Monday Lunch at Sala: 2 Burgs & a Côte Rôtie.

Today's lunch, 20 July 2009, was at Sala with the Stockbroker, Doc and J-Lab. The Stockbroker planned it to be a Burgundy lunch, but the Doc asked if I wanted to try something new to me, and, of course, I said yes.

With my usual starter of Twice Baked Soufflé of Prawns and Feta Cheese with Dill...

2001 Domaines des Comtes Lafon Meursault Clos de la Barre - the Stockbroker's bottle. I am no Stranger to Meursault. It is a 16.1 square kilometer commune in the Canton of Beaune-Nord, Côte de Beaune, 3 kms. south of Volnay and 3.9 kms. north of Puligny Montrachet. Though there is a bit of red wine produced within the general area (i.e., Volnay-Santenots Premier Cru), Meursault is famous for its white wines made entirely of chardonnay. Though there are deservedly famous premier crus in Meursault (e.g., Les Perrières, Les Genevrières and Les Charmes), there are no grand crus.

I've only stopped by Meursault once while in Burgundy (I'm more interested in the wines of Chassagne and Puligny Montrachet), and did a tour and tasting with my wife at Patriarche-owned Château de Meursault. Their wines were fair to good, but nothing really interesting, their paintings interested me more.

Clos de la Barre is a 2.1 hectare monopole of the subject domain, the vines of which are 50 years old (0.8 ha), between 30 and 25 (0.8 ha) and the remaining portion recently replanted in 2004.

The subject wine's nose, after warming in the glass, was open and displayed a typically toasty-nutty (think toasted, unsalted almonds), minerally aroma with hints of vanilla over slightly baked apple and a breath of lime. In the mouth, it was firmly structured, moderately minerally and just slightly buttery in the nervy and fresh almondy fruit. The toasty vanilla/oak notes in the nose took a back seat on the palate.

Very nice. Lively, bright, cleansing acidic balance. I hadn't had a good Meursault in a long time, so this was very timely.

With my main course of Sous-Vide Squab with Seared Foie Gras, Horseradish Potato Purée and Port Wine Jus (yes, I know, it seems like I order nothing else here)...

1999 Louis Jadot Clos St-Denis Grand Cru - My bottle. I previously opened one of these during the long wine day of 15 May 2009, but over-decanted it badly. The Stockbroker had told me that he'd like to try it again un-decanted, so I gladly obliged. My previous notes were:

1999 Louis Jadot Clos St-Denis Grand Cru - My bottle, a wine I hadn't tried before and wanted to test since I've enjoyed quite a number of '99 Burgs last year. Though previously untested, I was pretty confident opening it over lunch since Jadot is a pretty reliable maker and I happen to like the generally earthy, rich, somewhat rustic, masculine wines from Morey-St-Denis.

Clos St-Denis is a grand cru (the highest rank in Burgundy, followed next by premier cru) enclosed/walled vineyard (i.e., "clos", pronounced "kloh", the ending "s", as in many French words, is silent) west of center in Morey St-Denis, across the road from the town's larger, better known grand cru, Clos de la Roche.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

The subject wine was quite high-toned upon opening so I decanted it - something I haven't seen anyone do in Burgundy, the Loire and Alsace in the times I was there* - because I figured it was pretty young for a grand cru, especially one from Morey St-Denis. In around 40-45 minutes, it opened up with more typical earthy, slightly meaty, truffled fragrances. At that point, in the mouth, it had admirable heft, depth of fruit, earthiness and a clearly masculine, serious, somewhat severe character. I must admit I then neglected refilling my glass of this wine until after my main course was finished (and I eat quite slowly, mind you). When I returned to it, it had been sitting in my decanter for over 2½ hours and had noticeably tightened, thinned and become very crabby - grudgingly handing my palate a mouthful of dark, tart cherries touched with violets.

I absently complained about my wine, prompting both the Stockbroker and J-Lab (who disagreed with my somewhat precipitately harsh assessment) to gently chide me for decanting this wine at all, moreso for so long. Ok, ok, mea culpa, we'll re-taste this in the near future without decanting. Judgment reserved.

