Scotch Egg History

The United Kingdom is known for its diversity of food and has over the centuries adopted many recipes that have subsequently lost their origins and are now thought of as being quintessentially English.

Many of these dishes are then sold around the world as being traditional English Fare. One such dish is Scotch Eggs

A traditional Scotch Egg is a hardboiled chickens egg that has been wrapped in sausage meat which has been dipped in breadcrumbs and then deep fried.

The Scotch Egg is claimed to have been invented by the London food store Fortnum and Masons back in 1738. The store was founded in 1707 as a grocery store and soon gained a reputation for supplying quality foods and was renowned for supplying luxury foods and meats to members of the British Aristocracy and serving officers in the British Army all around the Empire.

It is as a result of supplying such goods that the idea of a Scotch egg is thought to have come about.

During the 18^th century the British Empire had spread into India and discovered an entirely new style of cooking and food preparation. In one of the conquered areas around Delhi the Mughali style of cooking was to be found and one of the common dishes was to use lamb or beef mixed with spices and then formed in to balls before cooking. One of the local variants was to place an egg in the meat and then served and known locally as Nargisi Kofta

It is most probable that someone wrote back to Fortnum and Mason asking that they prepare such a dish for their return to the UK or when they were posted to another part of the Empire and were not able to obtain it.

The first recorded recipe of a Scotch Egg is in Mrs Rundell’s “ A New System of Domestic Cookery” which was published in 1809 and quickly became a firm favorite on both sides of the Atlantic. The recipe showed how to prepare the Scotch Eggs and then recommended they be served in a gravy or sauce further giving credence to their origins in India.

Today Scotch eggs are invariably eaten cold and a popular favorite at picnics for their ease of eating and combination of flavors. They can be made quite easily but there are so many places selling them over the counter or prepackaged that few people bother to make them and as a result some of the regional variations are now seldom found.

Bite sized, chopped eggs. Quails eggs, pickled eggs and Worcester sauce are all varieties that can still be found and in today’s fast food world the Scotch Egg is likely to have a long and prosperous future

The 50 most delicious foods in the world - really?

Ask 100 people what their favorite food is and you will more than likely get 80 different answers. Ask 1,000 people and the number grows but not in the same proportions and so it continues. What makes the compilation of lists very hard is getting a good cross section of respondents  and so whenever we read a list of the top whatever you can be sure to find people who disagree with it and some who could quite possibly never heard of it.

Online website CNNgo, part of the CNN group of companies recently decided to compile a list of the top 50 foods in the world with some very interesting results. The criteria for how they achieved their results is hidden in mystery, as are nearly all such surveys, so the results should be taken with a pinch of salt (quite appropriate for a food survey don’t you think?). All that we know is that the survey was as a result of asking readers of CNNgo.

A number of the usual suspects can be found – fajitas, tortillas, hamburgers, fried chicken, tacos, chocolate to name but a few and there are some exotic listings as well but missing from the list are some very noticeable regions. There is no mention of French cooking, the place where reputedly the best food comes from.

In 50^th place was buttered pop corn from the US (really??!!) with potato chips (crisps for the English) in 48^th place which is understandable if the selection was favorite foods but the selection request was for the 50 most delicious foods in the world – just how chips gets in to this category beats me.

In fact when you look down the list you start to wonder as to the quality and intelligence of the respondents to the survey as many of the foods on the list are snack foods or fast foods or at best convenience foods. Could it be that the world’s appreciation of “delicious foods” is being dumbed down by mass processed foods and the addition of salts and sugars as a preservative?

I have eaten all around the world and had some simply sensational food that has left you gagging for more and at other times have spent months looking forward to a special meal.

There is no mention of steak in any format on the list (Hamburgers do not count) nor is there any individual fish. Fish and chips is on the list and Sushi makes it in to the top 5. I have no problem with sushi being there as some of it can be simply stunning but I would have rated sashimi above it and to be frank I think a number of those that voted for sushi really meant sashimi as they do not know the difference.

Peking duck at number 5 deserves a place but not so high and I could never countenance pizza, let alone Neapolitan pizza as number 2 or even in the top 50.

So the result of the survey and the world’s most delicious food is……… Massaman Curry

For those who are unfamiliar with this dish it is a mild curry that is slightly sweet in flavour and was thought to be Muslim in origins hence  it is not often served with pork although can be. The 2 most common variants of the dish are chicken or beef and is normally served with rice which when you take in to account the potatoes that make up part of the dish make it quite high in carbohydrates.

The sweetness of the curry comes from the coconut  milk that makes up part of the sauce along with the roasted peanuts or cashew nuts  which are added to cardamom, cinnamon, star anise, chili and tamarind.

It is definitely a popular dish across Asia with slight regional variations so you would expect to find it up there in a list of 50 top Asian dishes but to head the 50 most delicious dishes in the world highlights a fault in the selection process.

Being ones to double check their facts (how I wish the news channel would do the same) CNNgo did a survey on Facebook and asked people to vote for their top 50 dishes from the list provided and the result was…….

……Massaman curry did not top the poll and only just squeaked in the top 10 in 9^th place with 801 votes 

out of a total number of voted cast of 35,000.

Top place went to Rendang, drive from Indonesia which only made it to 11^th place on the original list but with over 7,400 votes it was clearly the favourite with over 2,000 votes more than the 2^nd place dish of Nasi Goreng, also from Indonesia – do I sense a pattern emerging?

