December- The most wonderful time of the year!

A belated Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones! I hope you enjoyed it every second!

For most people around the world, December is the busiest month of all. Same thing in Suriname. It all starts with a bit more cars on the road, more people vacationing here and for such a small country, any small changes are noticable.

Even in my usual supermarket, I notice how the shopowner tries to stuff the shop with all kinds of gifts, chocolates and goodies for Christmas. And like every holiday, it involves food, drinks and a good time in Suriname. For this year, I had several Christmas celebrations with friends and colleagues and of course, I'd love to share the experience. This year's restaurant choice went to Residence Inn's Matutu and Moments.

Residence Inn Paramaribo - Matutu

I chose for this restaurant, because in some way, I believe it would not be crowded. Most people don't know the restaurant is open to public and the phenomenon 'hotel' creates some kind of barrier for most locals. Maybe because they believe hotels will serve expensive food or just the idea that hotels are too uptight and formal. But Matutu is a different story. The prices are affordable and they have a very beautiful garden and if the group is big enough you can even have your own little party in their hut.

We were a small group, so we just have a table in the restaurant. Even though there was a small misunderstanding, the night was very lovely. The misunderstanding was about the food. I had asked for a quotation for a fixed menu, but at the end my friends thought it would be better to just order a la carte, so one day before the celebration I mailed back to inform them about the changes, but the chef never got that notification. But my friends were not that picky, so after all we still chose for the items on the fixed menu. I gotta admit, chef Deekman really did a great job on the menu items.

This was the fixed menu:

AppetizerChristmas salad with smoked chicken fan

Entree
Pine apple glazed ham
Roast breast of turkey
Spinach Potato boat

Dessert
Cherry cheese cake

Especially the main course was really delish! The turkey was juicy, the ham was sweet and the potato boat ( potato halved, gutted and filled with a potato-spinach mix puree) was something different. We even got creamy brocolli on our plate as an extra. Everybody enjoyed the food and when we saw the bill, it was a total surprise! No,,,not expensive, but very cheap!! After some calculation, it was not even SRD 100,- ( USD 30,-) per person and that including drinks and a pasta to go. The only thing that I'd prefer differently was that the cheesecake would be cheesier and a more Christmas-y decorated garden.

Moments Restaurant

Moments is often also a somewhat forgotten restaurant. Forgotten in the way that they don't really advertise what they have to offer. This is a restaurant within an apartment complex. On the premises there are 2 swimming pools, a very nice garden to look out from the restaurant and what I like most of this restaurant is that everything seems so in place to give you a relaxed atmosphere. It feels like so far from the hustle and bustle of the city, but still within reach.

We chose for the Italian buffet and brought our own wine. The Chef, a very good friend of mine, really gave it his utmost. From all the items, I like the Macaroni salad, the Lasagne and the Ossobucco. I had this same buffet some days ago already with another group and this was way better than the other one.

Of course, they also have their own wine selection, but we chose to bring our own and pay the cork fee. Some of us like their wine dry, some prefer fruitier wines. So specially for this event, I bought 2 bottles of Dos Camelidos and 2 bottles of Beringer White Zinfandel.



My preference goes to 'Dos Camelidos'. It's a Carmenere Reserva. The texture is very well-balanced. A bit tannic, but still very smooth. Very easy to drink and good for the price.

However Christmas has passed, but the good food, great wine and awesome people really made this Christmas one to remember.

And how was your Christmas? Had anything good you'd like to share?

Evaluation on the wine course

The first week of December already passed and it's these moments that make me wonder how time can pass by so fast. And people say, it's the time of the year to reflect on your past actions and see how you can do better the coming year.
For the first evaluation, I'd like to write about the wine course. I know, I haven't blogged about everything yet, so it's also the opportunity for me to finish the wine course blogs.

The last 2 wine classes are more about distinguishing the old world and the new world wines and tasting the differences between all kinds of wines. We had some Barolo from Italy and a Medoc from France, which are both well-known to winedrinkers. The Barolo was not that tannic as I thought it would. Later I've learned that most Italian wines are not that tannic, but quite smooth on the palate.
We even had some ice wine!!!

