· Royal Olive Oil from Spain

· Zingerman's Guide to Better Bacon

· The Christmas Cookie Club Collection

· Paw Paw Gelato

· Pimento Cheese

· Chocolate Challah: Jewish Bread And Chocolate

· Zzang! Bars

· Artisanal Chocolate from Missouri
— Patric Chocolate
— Askinosie Chocolate

· Baguette — French Revolution Revived

· Allure Vinegars from California

· Poivre d'Or Jams from Mauritius

As always, I'm deeply appreciative of all the great people and great food we get to work with around here. It's a lucky thing to be able to work in a world where passion, caring customers, smart staff members, superior suppliers and high commitment to quality are the norm all the way around. Thanks for the chance to be part of it all. Happy everything!

Royal Olive Oil from Spain
I first tasted this oil from the Vaño family in Barcelona a few years back. Their Castillo de Canena Picual oil, which we've been carrying for a few years now, is one of a handful of Picual oils that I think avoids some of the less than desirable flavors that can come from that varietal (not everyone will agree, I know). To me, their Picual oil is very tasty with a big, bold flavor and a long-lasting, very clean, and pleasant finish. The Royal oil is right there with it. It as a very different set of flavors, but all the good work that goes into the agronomy, the picking and the pressing are making for a second excellent oil.

The flavor is fantastic. It's got that rare combination of both buttery and peppery that I really love. Vanessa Sly, assistant retail manager and olive oil mistress at the Deli says, "It's a very sexy oil", and I think she's right. The fact that I kept going back to it when I could have been using any of the other ten oils I've got at my house on all the good summer tomatoes is telling. I've also been using it liberally on toasted Paesano bread, on salads, anchovies and freshly broiled fish. It would be very good on a really late autumn bruschetta — grilled or toasted Bakehouse bread, plenty of the Royal oil and then really ripe fresh peaches, pears, apples or plums. The combination might sound odd if you haven't had it, but it really is a great way to end a meal without eating any processed sugar.

PS: I should mention that the Canena Royal oil comes in a really great bottle. It doesn't look like any other offering I've seen so I'm not sure where the Vaños got it. "Original black bottle with white xerography" is how they describe it. Cylindrically shaped black glass with a lot of right angles in its "shoulders", it reminds me a bit of those padded shoulder '60s suits on the stylin' ad guys on "Madmen". None of which, of course, makes the oil taste any better, but does it sure does make it nice to look at on the counter, and also a really good gift.

back to top

Zingerman's Guide to Better Bacon
There are so many bacons to put on this holiday list, I feel like I should write a whole book about them. Oh, darn, I already did that! Well, rather than repeat the whole list of twenty different bacons, about 40,000 words of copy and the forty-two different recipes that are in the book, let me just synopsize... we've got a LOT of really, really good bacons in house right now. A lot of you like good bacon. My job here is help you all hook up. Whether you want bacon to make a quick sandwich (I'm high on Broadbent's), to eat with eggs at home (try the big bold super smoky flavor of Benton's), to eat raw on a ham board (Hungarian double-smoked) to chop and put in Hangtown Fry (Van de Rose would be good), to eat at the Deli (try Rick Strutz's favorite, the Arkansas Peppered bacon on the #61), to eat for breakfast any morning of the week at the Roadhouse (the Nueske's in the Grits 'n' Bits Georgia Waffles), or in one of the very rich, really, really good Bacon Cheddar Scones from the Bakehouse... we've got at least ten lovely options to get you going!

