Food Notes: 12/10

Soviet Wine, drinking mayonnaise, panettone, and more.

Dec 10, 2024

Not having had enough of cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, my wife whipped up a batch of chunky homemade sauce to serve at the annual viewing of Love Actually, a tradition she has upheld for two decades.

As far as movies go, Love Actually isn’t very good for themed dinner parties. There’s not much food in the film, and what food we do see, doesn’t have a very good reputation. Colin, the wedding cater waiter, makes a bit of a mess trying to hit on the wedding’s caterer. He’s passing out “taste explosion” canapé when he tries chatting up a woman who turns out to be a chef.

I’ve attempted past menus where we cook food that is especially British, like cottage pie. It’s not all that inspiring. The easiest thing to do is celebrate Colin’s arrival in Wisconsin with Bud Lite, which we did have.

We did notice another British food this year. Kiera Knightly’s character brings over a slice of Banoffee Pie when she comes calling for footage of her wedding. To be honest, after dozens of viewings it was the first time I noticed she’s actually offering some kind of British dessert — only because it was featured in this season’s Bake Off. Since its filled with bananas, this one isn’t really for me, but there’s a recipe online if you want to try.

Ultimately we ended up cooking duck breasts, which at least seemed vaguely British, like supper in a Charles Dickens novel, served alongside a sausage stuffing and the above cranberry sauce. As is also tradition, I lived-Tweeted the viewing, this time on Bluesky.

The Latest

Eater Gets Chopped

Eater’s city-focused sites saw big layoffs as Vox executives mismanaged the properties once again. The sites are moving to a “regional” model, meaning coverage will probably be much worse, less interesting, and a lot more work for the staff.

Soviet-Era Wine Country

Collective farming in the Soviet Union upended many traditional wine making regions, but in the decades since the collapse, some of those historic areas are coming back. Food & Wine looks at the return of those now rare wine.

Russians Flush Toilets With Ukraine’s Wine

Speaking of Soviet-era wine making, Stalin apparently set up a sparkling wine region in Bakhmut, Ukraine. The region developed high quality sparkling wine, and after the fall of the Soviets, amassed a large vault of wine. Then the Russians returned, and started using the prized wines to flush toilets.

Animals Like To Get Drunk

Apparently, our fury friends in the wild are often getting drunk on half-rotten fruit. Animals in mainly tropical regions where yeast and bacteria cause fruit sugars to ferment expose animals to naturally forming alcohol. It’s okay, they can stop any time they want to, and definitely if one of them is nominated to be Secretary of Defense.

Chefs, One Year In

Bon Appétit talks with six chefs about their first year in business: Accolades are good, press is good, having a story is good. Basically, hire a PR agency because they provide the things that make business good.

Eating In the Swamp

Washington D.C. has always been short on culture. Sure, there are museums filled with the spoils of empire, but what about the food? D.C. has importing restaurants from NYC recently, and Aaron Lefkove over at the Melt decides to check out the new Minetta Tavern.

It’s Panettone Season

Christmas is the time for eating panettone, the Italian Christmas bread. I have a whole history and guide from last year. Food & Wine taste-tested a few varieties this year. Wirecutter offers their thoughts too. My personal favorite is the Amarena Fabbri Panettone With Cherries, and the Vergani Limoncello Panettone.

Drinkable Mayonaise

If things weren’t bad enough, now there’s drinkable mayonnaise. If that sounds like something you want, you better hurry up and get some before RFK, Jr., bans that too.