Bikingbloggingwino hits Chelsea Market
Ok, so as the instagram handle goes, I do bike and I do blog and I am a wino so time to get on the bike and live my best me and go to Chelsea Market for another installment of drink that grape. We grabbed City Bikes a few blocks from Isabel's s place and bee-lined down to Chelsea Market (we got as far as Bloomingdale’s on 59th Street b/c they left the magnet in my sweater and I’ve been walking around with it for a day or two like a total dork). Apres magnet removal, we ditched the bikes and headed to Chelsea in a cab (the remaining mile or two - it’s cold in NY and I didn’t have gloves, plus you know, it was easy).
Chelsea Market is a cool spot. Old Meatpacking neighborhood downtown. Awesome entry, full of great shops and restaurant/bars (uh huh) and for sure some wine tasting opportunities. We skipped the bottle shop but headed to Minzon for Israeli Street Food (4-5 locations, Tel Aviv (original-duh), Paris, NY, Singapore, I think another?). Anyway, the good stuff. Isabel and I ordered “The Orginal World Famous Grilled Baby Cauliflower” to open (yum!! - charred just right and with oil and garlic - it’s almost not a vegetable - that good) and Isabel had the rotisserie “broken chicken” pita with tahini, za’ator, spicey green peppers and scallions, while I “makka da lamb” (Big Fat Greek Wedding joke) - who can resist a lamb kebab in a pita (!?)- yea - I had that. Same basic spicing as the chicken - but with grilled tomato and onion, tahini, spicey green peppers, pickles. The beverage choice was of course the spicey Mojito with mint and anise (or so it tasted), played off nicely with the Kebab and the Cauliflour. If Isabel had tried some of mine (I wasn’t looking -we ordered 2 mojitos) I’m sure she’d say it went well with the chicken too (wink). The food offerings came with a HONKING SHISHITO PEPPER grilled and salted (see pics) - more on that later.
For the final committment to my namesake and mission on this particular soire, Isabel and I went to Corkbuzz, a wine bar in Chelsea Market which was closing in about an hour and I did the “Blinded by the Flight” (literally you get what they bring you unidentified and then you go through your tasting cheklist and determine what grape it is (or not), age, new world/old world, (or not) oak/no oak/neutral oak, acid, floral notes, berry notes red/black/blue, minerality +/-, herbal notes, other notes +/- etc etc. (or not). If youre really delusional you’ll name the vintage. Of course, other than the glass pour list to look at and some general grape descriptors, you have no idea what they gave you and pretty much it doesn’t have to be on their menu. So that was a challenge especially after that HONKING SHISHITO PEPPER (noted above) and I can say without exageration - that …. I didn’t get one right, not even close (exept for approximate age, acid level and maybe some fruit notes - yea pinot was obvious by color and I see that now. Saw it after i missed it). But it was still fun. Missed Gamay for Pinot and a Santa Barbara Pinot for Grenache, and a Merlot for a Barolo, but i had just blasted my pallet with the HONKING SHISHITO PEPPER (you saw that one in the picture right?) at the Israeli Street Food Restaurant (Minzon) so needless to say, my pallet and nose were toast. That’s the excuse and I’m sticking to it. For a final glass pour I had a German Pinot. It was good. Again, not on their menu and I wasn’t in the mood for remembering after all that. Still a fun night at Chelsea Market - “I Need a HUGe - glass of wine.” Chelsea Market you read my mind.