In terms of what I've been doing with bacon at home, this time of year I'm very high both the Oysters Pilau and on the cornmeal mush with oysters (both recipes are in the book). Each dish brings the flavor of oysters and bacon to the forefront, and each counts on the exceptionally high quality of raw material from Glenn Roberts down at Anson Mills in South Carolina to carry the dish to the super deluxe heights of flavor. I'd happily eat either of these most any cool autumn evening. Great dishes for entertaining because they really aren't all that hard to make, they're pretty different from what most anyone around here will be eating every day, and they taste pretty great. For the oyster pilau be sure to start with the Carolina Gold rice; for the mush, I personally wouldn't bother making it without great cornmeal: the stone ground, germ-left-in, heirloom organic yellow meal we get from Anson Mills. Call the Roadhouse (734.663.3663) to order it up by the pound or get it at www.zingermans.com. Every time I eat it I'm seriously impressed anew with how amazingly good it is. Details, again, are in the bacon book! Or, if you just want a quick recommendation, feel free to email me directly and I'll send you my pick of moment (it changes regularly).

Special Holiday Gift Editions of Zingerman's Guide to Better Bacon!

Cloth Edition · limited edition of 175 signed copies · $95 Each handmade cover, designed and created by Ann Arbor book artist Jean Buescher Bartlett, has slight, unique variations. The front and back are both dark red coated cloth laid over archival book boards. The spine is straw-colored linen book cloth. Black linen book cloth is used for traditional, protective, fore-edge corners.

Leather Edition · limited edition of 20 signed copies · $300 This special pigskin leather edition is one of only 20 first editions from the first printing. Continuing the long tradition of fine leather book binding, each of these 20 copies was sewn and bound in pigskin leather by Jon Buller, owner of Bessenberg Bindery, an artisanal fine book bindery that has been creating beautiful books in Ann Arbor since 1978. Each handcrafted copy has slight, unique variations.

EXCLUSIVE EDITION! When you buy any edition of the book at Zingerman's you get a bonus packet featuring extra recipes, postcards illustrated by our award-winning art department an a handy bacon reference chart.

back to top

The Christmas Cookie Club Collection
The storyline of how we at Zingerman's connected with The Christmas Cookie Club isn't quite as romantic as that of the book, but it's certainly a nice one and one that seems fully in synch with everything Ann Pearlman's written about. It starts back in the summer of 2003, when we were getting ready to open the Roadhouse. Melina Hinton was one of the first servers we hired. Over the years Melina became an ever more important part of our team, and the breadth of our connection grew wider; her sister Elizabeth came to work with us for a while, we got to know Melina's daughters and watched them grow up. And then at some point a year or two in, we got to meet her mother, Ann. Which is why, although most people know Ann Pearlman as the famous author of The Christmas Cookie Club, I know her first and foremost as "Melina's Mother."

Regardless of entrée, the main thing is that the connection with Ann turned out to be a great one. We share values around creativity and caring for the community, as well as a passion for good writing, and in this case, good cookies. Given the national stage on which The Christmas Cookie Club is "showing" this fall — network talk shows, big time films, blogs and magazines galore — I'm sure Ann and her literary manager could have handed the opportunity to make these cookies to some big time industrial bakery that would have paid a lot of money for the opportunity. But in the spirit of the Cookie Club, our long-standing relationship and Ann's commitment to quality and local production, we've worked together to do a set of cookies that match the spirit of all that I've talked about above. I'm sure there are less costly cookies that could have been stuck into a Christmas Cookie Club box, but I doubt that they'd actually have had the spirit, soul and flavor of the ones that Amy, Frank and everyone from the Bakehouse has put into these. I hope you enjoy eating them as much as we've enjoyed working with Ann, reading, baking, testing, tasting, and talking about them.

Before I move on I should state really clearly that not only is this a good story but the actual cookies are really, really good! They've been winning raves from all the staff, many of whom have been diligently eating all the test bakes! Thin little ginger crisps and pecan butter balls are made from recipes out of the book, plus one of my long time favorites, the mint chocolate shortbread from the Bakehouse. That trio of taste treats is packed into a book-like box designed by our graphics crew. It's really a great package — especially if you pair it up with a copy of Ann's book — and would clearly make a great gift for anyone who likes to read and eat cookies which is probably a pretty high percentage of people out in the Zingerman's universe. Stay tuned for the Wendy Finerman-produced (Forrest Gump and The Devil Wears Prada among other famous films) movie, which is likely to start filming next fall! Ann's been pushing hard to have the filming done here in Ann Arbor so hopefully that will work out. In the mean time come on by and taste a cookie and celebrate some nice local success and the start of a sweet holiday season!

