Standard Style 30 March 2015

More documents

Recommendations

Info

14 THE STANDARD STYLE /EATING OUT/LA FONTAINE March 29 to April 4 2015 ‘Good France’ dinner at La Fontaine! French red wine Dusty Miller I CAN only assume that “Good France” lost something in its translation to English from Gout de France, but it was a damned fined dinner, anyway…and it was certainly tres French! And we very lucky ones enjoying it at La Fontaine Grillroom at Meikles Hotel, in Harare, joined a further 999 restaurants worldwide in celebrating Gout de France Day on March 19. I am yet to learn the significance of the date but 1 000 master chefs worldwide created 1 000 different French-themed menus and served thousands of courses to possibly hundreds of thousands of appreciative customers last Thursday. At Meikles, our only complaint was that it was for one meal only and just once a year! Tarryn Sugden (nee Crundall) is a switchedon cookie and her importing company, Havergal Marketing, brought in most of the solid comestibles enjoyed that night and all the wonderful wines from France. It was some shopping list! We started with confit de canard (duck confit), served as an amuse bouche appetiser, having been greeted with a delightfully chilled flute of something bubbly on RV-ing in the Can-Can Cocktail Bar. Such an introductory course (often not appearing on the main menu) is designed to “amuse” the mouth or palate and my chops were certainly cackling with mirth! My “hot” appetiser was served rather cold, but, I think, lost nothing on being held up at the pass? I think I would probably always prefer Masaic de poulet nourri au grain avec de jeunes posses de servi avec un sauce Gribiche cold if not positively chilled. It’s a mosaic of corn-fed chicken with baby leeks and Gribiche sauce and was accompanied by lovely golden-yolked tiny halved boiled quails’ eggs. Suggested wine pairing was Cave de Ribeauville Alsace Riesling 2012 at US$41 a bottle or US$9 a glass. We gladly and appreciatively accepted the suggestion. French Ambassador, the extremely urbane, Laurent Delahousse, joined our table for two or three courses and was there when the piece de resistance (for many) was served: another starter course, this time of wonderful smoked foie gras with caramelised peach tatin. I’m not going to get involved in the international rort between bunny huggers and epicureans over this scrumptiously smoked goose liver dish; just to say it was the nicest starter I’ve enjoyed for yonks. Sorry about your relatives’ livers, Goosy-goosy! The Alsatian white wine was also recommended for the foie gras, but some at our table preferred to drink red: a full bodied E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone 2011 at US$55 the bottle and US$14 a glass appeared. None of us thought of salmon as especially or typically French but the fish course of salmon, olive oil confit with peas and asparagus was certainly exemplary and very Gallic. The full richness of the fish was stunning. Meikles management table French Ambassador and Tarryn Sugden Pairing suggestion was Maison Louis Latour Poully Vinzelles en Paradis (2012) at US$49 a bottle or US$12 a glass. If salmon is arguably a part of traditional French cuisine or not, good beef certainly is. France boasts of some of the best indigenous beef cattle breeds (and also dairy beasts), but I suppose, sensibly, the main item in poached and roasted beef fillet with braised snails and carrot puree, was probably grass-fed not 100km from Chivu! The well-hung, tender, juicy, nyama just melted in the mouth. It was anointed in a rich jus in which the tasty little departed garden nuisances and young vegetables bathed and was accompanied by a rich, layered, potato-and-butternut au gratin bake. I prefer to end a celebratory meal with cheese AFTER pudding, but the French do it the wrong way round (like driving on the right!) The selection of genuine French cheeses was perfectly kept Brie, Camembert and a particularly pungent Roquefort, served with toasted raisin bread. Actual pudding was a decadently rich warm chocolate fondant with white chocolate mousse and honeycomb, which was a total dream. I’m not really potty about dessert wines, but the suggestion was Cave de Ribeauville Alsace Gewürztraminer 2013 at US$10 a glass and US$40 the bottle. Sadly I had to make my excuses and leave this absolutely splendid US$65 a head dinner before coffee and cognac were served. (The next night, in the middle of a 16 consecutive hour Zesa power sharing/cable fault/power sharing fiasco, I had half a tin of cold baked beans and an apple!) dustymiller46@gmail.com Poached and roasted beef fillet with braised snails and carrot puree Duck confit Mosaic of corn-fed chicken (All pictures by Dusty Miller)
March 29 to April 4 2015 THE STANDARD STYLE / FOOD & DRINK / WINE / AFDIS 15 wine cellar THE ART OF TASTING AND SERVING WINE Spitting, sniffing and enjoying SERIOUS wine tasters are often mocked by non-wine people, who see the formal tasting ritual as pretentious. Why all the fuss? The reason, of course is that wine is a living thing that changes in the bottle from the time it is sealed to the time you open it. Each bottle of wine is an adventure. It is approached with anticipation and usually consumed with delight. There are occasional disappointments and that’s why we taste before we drink. Sometimes a faulty cork or inappropriate storage conditions can negatively affect what would otherwise be a perfectly good wine. By tasting before serving to everyone in the company, any potential embarrassment can be avoided. We should remember, however, that wine is there for our enjoyment. It’s not necessary go through the whole formal process of swirling, sniffing, spitting and scoring every time we open a bottle of wine. The formal tasting ritual is there to allow the taster to get the most accurate impression possible of the wine’s quality. At home, or in a restaurant, wine can be tasted simply and informally, just to ensure that it is in good condition. Wine is meant to please all our senses. It must look good, smell good, taste good and even, when we clink a glass with a friend, sound good. A formal tasting is designed to explore all these senses (with the exception of the sound). To begin tasting, we pour the wine until the surface reaches the widest part of the glass. That’s it and no more. Don’t overfill the glass. We look at it. Is it clear and brilliant, or cloudy? Is it pale, golden or greenish colour, bright ruby, youthful purple or brick red? Next we swirl the wine in the glass to aerate it slightly and release the aromas. This is an important part of the tasting, because our tongues can discern only five basic flavours – sweet, sour, bitter, salty and “umami”. (The latter is a Japanese term to describe the intensity of savoury flavour present in foods like Marmite and biltong.) All the rest of what we think of as “taste,” is actually a combination of those flavours complimented by an infinite variety of smells, some good, some less good. Our noses are extremely sensitive detectives. So stick your nose into the glass and take a deep sniff. Is the aroma pleasant? Inviting? Is there too much oak on the nose, or just enough? Is it slightly mouldy from a bad cork? And finally, take a normal mouthful of the wine, swirl it around to coat the whole inside of your mouth. Breathe in through it. Is it pleasant? Rich? Thin? Acidic or tannic? Cloyingly sweet or slightly bitter? Most important of all, do you enjoy it enough to want a second mouthful? Finally, if we’re about to taste several wines at a sitting, we spit out the mouthful and – ideally – scrub the palate by eating a small piece of bread or a water biscuit. If you share our passion for wine, contact us using the details provided below for a tailor-made wine tasting event.
Page 1 and 2: The Standard StyleISSUE 47 MARCH 29
Page 3 and 4: March 29 to April 4 2015 THE STANDA
Page 9 and 10: THE STANDARD STYLE HOME & GARDEN CO
Page 13: THE STANDARD STYLE FOOD & DRINK 1 I
Page 19 and 20: THE STANDARD STYLE FAMILY Mr & Mrs
Page 25 and 26: THE STANDARD STYLE ARTS & CULTURE 1
Page 31 and 32: R March 29 to April 4, 2015 104 Tui

Standard Style 30 March 2015

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?