Subject: wow

Read it and weep: Gourmet Magazine will be no more.
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/conde-nast-to-close-gourmet-magazine/?hp

Time Magazine Gets Real about food

“Niman Ranch raises its livestock traditionally, humanely and sustainably to deliver the finest tasting meat in the world.”
This week’s Time Magazine cover story, Getting Real about the High Price of Cheap Food, is an eye opener about the industry we know and love. We have been plugging Niman Ranch for 7 years, and have been happy to explain over and over what makes them different and why it matters. (To be honest, we have felt like the slightly crazy guy standing on the box on the corner, yelling and waving his arms as people hurry by.) We watched the company grow and go through painful but necessary changes to be what it is today. So it was with great pleasure to see the only meat company mentioned as a viable alternative to commodity pork and beef is, drum roll please, Niman Ranch! (In Time freaking Magazine no less!) Congratulations to them!

Easy Recipes and Big Ass Cookware

Westword Newspaper has added a recipe section to their Cafe Society Blog, and we’re the recipe writers! Join Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane every week for an easy-to-follow recipe slideshow/video. Bacon candy, corn chowder, fried chicken, and what to do with all that zucchini.

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, they had to walk into ours.

Phone rang last week in the wine shop. It was the Wall St. Journal calling, they were doing an article on affordable wines, and could Pete suggest a case for around $120? Only three wine shops in the US were called, and we were one. Wow. Here are Pete’s Picks for the WSJ:

1. Château des Chapelains Bordeaux Clairet rosé (France). $9.99.
2. Diego Murillo Torrontés (Argentina). $9.99.
3. Chateau Haut Sarthes Montravel White Bordeaux (France). $9.99.
4. Charles Smith Wines Holy Cow Chardonnay (Washington). $9.99
5. Aveleda Charamba Vino Tinto (Portugal). $9.99.
6. Château Jeanguillon Bordeaux Supérieur (France). $9.99.
7. Belpoggio Rosso Piceno (Italy). $9.99.
8. Famega Vinho Verde (Portugal). $8.99.
9. Gran Sarao Brut Cava (Spain). $12.99.
10. Pierre Olivier Côtes du Rhône Blanc (France). $9.99.
11. Infinite Monkey Theorem Sauvignon Blanc/Sémillon (Colorado). $19.99
12. Parducci Sustainable Red (California). $9.99.

Call 303 894-9499 to get your very own WSJ Pete’s Picks!

My favorite new cocktail!

Went to a party the other night called 50 Top Denver. It is a groups of Denver chefs that get together every 4 months or so, whip up an elegant, beautiful, mind blowing meal, then are gone like ghosts in the night. 50 Top refers to the number of guests. The locations change with the season (last night we were in Union Station), but one thing is always the same: there’s a cocktail to begin the evening. Last night we enjoyed, and I mean enjoyed, a Sazerac cocktail, thanks to Steuben’s mixoligist Sean Kenyon. The Sazerac is reknown as the first American cocktail, which was in keeping with last night’s “Golden Age of Dining” theme.

2oz Rye Whiskey
1/4oz Absinthe, Leopold Bros are now making this in Denver!
2 sugar cubes
4 dashes of Peychaud’s Bitters

Fill one glass with ice to chill.
In a mixing glass muddle the sugar cubes, the bitters and a couple of drops of water. Pour in the Rye and stir.
Dump the ice out of the chilled glass, pour in the absinthe, roll the glass to coat and dump out the excess (I recommend drinking it).
Strain the contents of the mixing glass into the Absinthe rinsed glass. Cut a wide swath of lemon peel, twist it over the cocktail to express the oils, rub the peel around the rim of the glass and drop it into the cocktail.

If that seems like too much work at home…join Sean at Steuben’s for a drink!

Take a look here at the Drinking with Pete 50 Top video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odkHwJ9mzpM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkhzLiWbNqQ

Soup du Jour

Soup du Jour
You can find this on the Home page now!

Drinking with Pete: Taste of Vail Picnic

Drinking With Pete Hits The Road and the Slopes! Join the Hooch Hounds, Pete and Ash, as they taste their way through the 2009 Taste of Vail festival where the wine flows freely, there’s no shortage of great food and the people watching is some of the best this side of the Mason Dixon Line.

Drinking with Pete - April Edition

Drinking with Pete

Drinkin (and Spittin) With Pete – April is all about Spring, Easter, lamb, ham and the renewal of life. Join the Hooch Hounds; Pete and the Wine Chicks Ash and Krisana as they taste their way through some super value wines from Greece, Australia, South Africa and Italy that are not only delicious but also will work beautifully with ham, lamb and even bunny…

Westword Results Are In

Best Meat Market

“Yes, you’re probably going to pay top dollar for your meat at Marczyk Fine Foods. But trust us, it’s worth it. If you really care about the quality of your food, you should shop at a place where owner Pete Marczyk and his staff take pride in offering nothing but the best of the best. Just peeking through the glass at the cuts of meat displayed by the butchers is addicting — better than leafing through any high-gloss food mag out there. Marczyk’s stocks free-range chickens, makes its own sausage, and even puts some of that meat into sandwiches that you can grab for lunch.” ~Westword

Gluten Free in the Land of the Free

Our customers here at Marczyk’s have been asking for GF foods more in the last 6 months than in the last 6 years. We wonder why—especially when one of our favorite customers can eat the bread in Europe, but not here?
Here’s some anecdotal thoughts:
We wonder if the recent spate of gluten intolerance comes from the now widespread use of GMO foodstuffs in the US. GMO stands for genetically modified organism—like Roundup™ (a non-selective herbicide) resistant corn (both Roundup™ and the seeds for corn which is Roundup™ resistant are manufactured by Monsanto). While hybrids are a form of genetic engineering, the essential genome of the plants are not changed as in genetic modification - like the insertion of a fish gene in tomatoes to keep them firmer longer (FLAVR SAVR? Christ, they can’t even use the real words!).
The real issue is unintended cross-pollination. Now this is serious. Currently there is no way for GM pollen and non-GM plants to prevent cross pollination, and GM traits are being found in plants which came from non-GMO seed stock. Really a big deal in soy and rapeseed.
Across the ocean, the EU does not allow GMO crops to be grown or sold. This is a real sticking point with the US, as we cannot export many of our products there. The EU also does not allow for the use of hormones in beef production—which is why we can’t export our beef there either. (The use of six growth-promoting hormones in beef production was prohibited across Europe in the 1980s on the grounds that they posed a significant risk to human health. Imports of meat treated with these hormones were also banned. Canada and the US successfully challenged the import embargo as not being based on an adequate risk assessment as required by the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures - SPS Agreement). Both countries subsequently imposed retaliatory tariffs on a range of European agricultural exports worth US $116.8 million for the US and C $11.3 million for Canada.
Anyway, I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who know more about Gluten free than I. Let us hear from you! Thanks, Pete.