The Pinot Noir at the End of the 26.2 Mile Tunnel

We are heading north tonight to cheer on my sister, who is running the Napa Valley Marathon on Sunday! For a countdown to showtime, check out her excellent marathon training blog, Pink, PRs and Pinot Noirs, in which she obsesses about all things pink and her favorite Pinot Noirs while sharing solid running tips. (God love her.) I’m really excited about helping her carbo-load tomorrow, starting with the world’s best English muffin at the Model Bakery and ending with my dad making his spaghetti sauce based on a recipe from the Hotel Danieli that he’s been improving upon for the past 25 years or so. Currently the Sunday forecast calls for 60% rain, so Tiny G has packed his microfiber rain jacket with a concealed hood for foul weather. He wouldn’t miss cheering on his Auntie Claude for the world!

By the way, if you’re wondering what bottle she’ll be cracking open at the end of 26.2, it’s a 2005 Williams Selyem Rochioli Riverblock Vineyard Pinot Noir. What can I say? The girl has good taste.

Friday Follies: Eat Sex Man Woman

Friday Follies [n., pl.] postings on Fridays about fashion and food in film from guest bloggers with impeccable taste.

The idea of good food makes me think of sex. I love truffled cheeses, and when I tried to explain to a dear friend the effect they have on me—“It’s like leaning in close to a man who has exquisitely delicious breath, and inhaling his air”—said friend retorted, “Oh! You HAVE to write about this!” And so I do.

I have always tended to log supremely tasty food in my brain in erotic terms. Luckily for me, I discovered early enough the work of Juzo Itami. He’s a Japanese filmmaker who was apparently offed by the Yakuza, although not before he left behind a substantive body of completely perverted, magical work. I remember watching a clip from his film Tampopo (1985) sometime in the ’80s, on MTV. I was still a teenager then, and it really blew my mind! It featured two eager lovers, somewhere in the back of a Tokyo kitchen, erotically experimenting with food. They broke an egg and kept passing it back and forth in their mouths, trying to keep the yolk intact in the process. The exercise is beautifully documented on film. It instantly became my favorite erotic food maneuver. I never dared spring it onto any of my own real lovers, but therefore it stood, a pinnacle of food-fetish achievement.—Sorina Diaconescu

For the previous Friday Follies, click HERE.