Month: October 2011

Stephen Malkmus comes to the Jefferson

If indie rock bands were investments, then Charlottesville would be sitting pretty on its ’90s portfolio, which includes such high-yielding cultural assets as Yo La Tengo’s James McNew, David Berman of Silver Jews and Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus. We provided them with Fourteenth Street basements to practice in, a college radio station to spin records at and a healthy array of hole-in-the-wall venues to play, and all we ask now is that they keep us in mind when planning a North American tour.

If indie bands actually are investments, then the former members of Pavement cashed in on theirs last year, with a run of reunion shows that stood as a testament to the strange magnetism of their digressive, fuzzed-out, ear-wormy songs. And though Pavement played in town often in the ’90s, Charlottesville fans now had to hit the road to relive their glory days or catch up on what they were too young to experience. Not that we had any real claim to a hometown show—Malkmus and bandmate Bob Nastanovich went to UVA in the ’80s, and Pavement was formed in California—but our collection of huge venues was there for something, right?

So it felt like a long time coming when Malkmus fans crowded into the Jefferson Friday night to hear him play with the Jicks, his band since 2000, which just released its fifth album, Mirror Traffic. After the house lights went down, a recorded introduction of Robert Lowell reading "Old Flame" was barely audible over the cheering: "Poor ghost, old love, speak / with your old voice / of flaming insight / that kept us awake all night." A smiling Malkmus strolled in with his bandmates, strummed a few chords and turned off his cellphone.

Stephen Malmus and Jicks bassist Joanna Bolme.

"Stick Figures in Love" was first up, with all the rigidness of structure and lightness of tone that fans have come to expect from a contemporary Malkmus song. He’s eased off of the complex, drawn-out riffing of 2008’s Real Emotional Trash, and the live result feels a lot less claustrophobic than the Jicks’ previous efforts. Quick-and-dirty songs like “Tigers” and “Senator” don’t show it, but heard live, much of the material on Mirror Traffic finally feels roomy enough to accommodate Malkmus’, guitar solos and all. “The band is smooth,” said local teacher and musician David Baker Benson, during “No One Is.” “This is what Pavement was trying to do in 1996." 

"Stick Figures in Love"

Given the songs Malkmus’ must have heard as a kid, and the wailing Thin Lizzy riffs on “Forever 28,” perhaps a late-set Grateful Dead cover should have come as less of a surprise. Somehow, this crunchy version of “Deal” seemed right at home in a Jicks set, from a Malkmus who cares a lot more about shredding than trying to one-up his younger self.

Other pleasant surprises included an appearance by Pavement drummer Steve West, who came out to caper and sing along during a “Real Emotional Trash”/”LA Woman” medley, and an extemporized song by Malkmus about the time that the Dave Matthews tour bus voided the contents of its waste tank on a bridge in Chicago. A challenge from one favorite son to another—what better small town nod could one ask for?

October ABODE is an expert on peppers

It’s ABODE time again, my dear readers, and I’d like to seize the opportunity to point out what a terrific kitchen columnist we have in our October issue and every issue. I first met Lisa Reeder in 2005 when we both worked at a certain local eatery–I as a lowly cashier, she as a clever chef. It was fall and I recall feasting on Lisa’s delectable squash-based soups during my lunch breaks.

Now, some years later, she’s a well-established presence in ABODE. Every month she picks a seasonal ingredient–some meat or vegetable, cheese or honey–that’s produced by local farmers, and tells you all about it. She’s part science nerd, part kitchen genius, part locavore foodie, and a darn good writer to boot. Have you checked out her stuff? In the issue we’re publishing today, she offers the lowdown on peppers.

Lisa’s also a teacher (and an employee of the Local Food Hub). Starting October 13, she’s leading a short course at UVA’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies called "Planet to Plate: A Study in Slow Food (The Apple)" that you might wanna check out. There’s a field trip! To a local cidery! Sign up or be square.

If you don’t pick up ABODE, you’ll miss not only Lisa’s pepper wisdom but Ed Warwick’s advice on making horrible pink bathrooms easier on the eyes. All kinds of magic! Read and enjoy, and be in touch.

Categories
Living

All souped up: The best in local stews

All souped up
Few things take the chill off your bones like hot soup. And when you want to feed your hunger as well as your soul, there’s its heartier sibling, stew. These restaurants are ladling up some of the tastiest bowlfuls of warmth and comfort around.

Petit Pois

The French onion soup at Petit Pois is packed with sweet, tender onions in a bay leaf-laced beef broth, but it’s the crusty baguette topped with browned gruyère cheese that takes the crown.

At l’etoile, the apple sweet potato soup is a treat of sweet, savory, spicy, creamy and velvety. An even bigger treat? Relay Foods has started carrying it, so you can enjoy a bowl from the comfort of your own sofa and in fuzzy slippers too.

Miyako’s udon soup combines thick handmade udon noodles in an umami-rich fish-based broth, satisfying your desire to chew and slurp.

Rapture turns the classic chicken pot pie vegetarian with a result no less satisfying. Thick chunks of onions, carrots and potatoes in a flavorful truffle gravy share the bowl beneath an herbed puff-pastry crust.

