friend and he explained to me that Tropicana OJ is not just fresh squeezed orange juice. I said "no way, that is heresy". He showed me their website http://www.tropicana.com/grove-to-glass which says
"Juice 365 Days a Year
Oranges have a limited growing season, and because consumers want our great-tasting juice all year round, some juice is then stored for future packaging in chilled tanks to preserve quality. These tanks protect the juice from oxygen and light and hold the liquid at optimal temperatures just above freezing to maintain the best nutrition and taste possible.
The Perfect Blend
The oranges Tropicana uses for its juices have different ripening seasons – so some stored juice is blended with fresh juice and a bit of the natural oils found in the orange peel and in the juice to deliver the most consistent and best-tasting juice. Pulp may be mixed in at this point, too, depending on the product. Our blend team and expert tasters manage the daily quality and regularly sample our juice to ensure consistent great taste."( Bold print added)

OMG there it is in black and white. Tropicana actually adds orange peel oil to it juice. I bet that they did not do this when I was growing up. Back then they were a small local company not owned by Pepsi. A mystery solved.

This is just a minor example of how companies tamper with our food. What does "squeezed from fresh oranges" on a label mean to you?

Breyers Ice Cream

Breyers Ice Cream owned by Unilever is another example of a product that started out good and has deteriorated over the years as big companies fooled around with it. Recently I noticed that they had new packaging on some flavors that suggested that the ice cream was made with  ingredients that you expect in ice cream- cream, milk, sugar and flavoring. I tried the vanilla, chocolate and strawberry with the new formulas and they were great. However I noticed that now most of the other Breyers ice cream flavors are labeled "frozen diary dessert" not ice cream. If you check their website, you will see upon close inspection that they do not even call their stuff "ice cream". For example there is "Peach Frozen Dairy Dessert 48 oz." http://www.breyers.com/product/detail/113868/peach

For the technical minded folks out there check out the FDA rules http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=135.110

For  a really great explanation of the ice cream mess in plain English read http://mobile.businessinsider.com/these-are-the-fdas-regulations-on-labeling-ice-cream-2015-7
The article states "So now we know what constitutes ice cream. Anything with less than 10% milkfat and/or more than 100% overrun cannot use the term "ice cream" officially, hence the designation of "frozen dairy dessert." Check out the article, it is an eyeopener.


Uber Tips

I used Uber from the airport the other day. The driver called me and asked my destination. I told her and she said she would pick me up in 6 minutes. This seemed strange as I get airport service in about a minute usually. She called back in 5 minutes and said she had to cancel because her current passenger forgot something and she had to drive him home. This sounded strange.  I told her to cancel; she said that she did not know how so would I cancel. I cancelled and was charged $5. I complained via the app and a category for "driver told me to cancel"came up. I marked it and was instantly given a refund.

I ordered another car and was picked up in a minute and was driven home. I chatted with the driver and discovered the following. 1. Never give your destination when the driver calls you. Uber does not give destinations to drivers to prevent discrimination. In my case I live near the airport so the charge is small. The driver did not want my ride. She waited a short time to make the charade more real.
2. Don't cancel, the driver should do it. The driver gets a negative rating if they cancel on you. You will also get charged if you cancel after I believe 5 minutes. Live and learn!

Wines

I finally found a bottle of 2015 Casa Ferreirinha Douro Reserva PLANALTO for $10.98. A white wine blend of many grapes.I discovered this wine in Portugal and it has gotten raves in the Wine Spectator and the Wine Advocate. It was $5 in Portugal. Try it and let me know,

2014 Bordeaux's are coming in to stores. I have not tried them yet but the prices and quality seem attractive according to what I have read.

Domaine Drouhin Oregon http://store.domainedrouhin.com/All_Wines?orderby=PXPC.DisplayOrder%20Asc%2C%20P.ProductName%20ASC&startrow=19 has been having special packages of wine that include free shipping. Check out these deals as I think they are very good deals on some great wines. Recently the Wine Spectator has really loved their Chardonnays.

When we were in Santa Barbara, California this summer we tasted wine at the Municipal Winemkers . http://www.municipalwinemakers.com/We did not bring any wine home but we thought the wines were very good. My wife ordered 3 bottles for me over Christmas. We just tried the Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir 2014 and it was great. Light but packed with flavor and balanced with tannin. I just ordered 3 more bottles but they were out of it. They are shipping me the 2015 Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir instead. They ship to most places. I will let you know how this new wine tastes.

Enjoy.

2017 Wine Trends

Wine Trends

Pass Robles, California is hot. All the wine publications are writing about the area. Daou, a recent favorite of mine, is in the area. Tablas Creek is another very good winery. Be wary. The area makes a lot of wine and much of it is not great. Be selective in your choices.

