The centre of Jakarta
We were lucky that we got a seat in the first place. “Social house” was, as always, booked out. We had a great view of the fountain at the city centre, odered two pizza and two glasses of house Malbec, a drinkable red wine.
Social house menue
About food and wine
Pizza
Social house wine cellar
There is nothing more relaxing than having a meal with a good friend, in a location where my heart is: Jakarta. Glorious memories and good company. What can be better in life
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food, wine | Tagged: Jakarta, Malbec, restaurants, Social house | 
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Posted by themanfrommoselriver
One of the great things to do on a weekend in the Yarra Valley is to attend one of the many life music events. I especially love the music on a Sunday afternoon at the Yarra Glen Grand Hotel. First of all the food is quite good and second the venue is very suitable for the occasion provided there is not too much wind rattling the tent in which the bands perform.
Moreover, the Yarra Glen Grand Hotel is a beautiful historic building, a landmark in Yarra Glen, with it’s tower which is visible from many parts of the valley, it really stands out.
We had lunch and eagerly awaited the Bob Starkie Band which was to play in the afternoon. Bob Starkie is well known in Melbourne. He used to be one of the members of the legendary Skyhooks in the 1970s, a cult band in Melbourne. One of their top hits was “Women in Uniform”.
But first came the food.
The food was hearty and very tasty, as the two pictures above show. The wines we had with it were excellent examples of the local wine culture.
We had a bottle of ‘2006 Mandala Chardonnay’ from the Yarra Valley and a bottle of ‘2005 Dal Zotto Barbera’ from Whitefield in the King Valley, a neighboring wine region with very good cool climate wines.
Both wines were excellent and very enjoyable. The 2003 vintage of the Dal Zotto Barbera was given 90 points. The Dal Zotto family with a proud Italian heritage is well known for their quality wines. Their Italian varietal wines made from Barbera, Arneis and Sangiovese grapes have won high acclaim. Also their prosecco is commendable. The high altitude of the King Valley and its cool climate seems to be very suitable for those Italian varietals.
Owned by the Smedly family, Mandala Wines is located just a few kilometers up the highway, north of Yarra Glen. The cellar door and restaurant (open for lunch Thursday to Sunday and dinner on Saturday evenings) used to be “Henkel Vineyard” but has been redone completely. I love the design of the label, a huge mandala, which changes colour on the website, and expresses the philosophy of the owner on life and wine-making.
Mandala Chardonnay
Dal Zotto Barbera
And then the music started. The Bob Starkie Band promised exciting entertainment. They did not disappoint playing many of the classical Skyhooks songs. It did not take long and the dance floor was crowded with rural folks moving and shaking. There is nothing better then a dance on a Sunday afternoon. It also makes sure that one is clear headed on a Monday morning. We had great fun. I can only highly recommend it to the accidental traveler. If in the Yarra Valley look out for live music events
Bob Starkie
Addresses:
Yarra Valley GRAND Hotel
Bell Street, Yarra Glen, VIC. 3775
Tel.: 03-9730 1230
int: +61 3 9730 2434
fax: 03 9730 2434
e-mail: hotel@yarravalleygrand.com.au
www.yarravalleygrandcom.au
MANDALA WINES PTY LTD
1568 Melba Highway Dixons Creek Yarra Valley Victoria 3775
Tel. +61 3 5965 2016
Fax: +61 3 5965 2589
e-mail: info@mandalawines.com.au
www.mandalawines.com.au
Dal Zotto Wines
Main Rd, Whitfield,
King Valley, Vic 3733 Australia
Tel.: +61-3-57 298 321
Fax +61-3 57 298 490
info@dalzotto.com.au
www.dalzotto.com.au
Leave a Comment » | culture, food, wine | Tagged: Barbera, Bob Starkie Band, Chardonnay, Dal Zotto, King Valley, Mandala Wines, Skyhooks, Yarra Glen, Yarra Glen Hotel, Yarra Valley | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver
I admit, we take all our friends traveling through Bangkok to our favorite Thai restaurant if time permits. Patara is Thailand’s best restaurant and was awarded the corresponding prize for this achievement in 2009. We just love to dine there.
When Timo Mayer and his two daughters came through Bangkok we were pleased to have them for a couple of days and show them around. The Mayers’ came from Germany where Timo was helping with some wine-making in his native village near Stuttgart. He was also selling some of his Australian wine in various places (London for instance).
