Kung Fu Wine

April 27 2009

from Oswald at Large by Oswald Rivera

It had to happen. It just had to happen, and it wasn't even on my radar---until a friend informed me about it. There's a wine from Washington State called "Kung Fu Girl." That's right: Kung Fu Girl. And I am doubly dumbfounded about this since I am into fine wines (and not so fine wines) and of course, Kung Fu which (as I've mentioned on this blog ad nauseum) I've practiced for 35+years. The fact that this wine has been around, I think, since 2006 and I didn't know about it, leaves me feeling quite asinine (I could use another adjective but this is a family blog).

The wine in question is a white wine, a Riesling (more about that later) made by winemaker Charles Smith of the famed K-Vintners; and it comes from the Columbia Valley in Washington. As per its name, it's a wine tailored for Asian dishes. Why the label (and a beautiful label it is) Kung Fu Girl? Well, as wine master Mr. Smith states in his ad---"because Riesling and Girls kick ass!" He adds that ". . .the reason we love this wine actually has more to do with another aspect of Kung Fu: balance. This comes from a single vineyard comprised of fragmented basalt and caliche soils. Great acidity, minerality and girl-next-door kiss of sweetness." I like that last part. Mainly because wife, Holly, loves Riesling---it's the only wine she can take--essentially because she prefers sweet and semi-sweet wines. I, on the other hand, prefer dry wines (my favorite dry white being Pinot Grigio). But I do like a well balanced, juicy Riesling---which this one is reputed to be.

I guess it was only a matter of time before the martial arts would be paired up with wine ads. But I'm intrigued and happy that Mr. Smith picked the tag of Kung Fu. I don't know whether Mr. Smith has ever dabbled in the art or not, but he is a legendary wine maker who, like most people on the cutting edge, pushes the envelope somewhat. Apparently he's on a mission to bring Washington State Rieslings to the fore, and I wish him well. And from the raves I've seen on-line, he has succeeded. Cork'd gave the 2006 Kung Fu Girl Riesling an average rating of 89.0/100, which is pretty good. The reviewer from The Wine Cask Blog hailed it as "one of the best Rieslings I have had in years from any country including Germany!" High praise indeed. Gary Vaynerchuk featured the 2007 Kung Fu Girl Riesling, along with Charles Smith as guest, on his popular Wine Library TV, The Thunder Show Episode #549 (http://tv.winelibrary.Com/). Mr. Smith stated, among other things, that the mild climate and long growing season in Washington State produces this really exceptional wine. Mr. Vaynerchuk also gave it an 88/89 type rating.

The fact that, according to its followers, this wine pairs well with Asian cooking also peaked my interest. Chinese food has been one of the passions in my family since I can remember. From my boyhood on we would make that weekend trek to Chinatown and gorge ourselves on baby spare ribs, fry rice, lo-mein, steamed sea bass, egg rolls, all that good stuff. Of course then it was all mainly Cantonese cuisine with an American bent. Actually, it was American Chinese food. A secret: fried rice, egg foo young, chop suey and, yes, fortune cookies, are all American inventions. It wasn't until later in my adulthood when Shechuan and Hunan restaurants started opening up in Chinatown that I really began to appreciate the variety and multiplicity of Chinese cuisine. Add to that, the Thai, Burmese, and Vietnamese places that followed so that today there's a cornucopia of fine Asian cuisine in the city, not just the Cantonese fare of yesteryear.

In the old days, the only beverage served with Asian food was either tea, beer, or a wine called Wan Fu white that used to be sold in some Chinese restaurants. I remember Wan Fu. It was supposed to accompany what were then called "Oriental dishes." Even then I considered it a bit sweet for my taste. It was only later on that I discovered that Wan Fu wasn't Chinese at all. In fact, it was a semi-dry white Burgundy from France. Go figure. Further experimentation got me into the realm of drinking Gewurstraminer (Guh-verts-trah-mee-ner) with Asian dishes. This is a dry, spicy wine that can either hail from Germany (the Rheinpfalz area) or Alsace (which for a long time had been a disputed part of Germany until 1945 when it became French). I still like Gewuzstraminer with Asian food but, again, it's all relative. Holly likes Riesling with everything. Back in my youth I once knew a lady who preferred Mogen David Heavy Malaga Red with every meal. Where wine is concerned, I believe, there should be no hard and fast rules. Every palette should decide for itself. But it's good to know that now there's another alternative to Asian food---Kung Fu Girl Riesling.

