Food Adventures January to July 2017 - May 2017

Prior to the two month sojourn around Wales, France and Sicily across August through to mid October, I had been a bit taken up with a project that took me away from the food and wine writing (and the songwriting and recording) but I then got a bit of a breather to try and reflect over where the Lengui and I had eaten over the previous couple of months (well, seven actually). So I figured rather than try to document them individually, better to just load them all into a single narrative and see how it looked. So this is a full-ish listing of where, when, and with whom we ate and drank over this period. Some are barely one liners, others have a bit more detail. Whatever, it made for a more than usually long read so it got broken down into months for ease of, er, digestion. Not sure if it will prove useful, but when taken in total it does represent quite a litany of gluttony. Phoooooooo....

May 3rd IWFS Committee Dinner at Stoked

At our monthly IWFS Committee meetings, everyone brings a bottle to share with everyone else. At the end of the year there is usually a surplus of bottles so a dinner gets organised to drink them up. This year was decided to have it at our regular meeting place and Yin-How came up with the menu. We also brought extra wines to fill out the spectrum (ie fizz and white - seemed to be a preponderance of reds in the surplus bin). Didn't take any notes, and having just consumed a glass or four during the meeting was pretty much in no state or mood to do so. We stood around for a while quaffing more fizz before seating to some lovely glassware and excellent wine service all night. Some lovely wines came and went. Foodwise was mostly good, ranging from the usual excellent seafood dishes to the grim Rossini which needed a second heating from most of our table. At around RM350 a pop, felt a shade stiff but then I am half Scots. I can probably claim Irish because of my name spelling - should I go for an Irish passport in view of Brexit??

Menu

Trio of Canapes - Sainte Maure Goat Cheese and Dried Apricot, Chicken and Mustard Seed, Amaebi and Caviar

Octopus - Baba Ghanoush, Pomegranete

French White Asparagus - Slipper Lobster, Fine Leaf

USDA Prime Rossini - Mash Potatoes, Spinach with Perigord Sauce

Chocolate Sable - Frozen Berries, White Chocolate Mousse, Vanilla Ice Cream

Coffee Tea Petits Fours

Roll of Honour

Glass and Flower at Flint

May 5th Flint with Amanti della Cucina Italia

The Amanti Della Cucina Italia has their monthly bash at Flint in Ampang. Which was a bit unusual since it normally prefers Italian places rather than meat houses. Nevertheless, nineteen Amanti braved the rainy Friday night traffic and parking, possibly due to the value on the food and getting a fair deal on booze (25% discount on purchases). Took two fucking hours in the car to get there - brain dead by the time I arrived. I recall sucking down a bottle of St Clair SB just to regain some brain function. Desperate. It felt a bit cramped inside the Flint with all the people milling around, though not overly so. Was a bit disappointed with the Wagyu skirt (or rump as I understand it to also be) - seemed to be a bit of a tough chew. But the minestrone and pasta ragout were excellent. We initially opted to pair it with what turned out to be some mid range metallic and teeth enamel removing Chianti. The replacement Barbera was better - smooth , black cherry jam on the nose and mouth, frisky tannins, slightly tart on the swallow, but a great palate and finish. Service was excellent throughout the night - very attentive, young and efficient. Food details follow:-

Menu

Minestrone - with Lentils and Grana Padano - a bit overpeppered but great taste. Rustic, authentic feel - soul soup, like a good bowl of Campbells but without the salt. The bread is magnificent. St Clair SB a bit bitter on first blush but brought into balance by butter on bread and pepper in soup. Yum.

Tajarin Pasta - with Smoked Beef Ragout - rich and full on the mouth. Well seasoned, but somehow needed a visual and zesty lift - looked like a Mee Pork dollop of pasta with ragout sauce and meat. I would have added some lemon, but then I would. 

Charcoal Grilled Wagyu Skirt - with Garden Salad and Balsamic Glaze - portions were generous and well seared and cooked. Good salt, well pink on the inside. But as said, the cut a bit tough but not so that it wouldn't go down. Just needed a bit more work than usual. Made a good sandwich for lunch the following day. 

Deconstructed Apple Crumble - with Strawberry Basil Sorbet - didn't work for me. The apple was a massive cruncher Granny Smith, total sharp green in taste and almost citrus. Brought tears to the eyes. Paired with a sorbet made for a double sharp dessert. I would have softened Granny with some plain vanilla ice cream. Perhaps a bit too Spanish experimental Mugaritz on this one - sometimes plain is best. 

The excellent Minestrone

Charcoal Grilled Wagyu Skirt - bit of a firm chew this one...

Deconstructed Apple Crumble - dam sharp

May 6th Marco Polo Wedding
Just for completeness, we were here. About ten tables in the back room of the Marco. Was a family occasion so the food was superb. Their Iberico ribs are total business. 

May 7th Marco Polo Pig Nick 

Phoo - sometimes it all comes in a rush, eh? But how not to go to the Marco when the Pig Nick has been ordered and the wine kaki are all fired up for it? Another good boozy night of food, wine, friends and chit chat. Total fun.

Menu

Marco Polo Combination

Peppery Bork Bone Soup

Suckling Pig with Glutinous Rice

Minced Pork Ball with Sugar Cane

Baked Iberico Ribs

Yunnan Ham on Tofu with Vegetable

A Twist on Noodle and Rice

Cool and Sweet Ice Cream on Egg Tart

May 11th Grand Imperial BSC Bangsar Birthday gang

One fo the gang claimed to be able to get special discount here so naturally we went along with it. Got a semi private room shared with one other group. This included a long table on which we could park our wines and the restaurant's ice buckets and get fair to good wine service through the evening. Lots of Prosecco and Sauvignon Blanc and Italian Reds paired with the Grand Imperial Four Seasons, Iberico Pork Ribs and various other dishes nicely enough, though the food did not leap out as stunning.  

May 13th Char Siew Kelvin
This was at some stall off the backroads somewhere toward Kepong. We were first to arrive and commandeered some tables. Darned good food washed down with various SBs and easy reds. The Money brought her Zweigelt which went gangbusters with the Char Siew - picked out delicate floral violets in the mouth with the sticky caramel goo on the Char Siew. Wish I could remember where it was and how to get there...