He was loaded with different bottles of very unique wines some of which we tasted together at various occasions. But one evening was reserved for fine Thai cuisine. Patara sent his tucktuck taxi service to pick us up from our home in Thonglor.
The colorful entrees
We decided that we would order the food and Timo would choose the wine. As always we started with the three colorful delicacies shown above. Somehow I had problems taking clear and crisps shots of the food that evening. But you can look up earlier posts in this blog where you can find some more photos of the various Patara signature dishes.
Happy diners
Timo selected the ‘2007 “Hugel” Riesling’ the classic wine from Hugel & Fils from Alsace. Jean Hugel, the senior vintner and wine-maker of this pioneer family of wine-making in Alsace was a legend and had passed away only in June this year.
I had never tasted their wines before and was very excited about the choice. Hugel and Fils maintain not only a very informative website but also an entertaining blog. I had visited Riquewihr, the picturesque Alsatian village where the winery is located many years ago (actually decades ago).
As a high-school student I had visited Alsace and its villages with my school and tasted my first Gewuerztraminer ever. A couple of years later I had seen a play at my “alma mater”: the Bonn University music and arts festival telling the story of the Alsace in three languages. After that my fascination with Alsace was complete. I had the chance to visit several times but mainly the north of the region. Our favorite destination was a restaurant, Au Cheval Blanc near Wissembourg but this is another story.
The ‘2007 Hugel Riesling’
The ‘2007 “Hugel” Riesling’ is a very fine wine, young and vibrant. 2007 was a good vintage because the grapes had the opportunity to ripen for the longest time ever and therefore the grapes were very healthy. As a consequence the wines show great elegance and balance. The wine is fruity with mineral notes, a typical Alsatian Riesling with the characteristic petrol note. I love Riesling with Thai food.
After we “demolished” the food
Our evening was great fun. The culinary delights of Thailand are just “breathtaking” for the palate. I can only highly recommend the restaurant. I love the atmosphere and the professional and friendly service.
We talked a lot about Timo’s German visit, his impressions, the adventures and, of course, wine. But when friends from afar visit, time flies. That’s how it was. Hours shrink to seconds and in a blimp of the eye it’s gone.
Address:
Patara Fine Thai Cuisine
375 Soi Thonglor 19 Sukhumvit 55, Klongtonnua Vadhana, Bangkok 10110
Tel. +66-2185 2960-1 Fax. +66-2185 2962
www.patarathailand.com
Leave a Comment » | food, Restaurant Review, wine | Tagged: Alsace, Au Cheval Blanc, Bangkok, fine Thai cuisine, Gewuerztraminer, Hugel and Fils, Patara Restaurant, Riesling, Thailand, The South Pack, Timo Mayer, Timo Mayer Wines, Wissembourg, Yarra Valley | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver
Lucy and Charlotte were busy in the kitchen. The twins produced “Halloween biscuits” (aren’t they beautiful?), which were sold at school for charity. Being a bit old-fashioned-continental Halloween does not mean anything to me. The cookies, however, I just love although there were none left for me so that I could taste them. What consoles me is that Charlotte did not get one either. Only the lucky Lucy bought the second last one, I heard.
Happy celebrations. Cheers
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Posted by themanfrommoselriver
After all the wonderful “island food”, I felt like something northern Chinese and therefore had suggested this type of cuisine to my friends, Jim, Chimei, and Tzu-Chin.
They choose the restaurant: Yi Yuan Restaurant it was called located in the The Westin Taipei Hotel in Taipei.
Its chef, Jordan Yang, is well known for its traditional Peking roast duck and his many new “incarnations” of other northern Chinese dishes. Yi Yuan roast duck is the signature dish of the restaurant and a must-eat.
Peking roast duck
The Chef doing his magic
During my years in Beijing, I had had the famous Chinese dish many times. Almost every visitor wanted to taste it at one time or the other with the result that in the end I often did not feel like roast duck at all. But now things are different. Living in Thailand exposes you to excellent duck dishes but the Beijing roast duck is very special.
To serve roast duck and carve it properly is a skill one has to be trained for. One also needs a very sharp knife. The very first bits were just the skin. Unfortunately, I have no clear picture of it but they were meant to be dipped in caster sugar and mustard (see the second picture below).
