Heart Disease is Gonna Cramp my Style

Heart Disease. I guess I knew it was in my mom's family but it sure has hit home this week. While recovering in the hospital following surgery last week, my mom had a heart attack. She is 59. I will spare you all the details, but I have learned that four of her closest relatives have had heart attacks (2 fatal) or heart disease related surgery BEFORE they were 59.

If you read my blog you notice I like to eat. And drink. Heck, eating and drinking constitutes being merry for me. You may also have noted that I am overweight. So this week I have been saying "I have got to start taking care of myself". Am I still kidding myself? I consumed copious amounts of queso today and plenty of fried tortilla chips. Of course, camped out in a hospital waiting room, you want comfort food, not carrots. Would you believe the food in the hospital cafeteria is grossly unhealthy? Shame on them. Even the patient meals are questionable. Before mom was in ICU, they were supposedly bringing her the American Heart Assn diet. Really? I didn't know that included chicken fried steak.

Maybe I can make heart healthy my new project. I do well when I get obsessed with things... at least for about six weeks 'til I fall off the wagon.

Bottle Shock - A Movie Review

Last night, AA and I went to see Bottle Shock. It was good.
As was inevitable, it has garnered comparisons to Sideways. The only real similarity is that they are movies set against the back drop of California wine country - not even the same wine growing regions or the same decade. Though there were dramatic moments in Sideways, there were also moments of shocking hilarity (e.g. the husband running down the block). I guess Sideways is one of my favorite movies. But I don't want to compare the two, because they really aren't similar. As an indie flick, it has been compared by some online reviews to the quality of Juno and Little Miss Sunshine. No way. I liked it, but it cannot compare to those movies.
There are some smiles in Bottle Shock, but I wouldn't call it a comedy. There is a lot of family drama, and Bill Pullman makes you feel his pain regarding his dream. Though I was spellbound by the complete cuteness of Freddy Rodriguez, Bill Pullman definitely does the best acting in the movie.
The best part about watching Bottle Shock is the sweeping vistas of Napa. If you have been to Napa, it is just about worth the price of admission to happily recall the place. If you haven't been and want to go, seeing this movie may cause you to go home and book the trip. And yes, it really is that beautiful and strangely magical. But - largely because of the events depicted in Bottle Shock - Napa is not the quiet, rural place it was in 1976.
I can't help but feeling the movie could have been so much better than it was. The story is a fantastic one. Do read all about it. This movie could have had us cheering in our seats like a Cold War era Olympic hockey game (but for wine nerds). But it was sweet and happy and pretty.
Unless you just want to enjoy the Napa scenery on the big screen, grab some good local cheeses, a baguette (in honor of the French) and a bottle of Chateau Montelena or Stag's Leap and snuggle in at home when it comes out on DVD.

Eating and Drinking in the Week that Was

Comments on last week... Kudos and Happy Anniversary to Times Ten Cellars which threw itself a great party. It was much better than last year, which was a zoo. From an owner's perspective, I don't know if the quantity of customers it takes to constitute a zoo is better than slightly fewer. The party this year definitely had a great turnout, but I think they were better prepared with lots of servers and some fun diversions (and Scalini's pizza). There were these people doing "butt sketches" - seriously. I have an awful, hideous, gigantic butt, but was goaded into participating with assurances that the artist was "very complimentary". He was kind indeed. The guys (owners of Times Ten) also brought in a Marilyn Monroe impersonator to sing Happy Birthday. She botched the name (Ten Times Cellars) but was amusing nonetheless. As always, I stayed longer than I intended.

I stopped in Veritas again on Thursday. I really like this place. The people who work there are so nice. Thank goodness I don't drive past it on the way home. I got some more info on the great stemware. It is titanium crystal by Schott Zwiesel. It breaks much less easily than lead crystal or simple glass stemware. I have found it available online for sale, but Veritas may sell it in the future, so I will wait and buy from them. (Shop local!) At a couple of sites online it is about $65 for a set of six glasses. Not bad. Veritas has some intriguing plans in the works for the future with local artists and chefs. I hope it goes well. I also discovered that they are trying to promote their business earlier in the evening. Currently they are getting a mostly late-night crowd. To this end, they are offering $2 off wines by the glass and other specials from 4:30-6:30 pm. I'm sure I will be back.

