Assorted Wines

This Netton Napa Valley Clarte 2003 was quite an impressive QPR wines. Retailed at only SGD58. it bears close resemblances to an old world claret albeit with its own distinctive character.

Online Winemaker Tasting notes:
Bordeaux fans will appreciate the casual sophistication and elegant structure of this wine. The wine opens with aromas of blueberries, cranberries, and strawberries with touches of cassis. On the palate ripe tannins surround rich black cherries, blackberries and plum flavors with a hind of tasted oak balanced with a nice acidity.

Dogma tasting note:
Nice whiff of cassis and light pencil shavings on the nose. Vanilla, Black and blue fruits. some alcohol heat at the back. On the palate, delicious black berries and sweet licorice, thou with a noticiable new world Fruit presence. Slightly over oaked but tannins were grainy and yet fine. Smooth. Demona gulp this down real fast..

La Spinetta Pin 1999: This has to be one of the very best super Tuscan i ever had, even compared to Sassicaia, Ornelaia and others. Screaming perfection and indicating a long life ahead of it. I had purchased this direct from a wine merchant in Italy and after laying down for a few months, it just screamed delicious! The 1999 Pin was Rated Robert Parker 95pointers,

Dogma Tasting notes:
Once open, an heavy flurry of blueberry, cassis and black fruits filled up the room literally. It is so perfumy and floral that Demona and i were speechless. secondly flavour of tar and vanila emerges and the sweet cassis on the palate and nose was pure bliss. On the palate, tar, dark berries, and grainy tannins interplay seeamlessly with the heavy fruits and good acid. Excellent weight on the mouthfeel. A pure gem. Grab them if you can and it have a comfortable 8 years ahead of it easily.

Verget Meursault Casse Tetes 1996:
rated 92point Robert Parker. Got this as a gift from SH. Open up with a nose of citrus, lemon and oak. Still abundant of fruit and oak at this age. Not too well integrated. Secondary flavour of salt and stone. Buttery nose typical of Meursault. Certainly not at the premier cru/grand cru level.

Japanese Ice Creams@Ishikari

While chilling out at the Sri Hartamas Shopping Centre after a few hours of house hunting around the area, we bumped into a japanese junk grocery store and got ourselves some japanese ice cream to kill off the heat...

You gotta pay kudos to the guys from the Land of the Sun, who scored A++ in marketing and packaging their products.
The vanilla / chocolate ice cream waffle was half as good as the packaging..thou extremely creamy, i prefer my ice cream to pack a solid bite feel.





The green tea ice cream basically saves the day... Demona knew that i was a die hard green tea fanatic all the while and she was "pandai" in choosing the creamy, thick green tea flavoured ice cream for me...The ice cream had a nice texture, while packing a full bus load of green tea flavour.. MM MMM Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Domain Maume Gevrey Chambertin 1988

Had this Domain Maume Gevrey Chambertin 1988 (ex-chateau) lately. Costing SGD120 per bottle at a super friendly price. Initial nose was cherry and some dried wood. Surprisingly fruity for its age. Slight orange core at the rim but still relatively young. On the palate, fruit was dimnishing. Just plain cherry and wood... Not much complexity and weight but still a pleasurable drink. One would have hope for more tertiary aroma and evolution on the palate. Drink up if you have any of these.

Shanghai Snacks@Dogma's biz trip

Demona: Dogma recently went for a biz trip to Shanghai, which in turn, became a food ventura trip also, exploring the culinary skills which Shanghai chefs have to offer to a kaki Malaysian. The Chinese food did not suit our tastebuds because almost every single dish was soaked in oil. I'm guessing that cooking oil must be dirt cheap in China. The meals contained so much oil, such that you could possibly "Piss Oil"... we've heard of real life stories of people who had oiled stained undies after meals. Upon hearing such responses, doesn't it scare you if you have these to eat everyday? Yikes!

Since the amount of oil added really does depend on the chef, we were curious as to how snacks eg: biscuits, kuih etc would fare in this aspect, besides taste.

a) Lou Poh Pheng (Wife Biscuit?)

Demona: Dogma brought these back for us to try out what Shanghai's LPP had to offer, since LPP is often bragged about, in Hong Kong rather than mainland China. When I picked it up, I could already see visible orange coloured oil stains. (Gasps!)

I took my first bite. Chewy. Very, very, very, very chewy. Almost near to the effect of chewing a piece of 'kuih bakul'. It was salty, without much of a flavour to it. The second bite was a torture. I could not take the 3rd bite anymore. Dogma did not want to eat it either. Quietly... shhhh... Mr.Shanghai LPP crawled its way into the rubbish bin.

Demona: I'm sorry, Dogma!

Demona: The many other individual packets of LPP still stored in the kitchen was left there, ever since. Until Dogma brought them home to his parents or to his boss, I think.

b) Thai Yang Ping (Sun Biscuit)

Demona: I had a great start to my first experience eating TYP from the Taiwan TYPs that were given by Mike last year. After having a horrible start with the LPP, I must say that my confidence level on Shanghai snacks had took a deep plunge. Part and puzzle of food venturing, you get the good ones.. and the bad ones also.

I sanked my teeth into the TYP. Crunch crunch crunch. Gosh, the sugar was not melted? Or was it meant to be taste like this? The sticky, chewy sweet filling inside the Taiwan's TYP or our own local Hiao Pia (a similar rendition) did not taste like that.

The pastry wasn't very good either. It was too crumbly, and you ended up eating the filling without any pastry left because by the time you take a bite, most of the pastry bits had already fallen off on to your shirt/pants (If you are a messy eater like me!)

c) Chocolate coated cake-like biscuit

Demona: This was the winner among the 3 snacks that Dogma brought back from Shanghai. Every thing-a-ma-jid that is coated which chocolate, can't go very wrong. Anyway, I've tried a Korean version couple of years back, and that fared better. The cake-like cookie was very chocolatey yet, not sickly sweet and the chocolate coating was semi-sweet. MMMMM...

This wasn't the best that I've tried, but it ain't bad either. It served more as a snack whenever I crave for anything chocolate, or had nothing left at home to eat and was feeling a bit hungry greedy for anything. "Itchy mouth", many would use to term for this expression.

Anyway, it was still a good effort by Dogma, having to carry these all the way back from Shanghai, for someone who hates to travel with a luggageful of things, like most girls. At least I've gotten a chance to try out their local snacks from the comfort of my own home.

Now to think of it, kudos to him! As I recalled he even carried back Shanghai........

RICE. *clapclap*

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