We've heard your requests for another "Globally Inspired, Locally Realized" wine dinner, and this time we'll be taking foodies' palates to other side of the globe. On Tuesday, April 29th, Chef Porter will prepare a four course South African Wine Dinner, featuring his take on traditional African dishes, each paired with a South African Wine. South Africa has a rich and diverse heritage, made up of African, Indian, Dutch and English cultures. Its location at the tip of the continent made it the perfect stopping point for ships traveling between Europe and the East. Their spices, cooking techniques and good old ingenuity make South African cuisine a true melting pot of cuisines. During dinner, Chef James will explain how he prepared the evening's menu, and South African Nico Steyn from Avinya Distributors will educate us about each of the paired wines. The four course wine dinner begins at 6:30pm, is $65 a person, plus tax and gratuity, and reservations are required. Take a look at the menu and give us a call to save your spot!

South African Wine Dinner

"A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch."
- James Beard

Did we get your attention? Read on to learn more about the drool-worthy dessert menu Chef Porter and his stellar kitchen team has put together. We launched it last week, and regulars and first timers are giving all the sweet small plates rave reviews. Take a look at the menu online (better yet come in and try it!) and you'll see there is definitely something for everyone. Summer Fruit Gazpacho with Rosemary Champagne Granita. Waffle Cone Drumsticks (Rice Crispy and Ice Cream filled Drumsticks Dipped in Butterscotch and Pistachios). Strawberry Stuffed Donut Holes. Toasted Coconut Pound Cake with Fossil Creek Goat Cheese and Macerated Summer Berries. We've also added an International Cheese Platter for those of you who love to end dinner on a different note. Tell us you read about the new dessert menu in the newsletter, and your sweet ending is on us!

Tapino Desert Menu

Chef Porter is hitting the street again, this time to show his support for "Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation Phoenix 2008" being held Friday, April 25th at the Phoenician. Tapino is joining some of the best restaurants in the Valley to support community based food banks that help feed over 12 million hungry kids nationwide. Stop by and say hello to Chef, and help fight childhood hunger!

Taste of the Nation

Here we are in the middle of spring, with summer bearing down on us. Looking forward to all those 110F+ days? Yeah, I dread it too. Fear not! Tapino has scheduled a whole raft of exciting holiday celebrations to lift your spirits and make you forget all about that upcoming heat. For your celebratory pleasure, we are sponsoring a veritable plethora of festive occasions worthy of your participation... aren't we thoughtful! Our T.H.R.I.C.I.P. Dept. (Tapino Holiday Research, Identification and Celebration Integration Planning Department) has been burning the midnight oil to identify these special observances of some of the world's most profound annual events. They range from the political to the revolutionary to the celebration of Royalty. And Tapino is the local vortex for all of them! Can't you just feel the excitement?!

· Carnation Day Celebration - Friday, April 25th
· Freedom Day Celebration - Sunday, April 27th
· King Siaosi Tupou V's Birthday - Sunday, May 4th
· Cinco de Mayo Celebration - Tuesday, May 6th

Click here for all the glorious details

For thousands of years Spanish farmers have produced some of the finest cheeses in the world and the traditional techniques they employed have combined with modern agricultural methods to ensure the continued success of Spanish cheese. The unique landscape, flora and production techniques of each small farming district create an almost never ending range of cheeses. In the northern Asturias region, they make the incomparably assertive Cabrales. It is a pungent, earthy cheese whose salty, piquant flavor knocks your socks off and rolls up your pant leg to boot. A truly serious stinky cheese! In nearby Leon, the locals also like their cheese to have some character. Their contribution is Valdeón, a bold, creamy blue that is ever-so-slightly tamer than its neighbor. To be sure, Valdeón is no wimp. Its ivory colored paste is full of those signature blue veins, and its complex taste is at once sharp, and salty, and creamy. It's usually made from cow's milk, but in the Spanish style, producers often mix in goat and sheep milk. Wheels of Valdeón come wrapped in Sycamore leaves. Besides enhancing its appearance, the leaf-wrap adds yet another subtle flavor undertone to the cheese.

