National Gazpacho Aficionado Month comes at just the right time: May, when warmer weather makes chilled soup a treat.

(Why National Gazpacho Day is on December 6th is beyond us.)

Gazpacho is easy to make, and requires no stove. So it’s also a go-to dish for a hot summer day (and a hot kitchen).

Check out our selection of vegetable- and fruit-based gazpacho recipes.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF GAZPACHO
 
 
MORE GAZPACHO RECIPES

 
Plus

[1] Gazpacho can be a canvas for a beautiful garnish of fruits, herbs and vegetables (photo © Botanica | Los Angeles).

[2] Gazpacho isn’t just red. Different vegetables create yellow and green gazpacho, and there’s white gazpacho from almonds (photo © Chicken Fried Gourmet Blog [now closed]).

[1] One of the best Silvaner wines from Germany (photo © Shop Banquet).

[2] Sylvaner is delicious with antipasto, cheese and olives, among many other foods noted below (photo © Vermont Creamery).

[3] The best Sylvaner from Alsace—the region spells the wine with a “y” instead of the “i” used in Germany (photo © Domaine Haegi).

[4] Pair Sylvaner with raw seafood like sushi and oysters, as well as grilled fish and shellfish (photo © Lognetic | Dreamstime).

[5] The bocksbeutel bottle, a flask shape, is used for Silvaners from the Franconia region of Germany (photo © Bottle Stops).

[6] Serve Sylvaner with a cheese plate (photo © Wisconsin Cheese).

For National Wine Day, May 25th, how about trying a new grape varietal? Our recommendation is Sylvaner, a white wine grape grown primarily in Alsace and Germany. It’s spelled Silvaner in Germany, and as appropriate, we’ll alternate the spellings in this article.

These refreshing wines are ready to fill your glass as an alternative to Pinot Grigio and rosé, America’s unofficial wines of summer.

Many American wine drinkers haven’t even had better-known German and Alsatian wines such as Gewürtztraminer, Pinot Blanc and Riesling. We highly recommend them as well, but today our focus is on Sylvaner.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF SILVANER WINE

Silvaner is an ancient grape varietal that has long been grown in Central Europe. It is believed to have originated in Transylvania, in the Austrian Empire*.

Widely cultivated in the Middle Ages, Silvaner was brought from the Austrian Empire to Germany, where it was embraced. From there, the grape was brought to the Alsace region of France, where it took well to the terroir†.

After World War II, so much Silvaner was planted in Germany and Alsace that overproduction resulted in lower-quality wines and ruined its reputation. In Germany, it was often used as a blending grape in wines like Liebraumilch—not exactly prestige wine.

Changing tastes in the Franconia region of Germany even resulted in the Silvaner vines being pulled up in favor of dry white wines.

Like the phoenix, Silvaner has risen from the ashes. Today’s wine makers in both Germany and Alsace are vinifying Sylvaner into delightful wines that are very affordable and vinified in dry, semi-sweet and sweet styles.

Some exceptional wines are now produced on good vineyard sites with low yields. In 2006; Zotzenburg Sylvaner became the first to be designated an Alsace Grand Cru. Grown on a soil of marl-limestone, the wines have great finesse and body, and age wonderfully. All for around $20 a bottle!

Today, this white wine grape has been called a “blank canvas for the expression of terroir†” [source]. It can produce elegant wines with high acidity, and pairs very well with a wide variety of foods (see below).
 
 
SILVANER / SYLVANER WINES TO SEEK OUT

German Silvaner

The Rheinhessen region, which lies to the west of Frankfurt, is the largest of Germany’s 13 wine appellations. It has the largest Silvaner acreage.

Two of the region’s top producers are Wittmann (photo #1) and Schätzel: wines with brisk, fresh leafiness in the manner of Sauvignon Blanc.

Also check the Baden appellation in southwestern Germany, where the Kaiserstuhl viticultural district produces wines with delightful green notes.

In the state of Bavaria, in the district of Franken (Franconia), Silvaner is a specialty of the region. The wines are dry and full-bodied with a mineral undercurrent.

Bavarian Silvaners have an unusual bottle shape, called a bocksbeutel (photo #5). It’s flat, squat and wide, like a flask (similar to the classic Mateus rosé bottle).

Look for Sylvaner from Bürgerspital, Julius Spital, Weingut Bickel-Stumpf, Weingut Hans Wirsching, Weingut Rudolf May, Weingut Sauer and Zehnthof Luckert.
 
 
Alsatian Sylvaner

In Alsace, Sylvaner takes on a different character: They’re richer than their German counterparts, with honey and melon notes.

Look for wines from the Zotzenberg Grand Cru (photo #3), where there are several fine producers. But also sample other Silvaners from Hugel and Trimbach.
 