It is the Pinot Noir Ice Wine from Mt. Boucherie. This is one of the more expensive ice wines. Pinot Noir is a very finicky grape, which means it's very hard to grow.

The tasting notes from the Mt. Boucherie site:

"Aromas and flavours of ripe dark berries, honey & caramel with a wonderful long finish. Pair with berry desserts or on its own as an after dinner treat"

For me, it was very sweet, but in a good way. Not that kind of sweet that makes you sick, but the kind where the sweetness hits you and leaves you behind with the wonderful notes of the wine. For me, it tasted like cherry-filled chocolate.

For the final class, we had a gathering first at Tulip Supermarket, where we got some pointers about buying wine. We all chose a bottle of wine and headed back to 'the classroom' to have our exam. Since the wine class is all about enjoying and no stress, the difficulty was kept at a middle level. And the final result: I'm the best winer of class Fall 2012. We all got a certificate and I also got a wine stopper. My token of victory:

Then it was time to party!! Not only did we all have our own bottle of wine, the instructor also had some and another couple also came with some. And not to forget the feast meal of Hortence. She really did a wonderful job putting all those snacks on the table.
These were the wines we chose:

 

Bottle no. 1: The 'Las Brujas', literally meaning the witches, is an Uruguayan wine. Not a very popular country for wines, but surprisingly good. It's made of the Tannat grape, which originally was a French grape and is now one of the prominent grapes in Uruguay.

 

The tasting notes of this wine:

"Excellent balance between acidity, fruit and tannic astringency. From strong style, balanced and structured ripe tannins, is expressed by the path of black plum jam filling his mouth"

 

My own experience:

It has a peppery smell and taste, have some notes of Cabernet Sauvignon and mild to taste.

 

Bottle no. 2:  The Heresford Highwood is a Shiraz from Australia.

 

Winemaker's Note:

Colour: Dark cherry with brick red hues

Bouquet: A complex aroma of blueberry, spice and oak overtones

Palate: Soft and elegant with rich berries complemented by mocha and spice. Subtle oak characters add complexity

 

This one tasted very tannic and have a sharp taste to it. So sharp that I actually feel it burn in my stomach. Probably that's the high level alcohol in the wine.

 

The 3rd bottle was the Alma Mora, a Malbec Reserva from Argentina. If you look at it real plain, drinking wine is like travelling the world in the comfort of your house.

It has a great nose, but quite tannic. From the information I got from other sites, I read that this wine can be cellared up to 7 years and I also believe that after cellaring, the tannins will soften and this will become a great wine.

 

Then it's my bottle of wine: The Lenotti Rosso Passo from Italy, a blend of the Sangiovese and Merlot grape.

Info from the net:

Sangiovese and Merlot are two grapes extensively grown and widely appreciated in Italy. Sangiovese is internationally renowned for its well-balanced structure and savory flavors. It also happens to be Italy’s most planted grape variety, one that has found considerable success in various New World regions. Merlot, on the other hand, is a relatively new addition to Italy’s stable of wine grapes, but production volumes have increased exponentially since the 1990s.

 

This has a very fruity bouquet. Tasted much lighter and fruitier than the other 3. It even tasted like a pinot noir.

 

Next to these 4, we also had some other wines:

Two of them are rose's, which in taste was totally different.

One is the Jean Sablenay, which is made from the Cabernet Franc grape. This grape is one of the Bordeaux grapes, that is not too popular and it is even found to be the ancestor of other Bordeaux grapes like Carmenere, Malbec and Merlot.

 

The other one is the Rendez Vous Thuerry, a grenache, merlot rose. This is also the one I'd blogged about in ' Rose or blush? They are just the same'. ( I kept my promise!! )

According to clubwijn's page, this wine find its origin in the valley's of the Verdon river. It presents a trendy version of a well balanced, light orange colored rose, with bouquets of summery fruits like cherries. The finish is spicy and very welcoming.