It's the more amazing that Charles Smith has decided to stake his calling on the Riesling grape variety. A few years back, Riesling was the province of German and Alsatian vintners. In the last few decades this has changed with Riesling being cultivated in California, Australia, New Zealand and a host of other countries. In the U.S., California is no longer the only player. Oregon and Washington, among others, have gotten into the act.

I discovered Riesling in my young manhood; and the Rieslings I recalled from that time were different from what you get today. To my unformed palette, the Rieslings back then where perceptibly sweeter. Now, I'm talking about the 1960s and 70s. The wines were pale yellow in color, or yellow to golden yellow, fruity, and some even with a note of honey in them, and low alcohol content. This changed as wines with a dry finish became so increasingly popular that even German vintners began making dry wines. Still, from what I gather, most Washington Riesling is made in the traditional German style. That is, light and fruity, with high acidity to balance the sugar, but with a much higher alcohol content, sometimes over 13% alcohol. Austrian and Alsatian Rieslings are somewhat dryer. Some of them have almost no residual sugar. My preference is for the Austrian or Alsatian type. Still, that doesn't mean a Washington Riesling can't be great. We decided to give it the ultimate test and see how it would pair up with an Asian dish. In this case, Northern (Peking-Style) deep-fried bean curd, along with steamed chicken and white rice. The bean curd recipe is from my second cookbook, The Pharaoh's Feast (Avalon Books). To make the steam chicken is easy enough: take one fryer chicken (about 2 1/2 to 3 pounds), washed and cut up in generous bite-sized pieces, place it in a bowl and rub it all over with olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, and dried oregano. Let it stand for about 10 to 15 minutes. Then place in a wok, medium-sized skillet or pan. Fill about 1/3 full with water, bring it to a boil, cover and let simmer 25-30 minutes until pieces are tender. If you want to follow the more traditional Asian mode then use a mixture of 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil for the marinade. In either case, if you desire a more spicy dish, add 3 to 4 drops Tabasco or chili sauce to the mix.

I must say that in our informal tasting (Holly was the official Riesling judge), I was pleasantly surprised. To begin with, the wine came with a screw cap. There has been an issue of sorts in the wine world as of late concerning screw caps on wine bottles. Traditionalists state that this is heresy. The corked bottle is sacrosanct. Truth is that, to a wine maker, bottle caps are more efficient, less time consuming and less expensive than traditional corks. I have discovered that bottle caps on white wines ensure a longer storage time in the fridge. This is no scientific experiment; just my observation. Although there is a certain romance to maneuvering that corkscrew, pulling out the cork, and listening to that pop! As to the wine in question, it was soft, subtle, with plenty of aromas---peach, pear, lime--- you name it. This fruit like aromatics was also noted on the Wine Library segment where Mr. Vaynerchuk declared the wine had a hint of sweetness and heavy on apple flavors. As to its marvelous color, Holly thought it looked like summer: bright and golden. She described it as early morning sun without the heat. And it had a cool taste, not overwhelming. Lightness is how she summed it up. her final allegory is "that there is something about it like spring. Something youthful." This echoes what Charles Smith himself said on Wine Library TV. He also confirmed it was a melowy wine, floral, and reminiscent of spring flowers. So Holly wasn't too off the mark. I found that it had good balance, not too sweet, not too dry, and not as intense as I expected. My experience with fine German Rieslings is that, to compensate for the sweetness, they have a lively acidity and their flavor is usually intense. Not with this one. It had a light, crisp finish that left a lingering aftertaste with just a little hint of dryness. All in all, a superb wine for spring or summer.

