Food and drinks that we have tried and recommend
For an always perfect hostess gift, bring a bottle of bubbly as it's always a welcome addition to any holiday get together. Consider Moët Impérial dressed up in a golden sparkly bottle (SRP $39.99). This Moët & Chandon champagne — in a gold bottle —adds a touch of glamour to all holiday celebrations.The bubbly has bright fruitiness and elegant maturity with a seductive palate.
Dole expanded its Organic Salad Mixes to six different varieties including baby spinach, spring mix, 50/50 salad mix, kale, super spinach, and baby spinach and arugula. All mixes are available in 5-ounce containers serving two - the baby spinach and spring mix are also available in 16-ounce containers serving five. Save Save
Lightly Dried Herbs are organically grown herbs that are washed, roughly chopped and lightly dried, allowing the herbs to stay fresh for up to four weeks. They refresh completely in cooking. Available as lightly dried ginger, basil, chili pepper, cilantro, chives and parsley. Store the click 'n stack bowls — that won a design award — in the refrigerator for "fresh" herbs at anytime. - bonnie - I liked the fresh flavor of all but the cilantro. I'd recommend keeping the the fridge or freezer to have almost "fresh" herbs at anytime. BonnieBOTB Follow @BonnieBOTB
"A red Sancerre?" I said somewhat bewildered. Until that moment, Sancerre was Sauvignon Blanc, I hadn't a clue that Sancerre Rouge even existed! I learned about the Loire Valley red through a chilled bottle of Lucien Crochet: La Croix du Roy, an elegant light-bodied, bright but earthy, Pinot Noir at dinner at Montmartre. The sommelier had kept the wine at 50 F, making it much more drinkable with the French foods. Interestingly, I also drank Pinot Noir chilled while dining with master sommelier Fred Dexheimer early this summer. "Chill ... and the natural beauty comes out," Fred explained. We were at Artisinal, where Fred — spokesperson for Pays d'Oc IGP [...]
Bonnie:Steel-cut oatmeal is my breakfast grain of choice. I love it plain, with just a smidgen of salt -- no added sugar or sweetener, no dried or fresh fruit and no nuts. I like the nutty flavor of the grain that best comes through in steel-cut versions.
About five years ago, we recommended...
Bryan: You've got to love any ingredient list that's just a simple, graphic representation of three items. If you're checking out GFMS's website and navigate over to the page for steel-cut and organic rolled oats, you will see that three small pictures serve as your entire guidance on what you're about to eat. Sometimes simplicity speaks volumes. A small pile of whole ...
Eric: On a cold Winter morning, I would admit that I'm a fan of oatmeal. The hearty, stick-to-your-bones texture warms me up on cold mornings, but the bland flavor leaves me desiring more. Plus, quality oatmeal is laborious, taking a good amount of time to make from start to finish; time most of us need in the morning....
Bonnie:" Good vinegar can turn an ordinary dish into something ethereal.
Artisan-made Villa Manodori Artigianale Aceto Balsamico di Modena begins with the boiled down must (juice) of locally grown Trebbiano grapes that’s aged in wood — oak, chestnut and juniper — barrels to yield a rich, dark balsamic with an intense aroma and syrupy consistency.
Chef Massimo Bottura, of the three-star Michelin restaurant Osteria Francescana in...
Bryan: This stuff is already vouched for by freakin' Mario Batali! What could I possibly tell you about it that would make you feel more secure about its quality than this: the king of Italian cuisine in the United States has given it a shout-out on his menu at Babbo. What more can you ask for? Try it. As such, I thought I'd take a moment to talk about balsamic vinegar, as it can be quite a confusing food product. Why are some so...
Eric: Balsamic vinegar is a fickle product, manipulative in myriad forms. For some consumers, the flavor profile of mass-produced balsamic vinegar is synonymous with salad dressing. For others, more "gluttonous" consumers, balsamic vinegar is a flavor-enhancing agent to pasta, cheese, charcuterie, meat and dessert.
To compare a high quality balsamic vinegar such as Villa Manodori to ...
Bonnie:Craig Lieberman is the man behind these paper-thin crisps first introduced in 2003 with savory flavors and earlier this year with sweet ones. The new sweet ones include chocolate, cinnamon, graham and today’s FeaturedBite, caramel. All are made using ingredients you...
