Pork Pie and Éphémère Apple Beer

We have written before about Éphémère Apple Beer.
One thing that it pairs with particularly well is a pork pie from Oyama Sausage Company.

Crispy, flaky pastry filled with dense, flavourful pork sausage. A perfect match for the green apple flavours in the wheat beer.

Available from their shop on Granville Island, if you're in town. 

Not sure how we missed this when we posted about Summer Goodies a little while ago. Aya's tomatoes had a ripping season once the weather got warm. The red ones came in by the handful. When they were finished, the yellow, pear-shaped ones came in by the bowlful.

Roast Pork and Anciano Tempranillo

Recently we had good cause to wander into the bit of Main Street history that is Windsor Quality Meats (AKA Windsor Packing Co, not to be confused with another shop in North Vancouver) and lighten their stock by the amount of one pork shoulder, skin on.

Rubbed with salt and pepper, it came out simply beautifully:
 

Note the big piece of crackling on the block. It was next under the knife:

Speaking of the knife, it is a special treat to ourselves that we splurged on when in Sakai, Japan, last fall.

Sakai was historically a steel town, manufacturing swords, and later guns, for the Samurai. After the war, arms-makers were forced to apply their skills to other kinds of manufacturing, and Sakai became famous for its bicycles and kitchen knives.

A good reason to slice up a roast pork is the opening of a bottle of Tempranillo like this one: Anciano Gran Reserva 10 year-old Tempranillo from Valdepeñas. Spanish winemakers take the risk and burden of aging their wine for us, releasing it only on a pre-arranged schedule.

This 2001, then, has been aging gently, developing wonderful flavours, and is now somehow available to us for the unbelievable bargain of $16. Still tannic when opened, it could continue to age for another 5 years at least.

We left it for about 30 minutes and it opened up beautifully, showing red and black fruit, leather, spice and nutty-earth. It was still developing as we poured the last drops.

We were tipped off to this under-valued treasure by the weekly e-mail we get from Canada's own Wine Access magazine. This one recommendation alone is worth the annual subscription. If we were under the illusion that anyone actually read this blog, we would be much more reluctant to post about this case-worthy wine.

Katsu Curry Lunch in Kyoto

Need a quick, filling, delicious meal in Japan, something at the opposite end of the scale from sushi?

Look for the most adorable piglet mascot logo around.

You don't have to be able to read the menu, just find the photo of the meal you want at the price you're willing to pay.

Coins in the slot, push the button, take your ticket; just like taking the train. The delicious curry train. To Lunchville.

Human interaction has been minimized to save time, money and embarrassing eye-contact. Look away as your rice is weighed on the scale.

Look back and hurray! It's ready!

Breaded pork cutlet, rich, spicy curry, white rice and pickles. This cost about seven dollars and was hugely satisfying, especially with a cold pint of Kirin Lager.

Now if only the delicious train stopped for about twenty minutes in Nap Town.

*Edit (Jan 8/12):
We have been reminded that there was a very famous system like this called Automat in New York City back in the early 20th century. This site gives a good impression of how different it must have been at the time.

Birthday Wine: Foxtrot Pinot Noir

Some special food for a recent birthday:

Rambutan!

Mangosteen!

Buying one of these outside of Thailand is always a gamble. Despite their thick skin, they bruise easily (see the brownish bits) and the bright yellow is a sign of doom:

Injury to outer skin results in percolation of bitter latex into the edible flesh, which makes the whole fruit bitter and inedible.

 We got to this one just in time. A good half of it was perfect: snowy white, membranous and thick with tropical flavour.

Not pictured: Passion fruit! We slurped up its aromatic, crunchy seeds so quickly we forgot to take a photo.

Dinner started with some fat scallops.

And continued with pork in a rich, cream sauce.

Served with the excellent Pinot Noir from Foxtrot from the Naramata Bench in the Okanagan.

Very much in demand, this Pinot is quickly coming to exemplify the Naramata terroir. Medium-bodied with classic cherry and slight earthy notes, it has a rich, supple finish reminiscent of the famous Burgundies. While not as acidic, it has amazing balance and well deserves its growing reputation.

