Fetzer’s juice is fermented in stainless steel without any oak aging, and has a zesty bite that tingles your tongue enough that you could almost mistake it for effervescence; however it’s just the acidity. Color is a full golden yellow and has much more color than most other whites we’ve tasted recently.

Although I typically taste wines at room temp, this one was much better chilled. Upon the first sip you immediately get clover honey flavors, and the wine is viscous so it’s almost like there is a spoonful of honey in the glass. Overall, Fetzer did a nice job and even more impressive is the fact that they did it with a green operation without sacrificing quality.

From the winemaker, “It’s often called gavurtz because it’s hard to say, and even harder to spell. This wine, though, is a secret weapon, great for taming spicy foods or sipping on its own. Enjoy the honeyed apricot and peach flavors in the glass, and breathe deeply to capture the aromas of rose petals and honeysuckle. Lots of people love this wine, even if they’ll never spell it. Just ask for gavurtz. We’ll know what you mean.”

The bottle retails for $10 and I rated it 88 points. For more information on Fetzer Winery, visit them here. Want to taste some great local Gewürztraminer? Chamard Vineyards in Clinton has a tasty 2010 in their tasting room right now.

The only complaint we had is that the alcohol presence is a little too obvious, and we would enjoy it that much more if the alcohol was more subtle. Regardless, this is one of the best Connecticut wines we’ve tasted, and at $11.99 a bottle you can afford to try it too.

We also love the unique deep blue glass bottle and flat finish label with sailboat artwork; it would make a great gift to any of your wine loving friends or family. There are some vineyards in the state that have wine labels that look like they haven’t changed since the 1980′s, and while it’s ultimately the wine inside that matters, it doesn’t hurt to have a beautiful presentation either.

From the maker, “This white, semi-sweet, picnic-style wine is light and very crisp with a floral, fruity finish. Try with endive and lobster salad, turkey Waldorf salad with dried apricots and chèvre dressing, or chicken salad wraps.”

Have you tried Hopkins Westwind yet? How does it compare to their other offerings? Let us know what you think on Facebook or Twitter. For more information and to plan you visit, visit Hopkins Vineyard online here. Be sure to look out for their 2011 Westwind, which won a Gold medal at the 2012 Tasters Guild wine competition.

Expect to see the drinks available in June for an estimated retail price of $14.99 each. Read the full details of the press release here.

Pauly just visited Connecticut’s Foxwoods Casino to DJ, and Courant reporter Sara Grant spoke with him here.

Watch the official promotional video below, which features a sample of his latest song “Night of my life”. The video for the song just came out today on Vevo, watch it here.

Starting this weekend, May 20th, Connecticut residents will be legally allowed to purchase alcohol within the state for the first time since Prohibition. Connecticut is now the 49th state allowing retail sales of alcohol on Sunday. Indiana is the only remaining state with a ban in place.

Malloy and other proponents of the bill claim that this will allow Connecticut to become more competitive and stop losing business and tax revenue to surrounding states, where shoppers typically cross over the border to purchase cheaper booze on Sundays.

In addition to Sunday sales, liquor stores will be allowed to sell certain foods and goods considered complimentary to alcohol such as olives, cheese, crackers and fruits for preparing mixed drinks. This is what we love about Connecticut, a revolutionary state; we no longer need to travel to two separate stores to purchase limes for coronas on Memorial Day Weekend. Prior to the passing of the law, it was illegal to sell produce such as limes in a liquor store.

Although the Connecticut consumer will continue to overpay for alcohol products- often as much as $8 per bottle- thanks to artificial price minimums, you can bet that plans to eliminate the inefficient pricing structure will be up for vote again soon. For now, one revolution at a time, OK?

Do you plan on buying wine or beer this Sunday? Let us know what you think on Twitter or our Facebook Wall.

Whether you love dogs, great food, supporting local businesses or all three, the 3rd Annual Taste of Manchester is for you. The event brings hundreds of people to 16 participating locally owned and operated one-of-a kind restaurants in greater downtown Manchester. With affordable ticket prices, free and stylish transportation, a feast of food, and proceeds that benefit a new dog park, The Taste of Manchester is a true community celebration that offers something for everyone.

The 3rd Annual Taste of Manchester will be held on Tuesday, May 15th from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., rain or shine, beginning and ending at The Army Navy Club of Manchester. Entertainment at the Army Navy Club will be provided by Mass-Conn-Fusion Jazz Duo, featuring Liz Roberts and Jim Healy.

