Monday, January 15, 2007
Wine and Cheese
Still riffing on the New Year's theme, today I'd like to talk about food.
A lot of people go on very strict diets or swear off certain foods on New Year's. I have personally always preferred exercise over diets since I figure savouring food is one of life's great pleasures. If I was offered a deal "You can live to be 200 years old disease-free but you'll never taste food again," I wouldn't take a deal like that.
At the top of the list, the two types of food I could never ever eliminate if I was on a diet would be wine and cheese. I really can't see that life would be worth living without wine and cheese.
It's not that I'm a big connoisseur or anything. My level of appreciation is pretty average, I'd say. But I am always astounded by the infinite variety and deep subtlety of wine and cheese.
What is especially thought-provoking is that wine and cheese are the oldest man-made foods. Their variety comes to us after literally tens of thousands of years of experimentation.
However, this long heritage is also a little weird. As with the edible banana, you have to wonder at the pre-historic origins of these foods:
"Eeww, this fruit juice has gone bad. Let's drink it!"
"Yuck, this milk is so sour it's got chunks in it. Let's eat it!"
In that old science-fiction movie and TV show Alien Nation, I always found it an amusing, ironic detail that the aliens got drunk on sour milk, which is only weird until you consider human ways.
My favourite vacation spot (and the place I intend to retire someday) is the Okanagan, the leading Canadian wine region. The last time we went, our bed&breakfast was entwined with grape vines and surrounded by vinyards.
My idea of a perfect vacation day is to wake up late, go for a swim and then spend the rest of the day visiting wineries. Many of the wineries in the area are still small and family-owned, so if you're lucky you can get to meet the owners and hear all sorts of wine-making lore. At the end of such a day, on my way home I would load up on some old cheeses (three-year old aged cheddar is my favourite). In the evening, I'd crack open a bottle and enjoy the fruits of the days labours while soaking in the hot tub with Mrs Mentok, who is herself very much like a nice aged cheddar...er, I mean like a fine wine, of course. That's the more romantic phrase, isn't it.
So, there's my ode to wine and cheese. How about you? What are your favourite foods? What are the ones that you absolutely could not live without?
posted by Mentok @ 8:56 a.m.,
8 Comments:
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At 6:02 p.m.,
Elizabeth said...
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Croutons. Seriously. The entire history of grain in one bite of bread. Ta da.
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At 7:23 p.m.,
FiL said...
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I'm a cheese fiend. The smellier the better. I get all emotional over a nice, runny epoisses. Stinking Bishop sends me into spasms of ecstasy. A lovely, nutty manchego makes me dance the fandango. And I'm anyone's for a wee Chabichou du Poitou.
Chocolate is nice too. Dark, please. -
At 5:10 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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liz - the whole history of grain? Perhaps if it was a beer-soaked crouton used to power some sort of futuristic biofuel car. Hey, that'd be cool - a car that runs on croutons!
fil - you have tickled my curiousity with your list of cheeses. It makes me thirst for a deep Cabernet. I was just editing an article about heritage buildings and accidentally changed the word "cedar" to "cheddar". ;-) -
At 10:30 p.m.,
Bathroom Hippo said...
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This has nothing to do with wine & cheese.... but after watching two full seasons of BSG I am beginning to wonder why YOU Mentok (if that is your real name...) would EVER side with the CYLON'S over the HUMANS? Let's face it man...The b*tch on Pegasus deserved to die...HOW COULD YOU SIDE WITH HER???
Frackin' CYLON! -
At 4:05 a.m.,
Tim Young said...
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I'm with you on the wine and cheese. I'm lucky enough to have a French fiancee who takes me to stay with her parents ... who have introduced me to some of the most delightful foodstuffs and winestuffs. Saying that I don't think I could live without Confit de Canard. When it was invented it was invented for me (Hands off!)
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At 9:36 a.m.,
Mentok said...
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hippo - surely you jest. Admiral Kane of the Pegasus did indeed deserve to die, but she was no Cylon, just a very mean human. You will recall the incident leading up to her assassination was that she wanted to summarily execute two Galactica officers who had accidentally killed a Pegasus officer while trying to prevent the gang-rape of a Cylon prisoner of war...all of which only goes to prove my contention that viewers of that show sometimes aren't sure who or what they are cheering for.
Tim - yes, say what you will about the French, they certainly know how to savour life, don't they? (And that's not a canard ;-) -
At 4:12 p.m.,
said...
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oh my, i'm so plebeian. i don't think i could live without pizza, chocolate and peanut butter, not necessarily in that order. i do enjoy a fine new zealand sauvignon blanc, though, to wash it all down. ;-)
in fact, here's to linking me up, mentok! -
At 9:47 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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mjrc - it is absolutely my pleasure to add you to the blogroll. And with your taste in music you have no reason to call yourself plebian. I really don't want to leave the impression that I'm some sort of wine snob. I'm sure anyone who really knows wine would sneer at my wine tastes, but that's fine because I drink for my pleasure and not theirs.
New Zealand sauvignon blanc! Zut alors. We can't even get such exotic stuff in our backwater region. Our Soviet-style liqour stores just have two big vats, White and Red, from which customers can fill their own jugs. ;-)
(not really, but it seems nearly that bad sometimes)
