Friday, November 15, 2013

WORLD'S GREATEST HOT DOGS at RUTT'S HUT Where "BABE RUTH" ATE






A Couple RIPPERS
DEEP-FRIED HOT DOGS
at RUTT'S HUT





RUTT'S HUT
FAMOUS
HOUSE-MADE RELISH









The COUNTER




The BAMBINO !!!
BABE RUTH
ATE DOGS
at RUTT'S HUT






Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Guy Fieri Mac N Cheese Burger Recipe




  • 4 brioche hamburger buns
  • ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 tsp. minced garlic
  • 4 (6-ounce) premium blend ground beef burger balls
  • Kosher salt
  • 8 ounces Bacon Mac ‘n’ Cheese (recipe below)
  • 4 slices sharp cheddar cheese slices
  • 8 ounces crispy crumbled bacon bits
  • 4 tsp. garlic panko bread crumbs
  • ¼ cup crispy Maui onion straws
  • 3 tbsp. Donkey Sauce (recipe below)
  • ¼ cup thinly sliced sweet onion
  • 1 Kosher dill pickle, thinly sliced
  • 1 Beefsteak tomato, thinly sliced
  • 1 cup finely shredded iceberg lettuce (dressed with 1 tsp. red wine vinegar)
1. Combine the melted butter with minced garlic. Slice each bun in half and brush the garlic butter on each side. Toast each half in a hot skillet or grill pan, about 20 seconds; flip and toast the second side as well.
2. In a cast-iron skillet over high heat, add 2 teaspoons canola oil. Season burger balls with salt and add to pan. Sear for 30 seconds. Using a firm spatula, flatten each into a patty, about 1/3’’ thick. Cook for approximately 1½ minutes to develop a crust on the first side.
3. Flip over, add 2 ounces of mac and cheese to each patty, and top with one slice of cheddar. Cover with a dome and pour 1 tablespoon of water into the skillet to create steam and melt the cheese. Cook for 1 minute. Remove the dome; the cheese should be completely melted. Cook an additional 30-45 seconds so any cheese spilling over the burger gets crusty.
4. To assemble, spread donkey sauce on each half of the bun. Cover the bottom bun with thinly sliced onion, three slices of pickle and one slice of tomato. Top with the hamburger patty, top with bacon crumbles, garlic panko, onion straws and a heaping tablespoon of dressed lettuce. Add top bun and skewer to hold together. Serve immediately.

Bacon Mac ‘n’ Cheese

Makes 12 cups
  • 8 ounces small elbow pasta
  • Kosher salt
  • Olive oil, as needed
  • 16 slices applewood smoked bacon
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • 6 cups whole milk
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3 ounces smoked mozzarella cheese
  • 3 ounces sharp white cheddar cheese, grated
  • 2 ounces fontina cheese, grated
  • 2 ounces parmigiano reggiano cheese, grated
  • 2 ounces Parrano cheese, grated
  • 2 ounces cream cheese
  • 3 tbsp. yellow mustard
  • 2-3 grates fresh nutmeg
  • Freshly ground black pepper
1. In a skillet over medium heat, add the bacon. Render the fat and cook until crispy. Using a slotted spoon, remove the cooked bacon from the skillet to a paper towel lined dish and set aside. Once cooled, chop into small pieces. Reserve fat.
2. In the leftover bacon grease, melt butter. Gradually add in the flour and whisk until smooth. Over medium heat, cook until the mixture turns a light, golden color and is the consistency of wet sand, about 1-2 minutes. Slowly add in milk, whisking continuously until very smooth. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, add the bay leaf and cook 5 minutes, whisking frequently.
3. Add in cheeses, one at a time, and whisk until each is fully incorporated into the sauce. Add in yellow mustard, nutmeg, cooked pasta, bacon, and stir well to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into a gratin dish and allow to cool, so you can scoop it onto burgers.

Donkey Sauce

Makes 1¼ cups
  • ¼ cup minced roasted garlic
  • 1 cup prepared mayonnaise
  • 4 dashes Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp. yellow mustard
  • ¼ tsp. kosher salt
  • 4 turns freshly ground black pepper
Mix all ingredients until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to serve.


