Don't Have $350 For BubbleQ? Check Out A Wine Seminar Instead
Parties are great for eating as much food as you can and gawking at celebrities, but sometimes you want something a little more sedate. Enter the wine seminars of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, where you can learn how to pair wine or cocktails with all sorts of different foods. Almost all of the wines used are moderately priced and available locally, although often the organizers will throw in a treat of a very expensive or rare wine. Here are the seminars we checked out this year:
Latin Libations with Tony Abou-Ganim and Roberto Santibañez
Notice the empty glasses. Those were, from left to right: pisco sour, caipirinha, sangria and margarita. We're not big cocktail drinkers, but these just went down so easily. Some tips from Abou-Ganim: use simple syrup instead of granulated sugar; the latter doesn't dissolve easily in cold water. Maintain about a one-to-one ratio of sweet and tart elements, and hold back on the sugar a bit if you're unsure — it's always easier to sweeten it later on.
Click on the jump to see Abou-Ganim's sangria recipe and notes about other seminars.
Sherry & Cheese Pairing with Steve Olson and John Cuevas
Ah, sherry and cheese, the breakfast of champions. While most people were recovering from the previous night, quite a few of us were at the Loews for this 10:30 seminar on Sunday. And it was totally worth it. Both the sherries and the cheeses were excellent. Our favorite sherries were the two on either end: the Lustau Manzanilla, Reserva Papirusa in the glass all the way on the left and the Osborne Pedro Ximenez 1827 all the way on the right. The former looked like vinho verde and had apple overtones, and the latter was incredibly sweet, but it paired beautifully with that creamy cheese in the forefront, the Epoisses de Bourgogne. We liked the pairing so much that we snatched another piece of Epoisses from the empty place setting next to us.
Sizzle and Swirl: Barbecue and Wine Pairing with Alpana Singh and Howie Kleinberg
This was the most disappointing of the seminars, not because of the hosts but because of the crowd. There were few empty seats — it was one of the most popular seminars offered, likely because of Kleinberg's presence. But we got the sense that they were more interested in seeing him than actually learning about how to pair barbecue with wine; throughout the class, there was a constant hum so loud that often neither Singh nor Kleinberg could be heard. And while Kleinberg was very informative and helpful, he just doesn't have the personality to command a large crowd. The 'cue came from his Bulldog BBQ in North Miami, and the wines ranged from a sparkling rosé to a couple of California syrahs. All worked well with the food, although we were particular fans of the syrah and brisket pairing.
Fun fact: Singh had initially proposed a "Wine and Your Horoscope" seminar, but no one signed up for it, so festival organizers suggested teaming up with Kleinberg. She had recently begun pairing wines with barbecue, so she thought it was a great idea.
Tony Abou-Ganim's Sangria
Note: We did the best we could getting exact measurements, but we fell a bit short. Sangria's meant to be adapted anyway, right?
1 orange, sliced
several strawberries, sliced
1 lemon, sliced
a few cinnamon sticks
12 ounces orange juice
12 ounces lemon juice
12 ounces simple syrup
Grand Marnier
Cognac (the only measurement we jotted down was "lots")
2 bottles Rioja wine
7up, Champagne or sparkling water to dilute the mixture
Mix everything together a day before you're planning to drink it. Serve over ice.
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Paula Deen's Pants Fall Down On Stage At The South Beach Wine & Food Festival
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MawQeAlsOEs
Video courtesy of Miami New Times
Posted by: Short Order Food Blog | February 23, 2009 01:33 PM