Taste Wine with the 4's

Something i wrote a while back:

A good wine has these four qualities Balance, Length, Intensity and Complexity (BLIC).

Wines with balance would have a harmonious combination of tannin, acidity, texture and flavour. The flavours may linger for a while on the palate and referred to as the length. The wine should be full of intensity. You should be able to taste different characteristics such as citrus, honey or burnt coffee. A flat wine is as good as water. With a beautiful length and intensity, the wine is of course complex, complex for the variety of aromas and flavours.

When tasting wine, keep in mind the 4 S’s.

See

Colour is a very important as it is able to give indications of the age, varietals of grapes and at times region. First make sure that you have a white background to view your wine. Just tilt the glass a little and observe the colours.

Young reds would carry a deep purple hue and as they mellow paler and softer reds are visible. The pale or soft hue appears at the rim of the wine giving a clue of its future hues.

But for whites, the pattern of colour change is different. The hues would deepen, turning into rich colours of yellow, gold, amber and brown. Rose and blush wines would adopt a bit of an orange or even brown colour as it matures.

It is possible for you to identify the varietals of grapes from the colour. This is because different grapes produce wines of differing intensities of colour. Pinot Noir tends to be pale purple and Rieslings has a green tinge.

Though this colour change is gradual, it can occasionally distinguish the wine regions. Cool climate wines tend to be less richly coloured, hence Burgundian Chardonnay will be paler than an Australian example.

Swirl

Hold the glass by the stem and give the wine a little swirl, careful not to spill. For this reason do not fill your glass more than half the glass. This increases the surface area of wine in contact with the air allowing the aromas to be more apparent.

Observe the oily droplets of wine that run down the inside of the glass after the wine has been swirled. Usually oily legs reflect high alcohol content and the presence of sugars, an indication of its weight and intensity.

Sniff

Once done, stick your nose in the glass a take a good sniff, and think about what aromas are coming up. Your nose is more sensitive than your taste buds and this sensitivity would help your taste the wine, hence your inability to taste flavours when you have a cold. The aromas of wine rarely smell of grapes but that is because the grapes most of us are familiar with are table or dessert grapes, which are quite unsuitable for making wine.

Young wines would have aromas relating to grape variety (ie limes for riesling and black pepper for shiraz) or fruit related for example blackcurrants and tropical fruits. Matured wines would have more secondary aromas such as the woody barrels, spices, tar or grass.

Sip

Take a sip of the wine and hold it on your tongue, breathe in to help release the flavour of the wine. Keep in mind what is ‘on the palate’ (used to describe the characteristics of the wine detected in the mouth). The weight of the wine in your mouth will tell you whether it's light, medium, or full-bodied. It also tells you how much sweetness, acidity, alcohol and tannin it contains. The object is for these elements to blend together rather than one to dominant.

Swallow the wine and observe the ‘finish’ (the flavours of wine tastes at the point of, and just after, swallowing) and the length. A lengthy persistence of flavour may be taken as a sign of quality.

Just fish n chips

This writer's first encounter with fish 'n' chips was at a neighbourhood clubhouse. The discerning seven year old I was thought it was one of the best things ever to be tasted. An uncle then proceeded to tell me that it used to be served wrapped in newspaper. That didn't sound too tasty...

Subsequently, the various other places that were visited and during which fish 'n' chips was ordered and tasted yielded average experiences. Some were downright horrible but then, one didn't expect much at certain places. Hence, it was a genuine surprise when more out of curiousity than anything, an order of this age old dish at The Cotton Club turned out like this:

It tasted just as good as it looked. Crispy on the outside and succulent within with a generous helping of french fries completed with salad served in a pretty edible basket. And I'm not kidding about the edible basket part.

Yes, the presentation may be but the chef's personal interpretation of this simple dish. But there must be something said about the simplest dish being the most difficult to perfect. Inventor of fish 'n' chips I am not so arguments about how the dish should be this way or that, no answers avail from here but whether or not there is a GREAT example of fish 'n' chips that one should try - then this is it. Point me in another direction if you can.

So, for those of you who would like to sample the best value fish 'n' chips in town, head to The Cotton Club. Oh, and might I add the mushroom soup and fresh baked buns are quite heavenly too. If you're wondering if its one of those phenomenal price for the experience type, don't worry. Like I said, its the best value fish 'n' chips in town.

Now, not all items on The Cotton Club's menu will make one jump for joy though. So, go for a fish 'n' chips party first. The next item on their menu that I am eyeing is one with 'salmon' in it. We'll see how that fares.... and let you know!

