Photo credit for Menu for Hope logo: Heidi Swanson
Only 5 more days until the December 24th deadline to donate and A Menu for Hope II is still on a roll, this morning the total was over $8000! Sam from Becks and Posh has re-compiled and organized the list of prizes in light of the recent Typepad emergency that Pim had with her post. The list just gets longer and longer and more and more interesting! Can you believe you could buy a chance to shadow a Michelin-starred Chef in Paris for only $5? It's true!
Comprehensive list of prizes here.
Photo credit for Menu for Hope logo: Heidi Swanson
I've been periodically checking Chez Pim's Menu for Hope II donation total and it is currently over $6000 (*High-5 Pim*)! It's pretty amazing how fast the total is growing everyday and how generous the whole food blogging community is, not just with cash, but literally treasured possessions - check out this post by Barbara from Tigers and Strawberries about a cast-iron kadai and you'll know what I mean.
Thanks for everyone that has donated!
The author of one of my favorite food blogs, Pim of Chez Pim, has organized an online food-blogging charity event to raise funds for the victims of recent earthquakes in Pakistan and Kashmir. It's important that aid from the international community continue and these victims are not forgotten, especially in the light of recent victims of the Southeast Asian Tsumanis and the US hurricanes.
The donations are going to be funneled to Unicef and will be collected in the form of an online raffle - just donate $5 for a chance to win any one of a list of prizes from food bloggers including a $200 gift certificate to Manresa in Los Gatos, CA from Pim herself and a personalized food tour of Paris from Louisa of Movable Feast.
As a tribute to my newly found love of the ultra-thinly-sliced and waffle-cut potatoes courtesy of my new mandoline, given to me by my buddy Mike on my birthday, I'm offering up a brand new Benriner Kanekichi Slicer for the auction.
Go donate $5 for your chance to win an awesome prize!
From Chez Pim:
Recipe to participate:
1. Find the gift you would like on our menu.
2. Go to A Menu for Hope II donation page and donate $5 or whatever sum you could spare.
3. Tell us in the comment section of your donation form which gift(s) you would like have. Each $5 donation will give you one chance at winning the prize of your choice. (Yes, if you donate more than $5, you are allowed to specify more than one prize.)
4. That's it!
Our campaign will end on December 23rd, and the winners will be announced and the prizes sent to corresponding winners after January 1st 2006.
Update on Chez Pim
Photo credit for Menu for Hope logo: Heidi Swanson
Being from California, I had no idea that New York State was the second largest producer of wines in the country, just recently supassing Oregon.
I learned this while I was walking through Soho with my roommate Susana and we stumbled on Vintage, a wine store/bar that offers local New York State wines from the Finger Lakes and the North Fork of Long Island at $5 for 5 tastings. Check out the selection:
The tastings are either self-chosen from a list of bourdeux blends, pinot noirs, merlots, cabernet savignons, syrahs, table wines, chardonnays, fruity whites, fruit wines, ice wines, sparkling wines, fortified wines, etc... you name it they have it. Or you could do what we did and let the very knowledgable bartender choose a selection of different full-bodied reds for us. This is what our $5 got for us:
2001 Macari Bergen Road from Long Island
2001 Paumanok Assemblage from Long Island
2001 Osprey's Dominion Cabernet Savignon from Long Island
Richmond Creek Red Table Wine from Long Island
2002 Jamesport Merlot from Long Island
All the pours were great wines from their respective categories. The table wine was so-so, but we were told not to expect much as the flavor is very mediocre. He recommended a French table wine - Les Jamelles, which I'll pick up a bottle of next time I'm at Broadway Warehouse Wines. I wish I could be more descriptive with what I tasted, but that will have to wait until I take a wine class, hopefully soon. All I can say it that my favorite was the 2001 Paumanok Assemblage.
If our 5 pours wasn't enough of a great deal already, we got 2 additional pours of dessert wines:
2003 Wolffer Late Harvest Chardonnay from Long Island
2004 Casa Larga Delle Stelle Vidal Ice Wine from the Finger Lakes
Late harvest wines are those made from grapes that are allowed to ripen on the vide for an extended time, giving them an increased and intense sugar content. Ice wines are those made from grapes that remain on the vine until after the first frost, allowing for the same concentration of sugars when they are pressed. I don't particularly like dessert wines because I don't have a sweet tooth, but the Vidal was pretty good. I'd definitely have to have a complementary food with it next time I drink it though. Susana really liked the Wolffer, but it was too sweet for me, almost syrupy.
For anyone curious about New York wines or if ever you're wandering around Broome and Wooster Streets and have $5 in your wallet, I suggest you check this place out and get a cheap buzz.
Vintage New York
482 Broome Street
Corner of Wooster
Phone: 212-226-9463
