Simple and Delicious Erev Yom Kippur Meal

This year I made a traditional roast chicken dinner before Rosh Hashana, so I decided to go Sephardic for the eve of Yom Kippur, and ended by making a simple, but really homey and delicious meal, consisting of

--Orange Salad with Olives, from Claudia Rhoden's The New Book of Middle Eastern Food
--Spicy Lamb with Couscous and Preserved Lemon, from Gordon Hamersley's Bisto Cooking at Home
--Thin Apple Tart over Chopped Thyme (really!) on (frozen) Puff Pastry, with Walnuts and Honey that we brought back from Auvergne.

Rhoden is the Marcella Hazan of the Middle East, and Hamersley's book is just infallible. I developed the tart myself; the secret is to sprinkle chopped thyme under the apples (I got that excellent idea from Susan Herrmann Loomis's On Rue Tatin) and to cut the apples into thin (1/8-inch) slices with a mandoline.

The secret to the lamb shanks (and any other lamb shanks and most stews) is to prepare them the day before and to remove the fat and reheat in the oven before serving. This makes life simpler and the taste is improved by the night in the fridge.

Bobby Jay

Perfect Risotto

Last night my wife and I went to Elio's, an excellent and very popular East-Side Italian restaurant, for the millionth time. We have been going to Elio's since shortly after it opened, in the 70s. The food is consistent and they make the best renditions available of some classics, such as Chicken Scarpariello and Paillard of Veal. Last night I ordered the Porcini Porcini Secchi (dried porcini) and it was not just good, it was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! Great texture, taste and seasoning combined to make this one of the great dishes -- seemingly so simple when it works. While I don't generally review New York restaurants, it is worth recognizing perfection whenever you find it.

Elio's is located at 1621 Second Ave. (nr. 84th)Tel: (212) 772-2242

Go.

Bobby Jay

Paris - Mariage Frères

My wife is an avid tea drinker. She likes black, herbal and, to a lesser extent, green teas.

When we lived in Paris in 1978, we were surprised at the poor quality of the tea served in restaurants: a lipton tea bag if you were lucky. Somehow we didn't discover Mariage Frères, which has been selling fine tea in Paris since 1854, until much later. What a shame, because MF is one of the great tea purveyors in the world. My wife always keeps the Mahé and the Earl Grey French Blue in stock, but she has enjoyed many other MF teas. Probably the most amazing part of their selection is the dazzling variety of Darjeelings, which are prominently displayed throughout the stores.

While selected MF teas are available in department stores in Paris and elsewhere in the world, there are only four proprietary stores in Paris which stock all the teas in their extensive catalogue: 260 rue du Faubourg St-Honoré (8ème), 30 rue du Bourg-Tibourg (4ème), 13 rue des Grands-Augustins (6ème) and 17 place de la Madeleine. All but the Madeleine store also include elegant tea salons, where you can taste any of MF's teas as an element of a (generally quite good) meal or light collation. Each store also sells an array of expensive tea pots and utensils.

Tea has improved all over Paris, and most restaurants now do better than Lipton's. But Mariage Frères reigns supreme. It is definitely worth the visit to one of the main stores, where you can stock up on tea for yourself or for a friend; they sell wonderful pre-selected gift packages, but the knowledgeable staff can help you make up a custom arrangement if you prefer.

Bobby Jay

Paris - Rue Daguerre

My favorite things: reine-claudes, mirabelles and quetsches

Butcher and seafood merchant on rue Daguerre

At the suggestion of a good friend, I went last week to a very nice market street on rue Daguerre, near Place Denfert Rochereau (Métro Denfert Rochereau). I had never been to this quartier before, but it is a very pleasant, airy, bourgeois Paris neighborhood. The market street is short but has what you need, and with apparently excellent quality.

I plan to return for a more leisurely walk around, with a guidebook in hand to make sure I hit the highlights.

Bobby Jay

Paris - La Bague de Kenza

I recently went to La Bague de Kenza, an Algerian pastry shop in the 11ème arrondissement (there is another in the 3ème), and was blown away. I learned of this place from Barbra Austin, at www.serveitforth.com and recently went there with a new friend (Elizabeth Bard, www.elizabethbard.blogspot.com) who knew it well. In addition to the pâtisserie, there is a tea salon next door. The selection there is meager, but it's okay to go into the pâtisserie and tell them its for next door. A selection of pastries and mint tea makes for a memorable Paris experience.

