Fassssst Food and red, red wine!!!

Lionel: Okay, okay, we finally did it. Fast food burgers, chicken nuggets and pizzas paired with wine???? And why did we do it? No it wasn't our "Sideways" moment, but due to popular request from our poll.

Hahaha...I know it took some time but I was just trying to avoid it. No, I am not a food snob as you can tell from all our wonderings, I just want good food.

The Pizzas were actually quite good and though we didn't manage a Whopper from BK, The Wendys 1/4 pounder was definitely the winner here in comparison with the bigMCD.

So what was the verdict? We tried some sparkling red, a very nice Malbec Cabernet blend from Argentina, and Ridge Zinfandel. They all worked with the burgers and the nuggets to a certain extent. Nuggets probably needed a sparkling white.

We finally cracked open a bottle of Chateau Lalande Gravet 2005 from St Emilion, great vintage from a very nice estate and you know what? It went so well with them all!!!!

So, now you know why Miles had the Cheval Blanc 61 with burgers in Sideways, a good or great wine will always prevail!!!!!!

Note* You are not allowed to BYOB to any fast food outlets, I checked. Even the 24hr ones!!!

It should all come together!

Lionel: We finally made the journey to the new Sage restaurant. For the Cilantro fans, this is part 2 for Chef Kimura. No I don't think Cilantro is reopening, in spite of the official statement by the owners that Micasa Apts where Cilantro was situated would be reopen after renovations, that would not be the case.

Anyway, back to the restaurant. Just like Cilantro, they have a wine friendly corkage charge of only RM50 per bottle or you could choose a small but well selected list of wines. We started with a bottle of Drappier vintage 96 which went beautifully with the amuse bouche and crayfish but as we tend to drink a little fast, we decided to order a bottle of white to hold us till the meat dishes.

We settled on a lovely bottle of Ata Rangi Sauv Blanc 04, hoping that the age had given the wine some nice bottle age, cutting back its perfumed fruit. And voila! we were rewarded with a lovely, lovely minerally, slightly savoury bottle og Sancerre. It even worked well with the Foie Gras. The next wine is a unique limited production garagiste operation from St Emilion. Ch La . Gomerie is treated like a favourite child by its proprietror, the Becot family who owns Ch Beau-Sejour Becot. Jean Phillipe Fort, Michel Rolland's top assistant , is consultant for this 100% Merlot based wine produced from a small vineyard, with old vines and maximum quantity of 1000 cases a year. Highly rated by Robert Parker and with very high prices to boot.

Try it if you can find it!

Well, I know many people including many food blogs have raved about this restaurant. And we sat at the chef's table and it was great but yet there was something missing!

And I think I know what it is, the service didn't match the level of service from the kitchen! What I mean is that the level of service, attention to detail and effort from the kitchen was second to none and the service from the floor staff didn't match up. It was incomplete, it was missing a huge chunk of charm, warmth, attention, efficiency and most of all understanding of what they were doing that failed us.

Yes, I will be coming back to Sage again and I really, really hope it works better next time.

The beginning!  an Amuse Bouche of cured salmon with fresh cream.
The Salad of Pan fried Crayfish with topinambour and truffle jus being served.
Lovely Ata Rangi Sauvignon Blanc 2004.
Seared Foie Gras with Anago and caramelized scallion
Perfectly pan fried sea bass with crispy skin and sea urchin sauce.
Chateau La Gomerie 1999, a St Emilion grand cru
Chargrilled Wagyu with sauteed mushrooms and Yuzukoshou
Tauleto Sangoveise 2000 bu Umberto Cesari
Fedellini Pasta with Zuwaigani and Scallop

Rose, Rose I love you!

Lionel: I've always enjoyed drinking rosés. Their light, uncomplicated and when their nice and dry, they are a great match for a wide range of foods. Drunk chilled, its wonderful Sunday afternoon sip under the yum, yum tree.

I also think that its the perfect wine for those large communal servings of dishes at a family lunch or dinner such as we commonly do in Malaysia. The dash of tannin in the wine offers just enough to handle some meat dishes and the acidity handles the rest.

It was with this in mind that I brought this bottle with us last week to Sin Kee in Brickfields for our office lunch with an ex-colleague. Sin Kee is an institution in Brickfields, it started in a shack in front of a Shell depot located where the Sentral apartments are today. With its 5 tables, hanging bananas for you to pick as dessert and bus stop 2 feet away from the front of the shop, it was obvious that you patronised the shop for its food and not the ambience.

Today, they have relocated across the road to a ground floor of an office building complete with air condition. And whilst the ambience has improved, the food has stayed just as good!

This Shiraz rosé is a best seller in the U.K. market but unfortunately not in Malaysia. It is slowly being phased out of the market, but if your quick you can still find some in most supermarkets/hypermarkets. Its wonderfully dry, nicely balanced with enough fruit and flavour to handle the variety of dishes you see here.

The Rhone Ranger

Lionel: Every time I drink wines from the Rhone Valley, I get caught in a quandry as to whether I should tell everyone I know how good the wines are or should I just keep it a secret( so that prices stay reasonable). Now, of course I don't think my voice is that powerful that it would influence the entire wine market, but if there was anything that the results of the March 8th elections teaches us, is that every vote counts!

