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Archive for February, 2008

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vancouver wine casual: big reds.

By Karen | Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

Colin was kind enough to open his home to a merry band of friends and Vancouver Wine Casual folk this past weekend. The theme of this blind wine tasting was “Big Reds” — not my usual style, but as I’ve been warming up to Cabs and Bordeaux blends lately, it seemed a good time as any to broaden my palate. 11 bottles of hidden origin were presented to the group along with a tasting sheet; homemade baguette by Maarten; a bevy of cheese, charcuterie, chocolate, fruit, and crisps; and other yummy homemade treats.

See all photos from this event on Flickr

Below are all the wines we sampled. Following each bottle are Colin’s thoughtful appraisals and my much more uninformed snap judgments =)

A) 2006 MollyDooker – Two Left Feet

Colin: 91 pts. Robert Parker loves this producer. A hard to find wine…very new world fruit forward Australian blend (Merlot, Shiraz, Cab). Lots of ripe plum, cherry, roasted walnut…great to drink alone or with red meat. One of my favourites of the night.

Karen: Drew a sad face under the column called “Score”. It was inky with deep plum notes. Someone said it was reminiscent of cherry vanilla Coke, and I’d have to agree (I hated that drink). What Colin described as roasted walnut came through to me as a quite bitter finish. Not a fan.

B) 2001 Fabiano Amarone Della Valpolicella

Colin: 89 pts. Initially a bit flat on the nose even though we decanted it and worked it hard in the glass…tried it again at the end of the night and its true pedigree came out. Vanilla, dates, caramel with hint of smoke…nice long finish.

Karen: My favourite of the bunch for its soft, supple Old-Worldliness. Impressed enough to rate it near 90 and say that I’d pay more than $40 for it (good, since it is $67 a bottle). When I first put my nose into the glass, I was struck by its unusual bouquet. Couldn’t quite pin it down. Eventually, I realized that it reminded me of the Ash Camembert that I adored at Salt Tasting Room. Savoured every last drop and was sad to only have a smidgeon extra after the bottles were unveiled.

C) 2005 Le Volte Ornelllaia

Colin: 87 pts. A solid drinkable red. An interesting old world/new world flavour composition. Lots of plum/ripe blackberry…a bit weak on the finish.

Karen: Another sad face verdict. It puckered the mouth with its tannins and had less substance in both flavour and nose than the prior tastings. Forgettable.

D) 2005 Quail’s Gate Merlot

Colin: 87 pts. One of my favourite BC producers…this was a solid merlot. Fantastic nose that didn’t quite taste as good as it smelled. Needed a bit more time in the bottle to round itself out.

Karen: Yum! Scored this in the high 80s as well. I’m a Merlot gal so I immediately took to this one. With the closest wine shop being a BC VQA reseller, it was also easy to tell what region this hailed from. Very familiar terroir, with blackberry and cherry notes. Thought it was bold enough to be a cab-merlot blend, like our wedding wine. In fact, try the Cedar Creek Cabernet Merlot if you like this style.

[Side note: Liam, who was involved in the production of this particular vintage when he worked at Quail's Gate, kept saying during the blind tasting that he'd had this one before...]

E) 2004 Cantina Di Negrar Amarone Della Valpolicella

Colin: 84 pts. Not my cup of tea…although I really do like Amarone. The nose and first hit on the palate was one of “port”. Called this one “Portenteous”. A bit like a watered down port to me…

Karen: The other Amarone of the night got another thumbs up from me. Scored it at 85 (though I really have no idea how one is supposed to rate a wine like Robert Parker or Wine Spectator). Smelled deliciously of molasses and dates. Very port-esque. I was worried about the sweetness of the nose but is was substantially less so in taste. Went fabulously with the blue cheese and dark chocolate that was floating around on the appy table.

