Cooking
The first ever Independent Food Festival is Hillel Cooperman's idea. Many of you know him from his blog tastingmenu.com, but the Independent Food Festival is a collaborative effort among invited bloggers. Each of us acts as judge and jury for a single prize that we create and award to whomever we like. The categories will seem random, but each blogger created that category to honor a single producer who s/he feels is doing something special. Imagine the Saveur 100 created by the blogger community. Good food can be traced back to individuals, the farmer who takes a little extra care with his or her livestock or an artisan who doesn't cut corners. We need to honor and recognize these producers in this age of mass-produced factory food.
My award for the inaugural Food Festival is Beer to Enjoy While Impressing Your Beer Snob Friends, and I grant it to Olivier Dedeycker of Brasserie Dupont. Dedeycker is the latest of his family to brew beer at Dupont; his grandfather's uncle Louis Dupont started the brewery 150 years ago. We like all the beers we've tried from this brewery, and I waver on my favorite. Sometimes it's Saison Dupont, but currently it's Moinette, which has only recently become available in my part of the U.S..
Melissa and I can't drink Moinette without yelling, "Moinette! It's a good beer!" A farmer yelled this at me as I left his property after I asked him for directions to the brewery. I speak French, so I turned back and waved politely as he kept shouting encouraging words. Melissa stood on the roadside, seeing an old Belgian yelling at me after I wandered far up his driveway to talk to him. Melissa doesn't speak French, and we live in Oakland. She was convinced the guy was threatening to shoot me.
We made it to the tiny town of Tourpes a little later. We walked from a train station seven kilometers away. Don't do this. Rent a car. Especially if Belgium's in the middle of a heat wave. When we got to the brewery Dedeycker himself, a young man with close-cropped dark who seems a little shy, greeted us in the yard of his farm and gave us a tour of the small operation. It doesn't take long; a single farmhouse contains the whole operation.
The tour ends with a video of the beermaking process and samples of Moinette Blond and Moinette Brun, a darker version of this hoppy beer that I've never seen here in the U.S.. The beer Dedeycker produces has a fine balance and a solid integrity even as it remains approachable to anyone who likes good beer. Garrett Oliver bests my tasting notes for Moinette with terms like "coriander, passion fruit, damp earth, dried orange peel, lemon curd, and peaches" and he suggests pairing it with "salmon steaks, grilled sardines, spicy Thai snapper, coconut curries, gamy sausages, steaks and barbecue."
Moinette. It's a good beer!
- R.i.p. Michael Jackson
I just noticed a note on A Good Beer Blog that Michael Jackson, the great beer writer, has passed away. No one else has done as much to educate people about the fantastic traditional beers that exist around the world, and his wisdom will be sorely missed....
- Westvletern - Victim Of Its Own Success
The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvletern [thanks to max for the link] makes some of the last authentic Trappist ale. Most Trappist abbeys often lease their names to brewing companies have hired lay people to do the work, and there is a suspicion among...
- North Coast Brewing Company
Melissa and I visited Fort Bragg this weekend because I was covering Winesong! for The Wine News. We rolled into town late on Friday night, checked into our hotel, picked a restaurant out of the visitors' guide, and drove down the main road in this...
- Tomatilloes
When we were shopping for a produce box supplier, I distinctly wanted a farm that didn't let us choose which produce we would get. I wanted the surprise as well as the potential challenge of cooking with something I rarely use. So I was excited...
-
Eating Our Way Through Belgium (part 3) Cantillon beer is an acquired taste. And I'm not sure I've acquired it yet. A beer-loving friend (who I last saw with a bottle of it in front of him) says it is "like chewing on a lemon." This is not...
Cooking
Beer to Enjoy While Impressing Your Beer Snob Friends
The first ever Independent Food Festival is Hillel Cooperman's idea. Many of you know him from his blog tastingmenu.com, but the Independent Food Festival is a collaborative effort among invited bloggers. Each of us acts as judge and jury for a single prize that we create and award to whomever we like. The categories will seem random, but each blogger created that category to honor a single producer who s/he feels is doing something special. Imagine the Saveur 100 created by the blogger community. Good food can be traced back to individuals, the farmer who takes a little extra care with his or her livestock or an artisan who doesn't cut corners. We need to honor and recognize these producers in this age of mass-produced factory food.
My award for the inaugural Food Festival is Beer to Enjoy While Impressing Your Beer Snob Friends, and I grant it to Olivier Dedeycker of Brasserie Dupont. Dedeycker is the latest of his family to brew beer at Dupont; his grandfather's uncle Louis Dupont started the brewery 150 years ago. We like all the beers we've tried from this brewery, and I waver on my favorite. Sometimes it's Saison Dupont, but currently it's Moinette, which has only recently become available in my part of the U.S..
Melissa and I can't drink Moinette without yelling, "Moinette! It's a good beer!" A farmer yelled this at me as I left his property after I asked him for directions to the brewery. I speak French, so I turned back and waved politely as he kept shouting encouraging words. Melissa stood on the roadside, seeing an old Belgian yelling at me after I wandered far up his driveway to talk to him. Melissa doesn't speak French, and we live in Oakland. She was convinced the guy was threatening to shoot me.
We made it to the tiny town of Tourpes a little later. We walked from a train station seven kilometers away. Don't do this. Rent a car. Especially if Belgium's in the middle of a heat wave. When we got to the brewery Dedeycker himself, a young man with close-cropped dark who seems a little shy, greeted us in the yard of his farm and gave us a tour of the small operation. It doesn't take long; a single farmhouse contains the whole operation.
The tour ends with a video of the beermaking process and samples of Moinette Blond and Moinette Brun, a darker version of this hoppy beer that I've never seen here in the U.S.. The beer Dedeycker produces has a fine balance and a solid integrity even as it remains approachable to anyone who likes good beer. Garrett Oliver bests my tasting notes for Moinette with terms like "coriander, passion fruit, damp earth, dried orange peel, lemon curd, and peaches" and he suggests pairing it with "salmon steaks, grilled sardines, spicy Thai snapper, coconut curries, gamy sausages, steaks and barbecue."
Moinette. It's a good beer!
- R.i.p. Michael Jackson
I just noticed a note on A Good Beer Blog that Michael Jackson, the great beer writer, has passed away. No one else has done as much to educate people about the fantastic traditional beers that exist around the world, and his wisdom will be sorely missed....
- Westvletern - Victim Of Its Own Success
The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvletern [thanks to max for the link] makes some of the last authentic Trappist ale. Most Trappist abbeys often lease their names to brewing companies have hired lay people to do the work, and there is a suspicion among...
- North Coast Brewing Company
Melissa and I visited Fort Bragg this weekend because I was covering Winesong! for The Wine News. We rolled into town late on Friday night, checked into our hotel, picked a restaurant out of the visitors' guide, and drove down the main road in this...
- Tomatilloes
When we were shopping for a produce box supplier, I distinctly wanted a farm that didn't let us choose which produce we would get. I wanted the surprise as well as the potential challenge of cooking with something I rarely use. So I was excited...
-
Eating Our Way Through Belgium (part 3) Cantillon beer is an acquired taste. And I'm not sure I've acquired it yet. A beer-loving friend (who I last saw with a bottle of it in front of him) says it is "like chewing on a lemon." This is not...