All of the top 5 dishes were from Asia which makes you wonder just who has had an influence on the result or whether Asians are just more likely to participate in Facebook surveys.

The next thing to do is to go down the list and see just how many of the dishes you have already tried – I scored 38 which leaves 12 more to go

You can see the full list at http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/eat/worlds-50-most-delicious-foods-067535?page=0,0

The Benefits of Detoxing

Well it appears that I survived the recent detox session as all of my limbs are still functioning and for some weird reason I seem to have more energy but that could be as a result of better sleep which i am told can also be a side benefit to detoxing as the toxins in your body cause it a level of stress and this is reflected in more REM sleep which is apparently not good for you.

It is surprising how quickly you can get used to a vegetable and fruit only diet but it is also disquieting and perhaps an indication of the excess I was putting my body through previously that the cravings start - some just 48 hours after starting the detox.

After nothing but carrots and apples for 4 days I decided that it was time to take advantage of living in Thailand and to make my evening meal a little more exciting but still restricting it vegetables - enter the Thai delicacy of Som Tam. This spicy papaya salad is a great favorite of the Issan region of Thailand and can be very hot if the right numbers of chilies are added - I find 7 or 8 perfect but most people stick with 2 or 3. As well as being quite healthy the chilies have a remarkable cleaning effect on you and speed up your heart a little this increasing blood flow.

After 7 days of this and then 7 days of nothing but water and the occasional fruit juice, several games of golf and numerous lengths of the swimming pool I was 12 kilos lighter and considerably browner.

A detox is not just how you prepare and go through the course but also how you break it and the consultant was there to give a lot of advice.

Having told me that my body shape was predisposed towards carbs and sugars (now I have a legitimate medical reason justifying my shape) she asked me what my plans were. The intention was to ease back in to eating with another week of just having raw and then cooked vegetables with the occasion fruit and introduce proteins a further week down the path and then the occasional carbs another week later.

This all sounded grand but I was warned that this might not be possible as my body had undergone quite a drastic reduction in all the things that it craved ( a kind of cold turkey in essence) and that it might tell me quite quickly that I needed proteins and maybe even carbs.

Listening to all of this but not really taking it on board I then made my way with a staff member to Singapore where we were to do some filming for our new TV show whose next episode was to be on Superyachts.

Wanting some background flavor we made our way to Singapore's Little India where it was Deepavali and all the lights were out and hundreds of small stalls selling local delicacies.

It was here that I discovered another side effect of a detox - your sense of smell is greatly enhanced and at times I could distinguish the individual spices that were going in to the dishes.

I also learnt another lesson that self will is only so strong but the body is eventually stronger and when I nearly passed out with giddiness I realized it was my body’s way of saying it needed real sustenance.

Deciding to take things easy we order some vegetable samosas, a chicken tikka massala and Naan breads. The assault on my taste buds was amazing and never had food tasted so good but the following morning was sheer hell as the richness of the foods was too much for my pore system - now I know what they suggest you ease yourself back to eating proteins with a little steamed fish or chicken. Suffice to say it was a very disturbing time the following day and I am sure the Superyacht agents we were interviewing must have thought I had a serious affliction.

I am now back to eating solids and am as proud as a mother with her new born baby when he also makes the move but everything in moderation. This far chocolate and beer are off the menu as is bread. A very few glass of alcohol have been consumed and I am waking up in the morning feeling so much better.

What is really amazing, in addition to the amount of weight I have lost around my face is how white my eyes have become and how clean my skin is. Even some friend shave commented on it making me all the more determined to carry on at least in part towards my goal of loosing a total of 30kg by the end of the year. I'm once hoping to take a true meditation or a traditional spa while visiting a beautiful place in Turkey.

It is going to be hard as I really miss my cakes and chocolates - fortunately there is a beer shortage at the moment so the temptation there is reduced

Vegetarianism

I have never been a fan of vegetarianism whether it be the basic level, the stricter vegan or what for me is the completely ludicrous fruitarian that gained popularity after the 1999 film Notting Hill brought it to light when a dinner guest pointed out that all the vegetables on the table had been murdered.

Don't get me wrong as I love vegetables but as a part of a whole meal and not the entire meal. There are certain meat meals that are incomplete with vegetables - Sausage and mashed potatoes with onion gravy, an English Sunday Roast dinner, Thanksgiving supper and of course Christmas dinner.

I can recall sitting down some 13 years ago to a family Christmas dinner with 17 different vegetables on the table to choose from and choose I did to the extent that it took a good 5 minutes of eating  before I could locate any of the meat that I had mange to completely cover. Organically reared black breast turkey I may add which made the finding of it all the more enjoyable.

I used to claim that no meal was complete unless it had a meat element to it - even cauliflower cheese was not permitted. It had to be served with a side order of back bacon and whole grain bread.

Saturday evenings were often corn on the cob night which as a child I hated with a vengeance causing my parents to have to cook something separate for me and of course it had to have meat. Now I am perfectly happy to eat corn on the cob and try to do so at least once a week if I can. I normally eat it off the cob accompanied with a nice rare cooked steak or possibly with BBQ roast chicken.

So what has all this got to do with vegetarianism?

A few years ago I was introduced to the benefits of detoxification through fasting and colonic irrigation and was given a whole mass of books and articles to read that had for a few seconds convinced that meat, cheese and milk were the devil's own creation and would be the death of me. Some further reading gave me balance to this and I now see the benefits of eating vegetables exclusively but also eating meat when I want to, which is most days.

