When Classic meets the “Classic” - Macau Private Kitchen

Thanks for the invite from an uncle, we paid a visit to Macau for a private kitchen dining as a post celebration of a wedding. A decent size of 9-dishes meal (a slang of huge cuisine), a classic Chinese  dinner is equivalent to a family gathering. Comparing to the fine dining of western culture, this seems to be a better way of doing wine tasting, at least making sure we all taste the same delicious food and wine; or nasty ones too.

Appetizer - Portugal wine: Quinta Da Alorna (2010) strikes as the appetizer drink. With a rough brand, simple transparent bottle in lack of labeling, it has always been good giving a lower standard and jump from there. Refreshing taste with sweet limy greenly finish it has been closer to the blend of sauvignon blanc and Riesling, in fact this is made 100% Arinto

Riquiqui - A touch of blue

In a hectic business centre Central, a cozy quite jazzy environment does soothe the disturbing mind. Next to M88 beijing club, you will find a door brand with a touch of blue and a glipmse of golden frame - Riquiqui.

Means tiny in French, really a petit place with dim light, enough to accomodate 12 people, just enough for a warm chat. The chef Amanada, who is graduated from California Culinary School on pastry art. Tiny...don't thought low of yourself.


$200 for 3 course setting - main course and petit four, companied with a glass of dessert wine.

In fact this time since my friends have to rush for the real dinner, so we have ordered 2 main courses and a bottle of dessert wine - "Birbet" Brachetto.

Brachetto - Cherry red wine that tastes similar to ice-merlot, with a strong bitter on the palette as a finish. Strawberry punch on nose, medium body and  , dessert version of Sangria. In the DOCG region of Brachetto d'Acqui, the grape is used to produce a slightly sweet sparkling wine. The red heart seems really lively, made a company to the couple at the background *wink*

Main Course: Amarula Pudding

Amarula is a cream liqueur manufactured in South Africa. It is made with sugar, cream and the fruit of the African Marula tree. The combination of Pudding, vanilla icecream and banana is the best combo, reminds me of banoffi pie, however with more of toffee / coffee flavour then the banana. These 3 have always been the trio~

 Brachetto is dominated by the strong caramel of amarula, yet some bitterness hint of brachetto has balanced well with the amarula, fair pairing.

Main Course: Almond Cake with Pear Crumbles

Soft almond cake tastes really like the sponge bread, decent texture, ice-cream becomes its dip to highlight the almond. Pear crumble is not heavily buttered like the common dessert place, therefore it won't stuffed too much to the palette, very soft and refreshing mixture.

Brachetto has a better pairing on this as this dish is comparatively refreshing and lighter. The fruitiness of strawberry of the wine and the pear from the pear crumble has become the touch for the melting of almond cake. Bravo~

Having the dessert while enjoying the industrious businessmen/ businesswomen working out their belly on a treadmill, a contradict makes me struggle a bit whether I should order a main course more, lol.

Imagine whether they will be tempted by looking at our mouthful and mouthful of Amanda's delicate dishes...don't give up jogging, I am watching you!!!~

味皇 - 皮蛋與腐乳

近年興起紅酒配中菜之風，為愛酒之士締造驚喜口味。

皮蛋源自發酵了的鴨蛋，味濃得蓋過隨後進口之佳餚，因此經常配以豆腐、子薑等清爽的食物淸口腔，否則餘下美食猶如雞肋。

可幸皮蛋那溶化於口中那種密集豐富的口感卻被柔和纖細的輕黑皮諾（pinot noir）軟化。

喝後百感交集，它們像是美女與野獸或是貂貚馴服強悍呂布一樣水乳交融，皮蛋與紅酒配合得天衣無縫。

其後再含一片子薑。子薑辛辣，帶香了味蕾，清了乾涸的喉嚨，襯托出紅酒的單寧與原始的風味。

可與皮蛋這「味皇」並駕齊驅的腐乳，我還未找到可配襯之紅酒。有的話請儘快告訴我，因我是腐乳的粉絲呢~

Italian Night - Dec 09

Italian Wine World – Conventional Wine World, yet its spark is often concealed by its neighbour – France.
This time we shall give it a chance to overthrow the century.

