Introducing the Pizzagel?

Last week, we reported on the invention of the Bagelrrito in a university-level Institute of Food Technologists competition. A sign at Santa Monica and Beverly Glen boulevards in Westwood announces the coming of the revolution closer to home: hand-rolled wood-fired bagels. No mention of how many toppings you can get on them.

Tower on Wall

“The world’s largest tower of bagel” was unveiled at Broad and Wall streets in New York City on June 21 to symbolize a restaurant promotional event, NY69 Restaurant Week. The structural baked goods had been made by H&H; Bagels.

Oldest Empty Wine Bottle Found

In 1991, archeologist Patrick McGovern announced the discovery of a pottery jar that proved people were making wine 5,500 years ago. The long-necked jar, found in the remains of a mud brick building in the northern Zagros Mountains of Iran, contained calcium tartarate, which exists in large amounts only in grapes. In Nature magazine, McGovern now writes that further study has shown that the jar actually dates from much earlier, sometime between 5000 and 5400 BC--almost 7,500 years ago.

Interestingly, there were also traces of resin from the terebinth tree, which archeologists theorize was intentionally added because it would inhibit the growth of bacteria. Or maybe people just liked the taste, though that’s not likely--terebinth was the original source of turpentine resin.

Senseless Merlot Tragedy

A truck rounded a curve too fast in Sonoma on June 25 and overturned, spilling hundreds of cases of wine. The casualty was Merlot, the hottest California red grape variety.

The Groskopf Trucking Co. truck was carrying 1,200 cases of Buena Vista Winery’s 1994 Estate Merlot, of a total vintage of about 8,500 cases (the wine is still being bottled). Four hundred cases are definitely destroyed, said Buena Vista spokesman Robert Larsen, and the remaining 800 are being evaluated on a bottle-by-bottle basis. The driver suffered only bumps and bruises.