 
SYLVANER FOOD PAIRINGS

Sylvaner is a great pairing wine, not just for the foods below, but with picnic fare. Also serve it with:

 
Find more matches here.

And if you have any “leftover” wine, use it for deglazing the pan for sauce, or other cooking applications.

*After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Transylvania was incorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary, as part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. After World War I, Transylvania became part of Romania.

†Terroir, pronounced tur-WAH, is a French agricultural term referring to the unique set of environmental factors in a specific habitat that affect a crop’s qualities. It includes climate, elevation, proximity to a body of water, slant of the land, soil type and amount of sun. These environmental characteristics give a fruit, vegetable, cheese, olive oil, etc. its unique character.
 
  

If you like to cook with fresh mushrooms, grow some at home. It’s easy, fun, and, as you can see from the photos, have grat eye appeal.

North Spore offers mushroom kits of exotic mushrooms. These are beauties, not [with no disrespect] plain white button mushrooms or brown creminis.

The varieties are gourmet mushrooms, highly esteemed by chefs worldwide.

Watching your mushrooms grow is a fascinating experience for adults and kids alike, and the crop will be ready in two weeks.

The simple “Spray and Grow” Kits from North Spore are rectangular boxes of light cardboard containing a block of substrate (compacted sawdust) colonized with mushroom mycelium*.

You spray the substrate twice daily (sprayer included) and wait for the magic to happen.

The mushrooms are eye-catching (or in modern terms, Instagrammable).

The mushrooms can be used in conventional preparations—omelets, sauces, sides, tarts, quiches, etc. But they have specialty uses, too.
 
 
PICK YOUR MUSHROOMS

Choose from:

 
 
HOW THE MUSHROOMS GROW

Open the box, cut open the perforated window, and spray the substrate, per the directions. Place the box in a more humid place—as opposed to a dry spot of direct sunlight.

In two weeks you’ll have full-grown mushrooms. And that’s not all.

 
Questions? Check out the FAQ.
 
 
GET YOUR MUSHROOM KITS

Get them for yourself.

Get them for your friends who love to cook.

Get them for kids, to inspire them.

It’s a gift that no one is likely to have received before, or likely to forget!

Head to Northspore.com.
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF MUSHROOMS
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF MUSHROOMS

[1] Pink oyster mushrooms, growing from a medium inside a box (all photos © North Spore).

[2] Golden oyster mushrooms.

[3] Blue oyster mushrooms.

[4] Lion’s mane mushrooms.

________________

*The mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of a network of fine white filaments (hyphae). Here’s more about it.

†If you are concerned about eating raw mushrooms, speak with your healthcare provider.

‡A flush is the growth for harvesting during the same season. After you harvest the first growth (flush) a second growth may occur, and even successive flushes after that. The more humid the mushrooms’ environment, the likely you’ll get additional flushes. Fruiting means the same thing as flush.

[1] A stuff-your-own sabich sandwich (photo © Leny Vavsha | Panther Media).

[2] At Shayla in New Orleans, the eggplant is fried in thin, chip-like slices (photo © Shayla).

[3] An Alaskan version with a fish fillet and variations on other ingredients. Here’s the recipe (photo © Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute).

[4] Don’t want fried food? Instead of frying the eggplant, you can roast it instead (photo © Elena Danileiko | iStock Photo).

Before we introduce sabich, a bit of background.

First came hummus, seemingly from nowhere, to become a favorite American snack, spread and dip.

Sixty years ago, hummus was little known in the U.S. We were fortunate to attend a university in Manhattan, home to international restaurants of every description.

The neighborhood had both Greek and Mediterranean restaurants, so we were an early consumer of hummus, babaganoush, tahini, taramosalata, and other Mediterranean dips and spreads. (Here’s a list of those you can find in the U.S. today.)

Note that some people call them dips, others call them spreads. Often they’re the same recipe.

The nit-picking difference is that a spread is a food that is spread, typically with a knife, onto other foods, such as bread and crackers. Dips, on the other hand, have other food dipped into them. Thus, the same hummus “dip” can be spread onto a sandwich, or have raw vegetables, crackers and pretzels dipped into it.

In 1986, a commercial hummus venture was launched in the U.S. by an Israeli immigrant. It was the Sabra brand.

Soon enough, nutritionists advocated hummus as a better snack and spread, along with raw vegetables (crudités). Suddenly, everyday consumers nationwide were eating hummus. More brands proliferated, along with recipes for homemade hummus.

Then came falafel. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, it was found largely in immigrant communities. But in the last decades of the 1980s and 1990s, it began to establish itself as a mainstay of American cuisine [source].

And now, there’s sabich. It’s the second most popular sandwich in Israel, after falafel. Will it make its mark in the U.S.?