Bryan: Today’s Bite seems to have more than a few fans. Now, we certainly don’t base our product recommendation decisions on other peoples' opinions, nor necessarily on mass appeal. In fact, many of our chosen...
Eric:The original savory 34° Crisps are designed to treat the palate of your average cheese aficionado; they're thin, flavored with subtlety and nearly melt in your mouth. The new 34° Sweet Crisps are also designed to treat the palate. However, it's ...
Bonnie: David Perkins, proprietor of High West, the gastro-distillery on Main Street in Old Town Park City, 
Utah, recently introduced a one-of-a-kind blend of smoky scotch, fruity rye and sweet bourbon whiskeys that he calls Campfire Whiskey. He named it in celebration of the western tradition of ...
Bryan: Park City, Utah... one of the most magical places on Earth. Truly a ski-Mecca, Park City offers access to seven of the country's greatest resorts, airy powder snow unlike anywhere else on earth, an amazing après-ski centered town with fantastic dining options... it's heaven. That is, unless booze....
Eric: I enjoy the occasional weekly glass of whiskey. Actually, I am joking with you; I enjoy the occasional weekly bottle of whiskey, and just like many notable men of History, it is usually part of my daily routine. Now some might scoff at the idea — shouting ...
Bonnie: I met Daniel Graeff, one of the founders of the Lucini Italia Company, at a private home in San Francisco many years ago when he conducted an olive oil tasting for a group of food editors who were in that city attending the Fancy Food Show. Just as for wine tasting, we sniffed, swirled and sipped to...
Bryan:
Olive oil is one of those special kitchen ingredients that somehow makes its way into almost everything I cook. Pretty much anything that's going in a pan gets a coating of olive oil (especially before it's seasoned). Even many noncooked items, especially salads, get a splash of this heavenly liquid before making...
Eric: "Simply the Best" is certainly a statement worth touting for Lucini and for the myriad products they produce, bottle and sell. I believe most consumers couldn't care less about the olive oil they're consuming or, for that matter, with what they are cooking. But we epicures sing the praises of the...
Bonnie: We do love our cheese, especially fresh chèvre. Today's feature is about Coach Farm Fresh Goat Cheese with figs.
I've been in love with Coach Farm's chèvre since my first bite of its fresh goat cheese back in the '80s. That's when the company began making cheese in a small Hudson Valley (New York) town, just two hours from New York City. The company boasts more than 900 dairy goats, born and raised on its farm.
And to answer the question always asked: Yes, the name...
Bryan: Figs and goat cheese... Can you think of a better combination of flavors? This combo has to be the perfect example of sweet and savory goodness; it is a product that makes my mouth water even as I type right now. Coach Farm's new offering wonderfully pairs the subtle barnyard creaminess of fresh goat cheese with beautiful, ripe, delicious figs. This is good eating at its very best!
As with almost any cheese (especially ...
Eric: I've always been a glutton for combining fresh goat cheese (_fromage de chèvre_) with dried fruits: My favorite combination is using dried cherries. There is something incredibly sumptuous about the tart flavor and almost candyesque texture of the cherry paired with the creaminess of the cheese that leaves your palette salivating for more; and that's only one flavorful combination.
Coach Farm has always (at least ...
Bonnie: This hot cinnamon-spiked tea is an oldie but goodie blend of tea flavored with three types of cinnamon, plus orange peel and sweet cloves. Harney now offers new varieties of Hot Cinnamon Spice Tea that include a green, herbal and decaf versions. All are delicious.
I fell in love with the Harney Hot Spice Cinnamon Tea the first time I brewed it many a decade ago. I also fell for the members ...
Harney & Sons has been in the tea business going on 30 years! That's a lot of tea expertise, especially when their only product is tea. John Harney, the company's founder, worked in the tea business for 13 years before starting his company, making for almost a half century of tea know-how... that's possibly 15,000 cups of tea he consumed himself. Let's just say the man knows his teas.
Harney & Sons is inspired by the British Legacy teas, and while the world ...
Eric: I’m loving that tea now has become a mainstream affair in this country — not to say that it hadn’t been consumed prior, but for a while it seemed that we depended on coffee to get our fix of a hot beverage and caffeine. (Thank you Starbucks.) Some people might not realize it, but tea primarily contains more caffeine than your average cup of coffee; and the effect also lasts longer; as an experiment, try it next time ...
