The Knife

Test Kitchen: Vignette Wine Country Soda

This should be a goofy idea, but it's not: soda from the wine country. Translated, it's diluted Pinot Noir (or Chardonnay)grape juice concentrate with carbonation added. Over ice, the Pinot Noir version is like grape Nehi with a stylist and a graduate degree.

Available at a handful of Los Angeles restaurants, including Tender Greens, Il Grano and Bay Cities Deli; for other outlets, click here. Also available at Hellodelicious.com; a 12-pack is $35.

Test Kitchen: LaBrea Bakery Granola

This Test Kitchen comes with a caveat: Even as a crunchy-granola Whole Foods employee, actually crunching granola seemed like too much work for too little (calorie count: absurd).

Now LaBrea Bakery (Starbucks of the baking world) has expanded its product line with the cluster-y Nut & Honey Snack Granola. As granola goes, it's not too sweet and it has a good nut-raisin-oat ratio.

However, the cluster factor is probably the most impressive element since it makes it easier to do what most people probably did with LaBrea granola, anyway: Eat it out of the box.

Test Kitchen: Coffee, Part 1

My Labor Day weekend: Brewing the best coffee beans in LA (Intelligentsia, LA Mill) in the wrong coffeemaker. Conclusion: Trader Joe's has a great racket going on.

I've heard the arguments. TJ's, like Starbucks and other outlets, over-roast or burn the beans, killing all subtleties of flavor, etc. Maybe. But if you have an ordinary drip cofeemaker, you're probably better off buying TJ's (less expensive) coffee. Unsubtle beans for an unsubtle coffeemaker are a good match; the dark roast bludgeons its way to the front. Subtle beans in said maker get lost, producing a coffee that's thin, sweetish and otherwise meh.

The right maker for rareified beans is a French press. Or a glass Chemex. Or a Clover. Something that requires more temperature control, careful grinding, forethought and energy.

And that's the genius part. If you don't want to deal with that, if you want a coffeemaker that you can operate blindfolded with one hand thank you very much, you'll drink TJ's for life. You'll think Intelligentsia is an oxymoron.

Or -- you become a convert and coffee becomes a slippery slope. It's a short step from unearthing a French press from the back of the storage closet to "needing" a burr grinder. And from there, God knows. Craig Min at LA Mill uses reverse-osmosis water; he made the best cappucino I've ever had.

Tomorrow, Part 2: Intelligentsia vs. LA Mill.

[French press instructions with thanks to coffeegeek.com; click through for full size]

Eat Competition Barbecue Without Competition

This was not love at first sight.

It looks like what it is, which is one pound of vacuum-packed precooked beef barbecue brisket. And, aesthetics aside, that sounds like a bad idea.

A Lobel's rep thought otherwise, as he might. Lobel's is a venerable New York butcher shop on Madison Avenue, the kind of place foodcentrics approach with an enthusiasm other tourists bring to the Metropolitan Museum. Dry-aged Wagyu beef, Kurobuta pork, all manner of organic free-range poultry... and now, smoked barbecue brisket. The rep wanted me to try a sample. I warned him that I was from Texas. That my parents are competitive barbecuers. He said he'd take his chances.

It arrived unfrozen, surrounded by Therma-Frost ice packs. And while it was cooked, ready to eat means wrapping the brisket loosely in foil and putting it in the oven (grill, smoker) until its internal temperature is 165F.

And? May the mesquite gods strike me down: If that isn't competition-quality, it's awfully close.

A few caveats: For anyone who might sneer at the notion of competitive barbecue, this may instill some respect. A pound of Lobel's brisket serves only two or three people; high-quality beef is heavily marbled, but there's a lot of fat that has to be trimmed away (cook a fat-free brisket and you may as well slap Hunt's BBQ sauce on a slab of tofu). It comes with a very simple "mopping" sauce recipe, the same one they say is used while smoking the beef. If you have a sauce you like, skip this; raw, it's a little harsh. Finally, order for Labor Day and they include a sample of Wagyu braised short ribs.

Lobel's mail order. Five pounds of barbecued prime beef brisket and a package of braised Wagyu short ribs, $140 plus shipping.