Last night I made a nice dinner of Braised Lamb Shanks with Tomato/Pepper sauce and white beans. This is a Tuscany inspired dish and it was wonderful. So we decided to pop one of my 2006 Abacus Cabernet's from ZD Cellars and although this is too early to really drink it, it was a great wine and you can taste how good it is going to be over time. This wine would truly cost a grand in a restaurant and I would not pay it and it is even dang expensive to order it direct from the winery. This is an amazing wine and yet I don't plan to open any more bottles for several years. One thing I have really enjoyed over the last few years is the democratization of wine distribution and the very hgih quality of wines at reasonable prices has now become the norm. We have to really stretch to spend lots on wine nowadays and that is a welcome change!

Let's say you want to spend a little more cash and get a truly great wine, here are my recommendations based on wines I have had several times this year...

• McCrea Syrah Orleans Cuvee
• Jordan Cabernet 2003
• Any Meritage Viader
• Any Leonetti

I have been hearing a new Hummingbird outside my bedroom window feeder this last week and they do have distinct traits and sounds. Today I was washing cars and bikes and I saw the new bird feeding off the pots in the front yard. So I brought out my camera and tuned my ears to listen and as I was sitting on the porch with a little ale in a Dixie cup, I caught these awesome shots. It is an Anna's Hummingbird from my identification.

The "Seminal Seattle" figure Norm Maleng passed today. This man was the epitomy of conviction and justice. When I had met him the several times over the years, he impressed me so much with his stewardship for his role and his deep love of the NW. A good man is gone.

Must be nice to have your hubby finance your start up and with their company motto out there maybe things are starting to smell a bit behind the scenes? 

There are a few general rules that we loosely follow each year we make this trek...

• We have to hit all the proper BBQ joints.
• We will only stay in the clubs with the great bands or we move to the next one to get that "Memphis Magic" performance.
• We will try to not to over do it wrt to the partying.

We always compromise the last rule and this year was no different, but more on that later.

We flew into town on Tuesday night and settled up in mid-town Memphis and stayed the Marriott Residence Inn this time. It is nicely located (2 blocks from Beale) and made it easy to hop on the main street trolley or walk, which we did late at night from the charter member dinner and the Blues Awards to our pad before we hit Beale to close things down, so it is a nice location. Hotel is clean and the staff have been great. They have a comp breakfast and beer in the afternoon, complimentary health club passes and little kitchens in the rooms.

On Tuesday night we headed right out to the Rendezvous which was in full swing and about a 1/2 hour wait. We ordered up a appetizer platter of sausage, cheese and pickles and a couple pitchers of Michelob which is the premium beer of the place with none of that fancy micro-brew crap here! It is funny that in a lot of these places, pickles and slaw are considered your vegetables, your don't see a lot of green unless it is pickled and boiled. Our main dish order was for full racks of char-broiled ribs that the Rendezvous is famous for and there is a reason, they are the best. Cooked perfect, a mop of vinegar swathed on them and then a big shake of their seasoning. You then add the hot sauce and BBQ sauce you want and oh man! they are so good. Geoff and I laughed that we were drunk on pork when we got up to leave. We headed to Beale for a walk around, but is was pretty quiet so we saved our stamina for the next night.

Wednesday was the Charter Member dinner, so we knew we had to pace ourselves. We woke up, had breakfast at the hotel and then hit the health club. Spoiled by the ProClub, this does not compare, but is was nice. They have great equipment on two levels and it looks like it is hosted in an old Woolworth's, but everything on main street looks that way, downtown Memphis is a throwback and every storefront is struggling or closed. It is depressing, but there are pockets of gentrification taking place all over with Condominiums and some really nice restaurants. Memphis has changed a lot in the 10 years I have been coming here and it is reflected by the investment into the core area around Beale and the waterfront. Now that is spreading and people are taking advantage of the downtown architecture and lofts popping up all over. It will be a while before you see something like the revitalization of the scale of Belltown in Seattle, but it is happening.