back to top

Paw Paw Gelato
I can see that this old time American fruit is going to become a big Zingerman's fall tradition. How can you not be biased towards a Native American fruit called a paw paw? And who doesn't like ice cream? Gotta love too that they're also known as the Prairie Banana, the Hoosier Bananas, and the Poor Man's Banana. How about a Prairie Banana Split with toasted black walnuts and whipped cream and a little chopped fresh paw paw?

The paw paw is my kind of underdog. It's hard to grow and, despite its long history, hardly anyone has ever heard of it. Like a lot of the old fruits, the amount of work to grow compared to the yield in picked paw paws isn't all that great. It doesn't ship well nor can you keep it indefinitely in the cooler. It's challenging to grow because it's got a long taproot so it's hard to transplant. On the upside once you get a paw paw successfully planted it's apparently low maintenance. If you're buying on nutrition they're really high in vitamin C, riboflavin, niacin, and magnesium. Apparently paw paw stems and leaves are great natural pesticides.

The trees grow from about 10 to 20 feet. They have long, dark green, sort of droopy-eared leaves. In fact they're the largest edible fruit that grows in North America — biggest one ever recorded was 18 inches across. They look a bit like a mango I guess. Paw paws are ripe when their skin gets a bit darker and the perfume is more pronounced. It you get some that aren't ripe, just leave them lie (or put 'em in a paper bag) for a bit to ripen up. When they are ripe, you take the skins off and mash up the pulp. Like avocados the pulp will brown up pretty quickly so keep refrigerated and away from air. One challenge is that you have to get the seeds out. The seeds look a bit like lima beans, and you don't eat them. Getting them out is a significant pain in the... paw paw. You can make the puree into custard, pastry cream, paw paw pie, or... gelato. I have to say that I'm happy we have the gelato because it makes it really easy to eat this slow fruit in our speed-focused modern world.

The interesting thing with paw paws is that I can't quite put my finger (paw?) on how to describe the flavor. I've been thinking that the paw paw could possibly be the North America equivalent of passion fruit. Turns out that I wasn't all that wrong. They're a distant relative of the Cherimoya. Slightly citrusy, kind of custardy when ripe. The flavor's not strong. But it is rather smoothly persuasive. Got maybe a hint of lime, a little vanilla, a papaya, maybe a touch of the taste of ripe pear. Taste the flavor for youself in the paw paw gelato! Light but luscious, it's really something special both in its history and its flavor.

back to top

Pimento Cheese
If I'm looking at foods that started out here unflashily, but then just keep steadily scoring ever more points as the months and years pass, I can't NOT include pimento cheese. When we first put it out at the Roadhouse hardly anyone in Ann Arbor knew what it was. Most of us northerners assumed that pimento cheese was some sort of subpar supermarket specialty; loaf-shaped processed cheese laced with the same sorry, red, processed pimentos they stuff into commercial olives. This, as I learned at the Southern Foodways Alliance symposium in Oxford Mississippi five or six years ago, is completely not the case. When I made (innocently) a disparaging remark about it, everyone at the table (all, of course, were Southerners) came to its defense. Every one of them had grown up eating, loving, and being loyal to pimento cheese and every one of them had their ideas (usually well aligned with their mother's recipe) of what the right way to make pimento cheese is. And now that I know about it, I really love it too.

