Blush or Rose? They are just the same

Last saturday, my friend messaged me why she still hadn't seen my blog about the 2nd wine lesson yet. And you know, that really felt good. The knowledge of people really enjoying what I have to say (write). So from this blog out, I would like to thank all my readers for enjoying my posts.

So last friday, I had my 2nd wine lesson and it was about blush or rose. It's not white nor red, and many believe that winemakers actually mixed these two to get the pink color. However that is a possibility, but most winemakers use other techniques. Two of the techniques are:


1. leaving the grape skin in the pressed juice for just long enough to get the pinkish color. This will not only add color to the juice, but some tannin as well.

2. putting the pressed juice in a barrel that was used to hold red wine. Mostly they will keep it for several hours, a day max so that the juice will get the color of the red wine, but not getting influenced by the flavor that was still on the wall of the barrel.

For that evening, we had 4-5 different wines. ( Yah, kinda seem like the numbers of bottles are increasing, right?):

The first one we had was: Rendez Vous
It's a blend between Merlot and Grenache. However many winedrinkers will know the Merlot as a red wine, but this one's a blush/rose. The flavor was somewhat dry and like most rose's I know, you can smell the fruitiness as soon as it was poured into the glass. However I still can't distinguish the different aromas yet, but I do know I like the way it smells. Unfortunately I can't find a picture of the bottle to show you guys, but as soon as I find one, I'll post it. I promise!

The second one was a lightbodied red: De la roche
This is made from the Gamay Noir grape, also known as Beaujolais.

Year: 2010

Grapes: Gamay

Tasting: A harmony of small red berry flavours with delicate aromas of ripe fruit. The wine is full and fresh with a complex bouquet from traditional bananas through to ripe raspberry flavours. To drink whilst young.

Food matching: Best served at 65 F

 

This was my favorite of the evening. With this wine, we also got introduced to the magic of the wine aerator:

Like most hobbies has their gadgets, this one is really a magic tool for wines. We got two glasses of the same one to taste, but one without the aerator and one with the aerator. And you wouldn't believe those two glasses actually comes from the same bottle. The first one was stronger in flavor, but it fade away as soon as it hit my pallate. The second one tasted smoother, easier to drink and the flavor lingers for some time before it actually faded. For all winelover, I really would recommend having one of these gadgets to increase your wine drinking experience.

 

The 3rd wine of the evening is the Queen of Hearts

This was the favorite of the group and this is what I found online:

 

"This lovely Pinot was fermented in small batches, aged in oak barrels, carefully blended and bottled at the peak of quality. This vintage has aromas of ripe blackberry, black cherry, and cola with smooth fruit driven flavors of plum, strawberry and warm spices."

 

For me, it was a bit too sweet. It does have a familiar taste to it, which is probably the cola. The only aroma I could've guessed was that there must be some kind of berry in it. Which one,,,that was the big question.

 

The 4th one is my kind of my wine: Beringer White Zinfandel

 

This is a really fruity wine. It's a California wine, easy to drink and I love the fruity aroma. But probably my pallate is changing and somehow it seems too sweet for me now. But I know for a fact that this is a favorite for most Surinamese people. It's a wine that they can drink with everything and it's sweet. (Yeah, I'm supposed to say 'fruity', but I think this is easier to grasp).

 

As a final surprise, we were given a glass of red wine. It tasted light, but smooth and to all our surprise: it was a Carlo Rossi!!

I've always known Carlo Rossi as a cheap wine and I can drink it, but not very fond of it. And I've learned a new phrase: 2 buck chuck. It's a Charles Shaw wine, which is sold for $2,- ( 2 bucks), so every cheap wine was then called 2 buck chuck. Quite interesting story though.

But since no one was aware which wine it was, everybody was surprised that the Carlo Rossi came out so smooth and tasted not bad at all. Maybe it's the aerator, maybe the ambiance, but we all enjoyed another wine lesson from Mr. Edward Cabell and his wife Hortence.

 

 

 

Sushi? Yaaaaaa!!

This blog will be about my personal experience in the very first Sushi restaurant in Suriname: Sushi Ya. They started their business several months ago and I wanted to go since then and actually got the chance to do it so last night. 2 friends of mine, Sahieda and Yasser, and I already made plans since some months ago , so it was really about time we did it.

I got to say, Yasser really suprised me. He acted  really very gentlemen-like, picking me up, opening the car door for me and paying for dinner,,,,the whole nine yards. It actually kinda felt a bit weird since I'm not used to it that guys still do that. However my boyfriend does that too, but somehow I think I just take that for granted since it seems to me that he does it as a automatic thing and it feels as if he should do it. I know, however, that many guys don't do that for their girlfriends, but the point I want to make is....that it really felt good that there are still gentlemen out there doing the right thing. So, an advice for guys out there, ladies dig the oldfashion gentlemen service from time to time.