The one caveat I have is that the wine store where I purchased the bottle, in Manhattan, it was $19.95 retail. In the web sites I perused in Washington State the price ranged from $12.99 to $14. Cork'd blog gave the 2006 a retail price of $14.99. Gary Vaynerchuk gave it a retail range of $12-$13. In these trying economic times, one has to save wherever one can. But where good wine is concerned, it sure as hell is difficult to do that in New York State.

Finally, this all leaves me to consider that this wine thing could be the beginning of a new trend. If there's Kung Fu wine, then why not Kung Fu beer? or gin? or whisky? Who knows, someday you might even have a Kung Fu laxative. the possibilities are endless.

NORTHERN (PEKING-STYLE) DEEP-FRIED BEAN CURD

1-pound container fresh bean curd, preferably extra firm, washed, patted dry and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

3 tablespoons cornstarch (more or less as needed)

Peanut or vegetable oil for deep frying

3 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon chili sauce

1. Sprinkle the bean curd evenly with the cornstarch.
2. Heat the oil over high heat in a wok or deep skillet. Add the bean curd and fry until golden brown. Depending on the side of the wok or skillet, you may have to do this in batches. Remove the bean curd with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
3. Mix the soy sauce, sesame oil, and chili sauce.
4. There are two ways to serve the bean curd (or tofu as it is known in Japanese): either place the tofu in a bowl and drizzle the soy sauce mixture over it, then stir, making sure the bean curd is evenly coated with the sauce; or just use the sauce as dip separately. Either way, serve with white rice or noodles.
Yield: 4 servings

Cecilia and Juliana from invisible people.tv

April 21 2009 

from Oswald at Large by Oswald Rivera

Cecilia and Juliana from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.

Cecilia and Juliana from invisible people on Vimeo.
The invisiblepeople.tv site emailed me the post noted below. Its timeliness is that it addresses the question of the ever growing homeless population during these trying economic times. I'll say no more. The post speaks for itself. To get more information on it and details relating to homelessness in general I suggest you check out their blog at http://invisiblepeople.tv/blog/


Forget everything you’ve ever thought about homeless.

It’s not always a guy with a cardboard sign begging for money. Not everyone has a shopping cart. It goes far beyond tent cities. The reality is that families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. The average homeless person is nine years old and in the third grade.
Meet Cecilia and her daughter Juliana, just one of many families without a home in America. I met them at the Prado Day Center in San Luis Obispo. Like most folks without a home, Cecilia never planned to be homeless. But for the past two years she has been living with her three year old daughter and nine year old son in a homeless shelter.



As a mom, Cecilia does her best to stay positive. But this doesn’t mean that raising a family without a home is easy. Each morning, Cecilia and her children must vacate the evening-only shelter. Her older son heads off to school. Cecilia and Juliana head to the day center, where they must wait to shower and spend the day. At 3 p.m. the day center closes, so they head to the park before returning to the evening shelter where they must two house in line to get a bed.



If this story effects you like it does me, please don’t let it end here. Forward it to a friend, blog about it, scream real loud - do something! Cecilia and Juliana are the new face of homelessness. And if you ask me, children should never be homeless.

(title unknown)

April 21 2009

from Oswald at Large by Oswald Rivera

It’s not always a guy with a cardboard sign begging for money. Not everyone has a shopping cart. It goes far beyond tent cities. The reality is that families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. The average homeless person is nine years old and in the third grade.

Meet Cecilia and her daughter Juliana, just one of many families without a home in America. I met them at the Prado Day Center in San Luis Obispo. Like most folks without a home, Cecilia never planned to be homeless. But for the past two years she has been living with her three year old daughter and nine year old son in a homeless shelter.