F) 2004 Casa Silva Lolol Gran Reserva

Colin: 79 pts. F stood for Funky…and not in a good way. There was a urine smell on the nose, and the flavour profile was musty…imagine sticking your head in bog water…definitely not my cup of tea…

Karen: Oh god. This got two extremely unhappy faces. One was almost in tears. Musky and smoky, in what can only be described as exhaust. The first glass where I was glad to dump the majority of it into the spittoon. I didn’t smell or taste urine, thankfully.

emoticon rating schema

G) 2005 Podere Sapaio Volpolo

Colin: 93 pts. This was my favourite wine of the night. It truly was what I think of when I think “Big Red”. Spicy, bold, explosions of pomagranate and dark chocolate on the palate and a smooth full long finish. This I would love to have with roasted lamb, a prime rib, or rack of lamb that is boldly spiced! Kaboom!! Loved it!

Karen: The first “meh” face makes its rating appearance. While Colin raved about it, I hid myself in the corner along with my feelings of its mediocrity. Lots of berry. Didn’t taste much else. It was much too bold for my palate.

H) 2005 Clos de los Siete Mendoza

Colin: 87 pts. I’m not a big fan of Malbecs…maybe I just haven’t found any great ones yet. This one wasn’t bad…I suspect it may have fallen lower in my mind because of the previous wine. Wonderful dark cherry, violet, sweet grass notes on the first hit…but the finish was underwhelming.

Karen: Meh face number 2. My sheet said “very tart. slightly tannic. blackberry. similar to G. new world”. Keep in mind that by this time, I’m on glass #8 and had hardly made use of the spit jar. Guitar Hero 3 had also been let loose. I think I was too busy trying to rock out to Sabotage than to keep decent notes from this point on.

I) 2005 Rolf Binder “Heinrich”

Colin: 86 pts. An odd sanitized bathroom scent on the nose…in a good way. A bit tight…needed decanting or more time. Like the previous wine, a bit underwhelming all around.

Karen: This was the wine we brought, on the recommendation of a colleague. It got a meh face as well. I may have also been too tipsy to evaluate it properly. Notes say “new world. not memorable. flavours and bouquet are not very complex”. It was here that I got photo happy with Liam and his awesome David Suzuki t-shirt.

he hearts david suzuki too!

J) 2004 Chateau Pesquie “Quintessence”

Colin: 88 pts. My first take on this wine was that it was weak on the nose and lacking complexity…but I was playing Guitar Hero when I first tasted it…a half hour later, it really opened up. This is a solid producer, so I’m not surprised.

Karen: By this point, my resolve to be a proper oenophile vanished into the night. I was completely absorbed in watching the boys play Guitar Hero 3 and yelling out rock anthems when I knew the words. J was gulped down without much note. I did take enough time to draw a meh face for it, so it must not have stuck out much from its neighbours.

K) 2005 Sasyr Sangiovese & Syrah Toscana

Colin: 85 pts. I find Sangiovese can be divine or kind of blah…in this case, it was a bit blah. Very tannin-y, earthy…not in a good way…puckery on the palate. I tried it again in the morning (just a sip…really, I don’t have a drinking problem) when I was cleaning up the carnage from the night before…and even with the extra “air”, it was puckery…

Karen: Surprised to find notes at the bottom of my sheet for this one! K broke the streak of indifferent emoticons: it got a happy face. It smelled sweet and syrupy but made for easy drinking. It wasn’t memorable beyond its bouquet, which was probably only significant because it contrasted so much against the last four bottles.

So there you have it, folks. Thanks to Colin for letting me reprint his excellent analyses. It’ll take a lot more wine education on my part before I am capable of forgoing emoticons in favour of the usual point system!

french toast hamilton.

By Karen | Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

French toast was one of the first breakfast items I learned to make, along with the very Asian insta-noodle soup with an egg dropped in. In our household, french toast is usually a simple affair: egg, cinnamon, brown sugar, and multigrain bread that is pan-fried and quickly devoured. But I’ve had my eye on two types of overnight marinades from our Best of Bridge cookbooks and felt it was about time to try something a bit more involved.