           

For me, the Jean Sablenay tasted very acidic yet fruity. Where the Rendez Vous is a bit drier. If I'd closed my eyes, I wouldn't have quessed that the Jean Sablenay was a rose. It tasted more like a red than blush.

 

People always say that where there's a beginning, there's and end. So my wine course came to and end and of course I didn't expect it to last forever, but I still have my wine mates to have wine tastings together. And for those who are interested in this course, I'd say ' go for it'.

 

It does cost quite a bit (SRD 750,-), but I'd say worth every penny. Not only do we get the knowledge, but if I'd had to add all those bottles of wine together, I think he actually didn't make any profit on us. Furthermore, there's wonderful snacks from Hortence to complement the wine. So if you're interested, just call Mr. Edward Cabell at 07110505 for further information. From what I've heard he's starting a new class in January.

 

 

 

 

Amazon Flavors, A culinary weekend to savor! - Beverage

In such a culinary weekend, the beverage part can't be missed. At 2 pm was the rum and chocolate tasting. I looked forward to this every since I heard I got a day pass. The rum used is sponsored by Suriname Alcoholic Beverages N.V.

One thing I think was a great feature was that they also gave us spices to smell. Although it's the simple spices like sugar, anise, caramel, vanilla, butter and cinnamon that most people know, but I think most people don't really take the time to smell it thoroughly.This was very helpful when we finally tried to get a nose (smell) from the rum.

The first one was our awardwinning Black Cat. It's double distilled and won the 'Monde Selection Medaille d'Or' ( Gold medal Award) in Luxembourg. It smelled like black liquorice, which is the anise and vanilla. It tasted very sharp, sweet, but a short aftertaste.

The 2nd one was the Borgoe 82 rum. It smelled like caramel and tasted a bit heavier in cohesion to the Black Cat.

Borgoe Extra Rum is the 3rd rum we got to taste. Compared to the Borgoe 82, it smelled spicier and when drank, I fell it in my throat. 

Then the aged rums were introduced. We started with the Borgoe 5YO ( 5 year old) and it smelled stronger in aroma, but tasted milder than the rest.

We also paired it with chocolate from Tan Bun skrati. However it's green, in the way that they handcraft it from scratch using the pre-Columbian processing method without any chemicals, I think I really need to use to the texture. The higher the percentage of cacao used, the rougher the texture was. We got 3 types to taste: the 65%, 70% and 80% cacao. I like the 65% one best since it's not that sandy and it kinda melted on my finger when we finally got to taste it.

The last rum was the Borgoe 8YO. It smelled very much like brown sugar and if I may use wine standards to explain it: If all others are light to medium bodied, this one is the full body. All the flavors were well-balanced and it was heavenly (or I just had a bit too much). Unfortunately we couldn't taste the Borgoe 15YO, but who knows, maybe next year?

And if you want to read more about Borgoe, please check the latest edition of Victuals. It is a bilingual magazine, covering all kinds of culinary topics. And the pictures are always very appealing to the palate, so don't read it when  you're hungry.

After this I had to wait for my wine tasting with Riedel at 4pm. That was somewhat inconvenient though. Since I was there with the daypass, I expected to be kept busy from 9am to 8pm, like it was described in the program. It would've been very helpful if the program was more elaborate so that I would know in advance that between 12:00 -1:00pm and 2:00-3:00pm I would have a 1-hour break. I would've brought something to keep me busy.

The Riedel-seminar was also something I looked forward to. I've always heard that you have to drink the wine in the correct glass to enhance the enjoyment, but I never could've quessed that the difference could be so significant.

And if you may ever look into a Riedel brochure, you'll see that they take this fact very seriously. They have for every drink a different glass. And not only a glass for white, rose and red wine. For the reds for example, they have a special glass for every variety. A different glass for the Pinot noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and the Syrah. Same thing for the white wines. Their collection is so huge that their brochure counts 50 pages. This seminar was a real eye-opener. If you're interested or just curious, check their site: www (dot) riedel (dot) com.