As a mom, Cecilia does her best to stay positive. But this doesn’t mean that raising a family without a home is easy. Each morning, Cecilia and her children must vacate the evening-only shelter. Her older son heads off to school. Cecilia and Juliana head to the day center, where they must wait to shower and spend the day. At 3 p.m. the day center closes, so they head to the park before returning to the evening shelter where they must two house in line to get a bed.

If this story effects you like it does me, please don’t let it end here. Forward it to a friend, blog about it, scream real loud - do something! Cecilia and Juliana are the new face of homelessness. And if you ask me, children should never be homeless.

Homelessness: The Plague Continues

April 15 2009

from Oswald at Large by Oswald Rivera

Thus far my postings have focused on two of my prime interests: cooking and martial arts. What I call my two avocations since I write cookbooks and have been involved in the martial arts for over 35 years. Well, today I'm going on a different tangent. No pithy comments or recipes.

Recently, I was referred to an on-line site, invisiblepeople.tv. I found the site fascinating. What invisiblepeople.tv does is give homelessness a name and a face. It chronicles what being homeless is like in America today. The reason it peaked my interest is that my second novel, The Proud and the Immortal (Polar Bear and Company) focuses on this very topic. When I began work on the book my concern was not homelessness as such. I just wanted to tell a stark and vivid story of individuals trying to survive in late 20th century America. The book tells the story of a community of homeless individuals who lived, for a time, in the abandoned Amtrak tunnels beneath New York City. They formed a society in microcosm with its own rules and by-laws. My aim was not to romanticize or categorize homelessness, but rather described how it was, living in the tunnels, and how they endured. They weren't saints, nor angels, nor villains, just people trying to persevere like their counterparts who lived topside in the neighborhoods above the tunnels.

(photo credit: Diane Lemieux)

I encountered these people one summer long ago when I was strolling around Riverside Park on the West Side of Manhattan. I noticed there were two groups that stuck to their turf on the huge rotunda in the park. One group was younger, more boisterous, and they indulged in smoking crack openly. The other group was older and more reserved. From their appearance they seemed down and out, and obviously homeless, but the younger ones did not mess with them. It seemed these people had a structure. I struck up a conversation with one of them, and that's when I discovered they lived in the tunnels. Eventually I gained their confidence enough so that they showed me where they lived. It was another world, almost like a parallel universe. And once you overcame the heat, and the smell, you realized that it was another home to them. For some, the only real home they ever had.

I hung out with them for about two months, visiting them when I could, and gathering enough information to form the basis of my novel. I came to realize that they, beyond the grueling surroundings, the uncertainties and constraints of living underground, harbored the same hopes and dreams as anyone else. They were just trying to get by, albeit in a squalid environment. Their stories fascinated me. And from it I weaved the characters that would eventually populate my novel. I consider it my best work.

The tunnels are long gone, but homelessness is not. Given the current financial crisis and long-lived recession, it probably has gotten worse. That's no surprise. According to a U.S. Conference of Mayors report, hunger and homelessness are on the rise in the U.S., especially in our cities. The report revealed that, on average, cities reported a 12 percent increase in homelessness from 2007 to 2008, with 16 cities citing an increase in the number of homeless families. And, of course, poverty, unemployment and the lack of affordable housing are cited as the top three causes of homelessness and hunger in the surveyed cities.

Another report, this one by the National Center on Family Homelessness cited that 1 in 50 children in America are homeless each year. They summarize that, on a yearly basis, 1.5 million of our nation's children go to sleep without a home.

I could go on forever summarizing statistics and numbers, but who the hell cares? They're just that: numbers and statistics. It has been said that when one person dies, it's a tragedy, but when hundreds die it's a statistic. Nevertheless the plague is here and its coming home. We've got record foreclosures on homes, unemployment is heading toward double digits, and the economy is tanking. 

There are those who would never have dreamed of becoming homeless and are now facing it as a real possibility. It's safe to say that a lot of us are just a paycheck away from being on the streets. That's why I call homelessness a plague, a pestilence of epidemic proportions. Problem is, that for most of us, it's the unseen plague. Oh, yes, you've seen them on the streets, the "bag people" as they were once called, the mentally unbalanced man or woman who can't cope, the homeless veteran who left his brains back in the Mekong Delta or the Persian Gulf, or the average joe who just fell on hard times. What's amazing is that this is not a new phenomenon. 

