Save calories and carbs: skip the pita and serve falafel with romaine leaves (photo © Sun Basket). Check out the link for their recipe for tempeh falafel, instead of traditional chickpeas.

June 12th is International Falafel Day, celebrating a vegan Middle Eastern street food that’s become very popular in the U.S.

It’s an especially timely holiday, because this year, June 12th falls on a Monday. Falafel is a delicious dish for Meatless Mondays.

In addition to the most popular uses—in a pita sandwich or as part of a mezze plate, you can use falafel to top a green salad or an Israeli salad; or serve it as an appetizer with tahini, yogurt, or cucumber dip*.

Is falafel healthy food? Yes, except for the calories in the oil used for frying and the calories and carbs of the pita with which it is typically served.

Healthy tip #1: Buy frozen falafel balls (or make your own) and bake rather than fry them.

Healthy tip #2: Serve the falafel with romaine or other lettuce leaves instead of pita.

> Here’s more about falafel nutrition.

> The history of falafel.
 
 
FALAFEL RECIPES

For the first time in 19 years, THE NIBBLE is taking a brief hiatus.

We’ll be back before you notice we’re gone.

In the interim, have fun with:
 
 
> 100 food glossaries: food lovers’ guides to favorite foods you’d like to know more about.
 
 
> 850+ food histories: the origins of your favorite foods from A to Z.

[1] A French 75 sparkles, but an Ultraviolet 75 sparkles with a rosy hue. The recipe is below (all photos © Sovereign Brands).

[2] The Gin & Tonic is the most popular gin cocktail, but how about an Ultraviolet & Tonic? The recipe is below.

[3] A classic Negroni is reddish from the Campari. A Royal Negroni has a purplish hue. The recipe is below.

[4] The flagship brand is distilled from 21 botanicals.

[5] It won a gold medal at the L.A. Spirits Awards.

[6] A dazzling duo.

[7] An exciting gin gift.

If you like a gin that’s heavy on botanicals (and we do!), McQueen And The Violet Fog is the next brand for you to try. There’s the award-winning flagship brand (photos #4 and #5) and if you like something super-special, the brand has just launched its Ultraviolet Edition of violet-hued, flavored gin.

McQueen And The Violet Fog is made by Sovereign Brands, a family-run wine and spirits company.

What about the name? “McQueen and the Violet Fog” was inspired by a poem of the same name. It’s a poem about a mysterious (fictional) rock band, written by a poet who calls himself Atticus.

We couldn’t find the poem online, but the last two stanzas are printed on the back of the bottle. Briefly: The narrator is at a rock concert when the room suddenly goes black. When the lights go back on, the band has disappeared—only the verberations remain, along with a plate on the door that says “McQueen & The Violet Fog.”

Is it the name of the band? The name of the venue? An homage to the Velvet Underground (which took its own name from the title of a book on sadomasochism?

Atticus, if you read this, give us a clue.
 
 
CRAFTING McQUEEN AND THE VIOLET FOG

The gin world, says Sovereign Brands, is traditionally U.K.-centric. For its flagship gin, the company wanted to do something different.

So they make their artisan gin in a single copper pot still in the hills of Jundiaí, Brazil, a municipality in the state of São Paulo.

Each small batch is a labor of love, producing only 500 liters of gin.

Twenty-one exotic botanicals are distilled into the spirit, including many rarely found in gin, such as jasmine flower, lemongrass, orris root, and pomelo peel.

The botanicals are sourced from around the world—as far from Brazil as Indian basil leaves, Mediterranean fennel seed, Portuguese rosemary, South Pacific calamansi, Vietnamese star anise, and a local hero, Brazilian açaí.

Sovereign Brands relates that no other gin has 21 botanicals, adding that six of the botanicals are found in no other gin [source].

As a result, the complex palate of McQueen and the Violet Fog reveals something new with every sip: citrus, floral notes, heat, herbs, juniper, and spice.

The gin is so smooth and satiny, some might say voluptuous…a gin that’s ultra-smooth and well-rounded, and a step away from the traditional European-style gins (photo #4).

And it’s officially a winner, taking gold in the L.A. Spirits Awards (photo #5).

Pour a snifter and inhale. Do you smell a forest, an orchard, an apothecary? A bit of heaven?
 
 
NOW FOR THE VIOLET GIN

And now, more razzle-dazzle: The new Ultraviolet Edition, a flavored gin that makes beautiful purple cocktails.

