Thursday Sips & Nibbles

I'm back again with a new edition of Sips & Nibbles, my regular column where I highlight some interesting, upcoming food and drink events. I hope everyone dines out safely, tips well and are nice to their servers.
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1) Verveine Cafe & Bakery is a new cafe and bakery, from pastry chef Monica Glass and chef & restaurateur Ken Oringer, which is now open at 298 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge. Monica Glass and Ken Oringer are reunited again, nearly a decade after working together, to bring this newest cafe to Boston. 

Drawing inspiration from cafe cultures from around the world such as brasseries in France, kissaten throughout Japan, and bars in Italy, the new 24-seat cafe and bakery serves a menu inspired by Monica and Ken’s extensive travels and influences drawn from time abroad, serving housemade pastries, breads, pizzas, and more. With the opening of Verveine Cafe & Bakery, Monica introduces WLDFLR™– her new brand of carefully crafted proprietary flour blends that serves as the secret ingredient behind many of the creations on the menu. The cafe and bakery will accommodate all dietary restrictions, including individuals with a gluten-free diet.

On their Breakfast menu, you'll find items like Congee with Thai chicken sausage, puffed rice, caramelized onions, roasted maitake mushrooms, parmigiano with a soft boiled egg; Spicy Chili Biscuit Breakfast Sandwich with fluffy scrambled eggs, arugula, avocado, and spicy chili jam on biscuits freshly baked in house; and Crepe au Sarrasin, a traditional buckwheat french style crepe with jamon, gruyere cheese and an egg. 

As for Sandwiches, you'll find dishes Japanese Shrimp Katsu Sandwich with a crispy panko coated shrimp patty with cilantro, ginger, chili, and garlic, topped with kewpie mayo and Bull-Dog sauce on Japanese milk bread; Honey Chili Tuna Melt on signature sourdough country loaf with tahini, pickle, red onion, hot honey with melted Vermont cheddar; Veggie Sandwich on sourdough ciabatta with honey and spice roasted delicata squash, melted halloumi, hazelnut dukkah and raw baby kale dressed in chili oil vinaigrette; and Chicken Shawarma with house made pita, garlic aioli, guindilla peppers, pickled onions and homemade apricot habanero chutney. There will also be a rotating Pizza of the day served Neapolitan style. 

You'll also find a wide selection of pastries, such as Danishes, Muffins, and Scones, including: 

• Kimchi Egg Cheddar Danish with kimchi, egg, cheddar cheese;
• Blood Orange Danish with cardamom cream and blood orange jam;  
• Meyer Lemon Blueberry Crumb Muffin; 
• Carrot Hazelnut Date Muffin;
• Green Onion & Gouda Scone with melted gouda and fresh scallions and Rhubarb Pink Peppercorn. 
• Fudgy Purple Ube Brownies
• Strawberry Guava Hand Pies
• Black Sesame Financier, the traditional French cake with sesame sourced from a 5th generation sesame roaster in Osaka Japan; 
• Bibingka, a popular pastry from the Philippines served in a banana leaf, made with rice flour and coconut milk, topped with salted coconut milk jam and okinawa black sugar. 

2) Croatian Premium Wine Imports (CPWI), specialists in Croatian wines, and which can be ordered online across most of the U.S., has recently added 28 wines to their portfolio. So, their portfolio now includes 121 Croatian wines! Of their 28 new wines, 18 are new wine labels and 10 are new vintages.  As for the new wineries and new wines, they include the following, a number of which I have previously visited and enjoyed.  

Damjanić – An Istrian family, near Poreč, with a long-history of winemaking and a brand-new winery.  Check out my winery review.

Delmati – A new ownership of a number of up to 60-year-old vineyards, which were first reenergized before renewing the winery and the winemaking process. A great team of leaders from the Dalmatian hinterland. Enjoy their Biokovo line -- Trbljan (white) which just received a Gold Medal from TEXSOM Awards and Plavka (red) with the Silver.

Enosophia – Drom Feričanci, Slavonia, comes a new brand line from the winery whose name is Wisdom in Wine, and wines include sparkling white - Today Blanc, sparkling rose – Todays Rose, a light red blend - Ruby Fusion and TRS NO. 5, a Graševina that sings. This winery strives to combine the traditional with the modern, and boy did they. You can download from their website the app to hear the music that accompanies TRS NO. 5. This certainly appealed to “yours truly” techies. Check out my winery review.

Krauthaker – Mirena and Win absolutely fell in love with a very limited-production orange wine made from Graševina. True to Vlado’s wit, he named it Kuvlahki. The code to decipher the name = starting with letters from town of Kutjevo, adding letters from his name and then ending it in a Georgian language style to pay homage to the recent inspiration on orange wines. Check out my winery review.

Kutjevo – A winery with a long history (since 1232) and with a newly branded rosé that gets Decanter Golds and Silvers year after year. Its official name is Rosé Premium, but we call it Kravata. Check out my winery review.

Meneghetti – An Istrian icon from two perspectives – superb winemaking and a luxury wine-hotel experience.  

Testament –Mirena and Win have added a few gems to the portfolio - due to Juraj’s, Patricia’s and the team’s creativity we chose Opolo Rosé made from Babić; Zenit, a skin-contact wine from Pošip; Tribidrag; and Prošek made from Babić. Check out my winery review.

Now is the time for to experience the wonders and diversity of Croatian wines. I'm a huge fan, have visited the country twice, and tasted so many excellent wines. CPWI makes it easy for wine lovers in the U.S. to obtain Croatian wines, and I strongly encourage you to order some Croatian wines from them.