Napoli e Il Vesuvio

Photo of the day, ''Naples at Night with Vesuvius as a threatening black hole in the middle.'' Shot by Dutch Astronaut Andrè Kuipers (Flickr).  

Il Perseo, e come si parla fiorentino

Finishing up my last few days as a Fiorentino.  Always will come back to these lands which I consider a certain type of home.  Heading south again to Rome and San Donato Val di Comino.  And hopefully a trip to Calabria as well.  Picked up some useful Florentine dialect (below) to entertain.

Passando la Piazza Della Signoria, Il Perseo di Benvenuto Cellini. 

Una lezione di dialetto fiorentino per voi...

Roma Lungotevere

Photo: Jay Elling Photography.

Marrakech to the Sahara and a taste of Moroccan wine

Yesterday, I returned from a two day trip (7 hour drive each way) into the Moroccan Sahara Desert.  I left from Marrakech with a group of seven others and when we arrived built a fire and camped out in the sand dunes underneath a full moon.  For my last day in Marrakech I visited the botanical gardens and made a stop into the wine shop aka the supermarket, the only place selling alcohol in most of the country.

 Stopping into the town of Ait Ben Haddou, famous for film settings 

for movies such as Indiana Jones and Gladiator.

On the road...

 Another view...

Long shutter self portrait in the Sahara.  

 Here I'm about to take off for a sunrise camel ride from Zagora, Morocco after a fine night of camping.

 A lot of this trip has been spent at the fruit stands.  In particular the ones selling this exotic thorned fruit called Ficus Indica which grows in Mexico, Africa and some parts of Europe.  Fico d'India in Italian and in English I tend to refer to it as an Indian fig. They are the fruit of a certain cactus of the same name and possibly native to Mexico.

 

Stopping at one of the many Marrakech Indian fig vendors for only 5 cents a pop. 

 These babies have a really soft ripe texture but with hard little seeds that are 

easy to swallow and man are they addicting.

Domaine du Val D'argan El Mogador Rose' visiting the botanical gardens in Marrakech.

Popped this bottle in the hotel by the pool tonight and it was actually quite fantastic.  We drank a red last night from the Guerrouane in the Meknès region which was quite rubbish, but this rose' here is definitely a contender.  I believe this wine is coming from mainly Muscat Noir grapes (13% alc.), and drinks similarly to a refreshing Provence rose' with a little bit of a herbaceous quality and a soft ashy, almost volcanic note that reminded me of a couple of Etna Rosato's I have had.

There are five wine growing regions in Morocco with 14 of them having AOG status.  This wine here lies in the south and outside of the five regions and Domaine du Val D'argan is the only winery located here (just 30 KM south of Essaouira, a lovely Moroccan beach town also famous for its seafood), with a production a little over 100,000 bottles a year.

Heres to discovering new wines in new places, especially in this case where the drinking culture is almost non existent.

Last days in the Mosel

Our last couple of days on the wine trail in Germany ended up in Mosel.  The landscapes here are unimaginable, one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited.  An important thing to note of course is the amount of very young, troken (dry) wines that are consumed here and not so much the sweeter styles.

Looking down the Willi Schaefer vineyards into the town of Graach, in The Mosel. These are some of the steepest vineyards in the world, this vineyard here lies on a slope of around 60°. 

 The Willi Shaefer wines were all so very focused that they carried one of the most individual styles of German Riesling.  The Grosses Gewachs (G.G.) pictured above was one of the very few expressions of these wines to give meaning to the quality level of the G.G. VDP.

Talia Baiocchi shuffling some grey slate in the Schaefer vineyards.  This grey slate pictured above dates back to over 300 million years ago and gives the wines that characteristic richness as well as a minerality that balances haroniously with the high acidity and residual sugar.

Dining at the Wein & Tafelhaus owned by Chef Alexander Oos and his wife in the Mosel was an all around flawless dinner. Wonderful wine list and excellent hospitality. The groups favorite dish of the week by far was this local baby deer with puree of sweet potato and wasabi foam.

 Wein & Tafelhaus 

Moselpromenade 4, 54349  

Trittenheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Our team Germany 2012 with Willi Schaefer second to left and our legendary driver Stefan second to right.

An amazing last tasting with the lovely Amei from Joh. Jos. Prum.  The wines from the Himmelreich vineyard showed an untouchable minerality and balance while the wines from the Sonnenuhr vineyards had a fuller body and riper fruit character.

What an amazing last day in the Mosel and then  followed by birthday adventures in Berlin...

View from my window

Looking out of my bedroom window, test shot for Polaroid SX 70.

South 3rd, Williamsburg

First shot (out of the bedroom window) with my newly acquired Polaroid sx-70 Land Camera.

un calice di rose' a Bar Jamon

Bar Jamon
125 E 17th St.
New York, NY.

San Giovanni in Laterano

San Giovanni In Laterano Through a bus window.  Rome, Italy 2009

Tre Bicchieri 2012 New York City

A sun shining Friday afternoon found me stopping into Gambero Rosso's Tre Bicchieri tasting room in the city.  A typical mobbed scene with many folk flocking to the big name wines (Sassicaia) which were sure to get drained in the early hours.  I was happy enough though with a tasting of Valentini 2009 Trebbiano D'Abruzzo. The super traditional and food friendly Bertani 2004 Amarone della Valpolicella (amazing stuff) and the Librandi 2009 Duca San Felice Riserva, the 100% Galioppo which was really interesting with its sharp earthiness and spice focus.

A Tre Bicchieri pregame lunch at Union Square Caffe with truffles over house made Tonnarelli.

Very concentrated new world style Montepulciano spit into a bucket and resembling a jam jar.

The expression after my taking in the wrath of 15,6% Alc.

Above, The Ladies of the Maialino wine team at Tre Bicchieri.

2012 Mt Baker Banked Slalom

The annual Mt Baker, Banked Slalom... One of the most classic and anticipated contests of the year that brings together an assortment of amazing talent in the snowboarding world, young and old.  This year Terje was on his game, here are some completely stollen photos off of Instagram.

The Sprocking Cat, Terje Haakonsen sent it into first place (his 7th win) and then made a fashionably early exit before awards to catch a flight heading home to Norway.

An old Pal Kevin Pearce was present and shredding the course as well.

terje laying down the euro carve.

supermodel lunch break

Just another day in the life of a busy restaurant until Fabiana Semprebom shows up.

a few essentials you may find at the models table during lunch...

First snow in New York

View of the Continental Army Plaza in Williamsburg Brooklyn, after the first snow of the year.

ferrari brut: still celebrating

A stroll through Williamsburg

Around September right before deciding to move to Williamsburg, in Brooklyn NY I took a self guided blind tour through the streets and snapped some of the first impressions I received.  Williamsburg, the hipster capital has quite a lot to offer for a newcomer.  Here are some shots taken on a short stroll through the hood.