It’s made from the same 21 botanicals as the flagship gin, with the added complexity of red berries and hibiscus, plus carmine to create Ultraviolet’s striking violet color.

The color is deep violet when poured neat, but transforms to a beautiful pink color when combined with tonic water or citrus juice.

While the gin is flavored, it can be used to make any gin cocktail.

The flavor is tart (from cranberries), sweet, and earthy. Concentrate and you’ll taste the cranberries plus jasmine flower, lemongrass, the Portuguese rosemary, and even rose petals.

The handsome, heavyweight bottle can be repurposed as a water bottle for the table. (For fun, use food color to make violet water.)

The goal of Sovereign Brands is to become the wine and spirits industry’s most innovative creator of unique, forward-thinking new brands. With McQueen and the Violet Fog—both versions—they’re headed in the right direction!

Discover more on the company website, along with many more recipes.
 
 
RECIPE #1: ULTRAVIOLET & TONIC

A step beyond the traditional G&T (photo #2).
 
Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. FILL a cup of glass with ice and gin. Top with tonic water.

2. GARNISH with a grapefruit slice.
 
 
RECIPE #2: ULTRAVIOLET 75

A French 75 is nice, but very pale compared to the Ultraviolet 75 (photo #1).

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup. Shake with ice and strain into a chilled flute.

2. TOP with sparkling wine. Garnish with a lemon twist
 
 
RECIPE #3: ROYAL NEGRONI

The Negroni is the world’s #2 cocktail. But here comes the Royal Negroni (photo #3).

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. PREPARE a large glass (or a Boston shaker) and a mixing glass with ice. Add the gin, Campari, vermouth, and bitters to the mixing glass.

2. STIR very well and strain into a large glass. Garnish with the orange peel.
 
 
> The history of gin.

> The different types (styles) of gin.

We celebrate National Pinot Grigio Day on May 17th. The refreshing white wine is perfect for warm days enjoyment, but Americans enjoy it year-round.

In fact, while Pinot Grigio is the most popular white wine in Italy, it’s also the most-imported white wine in the U.S.

Below: The difference between Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris.

Below: Pairing food with Pinot Grigio.
 
 
A BRIEF HISTORY OF PINOT GRIGIO

While best known as an Italian grape, the varietal first appeared in the Burgundy region of France in the Middle Ages, where it was known as Pinot Gris.

 
From Burgundy, the grape traveled east to the Alsace region of France, where it was to deliver its highest caliber wines.

It was planted in Switzerland by the 14th century. The wine is said to have been a favorite of Emperor Charles IV, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1355 to 1378 [source].

It was planted extensively by the Cistercian monks in Hungary and in Italy by 1375, where the now-named Pinot Grigio was destined to become the number-one Italian white [source].

In Italy, Pinot Grigio is grown largely in the cooler northeastern parts of the country: primarily the Veneto, but also Alto Adige, Friuli, Lombardy, and Trentino.

Today, Pinot Gris is also grown in Australia, Austria, Chile, Germany, South Africa, and the U.S. (especially California, Oregon, and Long Island, New York) [source].

The first American Pinot Gris was planted in Oregon by David Lett of Eyrie Vineyards in 1965. The varietal was slow to catch on, though.

In the 1960s, Italy’s Santa Margherita Winery began to export its Pinot Grigio to the U.S., and it ultimately became one of Italy’s largest wine exports to the States [source].

By the 1990s, American brands of Pinot Grigio began to trend higher and higher.

As of 2019, Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris was the second-largest-selling white wine in the U.S., after Chardonnay. Sauvignon Blanc was third, followed by White Zinfandel and Riesling [source].

While their popularity has led to a lot of inexpensive, mass-produced wines that are two-dimensional, there are some fine Pinot Grigios. Ask your wine store for a recommendation. There are good options from $15 upwards.
 
 
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PINOT GRIGIO & PINOT GRIS

While the DNA of the grapes is virtually identical, Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are stylistically different wines. This is because of:

 
 
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN YOUR GLASS OF PINOT GRIGIO

Pinot Grigio wines are light in body, mild in flavor, crisp, and can be dry, slightly sweet, or off-dry. They have subtle floral or delicately fruity notes. Some will be minerally.

They have low acid levels as well. They’re clean, easy-drinking, refreshing wines, great for pool or patio, or for pairing with lighter foods (see below).