So for those of you who don't know it, pimento cheese is a spread made from an assemblage of ingredients that pretty much always includes cheese of some sort, pimentos (which is another way of "roasted peppers"), some mayonnaise type thing, and various other spices. You can look on line and, I'm sure, find about three thousand recipes. Ours is made from two year old raw milk Grafton Vermont cheddar, roasted red peppers, Hellmann's mayonnaise and a touch of spice. Over the years it's built up a very strong following and we use it in ever more spots. You can buy it by the pound at the Deli, try the Jen's Pimento Parti sandwich at Deli.

back to top

Chocolate Challah: Jewish Bread And Chocolate
I can't say really why this stuff is so compelling to me. For some reason I just like it. That said, it runs against all my usual taste preferences. While I grew up with challah, and I think ours is really good, in honesty I almost never take it home. I almost always run with the chewier, hard crusted loaves like the Roadhouse, Farm, Jewish rye and Paesano. On top of which I don't have a huge sweet tooth. And while I think bread and chocolate are a great combo (a long standing classic in Europe), I rarely actually eat them together. Plus, in honesty, chocolate challah, isn't really very traditional.

But for some reason, with all of those biases out front, the chocolate challah has got me going. I've decided to add it to my list of good things to eat of late. There's no reason not to put it on one's Rosh Hashanah list, although chocolate, being from the Western Hemisphere and a relatively modern food, is hardly of Biblical origin. But it's subtle sweetness represents the wish for a sweet year to come (all the more so this year). If you leave it out by a sunny autumn window for a bit, the chocolate gets a bit soft and with the eggs in the rich challah dough it's a bit like an uncooked chocolate French toast. Looking ahead a bit I'm thinking that pan fried in olive oil it would actually make a really good bit of French toast, maybe topped with those wild strawberry preserves we have in from Serbia (or if you're the combo of orange and chocolate, the wild orange marmalade from the Mahjoubs in Tunisia). Of course, all that aside, it's easy enough to just rip or slice off a chunk and eat it as is. Bring it to brunch, serve it for a snack, feed it to your kids, or carry a loaf in to work to treat your colleagues to something special.

back to top

Zzang! Bars
"They remind me of the 1930s candy bars that were hand-made, slab-style with candy love." — Beth Kimmerle, History of Candy

Zzang! Original
Zzang! Bars came into being back in the fall of 2003 when Charlie Frank, then pastry manager at the Bakehouse had the idea to go back to crafting candy the way it would have been made a century or so ago. That would be in an era where industry hadn't yet had time or ability to come up with all the nine syllable substitutes for naturally occurring foods that now dominate the ingredient lists of pretty much every commercial confection you look at it. The Original Zzang! Bar (and still my personal favorite of the three) has homemade peanut butter and honey nougat laced with butter toasted Virginia Runner peanuts (a big ol' variety from Virginia with particularly great flavor), and a touch of sea salt, all dipped into dark chocolate made from old, low-yielding, high flavor, rain forest-friendly varietals down in Ecuador.

What I love about these bars is that with each bite the flavor unfolds just a little bit more; the layers unfurl, you get more and more complexity with each passing minute. If you doubt the difference, just try a taste test for yourself. Pick up a Snickers bar, take a bit of that and wait half an hour and see what stays in your mouth. Then come by for a free taste of a Zzang bar and make the comparison for yourself. My experience is that the difference is pretty darned extreme, but you can assess it all for yourself. Certainly there's plenty of room in the candy world for both, but I'm putting my cash and calories into the latter, one small but seriously good bite at a time. Of course it is a bit risky. One could develop a dependence on these things. The other day a customer (an independent filmmaker actually) from Southern California was in the Deli packing (gently I hope) about two-dozen bars into her suitcase to take back to LA!

Ca$hew Cows
The other two bars that Charlie has gifted to the food world are the Ca$hew Cow and the What the Fudge? While my personal favorite is, as I said, the Zzang! Original, these other two have pretty much equally strong followings so I don't want to forget them. The Ca$hew Cow is, as the name correctly implies, built around lots of cashews, one of my favorite nuts of all time. It's got cashew butter, toasted cashews and handmade cashew brittle, blended with just a bit of puffed rice and dipped into that same dark Ecuadorian chocolate. You get a really nice texture, a touch of crunch from the rice, and a really nice mouth filling flavor that never strikes me as overly sweet.