Today, the wine presented a bouquet of violets, black cherries, cassis and dark raspberry. In the mouth, it mirrored its bouquet cleanly and deeply. I could say elegantly as well, but in a decidedly masculine way. It's still drinking quite young and somewhat primary, no hints of burgundy decay yet detected. I'd say check again in another 5 years.

1998 Jean-Paul & Jean-Luc Jamet Côte-Rôtie - the Doc's bottle, served blind. As usual, I was way behind the others, still enjoying the last of my starter and the rest of the Meursault, so the Stockbroker and J-Lab had at it before I. Besides, the Doc had previously said it was something different for me, so I didn't even try to identify the wine. When it comes to reds, outside Bordeaux and Burgundy, I'm pretty much flying blind.

The Stockbroker, with a few sniffs and a couple of sips nailed it as a Jamet Côte Rôtie, but guessed the vintage to be '99 instead of '98 - still, I was most impressed. J-Lab said it had to be either a Côte Rôtie or an Hermitage - also impressive.

Its bold, earthy, mildly smoky bouquet expressed garrigue (emphasis on thyme and lavender) over meaty, faintly peppery and bacon fat-flecked dark raspberry and blackberry. In the mouth, the bouquet held true with added nuances of cassis, beef blood and iron. Much heftier, denser and more concentrated than the above-described Burgundy. Just a couple of shades before being chewy. Confident, just the right amount of push, good finish. A very complete wine, and excellent with my squab.

We all skipped dessert and had our double espressos and coffees.

Great lunch, guys. All working weeks should start like this. Until the next....

Aaron's Red Burgundy Tasting Lunch at Sala.

Aaron's family's company (ADP Industries, Corp.) imports and distributes an assortment of products, one of which is wine. As regards wine, they represent locally, among others, the Freixenet group which includes their cavas and the Rene Barbier line. As such, they get offers to distribute wine from all over and receive bottles for sampling and evaluation. The day after I arrived from the Alabang Group's annual HK eating expedition, I had lunch at Sala with him, his better half, Jo, J-Lab and Arnie to taste and evaluate 4 Côte de Nuits reds by a new negoçiant, Maison Olivier Bernstein.

While waiting for Arnie and Johnny R, we started off with a well-chilled bottle of...

Piper Heidsieck Champagne Brut NV - J-Lab's bottle of course. Like Bernd, no meal is complete for him without some bubbly. Because the Twice Baked Prawn and Goat Cheese Soufflé was, for some reason, not available that day, I had the bubbly with
a starter of Trio of Corn and Sweet Shrimp Bisque, Sweet Shrimp Beignette with Corn Purée and Sweet Shrimp and Corn Salad instead.

The champagne was appetizingly dry, presenting clean, lively and mildly yeasty/bready fresh green apple and Korean Iya pear notes. It's mousse was fine and it had a very pleasant character in its lightish frame. Very charming, and very good price-to-quality ratio (QPR) at only around P1800 per bottle from Forth & Tay. At said price, it is an absolute no-brainer to purchase in my book.

Arnie finally arrived shortly after J-Lab announced that Johnny wouldn't be able to join us that lunch. Miguel was supposed to join us as well but couldn't due to marathon board meetings. I then opened a bottle of 2007 Tempier Bandol Rosé for the Palileos to try out. I've written about this favorite rosé of mine so many times, there's no need to belabor the issue.

In any event, we proceeded to the reds and our respective main courses. Because we were having young reds from good Côte de Nuits appellations, Aaron and I had the Sous-Vide Squab with Seared Foie Gras, Horseradish Potato Purée and Port Wine Jus as a backdrop for the wines, while the others had what appeared to me as a wiener schnitzel vom schwein (i.e., a wiener schnitzel made with a pork cutlet instead of the traditional veal).

All 4 reds were premier crus from 3 different villages in the Côte de Nuits, all vintage 2007, all made by Maison Olivier Bernstein.

Upon J-Lab's inquiry as to the tasting sequence of lighter to heavier, I recommended that we start with the Chambolle Musigny, followed by the 2 Gevrey Chambertins, and the Vosne-Romanée last.