The aromas are subtle because the grapes don’t have a high level of ripeness. But let the wine open up in the glass and look for the delicate scents of:

 
Each producer’s wine will offer different aromas and flavors, based on terroir† and the factors mentioned above.

And don’t worry if you don’t know the difference between a regular peach and a white peach, or what acacia leaf smells like (here’s the scoop). These are part of the baby steps in mastering wine.
 
 
PAIRING PINOT GRIGIO & FOOD

Choose warm-weather foods, nothing heavy.

 
Buon appetito!

[1] Have a glass: It’s National Pinot Grigio Day, Italy’s most popular white wine (photo © Dorien Beernink | Unsplash).

[2] Have some pizza with your Pinot Grigio (photos #2 and #3 © Brett Jordan | Licensed-under-CC-BY-2.0).

[3] Pinot Grigio, light and refreshing, is an ideal warm-weather wine.

[4] Pair Pinot Grigio with Italian foods; here, a snack of prosciutto and focaccia (photo © Lupa Restaurant | NYC).

[5] Another idea for a Pinot Grigio aperitivo: skewers of mozzarella and cherry tomatoes (photo © Spice Islands).

[6] A vendage tardive (VT) Pinot Gris from Domaines Schlumberger, one of the great Alsatian producers of Pinot Gris. This aged wine turns a deep golden color and gains richness and complexity (photo © Tomas Eriksson | Wikipedia).

†Terroir, pronounced tur-WAH, is a French agricultural term referring to the unique set of environmental factors in a specific habitat that affects 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 or vegetable its unique character.
 
 

[1] This potato and chicken hot pot recipe is below (photo © Little Figgy | Idaho Potato).

[2] Note the divided dish, which holds two different broths (photos #2 and #3 © Little Sheep | Pasadena [alas, permanently closed])

[3] Grasp food with chopsticks, dip it into hot broth, cook, and eat. Repeat.

[4] Beef from our favorite spot in Flushing, New York (photo © Xiang Hot Pot | Facebook).

[5] The food item—here beef, but anything from meat and fish to vegetables, dumplings, tofu, and beyond—is dipped into hot broth to cook it (photo © @MichaelOyu | Xiang Hotpot Flushing | Facebook).

[6] Bean sprouts and other ingredients ready to cook in the hot broth (photo © Peijia Li | Unsplash).

[7] Restaurants offer a variety of sauces to dip the cooked food: chili oil, garlic sauce, ponzu, satay sauce, sesame sauce, soy sauce, etc.

[8] Lobster: a luxury hot pot ingredient (photo © Amanda Lim | Unsplash).

May 11th is Eat What You Want Day. While some people use this as an excuse to pile on the sugar or chips, we’re using it to shed light on a dish not enjoyed enough in the U.S.: hot pot. You may have heard of Mongolian hot pot (or hotpot), a dish that is served at restaurants devoted to the dish.

We had hoped to head out to Flushing, Queens, to our favorite hot pot restaurant, Xiang Hotpot. But we couldn’t get away, so we made our own Asian-inspired chicken hot pot recipe, Potato Mushroom Chicken Hot Pot. The recipe is below.

The recipe below lets you enjoy a family dinner in a slightly different way.

It’s an adaptation of comfort food that brings to the table a pot of simmering chicken broth stocked with chicken. Each diner dips vegetables into the broth, to cook them. It’s fun and festive.

In our childhood, perusing the menu at our family’s favorite Chinese restaurant, our eyes always stopped at the fetching-sounding Mongolian Hot Pot.

We wanted one, but Mom didn’t. So it remained a simmering desire in our heart until we were old enough to take ourselves to the restaurant.

It was worth the wait. We were delighted and enamored.
 
 
WHAT’S A HOT POT?

Hot pot or hotpot (the term in China is literally “fire pot”), is a cooking method from Mongolia.

It’s a simmering pot of soup stock brought to the dining table, containing a variety of raw meats, seafood, vegetables, and noodles to be cooked in the hot broth; then dipped into a variety of sauces (momiji-oroshi [chili-radish], ponzu, sesame, soy, etc. (photo #7).

It’s a group meal: the hot broth at the center of the table, surrounded by platters of food to be cooked.

Mongolian Hot Pot is perhaps the best-known dish of Mongolia, an autonomous region of northeast China*.

Like fondue, it’s a group meal; except that the bubbling pot is filled with broth instead of cheese; and there’s no bread or other eady-to-eat foods to dip on skewers, but instead, a large selection of raw foods.