Our next BBQ destination was Corky's which is ways out of the downtown core, so we hopped in the Caddy and headed out. Corky's is always busy and they have a different style of BBQ, more of a wet and heavy smoke. They are really known for their excellent pulled Pork Sandwiches which have a little dollop of slaw in the middle of the meat. This sounds funky, but it really works and adds texture to the sandwich. We had a nice pitcher of the house micro-brew which is made by Abita, a great brewer out of Louisiana that has made a name for itself with some unique beers. Good stuff, but there is another rule for traveling in the south, avoid the heavy booze that will slow you down and this includes the big beers with high alcohol, the heat will take it out of ya on a 90+ degree day and we reminded ourselves to stick to the Michelob's. Corky's is great and I highly recommend, they sat us in the booth that had a poster from 2000 Handy Awards (the former name of the Blues Music Awards) and I remember that Awards was such a special event.

The Caddy was nice, one of the new CRX Station Wagon styles with XM tuned to Bluesville...

We drove around to the Pink Palace and saw a few more sights, then headed back to clean up and get decked out for the charter member dinner. This is always a fun aspect of the trip and one of the benefits of being a charter supporter of the Blues Foundation.

The dinner is held at the Marriott on the far end of town and so we took the trolley and hit the bar to check out the performers hanging out. Last year my dad and I met the great Steve Cropper in the bar, but nobody was really hanging out so we headed up to the "mingle hour" upstairs and met up with a chap named Robert Auerback (owner of Highjohn Records) who turned out to have just produced the last recording of Floyd Dixon who famously penned some of the great blues tunes like "Hey Bartender" and "Hole in the Wall". Robert turned us onto the CD and I promptly placed an order to get some for gifts, this is a great CD featuring a long list of blues heavies like Kim Wilson, Kid Ramos, Pinetop, Henry Gray and Floyd. He also produces Johnny Tucker who was really a kick and humorous guy to chat with. Dinner started at 7pm and was standard hotel fare and we ate just a little as we knew we had a date to party on Beale Street later and eat at the Blues City Cafe which is a favorite haunt for late night dining for performers and drunks alike. The presenters this year were Bill Wax and Bob Gordon. I like Bill because he is engaging and funny, Bob is very detail oriented and really speaks well and we ended up sharing the table with him and his wife. Although they are serious about what they do, they lack the kind of personality we like to party with and it was pretty difficult trying to get them to engage. Luckily over came Dr. John to chat with Bob and his daughter Tatiana, they livened things up a bit and then the presentations started. This is the process for inducting Hall of Fame books, artists, songs, etc. and it is always very interesting. I loved that one of my favorite songs by the great Freddie King named "Hideaway" was nominated into the hall. We said our goodbyes to everyone and then came back to dress down to head out to Beale Street for music and some more soulful food.

The street was actually a little quiet for a Wednesday and we stepped in, checked a few bands out and then headed into the Blues Hall next to the Rum Boogie and listened to a band called "Delta Highway" configured as a four piece with a predominant harp player, we meet some folks inside who told us we had to check this band out. They were pretty hot and seasoned for being a fairly young band. We stayed and closed the place down with the band and met Brandon and Justin. Another harp player came in from another band and jammed with Brandon and Geoff and I had a front seat to a great jam between the two harp blowers. The band can drink and Jack is their poison, so we slipped them some tips and then headed up for a late meal at the Blues Cafe to soak up everything. Tamales, Crab Dip and big New York's with fries and we crawled back to the hotel to catch some shut eye.

We woke up the next day around lunch time and headed to Beale Street to grab lunch at BB Kings place which has great catfish sandwiches. A couple hours later and few road drinks and we were ready to go again.

We headed back and got dressed for the Blues Awards and since they started early at 5:30pm, we headed out and purchased our packet of drink tickets and headed upstairs to see the auction items and the IBC winners band playing up in the big foyer. It was packed of course and it is always a little too hard to get drink there (turns out to be a good thing really) and then they opened the doors for dinner around 6:45pm and we headed in. The Blues Foundation is always good to me and placed Geoff and I right front and center at table A5 and our view was unmatched.

