Winesday: The Color Pink...Rose to Watch Ingredients Cocktails Wine Chat Winesday Emma Jane-Doody Stetson August 14, 2013 I love the color pink. Just over a month ago, I bounded into the Kuwaiti restaurant with the tips of my hair dyed a vibrant hue of “funky flamingo,” the result of a renegade mission with a friend earlier that morning. Yet when it comes to wine, I frequently find myself forsaking my favorite color. I tend to prefer a rich red to a rose- even in the summer months. Recently, though, roses that satisfy my taste for reds have garnered attention. Shelves are slowly filling with roses made from robust, red varietals. They manage to incorporate the robust notes while keeping the light nature of the rose. They prove perfect for summer cuisine. People can still enjoy a cold drink and the more delicate body will not overwhelm poultry or fish straight off the grill. At the same time, the subtle smoke and black fruit from the red grapes can hold up to spicy dishes, red meats, or even a burger. One of the most exciting bottles in this genre goes by the name of “Nigl.” It heralds from Austria and is comprised of 100% Zweigelt, a red grape indigenous to the country. Read More
Ridgefield Farmers' Market Returns Ingredients Farmers Market Ridgefield CTbites Team August 08, 2013
Preserving the Harvest Canning Workshop @ Wakeman Farm Ingredients Cooking Classes Education Local Farm CTbites Team July 30, 2013 Wondering what to do with all those extra vegetables from the garden? Don't let them go to waste. Instead, come to the Wakeman Town Farm on August 10th and learn how to can and preserve your harvest. During this 2 hour workshop, you'll learn the basics of canning as you make delicious homemade jam, tomato sauce, and salsa. There will be tastings, and participants can take home a jar of their choice! The Preserving the Harvest Canning Workshop will take place on Saturday August 10th, 10am - 12pm. Fee: $25 When: Saturday, August 10, 2013 Time: 10:00am - 12pm Location: Wakeman Town Farm, 134 Cross Highway, Westport Ages: Open to all Email wakemantownfarm@gmail.com to reserve your spot! Read More
Friday Froth: Keep It Smooth...Beer News & Tasting Notes Ingredients Friday Froth Beer James Gribbon July 12, 2013 Rolling with the windows down, warm night air blowing through, music playing, fireflies sparking at the corners of your vision... in the wintertime cars are about utility, but they seem to contain multitudes in the summer. This is especially true when you have a paper bag full of cold brews belted tightly as a child into the passenger seat. This week we'll take a short trip on the 'bahn to Stratford, try out something German, and bring it all home to Connecticut before a quick jaunt to the left coast and completely voiding the warranty somewhere in the south Pacific. Buckle up, and snorkel gear is not included.Closest to home, Two Roads Brewing Co. introduced No Limits Hefeweizen for this summer. The can (yep) design features the symbol for Germany's autobahn front and center with the slashed grey of the 'bahn's dreamy unlimited sections incorporated in there between two stalks of wheat. It's summer blockbuster season, so allow me to put on my announcer voice (ahem): Read More
Summer School @ 109 Cheese & Wine in Ridgefield Ingredients Restaurant Cheese Cooking Classes Education Wine Chat Wine Tasting CTbites Team July 11, 2013 Ridgefield's best source for artisinal cheese and wine, 109 Cheese & Wine has recently expanded its footprint and education offerings. The shop, located at Ridgefield's Marketplace, has posted an impressive and fun line-up of events throughout the summer. Classes include: Red Bee Honey Pairing, Home Brewing and a Bar B Cue, The Champagne Diet, East Coast Craft Brews and Artisan Cheese & A BBQ Throw Down Wine vs. Beer. See complete listings below. Advance reservations are recommended as class size is limited, call 203-438-5757. Read More
Aye Cukarumba! Cocktail Recipe from Barcelona Restaurant Ingredients Features Cocktails Recipe CTbites Team July 09, 2013 Last Spring, CTbites ran a cocktail naming contest with Barcelona Restaurant. The drink in need of a name would debut on Barcelona Restaurant's Cocktail Menu, and has become one of their classics...the Aye Cukarumba! Yes...that is the name, not an exclamation. With zesty citrus, lightly sweet St. Germain, and a dash of Hellfire Bitters, this drink has it all going on, and now you can make Barcelona's Aye Cukarumba! cocktail in your home. Here are the ingredients for this unique and excellent addition to any party...or forget the party, and just make one for yourself tonight. Read More
