InterWined.com

Liquid Refreshment

6

Aug

Flood Water Gives as it Takes Away

Jacob Gaffney  Filed under News , , , ,

InterWined.com has a sister site, www.crescentcity.co.uk, that hopes to provide positive entertainment to the UK. The idea was bourn from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina that has perhaps permanently displaced this site’s founders.

Even today, we are not comfortable with the mention of the K-word, but at least the bad dreams for many are subsiding.

Unfortunately, Crescent City Productions didn’t make it, along with so many other things. But the silver lining to this storm cloud is manifest in the unexpected benefits of this Almighty event.

Today, New Orleans artists are reluctant to credit Hurricane Katrina as a source of inspiration. But after the disaster — which marks its third anniversary Aug. 29 — many New Orleans musicians experienced their most productive months in decades and scaled new creative peaks, a University of Iowa professor asserts.

The pursuant flood displaced many artists, jolting them out of comfort zones. It also drove up demand for New Orleans music as the country clung to connections with the city, said Don McLeese, a journalism professor in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences whose career as a music critic has spanned three decades.

McLeese’s assessment of the hurricane’s impact on New Orleans musicians was published in the May 2008 issue of the journal Popular Music and Society.

“People tended to take New Orleans for granted as a party town with a specific kind of music. When they realized such a treasure had been severely damaged, if not lost forever, they were forced to reconsider what New Orleans meant as a cultural resource for the country,” McLeese said. “New Orleans was on everybody’s mind, and there was this real hunger for its music. Musicians found themselves busier than they had been in years.”

Take for example Allen Toussaint, the once-prolific songwriter and producer whose signature tunes once defined the city’s rhythm and blues, but whose career had been on autopilot since the late 1970s. A flood-forced move to New York resulted in collaboration with Elvis Costello. He released the critically acclaimed “The River in Reverse,” a response to Hurricane Katrina, and embarked on the busiest year of his 68-year lifetime, including an extensive international tour.

“Toussaint lost his home, but reclaimed his career,” McLeese said.

Following Katrina, at age 65, Irma Thomas — known for ’60s hits like “(You Can Have My Husband, But Please) Don’t Mess With My Man” and “It’s Raining” — released “After the Rain.” The album, which won a Grammy for best contemporary blues recording, was a milestone in the soul queen’s career, McLeese said.

In part, the artists were successful because people were turning to music for help envisioning what a “new” New Orleans would look like, McLeese said.

“People always thought of New Orleans as ‘The Big Easy,’ Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras and Jazzfest — home of this old-time, good-time music,” he said. “In Katrina’s wake, you couldn’t watch the devastation, deaths and flooding and associate New Orleans with good times. So people were looking to artists to tell them, ‘What does New Orleans mean now?’ and to keep the city’s legacy alive.”

The shakeup pushed many New Orleans artists out of complacency, compelling them to use song to express the emotional polarities of mourning and hope. The result, McLeese contends, was a collection of terrific new sounds.

“All sorts of strong emotions come through in the music,” he said. “When you hear them sing of a return to New Orleans, it’s as if they’re singing of a return to the Promised Land. But there are also feelings of disbelief, anger and frustration, as evidenced on a Costello/Toussaint track that asks, ‘How long does a promise last? How long can a lie be told?’”

McLeese believes the boldest musical response to Katrina came from New Orleans’ Dirty Dozen Brass Band. The group recorded a reinterpretation of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” and released it on the first anniversary of the hurricane.

“It sounded nothing like Marvin Gaye, and nothing like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band had done before,” he said. “They substituted Gaye’s silky soulfulness for a brassy assertiveness that gave the material new urgency.”

McLeese also noted the sense of community that emerged among New Orleans musicians in the wake of Katrina. They formed strongholds in cities like New York, Nashville and Austin. In Austin, displaced musicians formed a group called the New Orleans Social Club, which recorded the album “Sing Me Back Home.” The group performed a free concert that attracted thousands of New Orleans supporters at Austin’s annual South by Southwest Music Festival.

“It’s ironic — New Orleans seemed to have a stronger sense of musical community when its musicians were scattered all over the country, because they had this tragedy in common,” McLeese said. “It’s kind of like they were Johnny Appleseeds, sowing the seeds of this music across the country.”

McLeese is a former critic-at-large and pop music critic for the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and staff writer for the Chicago Reader. He long wrote features, reviews and a column on country music for Rolling Stone and has contributed to nearly every major national magazine covering popular music. From 1987-99, he wrote or revised practically every entry on popular music for the World Book Encyclopedia.

Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to InterWined.com and get the lastest posts delivered fresh to your feeder.

1 comment

5

Aug

Plants That Live Off Little Water

Jacob Gaffney  Filed under Health, Food, Living, News , , ,

InterWined likes to follow economic and environmental issues as well as liquid news, so it is interesting when topics emerge that deal with these subjects combined, especially when it comes to trying to feed the world through improving agriculture.