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot, a chain with thousands of locations in Asia and a toehold several locations in North America, has a variety of broths and some 100 dipping items, ranging from shellfish to lamb meatballs to thin-sliced beef and kidney; and almost every vegetable you can name. Check out some examples here.

And dumplings—don’t forget the dumplings. ribeye and pork kidney to winter melon, lotus root, egg dumplings, and oyster mushrooms.

It’s a franchise, so if you have visions of Hot Pot whenever you want it, check it out.
 
 
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MONGOLIAN HOT POT & JAPANESE SHABU SHABU?

Both Mongolian Hot Pot and Japanese Shabu Shabu fall into the category of cooking raw ingredients in a hot broth.

The main difference is that shabu-shabu is milder, served with only kombu dashi (seaweed) broth instead of the variously spiced broths of Mongolian Hot Pot.

Yes, Mongolian Hot Pot’s broths are bold, as well as fragrant. At Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot, the principal broth has a blend of 36 aromatic ingredients, including black cardamom pods, whole garlic cloves, goji berries and ginseng [source].

Hot Pot restaurants offer a variety of broths. Some restaurants use a “split pot” divided into two sections (photos #2, #3, and #5). One can hold a spicy broth, and the other a milder broth.

As the concept spread beyond Mongolia, the dish took on flavors and ingredients that vary by region—from curry to tom yum broths. Szechuan Hot Pot, for example, offers a chicken broth highly spiced with chiles and peppercorns.

The recipe that follows is an Americanized hot pot. It’s a simple technique, made for the average home. No special pots or other equipment are required.

 
RECIPE #1: POTATO, MUSHROOM, & CHICKEN HOT POT

This recipe for Potato, Mushroom & Chicken Hot Pot (photo #1) is not Mongolian, but was created “in the spirit” of Asian hot pots by Stacey Doyle of Little Figgy Food, for the Idaho Potato Commission.

The idea is to enjoy a group dinner of simmering the vegetables in the broth, along with the already-cooked chicken.

The cooking process is similar to the fondue style of cooking, both of which enable enjoyable mealtime with each other while each person cooks his/her own food.

The recipe combines fresh and wholesome ingredients like mushrooms, carrots, spring onions, Idaho® potatoes, chicken breasts, and stock—with flavorful mix-ins like soy sauce, poultry herbs, and crushed red pepper flakes.

This slurp-worthy soup is best served the same day and is a filling comfort-food dinner. Customize it as you like. For example:

 
Tips from Stacy:

 
Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
 
RECIPE #2: POULTRY HERB SEASONING

If you don’t have a jar of poultry herb seasoning, you can blend your own with these ingredients:

 
Preparation
 
COMBINE well and transfer to an airtight container.

NOTE: In addition to poultry, you can use poultry seasoning—a blend of popular herbs—on beef, lamb, pork, and vegetables; in soups, and in sauces. It’s most flavorful when added to food during the last few minutes of cooking. You can also season appetizers, breads, and salads.
 
Preparation

1. DRY CHAR† the sliced mushrooms in a large nonstick saucepan or casserole pan over medium heat, until they start to turn golden, about 5 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.

2. ADD ¼ cup of the white wine to deglaze the pan. Add the olive oil and heat over medium-high heat.

3. ADD the carrots and potatoes and cook for about 10 minutes. Turn halfway through and cook until the potatoes start to turn golden and the carrots are just starting to soften. Optionally, if you prefer, you can set aside the potatoes to add at the end and enjoy like steak cut fries; or leave them to continue cooking.

4. ADD the scallions, chopped cooked chicken, broth, soy sauce, the remaining white wine, the poultry herb seasoning, and the cooked mushrooms. Turn the heat to medium-low and continue to cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust flavor if needed.

5. GARNISH with scallions if desired, and serve with optional hot sauce or crushed red pepper flakes.

*You may have heard of both Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia. Since 1912, Mongolia has been an independent country, sometimes referred to as Outer Mongolia. It is sandwiched between China and Russia. Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of China, equivalent to a province. It is to the east of the sovereign nation of Mongolia. Both countries speak a variety of languages within the Mongolian language family.

†To dry char, simply place the mushrooms in a pan and cook them on the stovetop, with no butter or oil. By skipping the fat, the pan will get very hot without smoking, so the mushrooms become charred (not steamed or smoked) as they cook.