The Saveur 100

What can I say, I like to read food and wine mags. Of all, my favorite is Saveur -- the pictures are incredible, and I like the extra-wide format. Reading a new issue while sipping on some wine and nibbling on cheese and crackers (preferrably a nice goat cheese) remains one of my best "quiet luxury" moments. Each year, Saveur publishes the "Saveur 100", which is a list of "Our favorite foods, restuarants, drinks, people, places, and things." The Jan-Feb issue, out now, is their 10th edition of the list. Some of the items are whacky: muffelatta, daim, Peter Reinhart, off the top skimmer, and so on. Some of my favorites from this list were No. 8: New Mexico Road Food; No. 23: Salt-cured Anchovies; No. 79, Ludwig Bemelmans, who of course wrote the Madeline series of children's books (who M. is named after) and who also wrote restaurant-inspired books for adults, such as Hotel Splendide and How to Travel Incognito.

An item that should've made the Saveur 100:

What really caught my eye, though, was Number 96, a web site devoted to the history of old grocery stores: groceteria.com. The site is cool, though I was a bit disappointed as (1) I'm from Ohio and (2) most of the site appears to focus on West Coast chains. I can remember vividly the grocery in my hometown. It was an IGA, which stands for Idependent Grocers Alliance. The store was TINY, with I think only three or four check-out lanes. It's gone now (like most of the rest of my hometown, which is another story unto itself), but the memories of grocery shopping with my mom remain. Anyway, check out groceteria.com sometime, and definitely check out Saveur for a delicious escape.

P.S. And yes, I promise, I haven't forgotten about The Green Fairy. (I'm still trying to decipher the notes I took -- for some reason, they become almost un-readable near the end. Anyway... my adventures with the Fairy will be detailed in my next post.)