Purim Koton at Liquors Galore

This past Thursday evening, Liquors Galore (1212 Avenue J – between 12th and 13th Streets; Brooklyn, NY 11230-3702; Telephone: 718.338.4166) celebrated Purim Koton with an extensive wine tasting, food, live shtetl music, the Zev Brenner Show, a goat for petting and miniature horse rides for the kids.

It was mobbed outside, mobbed inside.

The air was festive, management and workers were merrily dressed up…

Aaron Zimmerman, welcoming one and all!

Aaron Zimmerman has written a four part series for The Kosher Scene on how to buy wine, how to taste it, how to store it, and the characteristics of the different grapes (here, here, here and here).

A nice selection of wines and liquors was served by both the Royal Wine Corporation and Happy Heart Wines.

...and a wine tasting we will go.

From the Chateau Piada Sauternes to the Or Haganuz Cabernet Franc, the wine choices – in all price ranges – were truly outstanding.

It felt like like being at a celebration in the old shtetl, with these musicians…

The two of them, plus a violin and a string bass completed the lively band

All the merchandise was discounted by 20% from the marked price. A nice selection of canapés, kishka and petit fours rounded up the evening. The chassidische owners of Liquors Galore truly know how to celebrate Purim Kuten!!! I can’t wait until their next event, hope it’s soon.

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Wine Tasting

CS

Kosherfest: Day 2

We went back to Kosherfest yesterday and once again it did not disappoint. Interesting products were abundant, a lot of the old classics were improved and there quite a few new ideas as well.

One delicious variation on an old classic was this frozen pizza by Mor Fun Foods…

Tastes fresh, not frozen!

Next we passed by Toobro, a distributor of the Golan brand of cheeses, Morning Select, Spreads Instead, Emes, etc., etc., We will, be’ezras Hashem, do a more in-depth review of their products over the next few weeks.

Toobro's portfolio of brands...

Products we got to taste within Toobro‘s lines included a delicious Roaster Garlic and Herbs by Spread Instead. Spread Instead products are succulent blends of gourmet cream cheese, herbs, etc.  Frankly, we couldn’t enough of it… Superb, excellent, delicious… none of these words do actual justice to the taste

Deeeelishious!

Next we visited Lily Bloom’s Kitchen. The owner, Larry Shiller, took his mother’s recipe for delicious macaroons (I’ve never been a fan of macaroons, but these were good!!!), in various flavors: Chocolate, White Chocolate and Raspberry, Chocolate/Almond, Chocolate/Walnut, Chocolate/Peanut Butter, Chocolate/Cinnamon, Chocolate/Cherry, and Chocolate/Orange.

Winner of Kosherfest 2010 Best New Product

Next we passed by the Kedem Marketplace pavillion…

Partial views of Royal Wine Corporations huge selection of wines and liquors

Being an unabashed, uncompromising cheese lover, I was truly excited to see Israel’s Seyman company bringing its huge selection of European made cheeses from such famous names as La Cremerie, Coeur de Lion, St. Maure, Bresse Bleu, etc. I can’t wait for them to find an American distributor…

I can't wait for the moment I walk in to kosher supermarket and pick up a Manchego!

Organic Traditions, had some very interesting items:

Cacao Nibs, Vanilla Poda, Goji Berries, dried Apricots and so much more

Finally I was ready for the talk of show, the pièce de résistance, something quite a few celebrities kept on going back to time and again (don’t worry I won’t name you, you know who you are!)… Jack’s Gourmet Sausages.

Dr. Bronner - Jack's Gourmet's co-owner and some of those incredible sausages or what was left of them...

Frankly, there were quite a few more items we loved and we’ll review some of them in-depth over the next few weeks. All in all, we were excited by what we saw and tasted. Kosher is no longer just gefilte, kasha, or brisket, kosher wine is far beyond Extra Sweet Malaga or Extra Sweet Concord… we now have world class selections!