Me looking amazed that people ask me to sing..,

May 14th Steven Fung 60th Birthday Chinese Restaurant in PJ

The Unique Seafood is a place I have occasionally visited in previous years, though not in recent past. It seems to have fallen off the map as a place to go eat. Marco Polo is nearer and does well enough for us. Though the Unique remains hugely popular amongst the community for its big fish and value preparations. There is a banquet hall at the back, which was a first time for me - previous visits had been to the restaurant front side of things. 

The Birthday Boy is a Wedding Planner of many years experience and we first came to know him through singing with the Philharmonic Society. Lenglui's Line Dance kaki (friends) all know him from various weddings he has planned for their progeny's hitchings. The evening showed his brilliance at maintaining relationships through the years - he had people there from all over the block. And so many we knew from other circles. Amazing. It also showed his sense of show - four roast pigs were waiting at reception to be carved up and served to guests. After a quick soundcheck (I was singing Green Green Grass, Lenglui and her line dance kaki were to do a couple of dances for the Boy) we sat down and opened a bottle of Oyster Bay SB to whet the whistle. Someone went out and grabbed some pork and brought it back to the table. Delightful. The guests were wandering into the hall and when they saw we had tunpang the pork, some went back out to grab a plate or four. We finished our SB and stole a bottle of red from the bar for the table. 

Lenglui and the Siew Yoke Four

The food would prove to be standard Chinese banquet. Was good enough, though nothing stood out as stunningly memorable. The hall was long and white, the tables and chairs were white - I think the floor was light coloured too. Wondered whether this was how someone involved in the organisation thought that this might be what heaven looked like. Well, and maybe. Though I am pretty sure heaven does not have bigass loud Chinese Drum groups there - we were fricking DEAFENED when these boys got underway. People were very kind to my singing of Green Green Grass of Home. The Lenglui's dancers died - they were on too late in the bill and not really rehearsed enough. No one cared. 

May 18th Albert Mann wines dinner at Grand Imperial at BSC Bangsar

Ah, this was a cracker. Excellent dishes on show at the Grand Imperial - stunning tastes and beautiful presentations. And the Mann wines facilitated by Singapore Alsace Society President Julian Teoh and Romanee Petrus Ivy Lim were spectacular. Twenty people sat on two tables with the Mann winemaker Mr Maurice himself able to tell us something about his Alsace winery and production techniques. Finishing touch was that Ivy had brought her glasses and some staff from her Tinto operation to help serve the wines which helped bring the whole evening into wonderful focus - aways good when you don't have to worry about whether the wines are getting poured into wrong glasses or in wrong order. Have to look for the menu and wines and photos - a truly excellent evening. Found the notes, will look to write this one up.

Roll of Honour

May 20th Yoong Char Siew lunch House of Pork

Organised by Lenglui, the Char Siew here is the total business. This place of legend is a roadside shophouse in Cheras, which made its name on Peel Road before it moved to its present location, though not before absorbing the Peel Road legacy into its name. We got here at noon and the place was already rocking. Sat with The Money and her squeeze, Princess, Texas and squeeze, and had lashings and lashings of Char Siew washed down with Money's amazing Austrian whites and a repeat of her Zweigelt red from the May 13th outing that was again total gangbusters with the Char Siew. Match made in heaven, and I hope there is Char Siew and Zweigelt when and if I get there. There was Siew Yoke with the usual Cloudy Bay which sucks up the salt a treat. Patin Fish in sauce came out at some time, but we were all topping up at this time. Everyone ordered takeaway. So. Very. Good. 

Food got whacked before photos could get taken. Hungry lorrrr...

May 20th Bonfire friends 40th Anniversary

Talked about the Bonfire previously in this series. Not much new to add. Manager wanted to levy corkage of RM50 on me per bottle. Good thing the host was also the owner of the place so got it dismissed. Had some huge prawns, chewy and peppered lamb, and as before the gratin potato was stellar. I guess you have to like the Australian barbeque style of preparation and cooking. I have yet to acquire the taste. Smoky and charred food to me all tastes smoky and charred, and one course of it is usually enough. Company was fun and boozy, which meant that the Baron's 2008 Sassicaia got sucked down in double time and my attempts to be extra judicious in the pourings to the non afficionados proved in vain. They whacked it absolutely. I have learned - keep two bottles in the covered cooler wine bag; one for the bibbers and one for the chuggers. Wine is wine, and no pearls before swine, n'est-ce pas? Oui. 

May 22nd Sanctuary7 Dombeya wine dinner

Owner Operator of Sanctuary7 and Winedaddy (and Petdaddy) Prakash had snagged visiting winemaker Rianie Strydom to grace this dinner and talk about the Dombeya and Haskell wines on show.  Sanctuary7 is a house in Damansara with a Balinese and Thai Garden setting in which private wine dinners take place before partying through the night to the video collection indoors. Food is generally good, though for me often lacking a degree of finesse given the calibre and pedigree of the wines Prakash puts on the tables. Ryanie proved a delightful ambassador of her wines - her passion, knowledge and commitment shone through the evening and her table stories of winemaking in South Africa were peppered with wonderful asides. We found we had mutual friends in Yngvild Steytler of Kaapzicht Estate and neighbour Louis at the Mooiplas - Yngvild and Louis were in Singapore and KL some years back as part of a South African wine mission exercise and Ryanie promised to pass our best to her. Always good when this happens. 

I had bought both Dombeya Chard and Haskell Aeon from Prakash on a previous showcase at the Sanctuary7 and they were both on show again. Dombeya-wise, we had the 2014 Chardonnay and 2013 Merlot, and for the Haskell we had the Haskell II 2010 (62% Shiraz, 33% Cab and 5% Mourvedre) and the Aeon 2012 (95% Shiraz, 5% Mourvedre). The Chard is magnificent - sleek tropical fruit and lovely balance across alcohol and acidity. Full, mouthbomb, sparky chewy wine but finishes like a thoroughbred. Match this easily with anything that the big name Chard producers can come out with. Lovely wine. We bought six. The Merlot was…  okay, but I confess to not being a great fan of the varietal. Blend it with the Cabs and yes, the mouth waters. But on its own…   it lacks a bit of body and whack for me. The Dombeya was clean and crisp and enough fruit to enjoy but not one for the home wine fridge. The Haskell II was a full on South African blend, all earthy brick soil and clean entry and finish. Can't remember much else. In contrast the Aeon is the business - power, elegance, drinking now but with a lot more time available in bottle.  We bought some more. Most pleasant evening. 

