By Joseph Temple

For most of us, our knowledge of organized crime comes largely from movies and television.  Films like The Godfather and HBO’s The Sopranos are etched in stone as pop-culture landmarks while terms such as Consigliere, Capo and La Cosa Nostra are now in the lexicon of wise guys and civilians alike.

And of course, an element that runs constant through all of these mafia flicks is food.  Who can forget Paul Sorvino’s character in GoodFellas slicing garlic cloves razor-thin in preparation for a big prison meal alongside Ray Liotta?  Or how about all those big family dinners at the Soprano household?

But what dishes did the real crime bosses enjoy?  Was it more than just a stereotypical straw-wrapped Chianti bottle served with some macaroni and gravy (i.e. spaghetti and tomato sauce)?  Below are five dons and their favorite foods–some of which may surprise you.

1.    Al Capone – Spaghetti with Walnut Sauce

Al Capone, the most iconic and ruthless gangster or the 1920s and early 1930s loved his spaghetti.  At his Prairie Avenue home on Chicago’s South Side, he gladly traded his fedora hat for an apron, preparing extra long noodles with a glass of prohibition-era wine in his hand.  However, his favorite dish wasn’t served with traditional tomato gravy, but with walnut sauce – a simple oil and bread [crumb] base with toasted nuts and a smattering of cheese.  Interestingly it was a more traditional recipe that, after Capone’s death, his sister Maffie sold to Ragu, who used it to make their very first spaghetti sauce.

2.    Lucky Luciano – Kosher Green Pickles

Charles “Lucky” Luciano, the architect of today’s modern-day mafia differed from the old-school bosses known as “Mustache Petes” by welcoming both Jews and the Irish into the world of organized crime.  Battling against a strict 100% Italian organization with a centralized command, the resulting Castellammarese War of the early 1930s drastically changed the mob’s structure into a council of decentralized families with Luciano at the helm.

Having a close relationship to Jewish gangsters like Meyer Lansky and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, its no surprise that Luciano’s favorite food were Kosher Green Pickles – a Jewish delicacy served alongside corn beef sandwiches on the mean streets of New York City.  In fact, when Lansky and U.S. Naval Intelligence visited Luciano’s prison cell to enlist his help in the war effort by monitoring NYC’s ports for any possible sabotage (and later, assisting with the Allied invasion of Sicily), they brought him a hamper of food containing, among other things, his favorite pickles.

3. Meyer Lansky – Cheese Blintzes

Meyer Lansky, the mafia kingpin who transformed Cuba into a gambling and tourist mecca during the 1950s began his criminal career in the crowded ghettos of New York City.  During his time in the Big Apple, Lansky was a well-known patron at Ratner’s, a kosher dairy restaurant on the lower east side.  Along with Luciano and Siegel, the three plotted together while “The Little Man” would chow down on his favorite dish – Cheese Blintzes – usually a sweet cheese mixture wrapped in a thin delicate pancake, often served with fruit.

4.    Carlos Marcello – Spaghetti and Meatballs

Carlo Marcello, the ruthless New Orleans mafia chieftain who confessed to having President John F. Kennedy assassinated liked to fuse his Sicilian culinary heritage with some iconic Crescent City cuisine.  Among his preferred dishes were oysters, shrimp, fettuccine and his personal favorite – spaghetti and meatballs.  What many might not know is that Marcello’s personal chef was Provino Mosca, who worked exclusively for Al Capone during his time as the undisputed crime boss of Chicago.  According to historian Stefano Vaccara, the Southern Mafioso hired him on the exact day that Capone was arrested and sentenced for tax evasion.

5.    John Gotti – Cracker Barrel

John Gotti, the “Dapper Don”, earned a reputation for being both ruthless and stylish during his tenure as boss of one New York’s most powerful crime families.  But while he enjoyed wearing only the finest Italian suits in front of the cameras, his favorite food will surprise you, as it doesn’t live up to the high standards with which he is often associated.

According to Jeffrey Goldberg of Slate.com, Gotti enjoyed dining at the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain, chowing down on chicken, biscuits and chicken-fried steak.  Confirming the story, a source close to Gotti replied, “Look, how much Italian food can you eat?”

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By No machine-readable author provided. PRA assumed (based on copyright claims). [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Question: What’s the best way to cleanse your palate?

Answer: This is very personal and unique to every person. What you are trying to achieve is refreshing your mouth to give the next wine a new fresh independent opportunity not influenced by the wine tasted just before it. Saliva does quite a good job on its own. After many wines neutral water or plain bread or crackers helps with the build-up of tannins and refreshes you. A friend of mine likes  special olives. Not me.

Your nose can get fatigued too. Some of us wine judges sniff the water vapours from a water bottle to keep our nostrils moist. At the International Chocolate Awards judging chocolate does linger on your palate more than wine and there we use an effective “soupy polenta” that works well.

Experiment!

