Indigo Restaurant's Wrath of Grapes Wine Club
June 24, 2003

Veuve Clicquot Champagne
R. Mondavi Arianna Chardonnay, CA
R. Mondavi Arianna Cabernet Sauvignon, CA
Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand
Goats do Roam - Blend, South Africa
St. Michelle Cold Creek Cabernet Sauvignon, WA
Paringa Shiraz, Australia

So this wine club... I've been four times and Brian's been three. It's pretty fun and interesting, but this week I don't remember any of the wines (I'll tell why in a bit). Except maybe the Champagne, that was good; and maybe the Arianna Chard - that was good too. (It turns out the Arianna is only sold in restaurants though, so we'll probably never taste those again as all restaurants jack their wine prices by at least 100% over the grocery store price.)

Back to the reason why I only remember the first two wines: this restaurant, Indigo, that has the wine club, also has "Martini Madness" Tuesday through Friday. This week we decided to go over a little early (the wine club starts at 6 pm)... the special is these $6 martinis (mostly fruity ones) for only $2.75. Naturally to make the most of the deal we both had 2 martinis. Unfortunately, 2 martinis + 7 - 3 oz. tastes of wine seems to have put the memory out of commission.

More next time. Check out the links though - Brown Palace and Chef Mavro are two of our favorite restaurants and I just stumbled upon Gastronomica (The Journal of Food and Culture).

peanut butter and bananas

This combination has the classic salty/sweet dichotomy with a texture twist.

The peanut butter (creamy is my preference today) is smooth, but gooey and thick. The banana slices are also gooey, but less viscous and wetter.

I think something in the banana cuts through the 'glue-my-mouth-shut' thickness of the p-butter as I don't need that nearly compulsory glass of milk when I eat this combo.

I remember when I was probably 10 I made this awesome sandwich - but very hard to eat - one slice of toasted Freihofer 'brown-wrapper' bread (some strange-but-good amalgam of white and wheat), a quarter-inch-thick layer of peanut butter (Teddy brand natural that you have to mix the oil back into - my mother preferred this) and a whole banana, sliced (variably thick and thin - not purposefully, but because I was ten). It towered above the plate, as I had to add an extra layer of p-butter on top of the first layer of banana slices to glue the next layer on (it was a big banana). I don't remember how I actually ate it, but it was probably very messy. I do however remember that I couldn't finish that whole thing (by about half) and I think my mom ate the rest. It was good though.

chocolate cake
2 layers, chocolate, with chocolate cream frosting in between layers. white sugar frosting (not cream). tooth-achingly sweet, but yum!

I just finished eating a nice-sized piece of chocolate cake with a cup of water to wash it down.

I think it's fairly apropos that the blog starts this way - dessert first! It also makes me think of that bit on Bill Cosby, Himself when he's telling the story of how he served his children chocolate cake for breakfast and later got scolded by his wife, their mother.

The cake from Costco was leftover from my company's annual picnic held last Saturday. I was surprised how good it really was.