It's been with us for quite a while. In 1547, the British parliament passed a law that subjected vagrants and vagabonds to two years of servitude and branding with a "V" as a penalty. After the American Civil War, a large number of men went on the road and formed that subculture known as "hobos." At one time, when I was a young man, the Bowery in New York was synonymous with homeless men and women. Today it's ringed with high-priced luxury condominiums. The Great Depression of the 1930's caused a marked increase in poverty and homelessness. But modern homelessness as we know it, is something new and pervasive. To my mind, one of the major incentives was the infamous Community Mental Health Act of 1963. What happened was this: long term psychiatric patients were released from state hospitals and were supposed to be sent to community health treatment centers for follow-up treatment. It didn't work out that way. The majority of community mental health centers were never funded. The released patients found themselves on the street. Add to that the lack of affordable housing, the reduction in SROs (single room occupancy) and you had an increasing number of jobless and impoverished adults, children and teenagers roaming the streets. Given these circumstances, some groups, like the "Mole People" I write about in my novel, literally went underground and formed their own mini-communities. And, I would guess, now even those communities are gone.

So, what to do? More learned minds than mine have tackled the question. And no clear solution has been given. Although the problem has found its advocates, as it should. There are venues out there that are addressing this problem even as we speak. One of the sites I discovered while researching for this post, is Change.org. It is one of the leading sites for social change; and among its causes and issues is how to end homelessness. They have featured posts on such topics as the roots of contemporary homelessness, things you should know about homelessness and actions you can take to end same. 

All well and good but, my friends, more is needed. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, there are an estimated 3.5 million homeless people in the U.S. Imagine that, the strongest, richest country on the planet, and that's what we show to the world. It's obscene. It's criminal. It's not a question of the haves and have-nots, it's a question of the haves and those who have nothing. As one who has lived on both sides of the equation, I can tell you from experience, it's not easy promulgating the kind of change that is needed. We don't care. If we are doing well (at least those of us who still are in this economy) to us the homeless are, by and large, the nameless few. 

We see them on the street and we just pass them by, we avert our eyes, or, if we respond, it's with the usual epithet: "Go get a job, buddy!" Yeah, well try and get a good paying job in this economy---at least one that will put a home over your head when all you see around you are forced evictions and mortgage foreclosures. According to one of the posts I saw on-line, it's official: LA is the capital of homelessness. How long before New York or Houston or San Francisco, or Duluth or Toledo join that list?

So the next time you pass some homeless, destitute person on the street, look into their face, and you will see all of us.

(title unknown)

April 14 2009

from Oswald at Large by Oswald Rivera

Anywhere He Lays Down, Is His Home (NYC, February 2007)
Originally uploaded by Hernan Hernandez

Everyone is Kung Fu Fighting: The Blog Post

April 6 2009

from Oswald at Large by Oswald Rivera

(photo credit: Federico Delvai)

In this month's issue of Vanity Fair there is an interview with Gisele Bundchen (who is on the cover), a Brazilian supermodel well known in the fashion industry. Ms. Bundchen, aside from being a top fashion model, champions such worthy causes as AIDS awareness and preservation of the environment. And this is all to her credit. The interview denotes how she became a fashion model, her demanding work schedule, and how she maintains her equilibrium. The interview makes note of her passion for the martial arts, particularly, Kung-Fu. It states that she has taken up the art with a vengeance, how she practices constantly, and "there's no day off." It mentions she even trains Thanksgiving Day and New Year's Day.

