It is with great pleasure that I introduce you to Pauline Rhoads, the new editor, writer, inspiration and truly great person behind Darien Cheese and Fine Foods’ Newsletter. Pauline and I met while she was recently writing an article for Greenwich Magazine called “Hooked on Cheese”, one of the best articles ever written on our store. In working with Pauline, I was amazed at how well she understood the dynamics of our store. Come to find out, Pauline’s family was in the food retail business and she just happened to be a graduate from culinary school in New York. How lucky are we! Pauline’s genuine love of food and the clear and eloquent way in which she can put it to paper makes this collaboration a dream come true! I hope you enjoy reading our NEW newsletter as much as we have fun putting it together.

 Ken Skovron

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Good Enough?

Is it possible that we have brought food down to the lowest common denominator? Much of our food is processed, pasteurized and homogenized until it becomes bland and indistinguishable. Many of us have come to accept mediocrity, telling ourselves these products are “good enough” because that’s all we have come to know. But when you’ve tasted food created from an artist’s own hands, made with patience and love, with all of it’s complexities and cultural identity intact, good enough is no longer part of your vocabulary. Great food helps makes life worth living, even if it is just for a sweet taste of raw honey, a bite of cheese that is so good there are no words to describe it, or a piece of freshly baked bread dipped into a first press olive oil. Great food brings people together to share the experience of a region, culture and the lives of those who thoughtfully grew it. Good enough can never do that.

What’s New ...

An in-store “oil tasting”: date to be announced. We can tell you that our new 2004 early harvest olive oils are the best they’ve been in years — the climate was perfect this harvest, but until you try them for yourselves, you won’t fully appreciate their individuality and depth of flavor.

We also have some super cheeses just waiting to be released when the time is right.  We can hardly wait!  Look out for… Italian Tuma Ossolana: from the Ossola valley bordering Switzerland. A full, rich, intense flavor permeated with brandy. Very unique.  Bra’ Duro: an Italian Alpine staple that is complex, dense, earthy and versatile. Excellent table cheese or shaved over dishes.  Bitto: A hearty unforgettable cheese from the Alpeggi, the high Alpine pastures of Northern Lombardi. Subtle, but a lot going on — the best combination. Bagòs: the “Grana of Brescia”. A rustic, grainy, heavily brined cheese from the mountains of Lombardi — a grand and noble cheese.  Keen’s July 2003 English Farmhouse Cheddar: we almost fell over when we tasted it, it was that good and it will be even better when we break it out for you to sample.

We promise you our new handcrafted Acetorium Vinegars are unlike any you’ve tried. Also, don’t forget to ask to taste our new Mille Fiore and Chestnut Honey drizzled over pecorino, for an out of this world experience. Our Tuscan white bean appetizer won the “Outstanding Product” award in the NASFT competition — if you spread some over warm bruschetta you’ll understand why.  We’ve also got a nice alternative to prosciutto, called Speck dell’Alto Adige.  And we’ve been lucky enough to get our hands on some pignoli nuts, grown the way nature intended them to, in their freshest, most wild just like from the beginning of time — the real deal.

Congratulations to Sherri Brooks Vinton and Ann Clark Espuelas on their new book, “The Real Food Revival”, and many thanks for profiling our store. Sherry and Ann help us to distinguish “real food” — food that is delicious, locally produced, sustainable, affordable and accessible — from the mass of industrialized, profit driven products.

Straight From the Olive Tree

Tuscany produces some of our favorite olive oil. Each bottle is a unique experience full of big, bold, green, peppery, fruity, dynamic goodness. Every year Emanuel Berk from the Rare Wine Co. sits down with Ken after his European oil tasting expedition to taste and talk about new olive oils. The past several years have been disappointing, most likely due to inadequate climate conditions. Last year, there were none good enough to present to you and we felt a huge void in the store. This year’s harvest however, brought tears to our eyes because we could tell by the intense aromas alone that great olive oil was not only back, but back with a vengeance. We didn’t mess around here, just went straight for the best, hand choosing a spectrum of oils with you and the season in mind. They range from mild to harmonic to big, green, bold and peppery. All are easy to digest, clean, fresh, light and naturally great on salads, antipasto and lighter spring and summer fare. Our early harvest oils are meant to be drizzled over food. A good rule of thumb is to use delicate oil with delicate foods, and use a more intensely flavored oil with strongly flavored foods.

Il Poggione  A great value for good Tuscan flavor. Reasonably green with up front flavors. May be used more liberally for cooking.

Monte  Arguably the gold standard for great Tuscan oil. Made from one of the renowned Grati family’s three olive groves near Florence. Mellow, buttery, big and bold with good structure and body.

Malenchini  From the historic former Medici family estate in Tuscany. Perfect notes with harmonic, big, intense flavor. Green, rich and satisfying with a peppery finish.

Podere San Giuseppe  Suppose God crushed olives in his hand and you were to drink the juice, this is what it would taste like — raw, green and pure with more body than the Monte.

Prunatelli  Also by the Grati family. Like chimes ringing in your mouth with more depth and earthiness than the Monte. Good body and structure — quintessential Tuscan oil.

Corsica  Made from our own Californian olives. Flavorful, fruity, grassy, peppery flavor, reminiscent of Tuscan oils. Who would have thought our humble olives could compete with Italy’s finest?

Trampetti Olio  From Umbria’s “gold coast” olive zone. Hands down, the best organic olive oil we’ve ever tried. Flawless, clean, fresh, buttery, rich and herbaceous with a slightly peppery finish.

