wine | ideas that taste good

When the soprano kissed the coalman

November 24, 2014 by antdina

She steps through theater air. Her hair, a radiant gold, swaying like an Tupelo porch swing. Her voice piercing and melodic. Notes of apricot and honeydew hang like ornaments. She smells of honeysuckle and wears a glycerin smile. Her name Tokaj (“toe-kye”). She is born from northeastern Hungary. Her audience often summoned by royal degree. He is a man of the inner mountain with large, thick hands. The mere sight of them a humbles us with thoughts of heavy work […]

Categories: Pioneer • Tags: coalman, kiss, pastrami, Pieous, Princess Bride, soprano, storytelling, Tokaj, wine

An everyday thanksgiving

September 22, 2013 by antdina

Jeff and Trudy came into our lives as teachers for our two boys. They brought the love of lacrosse and the love math to our children. They also brought values of fellowship and discipline. They breathed life into the example of “bringing up children.” You know, the metaphorical image of physically lifting dead weight. What it costs them is dear. To open their hearts wide and without self concern. So when the children graduate, there are tears. A strange mix […]

Categories: Tribute • Tags: celebration, food, pasta, steak, umami, wine

If dinner could talk, could it tell the story of the moon? It can and did.

May 19, 2013 by antdina

Previously we shared how, Italo Calvino published a novel about many travelers who meet up in a castle. The characters tell their personal journeys through a deck of Tarot cards. Flip by flip their individual stories unfold. Card by card their collective story became a single fabric. The genius is that the characters are not limited because they do not have words. Communication can take alternative forms and still leave the audience mesmerized, enriched and transformed. So why not try this with […]

Categories: Storytelling, The Taste Lab • Tags: Castle of Crossed Desitinies, cook, cooking, desert, dinner, dwarves, Fairytale, France, friends, Grimm, Italo Calvino, Italy, macademia, Moon, narrative, Nero Davola, pineapple, port, ravioli, salad, storytelling, strangers, Tarot, tart, taste, wine, Wizard Academy

Express who you are with wine. Seriously.

May 6, 2013 by antdina

In the 1969, Italian author Italo Calvino wrote the Castle of Crossed Destinies where weary travelers were struck dumb. They could not utter a word. Instead they huddle around a wooden table laying out Tarot cards to speak to strangers. The cards crisscross an intertwined narrative. What’s remarkable is that his characters spoke through pictures. And much like the aim of this blog, I believe that complex notions can be communicated through other things than words. Big, important ideas arrive in […]

Categories: Storytelling, The Taste Lab • Tags: asparagus, beef tenderloin, bread, Castle of Crossed Destinies, France, Italo Calvino, Italy, party, Pinot Noir, Vesuvio, wine

Italy in my pocket

March 12, 2012 by antdina

A long table of Italian vintners settle into conversation at San Francisco’s own A16 Restaurant. They come to witness where their bottles are uncorked nightly. The come to meet the owners face to face. They come taste Southern Italy on their palates. Nearby, colleagues look over butcher paper covered table tops. Some are native to SF and others traveled here. Tonight we soak in Italy. We are pulled by a gravitational force from a busy kitchen where carbohydrates flow like lava. The wine list […]

Categories: Food Finds • Tags: celebration, cuisine, dining, food, Italian, meat, pasta, Pizza, San Francisco, umami, vintners, wine

Fairytale dinner

January 9, 2012 by antdina

It does not take falling into a rabbit hole, downing a bottle of “drink me” or squeezing through a tiny door to go into another world. If you want adventure and to see the smile of the Cheshire simply cross the portal of the Herbfarm. No time have I a found a living expression of my working theory that food can be a tool to communicate so close as this. Like high art of poetry, dance or painting, complex ideas […]

Categories: Food Finds, Storytelling • Tags: Alice in Wonderland, celebration, cuisine, dining, food, growing herbs, herb, herbfarm, rabbit hole, restaurant, Seattle, story of alice, truffle, white apron, wine

Just like wine

December 26, 2011 by antdina

From time to time, it’s important recognize the value of things around us. Please enjoy a simple toast I put together for friend who was kind enough to open his cellar and wallet wide enough to treat 12 close friends to a gourmet meal on a special night. We sipped grand cru wines from France and savored wizardry from chef owner Robert Del Grande at his namesake restaurant. If you don’t know RDG, then you are missing out. Dr. Paul […]

Categories: Tribute • Tags: celebration, food, honor, tribute, wine

First thanks

August 14, 2011 by antdina

Mt. Desert Island has been a sanctuary for my family for more than a decade. We fell into this vacation land quite by accident. Or rather, we never chose it as much as followed others there. It remains the pristine home to Acadia National Park, many lobster fishermen and a summer crowd which swells while temperatures heat up back home. The air, the mountains, the sea cleanse the troubled mind of the over connected world. Our recipe is simple. Sleep […]

Categories: Communication, Food • Tags: celebration, communication, family, food, Maine, travel, wine

ideas that taste good

storytelling through food

Tag: wine