Food and Drink: July 2005 Archives

I always felt safe knowing that the 90s-themed nightclub Nerveana was the worst club in all of New York--both in idea and in execution. But if Page Six is to be trusted, I stand corrected. According to today's edition, Jeremy  Scott, along with Fabrizio Brienza, Joe Vicari and Sal Imposimato,  is opening a 5,000-square-foot club on 14 E 27th Street (the old Social Club, I believe) called Happy Valley, meant to reference that certain part of the female anatomy. According to PageSix, "Scott, who dresses Christina Aguilera as well as other stars, tells us. 'I did everything from the logo to the uniforms to the furniture. It's Busby Berkeley meets the 'Saturday Night Fever' discotheque." I like it when people describe their own clubs in such wince-inducing terms that thinking of ways to slam it oneself is unnecessary.

I got a chance to check out the Fancy Food Show at the monstrous Jacob Javitz Convention Center on Monday. The show's over in New York, but I thought I'd report on a few of the items that resonated after my hours-long gorging of free meats, cheeses, olives, olive oils, chocolates and a million other little delicacies. But first, something to wash it all down with--a sparkling wine beverage that comes  in a can called Sofia. In all honesty, the fact that it's named after Francis Ford Coppola's daughter Sofia turns me off a bit, but the drink, the Sofia Mini was so damn tasty and cute, I couldn't help but like it. Its fruity mix of wine (70 percent Pinot Blanc, 20 percent Sauvignon Blanc, 10 percent Muscat Cannelli) screams picnic in the park and its packaging suggests that no one will know that I'm breaking the law by drinking in public. I also won't embarrass myself by quoting from the website text ... OK, I will, it's just too funny: Mini is for the impromptu, impetuous, live passionately for the moment kind of person. The kind of person who lives like there is no tomorrow!

Speaking of no tomorrow, biting into a baby peach preserved in truffle oil was definitely the culinary highlight of my week. Sulpizio International imports all sort of truffle delicacies, but these babies are special, practically popping in the mouth. They look like an olive with a stem but the taste is out-of-this-world, a slightly earthy briny flavor, with the faint hint of sweet peach. You can buy them here (click retail, then scroll down to Little Peaches with Truffles in Oil).

Moving onto true sweets, I had a sample of the Griottines (whose website is conveniently in French). Normally I think candied cherries are gross, gross, gross. I won't eat them out of a cocktail, nor will I eat them off a sunday, but these darlings are *quite* delicious. According to the English-speaking brochure I picked up, they are wild Morello cherries "macerated in a secret liqueur." In any language, they'd be awesome in a cocktail or atop some rich vanilla ice cream.

Last but not least, I move from decadence and into the Himalayas for some Ineeka tea. This tea, along with being organically grown on family farms and "nurtured by fresh mountain air and mineral-rich water" etc., happens to come in a kick-ass tea bag. Don't get me wrong, the tea's great--but the bag is where it's at. The bags come flat in a tin, looking like any other tea product, but when you open up the individual servings, the tea bag reveals itself to be a tiny open-topped infuser with two handles. The handles go over the sides of your mug and the tea steeps happily in the water. Pure tea genius.

Happy consuming!