What the Fudge?
This one has gradually built a really loyal legion of fans. Anyone who's hooked on brown sugar will love this bar, and milk chocolate lovers tend to lean this way as well. This one is a basically what it would be like to eat really good fudge in the form of a candy bar. Three layers — brown sugar, homemade caramel, homemade fudge and malted milk cream fondant all made from milk and cream we get from Guernsey Dairy, Muscovado brown sugar from Mauritius, vanilla from Madagascar, a bunch of butter — dipped into dark chocolate from those same exotically excellent Ecuadorian beans. When you bite into it you can feel the texture of the different layers. The brown sugar is the bit that lingers longest for me and as someone whose sugar preference goes that way (think pecan pie, Muscovado brown sugar on top of the Irish oatmeal at the Deli and Roadhouse, burnt sugar gelato from the Creamery, etc..) I like that.

Ultimately, what all three have going is that they're super flavorful without being overly sweet. Most candy out there is about sugar and colorful packaging; while I love the little boxes that the Zzang bars go into, in this case flavor comes first. Ask for a taste of any of the three next time you're in — we'll be glad to turn your taste buds on to something special.

PS; In early September Charlie and the Candy Manufactory were formally approved within our organization as the latest managing partner and business in the Zingerman's Community!!

back to top

Two Reasons I'm Sweet On the Show Me State
Artisanal Chocolate from Missouri
Patric Chocolate
Alan McClure from Patric is the second really good chocolate maker (Shawn Askinosie from Springfield is the first) we've added to our list from a state that's far better known for... well, I'm not sure really what the Show-Me State is necessarily known for. Personally, Missouri makes me think of sorghum syrup, hickory smoked country ham and the Burger family's smoked pork jowl (see Zingerman's Guide to Better Bacon for more on that). But, whatever one's sense of what's made Missouri famous, I can safely say that cacao has never been high on anyone's list. When I tell people that one of our most interesting new chocolates comes from Columbia, I totally understand when they all think I'm referring to the South American country — as in, Colombia — well known for its coffee and its mythical mountain man, Juan Valdez, not the college town that's home to Missouri University and its mascot, Truman the Tiger.

There's a difference between a well-made artisan chocolate bar and "artisan chocolates" that look lovely and have great stories but that don't actually taste all that great. Mind you, I appreciate the efforts of every small producer out there. Most all of the bars that I'm actually not that high on are being made by well meaning people who are doing all the "right" things but, sadly, they still don't end up with great tasting chocolate even though they buy fair trade, organic beans and make dark chocolate wrapped in nice looking labels.

There's also a marked difference between the chocolate bars each of these guys makes. Shawn Askinosie uses three different cacao origins — Ecuador, Mexico and the Philippines — and each has very different flavors (see my tasting notes below). In contrast, Alan buys from a single estate in the Sambirano Valley in Madagascar. "The whole thing," he explained to me, "is to bring out the complexity of the cacao. I want people to taste cacao, to taste the different ways to roast, etc. The difference isn't just about the percentages of cacao. My roast profile for each bar is different. The formulation of sugar to cacao is different in each bar. The complexity that's inherent in the bean comes out because we're using the one origin, but we're able to show different flavors in each of the bars. I want to do what any great chef might do... someone skilled in preserving the natural qualities of the raw material and transform that in such a way that the tasting components of those are more obvious. It's more about letting the cacao lead me and tell me where I need to go. And I feel like, to some extent, the chocolate is answering the question for me."

One more difference to point out is that between different batches of the "same" bar. Shawn just sent me a note the other day to let me know that, "A few weeks ago we received a new crop of our Soconusco beans from Mexico that we're really excited about. These beans seem to have a higher acidity on the finish, to balance a deep chocolate note. So there are higher highs and lower lows which we like."