May 27th IWFS AGM

Held at the Impiana Hotel in KL for the second year in succession. They give us a nice room in which to conduct the annual business, great glass service for the flutes, and good staff behind the bar who listened and responded intelligently. Shame that the food was pretty grim. Salted and stodgy pastas, cold meats and sauces, painfully small oysters. I seem to remember the potatoes and vegetables were the only edible thing for me. Hope we are not back there next year. Awful. Got ubered there and home by Princess. No Lenglui - on birthday duty in Tacloban. 

Princess, Kiwi and Ajeet the Bohemian Rhapsodist

 May 30th Noble House In Laws birthday lunch

This was a birthday of a Lenglui in-law and with Lenglui overseas I was the representation. A Roasted Pig was carved and distributed in celebration. Standard Eight Course banquet for lunch. No wine, but someone poured a whiskey toward the end which somehow went quite well with the noodles. Or perhaps it was just the hunger for some booze. Can't remember much about the food. Think it was good, but I find the banquets at the various restaurants do get a bit ordinary after a while and tend toward all tasting the same. Don't remember any standouts. Birthday cake was massively creamy and sweet. 

Favourite Wine and Food places in Kuala Lumpur

20th August 2015

Got an email from an overseas IWFS member in Tokyo asking for advice on where to eat in Kuala Lumpur (NB I am IWFS KL Secretary). I wrote back listing my favourites off the top of the head - places I would recommend to the general visitor to be able to reasonably go find on their own. And thought my reply might make a useful post. Anyone got any favourite places to add?

Dear 

I received your email and am happy to give some suggestions for food and wine in Kuala Lumpur.

However, there are so many styles of cuisine here in Malaysia that it is difficult to give general advice. 

Maybe I can point you to my blog "Fine Food and Wine in Kuala Lumpur" which reports on restaurants I have visited personally and had a great time (or not!!)

The address is 

http://klfoodandwine.blogspot.com/

For fine food and wine, my initial suggestions would be Sage (The Gardens, Mid Valley) and Cilantro (Micasa, off Jalan Tun Razak). The food is consistently excellent, the wine lists are pretty good and both open for lunch (though phone first to check). Slightly further afield is Soleil where the fish courses are excellent. The DC Restaurant is also worth searching out, though a bit difficult to get to from City Centre. 

I also recommend the newly reopened Stoked with its cast iron grill - excellent beef steak and pork ribs with some interesting Japanese tweaks by the chef. And very good selections of wine. A bit outside the city but a good destination. 

These are all clearly Western cuisine places so the wines available tend to be more extensive. With Eastern cuisine (Chinese, Indian, Malay) eateries the wine lists are not so good. The upside is that they often do not charge corkage so you can BYO. They also do not have decent glasses.  Best for Chinese cuisine - Overseas Restaurant (Jalan Imbi), Marco Polo Restaurant (Jalan Raja Laut), Noble House (Imbi), Noble Mansion (Jaya 33).

I must say that I am not a great fan of Malay cuisine. Overpoweringly spicy for my palate. It also doesn't really pair well with wine. The best is Bijan in the Jalan Ceylon area, got a reasonable wine list though this area gets a bit shady after dark. Indian cuisine, we had a great event at the Delhi Royale sometime ago. There is also a very good steakhouse on the same block called Las Vacas. Both are reported on in the Blog. Thinking about it, there is also a Malay cuisine restaurant behind this block called Songket which was quite good for food but had horrendous corkage charges for BYO wine. And their wine list was not so very good. Haven't been back there for over a year.

For Japanese cuisine...  not sure I should say anything here...  it will not match anywhere near the quality of what I guess you might expect. I have visited Tsukiji market and the sashimi was amazing. My favourites in Kuala Lumpur are Kami Sushi (Sri Hartamas for Sashimi - bit outside KL) and Kamimura (The Weld, Jalan Raja Chulan for pork). Some of the hotels offer Japanese cuisine - all are pretty much of the same standard. 

Best regards

Brian McIntyre

Hon Secretary IWFS Kuala Lumpur

Memories of my friend Dr Gan Chong Wan

The Pork Luck Club has lost one of our fellowship. Dr Gan Chong Wan was our very dear friend whose friendship and company we will miss tremendously.

I just want to share some of my memories of him to try and get some of this pain and sadness I am feeling out of my system. We all knew he was on borrowed time, but his death has hit me harder than I thought it would. Editing this is still choking me up.

He was a Leukemia survivor. Diagnosed twelve years ago, he beat the thing and had just recently celebrated ten years in remission. It resurfaced late August this year and he had undergone two sessions of chemotherapy. The results were promising. He and I shared Pol Roger Champagne and Oysters and Pork Belly at the Ribs on November 6th. Then he felt well enough to join us at the Ginza Sushimasa with Toru-san and PLC friends on November 15th. Seems that sometime soon after this he contracted some viral fever and was laid out for three days. He was getting back to normal and recovering, but on Friday November 28th I received a text from his sister saying he was in ICU at UH and that he was in very bad shape. It was thought he would not survive for long, but apparently he swore that he would. Seems UH were pumping him with stabiliser meds and sedatives for severe pain and seeking to stop the organs from dying. However, at 3am Sunday November 30th his family received a phone call from UH and they were with him when he passed at 6.30am. He was 62.

A wake was held at Gui Yuan Funeral Parlour in PJ on December 1st from 3pm and it had been decided that a Roast Pig would be served. Friends were also invited to bring food and wine and whiskey to celebrate Dr Gan's life. We arrived at 5.30pm and brought some white wine. Luckily it was screwtop as no one had a corkscrew - mine had been transferred out of its usual place in the backpack for some air travel reason. There was red wine and brandy, though few seemed in the mood to drink. I was. I cracked the white and got stuck in. We sat with friends David Law and Philip Chai (friends from his short time with Musical Theatre in the early 1980s) and Jimmy Tang and sister Yoong, friends since primary school days. We were all pretty desolate.

Mr Tan from Checkers Restaurant showed up with some croissants and prunes wrapped in bacon. Mr Tan is also is a cancer survivor and I know that Dr Gan helped him through some of his not so good times with the treatment. Gan's old schoolfriends were also in attendance. Many had also been friends since primary and secondary school days. The mood was somber but not too sad. His sisters were playing some of his favourite classical and opera tunes and showing a slideshow of photos from his life that his brother had quickly put together. That he could do this with only one hour sleep on a thirty hour trip from Wisconsin was little short of remarkable. 

