What's That White Stuff on Grapes?

Is it pesticide? Yeast? Unidentified gross substance?

Traditional or Modern

Vietti Barolo finds the best of both worlds.

Hops Luxury

Damn the world shortage of my favorite beer ingredient.

A Cheese Primer

CHOW’s guide to the major cheese types.

The Taste of an Oyster

Plus a dozen oysters you should know.

Red grapes often have a whitish film on them. Don’t worry that it’s insecticide residue; in fact, it’s the opposite.

No worries about pesticides, even grapes that haven’t been sprayed should have a bloom on them. It’s a natural waxy substance produced by the fruit to protect itself. Here’s a cite from Welch’s -...

The sangiovese grape is native to Tuscany and is the main grape in Chianti & Brunello wines. It would certainly go well with most hearty foods from that area and would go especially well with roasted & grilled meats.

I just discovered a new farmers market downtown on Traction avenue (just east of Alameda)between 4th and 2nd street right near Blooms general store and Zip Fusion. A few decent fruit and vegetable stands, along with a greek food...

a bad batch. I was really amazed at the free lb of scrapple they included. I am not usually a scrapple fan but this tasted almost like what I wanted in the sausage. I also picked up a nice, full, already blooming heirloom green...

Dewberry is similar to blackberry. The dewberry grows a trailing vine and the fruit is a little smaller and somewhat tastier than most blackberries. I neglected to mention earlier that I also usually do wild grapes when I find...

Why not make your own? It’s so easy..check out the cookbook of Penelope Casas. I make both the red (tomato based) and white (almond/grape based) ones.

My mother lives in central NC, about 90 minutes south of Durham. Any peaches from that area will only be the very late summer fruit from trees that bloomed a little later, and not a lot of that. There’s a lot of unhappy...

Susina bakery on Beverly and LaBrea has a good one, it had kiwi, strawberries and big fat blackberries. I don’t remember it having much filler fruit (cantaloup, honeydew, bananas and red grapes).

I agree with all that fall is a wonderful, uncrowded time in the Valley. But if that doesn’t work out, February can be just as nice ... vines are just starting to green up, mustard grass is in full bloom, and the Valley is...