See, a large part of the global food crisis is the inefficiency of current irrigation methods.

More irrigated water evaporates than reaches the roots of crops, amounting to an enormous waste of water and energy.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University, however, are investigating a new solution that turns the problem upside-down, getting to the root of the issue.

And to the chagrin of those who deeply oppose such methods, they are working to genetically modify the root systems of plants in an attempt to improve their ability to find water.

The Root Cause of Wasting Water

When it comes to water, every drop counts. “Improving water uptake by irrigated crops is very important,” says Prof. Amram Eshel, the study’s co-researcher from Tel Aviv University’s Plant Sciences Department. His team, with that of Prof. Hillel Fromm, hope to engineer a plant that takes advantage of a newly discovered gene that controls hydrotropism, a plant’s ability to send its roots towards water.

Scientists in TAU’s lab are observing plants that are grown on moist air in the University’s lab, making it possible to investigate how the modified plant roots orient themselves towards water. Until now, aeroponics (a method of growing plants in air and mist) was a benchtop technique used only in small-scale applications. The current research is being done on the experimental model plant Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant related to cabbage and mustard.

Environmental Consequences Have Economic Consequences Too

“Our aim is to save water,” explains Eshel. “We are increasing a plant’s efficiency for water uptake. Plants that can sense water in a better fashion will be higher in economic value in the future.”

There can be significant water-saving consequences for farmers around the world. “We are developing plants that are more efficient in sensing water,” says research doctoral student Tal Sherman, who is working under Prof. Amram Eshel and Prof. Hillel Fromm. The project is funded by a grant from the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to Prof. Fromm and Prof. Eshel.

Ideas Planted in Darwin’s Time

In the nineteenth century, scientists were already observing that plant roots naturally seek out the wetter regions in soil.

Although the phenomenon is well documented, scientists until recently had no clue as to how the mechanism worked, or how to make it better. New insights from the Tel Aviv University study could lead to plants that are super water seekers, say researchers.

Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to InterWined.com and get the lastest posts delivered fresh to your feeder.

Comment

31

Jul

Coffee Served, Wine Service

Jacob Gaffney  Filed under Red Wines, Barbera , , , ,

InterWined is happy to report we had a coffee.

This coffee, in fact, was consumed at Fitch Rating’s offices in Moorgate. Nice, filter coffee, made from a pot, some grinds and hot water. What could be simpler?

InterWined had two cups.

Tomorrow will find InterWined having another coffee. This time with the manager of the Pret a Manger in Aldgate; the site of a not so great coffee experience. This too shall be blogged.

But, really, we must talk about wine. All you talk about lately is coffee. Coffee, coffee. And frankly we’re sick of it.

Two days ago we had lunch with a friend who works at Societe Generale. The location was ‘1901’ in the Andaz Hotel near Liverpool Station. The Hyatt has rebranded this hotel into a ‘lifestyle’ establishment, whatever that means.

Nonetheless, one problem persists.

Despite a decent wine list and a smartly dressed, shockingly young sommelier, who wore a grape pendant on his lapel, the wine service still suffered from an age old problem.

Now, our friend wasn’t drinking as he wants to bulk up to look more like his twin brother who works at the Co-op bank in Manchester. And, the sommelier never pushed us, greatly, to order more than the one glass I picked to go with the rabbit terrine starter and wild Normandy boar main.

It was a glass of 2001 Domenico Clerico Barbera d’Alba, Trevigne… which actually brings up another point: the wine list notes the vintage as 2002. But I didn’t mention that, since the 2001 is a better bet.

No, instead the wine was served warm. And by warm, I mean, a little bit higher than room temperature.

The sommelier didn’t get it from the bar. In fact he made a show of leaving the restaurant floor to return with a new bottle, open it at our table and pour one single glass, at a price of £12.75 or so.

So, I’m not sure where it came from, but it wasn’t from the bar and I guess it wasn’t from the cellar.

The wine itself was fine though and the warm temperature meant slower drinking. But the added alcohol taste, feuled by the higher temperature, made the wine feel hot. Further, the wine itself is smooth by now and has lost its rustic edge but there is still plenty of ripe fruit. Nonetheless, it’s got maybe a year before it starts to go south.

Try once, serve slightly chilled. 8.5 points.

Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to InterWined.com and get the lastest posts delivered fresh to your feeder.

1 comment

29

Jul

The Coffee Continuum

Jacob Gaffney  Filed under News , ,

It seems that InterWined.com is temporarily becoming a food and coffee website. We promise more diverse news soon, but the coffee issues surrounding our lives just won’t die down.

In fact, InterWined recently enjoyed an espresso beer from Dark Star Brewery. We thought it was great of course, but would be interested how such a product would be perceived by bloggers with more discerning palates, such as at Spittoon.