La Bague de Kenza, 106, rue St. Maur, 75011 Paris (Métro Parmentier or Rue St-Maur).

Bobby Jay

Quick and Easy Chocolate Soufflé

I took a cooking lesson awhile ago at Atelier Guy Martin in Paris and learned to make an amazingly easy but delicious chocolate soufflé, which contains no egg yolks and only about an ounce of butter per serving. It can be made in advance, held in the fridge during dinner, and then baked for just 15 minutes, more or less, while you are on the salad course. (I adapted this recipe to make Bobby Jay's (Almost Healthy) Caramelized Banana and Chocolate Soufflé -- see my post of April 17, 2009.)

Click more for the recipe.

Bobby Jay
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Chocolate Soufflé Atelier Guy Martin

For 4 servings
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

150g (5.35 oz) granulated sugar
275 g (10 oz) egg whites
120 g (4.3 oz) butter
225 g (8 oz) chocolate (60-70%)
20 cl (.85 cups) raspberry coulis (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 410º F.

Soften butter. Generously butter and sugar 4 individual soufflé dishes.

Melt chocolate and remaining butter together in a bain-marie.

Beat egg whites until frothy. Add 75g sugar and beat until firm peaks. Gently fold the whites into the melted chocolate.

Fill the soufflé dishes and level by running a spatula across the tops.

Bake the soufflés for 8 minutes. Check for doneness with a skewer or cake tester and return to oven for a couple more minutes if necessary.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and (optional) open the soufflés with a spoon and add raspberry coulis.

Julie and Julia - The Movie

Saw Julie and Julia last night and really enjoyed it. As expected, Meryl Streep was an absolutely perfect Julia Child, and Stanley Tucci was also excellent as her husband Paul. The lesser plot about Julie Powell (ably played by Amy Adams), the young secretary/blogger who decides to cook all the recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year, was better than I had expected based on the reviews. Indeed, I think it was essential to prevent the "main" Julia story from becoming a mere bio-pic.

The movie is an exuberant celebration of food and eating, cooking and writing about it. But it also makes the point that cooking for others (and it always is for others) is essentially an act of sharing. Both Julia and Julie cooked out of love for their husbands and friends (and in Julia's case the entire American public), not just to find something to do. To me, this is the film's real message and what makes it so poignant.

I have read and enjoyed both of the books that the film is based on, and found the movie to be true to the books, but, especially as regards the Julia story, to be much more; the food photography and styling are superb, Paris is at it most lovely, and Streep's Julia is more alive than the one on the page.

A must-see for anyone who reads this blog.

Bobby Jay

Tutti a Tavola with Lidia Bastianich

I have a confession: I love Lidia Matticchio Bastianich.

She is a great restauranteur, cookbook author and television cooking teacher. She has a charming, welcoming manner without a trace of arrogance.

In 1998, PBS offered Lidia her own cooking show, which became Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen. She has been a fixture in the PBS cooking show lineups ever since, hosting two additional television series, Lidia's Family Table (still in reruns around the U.S.) and Lidia's Italy, launched in April 2007. Lidia closes out every episode with a heartfelt invitation to join her and her family for a meal, "Tutti a tavola a mangiare" (Italian for "Everyone to the table to eat").

To accompany her various television series, Lidia has authored several cookbooks:

La Cucina di Lidia
Lidia's Family Table
Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen
Lidia's Italian Table
Lidia's Italy

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They are very good and inspiring. The one I know best is Lidia's Italy, which is organized by geographic region and contains interesting recipes that you won't easily find elsewhere. I would also recommend this as a travel book to people about to go to Italy; advance knowledge of a region's cuisine will make for a more rewarding culinary experience.

Lidia's restaurants are among New York's best. Felidia is consistently excellent, featuring the best food of her native Istria (now part of Croatia), as well as other regions. Del Posto, which she founded with Mario Batali, is one of the best restaurants in New York. I haven't been to Becco, which she owns with her son Joseph, in years, so I can't comment on it.

Bobby Jay

Excellent Barbecue . . . and All That Jazz

As a counterpoint to the great meals described in my last post, my wife and I went to the Jazz Standard tonight for great jazz (Steve Kuhn, Steve Swallow and Al Foster) and good eats. Usually, the food at jazz clubs is to be avoided unless necessary to satisfy a minimum charge. The Jazz Standard is different: there is a music charge but no minimum, probably because the drinks are good and the food is better than good.