The first recipe, entitled French Toast Raphael, called for an intriguing marinade of maple and Cointreau, but required such large quantities of egg and baguette that we could have fed our entire floor. The second recipe, Midnight French Toast, enticed me with cream cheese, which is always welcome on my breakfast plate. However, I wasn’t excited about the rest of it. The bread is cut into cubes, crusts removed, slathered with egg batter and dollops of cream cheese, which is then dumped into a casserole dish and pulled out of the oven in a puffy mass of indistinguishable foodstuffs. Not exactly a visual delight.

Hoping that my home cookery skills were up to the challenge, I decided to extract the key elements of each recipe and create an eggy Cointreau-and-maple-syrup concoction doused over cream-cheese stuffed Italian bread. We invited neighbours Jonny and Jane over to be our guinea pigs. There was not a crumb left by the end of the meal, so I venture that this culinary experiment was a success.

See all photos of French Toast Hamilton on Flickr

Try it yourself and tell me what you think.

French Toast Hamilton

Ingredients

Directions

  1. The night before serving, prepare the french toast marinade. Stack bread like sandwiches and halve. Stuff each half-sandwich with 1 – 2 slices of cream cheese.
  2. Beat eggs, remaining ingredients, and 3/4 of the orange zest together. Reserve the orange itself for the following morning.
  3. Place sandwiches in a 9×13 baking tray and pour egg batter over them, ensuring that all sides are well coated. Marinate overnight.
  4. In the morning, arrange sandwiches on a greased or silpat-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 375F or until puffed and golden brown.
  5. Top with thin orange slices, remaining orange zest, a douse of maple syrup, and other fruit if desired.

    6. what a day.

    By Karen | Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 | No Comments »

    Boy, am I glad to be home. Today was filled with errands surrounding the theft of my wallet at the usual Tuesday night salsa venue. New driver’s license, new bank card, phone calls to all the financial institutions, and cancelling appointments that I couldn’t keep until I had access to our funds again. It was a right pain. The woman who issued me the replacement driver’s license even gave a 15-minute lecture on why I should also update my maiden name on my citizenship card. I was going to let her speak until she ran out of steam, but it soon became apparent that she needed my agreement before she’d re-issue the license. So began my oft-rehearsed story of how I’ve had three surnames in my life, and no actual record of my name change to Clement, yadda yadda. 30 minutes later, she decided that it was the right decision to keep my citizenship papers under Clement. Sigh.

    Have you ever had your wallet stolen before? It can be gut-wrenching. The last time it happened to me was on the first day of my first ever job, at the McDonald’s by Science World. I didn’t know that one needed a padlock to stow away your street clothes, so my trainer suggested that I just throw my bag into a random locker. What’s the worst that could happen during a 4-hour shift? Well, your wallet could be stolen, apparently. Not that it held anything of value to others. Just a long-hoarded stash of cherished schoolmate portraits, the personal messages of friendship forever lost to me and whose meaning would be forever lost on the thief.

    In the case of last night’s theft, I will miss the wallet itself, which was a souvenir of my first visit to my in-laws’ cottage in Gimli. It held the Octopus Card from Hong Kong that I always show to my techie friends as one of the marvels of Asia. The business cards of newly forged acquaintances that I will sadly not be able to reach. And most sorely lamented, the last wallet-sized photo of Kurt and I from the year that we first moved in together.

    So long, Volcom wallet. You will be missed. I hope whoever took you from me gets bitten in the ass quite unabashedly by karma.

    to the person who stole my wallet tonight.

    By Karen | Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

    you. suck. big. time.

    so much for my leftist travel plans.

    By Karen | Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 | No Comments »

    Aww, shucks. I knew we should’ve gotten hitched in Cuba when we had the chance. Leanne, you are a lucky bastard.

    Castro Calls It Quits

    Fare thee well, Fidel.

    adobong manok (chicken adobo).

    By Karen | Friday, February 15th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

    Kurt and I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day so much as February 15th (which we have dubbed “Love Day”). You will no doubt see and read about tonight’s dinner at Raincity Grill soon, so for now, here is the recipe for Kurt’s favourite Filipino dish, which I made for him last night.

    a filipino valentine's day dinner

    Adobong manok [ah-DOH-bohng mah-NOHK] requires a handful of ingredients that should already be in your pantry or always at your grocer’s. It’s fantastic for a weeknight dinner where you don’t want to fuss. We normally grab a bunch of rice and plop the adobo unceremoniously next to it, with one banana on the edge of each plate for easy access. Because it was Valentine’s Day, I got a little fancy and took the time to make heart-shaped banana slices and plated it like it were a hoity-toity dish.

