Ok maybe that second headline is a bit over the top. There has been a lot of fretting about the dangers of choking on hot dogs because of a policy statement on children and choking issued in February by the American Academy of Pediatrics. With summer upon us and the sizzles and smells of tubular meat in the air, the fear mongering is being ratcheted up! Now don’t misunderstand me, choking is a bad thing. It has always been a bad thing.

My mom relates a tale to her and I driving down the road when I was a small boy. More than likely I was standing up in the back seat with no seatbelt (you just didn’t do that in the early 60’s). She had given me a lifesavers candy. As she tells it, I began to choke on it and she had to pull the car over and pull me from the back seat. The image of me hanging upside down from my mother’s arms; her smacking the crap out of my back, makes me wonder why she wasn’t arrested for child abuse. If that were to happen today, I am sure she would have. From that day forward I was not allowed to eat a hot dog that wasn’t cut into 5000 pieces until I reached the age of 17. Even today “Grandma” will tell her grandchildren to “cut that hot dog up before you eat it”. This does not thrill my 20 year old daughter. Do we have to completely change a historic food icon because parents don’t tell their kids to “chew your food” or because they don’t cut their hot dogs up before they serve them?

I have been a lover of tubular meat as my posts on this blog imply (here). I am dead set against any kind of regulations that would change the shape of the hot dog or brat, or polish sausage or Italian sausage or…you get the point. Thankfully there are TTM’s (Tubular Meat Modifiers). Creative entrepreneurs have invented aftermarket devices to save kids from certain death from tubular meat.

Creative Innovations has created the “Guard Dog” to transform the sinister “danger dog” into, as they put it a “Safety Cut Hot Dog” that will breakup into small pieces when chewed. All of this is done with an eye on reducing the choking hazard.

If you’re looking to reduce choking AND have fun, there is “Octodog”. No this isn’t hotdogs made from octopus (note to self: “tentacle tube steak”) it is a device that makes a hot dog look like an octopus. It also helps to reduce choking by sending your kid screaming from the dinner table because they think there is a cephalopod on their plate.

Finally, if you’re feeling a bit uptight and inadequate in the tubular meat department, Kalex Enterprises has a solution. They have created the Wynder’s Spiral Hot Dog Cutter. As their website says “the cut allows the hot dog, brat, or sausage to unwind so now it fits the bun better. We all want a dog that fits the bun better now don’t we? Due to the PG nature of this blog, I won’t discuss the how the Spiral Hot Dog Cutter impacts choking. We will leave that to a different blog.
The bottom line is, don’t change the way we make the dog, if you are concerned about a choking hazard there are plenty of aftermarket solutions to help. Go boldly into this grilling season resting assured that American ingenuity will keep you safe.

This article is one in a series of articles about our recent tour of California Wine Country. You can read about Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, the Summary, the Winery Dogs and the Restaurants as well.  

On the second day of touring the Dry Creek region of Sonoma County, we visited Zichichi Family Winery.

In 2000 Steve Zichichi, a doctor from New Orleans and his wife purchased the vineyard and built the winery.  The vineyard is planted in Zinfandel and Petite Sirah with the vines between 40 and 80 years old.  In addition to the wines produced from the vineyard they also make a Cabernet Sauvignon from grapes grown in Napa Valley.  One of the interesting aspects of the tasting was that after we had sampled the wines from the bottle we were also given a barrel tasting of the same wines.

Wines sampled:
2008 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
2008 Zichichi Estate Petite Sirah
2008 Zichichi Estate Old Vine Zinfandel

This article is one in a series of articles about our recent tour of California Wine Country. You can read about Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, the Summary, the Winery Dogs and the Restaurants as well.  

On the second day of touring the Dry Creek region of Sonoma County, we visited David Coffaro Vineyard and Winery.

At first glance the winery looks like a collection of not terribly impressive farm buildings.  Then you notice the solar cell array on the way to the tasting room.  The tasting room itself is more of an alcove in a building used to house barrels of aging wine.  The counter is a handful of used barrels in front of a backdrop of Oakland Raiders gear.  Various bits of stuff like tools and folding chairs line the walls.  But looks can be deceiving.

David Coffaro has a unique perspective on winemaking that has earned the respect of his peers.  He definitely does things his way.  Like the use of screw cap bottles.  Or blending grapes you’ve hardly ever heard of.  Or selling most of his wine as futures.  Or making a wine from the bottom of every barrel.  Or making wines that are affordable.

The first wine we sampled was Fresco, a light, refreshing blend of 22% Alvarelhao, 21% Tempranillo, 21% Tinto Cao, 20% Pelousin, and 16% Carmine.  It was on sale for $99 a case.  We bought one to ship back.  The other wines were just as good.  The conversation drifted to Aaron Rogers and where we were going to have dinner.  Steve showed us a menu for Cena Luna and offered to call for us.  We had more wine ending with the ZP2C which is a blend made from the remains of every barrel of wine produced and including all 21 varieties of grapes grown.  It was great.  I joined the wine club.  When we dined at Cena Luna that night we had a bottle of David Coffaro Sangiovese.  Enough said.

Wines sampled:
2006 Fresco
2006 Terre Melange, 36% Carignan, 27% Peloursin, 27% Syrah, 10% Mourvedre
2006 Petite Sirah
2006 Escuro, 36% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Tannat, 20% Petite Sirah, 20% Petit Verdot
2006 “My Zin”, 77% Zinfandel, 13% Petite Sirah, 10% Cabernet
2006 ZP2C, blend of 21 varieties

Cuisine Capers was created by two rabid foodies, Vic and Irene, who spend far too much time thinking about their next meal. Long time acquaintances, the other bad habit they picked up along the way was messing around with the Internet.

In early 1997 they got a brilliant idea – combine their food obsession with their Internet addiction and create an online dining guide for their city. Madison Dining Online was born. While attracting a few hundred thousand visitors a year, it doesn’t really make any money, but it keeps them in computers, Internet access, and now and then allows them to splurge on good local restaurant meals, passed off as a business expense through the reviews written for the site.

Both have travelled all over the US and the world, sampling as many restaurants as they can along the way. While Vic and Irene may have a lot in common, there are quite a few differences as well.

Irene is unmarried, but living with a “significant other” for the past 17 or so years. He stubbornly clings to a liking of bell peppers and an old, tiny, decrepit Smokey Joe grill just to annoy Irene. Irene’s main philosophy for food: Fruit and “real food” have no business being served atop one another. Seperate courses are fine, but never the twain shall meet when it comes to combining these two entities.

Vic is happily married with a house full of kids. Many of his more gourmet endeavors are greeted with an “ewwww” from the children gathered around his table, who view the word “Spice” as a four letter word. His preferences lean towards asian fusion style foods and manly grilling. He is obsessed with hot dogs, and has made hitting all of the major joints one of his lifetime goals. He happily puts fruit on his meat.

You can contact us via email at “contact at cuisinecapers dot com”, or by clicking here.