Winekaki - 22 October 2011

The winekakis... or shall I say, wine-keteers gathered again last Saturday at our home. We haven't been hosting for a long time since without a domestic helper and this time, we graciously played host to our fellow wineketeers.

No particular food theme, just the usual bring-whateva-you-like pot luck.

 Our fellow wineketeers brought KFC, braised chicken wings, Kajang sate, salad and braised duck feet (not in pic)

I prepared bacon aglio olio and prawn spaghetti for mains and the olive and cheese chunks are for nipping into while sipping wine.

The piece de resistence.... Roast pork

I finally got it right this time. Not blowing my own trumpets but hubs said this roast is the best and the mother of all roasts dished out from our oven. I tried a very simple and fuss free method of blanket-ing the rind with rock salt and roast.  However, X-factor here is to choose a good piece of meat.  I go to the the butcher at Taman Tun Market - Lee Wah Trading for a perfect cut of meat. Belly is the most expensive part of the porcine and I want to make sure I get the best to. Lee Wah's  pork is absolutely fresh, clean and odorless. This piece of has even layers of meat, fat, meat, fat and meat and fat.... simply divine for roasting pork !!!

I made tiramisu in a cup, in perfect serving proportions.  I find digging into a dish of tiramisu totally yucks. The first slice is always nice and the remaining pieces gets sloshy and sloppy. Tiramisu is such a delicate desert and I want my guests to enjoy their servings. I used the little drinking glass I got from Ikea.

I also baked a french almond cake.  

 

The 4 wineketeers who was present.

The selection they had.

Good food, good company and good wine. The wineketeers are already talking of another round to wrap up 2011.  :D

Winekaki Gathering - 19 Jan 2011

**backdated**

The hubs and his winekaki's had another a do to kickstart the gongxi gongxi spirit on 20 Jan 2011. This round was at Steve and Fun's.

the wines we had

the ones that did not make it. Leonard got it exchanged at the wine dealer's. Always recommend to buy from credible dealers and be a regular. At least when the wine goes wrong.. either from bad storage, bad shipping or bad handling, we can get an exchange. Logistics is very crucial here. One error in the chain, the wine turns bad.

Steve set up a tent outdoors for the kids.

Fun had plenty of toys for the kids too.

Fun had loads of scrapbook-ing stuff from materials to machines for us to meddle with.

We had our first lou sang toss. The first is always the best. Always :)

The food we had.. mostly takeaways as it was a working day and no one had the time to cook. Nevertheless, food was excellent.

One taking notes, while the other giving..

Even the husbands were fascinated with her scrap booking tools. Plenty and she has a whole attic room for her stuff. *envy*  *envy*

Amber likes the Haji Samuri satay, Kajang original :)

The best tool had to be the iPad. ES had a program downloaded just for wines, to memo down the wines we had. He is now promoted officially to be our 'wine librarian'   :)

 

Wine, crafts, food and kids.. it was a very enjoyable evening for our winekaki's and families.

Next stop - Leonards !

Wine Gathering on Deepavali

Being a Malaysian, we'll find every reason to celebrate any occasions. On Deepavali, we had another winekaki gathering at our home. We've been going round and round homes and it's most joyous to drink and be merry at comfort of each other's homes and wifes and kids included.

The wines we had (for hubs records, he wants to remember when and where and had what) :

 everyone brought 1 lucky pot :)

I cooked :

 hokkien mee

 sambal belacan for the noodles

chue yau char.. to garnish the noodles.. hubs request.

yam cake.

We, as usual, the night gets merrier when more wines are opened.. *hic*    *hic*

Wine Gathering during the Raya Weekend.

We basically did nothing and went nowhere. *Bliss* I needed this long awaited break. No travelling, sleeping in, minimal cooking and going shopping when I felt like it.

We only had one event for the weekend, that is our wine roundtable at Leonard's.

Paired with good food. Some homecooked and some bought , we had aged cheddar, blue cheese, homecooked hakka char yoke, roast duck, hokkien mee.

In the spirit of Raya celebrations, we contributed the lemang daun lerek from Gombak.

It was the first day of Raya and business was brisk. We waited 2 hours for lemang. Our gathering was at Kota Damansara and hubs needed to go Popular at Ikano to change some cd and so. we took a long drive from Gombak to Ikano back to Gombak then to Kota Damansara. Although it was raining heavily, the roads were clear and I didn't mind driving.

The lemang and serunding. Yumzz and perfect for a Raya day gathering.

We started with a customary white. An appetizer to begin a trail of what's more to come but somehow, everyone was in a jolly mood of chit chatting and not drinking to much and we only had 3 reds of the above, notably the St Emillion's Chateau Canon Grand Cru Classe and a Penfold 2006 RWT.