Guide To Cooking Classes in Connecticut Ingredients Kids Bites Restaurant Cooking Classes Education kids cooking party April Guilbault July 09, 2013 Give a man a fish and he eats for one day, but TEACH him to how to bone, saute and dress up that fish, well, that’s another story. The school year has come to a close for our under-21s but we know that you hunger (pun totally intended) to learn something new...in the kitchen. Cooking classes abound in our area; some will teach you how to make the perfect french macaron (not to be confused with the American macaroon with two “o’s”), cooling summer soups or regional delights that transport you without standing in pesky security lines. Don your best apron, raise a spatula and proclaim this the summer that you learn some rockin’ cooking skills and new recipes! Summer school has never looked so good. Here is CTbites' Guide To Cooking Classes For Adults & Kids for 2013... Read More
2013 Guest Chef Lineup @ The Westport Farmers' Market Ingredients Restaurant Farm to Table Farmers Market CTbites Team July 04, 2013 Tired of always being in the "front of the house" when you really want to be back in the kitchen watching your favorite chef work? Well here is your chance to see some talented local chefs in action, and you even get fed at the end of the show. The Westport Farmers' Market has a great lineup of Guest Chefs this Summer and all you need to do is drive up with an empty stomach (and a shopping bag if you want to go home with some gorgeous local ingredients). Chef Arik Bensimon of Lefarm is up next on July 11th, but see the complete list below: Read More
Experts Share Their Secrets to Cooking a Perfect Steak at Home Ingredients Chef Talk Steakhouse Lou Gorfain July 03, 2013 That thick, sizzling steak you’re about to devour is amazing: Behold its marbled, mahogany crust framing a pink, juicy interior that slices like warm butter and literally melts in your mouth.. What makes this magnificent steak even more incredible is that you aren’t dining in a great, leathery New York chop house. You cooked this baby at home... Think it’s impossible to duplicate a Peter Luger Porterhouse in your own kitchen? Read on. After interviewing local butchers, chefs, and food scientists, we have uncovered some of the secrets, tricks and myths of cooking a perfect steak at home. Read More
Strawberry Picking is On @ Bishop's Orchards Ingredients Local Farm kids activity Kid Friendly CTbites Team June 22, 2013 This just in from Bishop's Orchards... "The 2012 Pick Your Own Season is OFFICIALLY here. Picking is at its peak right now so come PYO Strawberries this weekend, from 8:30 am - 5 pm. The Strawberry crop looks great this year and they are absolutely delicious and so sweet. Remember, our Strawberry season is only a few weeks long, so don't miss your chance to pick and enjoy the freshest local strawberries! We hope to be open most mornings thru mid July, but weather conditions and the plentiful availability of ripe berries determines our daily schedule, so call in daily for our schedule. 203.458.PICK We hope to see you in the fields!" For more information on Bishop's Orchards see their web site. Read More
Friday Froth: Sunshower Ingredients Friday Froth Beer James Gribbon June 21, 2013 I have met a lot of great people at beer bars. Whether the conversation starts with an apology for bumping elbows or parachuting into someone's conversation, there's a good chance they won't act like you've tried to cut them off in traffic. Plus, there's always beer to talk about if the conversation stalls out - most people are there for the same reason, after all. I like beer bars, but June is hardly a time for working on your hunchback impression over rings stained into a wooden bar, is it? No, ma'am. The recent spate of thunderstorms have currently left my basement in good condition to solve the drought problems of the entire American southwest, but it's still outdoor drinking season, dammit. Outdoor drinking, especially outdoor day drinking, is the best drinking. Park, yard, beach, rocky outcrop in the Dolomites, it doesn't matter: you've already escaped the four walls which house most of life's tedium. Simply getting outside at all apparently makes us happier all on its own, but a drink in the hand does tend to add a certain air of possibility. Read More
