As we head into winter in South America, up north, the Mercury is rising. Everybody is heading for the beach, the pool, somebody’s backyard barbecue. Rosé wines have long been associated with beating the summer heat. In fact, they also pair perfectly with many...
Bread junkies. Carbaholics. Chileans are not scared of white flour, or lard for that matter. Maybe that’s why the bread here tastes so damn good. And in fact, to throw out some statistics, they have an annual per capita consumption of 100kg, or 220 pounds,...
Although wine professionals have long been sticklers with serving wines at precisely the perfect temperature in restaurants, among aficionados, there seems to be a confusing gray area surrounding this issue and what works best. A couple years ago, I invested in a US$1...
Two years ago in Chicago, a couple hip colleagues invited me to a little wine bar on Milwaukee named Juicy Wine Co. We gnoshed on slinky Serrano ham and some nutty Manchego while sipping away a Sicilian wine, Tenuta delle Terre Nere, an unbelievably fresh yet earthy...
Ok, so I need to fess up. There’s something I have not been straight up about…wine is not my favorite drink. Water is. As passionate as I am about tasting wine, understanding where it’s born, the hands that touch it, the magic of making it, when it comes down to...
Merkén is the quinessential spice of the Mapuche Indians who populate the southern province in Chile, La Araucanía, about 10 hours south of the capital, Santiago. Cacho de cabra red chilis, shaped like plump, curved fingers, are dry smoked and coarsely ground. Some...
Wine is a living being. Just like the rest of nature, it evolves over time and is vitally dependent on oxygen to live—the cork is essentially its windpipe. In aging a wine, this process happens slowly, usually over many years. However, what if we want to drink a...
You’ve been there. You’re standing in the supermarket, or liquor store, and have absolutely no idea about any of the wines in front of you. You look around. There is no floor help anywhere in sight. You have to hit the road NOW for a dinner party. Ayy, what to...
Freshly arrived in the Patagonian outpost town of Puerto Natales, after a full day’s schlep from Santiago (4 hours flying, 3 hours driving from Punta Arenas), we are famished. Desperately seeking lunch, our hotel, Indigo , recommends a tasty new place up the...
Can a whole dinner revolve around a single wine? Most definitely. I love working in reverse. On Friday, the whole pretext of the dinner was to crack open my friend Melissa’s ’97 bottle of Beaulieu Tapestry . She sent me the Cellar Tracker ) notes for planning. It...
Sleepless in Santiago. Last night I tossed and turned all night long. I caught shut-eye in two hour intervals. In one of the numerous attempts to lull myself back to sleep, I began a rather interesting mind game of taking favorite recipes and converting their...
This coming Saturday, May 2, the tiny little coastal appellation of San Antonio will be getting on its first wine festival from 11am-6pm. San Antonio is about an hour west of Santiago over the steep coastal mountains. In my opinion, San Antonio is hands down...
Living on Parque Forestal on the edge of downtown Santiago, I love a Saturday morning (culinary) shopping excursion. It’s a beautiful morning. I head out on my usual route by the the Art Museum and walking towards the centro on Merced. I pop in to Chinese Mark...
Don Pedro is frantic. The bodega alarm won’t stop shreking. It is shrill enough to hurt our ear drums a little. He greets us shrugging his shoulders and laughing in surrender. Suddenly there is silence. Meet Don Pedro Rossell--Argentina’s primo maestro in...
It’s hard to believe it’s fall here in Chile. On one hand, the leaves are falling and turning lovely shades of crimson. However, temperatures are still oddly hovering around 27-28C (high 80s). Being a warm weather lover, I never thought I would say this, but I...
Sunday night we came back from what I can only qualify as a mind-blowing four days in Patagonia. We headed down to cover a new gastronomic program called Tasting Chile with the “extreme” fly-fishing/ecotourism cruise called Nomads of the Seas. The objective?...
Although chimichurri may be a staple condiment on every Argentinean table, versions are as varied as there are cooks. On my last trip to Mendoza, we stayed overnight in the Uco Valley at Casa Antucura. At dinner that night, the talented cook, Estefania Tolaba, served...
Entertaining at our place has been on hiatus for the past couple months as work, life, and trips enveloped us and left me wanting to order out, not cook in for a crowd. This past long weekend over Easter in Santiago was very quiet. A small exodus to the beaches had...
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