Friday Wine Lunch @ Champêtre.

I normally make it a point to post in chronological order. This is one of the rare instances I have not. It's just that I'm so happy that Marc Aubry is back in the game with his new restaurant Champêtre. Located at the same site of Je Suis Gourmand, Marc has reopened with a more rustic Provençal look. Despite its facelift, the old place is as comfortable and welcoming as ever.

We were 5 for lunch: J-Lab, Rene, Richard, the Stockbroker & I, and started off with shared platters of Smoked Salmon w/ Capers, Onions, Etc. and some of Marc's signature Terrine of Foie Gras. With these, we had...

1998 Champagne Krug Brut - My bottle. At the outset, it was very dry, full, toasty and a bit tight and linear, mainly showing very focused white citrus. After some time in glass, however, it fleshed out and gained complexity with added nuances of nuts, slight caramel, sweetish dried fruit, bit of baking spice and, towards the back, underlying café crème. I've read allusions to the 1988 made about this 1998 - and I can understand why. Very nice, but, I must say that it can't hold a candle to the 1990. Still, at the price I got it (HK$1400+/bottle on sale at the Watsons Wine Shop in Ocean Terminal, TST), this is a good buy in my book.

No meal by Marc, lunch or dinner, is complete without his Escargots a la Bourguignonne, which all of us, except for Richard, got for our starters. A couple of days before, Rene requested that some Tempier Bandol Rosé be brought for this dish, and I happily obliged.

2009 Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé - My bottle. I've written about this so many times, I need not go into detail anew. After one sip, J-Lab exclaimed that this was an exceptionally good bottle of '09 Tempier rosé. With only one sip by me, I immediately knew why he said that. This was vivacious, joyful in its precisely provençal herbed fruit - more than any other bottle of this I've had, and I've had very many. Fantastic alone; fantastic with the fat, juicy, larger-than usual snails (these were handpicked Burgundy snails imported and supplied by Jerome Philippon) - heavenly.

In the meantime, Richard carefully opened his bottle of...

1982 Domaine Gros Frères et Soeurs Grands Echézeaux Grand Cru - Richard's bottle, in admirable condition. Sweetish bouquet of Burgundy decay, old violets, loam, darkly ripe red fruit, slight musky meatiness, mushrooms, sous bois and well-integrated wood spice. Nice layering of mirrored flavors in its silken, slightly over medium body. Good length and balancing acidity. What a treat indeed. Lovely with my main course of...

... rare Steak & Frites. With this, I also had some...

1970 Bodegas Marqués de Murrieta Ygay Etiqueta Blanca - from the Stockbroker; served blind as usual. From the bouquet and an initial sip, I was able to identify it as an aged Rioja, but the Stockbroker unveiled it before I could make a more specific guess. One or two thought it could be an aged Burgundy - and I don't blame them. As I've said before, aged fine tintos Riojanos do develop Burgundian traits and, save for the balsamic notes, can easily be mis-identified as Burgundy. I've both heard and seen this happen before.

Balsamico and wild cherry notes on gently cedar-laced red fruit, slight orange peel, worn leather, violets and a touch of anise. Medium bodied, notable acidity and focus. Another fine treat. I was even happier that I chose a steak for my main course; and this continued with the next red as well.

2000 Château Montrose - Rene's bottle. Wow, this was quite a switch. Comparatively big and burly, this is definitely the ripest, and most fruit-forward Montrose I've ever had (not too surprising, though, because of the vintage). Opulent alongside the aged Burgundy and Rioja, this had a lot of rolling muscle in its deep crème de cassis, bit of kirsch, blackberry, slight tobacco, new leather, dark minerality, black coffee, licorice and apparent, but judicious (the fruit can take it for sure) vanilla/oak. Tannic and youthful; this will last for many, many years I'd expect. Whoa! We continued with this, à la Bordelaise, with the Cheese Platter (which I forgot to photograph). Nice with the nutty Tomme de Savoie, I thought.

Marc joined us for a glass of champagne as we finished off our main courses.

For dessert, Marc made us all some of his special Chestnut Soufflé which we had with...