Monday, November 11, 2013

ROBERT PARKER Jr. "The WORLD'S WORST WINE CRITIC"


Robert Parker



To DRINK BETTER WINE
DO NOT LISTEN To PARKER


HOW ROBERT PARKER ALMOST DESTROYED WINE


Most Wine Drinkers may not know this, but they'd be well advised not to ever listen to Robert Parker and his ill-advised wine news-letter The Wine Advocate. Not if they want the best wine drinking experience possible and they want to choose a good wine to go with their meal, they will not follow the terrible advice and reviews that Robert Parker gives on wine. The kind of wines Parker loves the most are overly oaked, Overly-Rich, heavily concentrated wine that are crafted to be Heavy Thick Full Bodied Oaky Fruit-Bomb Wines. Wines that clash with food instead of complimenting it. If it was up to Robert Parker he'd have all the wines in the World tasting like over-manipulated, big, fat powerful wines like California Cabernets and Meritage Blends instead of wonderful food complementary wines like; Chianti, Barolo, Brunello, Beaujlais, some Bordeaux wines and the like. Wines  that go well with food instead of clashing with it as many of the so-called Parkerized Wines do. The man has ruined the publics perception to what good wine is and should be. The public thinks because he is a famous wine writer, that he knows best and what he's talking about. Maybe he does, but the style of wine he likes, well?
    If the general public wants the best wine drinking experience possible, they'd be wise to steer clear of The Wine Advocate and any wine advice dished out by Parker.
      Robert Parker's advice on wine is advice that steers and influences peoples perceptions of what great wine is, into a quite a bad, almost one-dimensional place of homogenized overly thick un-natural wines. People should stop taking advice of Robert Parker, the World of Wine would be a much better place, a place of real wine that is  It SUCKS! Robert Parker's advice reviews, and Ratings of Wine that is.
     If you want to is true to the local terroir of whereever any particular wine might come from. In other words, Chianti should taste like Chianti, Barolo like Barolo, and Bordeaux like Bordeaux and not like a "Big Fat" California or Autralian Cabernet or Meritage Blended Wine and such.

 People should drink Wonderful Wines that go great with food and are "Real Natural Wines" the kind of Wines that were made for 100 of years and still are except for those wines made by owners who have fallen into to whole Robert Parker "Spin Doctor" realm and make "Overly-Concentrated Wine" that taste fake and un-natural, they are manipulated and are the kind of wines that Parker likes and gives High 90 Plus Ratings to.
   Drink real Chianti (not any that contain Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot), drink Barolos that have been aged in large gentile Slovenian Oak Cask instead of small 225 liter Barrique Barrels that make many wines taste more of Wood (the way Parker likes them) than beautiful unadulterated with natural fruit (Grapes). Wines like; Brunello, Cote du Rhones, and just about anything other than overly-concentrated, overly Oaked, minipulated overly-oaked wines from Australia and over-powering Californian and Australian monsters and you'll be doing OK.
   "Just DON'T Listen to anything ROBERT PARKER and his highly popular but we say awful newsletter "The Wine Advocate" has to say or Write about Wine." The man almost single handily Destroyed what Good Wine "is" and should be.
Be "Anti-Parker" you'll be glad you did. "Do."



Daniel Bellino Zwicke



Philip Ulanowsky on Parker

"Mr. Parkers "illigitimate" reign as wine-oracl and suprem arbiter of taste and quality has not only addicted a generation of Yuppies to his mythical 100- Point rating annoucements, but has played a major role of leading many of the world's great winemakers to compromise "their art" to make wines to suit the ratings, in order to sell, rather than making wines that will do poor early in early tastings but will mature into masterpieces over decades."







NO BARRIQUE
NO BERLUSCONI
NO ROBERT PARKER



Sunday, November 10, 2013

Friday, October 25, 2013

CHATEAU CHEVAL BLANC & PASTRAMI NEW YORK



CHATEAU CHEVAL BLANC

&

PASTRAMI



PASTRAMI SANDWICH
KATZ'S DELI
NEW YORK



DeGrezia Wine Director Author DANIEL BELLINO-ZWICKE
DOES CHATEAU CHEVAL BLANC And A PASTRAMI SANDWICH
At WINE SPECTATOR GRAND TASTING at MARRIOT MARQUIS
NEW YORK, NY
October 2013

CHEVAL BLANC And A PASTRAMI SANDWICH ?
"ONLY In NEW YORK"





