I am sure that in a few more years time there will be a report that states a little red meat each week is good for you. We were born with incisors, canine and molar teeth so the medical profession is catching up on what our bodies have been telling us for millenia.

I have another detox session coming up - just 10 days this time but with a 7 day pre-detox plan that involves eating lots of raw vegetables and drinking copious qualities of water. Sugars, salt, fizzy drinks, meat, cheese. cooked foods, processed foods are all excluded so it is going to be an interesting time.

Fortunately due to some careful planning, I wish, the run up to my detox is during the annual Vegetarian festival here in Phuket or some places around China where many people abstain from meat, alcohol and other toxic influences for 9 days. This means that I shall not be alone in my suffering but also that there will be plenty of places where I can get vegetarian foods. I shall just have to ignore the fact that they are all cooked but that does no real harm.

On the subject of harm one thing I shall not be doing this Vegetarian Festival is joining in with the piercings that go on as part of a cleansing ritual with young men and women forcing all kinds of weird objects through their cheeks as an offering to the gods. It is said that the gods protect them from pain but I am not so sure about this.

I will be in enough pain abstaining from meat, alcohol, sugars, cakes, breads, carbs and a drastic increase in my exercise regime without forcing foreign matter through my cheeks.

Last time I carried out a detox I lost 14 kilos and the aim is to do the same again.

Why you ask? As I told the owner of the last detox center I visited by purging the toxins form my body I make room for a whole new bunch of them which if I did not do I would overdose eventually. They were not impressed but had to acknowledge the accuracy of my sentiment.

So what is Brandy

One of the most most popular after dinner drinks around the world is Brandy and is consumed by thousands of people without knowing what they are drinking and probably do not care.

They could not also tell you why different brandies have different flavors and ages or even how they are made.

It will come as a surprise to a lot of people to learn that the drink they are having at the end of the meal could quite possibly have been made from the same product as they had with the meal - wine. Many a Chateau in France has turned an inferior year's wine into a more profitable brandy.

The first brandies are believed to have been made in the 12th century although they really became popular in the 14th century as it became a popular way of preserving things and because of the reduced volumes cheaper for the merchants to transport. The original idea was to add the water that had been lost during the distillation process but it was soon discovered that the brandy improved considerably in terms of taste after it had been stored in wooden barrels, even for a short time. What really changed the concept of brandy was when it was discovered that this process continued indefinitely as long as the brandy stayed in the barrels.

It then came down to simple economics - how long could a vineyard or brandy maker afford to keep the brandy for increased profits whilst balancing this against cash flow.

Most brandies are made by distillation of wine that is between 8% and 12% and acidic (hence the use of cheap wine in the past) with the first distillate being 30% of alcohol by volume and sometimes known as "low wine". The process is repeated until there is an average of 70% of volume when it is put into wooden barrels and allowed to mature. Cheap brandies add caramel at this point to give an impression of greater age bit can easily be spotted by experienced brandy drinkers.

You can tell the age of a brandy as there is a recognized terminology used around the world to describe it:

A.C. has been aged in wood for 2 years
V.S. (Very Special or 3 star) has been aged in wood for 3 years
V.S.O.P. (Very Superior Old Pale of 5 star) has been aged in wood for 3 years
X.O. Extra Old or Napoleon aged  for at least 6 years
Vintage - aged in barrels to the date or number of years on the bottle

What is known by very few is that many good brandies are a blend of years with the age of the youngest brandy being the age shown on the bottle. It is quite common for good brandies to have 20, 30 or even 50 year old brandy within the blend although obviously at very small quantities.

Once you get to taste brandies that are older than 20 years of age you will appreciate the massive difference that being kept in barrels for extended time makes

Some confusion arises when it comes to Cognac and Armagnac who some believe are a superior type of brandy but are in fact just regional variants with Cognac coming from the Cognac region of France and Armagnac from Gascony

Another brandy that is well known is Calvados which is brandy made from apples, cider to exact, and is one of a number of fruit brandies that are very popular

Well known in Europe and liked by Gastronaughts around the world is Grappa which is distilled from the skins and left overs from the grapes after they have been pressed.

Insect Delights

Take a walk down any Asian street and you will find stalls offering a range of foodstuffs that you do not recognize and on closer viewing possibly do not want to as these are all insects of various shapes and sizes. Looks like you are in a minimized African safari.

For westerners the prospect of eating insects is so far from their psyche that it just does not even compute for 99% of the population. Only those that have been on exotic holidays to Asia or have participated in one of the current raft of reality TV programs would consider doing so but are the rest missing out on something.

Insects are horrible dirty things that crawl on the floor or fly through the air making a nuisance and from an early age we are told they must be ignored but our basic instinct as a young child of 3 or 4 is to eat them.

From a rational view point they are a combination of proteins and sugars along with carbohydrates the same as many of the other food stuffs that we consume, and frequently are "healthier" for us.

Personally I think it has a lot to do with the modern day view to eating - meat comes on tray from the supermarket or mall and not from animals. Because insects are generally small - I would not want to meet a cockroach or grasshopper the size of a cow, they are served intact and it is this aspect of "food" that really puts people off.

Asians have long had a more practical aspect to their food and eat parts of animals that westerners find disgusting but are for many a delicacy so their acceptance of insects as a nutritional part of their diet should not be that surprising.

