Sheilah's Personal Blog

My 50th birthday celebration continues with another birthday dinner at Chesa. This time we only opened one bottle of wine since half of our guests did not drink. But what a bottle it was! The Haut Brion 1961 that we brought to the restaurant was in excellent condition, and the wine was absolutely delicious. I think it could easily have been cellared for another decade….

My favorite dish at Chesa is the raclette cheese. It went very well with the Haut Brion!

Yesterday I celebrated my 50th birthday with my parents and siblings at Amigo, one of my favorite restaurants. My husband provided us with a special treat of some gorgeous wines in honor of my birth year, including Dom Perignon Vintage 1961, a magnum of Mouton Rothschild 1961, Petrus 1961, and Hermitage La Chapelle 1961. We also had Laville Haut Brion 2003 and DRC Montrachet 1982 to start. By the end of the meal, we decided we could not possibly fit in the D’Yquem 1961 as well. That will have to wait for another birthday…

All the vintage 1961 wines were still vibrant and delicious. The Hermitage La Chapelle 1961 was simply amazing! It was even more powerful than the legendary Petrus 1961. The whites were delicious as well, and the DRC Montrachet 1982 was a special treat. Turning 50 may not be so old after all!

Here’s a photo of Amigo’s famous Mongolian Beef, which is essentially beef tartare soaked in a creamy garlicky onion sauce. Very yummy!

A productive day on board Captain Dale’s Nautic Encounter! We saw dolphins and caught loads of snapper. Chef Carl Phiskie turned our catch into a lovely snapper dinner, consisting of snapper ceviche, pan-fried snapper filets and a baked whole snapper.

Had a lovely dinner prepared by Chef Carl Phiskie of Waiheke Island’s Thymes Table Restaurant. Started with local scallops and scampi, duck confit as main course and finished with a stone fruit crostada with vanilla ice cream. Delicious!

We had a delicious lunch at Stonyridge Vineyard. Although I found their wines a bit disappointing (too acidic for my taste), I loved the food!

Te Matuku oysters

Rack of lamb

House hot smoked salmon with beetroot salad

Vanilla pannecotta with chocolate ice cream

Poached berries with lavender ice cream

Love it here in New Zealand! The wines and foods are fresh and delicious and the air is so pure Just landed yesterday and have already had two wonderful meals… oysters, oysters and more oysters (of course!)…

Local Te Matuku oysters

Oysters Kilpatrick

Venison carpaccio with truffle cream and parmesan

Grilled dry-aged ribeye

Grilled scallops and duck confit

Tiramisu

Banyan Tree Koh Samui is a heavenly place. The individual villas are beautifully furnished and private; the beach is idyllic and relaxing; the Thai food is absolutely fresh and delicious; the service is impeccable; and the spa treatments are divine… We would go back in a heartbeat!

I had a Rhone wine tasting dinner with my WSET friends last week. We blind-tasted the following Rhone wine selections:
Chateau Rayas – Chateau de Fonsalette Cuvee Syrah 1995 (Grenache/Cinsault/Syrah)
Domaine de Pegau CDP Cuvee da Capo 1998 and 2003 (90-95% Grenache)
E. Guigal Cote Rotie la Mouline 2000 (89% Syrah/11% Viognier)
E. Guigal Cote Rotie La Landonne 2000 (100% Syrah)
Chateau Rayas CDP 2000 (100% Grenache)
Two Hands Shiraz Ares 2002 (100% Shiraz) – this was our “ringer” for the blind tasting
Chateau de Pibarnon 2005 (90-95% Mourvedre)
Clos des Papes CDP 2007 (65% Grenache/20% Mourvedre/Muscardin/Vaccarese/Counoise/Syrah)

The best and most distinctive wine, hands down, was the Rayas 2000. Its light color, perfumed nose and “pinot-like” taste made it easy to identify. The “ringer” was also easy to identify; the fruitiness of the Australian shiraz was a dead giveaway. The rest of the wines were a bit tougher to identify. The Pegau 2003 which I brought along was a powerful wine and it, along with the La Mouline 2000, were among my favorites that night. The Pegau 1998 which a friend brought along was “corked” and my friends taught me how to put in a ball of plastic wrap inside the wine glass to “uncork” the wine. Apparently, there’s something in the polyethylene that binds the 2,4,6-trichloranisole and removes it from the wine. And it actually worked! The wine tasted so much better after putting in the plastic wrap, waiting for it to absorb the trichloranisole, and taking it out again. That’s a good trick to know It was a very fun evening.