Revolutionary Soup never disappoints, especially if you choose its lamb curry with potatoes, lentils and spinach. Served over organic brown rice and anointed with yogurt, scallions and cilantro, it’s a complete meal.

At Italian food mecca, tavola , creamy white beans share a bowl with pork belly and vibrant broccoli rabe in a garlicky broth that’ll cure any ailment from headache to heartbreak.—Megan Headley

 

Bowled over
If you insist on drinking that last bit of soup from the bowl, you might as well lift something stylish to your lips. We recommend this set of colorful dishes from Anthropologie. A set of six costs $30, and will be a bright addition to your table. 

Can do!
Craving a great soup but didn’t plan ahead? La Guadalupana Mexican grocery, next to Aqui es Mexico on Carlton Avenue, carries a selection of Mexican and Salvadoran soups and stews to keep on hand for such an occasion. There’s a comforting caldo de pollo —chicken soup with flecks of cilantro that just needs a little squeeze of lime to really shine. Pork-and-purple-hominy pozole is classic Mexican comfort food. Gussy it up with a traditional sprinkle of chopped radish, cabbage and oregano. Pork-and-green-chile verde is great on its own with a sprinkle of cheese, but also does admirable double duty as a sauce for bean-and-cheese enchiladas.

Too many cervezas the night before? Hot and spicy Menudo, made with beef tripe and hominy, is a classic hangover remedy. For the truly adventurous, Salvadoran Sopa de Garroba—iguana soup, for the uninitiated—promises both aphrodisiac effects and natural energy.—Meredith Barnes

Categories
Living

When size does matter: Big bottles protect your cellared investments

 It’s hard not to giggle when someone pours you a glass of wine from a bottle four times its regular size. It’s like the person should be wearing clown shoes and an oversized bow tie. But when Geoff Macilwaine, manager of Wine Warehouse, hosted a party to honor an aisle-bound employee last weekend, he expertly poured a Jéroboam of La Cappuccina Soave 2009 wearing no such costume. The 3 liter bottle that serves 20 was big—comically so —but I managed to keep it together.

How big is your bottle?
Magnum – 2 bottles of wine
Rehoboam – 6 bottles of wine
Methuselah – 8 bottles of wine
Salmanazer – 12 bottles of wine
Balthazar – 16 bottles of wine
Nebuchadnezzar – 20 bottles of wine
Melchior – 24 bottles of wine

The smallest of the large format bottles is the Magnum and at 1.5 liters (or double the size of the standard 750ml bottle), it’s the only one not named after a biblical king. The reason behind these names is varied and uncertain. Common theories are that they speak to the worth, splendor and age of the bottles. A Methuselah, for instance, is equal to eight standard bottles and the patriarch by the same name lived until he was 969. To confuse matters, the names and corresponding volumes for large format Bordeaux bottles are different than those from Burgundy, Rhône and Champagne, but it’s the latter classification that’s been adopted by most other regions.

The purpose of large formats is twofold. The first concerns aging potential. The air captured in the neck of a bottle allows a welcome exchange of oxygen through the slightly porous cork, which matures the wine and renders it more expressive over time. In larger bottles, there’s a proportionately smaller amount of air to the volume of wine (up to 20 times smaller in the gargantuan Melchior) meaning that your valuable wine will mature more slowly, staying in excellent condition for longer.

The second reason is purely social. “They’re great for parties,” said Pamela Margaux, wine importer and fellow party guest. Bubbly is her specialty (she’s married to sparkling wine maestro Claude Thibaut) and loves starting parties with magnums of it. Big bottles ensure that every guest will get a taste and have an identical experience since they are all drinking from the same bottle of wine.

And for the wine-loving lady or gent who has everything? The Antique Wine Company specializes in large format bottles and sells a grand decanting cradle, a contraption that enables the bottle to be gradually tilted from vertical to horizontal as the wine is decanted, ensuring that no sediment (see Winespeak 101) contaminates the wine. There’s even a candlestick holder positioned under where the bottleneck ends up for a candlelit view. I do love the festivity of big bottles, but I’d have to laugh if someone ever wheeled out one of those —even without the clown outfit.

Vine Line: Fall Edition
With this year’s harvest—one of the most problematic in a decade—in the tank (or barrel), I asked John Kiers of Ox-Eye Vineyards what the rest of his fall has in store:
“Post-harvest, I always spend time reflecting on what went wrong and what went right. I will review yield in different parts of the vineyard and think about altering pruning (which I start end of December) to increase or decrease yields. I’ll also conduct soil samples to determine which micronutrients I’ll put down in November. After the first hard freeze, I’ll mow the alleyways to clean things up a bit. In the winery all of the heavy dirty work is done. In the tanks, I am monitoring temperatures and filling the head space with CO2 every three days. The whites also get a good dose of sulfur to help against bacteria. The reds are being moved to barrel and then inoculated for malolactic fermentation. The amount of oak input per variety depends on each wine’s body, color intensity and flavors. This is also a period of significant nail biting as I try to gauge my very young wines and how they are evolving. I am on guard for bizarre aromas and excessive haziness. So far I am pleased and feel like I have dodged most of Mother Nature’s wrath this year.”

Winespeak 101

Sediment (n.): The color and tannin molecules that form longer and longer molecule chains
over time until they are so heavy that they drop out of the once-suspended solution.