At the moment, we've got four Missouri-made bars in from Mr. McLure. Duff Anderson, chocolate queen at the Deli, said, "Patric is one of the brands that come closest to tasting like the raw material the bars are made from. That rawness," she added, "is what's most exciting to me about Patric." Here's the quick low down on each with four, with my holiday season tasting notes.

67% — Dark chocolate with a very prominent flavor note that tastes like tart cherry. While it doesn't totally take over it's very definitely out front, almost mouth puckering in a way that, if you like that sort of thing, will likely lift this bar to near the top of your chocolate list. Duff said, "There is nothing subtle about this chocolate. It really wrestles with your tongue, but in a nice way." Seriously, a bite of this bar is pretty much like cherry season for chocolate lovers.

70% — Rounder in flavor than the 67%. Nice tannins (like in a red wine), and it's still got some of that tart cherry thing going on, but to me it's less pronounced so that you have to dig through deep layers of dark chocolate flavors to get to it. Nice long finish.

75% — My favorite of the bunch, nicely chewy in texture but with the creamiest mouthfeel of the three. Nice crisp initial "snap" when you bite into it, delicious darkness to the flavor and a nice nuttiness (almonds maybe?).

70% with Nibs — If you don't know them already, the "nibs" are the bits of cacao nutmeat, fermented in the country of origin, then shipped out to chocolate makers like Mr. McClure, where it is cracked, husked, and toasted. By adding nibs to the bars, you bring a great textural crunch and a winy, not sweet, nuttiness to the chocolate eating experience. I should make note that Alan adds a LOT of the nibs, which I like. If you're gonna go for the crunch and the flavor contrast, I say really go for it!

Askinosie Chocolate
About a hundred miles south and slightly west of Columbia, in Springfield, Shawn Askinosie and crew are also making really great bean to bar chocolates. I like every one of them — the crew and the bars, both. More importantly, I've liked them all consistently for a long time now. The latter point is important because like all hand made, artisan foods there are variations in flavor from once batch of bars to the next and makers who don't have Shawn's skills, tenacity, and commitment to actually delivering consistency, can easily end up with one batch being great and the next one a few months later maybe so-so at best. He's working with growers in three very special regions — each about as far from Madagascar as you can get and very different in flavor as well.

Soconusco, Mexico — The region so renowned for its cacao that the Aztecs went after it the way the world now works to gain control over oil rights. The bar's got a nice dark, flavor bright, with a gentle liveliness on the tongue, a nice clean finish. A bit like a Bordeaux maybe with just a very pleasant touch of dryish tannin; it's got a gentle toasted note to it that Vanessa Sly at the Deli very nicely described to me as being, "like the toasted stuff on the edge of the cake pan when you make chocolate cake."

San Jose Del Tombo, Ecuador — Last year this was by far my favorite of the three bars (but this year the other two have come up a notch and now). Tastes really rich to me, with a nice, big mouthfeel and lots of low notes. Lingers long on top of the tongue with, again, a touch of tastiness in the end, which reminds me of roasted cashews.

Davao, Philippines — Davao is probably the most famous cacao producing part of the Philippines, which probably isn't all that meaningful to folks who aren't from there. What's cool though is that, thanks to Shawn's strong work, the Davao cacao (just realized that that rhymes) is being exported for the first time in over a quarter century. Distinctively dark, but not at all bitter, much like a really well made shot of espresso. The finish reminds me a bit of dried fruit, and, it sounds silly but I'm going to just go ahead and say it anyways, a bit of that deep dark sweetness you get from a really good prune, or as Duff pointed out, Concord grapes (which I totally love!).

El Rustico — A year and change of working on this recipe with Shawn to craft a special chocolate bar just for us paid off with really flavorful results. Dark Soconusco cacao, more coarsely ground (closer to the old Mexican style), dosed with a generous bit of diced up whole vanilla bean. The latter is a technique I learned in the vanilla producing province of Papantla on Mexico's east coast many years ago. Each bit of the bar gets you a dark dose of chocolate, a nice crystalline crunch of sugar left intact from the coarser grinding and then something that's almost symphonic (sorry if that seems overstated but it's sort of how I feel) from the vanilla.