Deep fried grasshoppers are a particular delicacy and to be frank are a little nutty in flavor and quite nice if served with the spicy pepper or oil that is often sprayed on. The real trick is to pull off the legs and wings and then snap off the head before popping it in to your mouth. it is really embarrassing to pop the whole thing in to your mouth to discover one of the legs is sticking out of your mouth on one side.

Smaller grasshoppers and bugs can be scooped up in the fingers and eaten like you would eat rice with your fingers, a little dry at times and really surprisingly different insects have different flavors.

Numerous studies have shown that the nutritional value of insects, especially in terms of protein is very high and many of them are very low in fats and carbohydrates making them an ideal food source if you are looking for a low carb diet - I just do not understand why this has not taken off in California...

As the world becomes more populated and foodstuffs become scarcer it is almost inevitable that insects are going to have to take a bigger place in our food chain. Did you know that 100 kilos of feed produces 10 kilos of beef but if that same feed was fed to grasshoppers or similar it would produce 40 kilos of food, 4 times the quantity.

So what I suggest is that the next time someone offers you an insect to try don't dismiss them out of hand, give it a go and you might be pleasantly surprised. Just watch out for those annoying wings.....

Does a bone matter?

All around the world on a daily basis people are sitting down and eating meat as part of their daily staple, if they can afford it. As you move up the money chain so to does the quality of the meat we are eating, or so many would have us believe, especially those in the food preparation industry.

The next time that you go in to a supermarket have a look at the packets of meat, in particular chicken and look at the price differences. The cheapest of the better cuts include the bone - chicken on the breast along with the skin, the next cheapest is boneless breast with skin and the most expensive is the skinned boneless breast of chicken.

If you are making a stir fry or something similar it can be argued that this offers the best value as all you get is meat but what you are also loosing is the flavour that the skin and bone can add to the dish. This is particularly so if you are going to slow cook or casserole meat which allows the flavours to seep into the dish and add to them.

The food preparation industry is also helping is to distance ourselves from where meat comes from by removing any hint of an animal. Unfortunately they are also loosing what is often the best part of a dish by removing some of its flavor.

A particular example of this is in the Indian restaurant cuisine where everything is made from boneless chicken - it is certainly easier for them to make it this way, it is easier to eat and because we all understand that skinned boneless chicken is the more expensive they can charge more for it. I went to India a number of years ago and had the most wonderful dishes served with chicken on the bone. Yes it was harder to eat, for me who love to travel around the UK for, but the flavor really made up from it although one of our party was heard to complain and ask why we could not get proper Indian food like she had back in England..... really!!!!!

Another example where meat on the bone is hard to find but so much better for it is when eating beef. Back in the 1970's and early 1980's T bone steaks were all the rage and the highest priced dish on the menu. The BSE scare killed all of this and beef on the bone was banned across the county and so a great English dinner disappeared.

What was even worse for gourmet dinners, and those that appreciated excellent beef was the overnight disappearance of Barons of Beef. These were large joints of beef, sometimes big enough for 30 or 40 people that took 2 people to carry out at a banquet and were often carved for the guests amusement by a ceremonial sword.

The flavor that was added to the beef by cooking it on the bone was hard to miss and couple with the fact that the bones carried the heat of the cooking in to the bulk of the beef meant that you could normally get rare cooked meat that was hot from a large joint of meat. Something that now is almost impossible to find still in the UK.

Fortunately a number of countries did not suffer the BSE crisis or have allowed the regulations they introduced to lapse meaning that you can now get beef on the bone often.

Beef on the bone has a particular aroma, almost cheesy and gives the impression of being off, or just going so. If the shop staff are not aware of this it can lead to some interesting opportunities - one of which I was fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of recently.

The trainee on the deli meat counter was cutting the T Bone steaks for the first time and his supervisor had stupidly left him unattended. Noticing an unusual aroma coming from the steaks he had just cut he immediately marked them as discounted knocking 70% off the price.

Suffice to say that before the supervisor could notice his error I was the proud owner of 7 T bone steaks each of about 750g for the same price as I would pay for chicken breasts with skin. It is not often that I get to eat steak for 5 days in a row but in this instance I was prepared to make an exception and indulged my self accordingly.

True Balsamic

Vinegar has been used as a preservative and dressing since 2,000 BC in China or 3,000 BC in Egypt depending on which part of history you are reading and there are hundreds of different vinegars out there to choose from but the King of Vinegars is Balsamic.

We have all had balsamic vinegar either when we have been to the local Italian restaurant or when it has been served as a dressing on a salad in one of the posher restaurants but do you know if you have ever had true balsamic vinegar?

The first recorded mention of balsamic vinegar is in documentation from 1046 and has historically only been made in Italy, but things are changing.....

There are now 3 types of balsamic - those made in the traditional method and known as Aceto Balsalmico Tradizionale, those made on a commercial scale using new techniques Aceto Balsalmico Modena and the 3rd being a combination of both.

The modern method allows for thousands of liters to be made in just 24 hours but the traditional methods take  a lot, lot longer. A minimum of 12 years to be exact and are all blends and there are now only 2 consortia that are making it in the traditional way - Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena and Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Reggio Emilia

The process of making traditional balsalmic start with white grapes, only Trebbiano and Lambrusco grapes, which are boiled down in to syrup and then put in to a series of 12 different barrels made from different woods, a different one each year and allowed to ferment.

The barrels are made from diverse woods such as acacia, chestnut, cherry, ash, oak and mulberry and each barrel is slightly smaller than the one used for the year before.

It is the barrels that give balsamic vinegar its unique blend of tart and sweetness and make it so prized by chefs and gourmands as the vinegar absorbs the flavors of the wood.

