France trip, Oct 2009 - Chateau du Tertre

Mr SZ and Mrs VZ haven't been to Bordeaux before so we decide to make a trip. We booked the tour by appointment through the Bordeaux tourism office. It was between visiting a 1855 chateau or we can "run around" at the open weekend in the Grave area. In the end, we decided to go with the 1855 tasting.

Chateau du Tertre has a 50-hectare vineyard which is a single, coherent block right next to the chateau. The local terroir is particularly good for the Cabernet Sauvignon grape variety.

The wine that is produced here was classified as Cinquièmes Crus (Fifth Growths) in the Bordeaux Wine Classification of 1855, along with only 18 other vineyards. Although the chateau is not that old in comparison to some of the other vineyards, there is certainly some level of prestige. And this is one of the few 1855 chateaus that open to the public and have an English guided tour.

The tour was around 40 minutes and the talk covered the basics of wine-making, a tour of the underground cellars and a walk around the beautiful property.

Then we ended up in the tasting room to do some wine tasting. I really like the interior decorations and design of the chateau. It was elegant and comfortable at the same time.

The wine wasn't as good as I expected but a wine tasting tour is nevertheless a must-do in the Bordeaux region.

X'mas Dinner 2009

First of all, Merry X'mas to all!

This is our first X'mas in London and since there are no public transport or shops open today, we have decided to try out some new dishes.

We stocked up our 'premium' ingredients from Waitrose and the Borough Market the day before.

A week before, we picked a new dish from one of our favourite French cookbook. We bought this cookbook from a clearance sale. At that time, we thought it was very good value. It was only AUD$10 and there were many pictures in the book. We have since cooked a number of dishes from the book and have certainly recoup the full value! :-)

Our first dish is scallops with an orange sauce. This dish is inspired by La Recreation. Of course it isn't as simply as just orange in some sauce. SP wouldn't share his recipe with me though!!

The second dish is much more fancy. It is a warm pâté of duck in a potato crust. We arranged the fried onions, wild mushrooms (including cepes!!), foie gras, fried duck slices and some herbs on sliced fried potato which is arranged in a rose pattern. The whole thing is then fried in goose fat again. I had a taste of the surplus filling and it was sooooo delicious. I almost melted on the spot!

Here it is during the frying. Some of the pieces have come off as we didn't have a slicer and the potato was a little too thick for wrapping.

This is the end product. Totally yummy. The fillings are divine and the Madeira sauce is amazing too. The potato is a great complement to the fillings and the sauce. It is way better than plain mash potato or fried potato. The taste is at Michelin-starred level! :-P

We then had some cheese and finished off the meal with a piece of Carré Chocolat from Ladurée.

Yum, yum, yum!

I wish X'mas will come again soon :-P

Spain (Madrid) trip, Nov 2009 - Carabiñero (The Red Prawn)

I was speaking to my Spanish clients today and I told them it is my last night in Madrid to night. I wanted to know that apart from ham (which they assured me that I already tried the best ones), what else is worth eating in Madrid.

Apparently, Madrid has a huge fish market (despite being landlocked) and the seafood is great. In particular, they suggested that I try this red prawn called 'Carabiñero'. "They are very very good" said one of the guys.

Now I have seen these prawns before. They look very attractive and yummy. But they also look expensive. There is a restaurant near my hotel which does them. However, the area surrounding the hotel also happens to be the most expensive area in Madrid (Salamanca) and the restaurant's online rating doesn't look too promising. So I decided to go back to the place which I saw it before.

I am due to chair a very important meeting at 9am tomorrow. However, I decide to forgo 2.5 hours of my prep time to travel to that tapas bar and seek out the prawn.

The tapas bar

The wall next to the tapas bar. I hope this octopus isn't having octopus tapas! :-P

When I got in, before I order any drinks etc, I asked about the prawns and found out that they are 10 euros for a pair. It is very pricey but I was determined to try it. So after 10 mins, the grilled prawns arrived.


These prawns are no ordinary prawns. The flesh is very sweet and it has the texture of crab claw meat.

It was so good that I just can't stop myself saying "Muy, muy bueno" to the waiter.


I scooped the prawn juice from the head and cleaned the plate up with bread. It was sooo prawny! If I am ever back in Madrid, I will definitely seek out this prawn again.

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London, Oct 2009

Gordon Ramsay is the only restaurant in London to have earned 3 stars. It is how Gordon Ramsay got his fame. Sadly, Gordon Ramsay is no longer preparing any of the food there :-(

We went on a relatively quiet day for lunch. It is actually a rather small restaurant with about 15 tables and a small bar area. There were only a couple of tables with people when we entered. In the end, the restaurant was only half-filled. Maybe it's because of the credit crisis, or maybe because the food is outrageously overpriced at this restaurant! :-P

Anyway, we ordered the Menu Prestige for the table. Here is a very brief summary of the food:

Very nice butter. It's tempting to have too much bread

Some ravioli with a soup made with baked potato skin.

