A Passionate Foodie

Pop the cork on a bottle of Cava and let us celebrate the First Anniversary of my blog, A Passionate Foodie!

It seems such a short time ago when I decided to move on, after a year and a half, from the now defunct Real World Winers blog and create my own wine & food blog. But, it has now been a full year and I am very pleased with how my blog has developed over this past year.

I created over 800 new posts during the past year, plus added over 100 of my old posts from the Real World Winers blog. I have written about a wide range of food and wine topics, including adding a number of posts about spirits. I have reviewed many restaurants, wines, spirits, books and more. I have covered my travels to such places as Spain and Las Vegas. I have tried to make my blog interesting, fun and educational.

It has been a great year and my blog has led to many different opportunities, including getting to meet many interesting, passionate and fun people. That has certainly been one of the best joys that has come from my blog.

Online, I have met and talked with many other wine and food bloggers. It is generally a friendly community and many people are willing to help each other in their mutual passions. I have met some wine and food bloggers offline and those meetings have gone well too. For example, I met Gabriella and Ryan of Catavino while I was in Barcelona. I have met several local bloggers including: Ken of Ken’s Wine Guide, Becky and Steve of Smells Like Grape, Cathy of 365 Days of Wine, and Sharon of Bloviatrix. I even met Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV at the Boston Wine Expo.

I have also met numerous wine store owners, wine distributors, wine makers, chefs, restaurant owners and many more. There are just too many names to mention here but you can find them all throughout my blog. I look forward to meeting so many more people in the coming year.

I also have continued to learn more about food and wine: attending tastings and dinners, reading new and old books, reading other blogs, taking educational courses and more. And my educational efforts will continue as there is always so much more to learn. I will continue to share what I learn with my readers.

What will the next year entail for A Passionate Foodie?

• You can expect the same level of passion about food, wine and spirits as the prior year. But I will try to expand to new topics, to find new restaurants, new wines, and new spirits. Please send me any suggestions you have for places and items you would like to me review.
• A few months ago, I instituted Saké Sundays, a specific day of the week for Saké posts. I may institute another such theme day in the near future. Maybe Spanish Saturdays?
• I will write more food/wine related short stores for my Passionate Foodie: Fiction site. I am currently working on an idea for a new short story, a murder mystery.
• I would like to hear more from my readers, to have more of you leave comments on my posts. If you like a topic, please tell me. If you disagree with my opinions, tell me that too. A blog should be a two-way conversation between writer and reader. And I very much want to hear your own thoughts and opinions. I am sure there is much my readers can teach me and others.
• With summer coming, I will be doing plenty of local travel, hitting spots all over New England and I will tell you about any good places I find. I will be taking more local treks in Massachusetts as well, including explorations of the newest restaurants in Boston. I hope to get to New York at least two times this year, maybe three, and even to the Long Island wineries. And I will return to Las Vegas next April.
• One of my own goals for this next year will be to learn more about Portuguese wines and food. As I hope to travel to Portugal in 2009, I want to start now to learn more about that fascinating country. I already know they make some excellent wines, especially many great values wines. But there is plenty more to learn.
• And I also hope you find a few surprises in the coming year from A Passionate Foodie.

So, please tell me how you think I have done over this past year. Leave me comments here or email me. Please also give me your suggestions for how I can improve my blog, or tell me what else you would like to see me post about.

Thanks so much to my family, my friends, my readers and everyone else who has contributed one way or another with the success of A Passionate Foodie.

Go forth and eat, drink and enjoy!

Mother’s Day is certainly one of the busiest restaurant days all year. One recommended option is The Melting Pot.

From 11:30am-8pm, the Melting Pot has three fixed menu (four course) options. You get a cheese fondue, salad, entree and chocolate fondue. You also get soda, coffee and tea. And each Mom can have a glass of sparkling cider or a “Momosa.”

You get a choice from six different cheese fondues, including the featured Caribbean Cheese Fondue. You get a choice from five different salads including the featured Tropical Salad. Your first entree choice is the Mother of All Entrees ($49 per person), which includes Lobster Tail, Filet Mignon Medallion, Ahi Tuna, Butternut Squash Ravioli, Shrimp and Vanilla Rum Chicken. The second entree is Mamma Mia ($38 per person) and includes Filet Mignon Medallions, Vanilla Rum Chicken, Fresh Salmon, Shrimp and Jerk-Seasoned Sirloin. Finally, you get a choice from nine different chocolate fondues. There is a special children’s plate as well.