Anyway....getting a bit sidetracked here. The place is redecorated from a Chinese restaurant that I used to know and I do admit that I expected more Japanese influences in the decor. They painted the walls really white, so that the big paintings really popped out. Secretly, I hoped that there would be a hostess, wearing a kimono, greeting us at the door and saying: "Konichiwa" or something, u know. Even if she was not asain-like, it would have added to the feel of a real Japanese restaurant.

For a tuesday night, I got to say that it was pretty crowded. We chose a table near the wall, where I have a good view of the sushi bar. The sushi chef was actually pretty stereotypical. Asian, looking real serious and with a toothbrush moustache or also known as the Hitler moustache.

I checked their prices already way upfront at their fb page and some people even complained that it's too expensive. Personally, my motto is if the food and service is good, I'm willing to pay the price. We ordered quite a lot and I have to say that the service was very good. We hardly had to wait for our drinks, neither the first dish of California rolls, which at the end I conclude as my favorite.

It is known as a uramaki or an inside out sushi, which means that the outer layer is rice, on which they sprinkle sesame or a kind of orange looking crumbly thing on it. I just googled it and saw that it's supposed to be tobiko or masago, some kind of fish egg or so. Hmm,,,interesting.

What I like about it is the crunchiness of the sesame on it and that the used ingredients really combined to a delicious flavor.

Next to the California roll, my friend picked some other types of sushi he wanted to try and I was dying for some tempura. I love tempura simply because it's fried, but it's still light and non-greasy. It's like eating fried food and not feeling quilty,  you know what I mean.

Initially Sahieda apologized for not being able to make it, but there she was in front of us. The place where she should be was not open yet, so she had to wait for several hours. Actually I don't even know if she still went, but was happy she could join us.

My personal opinion of the other sushi's is that it was good, but the vegetarian roll was a bit too big though. It was hard to take it with chopsticks and when you finally manage to do so, it falls apart.

   The wasabi was a bit weak for me. I really had to put a dab in my soy sauce before I can really get that kick, but probably because normally I already eat lots of pepper with my food.

And of course, we had to order sashimi since it's part of the Japanese cuisine and we heard that their sashimi is very good. We ordered one with 4 different kinds of sashimi: marinated tuna, red snapper, salmon and another fish, forget that one. I have to admit, I'm not fond of raw things. The thought about it alone gives me the creeps, but of course I have to suck it up and taste it for you guys, right? :p. Nah,,I did enjoy it. One, they plated it very colorful and it appealing and second, it doesn't smell or taste like normally fish would. The pink salmon is very sweet, slippery and how salmon should taste like. The marinated tuna had a sweet marinate on it and sesame, but I'd recommend you don't eat that one with wasabi since the taste of the wasabi kinda predominate that of the marinated tuna. My personal favorite is the red snapper though.Unfortunately my friends didn't feel like drinking sake, because that would've made the meal complete.

To top it all off, I ordered the Green Tea ice cream for dessert. I'm not sure if it's supposed to taste like this. In the very beginning I thought they gave me a wrong one, because it tasted like normal Vanille ice cream, but just when I was about to say something about it, the green tea taste pops out. They added a piece of tempura banana in it, which really go well with the ice cream. If you like the crunchiness of tempura, try to eat it as soon as you get it. If it stays too long in the ice cream, it tends to get soggy and lose its crunchiness.

Good food, good service and great company really does it for me. I know these friends for not that long as friends, but you know how sometimes it just clicks? It kinda does it for us. We are all persons with an outspoken character and share a common devotion for sushi and wine. Even though it's a bit pricey, but I can't wait to do it again!!

If you want to try it out, don't forget to make reservations:

1st wine course lesson: White Wine

Last night, I had my first lesson of the wine course.The instructor, Mr. Cabell, made it really fun to listen to the history of wine, the old world and new world wines and the current developments of wine. It's amazing how he knows so much about wine and of course, we got some tips of how to make wines tastes better and what factors might play a role in the whole experience. Yesterday was the first lesson, so we started with the white wine section. Did you know that white wine can be made from white grapes AND/OR red grapes? I always thought red wine's from red grapes and white wine from white grapes.

The first wine for the evening was: SUNRISE

This is the documentation I found :
Variety: Chardonnay
Appellation: Central Valley
Color: Bright Yellow
Nose: Green apples and tropical fruits aromas such as papaya and pineapply with a backdrop of vanilla.

