HUNGRY GERALD

Sweet potatoes are good as fries and this has given them new stature in the kitchens of food obsessives. Peter Hellman commented on HG’s recent post “Sweets and Mickeys.” Peter says Whole Foods in his Manhattan/West 97th and Broadway neighborhood now carries heirloom sweet potatoes. Virtuous Peter roasts them. Sometimes with a scrape of brown sugar or a pinch of cumin. No fat. He calls them the perfect winter food. A Hellman (no connection with the excellent mayonnaise) endorsement is big time. He is one of the country’s leading wine experts (wine columnist for the late lamented New York Sun and frequent contributor to Wine Spectator). He is just as discerning about food. However,drinking wine with Peter is a chore. He takes very tiny sips..rarely more than one or two. Essentially,it seems to me, he just likes to taste wine (albeit with a very refined palate). HG,on the other hand,like to drink wine. An understatement. HG likes to guzzle wine,swill wine,behave like Bacchus at an orgy. Somewhere there is a shining model of moderation. HG has never found it. (He has never looked too hard). Getting back to Peter: He is a remarkable writer/journalist,author of some eight books. What gives him particular distinction is his ability to write gracefully about human pleasures (like wine and music) while doing carefully researched and penetrating studies of some of the horrors of the 20th century. Witness his books “When Courage Was Stronger Than Fear” (moving and hopeful about the better angels of our nature) and “The  Auschwitz Album” (a look into man-made hell). Long may he write….and sip.