Bordeaux Wine Tasting

Few weeks ago I had the pleasure to attend a wine tasting class hosted by a US wine dealer. I would really want to do it more often to develop my tasting palette and ability to articulate the differentiation. I would say after tasting wine from different regions and countries over the past years, I still prefer bordeaux for its subtlety and elegance of fragrance and flavor.

The line-up of our wine list is:

+ 2004 Chateau Carbonnieux Blanc, Graves
I enjoy drinking this white. Medium-bodied, delicate, fruity and classy white wine. It  has this flowery characteristic that makes it provocative.

+ 1998 Chateau Potensac, Medoc

Containing dark currant aroma, the earthy and leathery texture rubs onto the palette...  this goes better with food than drinking by itself.

+ 2002 Chateau Talbot, St. Julien

I do like the St.Julien regions which produces aromatic and less weighty wine. I had this Talbot before, very easy to drink given its light body. It carries the uniqueness of the smell of fermented tobacco...I can almost sense it...

+ 1999 Chateau Lascombes, Margaux

Margaux generally has higher concentration of Merlot blended. This is a MEN's wine, giving you the feeling of animal rusty smell, this contains higher acidity and requires longer time to understand the body language

+ 2001 Chateau Lynch Bages, Pauillac
Needless to say I am a big fan of Lynch Bages. The wine itself won a lot of publicity given its well rounded nature and high quality. It is suitable for novice and enthusiast. The wine has a plush succulent palette and substantial body, and a long layered finish.

+ 2002 Chateau Le Gay, Pomerol

Not really my cup of tea... It has this deep saturated purple color accompanied by aromas of black cherry liqueur. This is too deep and muscular to my liking.

+ 2001 Chateau Palmer, Margaux

I just found my new favorite! This is a lighter version of Lynch Bages and mainly dominated with Merlot. This is delicate and welll mannered bottle of wine with everything related to elegance. It has a long sauve finish that's so addictive.

By the end of the class, the lecturer was long gone and a group of us were half drunk and collectively finishing the last bits of wine left in the bottles. Wine is not for getting drunk or sending you off to delusion, it's about enjoying the every taste of it and understanding the resemblance of flavor.

What I missed about Paris

Paris is being loved by everybody.. I hardly know anybody who don't fancy about visiting the city let along living there for at least once in a lifetime.

Although it's cliche but I am not shameful of claiming Paris being my favorite city of all time. Among many things, what I miss the most about the city is style, fashion, food, wine, art, gorgeous looking men, stylishly dressed women, class, fashionable dessert, basically the way of living...

I missed Angelina's Mount Blanc, the chestnut cream is too die for,  the smoothest creme de marron that I have ever put into my mouth.

I missed good croissant and morning pastry. I can't find good croissant in HK...

I missed Angelina's hot chocolate, you are technically drinking a melted chocolate bar.

I missed a nice cup of espresso, maybe I am biased, I just find the espresso in Paris a lot easier to drink and less acidic than anywhere else..

I missed a full breakfast at Laudree. I just love bread...

I missed Laudree's macaroons... dainty classic French sweets that I have no problem consuming on a daily basis.

I missed everything that's made by Pierre Herme. He is my hero, so creative I see him as an artist rather than pastissier.

I missed the indulgence. I wonder how much does this whole basket of truffle costs...

I missed the glaces at Berthillon. I had four scoops within 20mins... that's how good it is.

I missed a big feast of oysters... too bad I didn't try a lot last time. I need to find a specialty oyster place and spare an empty stomach for my next visit..

Roasted beef with yorkshire pudding

A few weeks ago, we reconvened at MC's place for our regular cookout after resting for summer. It's been awhile since our last gathering and I have to admit that it was my fault to keep postponing our date. Thanks to MC and EW, after a long chain of emails exchange and my minimal contribution, we pinned down on what we wanted to make the day before. We went for something masculine, homey and satisfying - a recipe of roasted beef and yorkshire pudding by gordon ramsay. To be honest I had no idea of what yorkshire pudding is before I saw the recipe, they are english muffin like creature made with egg and milk and flour that go with meat dishes.. apparently these are traditional english food just like the american mushed potato..I felt so ignorant..

What makes a great steak?? A grill pan!! What a great investment to have a grill pan at home.... it heats up the steak at high temperature to seal in the juices and get you that perfect grill marks.

The making of the gravy sauce. Trust me, this is really delicious. Normally I don't like gravy too much since the sauce tends to be too thick and overpowering, but this gravy sauce is indeed a very good compliment to the steak. The ingredients are simple, comprising of thyme, garlic, onion, tomatoes and port wine, and as GR says: REDUCE.

We also have the tomato soup to go with the meal. A simple hearty vegetable soup that stimulates appetite.

