Here's a clever idea: online wine videos! It's The Winery Channel, and they have everything from instructional videos that teach you what foods go with what wine to visits to various vineyards and vacation spots.

The site has a sense of humor too. Make sure you watch Rex Havoc (and his horse "Brokeback"), who shows you the best wine bottles to use for shooting practice, and Dave in Los Angeles, who rants about his neighbor Walter, a wine snob. The stuff he says...well, you know people like Walter (and not just when it comes to wine). You'll be quoting a couple of Dave's lines to your friends later this week.

There are many "shows" to watch, including "Hot Legs," "The Wine Bar Show," and "Got Wine?" (the videos can be kinda glitchy - took me a few clicks to get each video working, but it's worth it).

It's unlikely that you're going to find all the gifts that you want to give on one list in the same way that you're unlikely to find everything all at one store (with the possible exception of Amazon.com), so it's in your best interest to look at as many sources as you can for inspiration. Food & Wine's 40 Divine Gifts list definitely has some inspired choices on it. Their choices run from under $25 up to $250, so they've tried to cover every budget in addition to picking a wide variety of foods, kitchen tools and decorative items. On the low-end of their gifting spectrum, they recommend the Cool Jewels ice tray, which pops out ice shaped like giant gems and is great for making a splash at parties, the cookbook Cooking Up A Storm for culinarily inclined kids and the Life of the Snowman sugar dispenser. The higher end includes Emeril's Deep Fryer and gold-plated serving spoons.

When Food & Wine announced that they were going to be hosting a food photography contest, more than a few bloggers got excited about the prospect of having their work published on the site, not to mention the fact that the first-place prize of a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT camera kit as quite appealing. The winners have been announced and it looks like the competition was stiff. First prize went to Jessica Thompson, for the photo of Papaya-Jalapeno Sorbet in Black and White Espresso Cups on the left, above. There were four first place runners up, all of whom received copies of the books of F&W's Best of the Best, Cocktails 2006 and Star Chefs on the Road. One of the four was Nika, of Nika's Culinaria, with her photo of Spice Cake with Homemade Chocolate Sauce (right).

Other food blogging participants included Christine Cassidy, Anita of Dessert First (with this photo), Adrienne of Nosheteria and Lara from Cook & Eat. It's too bad that Food & Wine didn't publish links back to blogs, if the contestants had them, but if you are one of the runners up and I missed your blog here, feel free to leave a comment and I'll add it to the list!

We are a little late with the San Francisco Chronicle's Wine section - their changing the section from Thursday to Friday is throwing us off! But we plunge ahead with their feature article, which explains the rigorous process of becoming a Master fo Wine. The credential comes after a four day test, years of study, huge sums of money, and repeated failed attempts. For the 20 years that the test has been open to Americans, only 24 have passed!

The Wine Selection of the Week is South Central Coast Pinot Noir, just in time for the deep, spicy flavors of fall. Out of 66 wines tested, 2004 Roessler Cellars Sanford & Benedict Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir came close to a perfect rating with three-and-a-half stars (***1/2). The Chronicle serves a Roast Pork Loin with French Plum Sauce.

The Bargain Wines of Week hail from the Iberian Peninsula, particularly the northern regions of Spain and Portugal, which are known for Garnacha, Carinena, Monastrell, Tempranillo and Touriga Franca. For our Indian summer in California, there are some rosés listed.

Mario Batali makes a few Italian wine recommendations to Fortune magazine. According to the chef/restaurateur, "wine doesn't have to come out all dusty and musty from some corkdork's cellar to be good." But it might have to cost you $775! He also makes suggestions on what to pair with each wine.

Splurges

• Bruno Giacosa, Barolo Rocche del Falletto, 2000, $775 for a magnum
• Dal Forno Romano, Amarone, 1999, $575
• Cerbaiona, Brunello di Montalcino, 1990, $239

Deals

• Montevertine, Le Pergole Torte, 2001, $90 - I'm not quite sure how $90 us considered a deal, but then again, this list appears in Fortune magazine, and $90 must be quite a steal for a CEO.
• Planeta, Syrah, 2000, $40
• Morellino Di Scansano, I Perazzi, 2003, $15 - Now that's more like it.