We tried 5 different wines with these glasses and some tasted even bitter in the wrong glass. Raymond Kooii, the speaker of this seminar, explained a bit about how these glasses work. The human tongue differentiates 4 different flavors on different parts of our tongue: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. And every wine was determined which flavor should dominate and the glass will be made in such a way that it will hit those parts of the tongue to enhance that flavor.

While I was having the wine tasting with Riedel, the Suriname Chefs Congress was held, so unfortunately I can't tell you what happened there. But for all food lovers, my advice is to like the Suriname Chefs Association page on facebook to stay  informed of all upcoming events and see pictures of all events they'd organized till now.

Of course, the winner of the Amazon Iron Chef Competition was announced. The setting was very relaxed, which was also different than my expectations. For this, I blame the international chef competitions on tv, where the final results are always held in a more formal setting. So, I expected everyone in the congress room, with all the chefs in their chef uniform and the jury seated in front of them and building up the tension in the public.

And the winner of the competition is................................Chef Dino Jagtiani from St. Maarten. He won the moneyprize of $1500,- and some other gifts from the sponsors. One prize that made me jealous was the Riedel's Burgundy Grand Cru glass. Can you imagine drinking wine out of this glass?


However I can't compare it with last year's Amazon Flavors, because I didn't attend that one, but I believe this one must be better. And I base my opinion on these factors:

* Not only did the organizers invited foreign chefs to participate, even interested a Michelin chef to become part of the jury panel
* and not to forget our own Suriname's Yellow Gold, Borgoe, enjoyed in a different setting with Tan Bun skrati chocolates.
* Last but not least, the magical glasses of Riedel. It really opened my eyes to a whole new dimension to wine drinking.

Since this year's event has these highlights, it's only natural to think that the organizers will top this next year. I can't wait ....

Amazon Flavors, A culinary weekend to savor! - Food

For weeks, I'd been looking forward to what's going to happen during the Amazon Flavors and thinking that I'll have to read about the reactions in newspapers, newssites and on facebook. And thanks to my friend Jill-Joy Landburg, I got the opportunity to take part in the activities of the final day.

The day started at 6:00 am. Seriously, it's after a very long time that I woke up this early on a sunday. I felt like a junior on the morning of the schooltrip. So I arrived at 7:00 am sharp at Krasnapolsky. Only a handful of guests that were also waiting for the bus that'll bring us to Berg en Dal. And as promised we got our breakfast package in the bus. Probably because I really hoped to see a cup of coffee in my breakfast package, but I was pretty disappointed when I saw a white box handed to me.
The breakfast package was a pretty healthy one: 2 slices of  bread with cheese, a cupcake, a cooked egg, an apple and a juice.

We finally arrived in  1,5 hours at Berg en Dal. This is the schedule for the day:

In the Seafood Master Class, we had a guest speaker Mr. Waldring, the owner of Walvis. Although I'm not a fish lover, I had to admit that it was very interesting. Not only did he give us some advice on buying fish and the differences between a Bang Bang (Yellow Snapper) and the King fish, it was amazing how his assistant filet a fish of about 1 meter in less than 2 minutes. We even saw a shark jaw and a shark fin. Some of the pointers he gave were:

* the drier a fish, the more neutral a fish taste ( for people like me who doesn't like the fishy smell)
* if the fish is frozen, press with your finger in the fish and if it jumps back up, it's fresh.
* the King fish doesn't get skinned.
As an extra, every visitor got a bruschetta with bangbang filet. It was a nice gesture, but after the snack, my mouth felt so sour and the onion in it was a bit too much.

And since it's all about culinary, a chef's demonstration can't be missed. Mr. Jeroen Robberegt  was part of the jury in the Amazon Iron Chef Challenge. If you'd like to read more about him and his masterpieces, please check this site: http://receptenvantopchefs.nl/introductie.php?chef=Jeroen Robberegt.
It's always something seeing professionals in their act. The way he prepared everything seemed as if it is so simple and easy to make.

 
 He made tuna sashimi, rolled in black curry and brocolli couscous with caviar. Just to have an idea how fresh he cooks. Even the kroepoek (cracker) was freshly made and the tuna was freshly rolled in the black curry. Wonder what black curry is? The chef made it mixing curcuma with coal. The flavor is very mild, not the aggressive curry we're used to in Suriname, with a smoky twist.