It's our first time making yorkshire pudding..the key is to preheat a greased muffin pan at very high temperature, and then pour the thin batter into the sizzling hot pan and pop that back into the oven. Within 15min we got our delicious and chewy yorkshire pudding.

Our roasted beef was slightly overdone.. but the marinate and gravy made up for a slight misstep.

Probably is the age thing again, I really enjoy home cook dinner party with close friends rather than hanging out at karoke and getting drunk at pubs and clubs.... food is a great bonding factor for people, and I am grateful to have friends who enjoy food as much as I do.

Pierre Gagnaire

There are numerous michelin star restaurants that one can go to in the city of Paris.. choices are immense: Guy Savoy, L'Ambroisie, Plaza Athenen, Taillevent, Joel Robuchon, Le Cinq, L'Astrance, etc.. the list can go on and on and you would wonder why they all can make food so magical? well, unfortunately we didn't have that much luck with L'Astrance which requires reservation made a lot earlier in advance... but guess where I went to for another five star dining experience when I was in Paris?

We took the advantage of our prestige membership at Pierre HK to secure a table at Pierre Gagnaire in Paris. My other friends did try to make reservation at the restaurant for a number of times but the place was fully booked whenever they visited Paris.. tough luck. So M: I dedicate this review to you.. just a preview for your next attempt of table grabbing.

We ordered the degustation menu for the night which costs 275euro. No doubt that it's a great deal of money... but I'm telling ya, you will get what you paid for during the whole 4hrs of mindblowing gastronomical voyage.

The wine list at the restaurant is so much friendlier than Le Meurice, at least most are something we can actually afford. At the end of the day, we are here to enjoy the food, not too much about wanting to get drunk with 1000euro of red wine.

I believe I read that L'Astrance also has this seaweed butter..well..to be honest I would rather prefer this seaweed butter than the truffle butter at Les Ambassadeur. Maybe it is an Asian thing, the seaweed is much more to my liking and better in fragrance.

Nibbles to start our dinner, and the amuse buche

Breadsticks dipped in olive oil... by this time we wondered when could we actually start the our dinner...

The bread was so good you could actually eat it by its own without using the butter. Love the baguette and brioche, so chewy and soft I wanted to pack these into my purse on my way out.... They should have opened a bakery shop which can potentially be more profitable than just running the restaurant.

1st course - murex shellfish with fennel infusion and chervil; toro with mustard sauce. amazing composition. the fish and shellfish are so chewy ang goes well with the bitterness of fennel. the mustard sauce almost feels like peanut butter.. see how rich the flavor is...

2nd course - lettuce pocket stuffed with crab meat on the bed of peas and zuchinni. the crab meat was so tasty. Pierre seems to like using peas a lot.

3rd course - fried sole fish with peas and fresh almonds. two dipping sauces: oilve and apple. again, I really like the way they use raw almonds in finished dishes, see how big the almonds are!! like the sweet and sour apple sauce a lot that goes with the fried sole.

4th course - truffle and foie gras, onion gratin, young leeks, see how generous they were with the shavings of truffle. this dish was really rich...

5th course - lobsters and cuttlefish with hazelnut butter and turnips, lobster broth with radish and mascarpone jelly. I have seen the making of lobster broth when I did cooking lessons at Pierre...the considerable amount of effort and time made me appreciate the broth even more. this is my favorite dish.. it has everything I love, the seafood was cooked perfectly with a crunchy texture.

6th course - cod fish with egg plant, cabbage and chard. the fish was seasoned with just salt this way it preserved the natural flavor of the fish.

By this point of the dinner we were so stuffed with food already and so certain that we were to start having desserts for the rest of the time... when we saw the server placing the meat knife on the dining table we were about to faint...

7th course - veal steak with oregano, red beets foam, bechamel sauce, rhubard flavored with basmati rice. I don't really remember how I can finish half of the steak.. I was totally stuffed by then.

8th course - roquefort with apricot floating on sheep milk. er... what can I say.. interesting, but i rather have cow milk.

Here comes our grande dessert parade:

Passion fruit sorbet with green tea flavored caramel thin.. LOVE the greeen tea caramel, this is so innovative, I should try to make it myself next time.

It is rare that I don't eat the petite fours.. but this time I don't have any excuse but to pass up.

10 course - raspberry mille feuille. interesting interesting! instead of using the fruit by itself they created the jelly form. with the biscuits in between.. so good!

11th course - raspberry sorbet with raspberry meringue

sorry.. forgot what this is...

12 course - chocolate and pistachio mousse cake. chocolate was rich and dense. classic combination.

13th course - the berries sauce.. I tasted strawberry, raspberry, cassis.. it is beautifully presented in a martini glass creating a void with a think slice of almond thin. a perfect way to sum up our dinner.

