Figs. Photo: Rubber Slippers in Italy, Flickr.

• Autumn baking leads A Good Appetite to fig tarts, tomato éclairs and ratatouille.
• Hot food carts and trucks like Schnitzel & Things score more cred after nabbing Vendy Awards at the fifth annual cook-off.
• A dip in the cold Maine waters with Barb Scully, a local fisherwoman.
• The Temporary Vegetarian finds orzotto to be easier to work with than risotto.
• GoMobo cuts the line and alleviates the food-gathering irks of office lunches with their order-ahead system.
• Before modern fast food, there were the quick pepperoni rolls of West Virginia coal country.
• Digging into Kevin Zraly and his "Windows on the World Complete Wine Course."
• San Francisco's Flour + Water boasts sophisticated Italian flavors.
• After years of critics espousing its virtues, Riesling has finally earned its spot in the U.S. wine market.
  
• Three years ago, Judith Jones (Julia Child's editor) started raising her own cattle for steak.
• Serving up fresh fare in school lunches is ideal, but it means a lot more than bringing quality ingredients into old and neglected school kitchens.
• The Minimalist makes roasted sweet potato salad.
• Restaurants: The meatpacking district's Standard Grill suffers some dining hiccups but is still a solid food experience, the Village's Joseph Leonard has "flashes of daylight" in otherwise so-so fare and Brooklyn's Bark Hot Dogs rests between chic eats and fast food.
• Food Stuff finds savory and sweet baked goods, simple jams and a Chilean food store.
• New York's openings and closings and dining calendar.

Niagara's Lailey Vineyard. Photo: Monika Bartyzel

• Trekking across the Niagara Region for seasonal comfort food, pies and wines, and traveling through Muskoka for honey, coffee and family farming.
• "Mad Men," their love of cocktails, and a recipe for a Betty Draper-inspired gimlet.
• Sumac's sour, fruit-like flavor makes it a great substitute for a splash of lemon.
• Open's 2008 Riesling-Gewürtztraminer is a fine summer wine, plus the run-down on Beringer's 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon ("a steal") and Prospect's Pinot Noir.
• The porcine pleasures of prosciutto pioneers.
• Recipe: Wild Blueberry Lemon Jam

Photo: Pacific Rim

Gretchen Roberts writes the wine blog Vinobite, has passed the introductory course at the Court of Master Sommeliers and is studying for her sommelier certification this fall.

Like the incredibly talented actor who is not quite dreamy enough to snag blockbuster roles but remains a critics' darling, Riesling is the pet wine of sommeliers and wine writers who understand its magnificence and versatility. But poor Riesling doesn't get a lot of love in the stores -- not like Chardonnay, Cabernet and other A-list varietals, anyways.

Sad, because Riesling has so much to offer the discerning drinker. It's exceptionally versatile, producing wines from bone-dry, high-acid dinner whites to succulently intense "I've died and floated into paradise" dessert vinos. Its flavors range from lemon to green apple to peaches with whiffs of rose petals, violets and a mineral core. Great aged Rieslings sometimes have what the Brits call "petrol," or a whiff of gasoline. (Sounds weird, but it's a mark of quality.)

After the jump, a few good Rieslings and the food with which to pair them.

Gretchen Roberts has passed the introductory course at the Court of Master Sommeliers and is studying for her sommelier certification this fall.

With just a week to go until Memorial Day, here are five more wine steals for party hosts and guests.

5. Mirassou Pinot Grigio 2007 ($9). Ripe with oranges, peaches, nectarines and hints of spring flowers, this deliciously inexpensive Pinot Grigio got a surprise 90 rating from Wine Enthusiast.

4. Barefoot Riesling NV ($7). Slightly sweet and tasting simply of green apples and peaches, Barefoot Riesling is a good choice if you like riper, sweeter wines.

3. Hosmer Cayuga Lake Dry Riesling 2007 ($12). Dry and mineral on the nose, the Hosmer Riesling is tart with lemons, limes, green apples and white peaches -- lovely if you like bracingly dry whites. It made Wine & Spirits magazine's "100 Top Values of the Year" list in the June 2009 issue and is one of my absolute favorite New York State Rieslings.

Two more -- including a $7 vino -- after the jump.

I spent last weekend at the San Antonio New World Wine and Food Festival, which is basically a five-day gorge-fest against the backdrop of the beautiful San Antonio River in weather that can only be described as perfect. I was highly amused to receive a welcome gift from the San Antonio Convention and Visitor's Bureau that included Alka Selzer and Advil, as if to prepare us for impending stomachaches and hangovers at the festival.

On Thursday I went to a winemaker's dinner at Las Canarias, a restaurant on the river inside the beautiful old hotel La Mansion. Our winemaker was Jean Trimbach, a clean-cut, handsome Frenchman from Alsace who showcased a gorgeous selection of his family's cool-climate gems from Pinot Blanc to Pinot Noir. "My brother makes the wine, and I drink it," Jean joked when we asked about his role in the family business.

Trimbach has been making wine in Alsace, a French wine region bordering Germany that has changed hands between the two countries several times, since the seventeenth century. Though Trimbach isn't one of the biggest winemakers in Alsace, it's one of the region's most recognizable brands.

Read more about Trimbach wines after the jump.