Standout Cheeses

Springtime means high fat, high protein, super quality milk so that cows, goats and sheep can nourish their newly born offspring.  This makes for buttery, dense, full body flavored cheese like our Keen’s April 2003 English Farmhouse Cheddar and May 2004 Isle of Mull cheese from Scotland.  Spring never tasted sooo good.  Interesting story about the Isle of Mull — the cows are fed the cooked grains used to make the wort for Scotch Whiskey so the milk has a distinctive taste, a combination of great acidity, complexity, bold flavors… wild and gruff in the Scottish spirit.  Of course, before Ken knew any of this, he tasted the cheese and said “this would stand up to a single malt whiskey!” — he’s so smart.

Brin d’Amour  “Branch of love”. Raw sheep’s milk cheese from the island of Corsica. Beautiful supple texture and fresh lactic flavor permeated with rosemary, thyme and juniper. Truly special.

Romao Queso al Romero  Aged sheep’s milk cheese from La Mancha, Spain. Same family as Manchego. Hand rubbed with oil and rosemary, which permeates the cheese and complements its full flavor with complexity.

Malvarosa  Spanish sheep’s milk cheese from Valencia produced by “Guirra” sheep, a rare, almost extinct breed. Buttery sweetness reminiscent of butterscotch with gorgeous supple texture, great in place of mozzarella with roasted peppers.

Stagionato di Capra  From Lombardi, Italy. This bright, fresh, pure, salty, crumbly goat cheese is great with white wine like Pinot Grigio or shaved on salads.

Pantaleo  One of the few goat cheeses from Italy. Comes from a brilliant cheese maker in Sardegna. Faintly citrus and sweet, it’s like no other goat cheese you’ve tasted.

Crotonese  From Lazio. A very specific flavor — nutty, with a feisty ending. Shave on top of fava beans, salad or just serve with white wine.

Pecorino di Pienza  The Putzulu family’s grandfather’s recipe, “The Grand Old Man”. Minimum 18 months old. Pair this with our Mille Fiore honey for a taste of heaven.

2002 Parmigiano-Reggiano  Excellent April cheese from the Bonati family, a father and son team. Another springtime cheese with high butterfat, high protein for a nutty, full bodied, high quality cheese.

You’ve never had Vinegar like this!

Acetorium Vinegars  Made by renowned winemaker Joseph Reiterer from the Alto Adige and German master vinegar maker Robert Bauer, these vinegars are second to none.  They start off with fine wine and fresh fruit, never adding artificial flavorings and end with big, complex, mind blowing flavors.

Pinot Grigio  Made with high quality wine for an outstanding, versatile, classic vinegar. Subtle and crisp with a refreshing lemony flavor. Excellent in Asian dishes, as part of a dressing, on sautéed greens or fish.

Chianti  Red, fruity, bright and lively. Splash on grilled steak or Tuscan dishes. Extra good on braesola, an Italian dry cured beef.

Barolo  Made from Barolo DOCG wine for an elegant, deep, robust vinegar. Softer, richer and rounder than the chianti. Perfect for meats, cheeses and marinades.

Chestnut Honey  Light, bright and floral, with a delicate sweet aroma and a wonderful, deep nutty flavor. Try it on roasted squash or other root vegetables, sautéed greens or farro and other grain salads.

Fig  Made from pure fig wine. Unbelievable flavor with an incredible aroma. An absolutely great find. Recommended for marinating seafood, as a dressing, seasoning salads, perking up sauces, macerating fruit, in cocktails, and dynamite on vanilla ice cream.

Cherry  Rich and dark made from just picked cherries. Great for pork, game meats, chutney, on salads containing fruit, marinades, a substitute for balsamic vinegar or even over vanilla ice cream.

“Pedroni” Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena Extra Vecchio, 25 years Made with Trebbiano and Lambrusco grapes which are crushed for juice and then worked through a series of barrels consisting of oak, cherry, chestnut and mulberry until it evaporates into a thick, complex syrup. This is the original technique used for decades. To be used sparingly on grilled meats, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, or strawberries.

Here’s a perfect summer desert recipe using balsamico vinegar to complement those sweet, ripe seasonal berries. Strawberry Balsamico Salad 1 pint strawberries, rinsed, hulled and halved 2 teaspoons sugar 1 tablespoon aged balsamic vinegar, 12 years or older  ½ tsp basil, thin chiffonade. Rinse, hull and halve strawberries. Sprinkle with sugar, toss gently and let rest for half hour. Just before serving pour on balsamic vinegar. Garnish with basil and serve.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Serves four

Sweet, Sweet Honey

Mille Fiore  “Thousand flower”. Made by Malenchini on their beautiful, centuries old medieval estate among olive groves, grape vines and sprawling family gardens. This honey goes from the estate to you, never manipulated. Gorgeous flavor and texture which becomes even more rich, dark and complex with time.

Chestnut Honey  From Tuscany. Bees are taken to chestnut woods up in the hills to produce this dark and earthy molasses-like honey, an ideal complement to cheese.

There’s More ...

Tuscan White Bean Appetizer  Tender heirloom beans from Tuscany flavored with extra virgin olive oil and fresh sage. Hearty and satisfying.

Speck dell’ Alto Adige  A protected geographical designation cured ham rubbed with pepper, spices and smoked. Great with melon and aged cheddar. A nice alternative to prosciutto. Similar to German Westphalian ham.

Pignoli nuts Grown in a specially protected forest in Italy, these wild pine nuts are fresh and bright with a woodsy pine flavor and unique texture. A true delicacy.

Good enough? Never!

With so many exceptional olive oils, vinegars, cheeses, honeys and other foods available to us, we don’t ever have to settle for good enough.  Lowering the quality of food in a desire to find common ground among people is unnecessary.  Common ground is better found in a shared moment after a great bite of food when nothing more needs to be said.  This food speaks for itself.

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