As a practitioner of Shaolin Kung-Fu for some 35+ years, I can understand the fascination, especially among those of us with an artistic bent. In our school, The Chinese Kung-Fu Wu-Su Association, numerous artists study with us. By that I mean actors, musicians, performers, dancers and, yes, even models. We've also had stunt-men and stunt-women join our ranks. What I've discovered is that the martial arts, because of its intense physical and mental concentration is a viable training tool for those in the arts. It keeps one in shape, and keeps one balanced. The aerobic training methods we use in our school is perfect for anyone---and not just a performer---to keep their well being.

When our school began back in 1967, Kung-Fu was just about unknown in the Continental U.S. There were Karate schools and Judo dojos but this thing, Kung-Fu, was considered something somewhat esoteric. It wasn't until the Bruce Lee craze in the '70s that it started coming into its own. In fact, my first exposure to it as a teenager was in the old Green Hornet TV series in which a young Bruce Lee portrayed Cato, the Green Hornet's sidekick, and who was adept at "Gung Fu"---whatever that was. I didn't get into training until I came back from Vietnam and was looking for a Karate school to supplement the training I had in the Marine Corps. I kind of fell into it. I came to the school, liked what I saw, and started taking classes. At that time we didn't have many "artistic types" taking lessons. Admittedly, the school was geared toward those from a certain urban environment who just wanted to learn how to fight. Thankfully, that mindset has changed over the years so that today, apart from the usual self-defense, we also teach breathing, concentration and meditative techniques in order to insure maximum well-being, both externally and internally. And those in the performing arts find this beneficial, as witness the rigorous training of Ms. Bundchen.

Don't get me wrong. You don't have to be a supermodel to acquire the bug. Anyone in relatively good health can pursue whatever martial arts they desire for whatever purpose they desire (hopefully to improve themselves). That's the beauty of martial arts, be it Kung-Fu, Karate, Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, Capoeira, Tae Kwon Do, and even boxing: the only person you're competing against is yourself. I've discovered that if you take your time at it, maintain good eating habits and a healthy lifestyle, the rewards will be enormous.
Ms. Bundchen (or Mrs. Tom Brady), in her interview, talks about maintaining that healthy outlook, especially in terms of diet and nutrition. She reveals that, what works for her, is to have several small meals a day, rather than having two or three heavy meals daily. Even if you only have one big meal a day, the body has a tendency to store fat, so it's best to regulate your caloric intake with small portions regularly. Of course, it does take discipline to maintain any kind of dietary regimen (ask anyone who's ever dieted). Again, Kung-Fu, and the martial arts in general, instill this discipline. Figure it this way: just keep yourself active, even if its taking daily brisk walks.

Following this health kick, below is a simple salad recipe that is nutritious and beneficial. Usually my recipes run the gamut, from steamed to deep-fried. My cultural heritage is such that it embodies all methods of cooking, some more healthier than others. Like all else, one has to learn how to pick and choose from what is given on your plate. I like to think that most of us choose the healthier alternative---although once in a blue moon it's just impossible to resist that chocolate sundae or blueberry cheesecake. A treat, now and then, doesn't hurt. But, again, only as a treat.

The recipe is from my first cookbook, Puerto Rican Cuisine in America (Avalon Books).

TOMATO-PEPPER SALAD
(Ensalada de Tomate y Pimiento)

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium green bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch strips
1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch strips
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 large ripe tomatoes, cut into slender wedges
1/4 cup black pitted olives, sliced in half
1/4 teaspoon fresh or dried oregano
2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley

1. Heat oil in a large skillet and add bell peppers and garlic. Stir-fry over medium heat for 3-4 minutes.
2. Add tomatoes and saute 3 minutes.
3. Stir in olives and oregano. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes more.
4. Sprinkle with parsley and served.
Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Friends, that's it for now and, please let me know what you think. I would especially like to hear from those who have had personal experience with the issues I'm covering. So all you martial artists out there, and cooks and chefs, and personal trainers, or anyone who has anything to say, be it tips, praise or critique, just drop me an e-mail at mroswaldrivera@gmail.com All comments are welcomed.



And (as they use to say in the old Bob and Ray Show), hang by your thumbs and write if you get work.