Lunch Stories 1

Since I have started working, I have agonize every Monday to Friday at 12 pm about where and what am I going to eat for lunch.

In the beginning, when my office was right in the heart of the Golden Triangle, my lunch was the usual mixed rice from the cafeteria name Cintamanis and occasionally the Mak Cik bawah pokok. And even if KLCC, Avenue K, Jalan Yap Kwan Seng was within walking distance but the choices of food were limited simply due to the quality of the food (which always leaned towards bad) and the price. Paying RM 15 is not my idea of spending lunch money.

At the lobby of Wisma Selangor Dredging there is this nice café managed by Hotel Maya. This nice café with a fountain as their backdrop is simply known as Just Mee.

In my opinion I find Just Mee a total rip off.

Here is an office building with a lot of young executives (cheap labour) and students from the British Council whom do not have a lot of money. And Just Mee is there, charging RM 12 for something that looks like Chicken Rice. Just Mee has HIGH hopes that managers, MD’s, Directors and people earning at least RM 7000 eat at their shop. But with food so bad, and the big bosses driving nice sedans (sedans have 4 doors and can’t squeeze into medium to small parking lots, you get the hint) why would they bother to eat at Just Mee. I see plenty of them driving off to Chulan Square to eat at Rakuzen or Gu Rue Thin or Cilantro or Jalan Ipoh.

I forgot to mention about the their service. Just because the executives are ordering the cheapest meal on the menu together with ice water, it takes them FOREVER to bring cut chili, extra pair of chopsticks, refill the water and the bill. They seem to be more stuck up that the Managers and MD’s.

So back to the miserly executive (yes miserly due to small salaries), we are stuck with Cintamanis and Just Mee praying for a pay rise in hopes to drive a sedan and eat at better places.

Why can’t I get good food in Bangsar?

IF there is one thing I hate about living in Bangsar it’s the food.

BANGSAR is leafy streets, swanky condominiums, and expensive wheels. But really, the quality of food in this trendy outpost of Kuala Lumpur is surprisingly not that good. Don’t get me wrong. There is some decent grub, but considering the huge number of restaurants in Bangsar, good restaurants and good food are few and far between.

Vincenzo’s in One Bangsar is one of the few restaurants that actually serve some good food. If you can afford it. There’s a good wine selection and the quality and freshness of the meats and the pasta is consistent. Service, too, is excellent. But very few people, Bangsar residents included, can afford to dine there too often.

But for every Vincenzo, I can name you quite a few restaurants which have survived for way too long on reputation alone. Alexis is one place which, quite frankly, sucks. It prides itself on serving a mean Sarawak Laksa. NOT. The version it tries to pass off as Sarawak Laksa is nothing like anything I have eaten in Kuching. For a decent and authentic bowl of Sarawak Laksa, you are better off trying the stall at the corner coffee shop next to Ipoh Old Town restaurant in Lucky Gardens.

Basically what I am getting at is that I am so sick of going to restaurants and paying more for ambience then for actual good food. And Bangsar is so full of such restaurants, for the posers and the Datins alike. Come on, can someone tell me why people queue to go into Delicious restaurant in Bangsar Village? The food is so-so but some restaurants really have all the luck don’t they? Oh, while we are on the subject of ambience, can someone please tell me why people continue to pay an arm and a leg for the downright average fare La Bodega and its sister outlets like TSB dishes out straight from the central kitchen behind the New Straits Times office?

Yes, I am being harsh about these outlets. That is because I think people deserve better food than what is being served in Bangsar. In my next posting, I will tell you guys about the delightful restaurants I have found in other parts of KL. But for now, the subject at hand is Bangsar. And Bangsar is basically all style and very little substance when it comes to food.
Maybe it’s like what they say about governments. You know the one about how the people get the governments they deserve. So maybe the people of Bangsar also get the food they deserve.
Is Bangsar therefore a neighbourhood of pretentious posers who search for the next trend but have very little good taste? Would such a group of people include me then?

Well, the answer is yes. We the people of Bangsar created such monsters as Alexis. We created “Cheap Charlies,” that veritable Bangsar landmark that has been serving for eons what it passes off as Chinese food to the expatriates of KL. So, my fellow Bangsar residents, let us all finally stand up for our rights. We have to drive the average, the obscure, the taste-challenged, the insipid, the overpriced and the downright bad restaurants out of our neighbourhood. We have to stop patronizing these outlets. For God’s sake, stop encouraging them. Stop believing all those wonderful reviews you read in The Star or the NST, which are brought to you courtesy of a free meal for the reporter.