Blogging A Double Life
I'm late to meet Lena at our local Hippie Haus Of Coffee, and Cathy went to the same party I did last night, so go read what she had to say about it. Afterward, I went with faaaabulous Swiss journalist Claudia LaFranchi to AOC, the French-ish restaurant of very small, very, very tasty portions. The girl bartender at the cheese bar does a great job of explaining wines. Sadly, I forget her name. But, for a good time, sit there.
Dear Goddess -- AOC sounds great (scribbling in travel notebook) but it's a *tapas* place. Not French-ish, Spanish-ish. And no wonder the portions are small.
Stu "El InglÈs" Harris at August 25, 2004 1:01 PM
Stu -- The servings are tapas-esque in size, but the cuisine is French. The name "AOC" is taken from a national agency in France that's sort of the equivalent of the FDA. Lena
Lena Confit at August 25, 2004 1:58 PM
[scribble, scribble] even better. I thought the confit de porc sounded a bit franÁol, or espaÒais...
AOC is purely concerned with wine -- its growths, its cÈpages, its blending, and most of all its labelling. I'll resist the temptation to drone on about french wine legislation (there's no doubt a fine web site somewhere) except to remark that every vigneron I've ever met devotes a fair amount of energy to circumventing it. In France you can trust an Appellation d'Origine -- in the export market it ain't worth the label it's printed on.
From Sunny San Diego,
Stu "El InglÈs" Harris at August 25, 2004 4:04 PM
On a somewhat related note, I've just written a guide to making a proper martini, if you're so inclined:
http://snipurl.com/8n0k
Frank at August 25, 2004 6:47 PM
Me and martinis don't get along well together anymore. I tried.
Lena "on the wagon" Cuisina at August 26, 2004 9:45 AM