The Jazz Standard is downstairs from Danny Meyer's Blue Smoke, with which it shares a kitchen. Ribs come in all varieties - smoked Memphis baby backs, Kansas City-style spare ribs and Texas-style salt and pepper beef beef ribs. There is a really smoky smoked chicken, fine burgers and excellent (so I'm told) macaroni and cheese. The home-made potato chips are totally addictive and the smoked buffalo wings are almost as good. Tonight my wife actually had a very healthful veggie burger tonight -- not something you'd dare to try at most jazz clubs -- and it was not bad at all.

Of course a jazz club is only as good as the music, and the Jazz Standard is first-rate. Check it out at www.jazzstandard.com.

Bobby Jay

Two Great New York Meals

Lucky me! This week I took my wife to Chanterelle for our anniversary and she took me and another couple to Daniel for my birthday.

Chanterelle has long been our "go-to" restaurant for special events. We took the restaurant over for my father's 70th birthday, and then again for my wife's 50th: both marvelous events. And numerous anniversaries, birthdays and Valentine's Days.

Our recent meal was one of the best we have had there. We had the tasting menu, which started with assorted sashimi for me (and a surprisingly delicious tomato consommé for my wife who can't eat raw fish), then zucchini blossoms stuffed with chicken and truffles, grilled cobia with a smoked corn coulis, aiguilletes of loin of lamb with rosemary and polenta fries, and finally vanilla brioche with cherry compote, chocolate sauce and port ice cream for dessert (although my wife selected a chocolate tart from the menu). Not to mention innumerable amuse-bouches at the beginning and mignardises at the end. The only problem with the tasting menu is that you have to pass up the signature seafood sausage, which is quite simply the best I have ever encountered and indeed one of the best things I have ever eaten. A bargain at $95, although the wine list is very, very, very high-priced. They charge $50 for corkage, though, so buy yourself a nice bottle of wine and enjoy it there.
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Daniel is not a restaurant we frequent, although we do go fairly often to Cafe Boulud and the wonderful Bar Boulud near Lincoln Center. We had a sensational six-course tasting menu that included some amazing dishes, perhaps most notably: rabbit "porchetta" with chorizo, red snapper ceviche, kataifi crusted red mullet, whole dorade "à la plancha," bacon and foie gras stuffed squab breast, lamb chop or veal three ways. Two of us had dietary issues, the others did not, so there were two different menus. I have named the dish that I thought was the better of the two for each course, having split almost all the dishes with my wife. A cheese platter and two different duos of fruit and chocolate desserts followed, with mignardises too numerous to mention. This was a special event with its own custom menu, so it cannot be duplicated without a lot of effort (and expense). However, the level of cuisine was truly impressive and we will go back again on the "ordinary" track.

As I said at the outset, lucky me!

Bobby Jay

Recipe Finders

Need a recipe for something fairly ordinary (apple pie, roast chicken, lasagna) or for something more exotic (what to do with ostrich, dukkah, vadouvan, etc.), either because you don't have one or because you want to compare several in order, perhaps, to take points from more than one source?

The online resources to find these things are dazzling: fast and comprehensive.

I always start with www.foodnetwork.com, which has recipes by chefs I often know and trust, as well as many from Gourmet and Bon Appétit.

Other sites that are very comprehensive are www.epicurious.com, which picks up Gourmet and Bon Appétit, allrecipes.com and simplyrecipes.com.

Of course, the way to get the most recipes, without any filtering by content providers, is to use Google. That will often draw from one of the other sites mentioned above, but also displays results from many more, including newspapers and sources outside the US. You just have to be more discriminating in sifting through the volume of information.

In most cases the recipes are rated by readers, and it is often worth reading the comments where possible. The negative ones sometimes signal a bad recipe, but just as often give you pitfalls to avoid in using the recipe ("There's no way this can be done in 2 hours"). Even the favorable comments contain interesting insights ("I did it with milk instead of cream and it was still great").

I am sure there are many more general sites and of course there are specialized sites for various cuisines, pastry, chocolate, etc. Please share your favorites.

Bobby Jay

Sweet Corn -- One of Summer's Delights

I love summer for many reasons, but a number of them are gastronomic. Namely real tomatoes, especially heirlooms, local fruit and, best of all, local sweet corn. That's pretty much all you need to eat for a couple of months (although I am not so virtuous).

Last summer I developed a corn soup that is simple, virtuous (no cream) and delicious. I just served it the other night for the first time this year and it was a big hit. Click More below for the recipe. Enjoy!

