May 29, 2007

Wow, the fog bank cleared so everyone could have a proper Memorial Day BBQ, or bike ride, or hangover; you know the kind—when you feel guilty about the gorg day you are missing while you drink a Coke and nibble crackers in bed, right? And me? Well, after burning the midnight oil at too many bars and clubs to count this long weekend, I flipped my hazards on and pulled it on over. I also can’t wait to finish writing this column so I can get back into reading Marco Pierre White’s The Devil in the Kitchen (thanks to a star tablehopper reader who stoked me with the book, meow!). Yup, the only table I hopped to this Memorial Day was my kitchen table. Hello, old friend. Did ya miss me?

Okay, so speaking of books and barbecues, since we have Father’s Day coming up on June 17, I thought I’d do another tablehopper giveaway! This time I’m giving away two books from Chronicle Books: one is Extreme Barbecue—Smokin' Rigs and Real Good Recipes by Dan Huntley and Lisa Grace Lednicer, with “in-depth profiles, outrageous photographs, and nearly 100 personal recipes [that reveal] the daring men and women and their crazy homemade grilling apparatuses.” The other is Gentlemen, Start Your Ovens—Killer Recipes for Guys by Tucker Shaw, “the ultimate course in culinary basics, with over 60 recipes for every hour of the day (or night).” Smokin’!

To enter, first, you have to be a tablehopper subscriber, and second, you have to forward the tablehopper newsletter to three pals—just be sure to cc luckyme [at] tablehopper [dot] com on the email so I know you forwarded it to three folks. No, 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, Sunday, June 3. I will be randomly drawing the two winners and will email you to let you know you’ve won on Monday, June 4. The first winner gets first pick of the two books.

Lastly, I am running a couple “wino” pieces on the ever-controversial topic of corkage policies over the next two weeks—I think it will be interesting to hear a couple perspectives from both sides of the wine list (i.e. from someone ordering off it, and someone who writes them).

Cheers, yo-
~ Marcia (rhymes with Garcia)