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Riesling is hot. Another couple of tastings last week included a wonderful perspective of Germany’s Saar vineyard Ockfener Bockstein with third generation vintner Nik Weis who runs the St. Urbans-Hof estate. His grandfather in 1947 identified the successful Riesling clone 21B (now called the Weis clone) which later found its way into Canada at Vineland Estates in Ontario and planted in 1978 at BC’s Pinot Reach (now Tantalus old vines). Nik repeats that the 3 most important factors in a great Riesling are: “balance, balance and balance!”. He believes “residual sugar should be present in a way that doesn’t really show but brings out the fruit and balances the acidity.” He uses an analogy of the right amount of salt in a perfectly seasoned food course or the lemon juice on a fish dish. In the seventies and eighties excessive sugar was sometimes there to cover other faults in the wines. One of the most challenging decisions of winemaking is knowing when to naturally stop the fermentation at the best alcohol and sugar levels.

The Okfener Bockstein estate is a special place on very steep southwest facing hard gravelly gray slate soil where they bought more land in 1989 with now a total of 6 hectares (15 acres). Wines have a distinctive smoky minerality with the cool winds contributing more flower aromatics and preserving flavours in the grapes. Nik calls it “a smoky floral nose like Silex fume sauvignon in the Loire with additional elements of thyme, elderflowers, violets, roses, lavender, lime, lemon, apple and peach”. Matched with a special Four Seasons Hotel dinner we sampled over a dozen examples from fresh young 2012 back to complex older 1990. 2001 Kabinett was a “true one” while many Kabinett these days are really lighter Spatlese. Really enjoyed the complexity of 2002 Spatlese at only 7.5 alcohol which had more acidity than 2007 (riper 8.5 alcohol) yet seemed younger fresher and more vibrant even though 5 years older. 1990 Auslese another winner with high acidity year allowing the wine to remain so fresh. 1999 stylish but more botrytis showing nuts with dried fruits. 2003 riper more residual sugar higher alcohol 9 and seems softer to me. Nik said he just opened the 1952 which was fresh. He affirmatively states their 2002 & 2003 Spatlese or Auslese can age 40 years easily.

As we discussed last week do you prefer Riesling dry or sweet? Now a follow up question asking if you prefer your Riesling young or older – or at any delicious age!

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By Joseph Temple

While we all wait until 2015 to see how the final season of AMC’s Mad Men ends, let’s have a look at some food and drink advertisements that the real Don Drapers of the time cooked up for TV viewers of the 1960s and early 1970s – an era where catchy jingles reigned supreme.  Looking back, it’s hard to imagine a commercial today lasting more than thirty seconds and yet, some of these spots approach the one-minute mark.   And in today’s fast-paced world, seeing dad at the breakfast table reading (gasp) … a newspaper and not an iPhone only adds to the nostalgic feel of these ads.  So lets take a trek down memory lane with these classics.

1.  Wesson Vegetable Oil … cooks as light as it looks

This commercial is so sugary, you’ll get a cavity just watching it.  If this mother and son duo performs a jingle every time they use vegetable oil, imagine what happens when they break out their favorite bottle of ketchup.

2.  Fanta Orange  … it’s so fun when you’re thirsty

Without question, Coca Cola was king when it came to catchy jingles.  Who can forget “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” or “Things go better with Coke?”  And it looks like Fanta Orange, their sister beverage benefited from the same group of talented writers with this bubblegum tune similar to The Archies “Sugar, Sugar” and Tommy Roe’s “Dizzy.”  Watching a group of hipsters paint their Love Bug in the hot sun, aren’t you glad that they were able to quench their thirst with some refreshing orange soda?

3. Continental Airlines … we’ll really move our tail for you!

With airlines cutting costs and passengers crammed in tighter than a sardine can, you’re lucky these days if you can get one free soda in a small plastic cup.  So imagine coach passengers getting a slice of juicy roast beef with a glass of sparkling wine as you take off to your destination!

4. Instant Quaker Oatmeal gets a celebrity endorsement.

If you’re Quaker Oats and want to reach every housewife in Middle America during the 1960s, who better than Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York to help sell your oatmeal?  The two stars of the 60s hit show Bewitched prove that making instant oatmeal is as easy as twitching your nose.

5.  Canada Dry Ginger Ale … one gulp if for thirst, the other gulps are for kicks!

If you’re ever shooting pool, hosting a bonfire or partying on a yacht with some scantily clad females, take it to the next step by offering that special lady some champagne – the champagne of ginger ales that is!

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By The original uploader was Simon-sake at Dutch Wikipedia (Transferred from nl.wikipedia to Commons.) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Question: Why Does Riesling Grow So Well In Germany?

Answer: This week’s posting on the topic “Riesling: Dry or Sweet?” generated some discussion including this question.  Tough to put your finger exactly on one specific answer. However several important factors come into play that make riesling so successful there.

First is the unique microclimate. Thirteen different wine growing regions so far north around the 50^th parallel latitude is crucial. However global warming is having some influence on the weather there. Seems you no longer can be absolutely guaranteed that riesling grown in the Saar will be quite acidic.

But it is not all about only climate but a unique terroir including appropriate soils for such a suitable grape variety like riesling! The regions benefit from the nearby rivers and their distinct soils to absorb heat during the day and retain it during the night. A variety of soils from quartz, sandy loam, clay, silt, graphite, volcanic and limestone contribute different styles. A really big reason for the world-wide admiration of  German riesling is the special Devonian blue gray slate found especially in the Mosel, Saar & Ruwer contributing to their wonderful fruit acidity as well as the structured wines from Rheingau especially around Assmannshausen, Lorch & Rudesheim. There are amazing slopes going straight up from the river bends but also terraces, and rolling hills as well. Quite diverse to say the least!

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