I had a great weekend - I got to go to Jungle Jim's, where I purchased the salted French butter pictured above. For anyone who isn't aware, Jungle Jim's is a giant grocery store partially dedicated to serving the public as such, as in they have typical grocery offerings, and the rest of the store (it really is huge) offers food from around the world, a giant wine and beer selection, lived fish, cheese and sausage from all over, and a number of strange displays of giant singing mechanical animals. They are even a bonded cellar for a number of big name wine producers (think Dom Perignon and above); you can reserve their cellar for parties. I have never seen so many varieties of head cheese in one space. They have an island completely devoted to butter! They even have a Starbucks and a Maggie Moo's, and it looks as though a restaurant is coming soon. I even purchased a durian while I was there; we will, of course, discuss the eating thereof as soon as it occurs. (FYI, a durian is a large, spiky fruit from Southeast Asia that smells like rotting flesh. Its possession is typically banned in tourist areas. Ours came frozen with a stern warning from the cashier to not let it thaw, under any circumstances, until we were outside and ready to eat it.)
Then there was the wine! I learned that some winemakers are so in tune with the earth they can see the grapes glowing when they're ripe (hint, I had his wine at the French Laundry). I also learned that grapevines need to struggle in order to produce superior fruit (all sorts of touch-feely allegories can be applied here). I learned that synthetic corks are death to wine, and that Alborino is completely underrated, but of course I already knew that. I learned that wine grown under Mt. Etna on Sicily smells exactly like ash, and although I already knew this, I learned everybody has their own opinion, and I will have to patiently listen to them for the rest of my life. (More on all of these things at a later date)
I have also decided to write more about wine; hopefully I won't bore anyone. I will try to be as educational as possible! I also need to get back into the kitchen. Maybe we'll make some Madelines today . . .