Beautiful duck meat
Caster sugar and mustard
More duck meat
The proper serve of duck ready wrapped
The “empty” duck, stripped off all its treasures
After the duck we had various side dishes, some with seafood, others of a more traditional northern China style and the banquet ended with a soup of course. All the food was just wonderful. We indulged in a most interesting conversation about food and the universe which leads nowhere, as we all know, but gives so much pleasure to the mind.
Thanks folks for taking me there.
We did not have any alcohol with our meal but sipped on green tea which was very refreshing. However, at the end of the hall stood a sideboard filled with various treasures and a mostly high percentage alcohol content. But nothing beats an original “gaoliang” made from sorghum as a digestive.
The whole range of Chinese liquors
If Taiwan is on your travel list and your taste buds long for a very special treat, drop in at the Yi Yuan Restaurant in Taipei, and indulge in roast duck and other “Pekinese” foods.
Address:
Yi Yuan Restaurant at the Westin Hotel
www.starwoodhotels.com
台北市台湾
3 区南京东路 133 号台北 104
+886 2-8770-6565
8 Comments | food, Restaurant Review | Tagged: Chinese food, Jordan Yang, Peking, Peking roast duck, Taipei, Taiwan, The Westin Hotel Taipei, Yi Yuan Restaurant | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver
My homecoming was celebrated with a dinner featuring one of my favorite pasta dishes: a pasta al pesto. But it did not stop there. The basilico for the pesto sauce was grown on our terrace. Freshly harvested the leaves were processed with pine nuts and the best olive oil we could get hold of in Bangkok. The pictures below shows the different stages of the pesto-making process.
Basilico leaves
Healthy leaves of home grown Basilico
Pesto in the making
The fresh pesto sauce
I tell you this pasta was worth killing for. What ‘profumo’, goodness me, it filled our kitchen, the living room and transcended to the terrace where it filled my nostrils long before the dish arrived. We treasured every bite.
If you think that in the 1760s French cultural supremacy was so dominant that Italian cooking was considered totally inferior even by Italians. Local cooking had to have the coda, “”perfected in Paris” to be taken seriously. Today, every second top restaurant in Bangkok and indeed in all cosmopolitan world cities is Italian. That’s just amazing!
Linguine with pesto
We celebrated the reunion with a French Riesling from Alsace, a ‘2006 Les Princes Abbes, Domaines Schlumberger, Riesling’. The price was a bit on the high end for us. TBH 1,600, about 32 Euro (or US $ 48), from our local super market is quite some money. That it sells for about US $ 20 in California somehow consoled me. We thought that life is just too short to waste it with drinking cheap wine and the occasion warranted something special, and special this Alsatian Riesling was.
This wine is just a wonderful specimen of Alsatian Riesling and it went very well with the pesto pasta. The fresh and fruity wine with aromas of citrus, lime and lemon and some floral notes, opened our taste buds wide. The wine has character and shows its typical Alsatian traits with some refined and not overpowering petrol notes. Alcohol is 12%, and just right. The finish is pleasantly vibrant but not overly long.
Leave a Comment » | food, wine | Tagged: Alsace, Alsatian Riesling, Domaines Schlumberger, French wine, Les Princes Abbes, pasta, pesto, Riesling, Schlumberger | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver
A mobile sausage-cooking facility on a bicycle
In most Asian places, street food is an essential part of everyday life. That’s also the case in Taipei. Unfortunately, I did not rise to the occasion and took only a few photos when I should have taken many many more. I promise, I will rise to the occasion next time.
It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, when my friends Chimei, Tzu-Chin and Jim were strolling with me through the streets near “Taida”, one of the famous universities in Taipei.
Various kinds of filled waffle (hong dou bian)
Red bean, chocolate and cream are the fillings
Chimei, Jim and Tzu-Chin in the street food paradise
1 Comment | culture, food | Tagged: food | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver
Sundays in Bangkok is usually fish day. There are many beautiful fish for sale in the markets. So for lunch we select a fish and a white wine. Often I choose to have a Riesling with the food. This time we went “Italian” and bought two bottles of white wine, one on the cheap side, the other a bit dearer. The former was a ‘2007 Montecelli Soave Classico’ from Piave in the Veneto, the latter a ‘2008 Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio’ from the Trentino, in Alto-Adige, Italy.