Bobby Jay
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Bobby Jay’s Corn Soup

Ingredients:

• 5 ears of corn
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, finely diced (seeds and interior membranes removed)
• 1 Tbs butter
• 3 C water
• 2 Tbs chives, finely chopped
• Best quality olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Put the most delicate ear aside. Take kernels off remaining 4 ears of corn. Cut the cobs into thirds.

2. Sweat onion and jalapeño in butter with a little salt until soft. Add corn kernels and sauté another minute or so, just to warm through.

3. Add cobs and water. Bring to boil and simmer for 20-30 mins.

4. Remove cobs and puree the soup with a hand or standing blender. Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste. It may need salt to cut the natural corn sweetness.

5. Separately, bring a pot of water to a boil. Take off the heat, add the last cob of corn, cover and wait 7 minutes. Remove kernels.

6. Serve soup in individual bowls. Garnish with kernels from the last ear of corn, chives and a few drops of olive oil.

Can be served cold or hot. If cold, chill and garnish just before serving.

Serves 4

Move Over, Bánh Mì: Make Way for Porchetta

Since I have become a professional amateur foodie, I have spent a fair amount of time talking to the sellers of interesting foods. Yesterday I was discussing my bánh mì fetish with a cheesemonger at Saxelby's, who told me about Porchetta, at 110 East 7th Street. Needless to say, I went there today.
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I discovered porchetta (skin-on roast pork) in Italy about 10 years ago, travelling with friends on the road from Siena to Cortona. A truck alongside the road had a big banner announcing "Porcetta" and we stopped to have one of the great sandwiches of all time.


Fast forward 10 years, go West from Tuscany to the East Village and voilà: Porchetta. A wonderfully seasoned sandwich of roast pork, served on a roll with some crunchy skin (cracklin'), for $9. As you can see, the place is not prepossessing, but it is worth the trip for the sandwich. It turns out that New York Magazine has discovered it, too; Porchetta is mentioned in this week's "Eat Cheap '09" issue.

I am not sure if Porchetta's porchetta is authentic, like the one we had from the truck in Italy. Here is the Wikipedia definition:

Porchetta /por'ket:a/ is a savory, fatty, and moist boneless pork roast of Italian culinary tradition. The body of the pig is gutted, boned, arranged carefully with layers of stuffing, meat, fat, and skin, then rolled, spitted, and roasted, traditionally over wood. Porchetta is usually heavily salted in addition to being stuffed with garlic, rosemary, fennel, or other herbs, often wild.

Authentic or not, though, it is definitely delicious.

Bobby Jay

Chocolate . . . Again

Having read about Taza Stone Ground Organic chocolate, I was happy to find it recently at Fairway, on New York's Upper West Side (at $5.99 per bar!). My French teacher Caroline (a chocolate expert) and I sampled their 60%, 70% and 80% bars in a recent tasting. She was skeptical because Taza is made by an American company in Massachusetts, not the normal pedigree for a great chocolate.

Our findings: All had an extraordinary granular mouth feel which made the flavor seem to pop more than in conventional chocolate, and also resulted in a very long after-taste. We both loved the 70%, which was beautifully balanced and lingered delightfully in the mouth. The 60% tasted very sweet. The 80% left a bitter after-taste, although the texture was surprisingly good for such a high cacao percentage chocolate.
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Taza chocolate does not taste like others. Here is the company's description of why:

"Our chocolate making process is unique. Taza chocolate is stone ground and minimally processed, and we do not conch [a fine grinding process]. We use authentic Oaxacan stone mills instead of steel refiners to grind our cacao. Due to the imperfect surface of a granite millstone, unrefined cacao particles and sugar granules remain in the finished chocolate. These pop with explosive flavor on the palette, lending our bars their distinctive granular texture."

Works for me. But not for everyone: my wife did not like any of the bars we sampled, finding all of them too sweet. Not surprisingly, she preferred the 80%, which I found to be bitter, over the others.

Bobby Jay

France - A Gastronomic Weekend in Talloires

Auberge du Père Bise and Lac d'Annecy

My wife and I recently spent a weekend with old friends at the famous Auberge du Père Bise in Talloires, on the beautiful Lac d'Annecy, which is near Geneva. The hotel, situated on a spit of land adjacent to the tiny port of Talloires, has views of the lake and surrounding Alps on all sides.