A small portion of the vinegar evaporates every year and this is known as the "angel's share", the same as in the whisky industry

True Balsamic vinegar only comes from the last of the barrels after it has gone through its 12 year aging process. The contents of the next oldest barrel are then transferred in to the newly emptied barrel and so on all the way up to the contents of the largest barrel whose contents were only put in there the year before and made from grapes picked that year.

For truly spectacular balsamic vinegar the process is extended to 18 or even 25 years resulting in a vinegar that has a unique sweetness to it and is totally wasted on a salad. It does however go brilliantly with aged Parmesan Cheese - preferably 9 month minimum

Good traditionally made balsamic vinegar can go for as much as $400 for a 100ml bottle and many of these are unique in shape.

 Reggio Emilia use colour coded labels to depict the age, red for 12 year aged, silver for 18 year aged and gold for 25 year aged whilst Modena use a cream-coloured cap to denote vinegars aged for 12 years or more and a magenta cap for vinegars over 25 years old making it much easier to locate your preference in the specialist stores.

Balsamic vinegar has many uses including to many people's surprise desserts such as panna cotta and creme caramel and thanks to its digestive properties has also been used as a drink at the end of a traditional Italian meal.

So the next time you are in a good Italian restaurant take a look at the bottle on the table and if it has the word Tradizionale on the label ask for some Parmesan cheese and just relish its taste.

Were the 2007 Bordeaux really that bad? part 2

I suppose the only way to tell if a year is good or bad is to sample the wines and to tell if they are improving is to keep on trying them. The only problem with this is if the wine is not great but is improving over the years and you are testing it annually by the time it comes to perfection you might not have many bottles left.

One benefit of belonging to a wine club is that they will occasionally host a night where you might get the opportunity to try something special, or at least something you would not normally get to try.

Such was the situation with the 2007 Bordeaux where 10 bottles were lined up for blind tasting with only the names available to us, and oh what a list of names.

Regrettably all of the 2007 Bordeaux were definitely not up to the standards of earlier years as all were a little weak in both length and in flavor. All were high in tannins and a number of them quite sharp in taste leaving an almost metallic taste in the mouth.

The better known names definitely came out on top although there were a couple of surprises. What was very apparent when collating the scores was that there was a polarization of opinion on a number of the wines with some people marking the wines very high with others marking the same wines very low.

The results to some are the all important thing for a wine tasting night although personally I find it the experience and hope of getting to sample some great wines. Not this time but maybe next time

For those that want to know the results of the blind tasting were as follows

1st Chateau Angelus, St Emilion 2007 Premier Grand Cru Classe
2nd Chateau L'Evangile, Pomerol 2007
3rd Chateau Cos D' Estournel, St Estephe 2007 Premier Grand Cru Classe
4th Chateau Brane Cantenac, Margaux, 2005 2eme Grand Cru Classe
5th Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Pauillac 2007, 2eme Grand Cru Classe
6th Gerard Betrand Cigalus Rouge, Langeudoc Roussillon 2008
7th Chateau D' Armailhac, Pauillac 2007 5eme Grand Cru Classic
8th Chateau Pichon Longueville Baron, Pauillac 2007 2eme Grand Cru Classic
9th Chateau Lynch Bages Grand Cru Classe, Pauillac 2007, 5eme Grand Cru Classe
10th Chateau L' Evangile Pomerol 2007

Next month's wine tasting is followed by a dinner with the wines from the tasting matched to food so it will be interesting to see how the wine changes when served with food.

Were the 2007 Bordeaux really that bad? part 1

After a run of very good years the conditions for the 2007 vintage were not ideal resulting in the initial reports on the quality of wine not being good.

Up until 1999 a good bottle of Bordeaux would cost you around £10 but it all went wrong, from a consumers viewpoint, on the turn of the century.

A number of very smart marketers in the Bordeaux region saw the benefits that the Millennium year could bring and made a concerted effort to place Bordeaux wines as being THE drink to have for the New Year if you were a serious wine drinker rather than champagne that everyone would be drinking.

This was couple by excellent growing conditions and near perfect ripening conditions resulting in an excellent vintage.

What many people do not know is that you do not buy wine from the Chateau or grower but rather from a "negociant" who buy the wines on speculation, almost like buying futures, and then hope that the wine is an excellent one when it is ready for drinking 2 years later, although many Bordeaux are much better left for longer periods.

In order to be able to bid for the following year's crop a negociant must buy a certain amount of product in the current year.

The early marketing of the Millennium crop meant that prices rose steeply in 2000 and the perfect year in 2003 meant that the prices rose considerably, in some instances doubling the previous year's highs.

Because of the tight restrictions on watering and cropping, unlike in Australia and other New World regions, Bordeaux wines often bounce between excellent years and bad years with average ones in between. The first decade of the century however bucked this and in 2005 had another near perfect year producing another excellent vintage, the second in 2 years.

This created a lot of excitement in the industry and coupled with strong economic situation around the world resulted in prices spiraling upwards.

2006 was an OK year but retained the excitement from 2006 and once again prices rose sharply but it was in 2007 that the bubble burst in terms of quality but not the prices as the negociants were desperate to retain their bidding rights to the 2008 crop so many in the industry felt that the prices paid were excessive given the expected quality of the wines.

