Star Gazing with Wines

 

Julia and I joined Kedington at the Upperhouse for their annual wine fair last night for a tasting of no less than 80 wines.  While I can't claim to have tried them all (I certainly tried), I can report on some of my highlights. 

New Zealand

We started on whites in Argentina, made our way round through Chile, Australia, California, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and finally France.  Then made our way back through the reds. 

Reds and sweet from Woodstock (McLaren Vale, Austalia)

Of all the whites, two stuck out.  The first was from Argentina, a reserve Chardonnay.  This Mendozan wine spent 6 month in French oak, was smooth and please our entire party!  The second was classically, a Chablis.  Both of these wines were similar; lean, crisp, and totally Chardonnay.  And both were under $150!

So many wines to choose from!

Of the reds I especially enjoyed the Dolcetto Lagrein, and at $99, it's a steal!  This Italian varietal was produced in the Limestone Coast of Australia, was smooth, fruity, and really wowed me.

Miss Julia hard at work

Both Julia and I had the same overall favorite of the evening;  Primus Malbec 2004.  This wine was spectacular.  So spectacular that they don't make it every year; only in the best of years.  This special unfiltered wine needs to be decanted, and you could just taste the rugged earthiness in it.  It tasted like dirt, and I mean that in the best way possible.

The whole event was just spot on.  From the location (outside overlooking the city from the Upper House), to the reps (all flown in specially for this event and just chock full of knowledge), to the gourmet food (whole ham, charcuterie, Parmesan), to the weather, to the staff, to everything.  Spot on.  Thanks, Kedington!!  Can't wait until next year!

WINE life

Last Friday I took my WSET level 3 exam.  And I'm pretty sure I killed it.  There were some really silly questions about opening and chilling bottles, but overall I think I knew what I was talking about, and hopefully that will come through in my score.  In December.  Bah!

I have also committed to another year (more?) at House of Fine Wines.  I sat down with Greg and Sean yesterday and we all put it on the table.  This is the best job I've ever had, in the best industry that exists, so bring it 2013.  Not only will I continue my WSET studies this coming year, but I will be rewarded with a trip to visit our suppliers in Piemonte, Italy!!!!

Off to work!

Xie Xie, Taipei

Oh Taipei, you are so very strikingly different from Hong Kong!  And yet, quite similar to that long ago familiar Korea.

Daan Park

I say this for several reasons.  I know I have been to Taipei before, 3 years ago!, but it was my first month in Asia and I think since my perception of things has changed.  The first thing that reminds me of Korea is the lack of Western people, things, and languages.  I remember thinking that Taipei had great English...I guess compared to Seoul.  After living in HK for year it was really quite shocking at the language barrier.

Another sad similarity; shit wine!  Just like being back in the good ole ROK.  Only wine available is a) over priced garbage at convenience stores or b) super over priced decent wine at select grocery stores.  Again selection limited.  There's a reason I live here.

And finally the street food.  Ohhhhh the glorious street food.  Available almost everywhere, and almost always delicious (ly horrible for you).

Grilled squid is amazing!

But, the overall opinion was that we LOVE Taipei.  The weather was ideal, although I think atypical.  Beautiful sunny crisp days with a light breeze.  It felt like fall.  Well a subtropical fall at least.

CKS Memorial

And there doesn't seem to be anyone living in Taiwan.  We never saw crowds.  We were never pushed on the sidewalks or MRT.  Didn't even have to wait in line at immigration.  Sidewalks clear.  Hotels available.  Life is good.  Perhaps I have been in HK a little too long when I have come to expect someone to sit on my lap on the MTR....

Doggie bows

But yeah, awesome.  Night one, get in and go directly to Garrett's apartment in Guting, which is kind of a university area.  Good to see Garrett again, and it reminded me again of Korea.   Older style apartment, lots of motorbikes around, drinking cheap beers on the couch...good times.

Day 2 and we explored the city. We didn't have a set agenda so we just wandered.  Started at Chang Kai Shek (sp?) Memorial, which was my favorite site to see on the last visit.  Then strolled for hours down random streets, stopping to sample whatever looked good, and made our way to Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world.

DTF stair picnic

We marveled at the height, and quickly descended to Din Tai Fung.  I don't know if you've heard me rave about DTF before, but I have.  It's a wonderful Taiwanese dumpling place which I have frequented in Korea, HK, and now at the flagship in the shadow of T101.  Not wanting to let the beautiful weather go to waste, we go our xiao long baos to go and sat out in the sun enjoying the best little soup dumplings in the world.