Wine from other areas that you have never knew produced wine i.e. Slovakia,  Texas, Bulgaria, New Jersey. I like to try new wines but I tend to be a traditionalist. The wine experts always need to find the next big thing but do we. I don't drink enough wine to get tired of any one particular region. Dig deeper into areas that you are familiar with i.e. New areas of California, France, Oregon, Bordeaux, Spain, etc.

Wine travel. All types of specialized wine trips are offered these days. They tend to be expensive. Create your own wine trip. Whenever we travel, we check out local wineries that are nearby. Our recent visit to Daou was on our way to San Simeon. I called the winery in the car on the way there and made a reservation. The tasting cost us $30 plus the cost of the wines I bought but it was a fun several hours in a beautiful location.

Wine dinners and wine tastings. They are everywhere. Unless there is one in a restaurant that you love and it will serve wines that you love, why bother. For the price of the dinner you can buy several bottles of top wine and have your own wine dinner. Same goes for tastings. A typical tasting costs around $100. Think of the wine your could buy for $200, the cost for 2 to attend a tasting. Moreover, I prefer to drink more of a few wines than a sip of many wines.

Wine of the moment -- 2015 Beaujolais. It is looking like a very good year in Beaujolais. Check out
2015 Jean-Marc Burgaud Beaujolais-Villages Les Vignes de Thulon about $14. I will be trying other wines as the year progresses.

Check out Lettie Teague's article on how to make bad wine taste ok.http://www.wsj.com/articles/tricks-to-make-a-bad-wine-better-1484841139

Enjoy.

Best of 2016, Daou Vineyards, Rebelle, Sweet Charity

Restaurant Meals

Rebelle, NYC - Chef's table, http://rebellenyc.com/
Bardot Aria Las Vegas - summer Provencal menu, https://www.michaelmina.net/restaurants/las-vegas/bardot-brasserie/
Ululani's Shave Ice, Maui //www.ululanishawaiianshaveice.com/
Tin Roof, Maui, Lunch only;  https://squareup.com/store/tinroofmaui

Wineries 


Daou Vineyards, https://www.daouvineyards.com/Our-Story
Domaine Drouhin Oregon (DDO)

Wine areas to keep an eye on

Paso Robles, CA
Beaujolais, Burgundy, France

Wines

Daou 2014 and 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles
2014 Daou Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Cabernet
Cru Beaujolais i.e. 2012 Château de La Chaize Brouilly Vieilles Vignes
2015 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir Édition Rosé
2007 Podere Ruggeri Corsini Barolo San Pietro
2009 Château Le Thil Comte Clary
2012 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir Louise
2009 Louis Jadot Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Guettes Domaine Gagey
2010 Château Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc
2009 Xavier Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Anonyme
2010 La Celestiere Châteauneuf-du-Pape Tradition
2010 Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir Laurène

As you can see my favorite wines are an eclectic bunch. I love DDO wines. They have had a holiday specials that include shipping. http://store.domainedrouhin.com/All_Wines?orderby=PXPC.DisplayOrder%20Asc%2C%20P.ProductName%20ASC&startrow=13 Check it out as these are good deals for their wines. The wines are not cheap but the are very good .I am not that thrilled about Roserock wines, their new vineyard in Oregon, but the Roserock wines have gotten some great reviews from the press.

Daou Vineyards, Paso Robles is my winery of the year. We visited it in August and were very impressed with the winery and its wines. The winery is gorgeous, on top of mountain overlooking the vineyards. The wines are uniformly great. The Wine Advocate reviews by Jeb Dunnock and reviews by Vinous have been extraordinary. The wines are not cheap but compared to Napa they are big bargains. The Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon is a must buy for cab lovers. It is about $20 and both 2014  and 2015 are very good.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape vintages 2009 and 2010 are very good. Also note that several of my favorites are no longer available so there some rewards for having your own cellar.

Plays

Sweet Charity; There is no one today in musical theater  like Sutton Foster
Hold On To Me Darling
Privacy - Daniel Radcliffe rocks
The Color Purple - Ditto for Cynthia Erivo
Fiddler on the Roof - Ditto for Danny Burstein, amazing first act.


Sights

Hoover Dam, The tour of the inside of the dam is awesome.
Hearst Castle, San Simeon, CA
Guadeloupe, French West Indies, Caribbean, the Club Med is on a gorgeous beach and Norwegian Air makes it easy and cheap to go.

Best Fish

Paia Fish Market, restaurant, 2 locations in  Maui
Shore Catch fishmonger, Farmer's markets in NJ

Chocolate

Jacques Torres, multiple locations in  NYC
DeBrands, multiple locations in Ft Wayne, Indiana, check out their hot fudge sundae
Maison Du Chocolat, multiple locations in NYC and around the world.

Top Food Hints

Try brown rice. It may take a little longer to cook but it has so much more flavor and some additional nutritional value.

Rainbow cookies from Ferraras, NYC, You can now order by mail. https://ferraraonlinestore.foodydirect.com/restaurants/ferrara-online-store/dishes/tricolor-rainbow-cookies

Merry Christmas to all and to all a great night.