And maybe being a coffee blog isn’t such a bad idea. Recently, InterWined decided to talk to ubiquitous sandwich cafe Pret a Manger about its habit of swapping an americano for a filter coffee, without telling the customer (see entries from last week). This decision was undertaken after successfully lobbying EAT to stop this practice.

And guess what? Pret is siding with InterWined as well!

Is InterWined single handedly improving the coffee service of London!?!? Hell, yeah!

May the power of email never be doubted.

In their response, Nicola Griggs from Pret was kind enough to offer this:

Hi InterWined,

Thanks for your email. I am sorry to hear that the service you received in our Aldgate branch wasn’t up to par.

I will be contacting the manager of the branch to find out what has been going on, who will ensure that baristas and all team members are re briefed on correct coffee handling procedures.

I can appreciate that this must have been a disappointing experience, but I hope that this has not deterred you from visiting us again. The manager of the store has invited you in for a free coffee and a chat. If this is not convenient for you please let me know and I will send you a voucher if you forward me your contact address.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.

Kind regards,

Nicola

Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to InterWined.com and get the lastest posts delivered fresh to your feeder.

2 comments

26

Jul

Chicken Liver Summer Salad

Sean Sellers  Filed under White Wines, Blow the Bank, Meat & Poultry, Furmint , , , ,

InterWined Food

Each week, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

This week, ‘Blow the Bank’ brings you a simple Chicken Liver Salad to see us through the summer.

Chicken Liver SaladBest Serviced Hot!Orange Salad

Like other forms of offal, chicken livers languish on supermarket shelves largely ignored by soccer moms and dads doing the weekly shop and chosen only by the frugal pensioner and the odd foodie. (After all, we can’t eat at St. John’s every night or drag ourselves to Smithfield’s each morning.)

It’s a shame too, really; because far more than most any other offal, chicken livers are both delectable and versatile. Consider this: in the past four years, I’ve managed to have chicken livers on lemongrass skewers in a restaurant on the Kowloon peninsula of Hong Kong, in pasta at a little Italian eatery hidden on the first floor of a rather non-descript Melbourne side street, as chopped liver served al fresco at a kosher trattoria in the Jewish quarter of Rome, and with salad in a Spanish tapas bar in London’s Piccadilly Circus.

While my favourite method of preparation would most certainly fresh from the pan with a touch of salt and gently fried in olive oil, they are remarkably good served with a slice of orange or Mandarin and few choice leaves of salad, making them perfect for a light summer luncheon.

Most often, people will recommend pairing liver with a big tannic red wine, the tannins serving as a safe partner for the savour flavour of the offal; however, an occasionally considered alternative — especially in the case of foie gras — is Sauternes, a sweet and acidic French dessert wine made of botrytised white wine grapes.

As with the French Sauternes, the Hungarian Tokaji Aszú is another well known wine made of botrytised wine grapes occasionally matched with foie gras to excellent affect. Given Hungary’s culinary acuity when it comes to all things liver (many consider the country’s foie gras among the best in the world — even France imports it), I decided to pair the Simple Chicken Liver Summer Salad with its dry Tokaji Furmint cousin, hoping that the drier wine would better suit the flavours chicken livers and salad.

Although, not quite the perfect match that I had hoped, but still a very good one all the same, the 2004 Oremus Tokaji Mandolas Dry Furmint (13%), £13.50 from Planet of the Grapes, is honeyed and buttery with an strong citric edge and a bit too much of an oak-y aftertaste that clashes slightly with the strongly textured flavour of the liver. This is a very impressive wine, nonetheless, and a rarity to find most places outside of Hungary to boot. Those seeking a white wine outside the realm of the overfamiliar Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc could do a lot worse than this. It would pair nicely with soft, flakey fish and seafood or make an excellent wine to enjoy on its own. It also maintains its form once openned, its oak-y aftertaste only marginally increasing over a few days.

Now, because InterWined is sometimes asked to ascribe numerical value to the wines it tries like judges at a sporting competition, let’s give this one some sort of score that suggests an excellent near miss, close the bullseye — something like 8.whatever.

(For more on InterWined’s complex ratings system, be sure to visit the Ratings page.)

InterWined’s Own Recipe in Full

Chicken Liver Summer Salad

Ingredients:
8-10 chicken livers
1 bunch of salad leaves
1 orange or 2-3 medium-sized Mandarins, peeled and sliced into eights
Olive oil
Rock salt

Preparation:

1. In a salad bowl mix the salad leaves (watercress, lamb’s lettuce, rocket et al) and orange slices
2. In a frying pan, sauté the chicken livers on each side in olive oil with a couple of generous pinches of salt for no more than 3-4 minutes on either side
3. Once cooked, remove the livers from the oil, combine with the salad, and serve hot

Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to InterWined.com and get the lastest posts delivered fresh to your feeder.

1 comment
« Previous Page — Next Page »