That evening we went over to Longshan Temple which is beautiful, and then over to the night market to marvel at the cobras (no snake blood shots this time) hanging in the restaurants trying to lure the tourists in.

Sunday we woke up early and head straight down to Wulai, one hour south of Taipei.  We had booked a hotel, and luckily found someone upon our arrival who spoke decent enough English to help us find it.  This town is no bigger than one city block long with a few alleys leading off it, but I guarantee we would have spent hours wondering without this mans help!

'Attraction'

Top of the waterfall

The hotel was beautiful.  Overlooked the hot springs below which fed directly into our own private tub with a simple phone call!  We spent the afternoon hiking a few km up to the highest waterfall in Taiwan.  We caught the cable car up to, well we didn't know what, just knew it was the top of the waterfall.

Turns out there was a whole 'resort' on top.  This was probably the place to be in the 90s, but geeze, place be worn down! Paul totally loved it, I loved his enthusiasm.  It was really beautiful, they just had these weird gimmicky things along the way.  Example; a lake to row boats; no water.  A water ride; green icky water and not running.  A 'cloudview tram'; no train to be seen.  Parrot on a stand; sqwaked like hell hath come every time you look at it.

'attraction'

We had a good time wandering around, smelling fresh air, seeing the next 'would have been cool back in the day' trap.  Then head back into town for amazing local street food and hot spring relaxing.

View from breakfast at our hotel

Next morning we head back to Taipei after breakfast to do some more wandering.  I'm telling ya, no people in Taiwan!  Sidewalks were amazingly clear, and we had so much fun seeing what was around each corner.  We rounded out the day with a trip to the best night market, Shiin.

Shiin Market

We ate the best food of the trip; grilled spicy corn, grilled spicy squid, and then got pedicure (me), and massage (Paul).  Then hit a night market near our hotel where we found the best simplest food ever; onion pancaked fried with egg and kimchi.

Sadly, next morning we had a plane to catch.  This was totally different from any other trip Paul and I have taken together, a mix of sightseeing, relaxing, and no beaches.  Can't wait for Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!

Booked; HKG----> Hanoi, Vietnam. December 23rd.
HAN----> HK January 1.  (Love traveling on New Year's day!)

Paul and I will spend our Christmas and New Year holiday backpacking from Hanoi through Laos, and if we have the time, Northern Thailand.  Woohhhhhh!!!

Here's what we were up to last week.  

Wednesday I had the most fun/informative dinner with some of my wine class elite.  I joined Faye, Sherwin, Di, and Paul along with our teacher Ian and class organizer Christine for a dinner with the focus around Burgundian and Italian wines (a bunch of us had missed the Italian class). Dinner was at a tiny little European restaurant, Rossa Gourmet,  near my old hood in Kowloon City. 

We all wrapped our wines and sat in these amazing overstuffed leather cigar chairs (because you should totally have a cigar while sitting in this chair), and dove right in.  While not stuffing our faces with a selection of cheeses (truffle cheese!), cured meats, lightly grilled eel, the most amazing rye bread I have had in Asia (only rye bread while in Asia??), we blind tasted wines while Ian walked us through identifying the wines.

Big body?  Could this be North Italy?  What grapes are in North Italy....must be.....Nebbiolo.....from Barolo.  And like that for the rest of the eight wines.  They were all totally delicious, and some new to me!  Valpolicella! Which, incidentally, is made in Veneto, Italy, from mostly Corvina with some help from Rondinella and Molinara. 

We worked our way through a number of wines, and toward the end of the evening were served truffle cream pasta (to die for), scallop pasta, and roast duck breast.  This place is amazing and since we were sharing some of our wines with the sommelier, didn't charge corkage.

I think we all walked out of there, well a little tispy, but more importantly, a little more confident in our tasting skills and knowledge of both Burgundy and Italy.  Thank you so much for Di and Paul for organizing, and especially for Ian for all of his words of wisdom!  I'm going to miss wine class!!

My table; Barolo DOCG and truffles, Peimonte's best!

Thursday was another sort of tasting.  One led by me.  And my co-workers.  We hosted a wine tasting for Greg's friend and his colleagues over at Morgan Stanley.  We held it in a private room in Bourbon Street in the heart of Soho.  Full report here.  Despite the fact that I worked 9-11:30, the tasting was super fun, met some cool people, and enjoyed spreading my wine knowledge :)

Sean learns Gangnam Style

Friday was wine class; spirits!  Shots class! We had no less than 11 liquors to taste:

Vodka

2 Gins

Grappa (if you love the black jelly beans, you're in for a treat)

Cognac (my first!)