2003 Château Coutet - J-Lab's bottle. We'd had this before from the Stockbroker after a long wine lunch at Old Manila back on the 24th July 2009 when I briefly described it as "...rich, concentrated (and) opulently showy....". Almost 2 years later, it is as rich, concentrated, opulent and showy as ever it was. This afternoon, I added "tons of candied apricot and orange marmalade" to my descriptors - come to think of it, "full-bodied and bodacious vanilla" as well. Hurt me, baby!

Until the next!

Some Post Commanderie de Bordeaux Manila AGM Wines.

Last Thursday late afternoon, 12 May 2011, were back-to-back board and annual general membership meetings of La Commanderie de Bordeaux Manila at the Vigneron's place. For both meetings, several wines from the Commanderie stocks were served and a vast array of heavy pica-picas from Gaita Fores were served. During the board meeting, though, I just had a couple of glasses of 2003 Ch. Carbonnieux Blanc (thanks, J-Lab for correcting the vintage) as I munched intermittently on some hams, nuts and dried apricots.

L-R, Seated: Bill Stone, Robert Burroughes, Miguel Aboitiz
L-R, Standing: Felicia Atienza, Jay Labrador, Oscar Ong & Robbie Delgado

Thereafter, the AGM followed where it was more relaxed. The Vigneron opened some bottles from his personal stock, the four more memorable ones being:

1989 Ch. Palmer - My last notes on this were from the 18th October 2008 - approximately 2½ years ago (though I've had it once more since then but took no notes on it) - said notes coming from another bottle of the Vigneron, to wit:

1989 Château Palmer - What could we say? A generous treat for us all. The last one I had was a few years ago at Pepato with the Doc and Stockbroker, I bought it when it was "only" barely $14o per bottle. I'd be extremely lucky to find it at only double the price now. The Vigneron has tons of this stuff, as well as even more famous vintages thereof, both younger and older. I mentioned before that his family, years ago, were minority owners of Château Palmer; hence, their Château Siran's cellar has a lot of Palmer wines. In a shrewd transaction, he traded off with Palmer some of his famous old vintages for a lot of younger and equally famous vintages.

This bottle was much better than my last one. The Stockbroker remembered and agreed. Surely with impeccable provenance, it was fuller, more confident, vibrant, not tiring in the least.

Perfumed bouquet of violets, cassis, plum, sweetish-mildly smoky cedar, hint of licorice, merest whispers of earth and truffle. Properly poised and balanced, approaching full-bodiedness, lithely curved, very complex. Long, lingering finish with violets and faint licorice trailing.

Wonderful....

The bottle last week was more perfumed, deeper and fuller, younger (in that the bottle-age sweetness was very minor) and marginally more minerally. It was still vaguely smokey and showed a slight nuance of tar underneath the spice, cedar and violet earthy/truffled fruit. Admirable balance and finesse though this bottle was comparatively more masculine. Very impressive.

1979 Ch. Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande - A wine I am very familiar with as I've bought and opened many of these over the past 5 years; the last one posted on less than 3 months ago, on the 1st March 2011 as follows:

With our main courses, we had a bottle of 1979 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande (the second within a week, actually, the other bottle from the Vigneron last Thursday). This bottle was in better shape than the one I opened with Miguel, Rene & Santi during our Christmas lunch 2010 at Mamou. Serene, softly loamy, elegant, seductive in its bottle-age sweetened veils of fruit, violets, mushrooms and pencil lead shavings. Delicious wine as usual. The youngest, who doesn't enjoy wine yet asked for a sip of this.

This subject bottle of last week, though comparatively more truffled, was more like the one of the 2nd December 2010:

1979 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande - My bottle, but I'm not sure if this one came from my batch from KL Wines or Cellaraiders (I've opened many of these over the past 4 years). This one had a very good fill, but the cork was damp past halfway up (no signs of going past the cork though). Not the best '79 Pichon Lalande I've had - actually the most advanced one I've ever opened. Santi initially noted it seemed slightly flat. After around 25-35 minutes of breathing in glass, it did show nice enough age-sweetened, cassis, underlying and discreet dark gravel and pencil-lead notes, bit of dark plum, black cherry, raspberry and violets. Just a notch or two over medium-bodied. Graceful and feminine, yes, but the fruit was pretty tired. Oh, well, not all can be gems, can they? Still, not a bad wine. Certainly acceptable, if not much more than that.