The UK's Telegraph has begun a five part 'Wine Week'. Not sure if this is one part every day or if it is spread over five weeks... still it matters little. Online today is an intro to the world's most favoured drink with some general food and wine guidelines. Highlights include the usual roll out of advice -

the lighter the dish, the lighter the wine should be, and the heavier the dish, the heavier the wine.

you CAN serve red wine with fish - but guys it is all down to the sauce generally

And why stick to dry Champagne? A rich or demi-sec Champagne is sublime with strawberry tart or sorbet. And at weddings, it's daft that we're always served the driest of sparkling wines with the cake. Why not the delightful sweeter version?

This part concludes with a simple list of food and wine pairings and some 'dubunking myths' writing including the advice that the The Tower of London will NOT fall down if you pass the port to the right. Who the bloody hell even passes port these days?

It's almost some form of culinary masochism - but in the summer when it's really hot, I love to punish myself by eating supremely spicy foods that make me sweat even more than I already am. My friends and family think I'm psycho. Of course, there is a completely logical, physiological reason why spicy foods are eaten when it's hot, but there are also other health and preventative reasons why spicy foods are good for you. Let's just take a look at those reasons so we can use them when we go for the Korean yook-gae-jahng in 100% humidity.

• Cancer-fighting and cancer-prevention - A recent study shows that capsaicin can be used to fight pancreatic cancer. It slowed the growth of cancer cells and in some cases, even caused cancer cells to die off.
• Alleviate inflammation - Arthritis and psoriasis are cause by nerve damage and cause pain on joints. Capsaicin supposedly helps to ease that pain.
• Relieve chronic pain - In some cases, spicy foods containing capsaicin greatly reduced pain caused by headaches or osteoporosis.
• Heart-health - Cayenne and chili peppers can help to reduce cholesterol. Additionally statistics show that cultures that eat spicy foods (e.g. some Asian countries) frequently have a much lower rate of heart attack and stroke.

So break out those jalapenos! 

Seeing as Henley-on-Thames is my home town I guess I shouldn't miss the first Henley Food Festival.

Over two days (Friday 28th and Saturday 29th April) various demonstrations will be held in the town hall with plenty of hotels (such as the historic Red Lion) and local breweries (Breakspear and Loddon) will be in the covered town square. Local producers and shops (Woods Wines, chocolates from Gorvette and Stone and others) will be occupying the visitor exhibitions centre. Entry is free. Opening times: 11am - 9pm both days.

On Friday such notables as Antony Worrall Thompson (who lives locally and owns a gastro-pub in a neighbouring village) , Raymond Blanc, Henrietta Green, Mary Berry and Tom Aikens will be hosting  demonstrations and book signings. Several notable food bloggers are planning on attending; if you want to meet up drop me an email.

Henley is under an hour from London (Paddington mainline) but you need to change at Twyford for the little branch line.

Yesterday, we spent the whole afternoon babysitting a big pot of chili on the stove. It's real Texas chili; none of that ground beef, bean-filled, cinnamon-spiced sissy stuff!  Real Texas chili is made with chunks of steak, it's spicy, and it has absolutely no beans in it at all.

It's always good to make the chili a day or two before you plan to serve it because some kind of voodoo happens to it when you let it sit in the refrigerator overnight, or over two nights. To serve up "a bowl of red," as they say in Texas, re-heat  the pot of chili, then top the hot chili with cheese, jalapenos, chopped onions, and avocado. Some people add chopped tomatoes and cilantro as well.

Now that's a real bowl of real chili.

The New Scientist is causing a stir in the cheese and wine circles with a report that concludes that it doesn't matter what wine you serve. Yep, bring out the crap stuff for you guests as cheese masks the subtle flavours in wine and you loose the complexity.

Now I have always thought that a decent Sauvignon Blanc with its punchy, not overly complex flavours, is the best match for many cheeses and as the report states that cheese suppressed 'just about everything including berry and oak flavours' I appear to be on the right track.

Strong cheeses suppress flavours more than milder cheeses (no surprise there) but flavours of all wines were suppressed. The tech stuff suggests that proteins in the cheese bind flavour molecules in the wine so that the cheese's fat coats the mouth deadening the tasters ability to detect a wines flavour.