2008 was an OK year but 2009 once again was a good year and has set new benchmarks in terms of pricing - a bottle of 2009 Lafite Rothschild was selling for 1600 Euros per bottle with negociants. Wine speculators are expecting to make bumper profits on this which could mean that bottles will be reaching the market for over 2,000 Euros a bottle putting it far beyond the affordability for the normal wine drinker, and quite a few of the not so normal wine drinkers.

Story of Rice

It is the most important food stuff in the world and the basic staple of possible half of the world's population. There are thousands of different varieties and nearly as many different ways of cooking it - I am of course referring to RICE

What has always been uncertain is just where and when man first decided to cultivate it. It has long been agreed that there are 2 sub-species of rice with one being predominant in China with the other in India but until very recently it has been thought that the domestication of rice occurred in a number of different locations over thousands of years

In a recent study in the Philippines broke down the genome to its most basic levels to determine just where it came from and it would appear that all rice is the same at this lowest of levels.

This means that it all comes from a single source and that has been determined as being from China with the first domestication taking place about 8,000 years ago and then transported to India about 4,000 years ago

Some burnt rice remnants were found in South Korea a few years ago and carbon dating seems to place these back over 15,000 years ago but there is still a lot of controversy over these findings and accuracy of the data

There are fundamental differences in length, consistency and taste between the 2 sub species which could be explained by accidental cross fertilization with local wild rice in India but they are still cooked and prepared in the same way, most of the time anyway

Everyone has their preference as to which rice is the best but personally I think it depends on what you are eating. On the whole I think that the longer Jasmine rice is better as an accompaniment to curries and dry cooked or tandoori chicken whilst the shorter rice goes better with the Chinese style stir fry dishes.

Another particular favorite and something I had not had before is sticky rice which is very popular in Thailand and is part of one of the regional dishes served with grilled chicken and som tum, a very spicy green papaya salad.

In the east, rice becomes a main ingredient in kitchen, on traditional dish in Costa Rican cuisine. A combination of rice and beans called 'Gallo Pinto', serve with vary of 'mariscos', fresh seafood, direct from Costa Rica coast.

In the west rice is seen as something to be had when dining out at the local Chinese or Indian restaurants but for many people it is the only source of sustenance that they enjoy, and not every day either.

Carpaccio's Creation

Loved by many yet hated by nearly as many the dish of Carpaccio has been the subject of so many conversations that it is unusual to find food lovers that have not tried it.

Traditionally the dish is a selection of raw meats although raw fish has also been used particularly salmon or tuna and topped with a mustard sauce. The Japanese call raw fish sashimi and have been preparing it for centuries so it is not truly Carpaccio but when someone comes up with a good idea someone else always seems to adapt it

The origins of when Carpaccio first came about are uncertain as man has been eating raw meat for millennia but the finely sliced, almost wafer this slices of raw meat as a dish are believed to have originated around 1950.

History has it that a well to do lady ,countess Amalia Nani Mocenigo had been told by her doctor that she should no longer eat cooked meat as it was bad for her and should instead eat only raw meat.

Not wanting to be served chunks of raw meat and attract strange looks from other diners in the restaurant  she asked the proprietor of Harry's Bar in Venice Giuseppe Cipriani if there was anything he could do to help

His creation of very finally sliced meats served with a light mustard sauce was exactly what she was looking for but now the problem arose as to how to order it without embarrassment.

Being a fan of the 15th century Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio Giuseppe Cipriani thought that the plate of meats looked very similar to some of the paintings that the artist made with his use of light colours and shades or reds and browns.

Because of this he suggested that the dish be called "Carpaccio" so that the countess could order her meal easily.

Whether or not this is true is not known but there was definitely an exhibition of Carpaccio's works in 1950 in Venice so it could well be true.

Whether or not it is true it is still and excellent dish and great as a starter especially if a variety of meats are used in particular beef, veal or venison

Personally I feel that this is the best way to enjoy Wagu or Kobe beef as you get the full benefit of the flavours of the meat

Hard to prepare well many restaurants cheat by freezing the cooked meats allowing them to slice the meats very thin more easily. I prefer to have my meats chilled as it probably means they have been well cared for but be wary if yours is very cold - it may just have come out of the freezer...

My friend's restaurant serves an excellent plate of this so I think that is what tonight's starter will be, probably followed by Spaghetti Carbonara

Academia Stupidity

The image of Dons drinking old Clarets and rich Bordeaux whilst sitting down to sumptuous gourmet dinners may well be thanks to the minds of TV and film makers but it was certainly the case for hundreds of years in the older institutions of Oxford and Cambridge in the UK but if the "experts" at the University of Hertfordshire are to be believed they were wasting their money.

A group of psychologists from the university carries out a blind tasting with a range of cheap and expensive wines (the wines were up to £30 a bottle - that is not expensive.....) including champagnes and vintage champagnes costing up to £30 (!!!!! very cheap for a vintage champagne). Also tested were varieties such as Rioja, shiraz, claret, pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc.

Unfortunately no information is available to tell which countries each of the grapes came from.

578 people were then chosen at random at the Edinburgh Science Festival and asked to decide which were the cheap wines and which were the expensive ones.

By the law of averages you should be able to guess correctly 50% of the time and surprise surprise this is the result that they got.

Their conclusion from this experiment - a quote from lead researcher psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman " These are remarkable results. People were unable to tell expensive from inexpensive wines, and so in these times of financial hardship the message is clear - the inexpensive wines we tested tasted the same as their expensive counterparts."

