Pizza and Wine

Really interesting blog post about pairing wine with pizza over at Dr. Vino. Apparently Italians don't drink wine with pizza.

It says that Pizza and Beer is a much more common and sacred pairing, which is understandable, but I don't necessarily understand the aversion to matching a good wine with pizza. A lot of popular Italian foods (and other foods from around the world) contain a mixture of three basic ingredients, pasta/bread, cheese/dairy, tomato. This also happens to be one of my justifications for eating my mac 'n cheese with ketchup. But if you look at everything from nachos with salsa to spaghetti with parmesan cheese they all contain these ingredients.

Therefore, if you drink wine with your favorite Italian pasta dish, it shouldn't be that far of a stretch to drink wine with a pizza.

Veni Vidi Vici in Fresno

I went out last night to Veni Vidi Vici here in Fresno in the Tower District. I had never been to Veni's before, and it turned out to be a pretty cool hang out place. When you first walk in through the 10-12 foot doors, you enter a small, dimly lit room with some tables and a bar. The walls are exposed red brick and the top of the bar is cement.

Walking to the back through a small hallway you emerge outside in a fairly large patio with tables and another bar at the far end. Right in the middle of the patio is a large tree. Lights are hung throughout the patio as well as overhead fans to keep the air circulating.

It's a very chill place, and it's great for people watching, especially because it is in the Tower District, and there are a lot of interesting people that hang out there.

The place seems to really start getting busy around 11pm to 11:30pm.

Dinner Last Night

Since getting my HD Television, I've really enjoyed watching PBS HD (especially since I don't have cable or satellite). One of the great things about PBS and especially PBS HD is that there are a number of good cooking shows, which have given me numerous ideas for meals. The other night I was watching a show on PBS HD called Lidia's Italy which is all about Italian food and how to cook it. I love Italian food, and watching this show inspires me to no end. On this episode was a dish called Neapolitan Macaroni & Cheese. It looked really good.

If you've watched PBS shows you'll know that they often link to the PBS.org website for more information on what they are discussing at the moment. Lidia's Italy links to their website for more info and recipes, I figured they would have the recipe available on the website. They did not. I searched the web and someone with a DVR figured out the recipe after multiple watchings of the episode. I used the recipe, and with the help of my roommates made the dish last night. It turned out quite well, and it is definitely a keeper.

I paired the dish with a Chardonnay from Sutter Home's Fre label. Fre is their alcohol removed wine. I wanted to try it and see how it compared to real wine. It was definitely more "juicy", fairly sweet, and very smooth. It worked fairly well with the dish.