CS

2010 Kosher Restaurant & Wine Experience – The Event

Last week Monday, February the first, Pier 60 at the Chelsea Piers in Manhattan hosted the Royal Wine Corporation’s organized the 2010 Kosher Restaurant & Wine Experience. Restaurants, a caterer, a supermarket, a salsa manufacturer presented some of their food creations while dozens of wine producers from around the world showed off  their potables.

Some of the early crowd, a couple of hours before the the 6:30pm general admission

In the back of the room in the photo above, behind the restaurants, between two glassed walls and directly overlooking the Hudson River Nesher Caterers (4023 13th Ave; Brooklyn, NY  11218-3501; Telephone: 718.437.3631). Their huge display sporting chairs and tables consisted of a full fare with many choices of appetizers, fish, meat, salads and desserts. The food was delicious and I walked away convinced Nesher should be a natural choice for anyone’s simcha.

Pomegranate had a huge display I sampled all their meat selections, the Heimische Brisket however was among the best I ever tasted. Juicy, tender and oh, so flavorful!

Abigael’s, Carlos & Gabby, China Glatt, Cho-Sen, ClubHouse Cafe, Colbeh, Dougie’s, El Gaucho Steakhouse, etc steakhouse, Fumio, Glatt A La Carte, Le Marais, Noah’s Ark, Nesher, Noi Due, Tevere. were the restaurants represented at this venue. Each eatery, offered tantalizing samples of some of their favorite dishes.

While most preferred posed shots, I opted for candids…

Hard at work, warming up some of those delectable Cho-Sen Lo-Mein Noodles

Jose Mireilles, owner of Les Marais and Clubhouse Cafe, taking orders...

I discovered some delicious salsas at My Brother Bobby’s Salsa booth, their recently introduced Bruschetta topping was superb. It’s no wonder they won so many accolades in various upstate fairs. Valerie and Robert Gropper, the owners, are a very energetic couple with an infectious – yet fully justified – enthusiasm for their excellent products. Their fresh products include: Original Red Salsa, Tropical Black Bean Salsa, Hot Tomatillo with Corn Salsa and Bruschetta topping. Selected “Best Bruschetta 2008” and “Best Salsa 2009” by Hudson Valley Magazine.

Giving out samples, talking product

If I can ever find these products in Brooklyn or Manhattan I’ll have to do an in-depth review. They tasted great!

There were more than 200 wine selections from around the world, the French Collection by Pierre Miodovnick attracted a lot of attention. I sampled two white sweet ones, 2001 Chateau Piada and a 1999 Chateau Guiraud, made from grape from the Sauternais region of the Graves section in Bordeaux.

The Chateau Piada – from Semillon grape – was sweet, luscious and full flavored, with a long, lingering finish. I could see it being served with full flavored cheeses and sweet desserts. The Chateau Guiraud was even better as it also includes some Sauvignon Blanc, which made it less sweet and more delightful to my palate.

For a dry French wine I tried a 2003 Chateau Pontet-Canet Paulliac, it has an intense color, strong on the nose with blackberries, rapberries well balanced with liquorice and other wooden tones. It’s made up of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot. This one will certainly occupy a place of honor in the pantheon of the best wines I’ve ever tasted!

There were some Israeli wines that I also liked, notably a 2006 Petit Castel, 2006 Yatir Cabernet Sauvignon (quite fruity and with subtle vanilla tones), Alexander Gaston Reserve (40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 30% Shiraz), the 2006 Alexander Syrah (90% Syrah, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon) and, of course, my all time favorite Israeli wine… 2005 Benyamina The Cave!

Before leaving I attended a session by Pierre Miodovnick where he explained about the great wine producing chateaus and their wines. After him, Jay Buchsbaum explained some wine terms and how to read a wine label.

Pierre Miodovnick, Jay Buchsbaum

This event proved informative and delicious, I can barely wait until next year!

CS

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Thoughts and Musings on the 2010 Kosher Restaurant & Wine Experience