Iskream: Walnut Beach Creamery Owner Creates New Brand Without "Real" Sugar Ingredients ice cream Kid Friendly Dessert Nancy Kleeger June 11, 2013 There is nothing I love more than a good "grass roots" story - and this particular story involves a love affair with a sweet confectionary that has stood the ultimate test of time. It is the result of one local Milford woman's passion for creating great ice cream and an idea to lower ice cream's sugar content. I'm sure this ice cream innovator's tale, will soon become a part of "sweet" history, right there alongside the revered Mrs. Fields. I think it is safe to say that most Americans could conjure up iconic visions of having ice cream on a hot summer's day at the beach.. at the ballpark.. at family picnics and at birthday celebrations. Ice cream is inherently part of the American Way of life - be it chocolate, vanilla, mint-chocolate chip or strawberry, be it from a store, an ice-cream cart or the beloved Good Humor man and his captivating bells. Iskream, the brainchild and collaboration of Susan Patrick and Biagio Barrone, was born out of Susan's very own creamery in Milford. She owns the storefront Walnut Beach Creamery which has been churning out amazing, inventive flavors to locals since 2007. Read More
Bourbon Tasting at Field House Farm in Madison Ingredients Cocktails Amy Kundrat June 11, 2013 Field House Farm is hosting a Bourbon Tasting on Saturday, June 22 with Bourbon Specialist and President of the Louisville Kentucky Bourbon Society, Paul Meyer for an exclusive and rare tasting ofKentucky Bourbons. A selection of five to six bourbons will be presented and discussed. Chef David Borselle and Chef Eric Hole (of Bar Bouchee, Madison) will be providing appetizers for this outdoor event. Hen and Heifer Bakery will be presenting a special blend of sweets, specialty caramels, and chocolates. Read More
Gold's Delicatessen In Westport: Real New York Style Deli Since 1958 Ingredients Restaurant Westport Deli Delicious Dives Breakfast Lunch CTbites Team June 09, 2013 Jarret Liotta is a veteran freelance writer whose articles and essays have appeared in over 75 different publications, including The New York Times & National Geographic. He is a native of Westport, Connecticut. I was browsing CTbites recently and was surprised and thrilled to find no contributor had yet posted a review of Gold’s Delicatessen in Westport, because now I get to do it. In a nutshell, if you taste a hot corned beef sandwich from Gold’s, you will be in Hebraic heaven. This is a real New York style Jewish deli, and as fine a one as I’ve ever found in New York or Miami. In one of the rarer gifts by today’s deli experience, Gold’s makes its own corned beef—as they make their own brisket. Both are excellent and, if you’re lucky—stay with me here—you’ll get a slightly fattier serving that is just astounding for its flavor and the kind of grand indulgent satisfaction you won’t find with the store-bought stuff served in most places. Read More
Friday Froth: A Tour Through The Exotic Beer @ Nepenthia, Part 2 Ingredients Oxford Beer James Gribbon June 07, 2013 Streamlined now, I returned to action. My kit included nothing but a camera, a notepad, a pen, the tasting glass they loaned me, and the clothes I hoped to still be wearing by the time I reemerged. I made my way confidently back into Nepenthia. Exotic, hand selected beers waited to be found all throughout the facilities at B. United International in Oxford, Conn. - spread across tables staffed by the men and women who made them. If Steve Inskeep's voice woke me from this dream I was going on a three state rampage. I crossed the threshold into BU's loading bay and saw lines of colorful bottles adorned with the owl of Hitachino. Toshiyuki Kiuchi, owner and brewmaster of Kiuchi Brewery (makers of Hitachno beers) was gesticulating madly with a broad smile on his face, making himself clear, or at least somewhat understood, to a group of bottle shop reps. Read More
