How to Eat . . . Better

Wineries and Petting Zoos: Wine Tasting Tips

November 19, 2010 by Kevin Murphy

Thanksgiving is the busiest tasting time for Oregon wineries. For those planning to do some wine tasting this weekend, I have a few tips.

Avoid any wineries with a petting zoo, the world’s largest wine barrel or an aerial tram.
Wineries with a family dog or cat is a plus, even the occasional goat or horse is okay and do not apply to rule #1, petting zoo clause.
Do not stop on your way to the winery to get coffee, no matter how cool you think Dutch Bros is.
Pick friends to go with that are wine club members at different wineries than you are.
If you see a large van of wine drinkers, make sure you beat them to the tasting room.
If you see a large van of wine drinkers having a bachelorette party. Stick around, cause it could be amusing, but don’t expect a tranquil wine sipping experience.
Do not go up to total strangers asking “Are my teeth purple?”
Be suspect of wineries with a cute animal on the label.
The longer the tasting notes, the more I think the winemaker is trying to hide something.

If you want to know all about proper wine tasting ettiquette, check out Tasting-Wine.com

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged wine | Leave a Comment »

Proper Heterogeneous Burrito Formation

November 11, 2010 by Kevin Murphy

I arrived at the airport this morning around 7:00 a.m. for the 8:00 a.m. flight to Seattle. Everything went smoothly. Security was a little slow, but the TSA staff didn’t try to get frisky. I got on the plane and went straight into my Thursday morning nap routine. After about 35 minutes of quality nap time, I realized we weren’t in the air. Maintenance problems. We taxied to the gate. Maintenance worked for about 20 minutes, then we turned back to take off again. Keep in mind this is now an hour of ground time for a 30 minute flight. After another delay, they had us get off the plane. Since it was 9:30 by this time and my Seattle meeting started at 10:00 I made the decision to get some breakfast, and just call into the meeting.

Jump to Breakfast.

PDX (Portland for you non airport code junkies) has a nice array of food options. I opted for a veggie breakfast burrito from Elephant’s Delicatessen. It was good.

I was impressed with the even distribution of ingredients. It was pre-made, not made to order, so I don’t know how they did it. But at most burrito places they go down the line glopping scoops of rice beans, meat, cheese, etc. on a tortilla. The problem with this approach is you end up with a partitioned burrito. There’s a section for meat, a section for beans, a section for rice. When you bite into it, you only get that one item in each bite. If you like lettuce this form of construction could be good, because the lettuce is protected by other lettuce and stays crisp. But otherwise I’m not a fan.

Proper burrito construction has the burritista (new word) spread the hot ingredients out evenly across the tortilla and then applies a layer of cheese or sour cream to protect any cold ingredients like lettuce or tomatoes. This process keeps crisp items crisp, but is time-consuming and a bad burrito fold, can ruin it all.

Consider instead, tossing the ingredients altogether in a bowl and then applying to the tortilla. This guarantees even distribution and saves time. To keep your lettuce crisp, order a salad on the side.

And my all time favorite burrito . . . Tres Amigos Super Beef with a glass of horchata and pickled radishes.

The original Tres Amigos, Half Moon Bay, California

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged burrito | 1 Comment »

Top Food TV

November 9, 2010 by Kevin Murphy

I have learned very little from watching food shows. But occasionally I’ll get inspired to try cooking something from them. Be it cooking, or entertainment, here are the top five:

Chopped – four potential celebrity chefs pull random food out of a basket, cook it and get Simon Cowelled by three judges. Also known As Iron Chef with a lower production budget.
Best Thing I Ever Ate – one camera man, a motion graphics artist and a series of C list celebrity chefs talking about their favorite food. Brilliant! I wish I would have though of it. I could film the entire series on my mobile phone.
Iron Chef (the Original) – poorly dubbed pageantry at its finest. Glammed out chefs cook strange ingredients for giggling Japanese ingenues to taste and judge.
Worst Cooks in America – train wreck rubbernecking at its finest. A bunch of top-ramen burning contestants are coached to culinary mediocrity. Flames, broken glass, and tears are guaranteed.
No Reservations – Anthony Bourdain is definitely on the short list of coolest men in America. I have actually been in close proximity to him on a few occasions, but each time I approached he mysteriously disappeared into a blue haze of cigarette smoke.