We started off with two of my favorites Otis Taylor and his Banjo Experiment Band with Tab Benoit and Alvin Youngblood Hart. Then Watermelon Slim hit the stage and ripped it up with a new tune and his signature song on why they call him Watermelon Slim and is done in the classic hookum, double-entendre style. He has a new YouTube page up and I suggest you check it out. He is coming to Seattle at the Triple Door in July, worth going I promise you that!

We then got a hot set of Country Blues from Guy Davis and he was great.

The Chris Thomas King came on and ripped two great electric blues tunes, one on a lap steel with slide and the other on a beautiful blue ES 345.

Then Guitar Shorty hit the stage and smacked the crowd with a blistering set and came out in the crowd and played all through the hall.

Then one of the best entertainers and downright nasty soul blues, the master himself... Bobby Rush in full regalia and girls at least 35 years his juniors. If you have never seen Bobby before, well let me say that... he aint safe for work, he aint safe for your family and he is barely safe for the crowd at the blues awards, but we loved it. I would like to see Bobby do a week on American Idol, that would be something.

There were lots of other performers that killed and after a while, the quality of the performances are so high, that you forget what a special event this really is and how much it has improved. I did have a couple mild critiques that included Slick Ballinger who won a new artist award. He was just married and sanctified himself to never go into a bar again (WTF, this is the blues son). He was not my cup of whiskey anyway and I hope we don't see anymore cats like him again at the BLUES awards. He played the over-the-top-gospel-slide-testify stuff that belonged in a Baptist revival, not the most predominant blues awards in the country. Aw well, I was just not happy to see him win over a great blues band like Kilborn Alley Blues Band. I thought there was one other performance that didn't work for me and that was country blues guy named John Long. He played too long and based on the country blues I see each year at Centrum for the Country Blues Workshops, I thought there are much better representatives of the styles of pre-war and country blues. I really think the BMA's should add in more representation of country blues genre with more guys like Steve James, Cephas and Wiggens, John Hammond, Louisiana Red and Son Jack Junior.

The whole production was slick and professional and I really have to give props to Jay and the Blues Foundation staff, they have taken it up a notch each year, increased membership and with the XM live simulcast, attracted over 67 nominees to the awards. Very impressive results and I am proud to support their efforts each year.

My only nit with the night is still around the behavior of the photog's. There are a couple folks that remain respectful like Jef and Scott, but even with Paul reminding the audience to take pictures from their seats, all kinds of wankers go in front us, stepped on my toes, sat in my seat, blocked my view and just acted obnoxious. I am conflicted because I want the blues to get all of the recognition it deserves, but be respectful, take a picture and STFD. Maybe a solution would be to put a pit in front of the stage blocked with a 3 foot black barrier and let them play in that area on their knees. It really spoils things for a while, but you have to let it go and just enjoy the show. Funny thing is that some of the Charter Members and Blues Members themselves are the worst offenders and it makes it hard for me to want to bond with them at any future events. Geoff made up a blues tune for these mini-paparazzi named "You are the Door in my Window Pain" and by next year we should have it ready to play.

It was a late night and we walked back to the hotel, down empty, quiet Memphis streets with the blues ringing in our ears...

The next day we had run out of clothes with all of our marathon partying and so we tried to find a dry cleaner as we missed the turn in time for the hotel to handle it. We walked around a bit and could not find one close by that was pointed out to us by our hotel staff and so we stopped into the Madison hotel to ask them where they took their dry cleaning. Turns out it is way downtown next to the Jail and the desk woman warned us "that is a rough part of town, but you look brave" which implied that I was stupid enough to not get hurt and so we headed out. Walked off a couple pounds and it was funny, this cleaner was in a run down set of blocks behind the jail, well it all turned out and they did great work. We laughed because there is no way this cleaner was "green" which the current rage with the greenies/gen-y's.

We jumped in the car and headed up to the Sun Studios for a Root Beer Float. The place was packed with tourists wanting to capture that "Elvis" vibe and it is always fun for people watching. We sat at the soda bar and had our drink and then headed back for a nap to prepare for a long night in the clubs.