Thanksgiving Dinner, 2010

Aya planned and we prepared a full-course Thanksgiving dinner for eight, a week after the official date.

The menu. It is supposed to be "smoked pork jowl", not "smored", obviously.

Stuffing the oregano pesto down inside the turkey, between the skin and meat.

Injecting stock into the meat.

While there are no good photos of the roast bird on the table,

the meat was full of flavour and juicy.

The pesto saturated the whole thing with aromatic intensity.

A selection of some of the appetizers.

• Sautéed Pork With Apple
• Octopus Tentacles
• Chèvre And Dried Persimmon Spring Rolls
• Smoked Pork Jowls

Desserts!

• Egg Nog Pudding Spice Cake With Cranberries
• Pear Tart In Roast Nut Pastry With Chocolate
• Missing, Presumed Devoured: Pumpkin Cream Roll Cake

The wines, many of which came from our generous guests, included:

• Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut Cava with the appetizers
• Stony Knoll Chardonnay with the roast kabocha ravioli
• James Oatley Tik Tok Cabernet Sauvignon
• Rodney Strong Zinfandel
• Venturi Shulze Pinot Noir 2004 with the turkey... oh wow!
• La Frenz Vintage Port Style 2009 with desserts

Trip To New York #2: Fantastic Food

We were able to keep our heads long enough to grab some photos of our meals, but most were so delicious that they were demolished before the camera came out.

A fantastic breakfast at Bread Alone in Rhinebeck, NY. From their menu: "Country Scramble Three eggs scrambled with baked ham, Old Chatham camembert, scallions, grilled tomatoes and organic French Sourdough toast."
and
"Huevos Benedicto: two poached eggs with saffron hollandaise and merguez sausage on a corn muffin, with plantain mash."
It's hard to overstate the deliciousness of the sweet corn muffin with the spicy merguez.

Massive chicken wings with blue cheese dressing, pulled pork, and a half-rack of ribs, all cooked to perfection and drenched in barbecue sauce at Max's Memphis BBQ just north of Rhinebeck, NY.

A New York Strip steak (but in New York they just call them Strips) grilled rare with sautéed spinach, and a plate of fresh gnocchi under arugula at the beautiful Park restaurant in New York City.

These meals were shared with family from far and wide, but the warmth of the company and the wonderful conversation is best left un-blogged, we think.

Dig-Dig #2: Sapphires in Montana

Google Maps link to Gem Mountain.

Arriving at Gem Mountain in the late afternoon, we set up camp and made a great big dinner of pork cutlets and a Beringer White Merlot. It is hard to go wrong making a bright, flavourful rosé from well-ripened grapes, but this is where Beringer shows real determination. We can recommend this wine if you like sugar and hate your tongue. The pork was excellent, however, and we fried up some extra for the next day's sandwiches, hoping to eat them from a gunny sack by the crick, or something equally rustic.

Aya could hardly sleep in anticipation of the next day's activities: pulling raw sapphires from the pure Montana dirt.

Here's how it works:

You buy a bucket of alluvial gravel.

Pour a manageable amount into your screen.

Take the screen of dirt to the washing trough, which is filled with warm Montana river water. One of those adjectives is not accurate.

Using the two washing techniques demonstrated by the Gem Mountain staff, get the small pebbles to the center and the larger ones to the outside edge in a circular pattern. Heavier sapphires will sink to the bottom.

Flip the screen over in one smooth motion.

There. There. There and there. At least four sapphires of different colours in this batch. Did you know that rubies are rare red sapphires?


Sunday afternoon at Gem Mountain.

We looked through seven buckets of gravel before taking our collection into the office to have them assayed. A total of 95.56 carats on the first day!

First the sapphires are sorted by size.

Those above a certain size and without flaws are considered "cuttable". Heat treating will enhance the colour.

Anticipation.

The first day's cuttable sapphires, averaging almost one carat each.

We only went through three buckets of gravel in the morning of the second day but managed to find almost as many as the day before. Only one less cuttable gem and another eight that are "flawed but cuttable". We left them all to be heat treated and cut into whatever shape best suits each one. They'll show up in the mail in a few months after we have forgotten about them, bringing joy into a rainy winter's day.