I look forward to what treats 2017 will bring.

Enjoy.

Theater Alert: Sweet Charity; Thanksgiving Wines

Sweet Charity

We saw Sweet Charity last weekend in NYC. It is a production of the New Group https://www.ticketcentral.com/thenewgroup/online/default.asp?sToken=1%2Cbde3be17%2C582a57b2%2C978495C0-B2AC-470E-B91A-97BA3B18BBAC%2CaZY3j4ro8rr2SGyFQRxQRsOeySo%3D&BOset::WScontent::SearchResultsInfo::current_page=4&doWork::WScontent::getPage=&BOparam::WScontent::getPage::article_id=79F13A9F-807C-4111-A6EC-33AD9C7A6C6A and tickets are still available as it has not been reviewed yet. The play stars Sutton Foster and it is terrific and she is great. Go see it if you can. It is playing at the Signature Theater on 42nd street between 9th and 10th avenues. It is a small theater with no bad seats. Remember I said to see Hamilton in February of 2015. The only difference here is that this is a revival and it probably will not be extended past the beginning of January. Sutton Foster is still doing a TV show, Younger.

Thanksgiving Wines

What do you like to drink for Thanksgiving? My answer is good wine. Almost anything will go with turkey but the sides can be more problematic. Guest at my house love the Chalone Estate Pinot Noir. A California wine that is big but with tannin to balance the fruit. We always like to start out with a cava to drink straight or to mix in a Mimosa. I also usually buy a bottle of Nouveau Beaujolais which we taste as a tradition. Not sure what I am serving this year.

Enjoy.

San Francisco

San Francisco

We ended our trip in San Francisco. We stayed at the Marriott Marquis. The location was good and I used some points so the price was right. The points I used were British Airway Avios points. They are the worst points ever created and BA is the worst travel organization I have dealt with. A free flight to London using points cost about $800 on BA.

The NYT had a large article about a restaurant in SF called In Situ. It is in the SF MOMA. The place sounded interesting so we made reservations a month in advance. It was hard to get a reservation but we got it.http://insitu.sfmoma.org/ The conceit of the restaurant is that the menu is composed of dishes from other famous restaurants. However the dishes are served without any input from you; served as written in the recipe. The waiters just take orders. There is no passion in the restaurant and the setting is very septic; the lobby of a modern museum.

We had 4 dishes. Earth and Sea $14, potatoes, cucumber, coastal plants. From Coi in San Fran. It was good but not special.

 Liberty Duck Breast. Thomas Keller , The French Laundry. $24.  The duck was good but nothing special. I make duck much better as do many restaurants.

 The Forest. $28. Quinoa risotto, mushrooms, parsley moss from Mirazur in France. This was very good and fascinating. The mushrooms are locally foraged.

 Interpretation of Vanity. $16 Moist chocolate cake , cold almond cream, bubbles and cocoa from Mugaritz in Spain. This was awful and comic. The bubbles are tasteless and the dessert is the size of a thimble. The dessert was part of a tasting menu at the original restaurant and they have recreated it in ingredients and size. A ridiculous ripoff. Teuschers truffles at $100 per pound are cheaper and much much better.

The wine list was overpriced. The cheapest still wine was $52. The wines were precious and not familiar. I expect a wine list pricing to be in line with the menu prices and this wine list was out of bounds. This takes the fun out of a meal. We had 2 small carafes of wine. Nothing special and we were in the shadows of Napa. The wine list had 6 California wines.

All in all we did not enjoy our meal. There  are no side dishes such as bread and just nothing to enjoy about it. It was robotic. Food and art need passion.

We had fun in SF being tourists.

 Coit Tower. We arrived late so we could tour the lobby but could not go up the tower.

Chinatown

We t

 We went to the farmers market at the Ferry Plaza on the harbor. http://www.cuesa.org/markets It was loaded with vendors and the food was good. Some reasonable and some not so reasonable. Some vendors have full time stores in the main building.

 The main building.

 The line for this vendor's sandwiches was over 100 people long.

 E went to the ocean side of SF and visited the Cliff House.  http://cliffhouse1.reachlocal.net/home/index.htmlIt is an historic restaurant within a National Park. We did not eat but the views were great and it gave us shelter from the cold weather.

 We took a boat ride in SF Bay. It was a beautiful day and the ride was great. We sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge and then went around Alcatraz.

 Alcatraz.

We enjoyed San Francisco, It is a good walking city but it also has accessible mass transit. In many cities it is very useful to use buses and streetcars. I forgot to mention that we did take an original SF Cablecar. It is pricey, $7 per ride, and we had to wait for about 30 minutes but it was fun and it is a must do in SF. https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/transit/how-ride/how-to-historic-streetcars

I am still harvesting kale, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers and eggplant from my garden.

November and Thanksgiving are coming up. Lots of theater in November as well.I am really looking forward to Sweet Charity with Sutton Foster, off Broadway.

enjoy.