“Your ticket brings you the tastes of 16 local eateries and caterers,” said event co-chair Dennis Reinholt. “Ticket holders may enjoy samplings from several restaurants when they start at The Army Navy Club and then walk or take the Abbey Road Transportation limobus between the participating Main Streetand Hartford Road/Charter Oak Street restaurants. Finish up at The Army Navy Club with coffee, desserts and door prizes.”

Ticket prices, reduced from 2011, are $20 for adults and $12 for kids under 12 years old. Tickets are limited and on sale now at www.tasteofmanchesterct.com through PayPal and in person at the Customer Service & Information Center on the first floor of ManchesterTown Hall.

Proceeds to benefit MDOG: Manchester Dog Owners Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which is entering phase 2 of a plan to build a new dog park in Manchester.

Participating restaurants include:

Antonio’s Pizza Restaurant
Brown Sugar Catering
Cafe Allez: A Mobile Cafe and Creperie
The Deli at D & D
Edible Arrangements
Great Harvest Bread
Hartford Road Cafe
Hartford Road Pizza
Highland Park Market
Hungry Tiger
Lin Garden
The Main Pub
Rocco’s Pizza & Grill
Sukhothai
Suso Latino Basket
Woodbridge Pizza

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit The Taste of Manchester here. (Featured Image Courtesy Taste of Manchester. View their full album from last year here.)

Each of these 500 mL Tetra Pak boxes holds three 5.6 ounce glasses (or 2/3 of a standard 750mL wine bottle) and costs only $3.99. This packaging has a smaller carbon footprint than a standard wine bottle, reducing greenhouse gases by 75% and waste by 50%. The boxes weigh much less than glass bottles and can be packed more efficiently than a round bottle, cutting fuel emissions. Lastly, they’re produced mainly from paper which is a renewable resource.

First we tasted the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, which had a nice ripe fruit aroma and that classic cab spice, yet had zero cheap alcohol burn and is very easy to drink. I did however get a tiny hint of the packaging flavor on the finish, which required really searching for it and slurping in a way normal people don’t drink wine. I say that because although I did get a bit of that flavor, you won’t notice it if you drink this cab normally without looking for flaws. This was our favorite box of the three and I’d suggest everyone give it a try, and it costs less than a happy meal. ABV is 13.5%.

Next, the 2010 Old Vine Zinfandel was a bit spicier at 14% ABV and was a fuller and darker garnet red with notes of ripe raisins, fig, and prune juice. It had a richer mouth feel than the Cab, but was also on the sweeter side which was a negative for me personally. Had it been less sweet, this may have just surpassed the Bota Box Cabernet. Still, a very surprising value for Zin lovers if you can get past the sweetness.

Finally, the 2010 Moscato at 11% ABV was the lowest alcohol of the three and also the sweetest. I immediately got the citrus, almost spearmint aroma on the nose which is best described as a chilled chamomile tea. The Moscato is one of the most viscous wines I’ve seen in a long time, and had a very pleasant herbal nose. The flavor was a little grassy, but sweeter and much more floral than most Sauvignon Blanc. With the popularity of Moscato these days this is also a great little box for $3.99 to taste test with friends that you won’t feel guilty about dumping if you hate it.

The side of the box even gives us a graphic that reminds us all of the activities that are better with boxed wine:

Activities better with boxed wine… agree or disagree?

Clearly, we’re told that these activities are better with boxed wine: hiking, boating, beach trips, camping and picnicking. What do you think about this graphic on the side of the box? Chat with us on Twitter and share your thoughts.

On my way to a friend’s apartment, I walked the New York City sidewalks with a full backpack pressing my feet into the concrete. Block after block, across each rush-hour street. Restaurants and vendors beckoned, but I ignored them. I strode past busy women in long trenchcoats and sleepy-eyed hipsters. Turning left on 13th street, I reached my destination on the corner of 2nd Avenue: Momofuku Ssam Bar. No one stood in line at the Milk Bar “take-out” section of the restaurant, and I put down the pack and ordered two pork buns. Three minutes later, I squirted generous helpings of Sriracha onto the tender pork belly cradled in the pillowy bun, and bit into one of the best things I’ve ever tasted.

I had the luck to discover Momofuku a short while before the rest of the world did, mainly because one of my best friends lives a half a block away from the Ssam bar and raved about it just after it opened. But Chef David Chang’s Momofuku empire is a legend now, the subject of intense debate, and an inspiration to legions of chefs. His appearances on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations have made his name, if not a household word, a recognizable one. And amongst foodies and food industry types, his influence has been inestimable. In the 21st century of molecular gastronomy and high-concept “art food,” Chang has done something quite different.