Finally, I had dinner and drinks this weekend at Bar Belmont in Oak Cliff. Beautiful view on the patio. If you like interesting cocktails, they have several. I am not an interesting cocktail drinker. Other than wine, I think drinks involving fruit are ill-advised. I do except the occasional lime in a beer (a wedge of fresh lime, not some beer with lime flavor bottled into it - ick). I drink beer, wine and Crown Royal. Through these 25 years of drinking (eek) I have learned to keep it simple. But I did like the wine list at Bar Belmont, and was glad to see they had the Sauvignon Blanc from local Times Ten Cellars. They had several bottles for $25. Other than Patrizio, I can't think of a local restaurant that groups its wines by price and features a section of affordable wines. The food was fine but nothing to write home about. At this dinner a friend and I discussed how much we liked and miss M Grill. That place was so good - food, service, wine.

Also at this dinner, I became increasingly aware of how many people are blogging. I think I will share. I have given my blog address to only two friends. If I put very personal stuff on here at some point I don't want it "out there". Hm. Maybe I could just have my food and wine blog and just "journal" in private. The Internet, blogs, MySpace, etc. are evidence of our true exhibitionist nature.

Tonight I am going to see Bottle Shock. Review to follow.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

Trying some new-to-me local spots

Last night my friend Julia from the neighborhood and I planned to go out to dinner. I picked Kozy Kitchen (really cheesy, dumb name) on McKinney. I have wanted to try it for a while. The menu is healthful - not in the sense that it is low fat diet food, but it is natural. The veggies are fresh, the salmon is wild caught, the beef is grass fed, etc. And the place is BYOB! That always makes dinner cheaper. Julia had been there for breakfast a couple of times (which is supposedly fab) or we would have driven right past the place. It is very non-descript on the outside. It is small, maybe about 12 tables. It is entirely too dark inside; we could barely read our menus. But that was the only real negative. The service was very pleasant and the food was yummy. I had called Saturday afternoon and inquired about specials so that we could choose wine. I was assured that a reservation was not needed; nothing was on the books. Apparently they had a rush after I called, so the guy on the phone had reserved a table for me. Very nice! Two nice folks tended to us during our dinner. Props to the gentleman for being so honest about the menu.
The pricing seemed a bit strange. Some dishes seemed rather expensive for what was on the plate, but others seemed to be a very fairly priced. The specials were quite expensive - each was $26 even though they varied widely in the cost of ingredients and complexity of preparation. So we opted for menu items that were a full $10 cheaper than the specials. We were not disappointed. We shared a fresh caprese salad - stacked mozzarella slices and brilliant red tomatoes with mixed greens and dollops of pesto on the plate. We chose the same entree, which I always hate to do, but it sounded the best. It was wild caught Scottish salmon on a bed of herbed risotto with an assortment of seasonal sauteed veggies. The salmon was perfectly cooked. It had that perfect little crust fish gets when cooked on a hot surface. The risotto retained a little firmness but was nice and creamy without being saucy or mushy. The veggies may have been a little more tender than crisp, but were very enjoyable.
I suggested we walk across the street to Grand Tastings, a retail wine shop with a small bar and about six table where folks can sit down for wine tastings. We opted for the $15 per person basic tasting for which each of us chose five wines to taste from a list of about 15-20. The bubbly was very flat. The servers didn't know wine. The retail prices were a little high. We weren't very impressed.
On the way home as we drove down Henderson, I told Julia about Natsumi, the new organic gelato place I had read about in the little strip mall full of hip new places. She decided we should stop, so we did. Yum! Natsumi is a neat little place. It has nonfat frozen yogurt and gelato made with organic milk. They also have coffee and smoothies. They have standard and funky flavors and are quick to give little samples. (Avocado was good!) I got lychee. Julia got pistachio and something. Then we decided to peek in the window, then walk in just to check out, the new wine bar Veritas in the same strip mall. About an hour later, we knew an owner, the adorable college student bar tender and his uncle Fernando. Veritas has a similar concept to Grand Tastings (and Wine Therapist, and Wine'tastic ... clearly it's a trend). It is a retail shop that has limited food, wines by the glass. You also can consume your bottle(s) there for a price slightly more than the retail price. I had a good glass of bubbly for $7! And we tried a yummy grenache with blueberry notes called "Bitch", apparently because that is such a hard grape to grow. They had really nice stemware at Veritas, fitting for a nice wine bar, but nicer than at any other local wine bar I have visited. I read an unfavorable post about one of the owners on another blog or review site, but the experience overcame any bias I had in my mind when I walked in the door. We definitely will go back. They also feature local artists' work on the walls for sale, which I always like.
It was a great evening of checking out new-to-me places. And all of them were pretty close to home. Julia and I had a very enjoyable time talking and hanging out. She and I are very different in some ways, but also have a lot in common. Every time we get together, we both wonder why we don't do it more often.
So remember to get out there and try some new places!