Chambolle-Musigny Les Lavrottes - I've mentioned before that "Chambolle Musigny is a town in Burgundy's Côte de Nuits; its red wines famous for being ethereal, graceful, elegant and never cumbersome or heavy - compared to, say, the generally more masculine, richer, heavier wines of nearby Morey-St-Denis (situated slightly northwest)."

In comparison to the following reds of this lunch, the above distinction/characterization holds true. Though it was the lightest framed and presented a graceful, feminine character, it had good concentration, adequate depth and a definitive push to its red-spiced cherry, raspberry, slight undertones of liquid blackcurrant, violets and mere hints of toasty oak.

There is a nice and food-friendly fruity-freshness and acid lift to this youngster and I liked it best as a pairing to my rich and boldly flavored main course - it cut the richness and refreshed my palate nicely. My second favorite red of the lunch.

Gevrey-Chambertin Les Cazetiers - Gevrey-Chambertin is the largest Côte de Nuits appellation, the highly regarded premier cru vineyards of Les Cazetiers just a stone's throw southward from those of Les Champeaux (wherefrom the next wine hails), bordering the even more famous Clos St-Jacques on the latter's north side. I've mentioned before that I stopped by the town of Gevrey a couple of times in October 2007, the longest was when my wife and I walked around the area around the Place de Mairie and the 13th-century church, stopping by at Domaine Heresztyn's and Leclerc's shops, before having an early dinner at Chez Guy, well-recommended to us by Anne Gros.

This, among the other reds of the lunch, was the most uncooperative in the sense that it did not seem to want to open up and show what it's got, so to speak. Initially, it showed good promise on its nose and palate, but, instead of opening up, it seemed to clamp down tighter after just a few minutes and just acted burly and sullen. I'd hazard it has good structure and depth, but probably is going to sleep ahead of the others. This was not showing well at this point, but I wouldn't write it off. It strikes me as a wine that inherently needs more age to show properly.

Gevrey-Chambertin Les Champeaux - The 6.7 hectare premier cru vineyards of Les Champeaux are the highest elevated in Gevrey, with southern exposure, situated at almost the northernmost tip of the appellation, bordering little-known Brochon, south-southwest of Dijon. "Champeaux", as far as I can tell, is a place in Normandy and, per research, metaphorically means "liberty", or, literally, "campus" or "battlefield".

Much more approachable than the grumblingly austere Cazetiers at this point, this presented to me aromas of slight eucalyptus ("mint" said another), whispers of pine needles over wild strawberry, cherry, some raspberry and plum. The fruit, in general, possessed a slightly baked/dried aspect to them. In the mouth, it had a nicely rounded middle (probably due to the oak ageing), fair depth and a nice earthiness to its nicely concentrated, slightly sweetish red fruit. I quite liked it, my 3rd favorite red of the lunch.

Vosne-Romanée Les Suchots - Vosne-Romanée is a sleepy little town in the Côte de Nuits, its unassuming facade broken by houses bearing the names of the elite of Burgundy such as Leroy, Gros, Engel, etc. A couple of hundred meters behind the place de Mairie lie the grand cru vineyards of DRC-DRC, DRC La Tâche, Échézeaux, Romanée St-Vivant, etc., as well as the premier crus Suchots, Les Reignots, Les Malconsorts, etc. My wife and I spent several late afternoons strolling past these vineyards and around the sleepy town in October of 2007, the picture on the right I took of the town's chapel.

This was by far my favorite red of the lunch. Fuller and heftier than the rest, its deeper, darker molten red and black fruit were complexed by violets, some vanilla, barest hint of clove and topnote whispers of Asian spice. Healthy extraction and concentration, velvety tannins, confident and definitive finish, it quietly commanded more attention than all the other reds. Very good wine. Definitely a pleasure to drink even in its youth. My, and, as I recall, clearly, everyone else's favorite red of the lunch.

Many thanks, Aaron, for a most interesting and enjoyable wine lunch. I hope our respective feedback and notes prove helpful to you.

Alabang Group Eats Hong Kong...Again: Days 3 & 4.

Day 3, 8th July 2009: our lunch venue was chosen on-the-fly by the wives during that day's shopping spree in the Ocean Terminal area - namely, at a Vietnamese restaurant named "Rice Paper" in the Gateway Complex. I'm not overly fond of Vietnamese fare, honestly, so I didn't bring a camera along. Tonji, the group's real shutterbug, didn't attend as he and Johnson went to look for camera gadgets in Mong Kok - so no pictures. Rice Paper looks like a place for tai-tais-who-lunch, but the food was decent enough - the Butter-Fried Chicken was pretty darn good.

