There’s advantages to dating foreign men (read: non-Americans). I mean, beyond the looks, the accent, the lack of English, and the hot hot way they say “No, what is the meaning of this Make Out?”

I mean, what, no, from personal experience? Definitely not.

Seriously though, even when all is said and done and the foreign man in question has moved back to his foreign country that is an ocean removed from the Us of A, it’s nice to daydream sometimes, about the man, his accent, and a country full of similarly looking men with similar accents smiling at you at a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. All-American boys are great and all that, but after its all over, you’re never going to romanticize about him and you idylling in, say, Southern California. Or New Jersey. Or Connecticut.

Liquids? Oh, right, this is a blog about liquids. We’re getting there!

Anyhow, I tried my hand at nostalgia a couple nights ago; fresh basil, pine nuts, parmigianito and pecorino romano on the kitchen top. No mortar & pestle or food processor (food processor?!, an Italian mama laments in the distance), but a wooden spoon and a bit of good ol’ fashioned work made for a decent pesto. I threw some De Cecco farfelle on the stove (if the Italian expats use De Cecco exclusively, that’s good enough for me), and even threw in a couple green beans on top because that’s what he always did, despite the obvious placebo effect.

To come full circle, I opened a bottle of Pinot grigio from the same geographic area. I wasn’t expecting much, after all, I’ve always thought of Pinot grigio as Chardonnay lite; not exactly a derogative, but fairly close, considering I’m not the world’s biggest fan of Chardonnays either (though these $5 bottles of Barefoot has slowly been changing my mind). But this inconspicuous $7 bottle of Vezzo Pinot grigio worked perfectly for the occasion! This was probably the first time that a food pairing had actually made a difference in my mind for a wine. But semi-spicy, musky, yet light in the throat, it went amazingly well with the pesto.

It was a really nice evening.

P.S. Bonus points if you’ve guessed the region of Italy the boy’s from.