The week has been good, I've had the flu, but without the feckin' rollout, it's been good. the team has had inspired direction, whether they see it that way is immaterial.
Haven't done much during the week, although made it out to the quiz last night. We came fourth, which made us happy. As did beer. I'd had some nice white after work with a couple of others in the Biol Dept., headed to Havana where a nice Tall Blonde wetted my lips. Quiz consisted of Bookbinder, as per usual.
Today I've done nothing, well ok, done some washing and cleaned the house, and watched TV/movies - Wonderfalls (thanks for the tip Neil!), QI, DailyShow, Colbert Report, Better off Ted, Sita Sings the Blues (thanks M and A, I loved it), and have some more classy fare lined up for the evening.
Dinner, decided to cook my take on a gumbo. The original recipe can be found in the most recent Cuisine, but I've adapted it to be a) meat free and b) gluten free (I think). Not for any reason other than I was playing around.
Some fish, I guess it was around 150gm.
salt, pepper
Mix these two then fry high temp v lightly.
50ml olive oil (heat this) then add 50gm flour (I used rice flour), whisk it in, and cook gently for 10 minutes until it goes brown.
Add 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped capsicum, 2 stalks celery - cook 5 minutes.
Stir in 2 chopped spicy vege sausages (and added chilli in my case), 3 cloves garlic and 4-500 ml of stock slowly (your choice, i used Vege and Crayfish mix), bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add 80-100gm okra, chopped and lightly fried before hand.
Add 3 chopped spring onions, 1 T worcestershire sauce, 1t tabasco, simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally.
Serve with rice.
Damn that was good. It was cooked with a St Peter's grapefruit, and served with a Te Mata estate Gamay Noir, which is a damn fine mix with spicy food.
About to watch Russian Ark now after another episode of QI. Mmmm My Lord thy Fry.
Showing posts with label wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wine. Show all posts
10 April 2009
21 March 2008
Wine, Scotch, Beer
The next blog will be a review of a whisky tasting I was at on Wednesday, but it has prompted me to think about tastings in general.
A position also brought on by watching Oz and James Wine Adventure. It strikes me that the wine, whisky and beer tasters have quite different views. I still think that wine drinkers do tend towards the pompous and arrogant, and are often very narrow minded about other drinks. Beer tasters/drinkers seem more open. I'm wondering if that has anything to do with the massive variety of beers available? Even for people who don't like beer, or profess to not liking beer, it is usually possible to find something they do like - case in point, S tried my Kriek lambic last night and liked it. Whisky tasters seem quite open to trying various types too, possibly due to the close relaitonship between beer and scotch (same ingredients, roughly)?
The 'Sideways' effect has also caused an increased pretension in general wine drinkers, for some reason people associate wine with food and feel obligated to put forth crap about their wine. Now I like wine and I like good wine, but in many cases finding a wine that works well with food is difficult. And in most cases I'd rather have a beer. The art of choosing a good beer to match food is fun, and usually worth the effort - the problem begins if you're at a restaurant as they tend to have a very limited selection of beer. That pisses me off. If they go to the effort to source a variety of wines, why not do the same for beer? I can hold forth for some time on tastes, aromas etc on beer, but also am quite happy to quaff the bugger. I'm happy to quaff wine too, but people get grumpy about that :)
Whisky tasting is an interesting case. Most people do pontificate about the nose, the palate and the finish. And different whiskys do taste significantly different (even the same distillery, see next post). But, and here's the rub, they don't go on ad feckin nauseum about it over dinner. Mainly cos you don't drink whisky for dinner - and its not a quaffing drink being at least 43% alcohol. But it is a sociable drink, our little tasting parties at Regional Wines are fun times, just like the beer tastings. But the wine tastings- pretension.
The other thing that pisses me off, price. Beer - I'm happy to pay $5-10 NZ for a bottle of beer, particularly my beloved lambics. Wine, I'm happy paying up to $30 - dependent on type. I expect to pay more for a good red due to aging, but think NZ whites are currently over priced for what they are delivering. Whisky, jeez who knows, I've paid $250+ for a couple of 24yo's, but they have an 8yo for $50 which is great and a cask strength at $100 which again was superb.
So why do people feel obligated to pay up to $100 for a bottle of wine which they'll drink in a sitting? My whisky I know I'm not going to be quaffing, it is going to last for years. Unless Neil turns up.
Me xxx
A position also brought on by watching Oz and James Wine Adventure. It strikes me that the wine, whisky and beer tasters have quite different views. I still think that wine drinkers do tend towards the pompous and arrogant, and are often very narrow minded about other drinks. Beer tasters/drinkers seem more open. I'm wondering if that has anything to do with the massive variety of beers available? Even for people who don't like beer, or profess to not liking beer, it is usually possible to find something they do like - case in point, S tried my Kriek lambic last night and liked it. Whisky tasters seem quite open to trying various types too, possibly due to the close relaitonship between beer and scotch (same ingredients, roughly)?
The 'Sideways' effect has also caused an increased pretension in general wine drinkers, for some reason people associate wine with food and feel obligated to put forth crap about their wine. Now I like wine and I like good wine, but in many cases finding a wine that works well with food is difficult. And in most cases I'd rather have a beer. The art of choosing a good beer to match food is fun, and usually worth the effort - the problem begins if you're at a restaurant as they tend to have a very limited selection of beer. That pisses me off. If they go to the effort to source a variety of wines, why not do the same for beer? I can hold forth for some time on tastes, aromas etc on beer, but also am quite happy to quaff the bugger. I'm happy to quaff wine too, but people get grumpy about that :)
Whisky tasting is an interesting case. Most people do pontificate about the nose, the palate and the finish. And different whiskys do taste significantly different (even the same distillery, see next post). But, and here's the rub, they don't go on ad feckin nauseum about it over dinner. Mainly cos you don't drink whisky for dinner - and its not a quaffing drink being at least 43% alcohol. But it is a sociable drink, our little tasting parties at Regional Wines are fun times, just like the beer tastings. But the wine tastings- pretension.