For me the curry, however mild, was still a bit too much. I hardly tasted any tuna flavor if I took a bite with the black curry. The brocolli couscous was supposed to be sweet and sour, which I couldn't taste in it.  The krupuk was very crispy, but mine was still a bit oily and a strong fish taste to it.

Next to that, there was a potato/cassave puree and crab.
The puree was very good. Super moist, so soft that it seemed to melt in my mouth. Not much was done to the crab though.

After this we took a break since the 12 o'clock wine tasting was only for chefs. I sat at the dining area and had a nice view on the river. It's so calming and looking at it, I can only sigh and admire its natural beauty.

Because I was part of a media group, I had to pay nearly SRD 100,- (nearly US$30,-) for lunch. I don't hope people get me wrong here. I do pay these amounts for food, but if I pay this much, I do expect food that's a bit special. And it doesn't need to be lamb chop or angus beef,  but I at least expected something more special than fried rice and fried noodle. Probably because for most guests the lunch is included, but for such a culinary weekend, my expectations were pretty high.

 

 

Moksi Alesi Strey

Last week was the first break-through in my food critic path. I got invited to the 'Moksi Alesi Strey' organized by the Suriname Chefs Association.  It was a real honour to have an inside peek into the judges' job. From here out I'd like to thank Michael Hermelijn and Marieke Visser for this awesome invitation. Before I start with anything, let me introduce to you what "Moksi Alesi" really is about.

Literally moksi alesi means mixed rice. Its existence dates back to the slavery time when all the slaves got was some rice, a handful of veggies and hardly any meat. Everything got mixed together, so that every one could at least get something out of the ingredients with their rice. But nowadays, it's a favorite among many locals and tourists. The best combination is enjoying such a dish with a glass of ice-cold ginger beer and listening to some great songs of our late King of Kaseko, Lieve Hugo.


It is even said that this dish is quite national, because every ethnic group has its own moksi alesi. And indeed, I remember whenever my mom  had some meat and veggie leftovers, she would mix it with old rice to make it some kind of a fried rice. But even that can be considered moksi alesi.

Back to the Moksi Alesi Strey = Mixed Rice Competition.
The cooking would start at 11 am, so I was there already at 10:50. Probably too excited to see what's all going to happen, but of course, way too early. Some participants were already busy with preparing their mise en place (is a word commonly used in commercial kitchens for washing, cutting and preparing the raw ingredients ).

Like I said before, it's my first time and I really didn't know where to go or what to do until the participants were done cooking. Luckily my invitor walked  towards me and introduced me to some of the key persons of the association as well as the organizers. Where initially I was wondering how I was gonna fill up my 2 hours, walking with the judges makes these hours hardly noticeable.

There were 7 participants: Krasnapolsky, Thuksa, Waaldijkschool, 2 x family Lont,  Heave, Berg en Dal.
The first thing that I noticed was how big the difference was in heads per team. It was funny how one team had only 2-3 members and one with more than 10 members trying to make it work in a 3x3 space.

From all the participants, there were some who really stood out.  These are my opinions:

- Krasnapolsky had the best decoration compared to the other participants. The orange cloth really pop out and they decorated with lots of fruit and decor items. It showed that they really put effort in making a professional but yet stylish appearance.

- the group Thuksa had some memorable accents. They had an old coal pot, a natural fruit bowl and the old Surinamese flag. These features would really pop out if they'd put them on a wooden stool or art piece together. And not to be forgotten, the lady cooking in the creole traditional dress, koto.

- the Lont family cooked as if it's one of their weekend family cook-outs. The atmosphere was relaxed and what was really a nice feature was that they had a print-out of their dish with a little history of moksi alesi, a small description of their dish and the uniqueness of it.

After some observation, there were some things that the organizers might take into consideration for their next event.

• For such a street event, the numbers of visitors might be huge, so it would have been helpful if portable toilets were arranged.
• I saw first aid medical assistance, but haven't noticed other emergency units like the fire department and police. It's always better to be safe than sorry.
• Extra garbage bins would have been helpful or assigning persons to empty the street garbage bins.

