January 29, 2008

Buon giorno! I'm looking forward to seeing who my fellow diners will be at this Wednesday's tablehopper supper at Aziza! It ends up we have a few seats available, so if you have nothing going tomorrow night and feel like feastin' with some fellow food phreeks, come and join us! Mmmm, perfect weather for beef stew and root veggie couscous.

This week we have the return of the wino, and so while we're on wine, I was wondering if you were aware of this groovy tool, the wine matcher, from wine writer Natalie MacLean. It's helpful when you aren't dating or living with a sommelier, and you're trying to figure out what will go with the wine you have, or what to pair with dinner. Have fun.

Well, I can't talk about wine without mentioning some cheese! My friends and I practically curled up with a wheel of the new Truffle Tremor from Cypress Grove this Sunday over brunch, it's wicked wicked stuff. It's like zombie cheese: Must. Have. More. Goat cheese and truffles, you do the math.

But since I'm not the only one who should be having all the cheese-fueled fun, I'm doing a giveaway this week of three copies of this spiffy new book, “Laura Werlin's Cheese Essentials: An Insiders Guide to Buying and Serving Cheese.” She breaks down all the styles so you can get your pride back while mulling over the multitude of formaggi at the cheese counter, and there are some good recipes, too.

To enter the drawing, one, you have to be a tablehopper subscriber, and two, you have to forward this week's newsletter to just two people (or send it to thousands, go wild) in order to be eligible to win. Just cc luckyme [at] tablehopper [dot] com when you forward the newsletter to your peeps (it's best if you explain why you're sending it to them). I promise I won't be collecting your friends' emails, those will stay private—I just need to keep track of how many folks you forwarded it to.

The deadline to enter is by midnight, this Sunday, February 3. I will be randomly drawing the winners and will email you to let you know you've won next week. Good luck! And if you don't win a book, you have two weeks to get it for 20% off from Green Apple Books!