The other thing that pisses me off, price. Beer - I'm happy to pay $5-10 NZ for a bottle of beer, particularly my beloved lambics. Wine, I'm happy paying up to $30 - dependent on type. I expect to pay more for a good red due to aging, but think NZ whites are currently over priced for what they are delivering. Whisky, jeez who knows, I've paid $250+ for a couple of 24yo's, but they have an 8yo for $50 which is great and a cask strength at $100 which again was superb.
So why do people feel obligated to pay up to $100 for a bottle of wine which they'll drink in a sitting? My whisky I know I'm not going to be quaffing, it is going to last for years. Unless Neil turns up.
Me xxx
25 December 2007
Blue Demon!
Following some Wooing Tree Otago Pinot Noir, and another viewing of Death at a Funeral (great fun movie), I've moved onto a Blue Demon flick, The Champions of Justice, and hey guess wot - it's started with a long wrestling sequence. Crickey. How surprising for a Blue Demon movie.
I'll revise that, I'm now 10 mins in and all there's been is wrestling, and some bike riding, oh hang on someone with a machine gun popped up and is shooting people. Seems a reasonable thing to do with a machine gun. Go him. He has a cape. It's red. WTF? "It is the Black hand"."although we killed him and his gang","it's obvious he has returned". Wooohoooo Ms Mexico competition is involved.
For the love of god, now there's frickin dwarves. WHY OH GOD WHY. And yes there is one in Death AAF too.
Why do the dwarves look full sized in the car? Odd. Great soundtrack, wonderful mid-late 60s jazz. Choice. Now a wrestler dressed as a tiger is being done to by 3 dwarves. Oh dear who will save him from the darstadly dwarves.
OK what passed as plot has gone. I wasn't trying to follow it, cos I knew I'd lose, but really all it's been is a series of fights between superhuman strength midgits, and normal sized wrestlers. Fantastic. The 80minutes has just flown by.
damm this cold, and my moderate sobriety. Grr.
me x
I'll revise that, I'm now 10 mins in and all there's been is wrestling, and some bike riding, oh hang on someone with a machine gun popped up and is shooting people. Seems a reasonable thing to do with a machine gun. Go him. He has a cape. It's red. WTF? "It is the Black hand"."although we killed him and his gang","it's obvious he has returned". Wooohoooo Ms Mexico competition is involved.
For the love of god, now there's frickin dwarves. WHY OH GOD WHY. And yes there is one in Death AAF too.
Why do the dwarves look full sized in the car? Odd. Great soundtrack, wonderful mid-late 60s jazz. Choice. Now a wrestler dressed as a tiger is being done to by 3 dwarves. Oh dear who will save him from the darstadly dwarves.
OK what passed as plot has gone. I wasn't trying to follow it, cos I knew I'd lose, but really all it's been is a series of fights between superhuman strength midgits, and normal sized wrestlers. Fantastic. The 80minutes has just flown by.
damm this cold, and my moderate sobriety. Grr.
me x
24 December 2007
Xmas Midday report
Right, so I have a stinkin head cold. I'm trying to deal with it by ignoring and booze. so after croissants we're watching top gear.
intact thus far: two liquor coffees, glass of trinity hill arneis and now one of my Belgian beers.
The wine: a refreshing wee morning drop. Quite tasty and fruity, moderately sweet. Would go well with spicy stuff methinks, and did work well with croissants and lemon/mustard potatoes. Interesting wee drop and not one we get in NZ a lot, so yay Trinity Hill. I'll be drinking more of that thank you very much.
It's beer o'clock now (while watching Marcus Lush's "Ice") and I'm sipping a Belgian Poperings Hommel Bier. Similar to the wine, it's fruity very zesty, I'd disagree with MJs review I thnk the bitterness is quite high, and I don't sense the honey in there. I like it, and it's a good example of the IPA form. I do get string citrus from it tho', but I'm thinking it's not a morning bier, I should have gone with my first thought and ahd another kriek. Oh well, there's always soon...
Now I just need some Bgrade movies, and things will be bloody marvellous. Ohhh and there's trifle soon. If either of us can be arsed moving.
me xx
intact thus far: two liquor coffees, glass of trinity hill arneis and now one of my Belgian beers.
The wine: a refreshing wee morning drop. Quite tasty and fruity, moderately sweet. Would go well with spicy stuff methinks, and did work well with croissants and lemon/mustard potatoes. Interesting wee drop and not one we get in NZ a lot, so yay Trinity Hill. I'll be drinking more of that thank you very much.
It's beer o'clock now (while watching Marcus Lush's "Ice") and I'm sipping a Belgian Poperings Hommel Bier. Similar to the wine, it's fruity very zesty, I'd disagree with MJs review I thnk the bitterness is quite high, and I don't sense the honey in there. I like it, and it's a good example of the IPA form. I do get string citrus from it tho', but I'm thinking it's not a morning bier, I should have gone with my first thought and ahd another kriek. Oh well, there's always soon...Now I just need some Bgrade movies, and things will be bloody marvellous. Ohhh and there's trifle soon. If either of us can be arsed moving.
me xx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)