Davao Ivory Chocolate with Nibs — If like white chocolate, definitely try this. In fact, even if you don't like white chocolate you should also definitely try this. Askinosie is one of the only two chocolate makers that I know of (guess who the other one is — clue: he's in Columbia, MO) that makes its own cocoa butter, which is the basis of white chocolate. (Most bigger producers use "deodorized" cocoa butter made elsewhere.) Shawn uses goat milk powder rather than the more typical choice, which would be of cow's milk. Together, they bring far more nuance than most white chocolate would ever hope to have. In fact, we refer to this bar as Ivory Chocolate because that's what it looks like. The deeper color is due to the higher levels of cocoa mass that Shawn leaves in the cocoa butter, adding depth to color and complexity.

back to top

Baguette — French Revolution Revived
Thanks to the relentless, never-ending efforts by Frank, Amy and everyone at the Bakehouse to improve our products, the baguettes have been better in the last six months than they've ever been.

Last spring I was sitting with Frank (Carollo, one of the two managing partners at the Bakehouse) and Frank says, "You know, I think it's safe to say that in the middle of all this economic craziness, we're pretty much the only bakery in the country that's working on how to spend more on labor to go back to hand rolling baguettes." I haven't done any scientific sampling of America's best bakeries, but I'm pretty confident he's correct. I'm glad we were though because the results of the work to rewind the technological clock have raised the already-good baguettes to much higher levels.

While machines aren't inherently evil or anything, we know that doing them all by hand, while more time consuming and hence more costly, is slightly but noticeably, better for the bread. The "crumb" retains just a bit more texture and little nuances of the flavor that are lost in the machine rolling, and it stays slightly more open (that's a good thing!). Being the history major and something of alliteration addict (there, I did again), I've come to think of this as a French revolution revisited — it's part of our constant push to take techniques and flavors closer to the way the best of the best would have tasted "back in the day."

So, what's a "ten" baguette like? Well, start with the feel. The crust is substantial but not dry, not leathery, not too thick. It breaks, but it's not so crisp as to be brittle and completely shatter (like a good croissant should). When you look at it, it's going to have what we call a really nice hole structure — lots of big (for a baguette) holes so the bread looks like a big wild honeycomb. When you smell it there's a really nice milkiness. There's no milk in the bread, mind you, just this amazing aroma. When you taste it you'll get a touch of sweetness (though no sugar is added). When you eat it you'll get a really great creaminess, just the right amount of salt, sweet at the end, savory throughout.

Baguettes aren't really made to last. They've always been "city bread", made to be eaten within a few hours of baking. I hope you'll get to taste one of these some time soon, and I'd be glad to taste with you and appreciate the hand work that all the bakers have put into getting these to ever-higher levels.

back to top

Top Secret Arrival: Allure Vinegars from California
It takes a lot for a vinegar to get my attention these days. We have so many good ones that it's not like we're out there looking for more. But these guys... I don't know how they snuck up on me. I think I failed to actually taste them for the first few weeks they were at the Deli — my mistake, both personally and professionally. Because when I did get around to proper tasting I discovered that these are some seriously good vinegars, and not at all the sort of thing that a vinegar lover like me would want to miss.

The fact that they snuck up on me so stealthily maybe isn't a surprise since the man behind these vinegars, Alex Alexiev, is an international expert in counter terrorism and covert operations.

The Allure stuff is indeed (ok, I'll say it) alluringly, good. I've been using it regularly at home for many months now, and, as I said a few paragraphs back, that's no mean feat given how many good vinegars I already have on hand. It's really no shock that the Allure vinegars are as good as they are. Alex is doing all things one should be doing to make great vinegar and it's working really well. Growing good wine grapes and making the wine well to begin with, he ages the wines for a year in wood before doing the natural conversion to change the wine into vinegar. He's using the old Orleans method that all the good vinegars are still made with. Then aging that in oak barrels for at least another year.