Bonnie: Each year the folks from Kerrygold invite food editors to an event to sample its Irish dairy products such as butter, cheese and cream. At this year's event I sampled the new Cashel Blue, an authentic artisanal farmhouse cheese.
I asked for samples...
>Kerrygold's Cashel Blue cheese (actually produced by J&L Grubb Ltd.) is made by Jane and Louis Grubb on their farm in County Tipperary, Ireland. And, like any good cheese maker, they've been making it the exact same way, in this case, since 1984.
Cashel Blue is actually the first farmhouse blue cheese to be ...
Eric: Kerrygold's Cashel Blue is one-of-a-kind (although mass produced) and would be one of my choices as an accompaniment to my "last meal". By no means am I a blue cheese advocate -- most of the time, blue cheese taste just like it smells, pungent with an almost mildewy ...
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Bonnie: All year, BOTB has been scouting for products to share with you during the holiday season. Today's FeaturedBite is just that — another goodie to serve at one of your upcoming gatherings or to bring as a hostess gift. This Trois Petits Cochons Mousse Truffee is a delectable combo of chicken liver, pork, truffles, sherry and Pineau — a French aperitif. And for anyone who likes liver pâtés, it’s addicting.
I like to unmold the tub version onto a platter for easy slicing and attractive presentation surrounded by...
Bryan: Les Trois Petits Cochons began humbly in 1975, a small charcuterie in New York's Greenwich Village taking its name from the three young French owners who are the self-titled "Three Little Pigs." The shop was a quick culinary success, counting James Beard amongst their friends and customers. So successful in fact, that Les Trois Petits Cochons closed the store to open a larger kitchen in order to turn out what was to some in New York City simply the best pâté around.
Les Trois went on to supply....
Eric:I never thought I’d see a day when pâtés became nearly, dare I say, mainstream. The term liver doesn’t usually jump off the plate and make your taste buds dance with delight; in fact, I imagine most people cringe at the idea of eating anything more ...
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Bonnie Cincinnati natives and visitors have known it. And their friends and relatives have heard them rave about Graeter's ice creams, especially the signature eye-catching, berry-colored Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip.
The fourth generation of Graeter's makes this ice cream just as Louis Graeter did in 1870, using a French Pot method. It's a small-batch way (they tell me that's only ....
The discussion actually began over a product called Skyline Chili. You may or may not have heard about it. It is apparently a Cincinnati ...
Small batch translates to...
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Bryan: Leave it to your friends to have the best recommendations. This is the social age (as you read this blog), is it not? So, kudos to my friend Alex, who has sung the praises of Graeter's Ice Cream for almost as long as I've known him. Today, your recommendation is official.
Eric:: I've never indulged in ice cream as fast as I did when I popped the top on the Graeter's Chocolate Chip. The written word can barely describe how delicious this product truly is. Sure, it's ice cream, but in my opinion, it's more than that; it's ice cream with purp
ose.
Bonnie: We do like our libations!
Generally the only sweet mixer I ever use is tonic — especially in summer. For me, I mix it with vodka; for some friends, with gin. And to save calories, I made a "sonic" — the alcohol mixed with part bubbly club soda or seltzer + part tonic. For the seltzer, you can either ...
Bryan: What more can I do to let you know how amazingly good and unique Fever-Tree beverages are than to simply list the collection of outstanding, luxury, eating establishments that currently serve it? What more would it take for you to think these tasty drinks are worth a try? What wonderful adjectives could I put forth that would do better than noting that Fever-Tree mixers are currently served in seven out of ...
Eric: I wouldn't consider myself a tonic drinker. In fact, it was only while I was spending time in Africa that I found myself sipping a gin and tonic -- and that was mostly due to my belief in the "medicinal" benefits as it's a natural mosquito repellent.
Tonic has never found a spot in my fridge; the bitter, dry flavor is something my ...
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Bonnie: Yes, it's true. The Bite of the Best team loves cheese.
When I'm fantasizing about those foods I must have on my desert island, goat's milk cheese (chèvre) is on that list. I smartened up recently thinking that instead of cheese, I should have a goat or two for an endless supply, but then I'd need to learn both how to milk the goat and make the cheese. Nah!
For now, I'll just get some chèvre...