Because we couldn't stray far from our hotel, dinner was at Superstar in the same area. It's known for their seafood and roasted items, but, unfortunately, since we had a late dinner (8:30pm, but the place was jam-packed), a lot of specialties were already sold out (e.g., crab, razor clams, lobster) so we "settled" for 1 whole Roast Suckling Pig, 2 whole Roast Ducks, 5 orders of Roast Pigeon, etc. All were good enough, but the dish that was most memorable was this delicately flavorful dish of Tofu Skin with 2 kinds of Mushroom and Asparagus (2 orders).

We moved to nearby Spasso (at the rooftop of Harbor City) for a few drinks after dinner, where I took some shots with my phone's camera.

Clockwise from bottom left: Ron (my HK-based bilas who treated us all to drinks that night), Tonji, Sylvia, Margarita, my wife Catha, Minnie, Candy and Johnson. Booze wasn't feeling well and Willy had an early flight back, so they retired to their rooms earlier.

Day 4, 9 July 2009: Willy had already left by the time we started gathering for breakfast, while Johnson and Candy were on a later afternoon flight and, so, slept in. Since the rest of us 7 were on the 1:20pm flight home, we opted to just have lunch at the airport.

This is Maxim's sit-down, full-service restaurant at the airport, a level up past the check-in counters, before one enters immigration/passport control. We always have a final meal here before going back home because the restaurants inside (past immigration) are all fastfood or semi-fastfood and all generally shabby to disgusting.

Since Booze and Margarita missed our Yung Kee dinner this trip, we, naturally had to order a whole Roast Goose before we left. It would be a sin for them to leave Hong Kong without a taste of roast goose. It's nowhere near Yung Kee quality, but it was pretty gold-darned good and always a great way to end the annual HK eating trip. Marge was obviously very happy to be able to get a last-minute goose this trip - and rightly so.

This is a baked type of char siu bao - the dough is obviously the same as our steamed siopao but baked (not steamed) and the filling is a similar sticky-sweetish roast pork. Pretty good.

Of course, we had to get some obligatory orders of Siumai (no picture), Har Gaw (above)...

...a large version of Sin Ha Cheong Fan...

...Deep Fried Pork Puff...and, the star of the meal...

...One Whole Roast Goose...

...and one order of guilt-surpressing Steamed Baby Bok Choi with Garlic, of course.

A few of us ordered some desserts as well, but nothing really worthy of note. That said, it was a delightful close to the group's 2009 HK eating trip. Great fun guys. Next year again.

Alabang Group Eats Hong Kong...Again, Part III: Yung Kee

Yung Kee is a landmark restaurant in Hong Kong (Wellington Road, Central, just around the corner from Lan Kwai Fung), consistently named one of the best restaurants year in and year out. It has recently been awarded a Michelin star, but that doesn't/has never matter(ed) at all to me and the group. It has been a favorite of ours for ages, especially its famous Roast Goose and, for us, the very best Century Eggs (a.k.a., 100 Year Old Eggs) in the planet. No trip to Hong Kong is complete without at least one meal there.

Day 2, 7th July 2009, after a huge dim sum lunch at Maxim's City Hall, our numbers were cut down to 6 for dinner at Yung Kee since Johnson and Candy wanted to try out the 3 Michelin starred Lung King Heen at the Four Seasons (anyway, they are in Hong Kong much more often than us and have eaten at Yung Kee so many more times) and Boozze was taken ill so Margarita also stayed behind to tend to him. We made our 8:30pm reservation in good time and got a seat at the 4th floor (note: better chefs cook at this and higher club floors).

The others let me do the ordering. I looked through their already familiar menus just to see if there was anything new we could try. Tonji kidded me about going through the menu since, said he, I'd surely just order all the old favorites anyway. He knows me too well. I wound up doing just that, save for one dish cooked a different way for a change.