Unfortunately I was not feeling well and missed a very special wine dinner last night. My husband went alone but gave me a full report of his impression of the wines he tasted. I’m so envious…. Here’s his report:

Burgundies:
Henri Jayer Echezeaux ’85 (10/10. Perfect as to be expected. Wine of the evening!!!!!). HT
Henri Jayer Richebourg ’78 magnum (9/10. Joint 2nd best wine of the evening!!!). ST/MT
Henri Jayer Vosne Romanee Cros Parantoux ’93 (8/10. Better than the ’92). PL
Henri Jayer Vosne Romanee Cros Parantoux ’92 magnum (7/10. ’93 better) ThC
Henri Jayer Vosne Romanee Les Brulees ’82 magnum. (6/10. Good but paled in comparison to the other Henri Jayer’s of the evening). RH
DRC Richebourg ’71 (9/10. Nose like perfume and sweet on the palette! Joint 2nd best wine of the evening!!!). AL
DRC La Tache ’82 (7/10. A sleeper and while mature, still showing well). TC
Faiveley Musigny ’96 (6/10. Only 149 bts. ever bottled but a little disappointing given the scarcity). HA

Bordeaux:
Latour ’82 (8/10. No surprises. The most consistent of all the five 1st Growth’s ’82s). HT
Lafleur ’82 (8/10. One of my 2 favourite 1982’s ever. A little closed though tonight on the palette but nose was all there). HA
Petrus ’82 (9/10. Showing very well again, finally. 1st bt. better than 2nd even though from same case. But still, Lafleur ’82 and Le Pin ’82 better). ST/MT
Margaux ’82 magnum (6/10. Perfect condition. A bit too forward this evening). DP

Wish I were there

I just came back from a 4-day trip to Qinghai, China, on behalf of a HK children’s charity, visiting some of our sponsored rural village schools and meeting with our local NGO partners and Qinghai Education Dept officials. It’s my first time to Qinghai which is one of the largest provinces in China located on the NE part of the Tibetan Plateau. Qinghai is a veritable melting pot, with minority tribes such as the Tibetans, the Huis, the Tus, the Salars and the Mongols, co-existing peacefully with ethnic Chinese. I learnt a lot about the cultures of these minority groups and met some amazing people. Although Qinghai is one of the poorest provinces in China, the locals are hardworking, family-oriented and wonderfully hospitable and generous. Here are some of the typical Qinghai foods I sampled:

Niangpi is a favourite local snack, made of flour and baking soda.

Mutton Eaten With Fingers is another delicious local cuisine. The mutton is from Qinghai’s highland sheep. It is boiled in water with ginger and star anise, and is served with peppered salt and raw garlic.

Everywhere I went, I was served my meals with either chysanthemum tea or “eight treasures” (ba bao) tea, which has green tea leaves, longan, red dates, goji berries and crystal sugar.

Tsampa is a Tibetan staple food. It is a dough made by mixing and kneading roasted and ground highland “qingke” barley, yak butter, water and sugar. It is high in protein and fat and very filling. This is a picture of the ingredients of Tsampa before being mixed into a dough.

Qinghai hospitality requires serving guests frequently with three cups of “white wine” which is a potent, colorless spirit distilled from highland barley. To be polite, guests must drink all three cups (3 is a lucky number). Before drinking the first cup, a guest would dip his right fourth finger into the cup and flick it up three times as a symbolic offering to the heaven, earth and dragon.

The caterpillar fungus is a most priced Chinese delicacy used as Chinese medicine. The best caterpillar fungus is found in Yushu County, where schoolchildren have a special annual school holiday from the end of May to end of June to help pick the fungus. Good quality fungus costs upwards of US$1,000 per tael.