Be Bold with Your Wine Choices on Valentine's Day

Not that you're nervous, but you're not sure if you applied deodorant, or brushed your teeth, twice -- perhaps it was both. You know Valentine's Day is all Hallmark trumped up, but you can't help yourself, and you're all caught up in the spirit that this has to be the most romantic evening of the year. Which just happens to be the same night 98% of the world is thinking the same thing, so you all descend on the same restaurants (hip, dark, happening, loud enough you need to talk close). Then it comes time to order wine, and panic sets in.

Luckily, I decided to help by turning to an expert, Branden Bidwell, Wine Director at Santa Barbara's famed Wine Cask (its Gold Room is romantic as all get-out, btw). Bidwell knows all about wine and knows how to make you feel comfortable, too -- he's no snob-melier, as it were -- so his advice is precious.

Want to read the rest then do so at the KCET Food Blog.

Brews Meet Their Match

The surprising thing isn’t that the Wine Cask is having a beer dinner on May 31 — they did one back in October, after all; it’s that the five-course menu kicks off with Korean chicken-skin tacos with kimchi and Asian slaw. “We’d never serve that in the dining room,” admitted Chef Brandon Hughes. “But when you think about it, everybody’s favorite part of the chicken is the skin.” It’s a bit of crispy evidence that this meal is really a chance for the Wine Cask team to think out of the fine-dining box.

Want to read the rest then go do so at the Indy's site.

UPDATE (6/3/12): Matt Kettmann, senior editor at the Indy, wrote up the dinner itself perfectly, and not just because he quoted me as we were seated at the same table. I'd write something, but when someone else has done it so well, I will just point you there instead.