There were 2 groups of judges: the floor jury and the tasting jury. The floor jury had the job to observe, oversee and evaluate the participants on:

• hygiene
• organization of the activities
• originality and decoration of the stand

That means that the jury had to really use all their senses (except their taste) to evaluate how everything is going. And I do mean it. They have to oversee what everyone is doing, smell if anything had an irrelevant smell, hear how the team members are communicating with each other and feeling the hot sun on their skin since it's held in the middle of the Domineestraat.


And if you think the tasting jury had a nice job, think again. I had the chance to also take part in tasting the submitted dishes. And seriously, I never thought I would find a disadvantage for becoming a food critic and I actually found one. Being part of the tasting jury also means that you really need to taste all the dishes and give it a score. Doesn't sound that bad, right?? Believe me, it does if you have to judge 8 different kinds of dishes and some even looking totally different than what you ever imagined of moksi alesi.

The criteria for the tasting committee were: appearance, creativity, taste and originality.
For the tasting part, I'm gonna give my opinion about some groups but in numbers like it was in the blind tasting. It'll be the only way I can give my honest opinion and not let some groups feel offended. In Suriname, we're a very small community, so I'd like to prevent putting some people in an awkward spot.

#1- they gave 2 dishes. One with bokking (red herring) and one with pork ribs. From one of these, the rice was obviously burned. The stench of burned rice was so overpowering that I only took a bite because it was part of the experience of being a jury. The other one was better; really had the nice aroma of bokking, but still didn't impress me.

#2- the presentation was good, but it smelled sour to me and the texture of the rice was mushy

#5- this group presented a well-balanced dish. The rice was not too dry, it tasted good and had BBQ chicken and liver sambal on it. However, the sambal did make me think of a Javanese dish with BBQ on it.

#7- I don't hope the ones who can find themselves back in this dish will feel offended, but this one was really the worst. The whole dish was mushy. The texture was somewhere between porridge and soft rice. It was a mixture with black-eyed peas and some kind of fish. It didn't look appealing let alone smelling and tasting it.

So for those of you who thought a tasting judge's job is fun and easy, you really should reconsider.

However originality is one of the criteria, but secretly I had hoped that one group would still stick with the authentic Creole Moksi Alesi.

Which Moksi Alesi would really make your day?

Time to Wine

Red wine comes in many varieties and have a great range in body. From the light bodied Gamay Noir (also known as the Beaujolais) to the full bodied Cabernet Sauvignon, they all have their own sophisticated flavors and elements.


Red wine is said to be complex and that's the reason why most people prefer White wines or Rose, because it's simpler to taste. For me, they all have their own thing, but I gotta admit that my palate is prefering the red more and more.

Last night, it's Time to Wine again! And to give you an idea of how much fun such a night can become, I started the night feeling a bit under the weather. Probably some stress from work or maybe the November rain, but I really felt as if I wasn't even looking forward to the wine class. Even having a thought like 'just get it over with', but at the end of the class, I forgot all about feeling ill or whatsoever. It's always a nice time discussing with my winemates. Even if it's about politics, the subject I hate most!

Anyway, don't want to keep you guys waiting any longer. We had a sort of blind tasting again. The instructor put two bottles of red in a paperbag and we were poured both in two different wineglasses.


The first wine we had was very strong in flavor and tannic. I was really trying hard to taste what's inside, but still can't get any aromas out of it yet.

The second one compared to the first, was like day and night. Just to give you an idea, the first one felt like heavy metal head banging and the second one was like 'the swan lake'. Totally different in feel, in taste,,,,in everything except that they're both red.

And I gotta say, it didn't feel that uneasy this time to do a blind tasting. And the wines were:

1. Trivento Malbec 2010

2. Beacon Hill Shiraz 2008



And in addition, we also had another red wine, which is known as a Meritage. A Meritage is a blend wine produced of 2-3 Bordeaux grapes. For many wine lovers, Bordeaux is known as the largest wine grape growing region in France. It is known for their fullbody reds like the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Carmenere, Malbec and Cabernet Francs.


