Saturday, January 20, 2007

Wine of the Week, January 20, 2007

Montalto, Nero d'Avola-Cabernet Sauvignon, 2003, Sicily, IGT, 14% abv

This wine cost only $10.98 to take home from a regular NSLC store.

It is a big hearty red, with a fruity nose, and a very harmonius, easy to drink taste. The addition of the Cabernet seems to add class simply unwarranted or unavailable at this price. It is hard to believe there is so much wine, so much good stuff in a bottle for this price. A screw cap too, so no corked versions will be taken home to spoil your dinner.

Drink alone, or with a full bodied meal, handles garlic lamb, even some low acid tomato sauce well.

A fantastic alternative to cheap Australian - a wine with fruit AND structure. Very quaffable and affordable.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Rogggi, Rogio, Rog, Oraizo, Oriso... ah forget it....

After blowing my nose about 87 million times over Christmas, and actually wearing off a bit of the end of it in the process, it seemed time to risk fortune on eating out again. I've been out drinking a couple times, and have eaten well at Rogues (pan fried haddock), the Midtown (Hot hamburg special), and my Mom's place (the big Turkey Dinner), but in general I was so sick with two different stupid colds over the holiday that I actually lost weight, despite keeping to the annual tradition and eating like a true pig on New Years Eve!

So last night, in the freezing cold, we ventured out to dinner at Rogi Orazio, a newish place in the Hydrostone Market block. It seemed Italian in character (I have no frickin' idea what the name means) and we hoped that maybe it would be a warm, cosy, spicey place to have a hot meal on a cold night.

Things started poorly. We were seated at the window, with a supposed "heater" along the baseboard. The window sucked heat out so fast that my hair was waving in the breeze, and we needed to switch seats, as L did not have a sweater and was a bit self concious keeping her down parka on.

So, the place was cool. But not the right kinda cool.

Freezing, we both ordered soup, and with the arrival of my wine (an $8 by the glass NZ Pinot that showed very well at a recent tasting at my place), and L's tea, things started to improve. When the soup arrived, it got better. My vegetable soup with chicken broth was very good, and not too salty. There were enough different vegetables that I could excuse the zucchini (who invented that useless protoplasm anyway?) and enjoy the soup. L's roast garlic soup was tomato based, and almost pasty (it did not fill in the holes one excavated with a spoon in order to eat it, thereby not really qualifying as a soup in my books). But it was hot, hearty, and soon gone.

Feeling a bit warmer, we had not very long to wait for our main course, Tuscan Chicken for her and a rack of lamb for me. Hers was a large serving, full of familiar, tomato/parmesan/pine nut type flavours. Oozing the ordinary, but darn good predictable ordinary. Mine was greek style lamb riblets - I must have not fully read the menu, as somehow I thought I was getting a rack, and not a series of individual greek style marinéed singlet riblets. It was good, but I had selected more pinot, expeting more earth and deep roast lamb flavours. But what was hilarious was the care the server took in making sure I really wanted it rare on ordering, and then its arrival as well done. She seemed to think that if it was red or even pink I might faint from the sight of blood, instead of sucking it up and making Dracula references like I usually do.

Did I mention she was hot? The server. She was the only thing in the place that was not cold, including, unfortunately, the plates. On a night like that, too bad the plates were cold. It meant you scarfed down the food before it became refrigerated.

I am sounding off as if the place was not good. But it really was. The service was as good as I have ever had in Halifax. She seemed to know when we were ready to be cleared, and it was not as if we were the only table, as the place was over half full. The food was good, I just wish we and it, had been warmer.

I am sure that those heated benches at janes on the common were quite popular last night.

Anyway, we split a brownie dessert (great) and headed off home to light a fire in the fireplace and huddle like eskimos, staring into the fire and thanking ourselves for remembering to buy fire logs, thereby conquering the wild outdoors with our ingenuity.

I'll go again, but I might wait until things warm up a bit.