"Godzilla" > wrote in message
...
> Year after year, Kim Crawford Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ranks at the
> top of my preference list.
> The 2006 that I tried last night was no exception. It had the
> characteristic Citrus and Tropical Fruit overtones, the pale
> burnished gold color, the clean nose and long finish plus an
> intangible element of good balance. According to Hugh Johnson, Kim
> Crawford is now owned by a Canadian company.
> It would appear that the new owners have wisely kept their sticky
> fingers out of the area of wine making and concentrated upon
> merchandising the product. That is not always the case with corporate
> buyouts. More often, the bean counters manage to destroy fine things
> with their meddling.
>
> I made some crab cakes as the entree to set off the wine. There have
> been problems in the past with keeping the crab cakes intact while
> cooking, but this has been solved from an unexpected source.
> Some Googling on the subject brought up the web page of Senator
> Barbara Mikulski, hailing from the crab cake capital of the US,
> Maryland. On it she had her favorite recipe for crab cakes, which
> differed slightly from the one that I had been using. More important
> than the recipe, I garnered a couple of important secrets about
> methodology. The first was to chill the crab cakes in the
> refrigerator for about an hour before cooking. The second was that it
> was possible to broil them, as well as the traditional method of deep
> frying.
>
> We are constantly besieged by well intentioned souls telling us
> of "healthful" substitutions, that are certain to ward off all known
> diseases and guarantee a longer lifespan than Methuselah.
> The pitch invariably ends with "and you'll never know the difference."
> That phrase alone is enough to raise my hackles and make me do a one
> hundred and eighty degree turn away. Yet, to all rules,
> there are exceptions. Broiling the crab cakes proved to be one of
> them. Before attempting this technique on the expensive material, I
> made several trials using cheap Surimi (imitation crab.)
> Once I had the timing and degree of heat established, it was time to
> put the can opener to the pound of good Indonesian crab and let the
> broiler roar. Three minutes on High heat on each side was ideal for
> my stove, although other stoves must vary from my setting. The
> result, - perfection. And, I didn't know the difference, except that
> I did not experience grease running down to my armpits with each
> byte. ;-)
>
> I am certain that our Texas senators also have web sites. However, I
> doubt that they would contain anything more than self praise for all
> the damage that they have aided and abetted during their long terms
> in office.
>
> Godzilla

Dear Godzilla,
We bought this wine 28 July 2007 at Gary's in Bernardsville, NJ. Wine
Spectator gave it 92 pt. $12.99.
Unbelieveably, we had this last night also. With salmon. I wish it had
been crab cakes, too, as I have a can of Phillips (I believe) Lump on hand.

I like what you say about broiling, I have been wanting to do this. I was
going to do it this way: fry it in a pan, turn it over and broil to finish,
but I like the Senator's instructions and will try it. Thanks.
http://mikulski.senate.gov/crabcake.html

We drink mostly red wines, but we always feel that we should drink a white
wine now and then. This bottle was purchased as a "should" wine. I had a
sip while cooking, then a small glass with dinner, so I tried it with and
without food. I've had this taste before and it is not one that appeals to
me. Same with DH. Frankly I wish that I had liked it; I tried to. It was a
little better at the end of the glass. The best I could describe it is that
it was cloyingly sweet. I am no good at describing wines. I appreciate
your description. Clean nose and long finish is hard for me to understand
with this wine, and any other wine at this point.

We say mostly every dinner, "I wonder who else is having this exact dinner
tonight."
BTW, I also had rabe, and linguine separately sauced with uncooked fresh
tomatoes and basil.

Thanks for your enjoyable review of dinner, wine, etc.
Dee Dee