For those of you, who don't know anything about wine, let me explain what this means. ( Some of it, I only learned it last night. So don't feel sorry for not knowing)
The variety means the grape used. For new world wines, at least 85% of the grapes need to be a certain grape to have the name of that grape on the bottle. Like this one, it has Chardonnay on it, so which means 85% of the grapes used to produce this wine is the Chardonnay grape.
The appellation is the terroir. Yeah I know... I didn't know what it means in the beginning either. Terroir is actually the soil, the geographical factors and temperature and climate changes,....all in all, all the geographical, geological and climate factors that might influence the wine grape.
The color, that's just plain simple what you will see. The nose is what you might smell in the wine.

My personal opinion:
Probably because it was for the first time I really sat down and tried to smell what's inside the wine, I didn't smell anything but pineapple. All the other times, I only smelled the wine if it smells good or not, not actually noticing to what it smells like.
I heard things like, apple, green apple, buttery and all kinds of aromas, I didn't notice any of this at all. That felt kinda stupid, but I'm sure it will get better with time and experience.

The second wine was: Deinhard

Documentation I found:
Quality: Quality wine of defined areas, QbA (Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete)
Grape Variety: Riesling
Wine Growing Region: Rheinhessen
Soil: Strong, chalky lime and clay
Tasting: Floral, green apple and citrus fruit, spicy, finely acidic fruit, attractive freshness, harmoniously dry.
Food Pairing: The ideal accompaniment to light, elegant, modern cuisine, in particular fried or grilled fish and Japanese.
Alcohol Content: 12%
Residual Sugar: 7 g/l
Total Acidity: 7,0 g/l
Serving Temperature: 10°-12° C

My personal opinion:
I expected this wine to be sweeter since Riesling is known for it, but still it appealed more to me than the first one. It tasted fruity, crisp and more acidic. It even gave me the feeling of drinking a good sparkling wine, but without the bubbles.

The last one was a not expected one: Intis

Region: Argentina
Appellation: San Juan
Type: White
Variety: Sauvignon Blanc

My personal opinion:
Of course, Sauvignon Blanc is a pretty well-known variety and promotional wise, this variety is positioned as to be a good choice when you want to drink it with white meat. I liked it, because it's also fruity and acidic and that it's easy to drink.

So, with 3 wines last night, it made a very good night!!
I was once taught:

" The best wine is the one you like, for free and in front of you!"

So, what is your favorite white wine?

First food tasting: Jiji's Restaurant

Last saturday I had a very interesting evening. Not only did I have my first meeting with the wine course group, but I had my first food tasting as well. The weeks before I could give up my name for the tasting and so I was eagerly waiting for tha day!!

Since I had my meeting with the wine course group first, my evening started pretty early. I met some interesting people, had a couple glasses of wine.
I chose the Cabernet Sauvignon: Frontera Concha y Toro.


So when I arrived at Jiji's Restaurant, my mood was merry and I just wanted to keep that feeling.

I gotta admit, my whole idea of a food tasting was somewhat different, especially since it was for their new menu. I thought we would all get a bitesize of everything that would possibly make it to the new menu. To be honest, I was already planning on ordering a mix grill after the tasting in case I was still hungry after the tasting.

Of course, I was more than happy to hear that the tasting was free and I could bring a +1. But the unexpected was that every couple could order from a set 'menu', which consisted of 2 menu item : 1 new and one excisting. My boyfriend and I chose for the 'Pasta Blue' and the "stuffed Pork Chops".

These are my opinions:

The Pasta Blue is penne pasta combined with pieces tenderloin, a blue cheese sauce and garnished with blue cheese crumbs, parmessan cheese and alfalfa.

Personally I am not used to my pasta being served in a bowl, but I can understand that this will keep the pasta from becoming soggy. The meat was very tender and luscious. The sauce was watery in the beginning, but near the end, it got a bit thicker and had more flavor. I kinda like it that my food has more than one dimension. The very first thing came into my mind was that the dish is so cheesy and creamy. They put so much parmessan cheese on it and the meat was good. What could've been different was:
- I didn't like the alfalfa. I've noticed that they love to use it as a garnish, but it didn't complement this one.
- the pieces tenderloin could be in smaller pieces, so that it'll be easier to eat together with the pasta.
- the crumbled blue cheese should be in smaller sizes since the cheese is very salty and it kinda have an overwhelming taste over the rest of the dish.

 The stuffed Pork Chop is grilled pork chops stuffed with minced pork meat. It is served on long beans and a honey mustard sauce. The garnish consist of carrot and alfalfa.

My initial thought was...It's MEAT stuffed with MEAT. Can't be better than that, right?

