Tivoli, Italy is an amazing place.
I bought a new Tivoli light blue enamel sauce pan with a glass lid and am pretty happy with its addition to my kitchen. For the price, it looks cool and cooks evenly. It will be good for sauces.
For a look at Tivoli products visit them at www.tivolicook.com
New Orleans has shared many things a person into the arts can appreciate.
The city has flavored many musicians, jazz and otherwise.
Another gift of New Orleans is the Po’ Boy sandwich. (www.poboyfest.com/history)
Pictured here is my tribute to the Catfish Po’ Boy with pepper jack cheese.
Imagine that table filled with platters of various appetizers, while we sip sangria served up by kitchen mermaid Rachael Ray and enjoy the smells of BBQing meats outside blowing in through the open french doors.
In the meantime, the music plays and we wait for the Dude of Food to throw the fresh coconut crusted whitefish in the pans heating up on the grill of this kitchen in the home of some cool people.
Product of Argentina.
Imported by WX Imports, Novato , CA
www.espueladelguacho.com
This low priced gaucho Malbec tastes more like the boot sweat of a gaucho.
I may have gotten a bad bottle, but this was my least favorite of
the bottles tasted by the Dude of Food.
Murphy-Goode Winery Santa Rosa, CA 
MURPHYGOODE.COM
This wine posses a heavy thick leg but lands on the taste buds
gracefully, reminding the senses of a bouquet of sweet berry flavors.
The flavor doesn’t linger long on the red carpet, before it melts away,
providing opportunity for another pleasurable taste.
For under $13. this is a pretty good wine, not so much over $15. as
you have entered a region of price where premiere tastes become more
pronounced.
Murphy-Goode cab is not a bad wine, but if you like a heavier full
flavored red wine, then the Bodega ELENA de Mendoza offers a bit more
bang for a little less bucks.
This product of Spain is a tasty red table wine. 
Las Rocas USA in Hayward, CA.
This is a lighter wine than the Malbec’s and Cabernet’s.
The wine has thin streaky legs. The taste immediately
reveals sweet berries and then lightly tapers with a fume
of apricot and pear. Not heavy. Not too sweet.
Great for day sipping, happy hour or with meals. This
wine would go well with a meat, cheese and olive platter
as well as your favorite steak salad.
If you pay more than 10. it’s not a good deal. It is not the
average bottle, so be a unique wine buyer and try this.
Bodega ELENA de Mendoza 2011
Vinted and bottled by B.E.D.M. Wines
Imported by Wine Brokers Unlimited, Hayward, CA
Product of Argentina
This is the Dudes favorite Malbec yet tasted! This is the first of the bottles
that I have opened that came with a real cork. Good 1st impression. Upon
tasting this wine, I was immediately aware that the taste game had changed.
The bar had been raised. This was serious wine.
The full bodied wine smoothly drifts over your taste buds, dangling flavors of
blackberries and plums, leaving a rejoicing smile and desire for more.
There was no crazy tinny aftertaste. This was immediately my new favorite Malbec.
If it is a dollar more than the other Malbec’s in this price range, pay it!
Get this Malbec!
(side note) April 2013 issue of Bon Appetite magazine includes McCormick
gourmet selection recommending this wine also.
Grown in Mendoza, Argentina.
Imported by Cupcake Vineyards, Livermore, CA
Grown at 2,400 feet under the shadow of the snow covered Andes mountains,
this Mendoza region wine is more talk than action. The flavors mentioned on
the back of the label mention flavors of plums, raspberries and a dark chocolate
flour less cupcake. Really?
Priced in the reasonable to cheap category, but you get what you pay for in this case.
Prefer the Sensual or Robert Mondavi over this Cupcake.
Raised in Mendoza, Argentina
Imported by Redwood Creek Winery, Modesto, CA
www.redwoodcreek.com
I wanted to like this wine but felt it was just not quite as good as the Robert Mondavi PS ’11 or Sensual ’12. Not sure why. Same grape, same region, same year.
This wine’s taste was much like the Sensual and Mondavi but there was a slight shift that did not work in the Redwood Creek’s favor. The price is about the same so if I had my option, I’d choose the others.
Mendoza, Malbec Product of Argentina
Imported by CWUS Imports, Acampo, CA
Another reasonably priced, Mendoza raised wine. This tastes very similar to the Sensual 2012 used as my Malbec standard to compare the other wines.
Grapey, but not overly. OK. Not sweet. Kind of flat. Short tongue life. On the heavy side ala a Cabernet Sauvignon.