 

The kids were busy on the own, forming their 6yr old club and Amber so wanted to stick to the cheh-cheh's. Sorry babe, you're still too young to join their Monopoly games but you can watch tho' or join the adults and chit chat along with us.

 

The honour of opening the bottle of wine.. the first to sniff the palate and check the goodness of the bottle, if it's been aged well and kept well.

 

  

 

A toast to friendship and good health and many many many more wine roundtables to come.

 

The driver.. can't have too much of the good thing.. I save it for the best.. the RWT 2006 !

Wine Roundtable 1 - 2010

This post is actually for hubs. He wants to tumpang in my blog for his future reference.

We had our first wine roundtable for the year at ES house. A very hurried event since his wife is due to deliver soon (and he had to miss the event of the year - roundtable at the dealers home - which he missed)

Date : 30 April 2010, 7.30pm, present :
hubs
ES
Leonard and family

A pot luck event and we picked up some satay from Zaini Satay.


Our makan for the day : nam yue chicken wings, satay, hokkien mee and braised duck (forgot to take pics)


The palatte for the night :

hubs - San Leonardo 2004, Italian.
Leonard - Godolphin Barossa Valley
ES - Pomerol 2000

Vast diversity ! Italian, Australian and French. As I'm typing this, hubs asked me to add a note:
Vast diversity of wine but unity amongst the kakis!


Our winetables are always a family affair.. :)

Wine Roundtable 2 - was at the dealers on 8 Ma7 2010

Next roundtable - at KK's place - Glenmarie Court. Targetted end June 2010. Benchmark - 300

Wine Roundtable at The Dealers

Last Saturday we went for the 'ultimate' wine gathering for the year. Each of us had to bring our best wine and location this time was at the dealers house. He's such a nice guy for accomodating us, we know if we ever run out of wine, we can ransack his cellar.

We were the first couple to arrive and was greeted by :

Hubs can feel the mood of the night, even before his kakis arrive.


All very premier wines



The dealers home is excellent for wine gatherings. I like his showcase of miniature and aged brandy and whiskies.

Then the 'guest of honour' arrived :


Amber looking at the guest of honour. Look carefully, can see or not ?
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Mr Roast Pig was the guest of honour for the evening. One 40kg pig for us to 'pig out' to the max !

Warm and moist meat, tasty and crunchy skin.

That night, I had a chance to savour different parts of the pig. Above is the rib strips.

This from dunno where.. strictly crackling skin and very thin layer of meat. I also tried the 'cheeks' .. apparently the most sought after part of the roast pig. Very nice and Amber likes it as the skin is not too crunchy and roasted and very biteable.

This is the 'hind' of the pig.

An irresistable piece.

His HUGE cellar awed us. Everyone posed to take a picture and we boasted to have been to France and back. 14 rows of shelves. AWESOME !!!

The oldest wine in his collection. 1915 !! Still drinkable too. A collectors piece now. The dealer said the market value is close to 40k or 50k. I nearly pengsan-ed and was mindful not to touch (although itchy hands of mine wanted to hold 50k bottle in hand).

The wines we had after 'pigging out' :

We started with Chilean red, Montes collection - Follie, Purple Angel and 'M' Series. Didn't take any picture. As with any wine tasting, hubs very kan cheong during the start and forgets to snap pics.

Then we moved to :

Hills of Grace 1985

Chateau Pape Clement. Grand Cru Classe Bourdeaux 2006

Latour 1993

We had 2 Grange. What a treat, to be able to compare a 1994 and 1995 vintage. Although a year difference but the taste differed greatly. 1994 is a lot more complex and rich, more 'power' (hubs definition) than 1995.

a Moillard Burgundy... 1980.. We had the 1976 too and it was EXCELLENT. It was aged so well, we had to drink within 15 minutes. Both wines are not for sale anymore. The dealer has been very kind to us. I think we've tasted his 1976 a couple of times.

a 1995 Medoc

The kakis, their kids, the dealer, the bottles, the glasses and decanters. WHAT A NIGHT !

What did Amber do ? She played with her own toys

and played with the other kids...

The dealer had 3 house dogs... very adorable, friendly and kept the kids occupied

and guess who had wine too ?

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Terry ! This pup is very pampered, gets to drink premier wines and hair coiffured nicer than mine. . with hairclips too.

Terry also got 'drunk'

It was an excellent evening with only premier wines and good company. The guys are talking about holding this kinda event maybe once a year.. or once in 2 years.. Very expensive affair to drink premier wines.

Well, all the hubs were so high on wine, they slept in on Mothers Day !

That's why I have nothing to post on what I ate or did on Mothers Day .... LOL !!!