DISQUS

American sommeliers and waiters never taste the wine they serve. They leave it up to you. I had a similar misadventure three months ago at Bern's, in Tampa. Except I was lucky to only order a glass of Dominus Napanook, and not a whole bottle. The waiter returned and told me the sommelier found nothing wrong with my wine. Fine. I guess it was just crappy wine.

Un pneu dégonflé est généralement une bonne leçon de stationnement.

Both. Both countries produce crap and stellar wines. The French have more experience, but Californians are more daring. My cellar is about 50% California and 42% French wines. I know I can make some of my snubby French friends taste some California wines that will blow their socks off. Blind tastings are always interesting. If they don't know where the wine they're tasting is from, you end up with some interesting surprises...

Californian beer? My favorites: Boont Amber Ale (Anderson Valley Brewing Co.), Red Tail Ale (Mendocino Brewing Co.), Anchor Steam (Anchor Brewing), Downtown Brown (Lost Coast Brewery), Lagunitas IPA, and yes, I like the Sierra Nevada very much as well too. I just discovered the Bear Republic beers and ales, but I haven't tried all of them yet.

Anybody up for a visit of the Anchor Brewery sometime?

That is awesome. What I would love is a similar system, but compatible with poney kegs (1/6), but there is nothing coming close to that price...

Props to you guys for having him as a guest - and thanks Stéphane for letting me know. Gary knows his wine, he's not a snob, he's outspoken, he's humble and he's funny at the same time. And yes, he keeps it real.

Costco keeps surprising me with what they stock. I would have never thought of buying meat there, but I'm going to reconsider it after your post. You've got to admit that they have great prices on some really good French and California wines (I'm also wondering about the exact origins of their Kirkland-branded bottles, which some consider actually pretty good wine for the price).

I concur with the Swedish Chef: always brine your chicken. What's fantastic about chicken is that just about any herb will work, and the more, the better...

Salut Julien, félicitations pour le succès du site. Mais tu touches là à un problème classique. Si tu veux que tes emails ne soient pas considérés comme spam par Yahoo! et d'autres services de messageries, il faut falloir payer... Il existe des sociétés spécialisées dans ce domaine, et ça n'est pas donné...

kowalsky : oui, les Américains vivant à l'étranger sont imposés dans certains cas par l'IRS au-delà d'un certain niveau. Mais d'une part, il ne sont imposés que si le taux d'imposition est inférieur à celui des Etats-Unis (ce qui n'est le cas que de certains paradis fiscaux), et d'autre part ils bénéficient bien souvent de protections sociales à l'étranger bien meilleures que celles offertes par les Etats-Unis... L'"impôt citoyen" serait particulièrement injuste pour les Français qui vivent aux Etats-Unis, où ils doivent financer leur retraite et une bonne partie de leurs dépenses santé eux-mêmes...