–note– This was written in August, and I wanted to share it here before I lost it…
Being summer time, very few people are going to be sampling red wine and most business is done with whites. My question to you, reader, is how do you keep 5 bottles of white wine cold for an entire day when you’re constantly in 98 degree heat without air-conditioning?
The answer is frozen peas. For so many reasons, they’re cheap, they’re nutritious, they stay really cold and the little peas mould marvellously to the curves of almost any bottle. I thought I had discovered my own little secret, and it was not until I saw her that I knew I had been foolish to think I was alone in my revelation. It was then that I had my first premonition that she was to become the veritable thorn in my side. For my personal safety I shall refer to her only as The Australian.
The first time I saw The Australian she was in Wholefoods and had a bag of peas in her basket, I noticed the tell-tale wine carry bag at her feat and followed her at a distance before losing her in aisle 7. When I got back to the pea section I saw that she had left them out to thaw and it was then that there could be no doubt in my mind: this was war.
As I’ve come to learn, peas are not the only solution to the refrigeration dilemma. Some of the more eccentric salespeople use chicken breasts and, there are the avant-garde resourceful types that have access to dry ice and walk around with smoking bags for the whole day. There are even some schools of thought believe that white wine is more efficiently judged when tasted warm (try to explain that to the sommelier at Nobu!), but in most cases, I’ve found that peas work best. At the past three dinner parties my wife and I have held we’ve served three different kinds of pea-soup and one particular recipe that even included Champage which is simply delicious, how I’ve come to love my little frozen balls of green goodness.