And it was a long night with lots of food and imbibing. We started around 5pm at the Rum Boogie as we wanted to see Michael Powers who is a blues, rock, Jimi and all around Renaissance man. We invited over a couple who turned out to be from St. Louis and we chatted all the places in St. Louis I know and it turns out he lives right next to the clubs I know. His girlfriend was a Apple user so she had to acclimate my PC/MS bent, but she let it go. Michael was really smoking and Prodigal Son is a hot, hot tune. 

We stayed for both sets and then settled in for a set with Delta Highway and then it was getting around 10'ish and we headed over to the Gibson Lounge to catch a long line up of West Coast blues all-stars and it was a solid set of constant legends with a backing band of Kid Ramos, Bob Corritore and others. We had to tolerate some old wide guys in our way, bit eventually made it to seats where Geoff tried to befriend the old dudes by buying them drinks, oh well, respect your elders and all that. The one thing about the Gibson Lounge, they have bathroom attendants and they spritzer ya, light ya a ciggarette (okay I had one or two, it was late and it was my old brand) and generally make you wish they had bar stools in the can. Reminds me of New York.

By this point things have been on a tear for 8 hours and the wear is showing, so we headed over the Blues City Cafe for a late meal and contemplated the universe.

The next day we made it out to the Caddy around 2pm after we started with a visit to the Peanut Shop which is a complete throwback to another time. Downtown Memphis is locked in a time warp anyway, but this one is unique. So we picked up a pound of peanuts and headed to Starbucks to recharge.

Then we headed out to the last BBQ joint on the list named Jim Neely's Interstate BBQ in east Memphis. We ordered a large sampler plate and a couple sweet teas. Food was solid, cheap and yet no way as good as Corky's or Rendezvous IMHO.

Finally we drove to down to Clarksdale to visit the Ground Zero Club and visit the Crossroads which is a requirement for any blues trip to the Delta.

It was another awesome trip with lots of special performances and interactions with great people.

I have been expanding my food experiments and started researching making Mustards. Mustard is an ancient food art and has been documented with recipes back to Medieval times and considering the cold meats and other bland preparations of protein, it make sense that a spicy condiment like mustard who be popular. In it's simplest form, the seeds mashed and mixed with a little vinegar was the first form it took. It expanded with seasonings and blends of the varietal's of the mustard seeds (Yellow, Brown and Black) and fermented foods like ale, wine, mead and sparkling wine.

I buy most of my spices in bulk from "Kalustyan spices" in New York as they carry everything you would every want or need from around the world. I set out to make two kinds of mustards and one sauce. I ordered yellow, brown and black seeds and then soaked them in sherry, red wine and white vinegar for 48 hours...

The first thing I learned is that the seeds soak and absorb a lot of liquid and it expanded the volume of seeds and hence my yield which was going to exceed the number of jars I had. So take your volume estimate at 50% expansion.

I then ground the seeds in the processor to achieve that stone ground look...

I then did my standard double broiler setup on the stove and heated the puree along with additions of water and malt vinegar...

I wanted one mustard to be spicy, garlic and shallots, a real strong, spicy mustard for sandwiches and beef. So I caramelized shallots and garlic and added it to the puree...

I then cooked the mustards and added spices, turmeric and various sea salts to tune the flavors. I placed them into the jars, boiled them to seal them up and finished with a nice black wax airtight seal.

I also used some the excess Moutarde to make a seafood sauce based on peppers, tomatoes and the mustard to replicate a seafood sauce I used to make as a chef. This stuff kicks the ass of any cocktail sauce you will ever eat,

I was in Vegas this last week for Mix07 attending the 2nd annual Microsoft web conference and we decided to take in the show at the Mirage named Love! and it is Cirque Du Soleil's take on interruptation the Beatles, but way more important is the music. For the first time I found CDS performance completely secondary to the actual music. The story goes that the music was taken from maters tapes and remixed by Giles Martin (Sir George's son) and I was moved by the music and the new way of hearing it. They installed 6,719 speakers into the custom theatre and the sound was amazing with a presence that I have not heard except when placed in the field of studio speakers or in my own home studio. The tracks are listed here on Rolling Stone. I recommend buying good seats in the balcony, the overall view of the theatre is more important to the experience versus being close and the sound it the same in every seat by design. I cannot recommend this one enough.