Veritas Wine Club: The Wine and Cheese Convergence

Wine and cheese has been a celebrated culinary coupling for centuries. Pairing the duo, however, is not always an elementary assignment. With the increasing diversity of both available at your local grocery store, selection can quickly become overwhelming.  Does this Gaglioppo pair with a block of Timberdoodle?

This month’s Veritas Wine Club at Tchin Tchin Bar, located in Honolulu’s Chinatown District, sought to provide a few basic wine and cheese pairing tips, utilizing items easily found at any local market. Learn, practice, repeat.

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Costco Corner: a penny saved is a penny put toward the next bottle...

Enter Costco, the welcomed paradox of low cost and high quality that has Hawaii residents scrambling for a cart at every operating hour of the Costco day. When is the best time to traverse Costco’s fabled value-packed aisles? I have no idea; morning and night, weekdays and weekends, it always appears an endless sea of frantic slapdashery. Fight the bevy of busy patrons, however, and you can be rewarded with excellent value, everyday wines.

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Special Edition: A Royal Hawaiian Mother’s Day

In a special Mother’s Day edition, we pay tribute to the love, support, and generosity unconditionally poured out by mothers everywhere. It's just what moms do, naturally and gracefully. Although we benefit on a regular basis, these gestures and sacrifices are too often met with little appreciation. But not today! On this day, we celebrate and honor you, mom, for all the ways in which you love, care and provide for us. Cheers to you!

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Birthday Musings: The Great Birthday Roast

The second part of the Great Birthday Bash was borne out of a coincidence of timing. This month’s wine club, typically convening the last weekend of each month, was bestowed a birthday theme.  Patrons were asked to select a wine (or food) that would embody the core characteristics and personality traits of this esteemed author.  Okay, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was quickly discovered that any potentially positive character trait I may possess was going to be conveniently omitted from the discussion.  Cheer up, I was told, “we simply wouldn’t bother at all if we didn’t like you.”  Sigh. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

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Birthday Musings: The Great Birthday Serenade

Traditionally, I have not been a tremendous fan of celebrating my birthday. The historic lack of friends, money, and the inability to drink likely sapped whatever enjoyment might have otherwise been derived from a big birthday bash. This year, however, my circumstances appear to have taken a favorable deviation, with a planned two-part birthday celebration. Wait, two parts? The introvert anticipates a measure of mild discomfort.

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