Although Alex is who I spoke with the first time I called out to Allure, his wife Laurie is an equally important part of the business. From what I know of effective partnerships (and I've been fortunate to have a lot of really good partners over the years), even without having met her, I'm guessing that they compliment each other nicely. See her write up on their website (www.allureestates.com) for more of her story.

We're getting a series of vinegars from Alex and Laurie all of which are worth trying. We have them all open at the Deli so stop by and ask for sip when you have six or seven minutes to spare. Varietal Syrah, Cabernet and Grenache. The latter are made with very good fruit juices that he found in Slovenia. Not sugar is added — just the crushed fruit — so the vinegars aren't overly sweet or the slightest bit cloying (as so many fruit vinegars can be). Cheers to Alex, Laurie and their family for making the Allure vinegars available to all of us here in Ann Arbor.

back to top

Poivre d'Or Jams from Mauritius
Mango Jam
Made with a mango variety known as Maison Rouge that has a really big, bright, lively flavor. It's almost orangey in the background, but there's nothing in there but mangos and sugar. Clearly it would be good on yogurt, toast, on vanilla gelato, or just as is on a spoon. Very nice on a grilled chicken sandwich if you like blending sweet and savory.

Spicy Pineapple Preserves
Probably my favorite of the four. The Victoria pineapples that this is made from are quite famous in Mauritius, which could explain why I've never heard of them (well, seriously, "famous" in Mauritius doesn't necessarily equate to "almost appearing on Broadway.") Anyways, I've never eaten one in a fresh state, but I really want to right now. Pascale was very excited about them when she gave me the background. From what I know the Victoria's are small, and more importantly, super fragrant and very flavorful. Given that there's really nothing in the jam but pineapple and sugar and a bit of red chile that would seem likely to be the case 'cause this stuff sure does taste good. I can't say I'm going to be doing it at home this week, but according to Pascale, this preserve is "popular with the chefs who use it with foie gras" and that does sound like it would work really well — something to give some thought to for a special holiday event. Personally, I think it would be good to spread it on some toast along with a bit of Creamery cream cheese. It's very nice on a small sandwich with a few small pieces of Arkansas Peppered ham as well.

Pineapple Vanilla Preserves
Softer, rounder, more sensual still, than the above-mentioned spicy version, the vanilla in these comes from the island of Reunion and is very appealingly perfumed. Kind of like eating pineapple upside down cake. This one is very good on toasted Sicilian Sesame semolina. I put a bit of olive oil on the hot bread first, which may sound slightly strange but is actually really great. Strikes me that it's be good with aged sheep's milk cheeses, like the ones we've been getting from France, Tuscany and Vermont.

Banana Jam
Mauritian bananas are apparently quite renowned and if this stuff is any indication, I can see why. Corinna Parker, who works at the Deli and generously volunteered her time to coordinate and lead the West Side Farmer's Market this past summer, said something like, "The banana jam is just... Wow! It tastes like... bananas which is exactly what you want." I concur with Corinna. It's exceptionally good, and... well, banana jam isn't something I usually wake up wondering about, but having had this I've been starting to think of ways to work it into my eating routines. Corinna and I tried this one on toasted farm bread brushed while hot with a bit of LeBlanc walnut oil and then topped with a bit of the jam, which made for a really great combo. And, it's got to make one of the most terrific, tropically oriented peanut butter and jelly sandwiches around, with or without the addition of sliced fresh bananas.

As I've probably already said too many times, the flavors on all four of these are super lush, big, soft, sensual, long lasting, terrific. Or, I'm sure, with any version of yogurt or fromage franc. Check it out and let me know what you discover. Enjoy and give some thought to making Mauritius one of the spots you aspire to travel to in the next ten years!