For wines over 30 years old like this, there is to be expected an increased frequency of bottle variance. It is but natural.

1994 Ch. Siran (Magnum) - This is the first 1994 Siran I've had. The Vigneron must have been keeping this vintage from me for some reason as I have had many, many other vintages of his wines. Notable depth in its black cherry, dark plum, surface raspberry, bit of red spice, underlying cassis with a hint of charcoal, cedar and violets. The red spiciness trails in the finish. Around halfway past medium-bodied. Good strike and balance. Notable palate presence.

1978 Ch. Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande - I first had this wine in July 2006 at Ch. Siran, a late, warm summer's night under the stars with my former EO forum. I bought several thereafter (ordered and flown in from California), but, after a run of a few very tired ones, stopped buying them around 3 years ago. This one, almost certainly, came from Siran's cellar - which, again, almost certainly, came from Pichon Lalande's own (the Vigneron is a direct nephew of the former owner).

Not at all tired, this actually came off as quite youthful despite its over 30 years in bottle. Slight bottle-age sweetness in its seamless ripe black cherry, damson, slight raspberry, underlying gravel, earthy cassis, pencil lead shavings, tobacco, violets and cedar. Lusher, more confident and livelier than the above-mentioned bottle of vintage 1979. Very impressive. Good to be able to revisit a healthy bottle of this.

Bordeaux, Toujours Bordeaux!

New Ales @ The Tasting Room & Dinner @ Gustavus Steak Lounge.

Late yesterday afternoon, the 10th May 2011, was at The Tasting Room for a special preview of 3 new, special craft beers of Jimmyton. Miguel and Edwin were already there when I arrived, and Eric popped in a few minutes later. We were thirsty, so we couldn't help but start ahead with the first new one:

Stone Cali-Belgique IPA - Bright, smooth, fresh, very hoppy, citrus, notes of mellow grapefruit, bit of yeast, slight florality, hoppy-smooth citrus finish. From my experience of trappist ales, I expected a bit of dried fruit and bubblegum, but I didn't get that here - that's not a bad thing, as the trappist bubblegum notes start to get cloying for me after one bottle. The Stone Cali-Belgique has a nice, appetizing bitterness in the finish that made me think of food - so I promptly ordered a platter of jamón. This is dangerously drinkable stuff.

Edwin, Eric & Miguel

I liked the Stone Cali-Belgique so much, I quickly ordered another large bottle. Miguel wanted to try the porter already so he and Edwin moved on. I'd catch up later. By then, Jim had arrived.

Miguel, Jim & Edwin

Stone Smoked Porter - Roasted, slightly smokey maltiness, very mild caramel, moderate chocolate, whisper of vanilla, with espresso notes pulling through past mid-mouth. Moderate creaminess, comparatively not as heavy or dense as a stout - which makes it possible for me to drink more without getting full so fast. Quite delicious. Miguel favored this one. It was then that J-Lab finally arrived.

Dino, an old friend and classmate from high school, had also walked in with his some members of his ad team for a creative session, so took a table of his own. Dino must live in the Tasting Room as I've see him there every single time I've visited.

The Highway 78 Scotch Ale is, as the label indicates, the result of a collaboration of Stone, Green Flash and Pizza Port. My, my, but this is a serious fellow. Nicely complex with a sweetish, scotch lilt to its mildly roasted malt, bit of caramel, nuances of molasses, toffee, dried fig, nuts, slight chocolate - all very well-knit. I really liked this and quickly ordered another bottle opened plus 4 more to take home. Very small allocation of this one, so I made sure to get a decent share of it. Just a few bottles left in stock.