2007 Montecelli Soave Classico
2008 Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio
The Soave might costs about 3-4 Euro in Europe (or less). If I would buy the Pinot Grigio in the US I would have to pay 25 to 28 US$ for the bottle. In Thai Bath I paid about 500 for the Soave and about 1,000 for the Pinot, which corresponds roughly to 10 and 20 Euro respectively. We liked both wines. The Soave is a bit edgy and had a salty/oily after taste. The Pinot Grigio from Santa Margherita is just great, light bodied, spritzy with crisp acidity and a light lemon-citrus flavour.
Fried potatoes, zucchini and onions
Red snapper in caper and olive marinade
The food was simple. Red snapper is a beautiful fish which I like very much. The recipe is from the Philosopher’s Kitchen by Francine Segan. I have written about this fabulous cooking book in earlier entries of my blog.
I just love lunches like this one. We all relax, enjoy the food and the company. This was the first time we moved away from the dry Riesling-fish pairing and moved tp the Italian whites. We will repeat this, for sure.
And as Epicurus said: “Pleasure is the beginning and end of living happily”.
1 Comment | food, wine | Tagged: Alto-Adige, Bangkok, Epicurus, Francine Segan, Italian wine, Italy, Montecelli, Piave, Pinot Grigio, Santa Margherita, Soave, Thailand, The Philosopher's Kitchen, Trentino, Veneto | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver
Do you want to have an atmospheric evening on a Friday night in Bangkok (actually any night will do)? If the answer is yes, then Al Majlis (actually the full name is Al Majlis Tearoom) is absolutely the right place for you. The Moroccon-inspired tearoom is the perfect place in busy Bangkok to relax and plunge in a long lost dream of a “Thousand an one night” experience.
I very much like the interior of the restaurant. Moreover, in the inner courtyard tent-like structures have been erected which remind me of a “caravanserai”. The sofa beds are very comfortable; it feels like sinking into a divan, a “Thousand and one night”-experience.
Needless to say the food is excellent (I love couscous), the service friendly and there is also a wine list which offers sufficient choice. Moreover, I just love the design and the furnishings; it gives you the illusion that you went away, far away, traveled in time to a leisurely place where the hassle of the modern world canot reach you. You order a water pipe, a shisha, and just relax.
Address:
Al Majlis Tearoom
Praduu Spa Club
83/8 soi Charoenchai (Ekamai 12)
Sukhumvit 63 road
Bangkok 10110
T: +662 392 2345
F: +662 392 2344
E: info@almajlis-tearoom.com
Opening Hours:
Mon-Fri: 4.30pm – 1am
Sat-Sun: 2pm – 1am
3 Comments | food | Tagged: Al Majlis, Bangkok, Moroccon tearoom, Restaurant Review, Thailand | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver
During a brief visit to Jakarta to observe the presidential elections recently, I had dinner with dear friends of mine: Flo and Nelly. We wanted to celebrate our reunion, moreover it was Flo’s birthday. Therefore we selected the appropriate venue and went to the Elbow Room in Kemang. I had been there before, and during my two days in town, I went twice to this relaxing drinking and dinning place.
The food is simple but solid. The service is excellent. The wine list is well sorted and offers a wide range of new and old world wines. We choose a wine from Western Australia, a ‘2004 Mad Fish Shiraz’.
My pasta
The dessert
Mad Fish 2004 Shiraz
The Shiraz has a dark red colour. On the nose it displays cherry and spicy peppery notes. The tannins are well balanced, the wine has structure and a good finish. Wine critics give it 88 to 90 points. I like the wines from the Margaret River region.
During my second visit the next day, a live band played extremely well and entertaining guitar music. The restaurant also displays some interesting (copies) of famous paintings as shown below.
Yue Minjun’s paintings are unique and easily identifiable, even as copies
Overall, my verdict is: If you are in Jakarta, check the place out. It is right in Kemang, not too difficult to find. You will certainly enjoy a nice evening there. I hope you are lucky as regards the live music.
Address:
Elbow Room
Jl. Kemang Raya No. 24 A
Jakarta, Indonesia
Te.: +62-21-7194274
1 Comment | food, wine | Tagged: Elbow Room, Indonesia, Jakarta, Mad Fish, Margaret River, Restaurant Review, Western Australia | Permalink
Posted by themanfrommoselriver
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The Man from Mosel River
The Man from Mosel River 