Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Fine French wines from Rhone Valley

From now until end of May, Enoteca are doing a Rhone food and wine matching experience.
I was really lucky to be invited to go because I am not an expert on wines so it was the perfect opportunity to find out more.



The wine selection was quite impressive with prices starting at $1xx.

At the tasting session, the wines available for tasting were:
Domaine Durieu 2010, Chateauneuf-du-Pape
Domaine des Bosquets 2010, Gigondas
Domaine des Escaravailles La Ponce Rasteau 2009, Cote du Rhone
Charles Hours Happy Hours Cool Sec 2007, Jurancon
Gerard Bertrand Aigle Noir Brut 2004, Cremant de Limoux



They varied from different levels of pepperiness and wine tannins.

To go with the wines, there was:
Pate en croute - Richelieu, Porcini saucisson, Walnuts Saucisson, Duck cured sausage, Mini balls of saucissons.






My favourite was the pate en croute which went well with all the wines. The waxier saucissons went well with the strong peppery wines.

ENOTECA Wine & Bar
Shop 3027, Podium Level 3, ifc mall, 1 Harbour View Street, Central

Checked-out Taipei

Saw some pretty good tasting reviews so decided to go and try the food.
Before I went I checked their website which was useful because the food featured on the tasting invitations were served in the evenings only.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
PING PONG:


Tried the PING PONG because I like purple sweet potatoes.
I had to wait quite a long time for them but the staff were apologetic.
Anyway, they were a bit disappointing because I found them far too sweet and should have been served for dessert.
There was some sauce that made it palatable but there was only three tiny drops on the plate.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
The food was a bit pricey and you are only offered still or sparkling mineral water when you dine there.


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Check In Taipei:
27 Hollywood Road

Monday, May 26, 2014

KrappyFriedchicken

I was craving for the new Japanese rice coated chicken again and there happened to be a KFC nearby so went in and ordered it.

When I was given the chicken, I asked her if it was the new flavour because I could not see any crispy rice coated on it like the previous one I had.

She insisted it was the new one, so I asked another member of staff and she offered to sprinkle more on it.

When she came back, there was cheese powder on it and not the crispy rice coating!!

What the fxck. She works there and does not know the current new chicken coating!

If I had ordered this in one of the city branches it wouldn't have been like this.


The chicken was fried just right but it was definitely not the Japanese rice coated chicken!!

Crispy crackling sesame chicken

Tried this place with some foodies.
It is located at The ONE mall which is near the MTR exit but getting there was troublesome because of the escalators and the way the mall is designed.

The restaurant interior was really nice which tourists would like.

Here was what we tried:
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Crispy enoki mushrooms:

In Chinese, these were called Chef's Torture because each strand of enoki mushroom was individually dipped and fried thus a tedious task for the Chef, hence a torture.
Anyway, these crispy morsels were addictive and delicious.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tofu in abalone sauce:

I loved this bubbling hot dish because it was soft and smooth pieces of tofu in rich abalone sauce that was great with rice.
I also found pieces of Chinese Yunnan ham in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Cheese and pumpkin seafood pot:

This was also delicious with rice, it was creamy and the cheese was present but not overly pungent.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Sesame chicken:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fhRDKu32Ks
The chicken was stunning when it was served.


The pieces of chicken was soft with deliciously flavoured and the chicken skin was coated in crispy aromatic sesame seeds.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bang Bang Modern Chinese Cuisine
Shop L409, The ONE, 100 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Blood thirsty for a bloody juicy steak!!!

I have always wanted to try this place but it is located on Peel Street so you have to walk up that steep street.

Basically it is fixed at $258 with 10% service charge on top and all you get is a salad, steak and unlimited fries.
All you need to do is choose is how well you want your steak done.

The price might put some people off but after seeing consistently done steaks I was convinced to go.
On my first visit, I went alone because it was fuss free eating by myself.

It was a quiet day but I still had to sit by the bar.
When I left, the place was still half empty.

The baguettes were placed first which were crusty and chewy.
I was not sure if it was sourdough because they were slightly sour.

The salad was disappointing because they were probably made the night before and the leftovers were served during lunch because the salad was no longer crisp.


The leaves were severely yellow and oxidised.

I spotted some Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise at the kitchen.

After a while, my steak arrived.





The steak was juicy and delicious on its own, however the fries were fried twice and and not golden yellow which were rubbish.
I asked for salt assuming it was seasalt by default but it was table salt.

After asking for seasalt I finally got Maldon's smoked seasalt.


On the second visit, I requested for sea salt expecting the smoked salt that I got last time but it was plain seasalt!!!!!!

For the two steaks, I requested for RARE and a MEDIUM RARE.
The rare was rare as requested but it was bloodless and not as juicy as the Medium rare indicating that the quality and freshness was inconsistent.
The steak which was meant to be a trimmed entrecote steak was not trimmed properly and was very fatty.

On a fourth visit, the steak was nice and juicy but there was a gamey taste to it.
It would be great if their steaks were consistent and not getting a good steak by luck.

The Saturday lunchtime staff are not as professional as the evening staff.

The dessert that was given free over lunch were just puffs with icecream in the middle, nothing to be missed because the paid desserts in the evening are better.




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La Vache!
G/F, 48 Peel Street, Central
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