The dish has a very earthy flavour. The soup somehow take like dish water to me. haha.. As you can tell, it's not my favourite dish.

Pressed foie gras with Madeira jelly, smoked duck, peach and almond crumble. The foie gras was firm and well prepared. The smoked duck adds more texture to the dish, but there was soo little of it. It left me wanting more!

Ravioli of lobster, langoustine and salmon with tomato chutney, vinaigrette. This dish is a great combo of the texture of lobster and langoustine and the taste from the salmon, tomato chutney and vinaigrette. It is a good size dish and I really enjoyed it. It reminds me of a similar product that we bought from Waitrose though (@ £1.50 each with crab meat instead of lobster meat)

Risotto with artichoke. One of my friends is sensitive to shellfish, so she got this alternative. I am not a fan of artichoke so I don't think this beats the lobster ravioli :-P

Fillet of turbot with braised baby gem lettuce, leek and cep sauce. While this dish is tasty and the fish is cooked to just the right texture, I think it is hard to find an impressive fish dish, esp. one with fish fillet. The secret to this dish is with the sauce, there is langoustine in it (one of our guest got a different sauce because of the allergy). Otherwise, nothing special to note.

Cannon of Cornish lamb with confit shoulder, ratatouille and thyme jus. I didn't have this dish so no comments. It looked good though.

Roasted pigeon from Bresse with grilled polenta, smoked pork belly and date sauce. I really enjoyed the pigeon. The meat was really tender and flavourful. I really don't know how they manage to get it just right. The sauce is rich and add just the right level of sweetness to the meat. The smoked pork belly wasn't too smokey. It is nothing that special though. Being Chinese, we always compare pork belly to our 'siu yok' and I think I still prefer a good piece of 'siu yok'. hahaha

Pre-dessert: apple creme brulee and apple juice-like drink. Both are very refreshing. The apple creme brulee was especially light and fluffy. A perfect prep to the dessert!

Pineapple soup with toasted coconut and rum. SP really liked this. He is a fan of 'exotic' fruits so no wonder! :-P

I personally don't like pineapple so they made me a raspberry and lemon sorbet. It was light. Not that special though.

Lemon tart. SP and I think it was just right but it might not be sour enough for some.

Bitter chocolate and hazelnut cylinder with ginger mousse and blackcurrant granite. Again, nothing special here. Perhaps I have been spoilt by too much good quality chocolate already :-P

Petit fours: Strawberry ice cream coated with a white chocolate shell. These were very nice. I think I had more than my share. hehehe. The presentation was good too. I think they just can't resist the dry ice in Fat Duck-style :-P

Petit fours: at the beginning of the meal, they asked me whether we are celebrating a special occasion. So we told them we got married. I thought we were going to get more goodie than an extra scoop of raspberry sorbet! How disappointing.. hahaha

Petit fours: chocolate granache covered in silver dust. You pick them out from the tree. These were quite rich so one is certainly enough.

We were in a bit of a rush. So we had a quick tea and coffee and left.

For more information:
http://www.gordonramsay.com/royalhospitalroad/

Hungary trip, June 2009 - The rest of Budapest

It has been a while since I have updated my travel writing.

So here is an attempt to finish off the Budapest trip in June:

The famous Széchenyi chain bridge. It was the first permanent bridge across the Danube in Budapest, and was opened in 1849.

The chain bridge and the Buda Castle in the background

Statue of St Stephen (the first king of Hungary) on Castle Hill. He carries the apostolic cross with two crossbars – a symbol granted him by the Pope.

View of the Parliament House (from Castle Hill)

Fishermen's Bastion on Castle Hill. The bastion's name was taken from the guild of fishermen responsible for defending this stretch of the wall in the Middle Age. The seven white turrets represent the Magyar tribes that entered the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th Century.

The Old Town on the Castle Hill. This is where commoners lived in the Middle Ages

The Hillebrandt-façade of the cour d'honneur

Statue of Prince Eugène of Savoy, one of the greatest commander in military history. Even Napoleon said so.

Budapest State Opera House

The statue of Liszt. Look at his giant right hand!

Buda Castle during the day

The Millennium Memorial on Hősök tere (Heroes' Square) with statues of the leaders of the seven Magyar tribes that founded Hungary in the 9th Century. The colonnade contains other outstanding figures of Hungarian history.

The Metro train. If you are after the main sites, you probably won't need to travel on the Metro. We used it because we wanted to go to Gundel (the restaurant).