So, this one is called 'Arte Valduga'.
This one is a meritage of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Francs. It was soft, easy on the palate and above all, we were all surprised that this great wine actually came from Brasil!
Most of all, I was so happy that I finally had a good read!! I tasted instantly the Cabernet Sauvignon in this! Yay,,,that's one step closer to becoming a wine expert! :D

Glam and Glitz in a bottle

This weekend is awesome! Three great things happened:

1. I receive a comment from Marieke Visser, that she'd like to recommend my blog in the Suriname HOT magazine, which is by the way the best tourism magazine. And no, it's not because of the recommendation that I'm saying this. Let me tell you why I believe they are the best:
- it's for free, so they have a broad coverage
- it's glossy, full color and lots of great pictures in it.
- all articles are in both english and dutch
- and the articles are easy to read.
So, Suriname HOT magazine  crew, you guys are doing an awesome job!! Keep up the good work!

2. My blog has finally hit the 1000 views. When I started in May, I really thought ' Hmm,,,,how long will it take before I get 1000 views'. But it's finally here.....! All thanks to you guys!! :D


3. And as if my wine course instructor knew I had things to celebrate, yesterday we did 'Champagne'!! It's a wine that people link with celebration, romance and all the glamour and glitter in the world.


Some facts about Champagne:

- it's only called Champagne if it's actually produced from grapes from the Champagne region in France. Otherwise, it's called sparkling wine
- this bubbly drink was actually created by accident. Back then, bubbles in your wine meant there was something wrong with it.
- and the the founder of this awesome drink is Dom Perignon ( Yes, the same as the most prestigious bubbly in the world)
- there are about 5 million bubbles in a bottle of Champagne. ( People actually did research this)
- Other names other countries uses for this bubbly:
* the germans call it 'Sekt'
* 'Spumante' is the name the Italians gave it
* For the spanish, they love their 'Cava'

For this evening full of bubbles, the instructor was really giving us a hard time. He gave us 3 different kinds of bubbly to sample, but without showing us the label of the bottle. Ohmigod...I never knew it felt so uneasy to not know what I'm drinking. The curiosity, the anxiety, it was really a reaction I didn't expect myself to have for blind tastings. But ok, so like the tasting, I'll give you guys my opinion first, before I tell you what drink it was.


1. the first bubbly was very light. Both in color and in flavor and as the fluid was in my glass, I hardly see any bubbles unless I shook the glass a bit.

2. the second glass was way better. The color was nearly the same as the first one, but it had a stronger flavor and it even tasted familiar. I could see some bubbles without moving the glass.

3. The third one was more acidic, the color was a bit darker, but for me a bit too acidic. Lots of bubbles for this one.

For me, the 2nd one is the winner!! Are you even curious as me at that moment to know which bubbly was which?? Here are the results:

1.  Villa Teresa Prosecco

2.  Moet & Chandon ( I knew it, I knew it)

3. Heidsieck Monopole


And if you think this was all, you're soo mistaking. We had some Kir Royale, which is a cocktail made normally with cassis and sparkling wine. We got the best of the best: Prosecco + Chambord.
Chambord is a raspberry liqueur in a very fancy bottle. It smelled so sweet and the aroma of raspberry lingers. It made me think of really sweet candy. And surprisingly, the cocktail didn't tasted as sweet as I thought it would.

But of course, it wouldn't be wise to do cocktails with the expensive champagnes. It's an option, and an outcome if you receive a bottle you don't like. If you're in the cocktail mood, try it also respectively with orange juice and mango juice.

As a last surprise of the evening, we even had a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. For those of you who don't know it yet: it is said that New Zealand makes the best Sauvignon Blancs. They have the best terrior for the sauvignon blanc grapes.

I gotta say, it's the best Sauvignon Blanc I've had so far. The flavor was very well combined. Nothing was too overwhelming. It was very well balanced, easy to drink and fresh, crisp.

But back to bubbly, which is your favorite and when do you prefer to drink it?