At the Noble House in Jalan Delima, Kuala Lumpur

A golden flower shrine around a photo of Gan had been put together with fruit and candles and sweet cake offerings and placed before the coffin. The coffin was open and I felt I had to go see him one more time. I barely recognised him. His face was all puffy, apparently from the steroids he had been pumped with in the efforts to keep him alive. If I had my time again, I would prefer not to have seen him like that. But there you go. We take our friends in both good and bad shape and these become the totality of our experience with them. 

Old friends May Ph'ng and Siang came to pay respects. May shared that she had lit 64 candles to help speed Dr Gan's transmigration - in Buddhism, as I understand it, the spirit/soul/essence leaves the body and either goes onward toward enlightenment or returns to a newborn being to learn whatever was not learned in this present lifetime. And whether this newborn is a higher or lower lifeform depends on our karma and merit earned in this lifetime. We shared some Roast Pig and wine. 

The wine helped shift the low mood. Felt like I had been whacked by a big stick all day. Dr Gan's sisters shared stories of him and his life and friends. Seems he and present PM Najib were schoolmates and sat next to each other in the classroom. The story went that whenever Najib was naughty, Dr Gan always got the blame. They stayed in touch through the years and it seems Najib was a regular visitor to the Gan household when travel and work permitted. Seems also that PM Najib visited the Gui Yuan to pay his respects the following morning prior to the funeral, replete with outriders and bigass car. I saw them haring along the Federal Highway back to KL as I was on my way to the funeral.

Arriving, I parked in the same space as the night before. The mood was more subdued today. David, Jimmy and Yoong had come, and it was David who shared that Najib had come. Fellow PLC friend May Peng also came to pay respects. Everyone still felt shock that Dr Gan was no longer with us. The brother was bearing up well, the sisters not so.

At the IWFS KL Presidents' Dinner December 2013

Again, the funeral was not a grand affair. No chanting or ritual, unlike the ruckus that was going on at the funeral next door, Someone was playing big drums and something sounding like a World Cup vuvuzela horn and they were belting out "Roll Out The Barrel" and "She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain" military style as the deceased in the adjoining part of the compound was being taken for the last drive to the incinerator. Felt a bit bizarre but I'm sure it would have made the Doc smile. Didn't seem to make anyone else smile, though. It also drowned out the speech of Gan's brother thanking everyone for coming to pay their respects. We all made one last round of the coffin where our friend was laying. He looked less puffy today. That was when I noticed the shirt he was wearing - I have an exact same one hanging in the closet at home. He was open collar, no tie as is often imposed by the funeral directors. The sisters know their brother well - he hated restrictions of all kinds. Then the minions moved in, hammered the lid into place and made ready for the last ride.

As the flower shrine was being dismantled in preparation for moving the coffin to the car, I saw that everyone was turning to face away. Never seen this before, and found it a shade disconcerting - in the West, to show one's back at this juncture would be seen as a mark of disrespect... but then we are not in the West. Clearly there was some meaning in this that eluded me. Once the coffin was in the car and closed, everyone moved into place and we all followed the hearse around the compound as it made its way to the burner. The family placed their hands on the car and it slowly made one round of the complex. There was a slight delay as the forerunning deceased had the barrel rolled out one last time. But no one was in any mood to rush anything.

New Year's Eve Dec 2013 at Soleil

And again, as the coffin was taken from the hearse, everyone turned their backs to it! Someone later suggested that possibly this was to avert any bad luck that might arise as a result of seeing the last walk of a friend. Could be. The coffin was placed onto the burner rail, the cinder block door lifted, the rollers moved the coffin into place, the door lowered, and that was it. Goodbye Doc.

Sadder than sad. My good friend got took away and I will miss his laugh, his wit, his intelligent humour and his sardonic view of life and its madness and occasional seeming futility. Prior to his initial diagnosis, he had a tendency to rail against people's shortcomings. After successfully completing his treatment he saw more of the comedy in it all and chose to laugh at it more than anything. In this sense, I witnessed a life change in him and we enjoyed ten years of his company in this changed attitude of mind. 

There was Buddhism in him, for he would visit the temple on the auspicious days of the year. Though he was not a lover of ritual ceremony and pomp. For him, the simple joys of food on the street with a breeze heralding rain, or with his dogs out for a run would be enough to remind him that all was well in the universe. His breadth of knowledge on many things was staggering, especially for things Chinese. He loved his Chinese history and porcelain and he amassed an amazing collection which he would delight in taking out to handle - he always said that porcelain was a tactile medium rather than being merely visual. 

Chinese New Year 2014

He had a great passion for good food cooked well, and would always insist on ordering (and more often pre-ordering) the food for our get togethers. He introduced us to so many excellent eating places in the city and beyond. Dengkil Seafood, You Mi Chi, Lao Mah Zhi, and found one of our lost favourites the Hoi Kee. He would rail against the upmarket Chinese cuisine outlets like the Noble House chain, saying the over sweet sauces catered more to the gwailo market and rendered the food not as authentically Chinese as he would have demanded. But he would occasionally tolerate them and indulge us when the company and the wine were good. I have great memories of times with him at Sage, Cilantro, Soleil, the Overseas on Imbi, the Marco Polo on Raja Chulan, and Checkers in Damansara. These were among those to which we would return on many occasions. I also have great memories of him coming to gatherings at our home with friends and food and wine. He would cook, serve, eat, wash dishes, and then we would share our good whiskey, brandy and armagnac with him when everyone had gone home. We would go with him to concerts at the MPO, eating at Chinoz or Ben's and having Gin and Tonics in the intermission. He truly loved his music. He also loved good food, good wines and good company and he valued his friends hugely. That so many stayed with him through the years is testament to his character and how much we all treasured his friendship and company. 

He taught me that our time together is too short and precious to fritter. If you're going to have a time together, make sure it is a darn good one and spare no reasonable expense. Break out the good wine and food, always. And for him, we always would. 

His late mother and favourite pet dogs are in the grounds of the Gan home and we hear that the Doc will similarly be staying there. Someone asked what would happen if they ever sell the house, to which friend and wit David Law responded by saying that it would not be entirely "vacant possession".

