First experience of a Wine Dinner

Recently I was invited to attend a wine dinner which was held at the Bistro Amigo. Bistro Amigo is both a wine shop as well as also a French Bistro. It is located in Funan DigitalLife Mall on the second floor.

A wine dinner is where they try to match the wine with the food that will be served. I am really a novice in wine so it will be an interesting experience. The theme of the dinner is to feature a selection of Bordeaux second wines. What it meant are these wines are the second wines from some famous Chateau such as Mouton Rothschild, Montrose and Beaucillou.

The dinner start first with a serving of french bread with some dip and a serving of Champagne. The Champagne is really very good. ( Only later I learnt that it is Pol Roger which is a good Champagne)

The below is a screen shot of the menu.


The first dish served is a cold dish which is Jade Tiger Abalone with Cavier with a passion fruit sauce base. The abalone is surprisingly delicious as usually I thought that the only way to enjoy an abalone is by braising it. This dish was paired with Clarendelle Blanc '06.

Truth to be told, I am still not sure what they mean by the wine match the food? Is it you have the food before the wine or you have the wine before the food? ( Hopefully someone can enlighten me about it)
The next dish is Pan Roasted Barramundi with melted leaks and crispy onion with the fish red wine sauce. This dish was fabulous. The fish was so full of flavour and the sauce compliment it perfectly. The onion was so crispy. This dish was paired with La Dame De Montrose '06.

The third course is the Pan Roasted Foie Gras paired with Grilled Cep Mushroom. The sauce is Port Wine Reduction. The Foie Gras was roasted to perfection. It has a slight crisp outside but the interior is still moist and full of flavour. It has a melt in your mouth texture. The mushroom was also very delicious. This dish was paired with La Croix De Beaucaillou '04. ( This wine was my personel favourite among the red wines presented on the day)
The fourth dish is oven roasted lobster accompanied with moral mushroom and sauteed savoy cabbage with a prawn bisque sauce. I loved the sauce which was used for the dish. It was perfect with the lobster. Ah the meat of the lobster is so so delicious. Sometimes the lobster meat is a bit dry but this one was so well prepared that the natural flavour of the meat is brought out to the fullest. This dish was served with La Chapelle De La Mission Haut Brion '07.

For the last of the main dish, it was supposed to be a beef dish. However as I do not take beef. They substituted it with a pork fillet dish. I had placed both the photos of the beef dish as well as the pork dish.

The pork was really tender and taste was great. Would have been better if got more pieces of the pork. The last of the main course was paired with Le Petit Mouton '04. For the majority of the guest to the dinner. They really enjoyed this wine. For myself, I found it had a bit tannic and did not like it so much.

For desert, it was veloute of chocolate, mixed berry and ice cream. They arranged a surprise wine to go with the desert. It was a late harvest hence it has quite a bit of residue sugar in the wine. This make the wine of a sweeter variety. I personally liked sweet wines.

Though I was told recently, what makes wine enjoyable is to taste the various subtle taste ( fruitness of the wine, the finish). As the person told me, sweetness is the easiest taste to create. ( still learning how to appreciate wines)

The food were all excellent in terms of taste and presentation. I highly recommend this is a good venue to enjoy good food and wine. The ambience of the place is also not bad as there is live performance on Friday evening. If there is only 1 small improvement :), it is in the hope that the portion of the food can be bigger.

It was my fist experience with French Food as well as a wine dinner. Have to say it was an eye opening experience.

Dinner treat at Shimbashi Soba Soba Gozen

This article is about a new Japanese restaurant which my good friend had kindly invited me to try and also give me a treat :)

It is a Japanese restaurant which specialized in Soba as can be seen from the name. It is located at B1 at Raffles Shopping Centre and is next to the highly popular Din Tai Fung.

It was my first time trying soba as usually in a Japanese food place I like to go for Bento ( need rice to be satisfying ). However when I looked at the menu, there is no bento at all. Therefore I went for the next best alternative which is the soba together with 5 side dishes.

I had chosen a hot soba as really do not fancy a cold noodle. The below photo is the hot soba.
The texture of the soba is really very good and the soup base was also excellent. Only thing is I found the soup a bit too salty for my liking.



The next photo is an overview of the 5 side dishes which came with the set. The following photos are each inidividual dish close up view.
The first item is the california roll. It was ok.

Next is the mushroom with tofu. The tofu was soft and the sauce complimented well with the main them of this item.

Salmon and another fish sashimi. It was fresh and the meat was marvelous.

The last item is the mixed tempura with prawn, mushroom and lady finger.

After the main course was served, it was accompanied with an ice cream with red bean paste. It is a typical Japanese desert. I found it quite good.

The dinner was really very good and it was a great recommendation from my friend.