Bryan: What an absolute delight it is to taste-test cheese for a living! So many different types, different flavors, textures and smells. Did you know that there are more than a thousand different types of recognized cheese and cheese products in the world? And though there are terrible ones (Cheez Whiz), there are also wonderful ones... like today's offering from Cypress Grove, Humboldt Fog.
So what, you ask, is on the cheese ...
Eric: All bleu cheese is not created equal, but I imagine you're aware of that. As fellow foodies, I'm sure you've encountered a variety of cheeses that have made you question your palate. And that's great. That's what being a true epicure is all about -- the process of trial and error in finding the tastes that delight your senses and make you hungry for more.
Cheese, like wine, is a product of many different...
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Bonnie: Watch out Girl Scouts! These chocolate mint cookies that are just being introduced this month could hurt the sale of your Thin Mints. These — like those — contains a wafer enrobed in chocolate. And so sorry Girl Scouts, I prefer the flavor of the Moravian Cookies enrobed in an artisan blend of chocolate to yours. (Nutritionally ounce for ounce, they...
Bryan: We're talking about the Salem Baking Co. today. Salem Baking produces a variety of desserts and baked goods, but they are known for their Moravian cookies. "Okay, great. What are those?" I asked myself. A brief, but thorough investigation (God, the Internet is amazing, isn't it?) into the matter led me to find a wonderful food story, so, I felt I must share a (brief) synopsis of ...
Eric: My cookie of choice has always been the Pepperidge Farm Brussels. It has the perfect ratio of crunch to chocolate, and the flavor of the cookie dough has subtle sweetness that dances over the palette (as you can tell, I enjoy my cookies). When I took the first bite of the chocolate-enrobed Mint Moravian cookie, in my mind, it was as if...
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Bonnie: To me, no meal is complete without bread. Because I travel lots — and there’s no good bakery near my home — I always keep bread in the freezer to warm and serve when needed, buying it when I frequent one of my local farmers’ markets.
When we ....
Bryan: I’ve always got to have bread on hand, but oh the headache in keeping it fresh. The problem is, any bread that actually lasts on the counter is not real bread at all. Hence, my freezer is full of time-tested, freezer-stable breads ready to join in on any meal.
My personal freezer aisle started...
Eric: I usually eat bread with most of my meals — in fact, I’ve been laughed at by most of my European friends because I will always make a sandwich out of whatever I’m eating, even, on occasion, with mashed potatoes. From my understanding, most people view bread ...
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Bonnie: Annie Chun’s recently introduced frozen mini wontons are something that I can rave about. I’m as surprised as you that I’m recommending a convenience food. But one look at the ingredient list of these small, round dumplings with a savory pork and ginger filling assured me that these contain the same ingredients I’d use if I were making them myself: wonton wrappers filled with...
Bryan: If you haven’t heard of them before, Annie Chun’s is a San Rafael, Calif.-based company that offers a wide selection of shelf-stable pan-Asian foods. I’ve tried a number of its products before and have always been wowed by the strong flavors. It’s a great thing, as I’ve come to rarely expect...
Eric: I love Asian food – or more specifically, I love American-Asian food (as well as European-Asian food). I enjoy eating Asian-inspired cuisine so much that I have my very own pair of chopsticks, and an endless supply of Asian cooking sauces and a wok that’s probably been around since...
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Bonnie: My love for beans grew when I penned a cookbook by that name with my friend and co-author Joanne Lamb Hayes. We created recipes using beans in every possible way — including white bean ice milk! And during that time, I had bean-tasting parties to sample the foods that I was testing. I needed testers as oddly at that time — in the early ’90s — neither Bryan nor Eric ate beans.
Blackeyed peas are a medium, kidney-shaped, off-white bean with a purplish-black color in its keel. They have...
Bryan: I often do a bit of background research on the food products we review on Bite of the Best. I am a foodie at heart, intrigued by the nutritional value of different foods, their cultural significance, history, etc. I just find that a better understanding of a food at its core gives me a greater appreciation for the unique variations and presentations I get to sample… whether it’s foie gras, Kobe beef, a beet, or...
Eric: It’s ironic, but the diet of a hospitality worker (i.e. restaurant employee, hotel clerk, banquet server, etc) is not comparable to those of the people they are “serving.” The combination of long hours and short breaks leaves little time for a healthy diet; sandwiches, coffee and the occasional piece of fruit seem to be the standard staples, as well as the cause of any malnutrition.
I like to...
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