Daniel Bellino Zwicke Does Wine Spectator Grand Tasting NY

. .
ANGELO GAJA With 2009 GAJA BARBARESCO
Wine Spectator Grande Tasting New York 2013
Photo Daniel Bellino-Zwicke
GAIA GAJA
TERLATO TASTING
OCTOBER 2013
NEW YORK
 
Photo Daniel Bellino-Zwicke
The BARONESS ROTHSCHILD
At Wine SPectator Grande Tastin New York
2013
 
Photo Daniel Bellino Zwicke
Imbroglio Folnari
Castello Nozzole
Greve in Chianti
With Famed Super Tuscan "IL Pareto"
 
Photo Daniel Bellino-Zwicke
SEBASTIANO ROSA WINMAKER OF SASSICAIA
AND GARI PUNIC "BARUA"
WITH DEGREZIA WINEDIRECTOR DANIEL BELLINO-ZWICKE
 
Daniel Bellino-Zwicke
With Giancarlo Grasso
and
His Great Barolo Runcot
 
 
 
Elena Penna Curado
With One of Her Family's 
Famed VIETTI BAROLO'S 
at Wine Spectator Grand Tasting
 
Photo by Daniel Bellino-Zwicke
 
DeGrezia Wine Director and Author Daniel Bellino-Zwicke
Flanked bt Two of Italy's Greatest Wine Guys
Marches Lambero Frescobaldi (Left)
And His Uncle Marchese Leonardo Frescobaldi
At Wine SPectator Grande Tasting in NEW YORK
 
FAMED WINEMAKER SEBASTIANO ROSA
And HIS BEAUTIFUL WIFE
At THE WINE SPECTATOR GRANDE TASTING
NEW YORK
SASSICAIA  2009
From TENTA SAN GUIDO
AND FAMED WINMEAKER SEBASTIANO ROSA
 
"THIS WINE IS da BOMB" ONE of THE GREATEST SASSICAIA VINTAGES EVER
OPUS ONE
FROM
THE BARON ROTHCHILD & ROBERT MONDAVI
NEW YORK, NY
2013
BORDEAUX
Cos D' Esternol
A GLASS 
of CHATEAU CHEVAL BLANC 
and a PASTRAMI SANDWICH
 
"ONLY In NEW YORK" !!!
 
At Marriott Marquis
NEW YORK
 
 
 
WINEMAKER ALESSANDRO CELLAI (Castellare)
And Wine Director DANIEL BELLINO-ZWICKE
At DeGrezia Restorante NEW YORK
MASI AMARONE
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BOOKS by DANIEL BELLINO-ZWICKE ... ITALIAN NEW YORK FOOD & WINE
 

Monday, October 21, 2013

WINE DINNER With CINZIA TRAVAGLINI New York









GREAT GATTIINARA And NEBBIOLO FROM TRAVAGLINI
at TRAVAGLINI WINE DINNER With CINZIA TRAVAGLINI
Trattoria GUGINO
Tribeca NEW YORK








AWESOME GATTINARA From TRAVGLINI
With DAM TASTY PIZZA MARGHERITA
TRAVAGLINI TASTING DINNER at GUGINO
With Antonio (Palm Bay Imports)
CINZIA TRAVGLINI
and Author
Daniel Bellino-Zwicke





Been invited to a Wine Dinner tonight by Cinzia Travaglini to be held at Gigino Trattoria in Tribeca (New York, NY) ... Can't wait! Will be dining with Cinzia Travaglini, Chef Luigi, Antonio from Palm Bay and other restaurant wine people who have been lucky enough to get this rare and coveted invitation .. I don't know who the other guest are ..  Will report back tomorrow on the evening, the food, wine, and guests, etc..