See how much food we've got for the tasting menu?! They didn't even charge us for the bottle water which is extremely rare. I would recommend this place to everyone, not just because of the food, but the sincere gesture of offering a memorable dining experience with the exquisite ingredients and cooking methods, and not feeling guilty of spending big bucks on a single dinner.

Funny that on our way out they showed us the tea table at the exit area with traditional chinese tea set and offered us a cup of chinese tea to help digestion... he must have learned that in HK....

Le Meurice

How far will you go when it comes to spending the money on a fine dinner? I did go overboard this time in Paris.. after having some unmemorable meals and junks in Czech and Austria, bottomline, having decent dinners in Paris was the perfect way to sum up my Europe adventure.

I have been wanting to try Le Meurice for the longest time, after reading all the rave reviews, the difficulties in getting a table, the miss from my last Paris trip, I finally got to realize my wish this time around.

The restaurant was decorated extravagantly..have you ever dined in a restaurant with paintings on the ceiling? well, the chandeliers were smaller than the ones in traditional chinese restaurants, but they were french =P. Everything resembled class and the art of culinary, the tableware matches with the golden trimmings along the wall, the servers were dressed in perfectly steamed suits, standing with the back so straight that it seems they have went through the pageantry training.

We automatically opted for the degustation menu to get the full tour of what they could offer on the table.

Our dinner was started with the amuse buche: three different kinds of nibbles, foie gras mousse sandwich with thin crackers, cheese with cavier and a almond puff with a drop of melted cheese. The nibbles are on the heavier side as a preparation for a sumptuous dinner.

Another amuse buche.. forgot what that is..some kind of meat cubes with butter and egg yolk sauce.

One thing I dislike about this restaurant is the outrageous wine list that costs a fortune. I praised the extensive wine collection and the book came in well bind like the yellow page with leather cover. yet most of them cost hundreds and thousands of euro. We were shocked with the astronomical figures and hardly could find a decent bottle that fit our price range, we ended up only getting half of it...yes it was a half bottle that cost 180 euro. surprise!

1st course - crab meat in canelloni squid. a very good start with the stunning refreshing flavor. all the ingredients (fresh crab meat and squid, chutney, creamy almond ice cream, and pink grapefruit) blend so well together there's no lead in this dish but forming a harmonized structure.

2nd course - zucchini with dates, onion rings, raw almond and raisins. surprisingly the zucchini looks like eggplant with caramlized top layer. originally i thought raw almonds are tasteless they are actually quite tasty and crunchy. the flavor was on the sweet side, love that everything is made with elegancy.

3rd course - salmon with cabbage, juniper berries jelly. the salmon was so amazing...you know the salmon would turn try if cooked well-done, this one is super moist and flaky with a little pink inside. this was the best piece of salmon I had ever tried.

4th course - roasted duck foie gras with cherries and almond thins. personally I do think the best partner for foie gras is cherry sauce. many other places use sourness such as raspberry to balance with the fatty flavor, but I prefer sweetness instead of sourness, especially a dense, rich, sweet sauce, almost like a red wine reduction. they use cherries and pomegranate to go with foie gras. the cherries are interesting, they are cooked inside and stuffed with candied raisins. well.. needless to say the foie gras was very fatty and soft.

5th course - beef fillet with seaweed jam. don't eat this if you suffer from high cholesterol! inside the beef fillet there's a piece of lard to enhance the flavor. I was already very full so couldn't finish the whole piece of meat. on the side there're polenta and cucumber. my tongue turned numb by this point of the meal.


6th course - cheese stuffed in artichoke. the presentation was very pretty.. but to be honest I am not a big fan of artichoke as I find it flavorless.

7th course - Finally comes the sweets!! It is the creativity that put to test. Four different sweets with the same combination of raspberry and green apple. Love this whole plate as it was playful and refreshing.. especially after all the prior courses our stomach needed a break from savory items.

Green apple sorbet with raspberry sauce.

8th course - strawberry heart with meringue ball. tthe mashmallowy meringue was so soft and airy with strawberry inside. my full stomach has already impaired my vision I forgot what was the herb inside meringue.

9th course - soft chocolate cream with hazelnut praline. chocolate, dense and rich, another block of meringue, always love the praline.. it is impossible to go wrong with this kind of combination.

By the time we finised dinner it was already 00:30am we were the last standing table and had officially dined for 4.5 hrs. I came to the restaurant with the great expectation of a totally different experience of french cuisine, and I wasn't disappointed. It was a great dinner indeed with everything executed to perfection. What really stand out of this restaurant was the service level.... very very attentive and proper and gentleman, is like being pamper for the whole 5 hrs of dining and they treat you like king and queen.