Unfortunately I wasn't impressed with the minced meat in the pork chop. For me, it's a bit dry. Probably because I'm used to a juicier stuffing. Next to that, the honey mustard sauce was a bit too sweet for me, but for most Surinamese people it might be just that, that make them like this dish.





So if I have to choose between these two dishes, the Pasta Blue is the winner!
But all in all, I had a wonderful time at Jiji's. One of the wines we were served as part of the tasting was a real winner! Normally I don't like Merlot, but this one is seriously goood!!

Food critic to be

As a food lover, becoming a food critic seems like the perfect job. It's like dining out for free and even get paid to do that. In my mind, I'm already thinking of all kinds of mouthwatering dishes and great wines to complement it. Sigh,,,,ain't that the ideal dream?

Now I've done some research about this profession and there are several criteria that I need to meet. One important criteria is writing.



There is writing and,,,,,writing. Like talking, I like to write my thoughts about things, but unfortunately that's not the proper way to write a report or even a critic article. I see it with my essays and now...even my thesis. It's just not that easy to write formal english. But I'm working on this to be nearer to becoming a food critic.

This coming saturday, I'll have my first go. I'm in the tasting committee of Jiji's Restaurant's new menu. I'm not sure what to expect yet, but for sure I'll do my best to write a food-critic-like article about it. Just stay tuned...

Women + Shopping

Shopping used to be a fun thing to do. Going shopping with a group of girlfriends and it's shophopping and trying every single thing out that you like. It was something to look forward to and during the process, it was fun and relaxing.

Now with the internet, this all kind of changed. We tried to shop online together today, since forever21 has a deal 'buy one, get one free'. The problem with these kinds of deals and multiple buyers is that someone will need to do the fitting and matching jobs, so that everyone still feel that they had a good deal and that person end up being me.

Seriously,,,,,now,,,,as a woman myself, I can understand why guys don't like to shop with the ladies. It's so stressful!!! Then it was getting everyone's orders together and since it's a sale, some items were sold out in an instant, so it was picking out another one again. And the worse thing of them all is the fact that forever21 is adding new items to it every now and then. So at some point I really looked like the lady below:


But I've learned my lesson. For the next time, we'll just need to meet up and do the shopping on one location. I mean,,,it's not the shopping sites fault that they'd like to sell more. It's we, the buyers, who should know what we want to buy and not buying it just because it's on sale.
And besides, if we meet up, it's just like old times, with the chitchats and the crazy fun. It's girlfriends fun without too much hassle of dressing up, walking miles to get the right dress and still having the flexibility of choosing the location.

Wine & Tapas Fair: 28 July 2012

The Wine & Tapas Fair is finally over! Here a recap of that night from my point of view.
Since the beginning of the week I was already busy with preparations for our Tapas stand. Not only were some sponsors still a bit hesitating, but because of the lack of space it was not wise to get the sponsored products too early in advance.

The most hectic period started wednesday 25th. I only took friday 27th off for the event, so during the rest of the week I was normal at work till 15:30. Since for the tapas we got assistance from Jiji's Restaurant, I was there nearly every evening. I think that the owner, Jurgen Boodie, got kinda tired of seeing me over there. Wednesday I had scheduled the wine glasses cleaning and everyone from my class was there. It felt really good to have everyone from my class supporting me. Initially I thought to take friday off to have a less hectic day so that I can also rest a bit. I was so terribly wrong. I started the day at 7:30 and was busy the whole day through. It even seemed as if 24 hours a day were not enough. And as if it's not stressful enough to have the tapas on my plate, last minute I had to hear that there's a change of the tapas stand location. I'm not sure if it was fact or foe, but they told me it had to be like that since it was an order from the fire department. And if it's by law, I'll need to follow it, right?

But on the day of the event, some participants already called me to ask what's going on. Since the day before I was told to move some of the stands and I checked with some of my participants, who were willing. But the participants called me to tell me that they were told they could stay. It went really wrong there. I'm responsible for the participants, but I don't even get an update of what will be going on. It really came out very  unprofessional.

My whole F&B crew worked their asses off. Seriously, everyone was working on at least one type of tapa and whenever they were finished, to start with another one. I don't know how we did it after all, but we did it!! We sold about 1100+ tapas and if it wasn't for Jiji's Restaurant crew, I don't think we could've made so many.
You know, many things went wrong within the organization and external factors have not always been on our side, but after all, it was a succesful event. I've asked around and most people were not only impressed with what we've done, they are even asking when the next one will be. And however we did sell lots of tapas, but the biggest compliment for our hard work is when the visitors came to us and told us how marvelous the event was and that we did an awesome job!