THE REPORT

DINNER PRIVATE WINE TATSING With CINZIA TRAVAGLINI at GUGINO


We drank, we ate, whe talked we enjoyed .. A private tasting dinner with Cinzia Travaglini. Actually I thought there were going to be more people. Basically it was just me and Cinzia Travaglini tasting me on Travaglini's current vintages of fine wines. We were joined by ANtonio from Palm Bay, Travaglini's Importer, and then when we were finished eating, Chef Luigi joined our table as well. Cinzia started us out with her Nebbiolo Coste Della Sesia .. Travaglini is the unquestionable King of Gattinara, a small zone in northern Peidmonte .. The zone is only about 200 acres of which Travaglini comprises have of the entire zone. Gattinara is made mostly of Nebbiolo at 90 to 100% .. Gattinara may have up to 10% of Bonarda and Vespolina grapes, but all of the Travaglini Gattinara wines are made of 100% Nebbiolo ... Travaglini are Kings of Nebbiolo of which about 97% of their entire vineyards are planted to the grape, along with a very small amount of Uva Rara, Bonarda, and Vespolina .. Yes they are masters of Nebbiolo of which they have been growing since the 1920's ...
So Nenniolo and Gattinara are the thing of Travaglini .. They are the biggest as well as the most famous Gattinara with their signature Trademarked Gattinara Bottle .. OK, so we started out with the Nebbiolo Coste della Sesia which blew my mind. I absolutely loved the wine. It was in perfect balance, full of flavor, yet light in weight, the perfect combination in an Italian Wine which are among the most food friendly wines in the world. And that's what we were doing, food and wine, and yes friendliness too. This wine Coste della Sesia was an absolute marvel of a wine, that is very reasonably price and half to a third the price of the Travaglini Gattinara's which are at their price points quite reasonable for wines of the highest of quality. This is thought of as an entry level wine, but it is anything but. Yes I loved this wine that was perfectly in balance in flavor, tannic and acidic elements along with the correct weight and wonderful flavor of ripe berry fruits with a nice twinge of licorice, just lovely. Cinzia poured me just a little, but it was so good I had to ask for a little more, and then more a thrid and forth time. That's when you know a wine is good.
After the lovely Nebbiolo we moved on to the Gattinara's, thee wine of Travaglini .. We ordered some grilled Clamari and a Pizza Margherita and Chef Luigi sent us some special bread and a platter of Salumi. We all flipped for the Pizza which we all thought was the equal of the finest Pizza from Napoli "The Pizza Capital of The World." Well after all Chef Luigi is from Positano in the area near Naples on the gorgeous Amalfi Coast. We drank the Gattinara 2007 which as well as the Nebbiolo before was absolutely wonderful and a wine in perfect balance. Just delisous. It was then on to the Gattinara Riserva 2006, another winner, and then a very special and rare wine.
The special rare wine in question was il Sogno, which was a special project created by Cinzia's father Giancarlo Travaglini in 2004 ... Giancarlo wanted to make a dry table wine using the appassimento method of drying grapes before the fermentation process as with the famed wines of Amarone and the lesser known Sforvato of Lombardia. Giancarlo picked some of his best Nebbiolo Grapes and set them out to dry on matts. Unfortunately Giancarlo passed away in November of 20024 when the grapes had only been drying for 1 month. Cinzia and her winemaker husband continued the project.  They finished drying thr Nebbiolo grapes, fermented them and made the wine that tey called il Sogno "The Dream." 
So Cinzia poured me a glass of il Sogno, and again my mind was blown. The wine an absolute gem had all sorts of wonderful flavors running through my mouth. It was delisious, it had power, but not too much as some big AMarone sometimes do. The wine was a delight and I'm looking forward to putting it on my own list.
We also drank the Gattinara "Tre Vigna," The Three Vineyards .. The fruit for Tre Vigna comes from 3 very special small vineyards on the Travaglini Estate. These 3 different vineyards have different geographical vineyards on the estate and bring different characteristics to the wine to make up one complete and wonderful structure of a wine, 
Travaglini Gattinara "Tre Vigne"
 So we drank the fine wines from Cinzia Travaglini, we had perfect Pizza, Antipasti, followed by some wonderful Tagiatelle con Tartufo and Brasato di Manzo (Braised Beef), and finished up with some tasty desserts. It was a fine night and a dinner that along with the many wonderful private luncheons and dinners I have had over the years with some of Italy's most prestigious winemakers, like Cinzia, I remeber them all, and I will always remember this one, absolutely Wonderful!



Daniel Bellino-Zwicke







CINZIA TRAVAGLINI

















WTC1 at NIGHT
WORLD TRADE CENTER 1
aka  FREEDOM TOWER
Looking Down From GUGINO'S
October  21, 2013
Tribeca, NEW YORK, NY