Jim, who was strictly watching his intake, limiting himself to 5 pints and spacing them well, ordered his last bomber, an Anderson Valley 20th Anniversary Imperial India Pale Ale. I've had this before not long ago: in late February 2011 after a long wine lunch at Mamou. This was every bit as enjoyable as I remember it: "Orange peel, pine and mild citrus lace this ale's smooth, moderate hoppiness. Dangerously drinkable, this goes down all too easily. I think this would be nice for the beach and the summer in general."

Having woken up uncharacteristically early for a morning meeting, I started feeling the accumulated hops begin their predictable narcotic effect on me, so I wound down with a bottle of my usual Rogue Juniper Pale Ale. I then felt the sudden pangs of hunger and convinced J-Lab and Jim to go out for a bite to eat. At J-Lab's suggestion, we headed for nearby Gustavus Steak Lounge (Ground Floor, F&M Lopez Building, 109 C. Palanca Street, Legazpi Village; Tel. No. 846-2430).

J-Lab, Gustavus Managing Partner Mike Gayoso & Jimmyton

Gustavus' managing partner is the ever-present Mike Gayoso, a friend and former high school classmate of mine. Mike and his partners opened this place a little over a year ago, but, somehow, I only got myself there last night - though I, honestly, always meant to visit to try out their prime-grade steaks. Anyway, as far as their food is concerned, the old saw "better late than never" does take on a new and deeper meaning.

We started off with a bottle of Cava Marqués de Requena Rosado Brut - from the wine list (this is suppled by J-Lab's The Wine Steward). I thought this had a little trepat in it, but it turns out it is 100% garnacha. Fresh, enthusiastic, honest and unpretentious - this is a happy cava, very comfortable in its bubbly-ripe strawberry, raspberry, slight red currant flavors. Very approachable and easily gulpable.

Mike then quickly sent us a platter of Fresh Oysters - terrific - clean, fresh, succulent and absolutely delicious - as one can easily see in the photo below. It came with lemon wedges and 3 dipping sauces. The oysters didn't need any embellishment in my opinion, so I ate my share neat. Thanks, Mike!

We then moved on to our soup courses. I had the Cream of Squash Soup...

...which was precisely executed - neither ponderously heavy nor overly creamy like some restaurants tend to make them. I loved it that it was indulgently flourished with a bit of fatty, luscious, melt-in-your-mouth beef carpaccio. Excellent touch, and most befitting of a steak lounge.

The Kitchen

Our main courses.

Jim got the specialty Mr. D's Ultimate Beef Burger. It looked fantastic, and, judging from the speed Jim killed it, it must really be good; and is on my shortlist of things to try once I'm back there.

J-Lab got the Gustavus Steak & Cheese and looked positively overwhelmed by its size (not to mention its apparent opulence). I've been regularly eating and drinking with J-Lab for around 5 years and this is the first time I saw him surrender (though he took the rest of his sandwich home). I cut a bite off though and it was as every bit as indulgent as it looks. Another to try next time, but I'll make sure to share it with someone as it is huge.

I felt like a steak that night so I got a USDA Prime Beef T-Bone Steak. I chose the Gnocchi as my starch siding (very decadent, nutty, buttery gnocchi at that) ...

...but also ordered some fries - which were very crisp, but properly moist inside.

If all these were not belly-busters enough, Mike sent us a Crisp Apple and Mango Filo topped w/ Vanilla Ice Cream which didn't last long enough for me to photograph. I was quite impressed with Gustavus. I also like their old-style crescent dining booths - one rarely sees those these days. My only regret is that it took me so long to visit. I'll have to make up for lost time then.

Until the next!

HK: 4th May 2011.

This was our 5th and last day in HK. We were on an evening flight back to Manila so there was absolutely no need to wake up early and we had several hours of shopping time left. A final buffet breakfast loaded with smoked salmon, poached eggs, veal sausage, croissants, grapefruit juice and coffee for me. We arranged for afternoon checkout for one of the rooms (we didn't need both rooms that day since the kids' room was quite large and we could just stow all the luggage there and use it as a base until we left).