Personally I think the best advice is to match a cheese, as far as possible, with a wine from the same area - a tad tricky I admit for Lancashire or Cheshire but for France, Italy, Spain and the like quite an easy task.

According to an article in the LA Times, two recent studies indicate that California winemakers are not competing successfully with foreign competitors. The Wine Market Council's study found that American consumers prefer foreign wines primarily for taste and price, calling out specifically, Italian wines for taste and quality, and Australian wines for better value. The second study is from Merrril Lynch found that American wines are slowly but surely losing market share to these foreign competitors in markets. The kicker is that overall wine consumption per capita in the US has increased.

So what's the explanation?

Overall growth in the wine market is coming from increased consumption by young adults, and the article suggests that California winemakers are not paying attention to this market as well as their overseas competitors are. Foreign wines are offering a wider range of price points, which means more wines that are sold at lower prices. And unlike the American wines, these lower-priced imports taste good.

Another point the article brings up is the slicker, "hipper" marketing from wines like Yellow Tail (Australia). I don't think I've ever tried wine from Yellow Tail, but I have to admit, I did give in to a shiny monkey.

More news about the Irvine-based burger chain, In N Out Burger came out today. Company director Richard Boyd has been accused of fraud and embezzlement. The lawsuit against Boyd claims that he hired construction firms to build In n Out burger facilities without bids from competing vendors, then diverted construction crews to his private property to do work.

This information comes after news earlier this week about Boyd suing Lynsi Martinez  and other top company executives for trying to force out In n Out's president and founder, Esther L. Snyder, in an attempt to overthrow existing power and install new managers who would support Martinez's desire to expand the burger chain. Sounds like someone is trying to get back at someone.

Esther Snyder and her husband Harry opened the first In n Out burger location n 1948. Martinez, Snyder's grand-daughter, is the sole heir.

Whatever happens, I just think In n Out needs to come clean about their "secret menu."

If you live in LA (not "if you are from" LA because I don't know a single person "from" LA), or know anything about this odd city at all, then you know that LA's downtown shuts down into a veritable ghost-town after 5 PM. Or 6 PM if you're an attorney.

So it makes me wonder how restaurants like the Too Hot Tamales' pan-Latin restaurant, Ciudad, do for dinner. We've talked about Ciudad's sister restaurant in Santa Monica, Border Grill. I had lunch at Ciudad the other day for the first time, but I wasn't sure that I'd be willing to drive there for dinner. Having dinner at Ciudad means driving through ridiculous rush hour traffic along the I-10 freeway in the early evening.

One of my favorite LA-based blogs, LA Ritz, was on a bit of a post pause over the Holidays as Jessica took off for South America for vacation. I can't tell if she is back in LA or not, but she has posted a little review of her pisco sour tastings around Peru, with everything from the very bad ones she had on the plane ride over there, to the one that could have been a contender served in the lobby bar of the Monsterio Hotel, to her winning Pisco Sour at Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

Jessica tells us that the Pisco Sour is the national drink of Peru. It's made with 2 parts Pisco, a brandy from the region in Peru with the same name, 1 part lemon juice (though when I've had Pisco Sours, I recall lime juice), 4 parts simple syrup, and an egg white for every 2 servings. The whole thing gets shaken with ice so that the egg white foams up, and then garnished with a dash of Angostura Bitters.

 

Mark Bittman debunks the myth that rice should never stick to the bottom of the pot and gives us a few recipes for stuck-pot rice with yogurt, lentils, or potatoes. Hey, I've been eating the stuff for years. In Korea (as Bittman has also explained), it's called noo-roong-jee and tastes great after dolsot (stone pot) bibimbahp.

Sarah Gilbert has already pointed to the Times' taste test of "alternative" breakfast cereals. The article seems to lean toward the opinion that they don't taste good at all and may not last against the big brands, but Sarah and her family enjoy them.

Frank Bruni first whines a little about stealth charges in NY's restaurants, wagging his finger mostly in the direction of Gilt, where the average price of red wine is $246 for a glass. Then he shuttles off to Brooklyn to give two stars (**) to Italian gem, Al di La.

We go for dip in the sea with some suggestions for sardines, oysters, and the best thing to drink with oysters other than their own liqueur, muscadet.