Oliver Wine 

Cascina Bruni Moscato d'asti $161

Caldora Abruzzo $128

Cascina Bruni Barbaresco $375

Masi Campofiorin $187

Barbera D’alba 2004 $158

Il Paese Canapes

Cheese Platter: Ham / Sausage Platter:
Provolone Piccante vs  Toscan Ham
Raschera vs Speck Asiago
Manchego vs Salami Nerone
Meatball Spaghetti

1st Wine: Barbera D’alba 2004

Flowery nose. Plummy. Jammy flavour. This is my favourite pick from last year’s Hong Kong Wine Festival. With less than $160, it is an outperforming other wine displayed that day. Well structured and balanced. Ready to drink.

2nd Wine: Caldora Abruzzo

Peppery and acidic. Not too well balanced. Overall speaking, still Barbera d'alba & Barbaresco are preferred.

3rd Wine: Cascina Bruni Barolo

Stronger structure than all other 3 wines. DOCG. Complex truffle flavour. Garnet with red rim. Wild berries, licorice and spicy finish. Strong tannin. Need time to mature

4th Wine: Masi Campofiorin

Masi is the brand strongly recommended by the supermarket sales, due to its price and according to our preference of strong fruity flavour. It pairs up quite well with the cheese platter, especially the Manchego, the wonderful marriage that stands out the cheese from the others.

Last Wine: Masi Moscato d'asti

Impressive. Easy drinking. Strong honey comb mixing with vanilla, yet refreshing and crispy. No wonder it has been depicted as the jewellery of woman.

However it is not a fair match with the icecream pie strongly recommended by the openrice supporters. Perhaps the dried fruits “engraved” in the ice-cream Spianata Piccante were not too juicy to be mitigated into the moscato. It turns out we prefer drinking moscato alone.

The fun of wine gathering is that everyone are trying to share their thoughts and opinion of the same bottle; exploring the flavours, ultimately confirming with the buddies who are sharing the same glass. Food matching is like putting different puzzles together and you’ll discover millions of combinations that will surprise you at the end.

Gathering 2: Give a "Themeless" a Theme

2nd anniversary at Lian - Theme: BIG WINE

12 wines all-you-can-drink. They got red, white, sparkling... Shall I treat that as irrelavancy or bonus offer??

They are from all over the world-- France, Aussie, chile, Spain, south Africa, Germany...you can call it
WWW - World War Wine.

Unlimited refill 6-10pm, unfortunately I arrived at 9. What we do is hiding the glasses and raise our hands for moreeeeee...
Yes, you're right, it's more like drinking competition. Me? Half drunk on the way home (ssshhhhh...)

Slight comments for some wine:
1. Loxarel, Cava Brut 2004: fizzling as usual, more for mouth cleansing, end with stale and metallic note.
2. Moscato d'Asti: Honey comb pungent, vanilla round the palate, fresh and sweet, go best with cholate or cake, groan that I didn't have...it's the lady killer in my fd's mind. I can't agree more as the next day my fd proved the 'theory' right!
3. Shiraz, Malbec: Typical Shiraz & Malbec, goes well with pork and light red meat.
4. Barbera D'alba: Intensive dark cherry flavour; delicate, a well-balanced red of the day. Goes nicely with beef cubes
5. Casablanca Nimbus Gewurztraminer 2007: Less lychee, still retain the crisp, the after-taste is very short, and little acidic, a fair fair average. Can't beat the Moscato to become gal's favourite, that's unusual.
6. Viognier: Drunk...can't recall...

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Recommendation to LIAN:

Problem with THEMELESS drink is that you will find it hard to do food pairing. Especially the dishes come at different times the chemical reaction may not sync.


WHY don't we take Lian as a "Food Pairing Workshop"? Customers to pay reasonably to achieve win-win wine & cuisine night under comfy environment, nice pairing service and NIL complaints on fishy food only becoz they match it wrongly.