By around 2:30pm, we had checked in all our luggage at the Airport Express in the Elements Mall and proceeded to lunch at Lei Garden. It was quite late so all we could order was dim sum - no roasts or anything else. The youngest was a little disappointed since he really likes their Sweet & Sour Pork at Lei Garden. I was also let down when they informed me they were all out of their Crispy Roast Pork as well (it's exceptionally good here). Anyway, we made do.

Braised Goose Web. Really good.
A bit difficult to eat, but well worth it.

Shredded Jellyfish (2 orders). Super fresh and clean tasting.
The red vinegar they use to drizzle is obviously of higher quality.

I can't remember the name of this dish, but it was very good.
Everyone liked it and we wiped out 2 orders.

Deep-Fried Taro Balls for Catha, but the kids also liked this.

Shrimp Cheong Fan (2 orders). Good, but nothing really special
considering Lei Garden has 1 Michelin star.

Same thing could be said of their Har Gau (2 orders).

Their Siu Mai, however, was exceptionally good.
This is what siomai is meant to be (2 orders).

Their Char Siu Bao is also wonderful.
Easily one of the best I've ever had anywhere.

I forgot what this is called, but it has shark's fin, mushrooms, small shrimp and just a whisper of coriander inside the gossamer dumpling. The broth was so clean, light and flavorful (2 orders). The second and I really liked this.

I got a 2 orders of the Egg Tarts for dessert. I don't really eat this stuff, but I know Catha likes them and the kids eat them as well. They all said it wasn't very good. Ok, well, at least I know not to order this here again.

More shopping at Elements, got some DVDs. I don't know what the others picked up there. We hung around until it was time to go to the airport. Though we already had our boarding passes, I needed a little time to pick up some stuff at the Duty Free. Nobody wanted to have dinner since we were still quite full. We usually have one last Roast Goose at the full-service Maxim's restaurant in the airport (on the mezzanine before going through immigration), but not this time.

HK: 3rd May 2011.

After the previous night's unreasonable eating at Under the Bridge Spicy Crab, and, yet another large buffet breakfast at the hotel, nobody wanted a big lunch. We, thus, all agreed to just go our separate ways to shop and meet up for a very late, light lunch. I went off to buy some wines - just a few as I already got some other stuff and wouldn't have enough luggage space for more.

1998 Krug Champagne Brut &

1981 R. López de Heredia Viña Bosconia Gran Reserva

My wife's family always orders Sweet & Sour Pork whenever they are in Chinese restaurants, and it's rubbed off on my youngest - he'd been pestering me for some ever since we arrived in HK. Thus, on our 4th day there, I relented and took him back to Canton Deli for some (and some fried rice as well). I just had an order of Shrimp Cheong Fan and a pot of jasmine tea for myself.

Catha and the teenagers eventually joined us later on for a light dimsum lunch. The second had been shopping with Catha for hours. One can tell from the photo above that the eldest obviously just woke up.

The youngest pretty much finished the Sweet & Sour Pork all by himself.

Thereafter, Catha took the youngest shopping for shoes. She got him some sensible sneakers, but he insisted on also buying a pair of these....

...silly looking Vibram toed shoes. He swears they're super comfortable.

Well, all the hours of shopping built up our appetites, so we made dinner reservations at yet another old favorite - Yung Kee. I don't think we ever miss going to this restaurant at least once while we are in HK.

Their Thousand-Year-Old Eggs are simply the best. Naturally, we had to get 2 orders.

We also got 2 orders of their award-winning Shrimp with Baby Crab Fat.

One order of guilt-reducing Broccoli w/ Dried Scallops & Black Fungus.

Of course we also had Yung Kee's raison d'être - Roast Goose - one whole goose. The waiter at first told us we needed only half a goose, but I assured him we could easily finish a whole one - and that we did. We only ever order plain, steamed rice with this goose. I don't like any other flavors masking its own.

Time was, after eating at Yung Kee, we'd walk a couple of streets away to a corner Ben & Jerry's for some ice cream. Unfortunately, that small shop closed a year or so ago for some reason, so the kids made do with some Häagen Dazs instead (around the corner from Lan Kwai Fung).

The youngest is really such a clown.

Thus ended our 4th day in HK. Nice, simple, relaxing day.