Archive for the ‘Food and Beer’ Category

Innis & Gunn & Gnocchi & Blood

Monday, April 12th, 2010

One of the more inventive brands of beer in terms of self-promotion is the Scottish ale brewery, Innis & Gunn, which some deride as gimmicky but I honestly enjoy. (For the most part, I should add; some of the expressions are far superior to others.) Their latest effort was to send me – and, presumably, a gaggle of other drinks writers out there – a couple of bottles of their beer and a whole basketful of ingredients from Longo’s supermarket, plus a recipe for Brown Buttered Gnocchi with Garlic, Sage and Manchego topped with Enoki Mushroom Salad. The idea, obviously, was for me to cook the dish and pair it with the beers, they being the I&G Original Oak Aged and the to my mind less interesting I&G Blonde.

I was willing to give this a go for three reasons: Innis & Gunn are leaders in pushing Canadians toward the idea that beer and fine dining truly do go together; the recipe was developed by the renowned Langdon Hall chef, Jonathan Gushue; and I had nothing else at hand for dinner Friday. Here’s how it all went down.

Step one, as I saw it, was to make the enoki salad, which really couldn’t have been easier. Chopped parsley, grated Manchego, the enokis, olive oil, vinegar and salt were combined in a bowl and lightly tossed. No worries.

The gnocchi part of the dish proved a bit more problematic, though, as I quickly noted that the basket contained not fresh sage, as one might have assumed it would, but fresh basil. So I was faced with the option of making the recipe with basil – not really a suitable substitute for sage – or running out to get the proper ingredient. I opted for the latter, and so mealtime was pushed back a bit.

Sage obtained – albeit after visits to two separate stores – I set about chopping both the garlic and, quite by accident, the tip of one of my fingers. Much blood followed along with a vigorous debate with my wife over whether the hospital emergency room should be involved – it was a fairly serious cut, but I argued that emerg on a Friday night was definitely not a place I wanted to be – and ultimately a rather bulbous bandage was fashioned and preparations continued. Butter was melted with garlic and sage, cooked gnocchi and more Manchego added, and then the whole thing plated and topped with the salad. Dinner was served!

The dish on its own, we agreed, was good if not exactly mind-blowing. The freshness of the parsley and sage definitely worked in its favour, but I still figured a little extra seasoning wouldn’t have gone amiss. With the Innis & Gunn Original at its side, however, it was a true train wreck, with the oak flavours of the beer stomping all over the freshness of the dish and creating an entirely disharmonious whole.

Paired with the I&G Blonde, on the other hand, the experience was positively sublime, as all the flavours met and meshed and balanced beautifully, with light vanilla embracing sage and fruity malt dancing with cheese. As a good food and beverage pairing should, the whole added up to significantly more than the sum of its parts, even when tasted through the pain.

Posted in Beer Reviews, Beer-Related Injuries, Food and Beer | No Comments »

On Beer and Barbecue in Toronto

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

I love me some good barbecue from time to time. Not the summer-stuff-on-the-grill, although that too, but the southern US stuff of almost any stripe. Memphis rubbed ribs, Texas smoked brisket, pork-and-slaw in Arkansas, the vinegary sauces of North Carolina; I love it all, and will happily engage in completely unbecoming face-stuffing from time to time when circumstances allow.

And what goes ideally with barbecue? Why, beer, of course. And so we arrive at our topic of the day.

Yesterday I visited for the first time a relatively new arrival on the small Toronto barbecue scene, a place called Lou Dawg’s on King Street just west of Portland. Not being quite of the mind for ribs – St. Louis-style at Lou’s – I opted instead for their pulled pork sandwich, which was offered to me on a choice of white or whole wheat bread. This should have been a warning sign – this is barbecue we’re talking about, not some damn veggie burger – but I persisted nonetheless with my order, adding both sweet potato fries and a beer. But what beer…?

On tap was a slew of Sleeman brands, three of them to be precise, plus their “house” lager, which I assumed would be Sleeman Silver Creek Lager by another name. Of the draughts, only the signature Cream Ale had any appeal, but I worried that it would be lost beneath the spicy tang of the restaurant’s barbecue sauce, so I asked about the bottled beer selection.

“Oh yes, we have bottles,” exclaimed the white-aproned fellow behind the counter, who then proceeded to open the metal beer fridge door to reveal…exactly the same brands as the ones on tap, plus Dos Equis. Although I held my tongue, what I wanted to say, nay scream, was “Are you stupid or something?! This is Toronto, the heart of Toronto, in fact, not some corner of Houston where they’ve been serving barbecue and Shiner Bock for generations, and you offer the same damn beers in a sadly limited bottle selection as you do on draught?!? The wine bar a block or two away has a better selection! What’s more, you have not one beer that actually suits the kind of food you’re serving!”

But like I noted, I instead held my tongue, ordered a pint of Cream Ale, and patiently awaited the arrival of my sandwich while thinking about my recent experience at RUB BBQ in New York City, a Chelsea barbecue joint where I had a pint of Stone Arrogant Bastard while waiting for a table to open, and Blue Smoke in that same city, where not only do they seem to always have a pilsner, porter and IPA on tap – all of which complement nicely the various types of barbecue Blue Smoke serves – but  know how to make a pretty damn good Sazerac cocktail, too.

Posted in Beer Selection, Food and Beer | 4 Comments »

When the Salty Snacks Come Out

Monday, November 16th, 2009

If you look around elsewhere on this site, you will not look long before you arrive at some common sense advice of what to drink and eat while enjoying a football game with friends. Pale ale or best bitter with beef, amber lager or brown ale with pizza, serving punch to cut down on the drink prep time…all wise and reasonable recommendations.

What’s missing from that story, however, is the ubiquitous salty snack. Because let’s face it, there’s little better when television sports are on that handfuls of chips, pretzels, cheese doodles and such like. But pick wrong beer to drink alongside and – please believe me on this front – you risk ruining a perfectly good pint.

The reason for this is that salt does not play well with sweet maltiness, so if you alternate, for example, sips of a sweetish Belgian dubbel with handfuls of salt and vinegar chips, that dubbel will soon wind up tasting flat, acrid or even sour. Swap a hoppy beer for the malty one, though, and your pale ale, pilsner or IPA will not only refresh your palate between snacks, it will also hold its own against the salt. And everything will wind up tasting pretty much the way it’s supposed to.

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