After 8pm, you can get one of their chocolate fondues with a glass of wine for each guest, or a 1/2 bottle of Champagne for $25.

Though I won’t be taking my mom there for Mother’s Day, I am dining there this week for her birthday.

The Melting Pot
213 Burlington Rd.
Bedford , MA
Phone: 781-791-0529

It is with a heavy heart that I must announce the closure of “A Passionate Foodie.” This will be my final post and then I will walk away forever from my blog. But to stay true, I must also provide my readers with the reason for this closure. I must confess to my crimes, to the fraud I have perpetrated against you all.

It is not easy to come here and tell you the truth. You may despise me for my lies, for my weakness. But I am human and was swayed to veer off the proper path. I can only hope for forgiveness and the chance to make amends.

I have to take a deep breath before continuing. Ok, let me say it now.

I have provided many restaurant reviews over the past year. Yet I have never actually ate in any of those places. I made it all up based on what I have been told by others or what I have read elsewhere. I dislike most of the food I have talked about. My actual favorite restaurant is Burger King. I am addicted to Whoppers and fries. I probably eat at Burger King at least five times a week.

The same goes for all my wine reviews. I hate wine! Nasty grape-flavored swill. I actually don’t drink any alcohol at all. It all gives me a head-ache. I just make up the reviews. Give me Diet Doctor Pepper instead. I probably drink at least a two-liter bottle of Diet Doctor Pepper each day. It goes well with a Whopper.

Why did I lie about all of this? Money, pure and simple. The restaurants and wineries paid me $100 for each review. Over the past year, I have made quite a nice sum of money. It has kept me happy in Whoppers and Diet Doctor Pepper. It also allowed me to buy a bunch of DVDs, including all of the seasons of The Beverly Hillbillies. Jethro is a hoot.

But my conscience has gotten the best of me. While sitting at Burger King yesterday, I started to cry. And I did not stop sobbing for almost an hour. I felt a pain in my chest at all the lies I have told, about all the fake reviews I have written. I knew I had to confess and shut down my blog. I will have to find another way to earn some extra money. Maybe I will get a paper route. I still own a bicycle.

The tears are starting to fall once again. This has made me very emotional and I beg your forgiveness for my sins. But I have one final thing to say, which I hope does not anger you. I hope it helps to redeem me for all the lies.
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April Fool’s!!!!

Did you know the ancient Romans once had a law making it illegal for women to drink, upon pain of death? Women have certainly come a long way from those days.

March: A Month of Women & Wine ends today. For the final March post on this theme, I am providing a review of an informative and fascinating book about women in the wine industry. It is in that book I found the intriguing tidbit about Rome.

Women of Wine: The Rise of Women in the Global Wine Industry by Ann B. Matasar (University of California Press 2006) is a hardcover book ($24.95) containing about 252 pages. It includes an Introduction, ten Chapters, three Appendices and a Glossary.

The book begins with a historical background, showing reasons why women were excluded from the wine industry for a long time. There is then a brief analysis of the changes that have occurred in the modern wine industry and how that has led to greater involvement by women. This all leads to the heart of the book, descriptions about the many women who have been or currently are involved in the wine industry.

A number of the chapters are then divided into regions, showcasing women wine makers and winery owners in such places as France, Italy, California, Australia and elsewhere. There is also a chapter devoted to women wine educators, Masters of Wine, writers, and publishers. The book moves onto a section about women auctioneers, trade representatives, and sommeliers. Women are involved in all aspects of the wine industry.

The final chapter looks at the future of women in the wine industry, asking whether the positive changes that have occurred will continue. And the author provides some suggestions on such can continue, as well as trying to identify some of the potential obstacles.

Overall, this was a very educational book. I learned about many women in the wine industry who I did not know before, as well as garnering more details about some of the women I did know. It is an easy read and will not bore you. It does an excellent job of showcasing women in the wine industry, in almost all of its aspects. Though it does not deal with women wine bloggers at all. I definitely recommend this book.

If anyone else has read it, feel free to post your own thoughts about the book in the comments.

There are a significant number of women who have their own wine blogs, contribute to a wine blog or otherwise produce wine websites. In honor of March being Women’s History Month and my own declaration of March being A Month of Women & Wine, I wanted to highlight a list of women involved in wine and the Internet. This is by no means a comprehensive list but does provide a good foundation to see all of the positive contributions of women to the online wine community.