Valdeón cheese is made in Posada de Valdeón, (hence its name) in the Castile-Leon region of Northwestern Spain. In the realm of Spanish blue cheeses, Cabrales has all the fame, but many tasters prefer Valdeón. Valdeón could well be called "Cabrales lite", a milder, creamier and more approachable product. Valdeón has an excellent balance of sweetness and tang, and is buttery to the taste, very aromatic with a nice earthiness at the finish. A cheese lovers cheese!

Valdeón is a mixed- milk cheese. After the curds form, they're inoculated with Penicillium spores to initiate the blue veining. Then the curds are cut smaller, drained and molded under light pressure. Once they are firm enough to unmold, the wheels are salted and pierced with needles to create the air channels where the blue veins will form. Here lies the main difference between Valdeón and Cabrales. Cabrales is not pressed into its molds and therefore the curd is looser, with more spaces between particles for the mold to grow in. And, Cabrales is not pierced with needles. The piercing is needed for Valdeón because the curds are packed more tightly together and need air passages for the mold to grow. At Tapino we often use Cabrales as our preferred Spanish Blue cheese. Occasionally we will switch to Valdeón, just for the hell of it, and maybe to entice a few more friends to try this slightly less intimidating cheese. Valdeón was named best blue cheese in Spain's 2003 national competition and pairs well with wines made from the gamay grape, such as Beaujolais cru and Muscat or with most any Spanish sherry. This cheese is delicious with smoked and cured meats and is divine melted on top of a grilled steak.

More than you ever wanted to know about Valdeón Cheese

The Willing Wino encounters an old friend - Capestrano Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

This past weekend as I was sorting through the empties in Tapino's dumpster, I suddenly found an old, and dear friend that stopped me cold, and made me sit down for awhile and relive the halcyon days of my misspent youth. There it was, an empty, but still aroma-filled, bottle of 2005 Capestrano Montepulciano d' Abruzzo. Many years ago, as I drifted around Europe, looking for the perfect glass of wine, I met a young man, Lorenzo Landi, in the Bordeaux region of France. He was an Italian who was studying winemaking so that he could return to Italy and help resuscitate the aging and obsolete wine industry there. For many hours, over several days, and many gallons of then-cheap Bordeaux wine, we discussed the finer arts of winemaking, wine drinking, and womanizing. He carried on endlessly about the indigenous, regional grapes of Italy, and how wonderful the local table wines could be. After several days, I convinced Lorenzo to let me go with him, back to Abruzzo, Italy to checkout the wine scene myself.

There, he introduced me to the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo grape, and the wine named after it - concentrated flavors with lots of peppery, spicy and rustic accents characteristic of its Southern Italian origin. This wine is a rich, purple/ruby color, exuding fragrant aromas of black cherries, kirsch liqueur, vanilla and earth. Round, rich and ripe, the wine displays a nice extraction of fruit flavors, firm tannins and a long tight finish. Everyone drank it. It was the "house wine" at everybody's house! In short order, Montepulciano and I became old friends. This grape should not be confused with the more famous "Montepulciano" of Tuscany! The names are similar but "Nobile di Montepulciano" and "Montepulciano d'Abruzzo" are two very different grapes and very different wines. While both wines are considered everyday wines, Nobile di Montepulciano is more structured and complex. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is a simple everyday table wine. It seems to be made for the American market but is not the traditional fruit bombs one would normally associate with a young everyday wine. It is not the wine for the sophisticated wine drinker. It will not wow you at every sip but it is a great compliment for simple dishes.

After finding that dead soldier in the dumpster, I was all about talking one of the Tapino guys into sneaking me a glass of the modern version of my old buddy, Montepulciano. After awhile, I thought I had struck out, when to my surprise, out walked Chef Porter, himself, with two glasses and a whole bottle of Capestrano. He said we could share a glass each, and then I could have the rest of the bottle for myself. Sacrebleu! I had struck gold! We sat on the curb and drank, and talked, and I told him everything I knew about the old days in Abruzzo, and this humble, delicious product of the Adriatic coast of Italy ...

More than you ever wanted to know about Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

• Could a magician be disillusioned?

• Why does the word "OVERLOOK" mean both "ignore" and "inspect"?

• Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

Thank you!

Trivia

• Most grape juice is relatively colorless. Red wine gets it color from contact with the grape's skin.

• About two thirds of wine produced in France is red.