Food taboos in NYC: Pink wine and granny carts

Pink wine was considered beyond the pale, a Kool Aid drink best left to Bartles and James. No serious New York City host would serve it, but this summer the prohibition on pink wine has been lifted. While the cosmo, New York's last hot pink drink, is "so over", we have a new trendy pink drink in town. Rose is the chic pink "summer drink to be seen with" according to Sunday's New York Times.

Looks like we beat the Sunday Styles trend patrol on this one. R* and I have been enjoying roses all summer. I read about roses in Martha Stewart Living on our flight to the UK . Then I heard more rose buzz on Apartment Therapy: Kitchen.

I'm never comfortable in a wine shop: I don't want to end up with a terrible wine, nor do I want to spend too much. Shopping for rose makes me especially uncomfortable because of lingering concerns that pink wine is un-cool or at least un-manly. Yesterday I ran in to our local wineshop on Flatbush Avenue. I asked for a rose that wasn't too sweet, they led me to their last bottle of Big House Pink. I thought a rose would be a good match for the mustard-and-chili rubbed rare roasted beef (recipe from Hot Night, Cold Suppers) I served for dinner.

Trying to do my part in making more people "think pink" when it comes to wine, I served little juice glasses of Big House Pink with the rare beef. I thought the Big House wine was ok, but not as great as some of the roses I've tried, though I didn't keep track of any of their names.


Most New Yorkers, especially us guys, would probably rather be caught red-handed with pink wine than be seen pushing a granny cart home from the grocery store. I'll confess to owning a granny cart. I used it from time to time -- if I knew I would be stocking up on something heavy like bottled water or canned tomatoes or a frozen turkey -- but these days, I order the heavy stuff from Fresh Direct and keep the cart in the closet.

The tables might be turning on the cart's cool factor. The cart is going "from squeak to chic" according to The New York Times. Brian Keith Jackson says, "Though carts can be stylish -- I've got my eye on the Swany Smartcart at Gracious Home, definitely a Volvo among carts -- perhaps what they symbolize most is growing up."

I might think about taking my cart out for a shopping trip soon, but I don't think it will be a regular thing. I go to the grocery store so often, I don't need to push a ton of food home all at once, but you will find me often over at A Chicken in Every Granny Cart -- one of my favorite food blogs, with a name that gives it immediate NYC street cred.