Oui Oui

Just about every other Thursday I get myself over to the weekly free wine tasting at Red Feet Wine Market. A colleague turned me on to this great local wine shop about two years ago and we buy almost all of our wine there. The staff are extraordinarily knowledgeable about the wine they sell and are incredibly friendly and approachable.

Tonight's theme was "2007: An Exceptional Year in the South of France." I found all five of tonight's tastes delightful, but I think these two were my favorites:

It's not purple once you blanche it

It appears that when you cook it, purple asparagus turns green. That sort of takes all the fun out of having purple asparagus.

We assumed this was our last asparagus for the season, although if we get a bonus week we won't complain. We decided to go for a redux of a new-to-us recipe we tried earlier this season and if anything it was more delicious than last time. Sweet and sour tofu (Joseph found the recipe online), black bean garlic asparagus (from "Passionate Vegetarian" by Crescent Dragonwagon) and rice (by us, more nights than most folks can imagine).

As we were moving into the last lap of the cooking race I suddenly remembered we had no wine. None. I headed over to Red Feet Wine Market and announced I had a wine crisis. I was assured they were there to help. "Chilled. White. Not too fruity. Not too floral. Must go with sweet and sour tofu and spicy asparagus." "Not a problem. Oh, asparagus. This one's a little more grassy and will be nice with that." Cono Sur 2008 Sauvignon Blanc from Chile. And they were right. We're not big white wine drinkers normally, but that bottle is more than half empty.