The Champagne of Blogs

Ever since my wife got me the Comcast DVR for my birthday last year, we’ve had fancy cable. We’ve got channels I’ve never even heard of (Golf Channel, anyone?), but I mainly stick to my old favorites (mostly OPB and Discovery). Recently, though, I stumbled upon the Fine Living Network (FLN for the txt-msg crowd, channel 184 in PDX) which features a show combining alcohol, travel and food, three of my favorite things.

Kevin Brauch hosts “The Thirsty Traveler” every Thursday evening at 6 PM PST, with repeats on Fridays at 9 PM. Each show centers around a destination and tells the story of that locale’s unique local drinks and foodstuffs. By way of example, a recent episode had Brauch in Kentucky, sipping fine Bourbon and smoking fancy cigars with a real-life Colonel, applying the signature red wax to bottles in the Maker’s Mark factory, and watching oak barrels get charred before being filled with delicious 135-proof proto-whiskey.

Especially interesting to this couch potato, many of the show’s episodes relate to beer. Last night I watched three stored episodes on the subject, starting with Irish Stout in Dublin. The trip to Dubb Linh (Gaelic for “black pool,” though no reference to stout) began with a trip to the world’s largest brewery, Guinness, which looks like a very entertaining (and expensively produced) factory tour. Especially interesting to me, though, was the visit to tiny Dublin Brewing Company, an upstart microbrewery aiming to bring a more personal touch to the National Drink.

Another episode had the affable Brauch in Belgium, visiting Brussels, the Trappists behind Orval, Hoegaarden (wit bier) and a Belgian micro whose name currently escapes me. Especially fun to watch as Sarah and I are just starting to make plans for our Fall 2007 visit to France, 3 days of which have been promised me for a side trip to Belgium, focusing on Bruges and surrounding (Westvleteren!) areas.

An aspect of the show that I also enjoy is the cooking/food tie-in. As we all know, drinking on an empty stomach is bad news. An area’s signature dish, usually taken with locals, typically also includes the signature alcohol as an ingredient. A trip to Scotland for Scotch whisky (from the Gaelic uisge, meaning “water of life”) also included fresh-caught and -smoked salmon glazed with single malt. Sounds delicious.

A less appetizing, but highly amusing, trip to Iceland for “The Black Death” had Brauch eating harkarl, the Icelandic “delicacy” better known as “rotten shark.” Buried after catch, the shark ferments underground, then is exhumed and hung to dry and age outdoors under a rustic roof. The look on his face after eating it … let’s just say I won’t be requesting that at Gartner’s anytime soon.