Rouses_FINAL-November-December-2017

the Holiday issue

Cin Cin! (To Your Health) by Helen Freund I f you’ve decided to brave throwing your own Feast of the Seven Fishes this holiday season, look no further than the tradition’s birthplace for wine pairings. talian wines, as varied and multifaceted as they are plentiful, are perfectly suited for the seafood extravaganza. Rouses goes directly to the source for its Italian wine selection. Christian Havener, a sommelier and wine buyer for the Rouses Market on Tchoupitoulas Street in Uptown New Orleans, and Rouses Wine & Spirits Director Sally Culver recently attended Vinitaly, the international wine competition and exposition that is held annually in April in the Italian wine region of Verona in Northeast Italy. While at the competition, which is considered one of the premier international wine events in the world, Havener and Culver met with key producers and sampled Italian wines from 20 wine regions. The boot-shaped country, which varies widely by climate and terrain, is home to hundreds of grape varieties and is considered one of the top wine production regions in the world. From the northern highlands and the high-altitude Alps to the wine-growing regions hugging the Mediterranean in the South, the country boasts an incredibly diverse production of reds, whites, rosés and sparkling wines. The wines of Veneto, Tuscany and Piedmont are considered the highest-quality drinking wines in the country. While there are no hard-and-fast rules about what to serve for theFeast of the SevenFishes, there is no time of year more perfectly suited to oysters, which are a natural bedfellow to bubbly whites like prosecco, which is made in the Veneto region of Italy around the city of Treviso. Char-grilled oysters bobbing in their own individual swamps of garlic, butter and Parmesan beg for a crisp, sparkling white like the Ferrari Brut NV Trentodoc. The grapes for this aromatic sparkling wine are grown on hills along the Adige Valley in the Dolomites, aged in steel tanks and produced

linguine and clams, Parmesan-crusted flounder, lightly fried calamari, shrimp and artichokes sprinkled with lemon and parsley, and grilled sardines tucked under a bright and zesty gremolata. Gulf standbys like pompano and cobia are tossed on the grill, and drum, sheepshead and red snapper often make appearances. “You’ve got to do something with shrimp, because they’re just so abundant, and that time of year there’s usually a lot of flounder, too,” says Executive Chef Michael Nelson, who last year featured a dish of Gulf shrimp alongside Sicily’s quintessential dish, eggplant caponata. The dinners have proven so popular, GW Fins now hosts the celebration two nights instead of one, and a steady flow of Italian wines are served throughout both evenings. “After the first couple of courses and glasses of wine, everyone’s kind of buttered up a bit and gotten to know everybody at the table,” Nelson says. “At that point we put all the wine out and everyone just goes at it: It’s noisy, people are yelling and talking, and it’s

this really fun, family-style affair.” For Chef Lama, sharing his family’s long- standing tradition with his customers at his restaurant was a no-brainer. “I wanted to share the tradition with the people in town and at my restaurant, and with the neighbors — a lot of those people have become like family,” Lama says. At Avo, a Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner is served throughout the month of December, with courses and menus changing to reflect what is fresh and in season at the time. Despite the restaurant’s success with the dinners, Lama says there is still nothing like celebrating the event at home, with friends and family. “What I really like about it is the aspect of everyone being together and cooking together,” Lama says. “And for anybody who is going to attempt it — try to enjoy it. The people you invite are going to be people who are near and dear to you — people that you love. You’re there to have a good time, to celebrate and to be together.”

In a holiday season dominated by poultry, pork and beef, this meatless Christmas Eve tradition offers a respite from heavier fare. Find recipes for your Feast of the Seven Fishes at www.rouses.com. ​

38

MY ROUSES EVERYDAY NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2017