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

c'est la B - Dessert is no longer Guilt

As my favorite cafe Pumpernickel is full house because of nearby flower market, I am looking for alternatives, and here I come - C'est La B, the branch of Ms. B's Bakery
Yearn to know the place for long. Having tasted the earl grey chiffon cake and the caramel crunch cake from Sevva, I have always desired to re-visit Sevva or other Ms B's branch.

Today's afternoon choice (or lunch...I am starving...) :

When drinking becomes an art - Butler Bar

After the recent trip to Singapore with my friend, our comments were somewhat similar: "Singaporean cocktails are way better than those in Hong Kong!". Or is it just that we have missed the best? My friend then started exploring for good cocktail bars in Hong Kong, ending up with an impressive one...
Typical Japanese bar setting, indeed identical to what I saw in the classic Japanese TV series - "The Bartendar". 4 people in decent uniform lined up, serving in the bar: 2 bartendars and 2 waitress, all are Japanese. (Well, don't let them overhear your conversation, they speak Cantonese and English too).

Mulled Wine Experiment -- Last Christmas

How we make it

Cut the orange and lemon into half

Plug the orange with cloves. Looks like a mine more than anything, lol

Soak lemon slice, orange mine and the rest of the ingredient with red wine.

Red wine doesn’t have to taste good, just red enough. Stronger the better. We’d try Geelong Shiraz and Chile Carmenere, both works.

Let the wine covers the fruits. Yes, submerged.

Sieve sugar in. Why sugar needs sieving? Ask god.

East meet West Hairy Crab Pairing Night

A signature gathering every year among our high school schoolmates. Thanks for organizing this for me. Yes for me solely. It all begins with one phone call “Hi, we have the 19xx year Shao Xing wine available, do you want to have one? It is 3L though” “What?” Tempting, yet 3 Litre, how can I finish it?!?!

Another phone call … “It’s October now! Are you interested to organize the crab festival again? I do have the Chinese yellow wine that was created in the year we were born!!! , in the name of friends’ birthday celebration too, 1 stone 2 birds...”

Wine Now Monthly Wine Fair

Venue: Happy Valley 7/F & 8/F

This is one of the most decent wine fair I've been to, I am not referring to the decency of the venue, I am talking about decency of the wine. It is judged by how much wine I spit.

Organized by the founder of Wine Now Mr. Lau Chi Sun. He looks energetic, though difficult in walking. His generosity in donating wine for lucky draw and his speech is very warm. You can tell how enthrusiastic he has been to this industry.

With around 30 wine merchants joining this year, I attend this function alone has my friends still hangover from previous drinking with friends.

Grace Vineyard:

Grace Vineyard is the prominent mainland vineyard that market their wine. Good enough to have won bordeaux competition bronze awards. No doubt that this is one of my to-do list in the event. Tried the elegant blue bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Vine to Wine

Australian Wine Shop. Every hour, they will decant reserved wines such as Bass Phillip, Wild Duck, Jasper Hill, Mount Mary Pinot Noir. The owner has pretty good decanting skills, imagine he is like the Vin de Dieu character. White Box and Buddha Wine are the other 2 buy 1 get 1 free recommendation, those are easy drinking daily wine, soothing palate. Cozy chat with the people at the shop. Can see they are not just serving wine, they are serving wine knowledge.

Veneto

Amarone from Veneto , Wine from Kelit of Shenzhen, A Veneto Wine maker. Oaky and too tannic though. Imagine Italian coming to Hong Kong and Shen Zhen without knowing Cantonese and Mandarin. mmm...it's gonna be tough.

Since I went there alone...so just dropped by for an hour and left. Nice wine fair, hope there will be more next year :)

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!!!~