Talloires and neighboring Annecy (and Annecy-le-Vieux) also are home to a number of wonderful restaurants, and we did our best to sample them. The best of them is Marc Veyrat, which gets three stars from Michelin and the only 20/20 in France from Gault-Millau, is closed for the season due to the illness of its celebrated chef-owner. However, to say we ate well would be a serious understatement.
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Specifically, we dined in "downtown" Annecy at La Ciboulette (one Michelin star), whose 44-euro menu is one of the best buys in France. Simply excellent food prepared with wonderful ingredients, including a cheese platter specializing in local cheeses (the local tome crayeuse is a revelation).

Next was Clos des Sens, in Annecy-le-Vieux (two Michelin stars), where interesting molecular and other modern techniques are practiced. We found the decor to be a not very successful fusion of French and Japanese elements, and the food (and its presentation) to vary from excellent to over the top. See the pictures below of mushroom appetizer, tuna plat, foie gras and lime sorbet in a sugar bag.


















Another one-star restaurant that we tried was Le Belvédère, on a hill in Annecy with a lovely lake and mountain view. Here the food was a little less cerebral than at Clos des Sens, but still very imaginative and really delicious. See pictures below of asparagus and tomato appetizers.









Our last meal was at Père Bise itself, which is run by Sophie Bise, who has not changed since we ate there 30 years ago. She knows how to run a hotel and restaurant, to be sure, but we found the restaurant to be a little out of date and a mere shadow of the legendary three-star palace of the seventies (perhaps belied by the frogs' legs and lobster dishes pictured below). Still, if the weather is good (and ours was perfect), an elegant dinner with good friends on Père Bise's terrace is a memorable experience.









Bobby Jay

France - Perfect Goat Cheese

Tomorrow's Cheese Today

My wife and I recently stayed a couple of days with American friends who have a magnificent manoir about an hour west of Paris, near Dreux. One of the highlights of our stay was a visit to a nearby chèvrerie (goat farm), Bois du Louviers, in Marsauceux. All is open, and one can observe the happy goats as they chow down and make the milk that will become tomorrow's chèvre frais and subsequent days' crottins, pyramides, trèfles (four-leaf clover shape), tomes, etc.

Today's Cheese Today

At the small shop, the final products are for sale, and they are the best I have ever had, particularly the chèvre frais (mixed with fresh chives from our friends' garden) and the lightly ash-covered trèfle. You can do almost as well in Paris at a really fine fromagerie, or at a good open-air market, but there's something about seeing and buying it at the farm that makes the taste seem better.

Bobby Jay

Paris -- Restaurants Revisited

Accompanied by my wife, I have had recently been able to revisit a number of restaurants that I have written up in the past. You can find my earlier descriptions, together with addresses and phone numbers, by clicking on the topic "Paris" or "Restaurants" at right.

Beaujolais d'Auteil and its pissaladière with escargots.

We went to Beaujolais d'Auteil with four friends, and can report, now based on a bigger sampling of their offerings, that this remains an excellent bistro and a great value (30-euro menu). The food is delicious and attractively presented in a classic bistro. We enjoyed this place so much that we returned twice during our stay, working our way through a good part of the menu.

We returned to Rôtisserie du Beaujolais, which we felt had been falling off a bit, and found it had returned to its former luster. Our favorite confit de canard aux pommes sarladaises was not on the summer menu, but a roast duck for two was fantastic. The girolle salad was excellent, as was my wife's pigeon rôti.
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Le Hide: St-Pierre with Risotto and Feuilleté au Chocolat.

Another restaurant that really stood up was Le Hide, which purports to serve classical French food but really has modern interpretations of French favorites. We both had fish -- bar over smashed potatoes for my wife and St-Pierre over saffron risotto for me -- and were more than satisfied. We also loved our shared dessert of feuilleté with very dark chocolate mousse and chocolate ice cream. At 22 euros for a two-course menu and 29 for a three-course, this remains one of the best buys in Paris.

Kunitoraya

I finally was able to introduce my wife to Kunitoraya, an udon restaurant near the Opéra. This is a branch of a restaurant in Shikoku, known throughout Japan for its udon, and would be an excellent find even in Tokyo. I had cold noodles with a rare natto (fermented soy bean) sauce; my wife had hot noodles with tempura. We returned later in our stay for cold tempura udon (tenzaru), and it, too, was superb.

We also went to Timgad, a Moroccan restaurant in a well-to-do neighborhood in the 17th, with friends who didn't know Moroccan food. As good as ever and a big hit with our friends. Timgad is expensive for a Moroccan restaurant.

