Food & Wine May 2019

2017 BEYOND SAUVIGNON BLANC ($12) For those people who want a Sauvignon Blanc that walks a finely tuned line between California fruitiness and New Zealand pepperiness, this South African version from the estate Buitenverwachting (Dutch for “beyond expectation”) should be a no-brainer—not least because of its absurdly low price. 2017 AGRICOLA PUNICA SAMAS ($19) A springtime white should hit your palate with a “ping!” and wake up your taste buds after the rich reds of winter. This Sardinian Vermentino is a perfect example: zesty, lively, and yet with a mineral backbone that adds nuance. Chill it down, now that it’s warm enough outside to actually want a chilled wine. 2015 CORISON NAPA VALLEY CABERNET SAUVIGNON ($95) Cathy Corison is one of Napa Valley’s top winemakers, and her Cabernet—especially in the exceptional 2015 vintage—is a perfect…

MY FIRST FOOD MEMORY is of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the beach. Every morning during summers on the coast of South Carolina with my cousins, my mom would make PB&Js using the whole loaf of sliced white bread and stack them back in the plastic sleeve for a beach picnic. No matter how much we tried to avoid it, they were sand magnets. Occasionally, my dad would bring a tray of foil-wrapped chili dogs down to the beach “for the adults.” If this was adulting, I wanted an upgrade. By the 1990s, I got one: Dinners at the beach rental grew epic in scale, with my grandmother and aunt, dressed in their muumuus, one-upping each other with Italian spiedini or fish stew. It was a time of…

ANY TIME SAMIN NOSRAT gets a whiff of saltwater air, she’s catapulted back to her childhood in San Diego. Best known for her cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, followed by a Netflix series of the same name, Nosrat went to high school three blocks from the ocean, her “happy place.” Her family is from Iran, and as a child, she spent many Persian holidays at the beach. They would celebrate Chaharshanbe Suri, just before the Persian New Year, Nowruz, by jumping over fires at sundown and eating ash reshteh, a thick soup made of noodles and beans. Then, on Sizdah Bedar, the 13th day of Nowruz, they would gather for a beach picnic, toting samovars filled with tea and unrolling Persian carpets over the sand. Now based in Berkeley, Nosrat confides that…

A RECIPIENT OF THE 2018 John Egerton Prize from the Southern Foodways Alliance, Germaine Jenkins is the force behind Fresh Future Farm, a farm and grocery store in North Charleston, South Carolina. When Jenkins first moved there, she found that if her family wanted food of a certain quality, she had to leave the neighborhood. In an effort to lift up her community and provide a necessary resource, she started growing produce and selling it in her grocery store. Her approach is one grounded in pragmatism and sustainability. —INTERVIEW BY JULIA TURSHEN, FOUNDER OF EQUITY AT THE TABLE (EATT) AND AUTHOR OF NOW & AGAIN JT: You were exposed to a community garden at a young age. How did that affect you? GJ: It was like a light switch; I can’t even…

CHEF JOSH NILAND CAN COAX deliciousness from fish eyeballs. And swim bladders. (Fun fact: They crisp up like pork rinds.) And even from fish blood, which he transforms into a delicate black pudding “that’s so delicious and has no aroma at all,” Niland says. “People think it’s really over the top, but it’s more mellow than pig’s blood.” What’s more, he does it with elegance and a confidence instilled by the approval of a critical bellwether: his mother. Everything he puts on the plate at his 34-seat restaurant Saint Peter in Sydney must first pass muster with his mother. “When I opened Saint Peter, I said we need a recipe for every single part of the fish, and we need to make it all delicious for my mother or any run-of-the-mill…

WHITSUNDAY ISLANDS, AUSTRALIA Whitehaven Beach Whitehaven’s powdered-sugar sand is the stuff beach dreams are made of, thanks to Mother Nature depositing thousands of years of quartz here (and not on any of the other 73 Whitsunday Islands). Sail here on Viking’s Komodo and the Australian Coast itinerary, which includes cooking classes and market excursions, and sails from Bali, Indonesia, to Sydney. (From $4,999; vikingcruises.com) COOK ISLANDS One Foot Island There’s a darn good reason a season of Survivor was filmed here: the solitude. Paul Gauguin Cruises drops anchor nearby on its Cook Islands and Society Islands sailing. While not gawking at the beach, you can expect elegant, Polynesian-inflected food on board at the La Veranda restaurant—quite unlike the diet of a Survivor contestant. (From $6,395; pgcruises.com) SEYCHELLES Anse Source D’Argent With its curiously shaped boulders and dense greenery,…