What a crock of shit

Apart from the fundamental flaws in the experiment information - small number, no indication of age or sex spread, what was the percentage of wine drinkers in the sample - the conclusion that they draw has no correlation to the question asked.

The test group were asked to determine which were cheap and which were the expensive wines, not whether they tasted alike or which did they dislike.

There is an observed fact that people will indicate a wine is cheap if they do not like it and many good wines are far to dry for normal taste buds given the high level of sugar in everyone's diet these days.

I will bet my bottom dollar that the rioja all went into cheap wine category due to the high tanin levels but I have had some wonderful rioja and many of them were not cheap

A like or love of wine is all about developing your taste buds and learning about what you like and what works well with what. Many better wines go great with food, as they are designed to be, but are not so great on their own.

Many of the New World Wines are "processed" to achieve a taste level to suit most palates so if you were comparing an Australian Shiraz against a French traditional style Shiraz the latter would almost certainly be classified as cheap.

A final point on the topic is that price has got bugger all to do with it. Five years ago you could purchase Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc for about NZ$5 but the price these days is nearer NZ$30. Why? Because it is a great wine and become very popular so its price has risen drastically - nothing else has changed.

So the conclusion to be drawn from all this - a lot of people in academia know bugger all about wines and it seems not a lot about conducting experiments and then reporting on the information gathered in a concise manner

I suppose the only good thing about this report is that if a lot of people read it and act on it there will be more of eh better wines that I like left on the shelves and who knows maybe the shops will be forced to have a sale....

Giving up Food

It may seem strange to talk about giving up food on a Food and Drink blog but we all do it from time to time and for the weirdest reasons. This blog is not about dieting for aesthetic reasons, or even for health reasons but instead for religious ones.

We are now in the period of Lent during which Christians around the world prepare themselves for the celebration of Holy Week culminating in Easter Sunday. Historically this always involved 4 areas of activity - repentance, prayer, alms giving and self denial and it the last of these that has carried forward into many parts of society with the first 3 falling by the wayside

Self denial has many forms and for the more religious this can often include giving up pleasures of a physical nature but many people will take an easier route and give up favorite foods or drinks.

Many people will give up sweets or cakes with others also giving up alcohol all of which is very simple to do whilst in many catholic countries the more traditional route of not eating during daytime and only having simple foods at night is taken. This can be taken to an extreme when no cooked foods are eaten during the 40 days of Lent which are a simile for the 40 days and nights that Christ wandered the desert and was tempted by the Devil.

All of this normally starts on Shrove Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras where historically people went to Church and asked to be shriven, or forgiven of their sins so that they could be pure for the run up to Holy week. Given that Mardi Gras festivals are some of the most exotic and in some places decadent parties of the year you have to somehow think they have lost the origins of the day but then modern day world often does this.

Shrove Tuesday also has another name - Pancake Day - and this religious date has spawned a whole new culinary style. Traditionally on Shrove Tuesday the matron of the house would prepare a batter mix of milk, eggs and flour as the first 2 items were not permitted to be eaten during Lent and then heated  in a pan to create a "cake" to which were added all of the other forbidden items such as fish, cheese and meats and then eaten by the whole house

Nowadays there is a whole industry around pancakes with franchise shops selling millions every day with some of the most exotic ingredients imaginable including Foi Gras or truffles.

The most traditional topping in the UK for pancakes and normally only eaten on Pancake Day is fresh lemon juice and sugar - a firm favorite of young children and hidden in the depths of history is that the lemon and sugar represent the bitterness of the Devil and the sugar the sweetness of God.

Whatever your religious beliefs they still make an excellent dessert although the American invention of Jubilee Pancakes consisting of hot cherries in an alcohol based sauce and served with ice cream has to come a very close second.

Carbonara Confusion

One of the most popular Italian dishes after pizza and lasagna is Spaghetti Carbonara which is served in restaurants of every type all over the world and loved by millions.

However many people that enjoy the dish do not realize the origins of the dish nor how it should be properly cooked.

Being a traditional dish many people think that Spaghetti Carbonara is hundreds of years old but its genesis is as recent as the mid 1940's. At the end of World War II allied troops that were liberating towns and villages in Italy and had to stop and eat at the end of each day. Many of these locations were desperately short of food often only having pasta to survive on. The allied troops however were often very well provisioned and being kind hearted shared what they had in their rucksacks.

One one occasion troops billeted in a small village added their tin of ham and powdered eggs to a bowl of hot pasta to create a meal for all involved and so Spaghetti Carbonara was born.

It is often served with a cream sauce but this is not traditional. The proper way to serve Carbonara is to take an egg yolk and beat into this a little pepper and salt and place in to a metal bowl. To this is added hot spaghetti and then mixed so that the egg covers the hot pasta and is cooked by the heat from the pasta. Bacon is then added to the top of this and served quickly.

Ideally the egg is still cooking as it is served at the table making for a very subtle yet filling dish.

Regrettably there are few places that serve the dish properly but I am fortunate to have a friend that not only owns an Italian restaurant but also has an Italian chef as an adviser so the dishes are all served correctly and in the traditional manner. They even have the correct wines from the right areas as a matching

Think it's time for a pasta night

The Luck of the Irish

The 17th March saw the celebration of possibly the world's largest national festival when Irish and non Irish people celebrated St Patrick's Day, or Paddy's day as it is often called.

The success of this even each year is not a little due to the Irish love of travel and it is hard to find a town or a property around the world that does not have an Irish Bar run by a genuine Irishman. There are a few Irish bars around the world that are not owned by Irishmen but they are not really the same.

