The Cave of Forgotten Dreams.

The one in France, not the one in Glendale.

It's Royal Hat Day in the Cave today!

Oh those crazy Royal kids, good luck!

Is it mere coincidence that Pomp and Circumstance was penned by a Brit? Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, Order of Merit (OM), Royal Victorian Order (GCVO). Even his name is pomp and circumstance.

You're not going to believe this, but my wedding was exactly like Will and Kate's, except pompier and circumstancier, if that's conceivable. Until I get the VHS converted to disc, you're just going to have to believe me.

The Cave decrees today Royal Hat Day! My hat was designed by the House of Carmen Miranda, a perfectly balanced homage to both caves and wine.

Cheers to the kids!

(note to self...)

Eating almonds while preparing lease renewals, i.e., licking envelopes...not a good combo. Advanced apologies to the May people for the macerated almond bits embedded in the glue of your envelopes.

Bordeaux News

Nick, over there at Bordeaux Undiscovered, wraps up En Primeur 2010 in this series of blog posts:

Top Twenty Star Wines of 2010
Top Wines from the Grand Cru's Other Labels for the 2010 Vintage.
Top Second Wines from the Grand Cru of the 2010 Vintage
Top Cru Bourgeois and Affordable Bordeaux of the 2010 Vintage

You can read all about his tastings over there, over 200 wines! After the second or third wine I'd be like, "I don't know, tastes like wine. It's good." Which is why I work in a cave. THE Cave.


Last night I tried making cheese, though. Here's my first cheese experiment. Milk, lemon, salt - you can't really mess that up. (I mixed in some pepper and thyme afterwards.)



California's looking nice this time of year, today. (as usual, click on image to enlarge)



Those last two things have nothing to do with Bordeaux 2010 , but it's a slow Cave day and I just killed another ten minutes...with Glendale 2010.

Napa news

(re-blogged from Terroirist.)

April is Grilled Cheese Month.

Grilled Cheese, mmmmmmmm.

Saturday is the (annual) Grilled Cheese Invitational in DTLA. I think the motto says it all:

"Bread - Butter - Cheese - Victory!"

From the LA Times, 12 recipes for grilled cheese.

LA Beer

(...as recommended by a resident beer guy.)


View L A Beer in a larger map

The Bird!

The Cave is an emerging and delicate eco-system. There is a black widow nesting in one corner, a daddy long-legs in another, (maybe they'll meet and marry. She might be dangerous but he can out-run her) the occasional crawly-thing, things that fly. My take is leave it all alone and them work it out amongst themselves.

I heard something yesterday, a scuttling and scurrying, definitely a new one for The Cave as far as sounds go, and I'm sitting here like, what is that? It seems the birds were running out of food in the world and decided to check out The Cave.

I didn't want to interfere, maybe they were a necessary component to the bigger picture. Maybe they know I'm into their compadres up there on the telephone wires and wanted to say hi. There's always the one that has to be a little more curious than the others. Not to worry, he found his way out again.

Glendale, Armenia, Wine.

Outside of Armenia, Glendale has the fourth largest Armenian population in the world; though figures vary it is estimated Glendale may be as much as 40% Armenian.

In January earlier this year The Glendale News Press, with several other news sources, reported the discovery of an ancient winery unearthed in a cave in Armenia. This would, at 6,000 years, pre-date the previous oldest winery discovered by a good thousand years. (Iran.)

Jons is a supermarket chain that adjusts its product to the neighborhoods it serves, and if you go into Jons here in Glendale, you can find wine for sale from Armenia. It's generally red and dry or red and sweet. There is also white. Right now it is all on sale for around ten dollars or less. From a short internet search the Tamada showed the greatest presence and was best reviewed, but the prices are so genial any of them are experiment-friendly.

There was also a pomegranate wine. The pomegranate, widely thought to originate in Armenia, remains its national fruit.

If you are craving a good ancient cave experience but can't make it to Armenia this year, you are welcome to visit us here at The Cave. I'm kind of ancient.

What's new not in The Cave.

When I start getting publicly cranky, I think maybe a nice jaunt ex-terra might be due.

Imagine having this in your back yard. You must go to Watts Towers, it does not disappoint. If this guy tried to build these things today, he'd be shut down for not having the correct permits and additionally force-fed a prozac-zoloft cocktail.





































But here's the good news: they're back and they're rebuilding. They're only a few feet away from their original location, tucked behind what looks to be about a billion watts of incoming juice. What could possibly go wrong there? (Mmmm, squab and fried eggs for breakfast.) I mean it's nice to have them back, which it is.

Location, location, location!

The new neighbors are gone.

I'm so bummed. I hope it's not because I hurt their delicate feelings by living this many years, 106 approximately, ignorantly thinking they were morning doves. I know they sound mournful, but I'm not too wild about mornings, either.

So, if you're reading this, mourning doves, a few tips for your next location:

1. Don't build your nest on top of an old, rattly AC unit.
2. Don't build your nest above the doorway where the other new neighbors are half a dozen employees, all of whom often stand just under your nest smoking and chatting and smoking some more with unwavering disregard to the opportunity we all had to watch your family evolve...and then throwing their butts overboard, daily trashing up the Cave entryway. But I digress. And also maybe understanding why you're mourning.

(can we keep the birds and get rid of the people?)

The Troglodyte got one right. Finally.

Over on the side bar there is a section linking you to your nearest farmer's market. Why are farmer's markets important? Because you're giving your money to the farmer, not the corporation; because over time you come to personally know the handful of people who are feeding you; because you eat within season and within distance. There's more but you get the idea.

The problem with farmer's market's though, is everything looks really good and I always get too much so I eat a lot of vegetables all the time, and what was once a diverse menu is now a lot of vegetables with something else, lentils or black beans or a good bread and cheese; it has come to be that most meals are planned around lemon, olive oil, garlic, mustard and veggies. Can't get enough of all the above.


Winter veggies are great - broccoli, greens, beets, carrots, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, asparagus - oven roasted, olive oil, S&P, red pepper flakes, curry, thyme...whatever floats it for you...350 degrees. All the flavors concentrate. Amazing.

I've tried three wines in the past few months, and all were good, they worked, but one was the "oh, so this is how it's supposed work!" moment.

Both Pinot's, very nice. Didn't overwhelm the veggie-action, were pleasant to drink, and I enjoyed them. On Monday I opened the 2004 Abbazia di Novacella Südtirol Brixner Eisacktaler Kerner (that's a lot of words that I know nothing about) to have with a bunch of roasted asparagus and dill and a little bit of red russian kale, and carrots, on toasted garlic bread with whatever cheese you prefer, and it was a MATCH, like a crazy-good match. The dill, subtler when roasted, said to the wine, "we're going down this path together," and that dill did not lie. It was great.

That aside, nice wine. Dry and clean and simple.

You know, I wasn't too sure about this wine thing but I have a feeling it just might catch on.

The Cave's new neighbors

When I was outside sawing wood this week I noticed a morning dove hanging out on the telephone wire overhead, and later carrying bits of pine needles over to the doorway above ours. By week's end our new neighbors had settled in...to the busiest, noisiest corner of the building. So far they seem pretty nonplussed by all the activity.

I look forward to watching how their family progresses. I just hope their eggs don't scramble too much when that AC starts its summer business.