One of the last things he said to me as we were leaving the Ribs from the Pol Roger dinner was "Dying is easy." I guess he had lived with his own mortality for a long time and had come to terms with it. And he was a doctor - he would know that not every life can get saved. Not to say that he was submitting to anything - he had absolute conviction that he would beat the thing again and he was very aggressive in his treatment regime. He wasn't supposed to die. We once joked about moving to Songkhla when we retired to open a bordello where we all would live and look out for each other. Maybe next time around. I hope there is one.

January 17th 2015 will mark the seventh day of the seventh week that he passed, which stands as the time when the soul will completely pass. Prayers will be said for him at 10am at the Buddhist temple on Jalan Gasing where a tablet to his memory is located. I would call on his friends to raise a glass and toast his memory and our time together. Let us each honour him as we know best and how he would want - in pork, wine and friendship. 

He would definitely not want us to be sad. Normally he would scold people for feeling sad, saying "life too short lorrr." He's right, as he always usually was. But then the dead don't have to live with death. For those who are still alive, it is a sad, sad time. I mourn the loss of my dear, dear friend. 

At the Soleil August 2014

And I hope he would spare me on this occasion. Not all sadness is a bad thing. It keeps us human. Like Dr Gan himself. There's a line from the second Star Trek movie where Captain Kirk is giving a eulogy for Spock who had been apparently killed by nuclear radiation. Kirk says of Spock "Of all the souls I have known, his was the most.... human." Of my friend, I would say the same. Goodbye Doc.

Pontet Canet and Noble House Food - Yum!

Display for the Pontet-Canet

Mmmmnnnhhh….

That dull ache at the back of the neck and across the temples. sure signs of a good full and satisfying night. 

This is the morning after feeling following the previous evening's pairing of Noble House Cantonese cuisine with various vintages from the cellars of Chateau Pontet Canet. Organised by Ivy Lim from Vinum, the paring would showcase the vintages of 2000, 2003, 2008 and 2010 and offer a taste ot the Tesseron cognac to see if the assembled liked it enough to want to buy.

Most times, this muzziness gets in the way of being productive. Not strangely so with the writing, though one does still need a coffee kickstart to get the brian in focus and the words flowing. Hard life, eh? I should complain. Be nice to get some income from all this nonsense though. Any suggestions anyone?

Armed and ready...

There was a fairly full turnout of just under fifty for the dinner. Seems the numbers had been increased to accommodate the demand for the dinner. Indeed, at RM380 for all the food and the wines being poured, it was a very good deal. And starting with the Bruno Paillard champagne being generously poured into our flutes set a most delightful easy tone for the night. Nice biscuit on the nose, clean and firm, somewhat acidic fruit - sharply bracing but pleasantly so. Everyone got warmly greeted by Melanie Tesseron from Pontet Canet who seemed to half recognise faces from her previous visit to KL last year. I didn't - felt and looked a totally different crowd possibly due to a different organising wine distributor. Professionally warm and smooth - as said in a previous posting, Mme Tesseron is a superb ambassador for the Chateau and the wine. See my previous post for Chateau Pontet-Canet at Prime Restaurant.

On the table were goodie bags with a glass bung and drip pourer and a cute thank you note from organiser Ivy. Nice touches. They do make the effort to show we as punters are appreciated. That's how you keep a customer. 

We were seated in a private room that was large enough to take all forty diners with good space for pre dinner mingling and relaxing. Set with traditional round tables, the ambience was easy, light and with lots of space to breathe between seats and tables. Little earth tone touches on the walls and visual displays contrasted the generally light coloured tablecloths.

Lenglui, Lengjai and Melanie Tesseron of Chateau Pontet-Canet

Kicking off the evening with a Powerpoint and a friendly chat, Melanie shared the history of the vineyard and its accolades through the years. Highlight was us learning that the horses they use to till the land and carry the produce like to eat the grapes. As a result they literally put the cart before the horse so that they get picked before Dobbin can get his teeth into them. Presumably it also works the same way a carrot would before a donkey. Someone wondered whether the horses like to drink the wine as well, but that was sotto voce. 

Pan Fried Foie Gras with Teriyaki Sauce and Stuffed Scallop. And handphone.

The food followed fast. First course of pairing a scallop with seared Foie Gras and Teriyaki sauce felt a shade over the top, with neither really helping the other in terms of taste. Separately, though, they were stunning, the scallop especially - firm yet light, great bounce on the chew with the freshest of tingles on the tongue and teeth. And coated with a light crisp batter lent a delightful (I think) peanut oil crunch to the experience. Stellar. I think sometimes a restaurant will add loads of Foie Gras to a menu to give the impression of grandeur and getting bang for the buck. Often, it doesn't really add anything - they would certainly have been better as two separate dishes. 

The Bruno clared the gunky sauce very nicely which tamed his acidity to a more easygoing level and let a bit of stewed apple come through.

Lenglui, Vinum's Ivy Lim and friend YC

Somehow the wines got crossed and the first course got paired with the 2008. Whether a happy accident or a deliberate choice, it proved a better match. Soup can rarely pair with anything and had the bold and fruit driven 2003 come out with it, they would have done each other no favours. As it was, the lighter, tighter, lean and clean 2008 made for as good a bedfellow as one could reasonably hope for. Good berries, cassis and chocolate with some green pepper. Nice chewy tannins with good acidity, though the fruit felt a bit thin in balance terms. Drinking nicely now, it didn't feel as there was much left in it. It felt a bit ordinary, though it would eventually prove to give more sleekness and complexity further down the bottle. 

The Double Boiled Soup was that odd combination of salt and sugar and oil that somehow comes together in a full bodied satisfying blend. The beef had been wrapped around bunches of enoki mushroom and half mushroom and cilantro which made for a nice fresh bite. Came across as a kind of fusion Sukiyaki in Chinse broth. Interesting. And international.

Double Boiled Superior Soup with Beef and Enoki Mushroom in Japanese Paper Work

Some Bruno had miraculously escaped earlier oblivion and actually made for a pleasant match with the soup, bringing out more fruit in the fizz. 

The 2003 was big and full on. Massive fruit on the nose and mouth, big body and firm tannins, all very nicely balanced. One felt that this one had a lot longer to go. The story was that 2003 was a big sun summer so the fruit got a bit baked on the vine and concentrated the flavours. I got a slight stalky note somewhere, a hint of bitter pepper. But it was only on one taste - the rest was quaffed and sipped with the reverence one should normally accord such delightful wine. 

