lsanderson | NY Times Wednesday Food (Reply)

Ales of The Times
Lambics: Beers Gone Wild
By ERIC ASIMOV

MANY wine lovers tend to think of beer as something monolithic, just as modern art or rap music seem all the same to those who choose not to embrace those subjects. Connoisseurs can rhapsodize for hours over the minute differences between neighboring vineyards in Morey-St.-Denis and Chambolle-Musigny, but beer? Just as long as it's cold. More

Pairing
An Artichoke Clears One Hurdle Nicely, and Then It's On to Dessert
By FLORENCE FABRICANT

IN Belgium they drink dry, tart lambics and gueuzes with hearty stews and stinky cheeses. This is not the season for hearty stews, and with stinky cheeses I'd be more likely to pour a glass of wine. More

Recipe: Strawberry-Rhubarb Tart

For Food Lovers, a Renaissance
By JULIA MOSKIN

ON Monday night, the James Beard Foundation will hand out its 16th annual awards with the usual pomp: a black-tie ceremony, then a standing-room-only scrum for food at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Times Square. More

Organizing for an Indelicate Fight
By MARIAN BURROS

FRESH from a victory in Chicago, where the City Council voted last week to ban the sale of foie gras, animal rights activists have set their sights on Philadelphia, where they are collecting signatures on a petition to ban the delicacy there. Their influence on Whole Foods Market has led a foie gras producer to file a lawsuit against the natural-food grocery chain. More

The Chef: Iacopo Falai
One Dessert, Many Flavors, Even Sweet
By MELISSA CLARK

IN the ultrawhite kitchen beneath his ultrawhite restaurant, the chef Iacopo Falai held two seemingly identical pieces of candied fennel up to the light before biting. More Recipe: Chocolate Hazelnut Cakes With Fennel Confit

The Minimalist
Cambodian Ginger Fry
By MARK BITTMAN

MY friend Charlie Mayer, a producer for National Public Radio who is spending a year in Mongolia, traveled to Cambodia last month and reported to me on a preparation of fried ginger and fried fish.

"What else?" I asked him in an e-mail message.

"Nothing," he replied. More

Recipe: Fried Fish With Fried Ginger

Critic's Notebook
Oh, My: Now That Was Italian
By FRANK BRUNI

ON a Saturday evening at the restaurant Tommaso not long ago, the lights in the main dining room burned bright, glinting off mirrors and illuminating plates of chicken scarpariello, which someone at just about every table had ordered. The air was thick with the scents of garlic, onions and Parmesan. It was also loud with song — specifically, opera — but the voice filling the room didn't belong to Pavarotti or Domingo.

It belonged to Tommaso himself. More Big Red

Food Stuff
Glasses Trying to Help the Wine
By FLORENCE FABRICANT

Whether or not you accept the premise that the shapes of wine glasses can affect flavor and bouquet, there is a new line of such glasses that deserve attention. The Esperienze line made by Luigi Bormioli in Italy was developed by Federico de Majo, who has a glass factory in Murano, Italy, after he noticed ripples in a puddle of rainwater and was inspired to create that effect in the bottom of a wineglass. George Barker, a wine consultant who was aware of Mr. de Majo's experiments, introduced the concept to the Luigi Bormioli company.

The handsome glasses seem to bring out the aroma. Because they are made from crystalline, a lead-free type of crystal fired at high heat, and not from lead crystal, they are durable, dishwasher-safe and cheap. They come in nine varietal shapes and are $29.99 for four. They will be available at macys.com on May 16, and in Macy's stores soon after. Bloomingdale's and Bed Bath & Beyond will eventually sell them.

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