One of the delights for St Patrick's day is the copious quantities of Guinness and Irish beers such as Kilkenny that are consumed by just about everyone participating.

One of the quirks of the day is the dying of everything green, the traditional Irish colour and so involved in the participation are many countries that they ignore local food regulations and dye their beer green too. We had a very interesting pint of lager that had been died green using lemongrass extract that did not significantly change its flavour.

Accompanying, or rather helping to soak up the alcohol are normally big bowls of Irish Stew and crusty bread to soak up the juices - an excellent repast and one that can be consumed all through the day

In the past cities such as Chicago and Sydney have died their rivers green to celebrate the day but concerns for other creatures living in the river have stemmed this practice much to the disappointment of party goers.

Personally I prefer to have a mixed grill on the day with all the trimmings including black and white puddings as well as plenty of soda bread and fries.

Now if only other country's national days could be so much fun we could have a party nearly every day...

Argentinian Wines

I attended a great wine tasting last night and felt that I had to share it.

All of the wines were from Argentina and were offered to the members of the wine club in a standard sampling format and were served with a range of Thai foods that were expected to match

Argentinean wines are unusual to other wines from around the world as it is one of the few countries that can grow different grape varieties in adjacent fields. Some countries can grow different wines within the same area but not side by side.

Grapes in Argentina are also the highest altitude grown wines in the world with many of them growing at between 700 and 1400 meters above sea level. Whilst not seeming that high most vines do best at altitudes of less than 100 meters.

The soil in Argentina is also not that brilliant when compared to that of Chile or South Africa but the increased altitude creates colder temperatures forcing the grapes to grow more robustly and their flavours being more intense.

This was particularly noticeable in the 2 white wines offered. The Finca El Portillo Sauvignon Blanc was light and crisp with a noticeable blend of grapefruit and tropical fruits. It had a lingering taste on the palate and went well as the first wine.

The Signos Chardonnay 2010 was a particular find and one I shall be going back to regularly. With absolutely no oak it was a pleasant change from the traditional style New World Chardonnays and is to be recommended to those who say they do not like Chardonnay. Very light in flavours there was a lingering citrus flavour that really refreshed the palate.

Argentina’s signature wine has to be Malbec and some of the finest examples of this in the world can be found here. The differing altitudes that the grapes are grown at can make a significant difference to the quality of the grape and to be frank I found the first of the Malbecs to be a little light. I am definitely into heavier wines and this one just did not have the substance that I enjoy. It would however make an excellent party wine or possibly with a bar b que where it would go well with meats.

I had already drunk the 2^nd red we were served before and knew I was going to like it as it wa a Malbec / Tempranillo blend, another of my preferred grapes. Although still young, it was only a 2007, it still had a good blend of berry flavours especially cherry and plum and went nicely with the friend pork balls that were on offer.

The highlight of the evening for me was the penultimate red wine, a Shiraz / Malbec blend from Callia Alta that was a beautiful deep ruby colour and a nose that just begged for it to be drunk. The first and second level flavours were very intense with enough tannin to ensure you would not forget this wine in a hurry. It went perfectly with the duck served with a curry sauce and I expect would also be great with cheese, especially heavier chesses such as Gorgonzola.

What really surprised me with this wine was its price. Wine is expensive here as a result of importation taxes and often a cheap bottle of wine just is not worth the effort whilst a good wine is sufficiently priced to make you think twice about a second bottle. Very often the cost of the wine is 4 or 5 times the price of the food and that is just for a mid range wine.

So the net result – a successful night and another wine added to the list of what I like.

There cannot be a better result than that……

Real Ale is Real Quality

I have always been a lover of real ale – that’s proper beer for those of you who do not know anything about beer and it is also not chilled – shame on you. 

To educate all those that like that kind of thing the main difference between ale and larger is the fermentation process. Ale is top fermented quickly in warmer temperatures whilst lager is bottom fermented using colder temperatures.

There are also a number of other major differences between the 2 styles. Historically ales are also much stronger in flavour, some of them reaching 12% or 13% whilst the strongest lagers seldom get beyond 8% although the Trappist beers of Belgium can equal the strength of some ales.

Dark beers such as porters and stouts are also ales but are normally much more bitter than straight forward ales and are normally now chilled.

Historically ales were never chilled although they would be kept in a cellar at lower temperatures than the ambient temperature of the ale house in an attempt to keep the beers clear as they were often not filtered and easily clouded. Pour a glass of real ale from a lightly chilled wooden barrel or even a small aluminium one, never steel and then place you hands on the top. When you serve another glass after having done this you will see that the slight change in temperature between the top and bottom of the storage container have caused the contents to move and subsequently cloud – something that no true real ale drinker would ever accept

Another fundamental difference between ale and lager is the fizz. It is very rare to find a non gassed lager these days, even in a micro brewery and it is this nature that attracts the younger male drinker and explains the explosion in the last 20 years of internationally recognized brand names.

A true real ale connoisseur is at his happiest at a Real Ale festival, frequently organised by CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) and can sometimes have as many as 200 different ales to sample and enjoy.

There are still a few remote pubs (public houses) in the UK where you can still purchase beers that are stored in barrels and “broached” by inserting a spigot, or tap, into the barrel and then serving in pint glasses.

Served with a traditional meal of cheese and bread there can be no better meal especially if there are large portions of Bramston pickle and a good portion of pickled onions.

Next week we will look at the explosion of micro breweries around the world and the decline of tied houses.