So, my vote definitely goes to the Rhone Valley and its wines as some of the most sublime, exhilarating and compelling wines in the world. Yes, only a handfull of them have the prestige and cachet of France's more hallowed regions. Certainly, there have been fewer articles and books written about Rhone even though it's history dates back over 2000 years and coincides with the Roman conquest of what was then known as Gaul and hence introduce grape cultivation in France.

But many of its vineyards that have been ignored, misunderstood and underappreciated for centuries have finally arrived. They produced some of the most undervalued and underrated great wines of France and the world, from the sublime wines of the Cote Rotie, Hermitage and Condrieu to the Chateauneuf du Papes(personal favourite) that have no rivals anywhere in the world.

I was recently invited to a dinner at Frangipani featuring the wines of E.Guigal. Marcel Guigal is credited by many as the man that single handedly dragging Rhone from its malaise to its current standing in the wine world. The firm was started by his father Etienne in 1946, but due to an ailment, Marcel was forced to takeover in 1961 at a very tender age and that was when their fortunes changed making Guigal one of the most succesful wine companies in the world.

Cote Du Rhone rouge paired with warm tea smoked salmon with wasabi tobikko cream. the dish was lovely on its own and so was the wine, as expected, not a very good match due to warness in the wine and its distinct lack of acidity, would have been better paired with a Cote du Rhone Blanc.
Croze-Hermitage 2005 with Pan seared foie gras with apple rendang served as strudel. intriguing  dish, lovely used of caramalized grated coconut and apple cubes which was a nice balance to the richness of the foie gras. However, it was again a miss on the pairing as it made the wine slightly tart. On its own, the wine lacked a mid palate and had a short finish.
Now, we come to what I considered the star of the evening, the Chateuneuf du Pape 2003. This was a unusually warm year and it needed the talents of Guigal to produce arguably one of the best CDPs they have ever made. It had power, richness and intensity to spare. Revealing a big dose of  Asian herbs,spices, Blackcurrants and pepper. Full bodied and loads of alcohol.
Definitely overpowered the baked red wine marinated cod fillet and did not go down well at all with the cauliflower couscous.
The best and pairing for the evening was the Hermitage Rouge 2002 with a Grilled Wagyu Beef Cheek with braised red cabbage and mole sauce. The wine had some premature ageing but otherwise shown beautifully with bright Blackberry, white pepper, irodine, licorice and leather on the nose. Pretty dry with a medium body and hints of fruit compote sweetness on the front palate.

Guigal wines are widely available in Cold Storage and Jusco stores I believe, otherwise email the distributor Mui Hua at muihua@muihua.com.

More to Portugal than Port

Lionel: Chris and I attended a Portugese wine tasting recently organized by a new wine importer that was set up specifically to promote Portugese wines. Now when one mentions wine from Portugal, it is normally associated with port. Unknown to many, inspite of its size as a country, Portugal ranks sixth in the world as a wine producing country. 

While many wine critics actually rate Portugal as one of the most tradional wine countries, it is also in the forefront of some of the most imaginative and innovative wine making today. Though, it may still take awhile before they find their footing on the international stage especially in the Asian market, you could taste the potential in their wines and with almost 200 indigenous variety of grapes, there are some surprises!

The pictures below are but some of the reds and the best we had that evening was the Quinta das Baceladas 2004, a blend of Cab Sauv and Merlot. If you would like to try some of these wines, contact Templars Malaysia S/B at 03 62777005.

Us on Nanyang

Lionel: We have been writting about wine and wine investments in Nanyang Siang Pau. The articles appear every Saturday. Check out the Chinese and English versions here. 

A Balance Meal at Brickfields.

Steam Prompet Fish.

Taiwan style 3 flavors Chicken

4 Heavenly King

Killer Curry Fish Head

Champagne Daniel Robert 1er Cru NV

Chris Low: Of many versions of curry fish head in K.L.(if you like curry fish head using grouper and with a hint a sourness) My family loved this family own Chinese restaurant in Brickfields near YMCA-LOK FATT. The owners is long known friend of my father Uncle Lok-and now run by his son.

One recent creations from the local Chinese-Cantonese food scene"the 4-heavenly king" which is a combinations eggs plant, bottle beans, petai, long bean and wok-fried with sambal+dried shrimp but uncle Lok give it a lift with crispy fried anchovy and extra dose of chili padi. And it's consider a mild version as my nephew Zhe-Xi also enjoyed it. (But mind that he is quite well train with hot and spicy although is only 4 years old...this is how we are brought up!)

Try this restaurant Taiwanese 3 flavors chicken, delicious and juicy...a rice killer.

Oh the prompet, it's rare to have such fresh one in a local restaurant. Thanks to mum, she always hunt for good fishes in Pasar Borong K.L...

A trade secret, you go there weekdays say 3 AM. And this whooper prompet is 3KG.

And once again, we proved that champagne is very versatile with food pairing and this Daniel Robert 1er Cru is yummy!