First, let’s have a round of applause for the wine guys—we have to admit they’ve done a really great job. The average American is fairly convinced that wine is the best beverage for food and that beer is best suited to washing down hot dogs and potato chips. Of course, the readers of this magazine know better, but how much thought do we give to matching our beer with our food?
It’s widely assumed that wine and cheese are compatible friends. They’re paired together so routinely that phrases like “the white wine and Brie crowd” can be used to define a social set. But all is not well in this friendship. At least one wine writer has recognized this, according to brew master and gourmand Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewing: Willy Gluckstern, a somewhat cranky New York wine critic, called wine and cheese a “train wreck in the mouth.”
Pub food in England was for years the butt of comedians who told jokes about pub-goers singing “happy birthday” to a 10-year-old cheese sandwich. But there’s been a revolution in pub food in recent years, with even top London chefs accepting the challenge of cooking for a demanding pub audience. Writer Susan Nowak checks out the night of the long knives. Read More…
