Pleasant Living Magazine

For years now, we have been looking for a signature fish to feature at Something Different. We are well known for our dry-rubbed and smoke-cooked salmon served with mustard-dill sauce (we are now using cold-water salmon from the Faroe Islands, which are raised without any antibiotics or dyes), but we also wanted a local fish to fry or broil. Croaker, spot and perch are local, but are boney and inconsistent in size, availability and price. Catfish are too ordinary for us and most are farm-raised elsewhere. Pollock, cod, whiting and haddock are popular restaurant fare but are all rather insipid and certainly not local.

I recently discovered that, after virtually disappearing for about thirty years, blow toads are making a comeback and are available commercially in limited quantities. Blow toads, though little known, are local and are imminently edible in spite of their name: They are undisputedly the sweetest, mildest, and many think the most succulent and best tasting fish in the Chesapeake Bay region. They are also easy to prepare and to eat, as there are no bones to contend with except for the backbone, and they are definitely Something Different.

Food & Wine Trails has announced its 2012 wine-cruise season, with 20 wineries from around the United States and Europe hosting educational cruises for friends and fans.

"These wine cruises offer great value, as they are half the price of a comparable land-based wine tour," according to Larry Martin, the company's president.  Martin also points out that a wine cruise offers more activity options, making it attractive to both the enthusiast and the non-enthusiast.  Travelers can choose to further their wine-knowledge or spend time shopping, sightseeing or lying around the pool.  They also gain access to people and places not normally available to the tourist, which is something everyone enjoys.

All Food & Wine Trails cruises are hosted by nationally recognized winemakers or winery owners and most include free airfare as well as private-to-the-group parties, tastings, special dinners, visits to top winestates, plus prepaid gratuities and shipboard credits.  All offer the convenience of not having to pack and unpack and the fun and conviviality of traveling with a group of like-minded people.

The 2012 winery line-up includes some of Napa Valley's most prestigious brands including Joseph Phelps, Pahlmeyer and Robert Mondavi wineries, as well as wineries from other appellations around California, Oregon, Maryland, New York and Spain.  The series will first visit New Zealand and Australia next February, with spring and summer arrivals to Italy, Portugal, France, Spain. Morocco, the Canary Islands and Alaska on Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Oceania Cruises and Holland America Line.  Prices start at $1,449 per person.

About Food & Wine Trails:  Food & Wine Trails is America's oldest and largest wine-travel company, hosting its first wine cruise in 1989 and now handling over 3,000 food and wine lovers a year.  Food & Wine Trails is the educational tour division of the HMS Travel Group, a 25-year old company based in Santa Rosa, California that has designed travel programs for such culinary icons as Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, and most of America's top food magazines and wineries.  Larry Martin, the president of Food & Wine Trails, is a wine collector, vegetable gardener and the Northern California Regional Governor for Slow Food, an international food advocacy organization.  The editors of Conde Nast Traveler have chosen Martin for the past three consecutive years as "The World's Top Wine Travel Specialist" 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Virginia wines were recently well represented at two prominent wine competitions. Among the 51 Virginia wineries that participated in the International Eastern Wine Competition and Atlantic Seaboard Wine Competition, Virginia took away 226 medals including 11 Best in Class, 1 Double Gold and 18 Gold medals.

Attimo Winery , located in Christiansburg, Virginia, won a Double Gold and Best in Class for their Sonnet 98, a 2010 Vidal Blanc, in the 2011 International Eastern Wine Competition. Dr. Richard Obiso Jr., President and Manager of Attimo Winery, believes that it is the bouquet and vibrant characteristics of this wine that make it stand out. He believes that participating in wine competitions is good for individual wineries but great for the industry as a whole. "We are such a growing industry, and we need to show that we can make wine just as well as any other region," Obiso declared.

Barboursville Vineyards  took away the most number of awards from these two competitions of the 51 Virginia wineries that participated. They won 11 awards including two Best of Class and 2 gold medals, all from the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Competition. The Barboursville Vineyards 2007 Octagon and the 2009 Petit Verdot both won the esteemed Best of Class award.

The International Eastern Wine Competition took place June 14th and 15th and is one of the largest and most competitive tastings in North America, judged by a panel of knowledgeable wine professionals and media from the East Coast and beyond, two of which came from Virginia. About 1,400 wines were submitted and a total of 860 medals were awarded.

The Atlantic Seaboard Wine Competition took place this year on July 23rd and 24th and represented wines from 11 states on the Atlantic Seaboard. In total, 335 gold, silver, and bronze medals were awarded, 165 of which went to Virginia wineries.

For a complete list of Virginia medals from these two competitions, visit http://www.virginiawine.org/industry/documents

Traveling through Maryland’s Eastern Shore used to feel like a trip back in time to me. I’d leave Washington, D.C., heading east on Route 50, and once I’d crossed the majestic Bay Bridge, I was suddenly in another world. This was a world of family-owned restaurants, general stores with wooden front porches, and billboards standing in cornfields. Here were hardworking farmers, seafood packers, and watermen.

On summer weekends, firemen’s associations and church groups used to set up makeshift grills on the side of the road and sell barbecued chicken to neighbors and to weekend travelers. When driving down Route 50, I always watched ahead for one of those telltale columns of smoke billowing skyward from the flat corn country. A column of this smoke meant one thing: a roadside barbecue grill was ahead!