The Pigeon was very tasty. It had that air of game about it - that whiff and taste of age and oily wildness that pinches the cheeks and somehow makes you want to hawk and spit and swallow at the same time. This one had a dry crisp skin, with a smoky taste that suggested it had been charred over oak chips. It was also very salty, suggesting a dab of soy sauce or MSG had been rubbed into it. Darn tasty, and the 2003 went gangbusters with it, exploding the mouth with its fruit and tannin and melting the pigeon into lean cuisine. Some started with the knife and fork but ended up using fingers. Small birds need the human touch. 

Roasted Pigeon. And handphone.

The 2000 had a somewhat tight nose at first blush, though the swirl revealed lots of nasal layers and the promise of complexity. Immediate spice and tobacco and full earth.

The Lamb Cutlet was nicely warmed and peppered with excellent fat and basted with a smooth hoisin sauce, giving it a barbecued and slight charred feel as a result of being grilled. It was most tasty and excellent, borderline outstanding. Got fire, got heat, got pepper, got sweet, got juicy meat and texture - eat this and die. Ho Seck as the Chinese might say, though Dam Siok would also fit the bill.

Grilled Lamb Cutlet with Garden Green Salad

The 2000 did very well, though its sleek complexity lost the battle with the Hoisin sauce. It needed bigger fruit to stand up to it. In this, the 2003 was the better match on the day. It faced down the sauce with its bold mouth and flavours and both lamb and 2003 CPC each brought out layers of taste and suppleness in the other. Total back of the net. The 2000 felt a shade old. Not to say that there is no life left there, not at all. Just a little out of its depth given the relative youthfulness of the other wines and the power of the sauces in the food. A sipping wine rather than the food chuggers than the 2003 and to a lesser extent the 2008. 

Pan Fried Australian Beef Steak served with Garlic Fried Rice topped with Foie Gras

The Beef Steak had a sweet smoky taste to it, as though it had been basted with the same sauce. Texture wise, it was excellent, just that….  the sweet sauce rendered it to taste pretty much the same as the previous dish. Perhaps the sauce from the lamb had got stuck on the tongue and it was this that was getting in the way. Kind of like the tongue had been sugared out and everything was tasting sweet. Well, and maybe no - Noble House does ilke its sweet sauce. There really felt like a generous dab of it on the steak, which was a pity. Contraryt to perception, we westerners do like an occasional bit of variety between our dishes. 

We had a VERY good time! 

The Fried Garlic Rice with Foie Gras was revelatory. The sweet oily fat of the FG paired wonderfully with the dryish starchy rice and mellowed across the mouth in a sumptuous gunky chew and textured swallow. Nice blending of textures. So good. Perhaps a bit too much rice on the night, though I understand it is often considered good manners in a Chinese situation to not eat the rice - to do so can be seen as a signal that the preceding dishes were insufficient to satisfy. Certainly felt a bit bloated at the end of it all.

Again, the big fruit of the 2003 on the table worked well with the steak, though the 2010 was total magnificence. Full in the mouth with a frisk of pepper  and beautifully balance, it gave off spice and umami when paired with the sweet steak. The 2010 is a big sucker of a wine and clearly in need of good food to showcase it. Total, total belter. Though at SGD360 a bottle it's a bit of a whack to the wallet. Much as my head tells me to buy, my Scotsman heart winces at the thought of parting with that kind of cash for a bottle of wine. Can get a lot of outstanding Chilean and American for that kind of wedge. 

Chinese Pancake and Tesseron Cognac

The 2008 was still on the table and some was still getting poured and gratefully received. It got better down the bottle, maybe needing a bit of air to bring it out. None of the wine had been decanted, and whilst I am not a fan of either in some situations a wine can benefit from being poured. The 2000 might also have benefited, though perhaps there were not enough decanters to cater for the forty plus in attendance. Nicely elegant, this 2008. Reminiscent of a 1997 Rauzan-Segla I had years ago when I was just getting into wine - understated power, good sleek and a bit lively. 

We were winding down and the brandies made it to the table with the Chinese Pancake dessert. All of the glasses had paper labels on their stems indicating what wine was contained and the cognac glasses were no different. Very nice touches. It takes time and care to do this which are not always in large supply at wine dinners. And there didn't feel any stinge on the wine pourings. Vinum is to be commended in this. The 76 felt sweeter whilst the 53 was more fierce and fiery. Cognac is not a strength in the palate and is not something that gets drunk regularly enough to claim connoisseur. But it was a pleasant end to a most enjoyable and pleasant evening. Chef came out and got introduced and Melanie ended up getting photographed and signing empty bottles for the guests to have as a souvenir of an excellent night. Everyone was clearly happy with the evening, the wines and the food. 

Can I have your autograph please? 

In retrospect, the mains were quite Western in content and presentation, though the preparation was in Cantonese style. Indeed, the fork and knife on the table next to the chopsticks gave the lie to the idea that this was in any way true Chinese cuisine. But it was very tasty. As noted elsewhere in this blog, my Chinese food guru refuses to eat at the Noble House, saying it is too "gwailo" and sweet for his taste. Fair, but the lamb was beautiful and the steak was good. Just a bit of a shame that they tasted the same.  The vintages showed the infinite variety of style that Bordeaux is capable of producing. The 2000 was showing nicely with great elegance and balance, the 2003 has tremendous power across all levels and clearly has a long time yet in the bottle, the 2008 was somewhat lean and austere whilst the 2010 had a depth and complexity that is probably worth the price being charged for it. Vinum were also giving 10% off their Bordeaux selection in Singapore, and special prices on the Pontet Canet for the night. Still thinking about this - the 2010 has a large price tag, double that of the 2003 and 2008 though Ivy just sent me a text saying that the 2003, 2006 and 2008 have all gone. Belter though it is, it's a bit beyond the comfortable range - can buy a lot of decent and reasonable claret for the price of a single bottle. But then that's me - skinflint when it comes to spending. We'll see - still got a few days to consider. The 2010 is very nice….