    The quantities below should serve 4 or provide 2 people with dinner and baon (BAH-onn, or leftovers) for the next day.

    Ingredients:

    • 1 lb of your favourite chicken limbs (we use 12-15 wingettes and drumettes, which have more surface area to soak up the adobo)
    • 1 jumbo onion, thinly sliced in rings
    • 1 tablespoon of vegetable (canola) oil
    • 1/3 cup light soy sauce (less if using Tamari or dark soy)
    • 1/3 cup white vinegar
    • 2/3 cup water
    • 1/2 tablespoon of whole peppercorn, or to taste
    • 1 banana per person, sliced into rounds

    Directions:

    1. Choose a large, high-sided skillet with a lid. On low-medium heat, sweat half of the onions in the oil for a few minutes or until translucent. Do not brown the onions at this stage.
    2. Increase heat to high and add the chicken. Saute until the chicken is no longer pink. Control the heat to prevent the onions from burning.
    3. Add all the soy sauce and coat chicken evenly. Reduce heat to a simmer.
    4. Add vinegar, water, and peppercorns. Cover and simmer 20-30 minutes or until chicken is fork-tender. Turn the chicken occasionally to ensure that all sides are being simmered in the sauce.
    5. Remove cover and let adobo sauce reduce to your desired consistency (for us, that is normally 1/5 of the original volume).
    6. Add remaining onion and replace cover. Let steam for a few minutes or until onions are translucent. Remove from heat. You’re done!
    7. Serve over steamed rice. Do try each mouthful with a piece of banana. Kurt thought it was really weird at first, but now he gets all pouty if I forget to buy bananas on an adobo night.

    [Fellow tech geeks...can you guess how many times I had to backspace over "adobe" in this entry? =P]

    restaurant reviews on mealmax.com.

    By Karen | Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 | No Comments »

    If you’ve been wondering where the foodie posts have gone to lately, don’t despair. We have been diligently eating around town and taking many notes and photographs. I just haven’t been posting them to the blog. For now, the latest reviews are on start-up website www.mealmax.com. The only active community is Metro Vancouver but it would be so nice to see this site flourish in other cities.

    My latest restaurant visits:

    The Dine Out Vancouver Contest is still on so if you haven’t yet, please do vote for my entries (plus any others you enjoy). Voting closes at the end of the month. You don’t need to have a login for Mealmax to vote.

    Bon appétit!

    free ladies night skiing on mount seymour.

    By Karen | Monday, February 11th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

    Anyone want to go skiing tonight at Seymour? Lift ticket is free for women after 6pm on Monday evenings, if you pick up a voucher from the following locations (one voucher per person per trip). This promo is on till March 24th if you can’t make it today.

    So far, Lorne, Irene and I will hopefully be meeting up with Nancy and Dawn at around 6:30-7pm by the Lodge Chairlift. My cell phone has terrible call reception on the mountain so if you need to reach me, email me on my work account and your message should still send over the Blackberry network.

    Joanne, I lost your email address after removing it from your comments, so please email me again if you’d like to join us tonight or in the future.

    And the photos from the final lessons have been posted to Flickr. View the photoset for now…I’ll need a few more days to post the videos to my YouTube channel.

    Hope to see you on the mountain!

    my first sports heartbreak.

    By Karen | Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

    Sports is surprisingly emotional. I learned it the hard way when the New England Patriots didn’t make their perfect season. Why did everyone want so badly to see them crash and burn? It would’ve been one for the history books! We were soooo close! Arrrgh.

    Needless to say, post-Superbowl Sunday for me was a jumble of dejection, disappointment, and ire. The last mostly directed at the Manning brothers for winning the past two Superbowls.

    Now I understand the agony of having to wait 7 whole months before the next season begins.

    Upset about the upset.

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