With a foodie friend, I finally introduced my wife to Au Trouquet, an inexpensive, family-run bistro in the 15th that serves Basque food. The food was delicious, but it was hot and not air conditioned. Definitely worth visiting, but not on a hot summer's night.

Finally, we went to Accolade, which I had visited a few times on my own. While my meal was really excellent, my wife's was only good. Still, it's a pleasant, inexpensive place and I would try it again.

Bobby Jay

Paris -- Food Isn't Everything . . .

. . . at Paris food markets. Look at these magnificent roses and peonies, available last Saturday at the wonderful open air market on the Avenue de Président Wilson, between Place de l'Alma and Place de Iéna.













Bobby Jay

Checking Out "Our" Farm

My friend Piglet and I share a share in Roxbury Farm, an organic community-supported farm in Kinderhook, New York. A share entitles the holder to 26 food drops per year, from early June through November, of whatever the farm produces. Like other farms, Roxbury has several dropoff points in New York City. It is a fun challenge to try to find things to do with the surprise package (often including things you've never seen before) before the following week's drop.
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A share also entitles the holder to visit the farm and make a pest of oneself, since the folks on the farm are generally working hard. But part of the local food movement is to know who is growing your food, so we drove the 120 or so miles to the farm on a lovely spring day last week, where we walked around and talked to Jody Bolluyt, who, together with Jean-Paul Courtens, runs the place.

It is still early in the season, but we enjoyed looking around and looking at the next six months' bounty in its earliest state. It's pretty amazing that the trays of 1/2-inch seedlings we looked at will turn into an array of beautiful lettuces and greens! Even if you can't join a community supported farm, you can have fantastic produce and support the local food movement (and, not incidentally, save the earth) by buying as much as possible at your nearest greenmarket. Not only for organic vegetables, but also for fantastic artisanal cheeses and pastured, ethically raised meats and poultry.

Bobby Jay

Cooking by Hand -- Paul Bertolli's Excellent Book

I first heard of Paul Bertolli's marvelous Cooking by Hand from an article in Edward Behr's The Art of Eating, in which Behr lists it as one of the nine cookbooks that he would keep on his shelf if he had to give up all his hundreds of others. Bertolli's book has many recipes, true, but really it is more a series of essays on Italian food than it is a cookbook. This is evident from the chapter headings -- "Ripeness," "Twelve Ways at Looking at a Tomato" and "Aceto Balsamico," for example, rather than meat, fish, pasta, etc. It is a splendid read, although you might want to skim through the very long chapter on charcuterie if, like me, there is no chance that you will put it to practical use. But even this chapter is full of interesting lore and information that will make you a more thoughtful cook and shopper.
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Cooking by Hand can at times be quite moving. I actually cried when I read this passage from a letter Bertolli wrote to his newborn son Antonio, which serves as the introduction to the chapter on Aceto Balsamico:

It is two months now that you have been alive and I have decided not to wait to tell you about a special gift we have received in honor of your birth. Your gift came in six separate boxes from our friends in Italy, Francesco, an artisan barrel maker, and his wife, Maura, whom you will soon meet and visit. Francesco has built for you six beautiful casks, Antonio's batteria he calls it, for making aceto balsamico, no ordinary vinegar, as you will see. When Francesco's sons were born he built barrels for them as well and if you were to climb to the very top floor of his house, there under the roof you would see them lined up in rows, one slightly bigger than the next, his sons' names . . . burned into the head of each. Next to these are casks that Francesco's father filled for him nearly 50 years ago! You would also smell something extraordinary as you approach the low door that leads into this room, called the acetaia, the place where vinegar ages -- an aroma that is dense and pungent and like no other that has passed under your nose. . . . Francesco has given to you, but also to our family, a rare gift and the wish of continuity.

By the time you are old enough to read this, the vinegar that I will soon start for you will have aged enough to draw. In it you will taste the years it has marked since you were born. It will grow sappy as you move into your teens, then deepen and thicken as you become a man. In your twenties its dark obscurity will mirror the complexities of life that dawn on you; in middle age balsamico may help you remember who you are and with whom you have belonged. When you grow old, it will be the nectar that you have waited all your life to sip, by then a kind of magic elixir. Like you, it will have become everything it has ever been for better or worse, an embrace of the "sweet and sour" that is life, a family keepsake to pass along to loved ones of your own. . . .

Wow! I still get misty-eyed just typing this, and I am not really a huge fan of balsamic vinegar.

Bobby Jay