Naturally, to start, their incredibly creamy Century Eggs - one whole egg per person, which is considered a double order per person in the restaurant - together with the refreshingly sweetish/tart red pickled ginger to cut the richness.

I recounted to the others the all-Sauternes/Barsac pairing dinner my wife and I attended with the Vigneron at Yung Kee late last May 2008, courtesy of Judy Leissner of China's Grace Vineyards. In that dinner, the century egg course was paired with 2002 Clos Haut-Peyraguey and it was a great pairing - calling to mind the ubiquitous pairing of Sauternes and foie gras.

Next was the much-anticipated Roast Goose. I ordered only half a goose at first because we were just 6, had a huge lunch and had other dishes coming as well.

That was very foolish of me. As soon as the platter hit the table, it was halved within a minute. Tonji immediately asked me to order another half goose to make the whole. I, of course, happily obliged.

For the next course, I ordered another favorite: Deep Fried Prawns with Mini Crab Roe.

This particular dish received a Gold with Distinction Award in 2001. I can easily understand why. The following dish served was Deep Fried Scallops.

It was pretty good, very juicy inside, but it wasn't exciting - well executed, but a bit boring.

We also had a token vegetable dish, a kind of kangkong (a.k.a., swamp cabbage") with garlic (picture above), to make us feel less guilty for devouring a whole roast goose amongst us, as well as another semi-cardiac dish of...

...Steamed Minced Pork with Salted Fish, a dish Johnson introduced us to in our Hong Kong eating trip of 2005. It also became one of our must-order dishes in Yung Kee, one of Boozze's favorites as well, so it was really most unfortunate he couldn't join us that night.

Thanks again to Tonji and Sylvia for taking some of the food shots at this dinner. They really take better pictures than I.

Alabang Group Eats Hong Kong...Again, Part II: Maxim's at City Hall, Central, HK.

Day 2 (7 July 2009), Lunch at Maxim's City Hall, Central, HK.

My wife and I started eating dimsum here since sometime in 1996, if I recall correctly. It's not a particularly special dimsum venue (unlike another favorite: Dim Sum at 63 Sing Woo Road, Happy Valley), but very convenient when staying at the Ritz Carlton and more than decent dim sum served the old way - in push carts, with the staff hawking their wares as they pass by the tables. It's a huge place with a nice view of the harbor. The Alabang Group eats here at least once for lunch on every trip. This trip was no different.

We always order the same things, most of which I don't know the names of since I just point and indicate how many orders of each. 10 in all, we were complete during lunch. Willy and Boozze got in first and got us a window table. Tonji and I followed shortly after, so we waited for Johnson and the wives to arrive from shopping. They weren't long behind. Everyone in the group likes having lunch here (my kids do too).

We had multiple orders of each of the following:

Shrimp Cheong Fan

Baked Pork Puff

This is a lightly battered, deep-fried dish composed of minced pork and shrimp stuffed into a seaweed wrapper. It looks a little bit like nori, but it isn't nori.

Deep-fried Pork Puff

Egg tarts, taro puff, steamed kailan, steamed bun with a sweetish yellow bean paste, etc.

Xiao long bao, har gaw, some cylindrical fried prawn dimsum served with a local mayonnaise.

L-R: Willy, Minnie, Johnson and Booze

Pork spare ribs, I think I heard Willy ordering it as "Pai Gwat".

Fried milk in the foreground, cuttlefish tentacles behind on the left.

My favorite dessert here, a chilled bowl of taro and coconut cream with sago balls, topped with fresh watermelon bits.

I have no idea what this one was as I didn't try it. It looks like dessert though.

With the girls around, dessert will always have to include some sort of Buchi.

There was a host of other dishes that Tonji and I weren't able to get pictures of, such as the Lotus Rice, Ma-chang, etc. Our stamp-card of dimsum orders was so full, they had to give us another one and staple them together. The cards reflected 48 orders from the carts, but didn't include a few more dishes ordered "off the carts" by Willy.

What a fun, heavy, comfortingly familiar lunch, washed down with some Tsing Tao and jasmine tea. Rejuvenated with the meal, the girls resumed shopping while we guys went our own ways. Boozze and I headed back to Kowloon side for some coffee and cigarettes. A nap was definitely in order as well - after all, we needed our strength for dinner that night.