Everyone loves a freebie, right? Pacific Rim, the northwest U.S. winery specializing in Riesling and founded by Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyards, is offering a free book called "The Riesling Rules." In addition to good info on Riesling basics, pairings, and worldwide regions, the book includes quirky stuff like "Top Ten Movies to Enjoy with Riesling" and a selection of quotes from famous people that subs "Riesling" for "reason." My favorite:

"Everything that is beautiful and noble is the product of Riesling and calculation." --Baudelaire

You can also read the book online by clicking the chapters on the left-hand navigation bar.

Pop quiz: Is Riesling dry or sweet?

Answer: Both. Confusing? You bet. One of the cool things about Riesling, Germany's most famous varietal, is its versatility in wines ranging from refreshingly dry to nobly sweet. But one of the uncool things about Riesling is that you don't necessarily know whether the bottle you're eying will be bone dry, sickeningly sweet, or somewhere in between.

Some producers already label their offerings "dry" or "sweet," but those terms are fairly relative. Enter the Riesling Taste Profile, a technical chart of parameters defining the categories Dry, Medium Dry, Medium Sweet, and Sweet. The label is strictly optional, though, and it may be some time before producers begin to adopt it.

In the meantime, here's an easy rule of thumb to follow when you're trying to figure out how sweet or dry a Riesling will be: look at the alcohol percentage. A low percentage (8-10) means the wine will be sweeter. A higher percentage (12-12.5) means the wine will be drier. Why? Sugar converts to alcohol in the fermentation process. The more sugar that's converted, the higher the alcohol will be and the lower the sugar.

I personally dig dry Riesling for its refreshing acidity, gorgeous fruit and honey aromas, and versatility with food, but the rest of my family wouldn't ever pass up a late-harvest dessert Riesling. Which do you like better--sweet or dry?

The French are still getting over the 1976 Judgment of Paris, when some uppity California wineries took the top awards in a blind tasting between their wines and France's best. Now it's a New York winery that's sweeping the underdog awards: Fox Run Vineyards of the Finger Lakes Wine Region was named one of the top 100 wineries of the year by Wine and Spirits magazine.

Why is this significant, you ask? Mainly because, while wine critics like to pat New York fondly on the head, saying their wines are "up-and-coming" and "getting there," no one has yet gone so far as to say that New York wineries can compete on a global scale. California proved itself in '76; Oregon and Washington made it in the '90s or so. Now it's the Finger Lakes' turn to shine.

Hey, we're American; we always root for the underdog.

I had a bottle of the 2006 Dry Riesling in my rack, so I popped it in the fridge to see if it was worth all the hype (in addition to the Wine & Spirits kudos, this particular bottle got a nod for a "best American wine $15 and under" from Food and Wine magazine in April). The wine is good--fragrant and floral, with racy acidity and balanced fruit that comes from its cool-climate location in the middle of the state. It definitely has the potential to stand up to other cool-climate Rieslings from Germany, Austria, and New Zealand in a blind tasting.

Have you tasted any New York wines? Do you think they're the next big thing or more hype than heft?

The Brown Brothers Patricia Noble Riesling is a botrytized, late harvest wine from Milawa in Victoria, Australia. The ultra-ripe Riesling grapes give it a deep rich gold color with a smooth and luscious body. The aroma is full of fresh and preserved apricots and peaches. The taste has a great balance of acidity to sweetness, full of flavors including plum, buttery toffee, vanilla, and candied citrus, with a strong botrytis character. It is rich, and smooth with a long, sweet/tart finish. This is a mighty tasty sticky (Aussie for sweet dessert wine) that isn't too sweet and has good acidity leaving you wanting just another sip, and another.

The Brown Brothers Patricia Noble Riesling's have won numerous awards and medals over the past few years. The 2000 vintage is no exception, with a whole slew including the 2002 Gold Canberra Wine Show, 2002 Gold Sydney Wine Show, 2002 Gold Hobart Wine Show, and the Willmes Trophy Canberra 2002 for Best Sweet Table Wine. It retails for around $18-25US.

Ed Levine recently posted a list of his top 10 fancypants burgers in Manhattan on his blog. Cafe D'Alsace took top honors for its burger, which features onions doused in Riesling and French Muenster cheese. Other notable entries include The Spotted Pig, whose roquefort-laced patty landed the No. 3 spot and Nice Matin's five-napkin burger, which took fifth place.

But just what is a a fancypants burger anway? I'm glad you asked. Levine has devised a whole list of criteria, including costing more than ten dollars and less than 20, being sided with excellent french fries, being served by a waiter in a white tablecloth setting and being made from fresh high-quality ingredients.

I can't wait to work my way through his Top 10. Time to renew my scrip for Lipitor.

We at Slashfood love our French Onion Soup.

To be quite honest, I would be okay without the soup and just eating the crouton topped with the melted, bubbling, gurgling, broiled cheese, but then, all my guests would wonder why their soups were naked.

I tweaked a recipe for an onion soup that’s like a French onion soup, but has a broth base made with a lot of white wine and (specifically, Riesling) and chicken rather than beef stock. It was my first time ever making an onion soup, and though it was different from a regular brown French Onion Soup, it tasted pretty good. Then again, the extra Riesling I drank while the onions were sweating might have made me a more generous critic than normal.