I must first give kudos to Darby Higgs who already has a page on Women Wine Writers on the Web. He provides a good list that includes such big names as Andrea Immer, Jancis Robinson, Marisa D’Vari and Natalie MacLean. He also includes a number of female bloggers. I will try not to repeat some of the names he provides, though I will repeat a few names of those blogs of which I am a regular reader.

My supplemental female wine blogger list includes:

• Taster B of Smells Like Grape, who blogs with her husband. She is also local to me and I have met her and her husband a few times at various tastings events.
• Cathy of 365 Days of Wine is another local wine blogger that I have met a few times at tasting events.
• Gabriella of Catavino, who also blogs with her husband Ryan. I had the pleasure to meet both of them on my trip last yearto Spain.
• Dr. Debs of Good Wine Under $20
• Farley of Behind the Vines
• Jill of Domaine547
• Erika of StrumErika
• Tina of The Wine Broad’s Board
• Sonadora of the Wannabe Wino
• Amy of West Coast Wine Country Adventures
• Andrea of Wine Scamp
• Lisa of VinoDuo
• Kathleen of Wine & Food Pairing Tips
• Joanne of Fork & Bottle
• Catie of Through the Walla Walla Grape Vine
• Claudia and her new wine blog
• Sasha and Jamie are contributors at Lenndevours
• Carol of Pour More
• Amy of La Gramiere
• Annette of Cima Collina
• Margot of Write for Wine
• Alice of Veritas in Vino
• Chantal, Huiqin, Judy and Yvonne of Grape Wall of China
• Wilma of Wilma’s Wine World
• Sandy of Celebrate Wine
• Victoria of Tastes of Life
• Vino Girl of Drink The Good Stuff, who blogs with Winemonkey
• Diane of Wine Lover’s Journal
• Leslie of purplelips.ca
• Erin of Grape Juice
• Felicia of Sort This Out Cellars
• Pamela is a contributor at Enobytes
• Katherine of A Mouthful of Wine
• Ileana of NakedSommelier
• Nancy of At First Glass
• Kelly of Kelly’s Grape Times
• Evelyn of Wine Brands
• Sharon of Sharon’s Wine Blog
• Cari of Michigan Grapevine
• Sharon of Bloviatrix
• Genevelyn of GenevelynSteeleSwallows
• Memoree of The Wine Files: Uncorked & Unscripted
• Kathleen of Fallen Icarus
• Jessica of Corkheads
• Winenegress at Chronic Negress
• Leigh of Let It Breathe
• Ane Miren, Anna and Sandy of Live Life With Fine Spanish Wines
• Jana, Katy, Laura, Mary, Michele and Natalie of Women Wine Critics Board

Check out any of these wine blogs and I am sure you will like what you find.

I am sure I have missed listing some female wine bloggers. I tried not to duplicate too many from Darby’s list. If you know of any other female wine blogs that are not on Darby’s list or my own, please add them to the comments and I will add them to the list.

(Note: This list has been revised and expanded as of 5/16/08)

One of those strange coincidences. First, today is the annual observance of Meatout. What is Meatout?

“Meatout is an international observance helping individuals evolve to a wholesome, nonviolent diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains. The purpose is to expose the public to the joys and benefits of a plant-based diet, while promoting the availability and selection of meat and dairy alternatives in mainstream grocery stores, restaurants, and catering operations.”

“Every spring, thousands of Meatout supporters educate their communities and ask their friends, families, and neighbors to pledge to “kick the meat habit (at least for a day) and explore a wholesome, nonviolent diet of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.”

Meatout, which began in 1985, is coordinated by FARM, a national nonprofit, public interest organization. They advocate plant-based (vegan) diets to save animals, protect the environment, and improve health.

Now for the funny part. What am I in the middle of reading right now? The Shameless Carnivore: A Manifesto for Meat Lovers by Scott Gold. It is a fascinating book that definitely appeals to my own carnivore tendencies. I will post a full review in the near future, but will say the book addresses many aspects of eating meat, including information on the health aspects. It is well written and certainly speaks to me. Certainly not proper reading material for Meatout.

I could never be a vegan. I would miss my tasty meat far too much. So, I won’t be participating in Meatout today. Could I give up meat for one day? Sure. But I don’t want to. I see no valid reason to do so.

