For Enquiring Minds - Alsacien

Alsacien should be "Alsatien" - that is the way it should be spelled in English, but I learned to spell it in French first so that 't' just has always thrown me off so I use the froggy spelling... somedays I wonder if I am just speak gibberish b/c I have so many languages crisscrossing in my head at any given moment! I listen to either French or Dutch radio online all day long and then make jokes with the hispanic cleaning crew when I leave at the end of the day and at some point everything runs together in my ADD brain ;-) But since you mentioned it:

I first mentioned Alsace a while back (they have since discontinued my favorite beer and I'm still upset - I only have 1 sixpack left from the 2 cases I bought back in May!) see my previous post for those who are wondering where the heck it is...

But the food of Alsace (while sharing a lot of with the German neighbors) is pretty heart and homey. The other night we went to this restaurant in the West Village named August (restaurant website is here) and had Tarte Flambée which was like a little wood fired pizza but with carmelized onions, bacon and crème fraîche. We also had 'un plat avec un assortiment de chacuterie francaise et alsacienne' or a cuttingboard of assorted cured and uncured French and Alsacien meats (of course Alsace is a region of France - though some would maintain it's not part of France like Quebec ain't part of le Canada - but I digress, I prefer it being en France!), nice fresh and crusty country bread. Of course we (or moreso I) needed to have wine so we got a bottle of Carignane from Domaine de Nizas - I love this grape and especially wines from the Languedoc region - call me pedestrian but it's just generally good wine and neat varietals you don't see as much - I don't care if it isn't trendy (yet mind you! I said the same thing about Mourvedre and suddenly even trendy vineyard or boutiquey Whole Foods targeted wine is blending with it like crazy (Example: Cline's Red Truck, which I like btw, it can be a bit of a fruitbomb but even still, it ain't too undrinkable - though I'd pass if you are going to be eating really sweet cheese or something overly sweet since it could be cloying...) and yes I will take some credit for that, well maybe not but :-P (To digress I really like Luc Pirlet's Syrah-Mourvèdre en Fût de Chêne • Vin de Pays d'Oc (PDF file fyi) about 10 bucks these days - find it at Total in the Metro DC area - also in NJ, SC,VA, NC and VA)

Top all that off (we're back to talking about the restaurant in NYC) we had panna cotta - which is not Alsacien, LOL of course it is from my other heritage (50%) Italy. If you haven't had panna cotta (lit: cooked cream) I suggest you try it - if you are nice maybe you too can be lucky enough to have this maîtresse de la cuisine make you some of her homemade panna cotta! Delightful...

Hope that helps - gee I only got sidetracked about 20 times... I'm hungry and thirsty now! Si j'étais en France maintenant je pourrais boire un verre de vin au déjeuner! (If I was in France I could have a glass of vino with my lunch... yummmm)
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Ah and how could I forget!? A shoutout - hmm how do I call that in French... je dois penser un peu... mais While he is not Alsacien (or maybe he is - I will have to axe) he does pour an excellent drink... but even better is the daily dose of music, miscellanea and muscles - The Sean Show is definitely on my daily hot-list of blogs I need to see or I risk becoming uncool or socially illiterate!