As more people turn to vegetarian and vegan foods, sabich is primed for its moment.
 
 
WHAT IS SABICH?

Sabich (pronounced with a hard ch) is a sandwich created in Israel by an Iraqi Jewish immigrant. The history of sabich is below.

Sabich is a fusion of textures and flavors: soft and crunchy, creamy and crispy, tangy and a bit spicy.

Instead of falafel’s fried balls of chickpeas with hummus and tahini sauce in pita, sabich, also a pita sandwich with hummus and tahini sauce, has different basic ingredients:

 
Variations

 
You can use the proportions you prefer. If you’d rather roast the eggplant than fry it, that’s an option too [photo #4].

You can also add grilled meat, poultry, or seafood. And you can add your spin; roasted red peppers and arugula instead of tomatoes and lettuce, for example.

Here’s an example of extreme creativity:

Photo #3 shows Green Chermoula Alaska Sole Sabich: a fish fillet a beet-pickled egg instead of the plain hard-boiled egg, chermoula sauce with harissa instead of hummus and tahini, and panko breadcrumbs for crispy eggplant slices.

Here’s the recipe. But is it still sabich?

We’d say that it’s an homage to sabich, and an example of how the classic version can inspire new concepts.

Ramat Gan, a town in the metropolitan Tel Aviv area, is considered to be the birthplace of sabich.

In 1948, following increasing anti-Semitism in Iraq, a large number of Iraqi Jews fled to the newly-formed state of Israel. Many settled in the town of Ramat Gan.

One particular refugee, Sabich Svi Halabi, settled in Ramat Gan. In the early 1960s, he bought a small food stand from an elderly couple. Among other offerings, he created a sandwich from the ingredients that were part of the Iraqi Jewish diet.

The sabich sandwich†, as it became known, was a pita pocket stuffed with fried eggplant, hard-boiled eggs, hummus, tahini, tomato, cucumber and a mango sauce* called amba.

He chose to use stuff an Israeli pita pocket rather than roll the ingredients in the traditional Iraqi flatbread, laffa (or lafa). It was more neatly handheld.

European-styled pickles (pickled cucumbers) were also included.

The concept spread: In the 1950s, street vendors throughout Israel began to sell sabich. Along with falafel, sabich became one of the most popular sandwiches in Israel [source]. It was eaten for breakfast and lunch, in casual restaurants and from street vendors.
 
________________

*Some sharp-eyed people question how mangoes became part of Israeli cuisine. Since medieval times, Iraqi Jewish merchants traded with India. Mango chutney was imported to Iraq, where locals of all faiths purchased it. Some Iraqi cooks enhanced the condiment with chiles, fenugreek and mustard. When the sabich was born, y Israeli pita rather than the traditional Iraqi flatbread; European-inspired cucumber pickles were thrown in too; and the Israeli passion for adding hummus to any sandwich was, of course, indulged. [source].

†You may also see a claim that “sabich” is an acronym for the Hebrew words for salad (salat), eggs (baytzim) and eggplant (chatizilim, with a hard ch). Modern Hebrew uses acronyms frequently, so some people like this explanation [source].

‡Here’s a recipe to make amba from scratch. A hack is to buy mango chutney and season it with the ingredients in the recipe. Use the olive oil to give it more of a sauce consistency.

We love to give gifts of pimento cheese. It isn’t a “thing” in the Northeast, where we live. We can’t remember the last time we saw it in a cheese department. Yet it’s such a versatile cheese, to use on bagels, burgers, hors d’oeuvre, crackers and beer, and so much more.

> Here are 20 ways to use pimento cheese.

Pimento cheese is typically made with cheddar, but can be made with any cheese you can grate: jack, gouda, etc. Sometimes it’s mixed with cream cheese for super-spreadability.

For a cheese lover, a gift of pimento cheese can be an eye-opener.

Birdie’s Pimento Cheese, of South Hill, Virginia, is a venture that began as many small food businesses do: selling in local farmers markets.

After continually selling out their stock, Robin and Glenn Allen sold their 25-year-old printing business and set forth to make pimento cheese full-time.

You can buy a dozen different gifts online—all pimento cheeses with accompaniments from artisan crackers to charcuterie to nut mixes and pretzels.

Personally, we’d go for one of every pimento cheese flavor:

 
Then, all you need is beer, wine, cocktails, or whatever to start the party (or the afternoon snack or the pre-dinner appetizers).
 
 
> Head to BirdiesPimentoCheese.com to buy pimento cheese.

> The History Of Pimento Cheese
 
 
PIMENTO CHEESE RECIPES

[1] The pimento cheese is currently available in five flavors (all photos © Birdie’s).

[2] One of 12+ gift options.

[3] You pick the flavors with each item you order.