L'Escale Hosts Serge Hochar of Chateau Musar Ingredients Wine Chat Natalie Kronick June 05, 2013 There are moments in the career of a wine sales rep that will forever last in ones' memory. One of those moments happened this past Friday night when I had the privilege of dining and tasting through some of the most remarkable and enigmatic wines of the world – Chateau Musar. To my delight, I had the rare opportunity to dine next to Serge Hochar, wine maker of Musar in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, at L'Escale in Greenwich, CT. The event was sponsored by Nicholas Roberts Fine Wine in Darien, CT by Peter Troilo. Serge came to speak with his son, Marc Hochar. In the lineup, we had six wines; three red and three white wines; all individually spellbinding and curious. But before I even start to tap into the amazing-ness that is Ch. Musar, I want to talk about Serge. Serge Hochar, in of himself, is an enigma. But he's the kind of puzzle that you can't stop playing with, like a rubix Cube or those metal trick toys that are so simple, yet hard to find the right notch. Serge has been an engineer, a doctor, a lawyer and in his lifetime and the only thing that has held his attention so long is wine. Talk about a man that has found his calling in life! His wines are right in line with his own personality. Read More
Friday Froth: Nepenthia, Part 1 Ingredients Beer James Gribbon May 24, 2013 "Nepenthes pharmakon," its says in the Odyssey. Literally: "anti-sorrow drug," or "... a drug which eased men's pains and irritations, making them forget their troubles." Smiles abounded on a hill in the woods of Oxford, Connecticut, as B. United International opened both its doors and taps on a brilliantly sunny day this May for Nepethia, a one-day event. The beverage importer's stated mission is to bring the most spectacular examples of low volume, hand crafted beer, mead, cider, and sake from around the world to the U.S. The collected industry representatives (and I) weren't there to forget, though. There was too much to learn. I've mentioned B.United, and the beers they import, more than a few times here on CTBites, and they've been an impressive lot. Read More
Raus Coffee to Debut New Drink at Westport Farmers Market Ingredients Features Restaurant Coffee Farmers Market Amy Kundrat May 21, 2013 Raus Coffee will debut its newest iced espresso drink, the Roman Navel, at the opening of the Westport Farmers’ Market on May 23. The new drink was inspired by a trip to Seattle’s Café Vita, where Raus Coffee founder Donny Raus became smitten with the Medici, an espresso-based chocolate and orange drink. The success of the flavor combination compelled him to recreate it using his own approach. The Roman Navel is the third product in Raus’s award-winning espresso product line. Donny and I met recently at the soon-to-open Steam Coffee Bar in Westport, so he could give me a sample of this newest obsession. So I had a baseline, I also grabbed his other two iced espresso-based drinks, the Roman Kiss and (my old personal stand-by) the Cold Roman. Read More
Lesser Evil Snacks: Empty Calorie Free Chips & Popcorn Ingredients Features Kid Friendly Nancy Kleeger May 17, 2013 The fabric of our snacking society has changed dramatically over the last decade, due in part to the hoards of information about making smarter food choices infiltrating our nutritional radar: in the home, in the stores and even in the cinema, with movies like "Supersize Me", getting the message across to Americans that we all should take note of what we are feeding ourselves, and especially our children. This revolution of smarter eating has no doubt been the catalyst to an all out healthy snack war between battling companies, each one trying to outdo the other. Just stroll through any snack isle and you will see lots of clever marketing and claims to the "new, new" trendy food item that promises you and your kids extra brain power AND shiny, healthy, hair for life . The proclamations that adorn these boxes and bags are now so familiar to us all I can ask you to close your eyes and recite them with me: No trans-Fats, Gluten Free, No Cholesterol, Whole Grain....you know them all! This is what Malcolm Gladwell means by " TheTipping Point."-- everyone is now jumping on the bandwagon to be on trend. There are a bevy of beauties in this category, so many, that the choices can become overwhelming. How do you choose? Read More