Tequila

2 dark Rhums (the one with the H is my favorite- made from molasses not cane sugar)

2 whiskeys

Absinthe (woooweee strong)

After tasting (and gagging on quite a few) we did some revision, during which Ian told us we were one of the most serious classes he's had to date.  Go us.

After class I went and met Ms. Han and her gem buddies at their hotel which happens to be less than a 10 min walk from my apartment.  Oh my god.  They are SOOOOO Korean!  I walk into the room and there are 10 or so adults sitting in a cirlce on the floor (duh), with a cardboard laid down in the middle.  On the cardboard was a smorgasbord of all things Korean food; spicy Korean chicken (picked up on Korea Street in TST), sliced fruit, canned fruit, cookies, chips, dry Ramen (that's how people eat it, I swear), and of course the essential; SOJU and BEER.

As soon as I walk in I am told to sit in the circle, handed a pair of chopsticks and a beer, and am instantly so nostalgic for my old home!  I miss Korea.  And I miss Ms. Han!

Saturday I had to work the Cyberport Weekend Market.  This is always slow, and Saturday was especially hot.  I sweat.  I sat.  I read my wine book.  Wasn't so bad. Paul came and met me at 4 and we went over to Central Piers to sit on the water and have a drink.  And then home.  We're two wild and crazy kids, I tell ya!

Sunday, beautiful Sunday!!  The sun was shining so we hopped on a ferry over to Cheung Chau where we had the beach almost entirely to ourselves.  We rented tubes and floated the afternoon away.  Bliss.   Rounded out the day with episode 1 of Boardwalk Empire.  Yey, new shows!!  We just finished Homeland and LOVED it!  And I just heard they picked up quite a few Emmys.

Work, tutoring, Austrian wine tasting at our local wine shop, bed.  Tomorrow's my mock exam, Wednesday an Australian tasting, Thursday a Bordeaux Masterclass, and Friday TAIWAN!!!!!

4.more.day.

Ms. Han Is Coming!!

Ms. Han is coming!!!  Yey!!!  September 19th-23rd for the annual Jewellry and Gem expo.  Woohoo!!!

Crab Soup

Ah I am so far behind on posts and am off to work in a minute, but just thought I would share what I am enjoying right now.  Homemade crab bisque!

I met this guy at Restaurant & Bar last week who was flying back to Oregon and had some leftover frozen crabs, so I gladly took them off him!  Paul and I had a crab feast on Sunday (after an awesome day at Big Wave Bay! Autumn is here!) and used the leftover stock to make bisque.

Paul Loves Crab Soup

Crab Stock:

Boiled crabs, onion, garlic, salt & pepper for 20 minutes

Removed crabs and proceed to eat for the next 2 hours

To the stock we added a can of diced tomatoes

tomato paste

butter

onion salt

garlic salt

lump crab meat

the end.

Heavenly buttery soup....

I've been taking the ferry to work.  Soooo much more pleasant than the MTR

Rest and Bar

Today is the first day of the 3 day Restaurant & Bar expo, which means the first day of craziness!  8+hours a day standing asking, 'Would you like to try some foie gras?'   Should be good fun though, full report coming later this week.

Random not so good Korean soondubu.  Why can't Chinese make good Korean food??

Saturday Paul and I went to a nice Burgundy wine tasting and ran into my friend Karen from class.  The wines were not my favorites, but nails in what I've been learning about Burgundy.  After class we went to the third installment of the Ernest So concert.  Despite that we were there working, we still had a blast.  The music was nice, kept to less than 45 minutes, and the people were all really great.  We went out for a post concert drink but had to head in early for....

Recital in Red Square Gallery

Sunday was JUNK DAY!!  Junks are really the best thing about Hong Kong.  All day on a boat!  Secluded beaches.  Surprise buffets.  Jumping of boats.  Swimming.  Afternoon Prosecco.  Lovely.

Perfect Sunday

This junk was through our friend Will's co-worker and some of his friends.  Turns out most of the people (including 3 babies!) were from Lamma Island.  I don't know if I've mentioned Lamma, but it's a certain kind of person that lives there.  A hippie kind of person.  So these people were awesome, so laid back, and there were even a few vegans which meant more for us!  :)

Nina and Kenny were also there, so it was great to spend another Sunday together.  I think this is becoming a trend!  What will we do next Sunday!??

Good times.  

Smoothie of the week; carrot, ginger, soy, and banana.  Asa.