Momofuku means “lucky peach” in Japanese, and is also a nod to the inventor of instant ramen noodles. Of course, it also sounds like a popular English swear word. Chang’s growing gang of restaurants are designed simply, completely without pretension. And the seasonally changing menu is a joy. Along with the delectable pork buns, you can get inventive dishes like fluke in buttermilk and poppy seeds, spicy honeycomb tripe, and pork sausage with rice cakes. And you can get “traditional” dishes done in new ways, like amazing bowls of ramen noodles (with cured pork belly), the finest oysters (with a splash of kim-chi dashi), thin-sliced Virginia country ham (served with red-eye mayonnaise), and on and on.

The Momofuku cookbook literally changed my life as a home chef. Part of that is the way it added things to my daily repertoire, like short-term pickling and miso butter. More importantly, it made me less afraid to be creative in the kitchen, to experiment and to test things out. How about I try mixing Chinese five-spice and cumin with mayonnaise and ketchup? Why not a black tea and mirin reduction for those clams?

But the reason these restaurants are so important to us here in Connecticut is the price. Ssam Bar, Noodle Bar, and even his new midtown restaurant, Ma Peche, are no more expensive than the ordinary fine restaurants in West Hartford or Norwalk, and cheaper than some. Certainly they are not close to the price of some of the more famous fine dining options, like Ibiza in New Haven or Jean- Louis in Greenwich. Sure, if you want to spend more money Chang has opened the exclusive Momofuku Ko (meaning “son of”) which takes reservations through a fascinating lottery method.

But there’s a reason that Ko recently earned a spot at #79 restaurant in the world, while the cheaper Ssam Bar ranked at #37. The revolution that Chang has sparked is to make mid-level dining creative and fun, without the trappings or prices of “fine dining.” Connecticut’s culinary landscape of small cities and charming villages is the perfect place for this, and it is no accident that in the last few years the menus of mid-level joints all over the state have been improving rapidly.

Just a few months ago, I was at Mikro Beer Bar in my home town of Hamden, which serves a rotation of microbrews (thus the name) and has the appearance and pricing of a well-kept local bar. But the food is inventive and different, with unusual options like the Kobe Beef Hot Dog, P.B.L.T. (Pork Belly, Lettuce, and Tomato), and Sweet Potato Tamales. All for no more than you would pay at a chain like TGI Friday’s. I asked Mikro’s Chef Michael Fox what his favorite restaurant was. You guessed it: Momofuku. Vive le Révolution!

Our notions of what constitutes “dessert” and what constitutes a “meal” need to be challenged when we think about early American cooking. Cakes and puddings, which today we expect to be sweet, were often savory. Vegetables and herbs were used in desserts, and a “pie” just as well could have had meat, as fruit or custard, just as well served as a main course as for a dessert. Suet, lard, and pork fat were often used in pie crusts and “cakes.”

Likewise, distinguishing between bread and cake also seems a contemporary assessment; we now expect bread to be yeast-risen, relatively un-sweet, with crispy crusts and flaky (doughy) centers. A cake, on the other hand, is relegated to the confectionary realm, using carbonate-based leavening, moist, sweet, and deserving of equally sweet frosting or icing. An interesting example of these mutable perceptions can be found in Pork Cake—more bread than cake, it showcases not only the cake-bread continuum, but also the surprising ingredient of salt pork that was a staple in most early Connecticut kitchens and used in ways that today we’d say are odd.

Salting pork meant preserving the pig’s bounty for the entire season. Because we no longer have need of innovative preservation techniques, and because bacon is easy to find now, we often also forget or remain unaware of the range of uses for salt pork. It’s still a key ingredient in chowders and soups, but fat and salt are usually the first to go from our health-conscious menus. And rightly so. But dishes like these remind us of the resourcefulness that was necessary just to put a meal on the table, and its odd combination of ingredients tells us that our modern labels may actually prevent us from trying something potentially delicious.

Researching early foods, I came across more than a few mentions of Pork Cake, like this one from Abner Judson, a Stratford lumber dealer and boot maker. The recipe was entered into his account book in 1854.

12 ounces pork (salt pork)
1 pint boiling water
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 pound seeded raisins
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 nutmeg
2 coffee cups molasses (1 ½ cups modern conversion)
1 cup sugar
Flour in your judgment

Dice the salt pork, cover with boiling water to remove salt. Then add molasses and sugar. Add flour, raisins, and spices. Put into 2 greased and floured pans and bake at 300 for 2 hours.

A couple generations later, Elnora Wilcoxen’s Pork Cake uses dark brown sugar, citron, and orange and lemon peel, as these ingredients became more available. A slightly more “modern” rendition can be found in Hyla O’Connor’s Early American Cookbook. It calls for slightly less fatback (1/2 pound), equal amounts of sugar and molasses (1 cup each), 2 eggs, 1 tsp baking soda, ground cloves and allspice in addition to the nutmeg and cinnamon.