MENU

Pan Fried Foie Gras with Teriyaki Sauce and Stuffed Scallop

Bruno Paillard Brut Premiere Cuvee NV

Double Boiled Superior Soup with Beef and Enoki Mushroom in Japanese Paper Work

Ch Pontet-Canet 2003

Roasted Pigeon

Ch Pontet-Canet 2008

Grilled Lamb Cutlet with Garden Green Salad

Ch Pontet-Canet 2000

Pan Fried Australian Beef Steak served with Garlic Fried Rice topped with Foie Gras

Ch Pontet-Canet 2010

Chinese Pancake

Tesseron Cognac Lot No 76 X.O. Tradition

Tesseron Cognac Lot No 53 X.O. Perfection

"Fine Dining Chinese Cuisine" - IWFS Dinner Noble House Restaurant 23rd August 2012

"Fine Dining Chinese Cuisine" - IWFS Dinner Noble House Restaurant 23rd August 2012

It's not always easy to match a range of wines with Chinese style food. In the West, our focus is more on taste whereas in the East the emphasis is more on texture. And where sequence in the West generally goes from light to heavy in terms of richness, the East would look for each preceding dish to be followed by one that often contrasts and contradicts to cleanse and rest the system for the next in sequence. It's a different harmony of senses where the alcohol is replaced with often high quality Pu Erh tea. 

Notwithstanding, many Chinese style dishes do pair extremely well with wine. The meats and fish dishes in particular can be nicely matched with a range of varietels and blends. So, since the IWFS Kuala Lumpur had not had a banquet style function for a while it was decided to book the Noble House Restaurant for the August gathering. 

The Noble House is a member of the Oriental Group of Restaurants serving fine Cantonese gourmet delicacies. Opened in January 2003 it quickly established a reputation for being one of the top fine dining Chinese restaurants in Kuala Lumpur, serving the finest Chinese gourmet creations and delicacies in a refreshing contemporary setting. Over the years it has garnered numerous awards, and has been twice placed in the Miele Guide for 2008 and 2010. 

At the food tasting, the Vallaformosa Cava NV brought by Prakash was a lovely glass of fizz that paired nicely with the somewhat salty appetizer. Great bubbles and bead with yeast on the nose and lemon apple in the mouth. Very elegant, very friendly. The La Forge Chardonnay 2009 that I had brought paired very nicely with the Baked Cod Fish. Firm rich texture with enough oak and acidity, it was a pleasing complement to the soft flakes of the cod in its sweetish crisp glaze of soy sauce. So the whites for the function had uickly sorted themselves.  It was decided the remaining wines would be red and we managed to source some suitable candidates from a local supplier. 

Party people!

At the dinner itself, 37 intrepid IWFS foodies and guests gathered, being welcomed with a glass of the well chilled Cava. Taking our seats, we were immediately presented with the appetizers. Deep fried eggplant strips and crispy prawn chips with a lemon mustard mayo dip made for a pleasant amuse bouche, though the pepper dip accompanying the cuttlefish cakes was somewhat fierce. 

Everyone had been shocked by the sudden passing of past IWFS Kuala Lumpur president Ellen Yeow, and President Dr Rajan asked all present to stand for a minute silence in her honour. 

Dr Rajan then introduced Ms Ong Li Dong to tell everyone a little about the Noble House restaurant and chef, which was followed by a description of the food and wine pairing by me which everyone seemed to find amusing. 

The three style abalone first course was quickly consumed. Abalone is a highly regarded delicacy in Cantonese cuisine and its serving is highly respected and regarded as a mark of the wealth of the host. On its own, it has little taste but the texture is delightful, a firm yet soft nut crunch on the palate. The three styles showed off the culinary and presentational creativity of the chef, with minced, sliced and marinated showing on the plate. Most visually pleasant. The slight oil in the dish got crisply cleaned by the Cava.  

The second course Shark Bone soup was different from the original Double-Boiled Seafood Soup in Old Cucumber we had at the food tasting. Seems that the holiday season in Kuala Lumpur meant that the soup ingredients couldn't be sourced so got replaced. The new soup didn't work for me. It came across as quite starchy and tasted of potato and celery for some reason. Killed the Cava and the Chardonnay which was appearing in the glass. Most of our table left the soup relatively untouched.

Baked Cod Fish

The table seemed most pleased with the pairing of the Cod Fish with the La Forge Chardonnay. The full, plush texture of good Burgundy style white with slight oak gained a rich nuttiness whilst retaining a smooth balanced finish. Good match. The excellent and crunchy Kai Lan vegetable that followed gave some necessary green fibre to tthe meal, though as with most green veg it killed the wine.

For the Iberico style Pork Rib, a Spanish wine had suggested itself and it was decided to pair it with a 2005 Vina Real Reserva Rioja. The wine supplier had uttered those two most magical words the English language has produced - "special price" - and we were hooked. The blurb said it was intense with autumn fruit and spice, good acidity and balanced with good length. We found it slightly fading, but still with enough bite to stand up to the ribs. Velvet on the tongue, the ribs did indeed tame the acidity and oak, but the fruit came through to underpin the peppered and sweet meat and made for an excellent match. 

It was at this point in the evening that differences in approaches to wine with food were revealed. The traditional view in the West is that reds should be served room temperature and whites slightly chilled. Chinese style Restaurants in Malaysia normally chill all wines as a matter of course since that is generally what their patrons expect. We guess that the assumption by the staff was "why should the IWFS be any different?" And so it was that we enjoyed extremely chilled reds with the remaining courses. Everyone was entertained by the sight of restaurant staff running around offering hot towels to warm up the wine for those who preferred their beverage more at room temperature. The remaining wines were removed from their ice buckets. 

The tasting change as the wine warmed up was actually quite interesting as different aspects of the wine's character came through. The iced Rioja gave a little dark cherry which became damson with warmth. 

Jeremy and Kalsom Diamond

For the pan fried Australian Beef Fillet we plumped for the special price 2009 Zinfandel from the Ravenswood winery in California's Sonoma Valley. Normally quite muscular, this expression had more of a feminine feel with full fruit, good balance and a round lengthy finish. Less bold than the Rioja, yet retaining the cherry brambly feel in the mouth, the Zin was able to stand up to the beef without overpowering it. The beef itself tasted slightly sweet, and someone remarked that this seemed to be a theme running through all the courses - there seemed to be a sweetness in everything. Not that it was unpleasant; just that it was…   sweet. Maybe it's the sauce that is used to baste and glaze the meat and fish. It was getting a little difficult to distinguish. 

On the home stretch now with one more wine to go. I don't quite recall how the Morande Limited Edition Cab Franc 2008 ended up on the list. I think it was that we don't see much Cab Franc in this part of the world and when the wine supplier gave a silly rather than a special price for it we must have thought "why not?" 