Maybe us shameless carnivores should have a Meatin today instead and savor a fine steak, a juicy hamburger or a spicy sausage. Mmmmm…now where should I eat today then?

I am glad to see that I am not the only wine blogger who is honoring women in the wine community this month as part of Women’s History Month.

Cathy of the relatively new wine blog, 365 Days of Wine, will also be honoring the role of women in the wine industry. Each day March, she will spotlight a different female winemaker. So check out Cathy’s blog each day to read about the many female winemakers in the industry.

And don’t just read her blog in March. Keep reading it throughout the year. Her blog is very well written and discusses much about the local wine scene in and around Boston. I have had the good fortune and pleasure to meet Cathy a couple times at local wine events and she is very personable and knowledgeable about wine.

March is National Women’s History Month. This year’’s theme is Women’s Art: Women’s Vision and it is intended to “honor the originality, beauty, imagination, and multiple dimensions of women’s lives.” This theme also “provides a special opportunity to discover and celebrate women’s visual arts in a variety of forms and mediums that help expand our perceptions of ourselves and each other.”

During March, in honor of National Women’s History Month, I will discuss some of the contributions made by women in the wine world. One can look at wine production as an art so female wine makers would fall under this year’s theme. Literary creations can also be considered an art form so they could also fall under the theme. And even those women involved in the wine world who would not fall under the theme should still be recognized this month for their beneficial contributions.

Women’s involvement in the wine industry continues to grow. Even in Japan, where Sake production has long been a man’s only profession, we are seeing more and more female brew masters. We see women in France controlling important Champagne houses. We see female wine makers in California making highly acclaimed wines.

In the world of wine writing, there are some very prominent women. Even in the world of wine blogging, there are many excellent female writers, with more blogging every day. One of my goals this month will be to try to create a fairly comprehensive list of all the female bloggers out there. I would like to post it near the end of the month, to provide a resource for the wine community. So, if you are a female blogger and would like to be added to the list, please send me a link to your blog. I certainly know many female bloggers but I am sure there are some out there that I don’t.

I also hope that other wine bloggers, male and female, consider discussing the role of women in the wine world this month. If you have a favorite female wine maker, why not post about her. If a particular female wine writer appeals to you, tell us about her.

Let us honor those women who have made the wine community a better place.

Do you have a special bottle of wine stored away but you don’t know when to open it? Do you keep putting off opening that bottle because you can’t decide on the perfect special occasion? Well the time to open that bottle may be soon.

February 23 is the 9th annual Open That Bottle Night (OTBN). Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, who write a wine column for the Wall Street Journal, created OTBN. They created it to give people a reason to open that special bottle of wine that sits around and never gets opened because the right occasion has not arisen. OTBN is always held on the last Saturday in February. Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher also encourage people to send stories about their OTBN experiences. You can also check out their suggestions for celebrating OTBN.

I will be out of town on February 23 so I will have to bring my bottle of wine with me. But which wine to open? I am thinking it will be the 2001 Bodegas Fernando Remirez de Ganuza Reserva Rioja ($75), a fine Spanish wine. This Reserva Rioja, though the 1998 vintage, was the first high-end Spanish wine that really blew me away. It showed me the potential of great Spanish wines and set me on a path to pursue many more Spanish wines.

Farley, a fellow wineblogger over at Behind the Vines, is also running a special contest around OTBN. To enter, just add a comment to her post stating what wine you might drink for the event and why it has significance for you. You could win two bottles of wine, 2006 Rosenblum Cellars Zinfandels. Check out the contest rules for all the details.

The only problem for us in Massachusetts is that Behind the Vines cannot ship the wine to us. So, if you win, you will need to make other arrangement to obtain the wine.

Even if you do not enter the contest, I do hope to partake of OTBN and open a special bottle. If so, please come back here and tell me about it.

My new column of “A Passionate Foodie” can be found in the February 6 issue of the Stoneham Sun newspaper. This is a weekly column that concentrates on reviews of local restaurants though it may also touch on a few other food and wine topics.

The new column will be published tomorrow and is currently available online. The new column provides some recommendations for Valentine’s Day wines, wines that will help set a romantic mood. Rapid Liquors of Stoneham and the OurGlass Wine Co. of Saugus have both contributed some wine recommendations. And I have provided some of my own as well.

If you have any questions or comments about my column, feel free to add them here. Next week, I present a restaurant review of a local Stoneham place.

Dine with passion!