O’Connor’s suggestion of 4 cups of flour corresponds nicely to Judson’s “in your judgment” prescription, and 50-60 at 375 minutes is plenty if using two 9×5 inch bread pans, greased and floured.

The results are surprising. When I made the cakes, after soaking the pork, I drained off the salty water, but added about a cup of fresh water (milk would work also) to make the batter moist enough to mix. The molasses gives the loaves a dark color, and the cake is dense, moist, but not overly sweet. Knobs of salt pork pop up in every other bite, and these are chewy, sometimes a little tough, but they unexpectedly complement the raisins and spice.

I made a light cream cheese frosting and this not only made it seem more dessert-like but helped to balance the flavors. The color and texture reminded me of those horrible fruitcakes that grandmothers everywhere pawned off on unsuspecting eaters. The concept is similar—a heavy “cake” that will fill you up and keep well, but without the burden of multicolored candied fruit, there is a slightly more authentic feel and taste to this classic New England dish.

1. Light, light, and more light.

Taking photos of food in dark or poorly lit rooms will instantly damper your ability to take good photos. Flash does not solve this problem, it just makes photos look greasy, flat and unprofessional. If possible, it’s best to take photos in well lit areas or during the day when there is plenty of natural light. While this isn’t always possible for food bloggers trying to snap a photo before eating their meal, the next tips can help.

2. Speed matters

In low light, a camera’s shutter speed will slow down and the shutter will stay open longer to let more light in. If you’re using a DSLR hand held, these extra tenths of a second allow for your shaky hand to blur the photos. One solution to eliminate the blur is to use a tripod with remote shutter release, so your lack of a steady hand doesn’t compromise the image quality. Another solution is to use a “fast” lens.

Ivy Noodle taken with Canon 50mm 1.8

3. What the F?

The aperture of a lens is designated by it’s F number. The lower the F stop the wider it’s aperture and the more light it’s able to let in through the lens and onto the sensor in a camera’s body. As a result, fast glass will perform better in low light and can be operated with a faster shutter speed, drastically reducing the potential for blur and improving the image quality of your photos. For example, a lens with a maximum F stop of 4 is much slower than a lens with a maximum F stop of 2.8.

So why not just buy super fast lenses all the time, you ask? A faster lens typically carries a higher price as you move through the range of options available. Canon’s 50mm prime lenses are priced as follows: 1.8 for $120, a 1.4 for about $379 and an L series 1.2 for around $1,500.

Wide aperture on 50mm 1.8

4. Nifty fifty

There is one lens that every professional owns and every food blogger needs- the 50mm 1.8 lens. No matter what brand camera body you use, there is a 50mm 1.8 lens for you. We’ll discuss Canon’s version since we use Canon gear. This $120 lens provides the best bang for your buck no matter what you plan to photograph. Having owned several Canon DSLR’s and lens combinations over the last several years, I can say with confidence that everyone’s first lens should be the nifty fifty. This should be everyone’s first lens!

5. A prime lens for prime rib

Using a prime lens such as the 50mm has it’s pros and cons. The pros are: cost ($100 range), excellent image quality for the money, light weight, you won’t cry if you drop it, and it also creates a wonderful bokeh that will make your instantly look professional. The cons of this lens include: low build quality (all plastic), slow autofocus, noisy autofocus, and no image stabilization. The pros far outweigh the cons however, and I can’t stop raving about how much I love this little plastic gem.

6. 28 photos of the same thing

The most important tip is to shoot as much as possible. When you get home from a food event or festival it’s better to have tons of photos to choose from instead of one or two. It’s not always easy to judge when your subject is in focus, or that the top of their head isn’t cropped from an image; it’s better to have a bountiful selection to choose from so you get the money shot every time. The downside to this is it will take more time to upload and process the photos, but you can always delete everything you don’t use and keep only the best.

Question: What is the most interesting subject you photographed recently? Tweet us a pic here, or post it on our Facebook Wall.

The Whole Hog fundraising event will bring together Wholesome Wave’s co-founder and President, internationally renowned chef, author and owner of The Dressing Room Michel Nischan, along with fellow chefs Tim LaBant of the Schoolhouse at Cannondale restaurant in Wilton, John Barricelli of SoNo Baking Company in South Norwalk, Bun Lai of Miya’s Sushi in New Haven and Joe Wolfson, the new executive chef of Terrain Garden Café in Westport.

Working with nontraditional cuts of local free-range pork, each chef will surprise guests with their unique interpretations featuring locally grown ingredients.

Tickets are $145 per person and can be purchased at www.wholesomewave.org/getinvolved