It had been paired with the final course of rice, scallop and crab meat in a superior crab soup. This was where western wine sequencing ran up against eastern food sequencing;  the rice always comes at the end. Traditionally, it is considered good form not to touch the rice as so doing proves to the host that the preceding food was sufficient. Here, it was a delicacy that completed the food sequence with a dose of much needed carbo. So the Cab Franc and rice soup became somewhat unwilling partners. 

In the end, it was not unpleasant. A bit dense with cloves and coffee on the nose and a slightly baked feel, the wine had a pleasant  "end of the night"  kind of quality about it that kept the drinking members at the tables long after everyone else had gone home for the night. The rice soup had a nutty sweetness (that word again) which cut through the tannic structure and lent a counterbalancing sense of velvet on the tongue and palate. 

Li Dong and Rajan with Noble House manager and chef

With snow pear and crispy pancake filled with kaya paste, the evening wound down to a close with Li Dong introducing the chef to the gathering and thanking all for coming to support the function. The food was good to very good but for me fell short of being excellent. The Noble House has found a formula which works extremely well as evidenced by the success of the group and the rest of the restaurant being fully booked out. And they should be commended for being able to turn out consistent well prepared and fine quality dishes for upwards of two and three hundred patrons every night. Perhaps in the phenomenal growth of the group something of the original authenticity has got a little lost in the desire and need to be all things to all people. We see it with hotel restaurants, seemingly a shade fearful of taking a culinary risk and possibly alienating guests of the hotel. Our foodie purists felt that as an expression of Cantonese cuisine the food was way too sweet and would have preferred a more simpler style. 

In all, a most pleasant evening with some sparkling company and lots of laughter and discussion about the food and wines. The pairings for the most part seemed to work well, the iced Rioja was an unexpected experience, though the seeming continual sweetness of all the dishes started to cloy a little after a while. In retrospect, the evening became a good way to honour the memory of our recently departed, engendering that continuity of the spirit in which we all joined the IWFS in the first place - food, wine, fun and friendship. Think maybe Ellen would have enjoyed that. 

MENU AND WINE NOTES

International Wine & Food Society Kuala Lumpur

"Fine Dining Chinese Cuisine"

Appetizers

餐前小食

Special Four Appetizers

泰式脆虾饼

Crispy Prawn Cracker Thai Style

泰式鲜鱿饼

Cuttle Fish Thai Style

肉崧脆茄子

Deep-Fried Eggplant with Chicken Floss

中式白合珍鲍贝

Sea Clam & Lily Bulb in Oyster Sauce

Masia Vallfarmosa Xor del Ray Cava Brut, Macabo, Xarel Io, Parellada NV

Course One and Two

鲍鱼三元及第

Noble House’s Abalone Three Treasures

八宝金盅

Double-Boiled Seafood Soup in Old Cucumber

Masia Vallfarmosa Xor del Ray Cava Brut, Macabo, Xarel Io, Parellada NV

Course Three and Four

惠式焗银鳕鱼

Baked Cod Fish with Chef‘s Special Sauce in Dragon Fruit Boat

照烧鸡脾菇炒香港芥兰

Stir Fried Hong Kong Kai Lan with Apricot Mushroom

Paul Mas La Forge Estate Chardonnay, Vin de Pays d'Oc, France 2009

Course Five

炭 烧 排 骨

Charcoal Grilled Pork Rib

Vina Real Reserva 2005

Course Six

鍋仔煎牛仔柳

Pan-Fried Australian Beef Fillet

Ravenswood Vintners Blend Zinfandel 2009

Course Seven

蟹汤过桥映央泡饭

Two Variety Rice with Scallop & Crab Meat in Superior Crab Soup　

Morande Limited Edition Cabernet Franc 2008

Course Eight

茶皇蜜梨

Chilled Hasma in Snow Pear 

酥 皮 窝 饼

Crispy Pancake

THE WINES

Masia Vallfarmosa Xor del Ray Cava Brut, Macabo, Xarel Io, Parellada NV

Vallformosa Winery Cava Brut is a fresh Cava, with a light, long lasting taste and an excellent bouquet - the result of two years ageing. Clean, clear straw in colour, well-integrated bubbles, good yeasty fresh bread aroma with hints of apricot, apples and spice with lemon sherbet on the finish. Rich feel, but elegant and cleansing in the mouth, hinting at the elegant, classical finish to follow. 

Paul Mas La Forge Estate Chardonnay, Vin de Pays d'Oc, France 2009

A rich and smoky Chard with nuanced toasty aromas and flavors of wood-grilled red apples with a caramel drizzle, peach pit and Key lime citrus. Solidly structured with good heft, a long finish and prominent acidity that keeps the wine from going over the edge and being too flabby. Well balanced and very accessible.

Vina Real Reserva 2005

Indicative blend: 90% Tempranillo, 3% Mazuelo, 3% Graciano, 3% Garnacha tinta. Area: Rioja Alavesa Deep ruby and cherry red, with the lightest hint of a terracotta edge. Good intensity on the nose, with ripe autumn fruits, warm spices and elegant toasty oak. The palate is rich, warming and velvet, with good acidity and noble tannin. The vanilla from the oak is beautifully married with the raspberry fruit of the Tempranillo producing a find, rich, complex palate and length of finish.

Ravenswood Vintners Blend Zinfandel 2009

Area: Sonoma, California USA. Raspberries, blueberries, black cherries, and spicy hints of oak spring forth from the fruit-laden aroma of this wine. Well- balanced with supple tannins and a long, fruit-forward but not too jammy finish make this wine a pleasure to drink now and for the next couple of years. A sophisticated yet easy drinking wine.

Morande Limited Edition Cabernet Franc 2008

Area: Maipo Valley, Chile. Deep-red with shades of purple, dense and shining. Black fruits, coffee and dark chocolate. Spicy, with hints of vanilla and cloves. Fresh, rounded and intense with flavours of chocolate, raspberry and black coffee. Great tannins and long persistence. A little funky and cheesy on the nose, with leather, olive and leafy berry fruit aromas. The palate feel is staunch and tannic, a little baked with some heat and smoke but also flavorful and generous.

VINTAGE 2008 - 89 POINTS, WINE ENTHUSIAST, DEC 2011 (USA)