Like artisan local butchers, fishmongers are under threat of extinction, their formidable predator, supermarkets moreover, an increasingly lazy, nonchalant consumer.
The last bastion is fresh food farmer markets and wet markets, which thankfully occupy a strategic place in practically every city, town or village in the world where savvy locals shop for produce sometimes at a fraction of the price of supermarket exploitation.
Wife’s Legendary Duck Curry – and toast to Kai Schubert, both his capacity to eat duck and their great pinot noir’s – Schubert Marion’s and Block B
Duck curry and pinot noir – about as good as it gets when it comes to a harmonious food and wine pairings. We have served up this dish to numerous visiting wine and food writers, indeed just recently to legendary wine author and columnist for Wine Spectator, Matt Kramer, who complimented, “Really, the best we’ve ever had–by far.”
Whipping up a quick salad and reaching for a bottle of Felton Road Block 1 Riesling from Wine Fridge. And a little nibble of Tetsuya Wakuda’s Petuna Lightly Smoked Ocean Trout.
This is one of those impromptu kitchen inspirations where a salad dishes builds itself purely from ingredients in the fridge at the time. I had been shopping earlier in the week at the Singapore delicatessen, Culina at Dempsey Hill, stocking up on what looked good, and the Prosciutto di Parma caught my eye, a sheet of thinly sliced rashes vacuum packed with its dark red-brown colour and streaks of creamy fat most enticing.
Lapin au Vin des Central Otago a la Wandering Palate (Rabbit Casserole with Central Otago Pinot Noir)
The Wandering Palates rabbit casserole perfected over a lifetime and inspired by an overabundance of rabbits and wild thyme, moreover excellent pinot noir in Central Otago, New Zealand.
In my formative years down on the farm in Te Awamutu, rabbits were in plague proportions and weekly night time shoots necessary to keep them at bay. The hare’s were so big they used to open the farm gates themselves.
As we approach Christmas, one of my favourite cheeses comes in to production, Vacherin Mont d’Or – a exquisite washed-rind cow’s milk cheese from the Jura Mountains, France.
Only made in the winter months and perfectly timed for Christmas table after the turkey, it is presented in a spruce-wood box that keeps the cheese from oozing all over the place. Indeed, you need to use a spoon to get it safely on to your toasted country bread.
The notion of cooking a roast turkey can be daunting to many home cooks but really folks, it’s just bigger than a chicken… and the perfect wine match?
With Christmas not far away it’s time to make the appropriate preparations for the most important lunch of the year. For those who enjoy cooking and entertaining at home, Christmas lunch is a relatively straightforward and traditional menu yet a very rewarding experience.
Conventional wisdom would point to chardonnay as a logical choice, ideally with some bottle age.
Roast turkey certainly calls for a white wine with texture and richness or even opulence, which is why this year, my perfect match is Seresin Pinot Gris 2008.
One of my personal favourites in Seresin portfolio their pinot gris is made in style that one associates with the Alsace region in France with a textural richness and complexity yet has very little oak influence.
Christmas is a time to share with others. Gather other holiday `orphans’ and stage your own dinner – complete with a glass of fine wine.
If you haven’t planned your Christmas celebration yet, I suggest you dine at home with the carte du jour and wines that we will enjoy. There is a great deal of satisfaction in entertaining at home, rather than looking like lost souls in a hotel restaurant.
Two offerings from the legendary Loire Valley vigneron Henri Bourgeois: 2007 Pouilly-Fume and Sancerre Les Baronnes.
This is about as classic as food and wine pairings gets; blatantly simply nonetheless, as any professional chef will tell you, the most satisfying gastronomic pleasures are an invariably a combination of the very best seasonal fresh produce and minimal cooking technique. Ironically, such purity and wholesomeness is frustratingly illusive.
There was a time and not that long ago; Singaporeans ate nothing but firm, meaty and flavoursome Kampung chicken. That is the French breed of chicken acquiring the name Kampung, with its orange feathers and black head, commonplace roaming around Malay villages – a true free-range, happy chook.
The Kampung chicken is still around although highly unlikely to be free-range in the Singapore supply chain and presumably a cellmate with the more common battery-reared white feathered hen.
