Food review by James Hill and Wine review by Stephen O'Halloran

Food

Hal Epstein was in the kitchen today preparing a Thai-themed meal.

Canapés

Tod Man Pla

Fried fish cakes made within fish fillets, capsicum, chilli, garlic, lemongrass, fish sauce, coconut milk, eggs, and snake beans, with sweet chilli sauce…good texture and fish flavour.

Ma Ho (Galloping horses)

This is a Charmaine Solomon recipe. Finely cut pork cooked with garlic coriander, peanuts, fish sauce, pepper, sugar, and chilli cooked down till dry. This was topped onto mandarin segments.

A favourite today with a good balance of citrus and pork.

I like it when Hal cooks. He challenges himself and us when preparing his lunch themes, Hal promised Thai street food nothing more nothing less.

As Hal pointed out street and market food changes from hour to hour as vendors add to the pots during the day. What started in the morning will change by the evening.

We sat down to some Tom Yum Goong. This is hot and spicy, sour and aromatic all the same time. Many people around the world who love Thai food say this is a measure of the quality of the chef and people swear by the soup to clear their heads when they have a cold.

The basis of the soup is lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime, chilli, mushrooms, prawn lemon juice, fish sauce and coriander.

Hal made the soup the night before to allow flavour infusion. Most soups just add prawn heads and fish bones for flavouring ..Hal added fresh prawns, squid and some flathead.

It was a great soup, full of flavour, aromatic and not too much heat.

Main Course

This was a simple green curry with perfectly cooked perfumed Thai rice and green papaya salad ‘Som Tum’. This salad was a David Thompson recipe.

This dish is one of the most loved in the Thai repertoire. Originally a marketplace, snack, or lunchtime dish from the northeast, it proved so irresistible, it is now eaten throughout Thailand and has become a signature dish. Shredded green papaya is mixed with a paste of garlic, chillies, roasted peanuts, dried shrimp cherry tomatoes, snake beans, palm sugar, lime juice, tamarind water and fish sauce.

Mostly favourable comments with one member voicing a contrarian view, some suggesting there could have been more heat if not in the dish than as an alternative suggestion to serve some chillis in a bowl on the table.

The afternoon was perfectly summed by member Julian Parmegiani quoting the Latin “De gustibus non est disputandum” (or, “in matters of taste, there can be no disputes”).

Thanks Hal.

Cheese 

Our Cheesemaster Mark Bradford selected an Italian-washed rind cheese to go with the food today. It came to the table in perfect condition with many comments of the quality and taste of this cheese. It was “Mauri Taleggio DOP” Italian washed rind, cow's milk.

The microclimate in the natural caves where these cheeses are matured, high in the Alps, encourages the development of a unique flora on the outer rind. Washed and brushed several times over a month, the cheese develops a thin bloom flecked with blue penicillium moulds.

Beneath the rind, the ivory chalky texture of the cheese begins to change slowly as it ripens, becoming buttery and soft. The creamy texture, when balanced with the delicious yeasty taste provided by the rind, is one of Italy’s best kept secrets.

Mauri Taleggio is considered one of the finest DOP cheeses.

Wine

We started the day with a Craggy Range Riesling from NZ, 2011, 12.5%  We do not see a lot of Riesling coming out of NZ, the Kiwi’s seem to prefer making Chardonnay, Sav Blanc and Pinot Gris. I really generally enjoy these wines save for the dreaded SB, which I studiously avoid. It always strikes me how a NZ SB is totally different from SB grown in the Loire, you would swear they were different grapes.

Anyhow getting back to the Riesling, what struck me was how much it resembled on first tasting a dry German Riesling, perhaps a restrained Kabinett. Enjoyable with good basic structures drinking well for a 12 yo. Pronounced floral overtones, with a dash of residual sugar. Nothing wrong with the wine, but just not my cup of tea for a Riesling.

The second wine for the pass-arounds was a delightful Toolangi Chardonnay from the Northern Yarra Valley region. The vineyard was planted in 1995 and since then has achieved many glowing reports for its Chardonnays. I can see why. This wine was from the 2018 vintage, 13%, the year rated 7/10

The wine was balanced and elegant, with no overpowering constituent features. Acid/fruit/oak all combined seamlessly. A winner! More please.

Wine No 3 was the Scorpo Bestia, a Pinot Grigio 2017, from MP in Vic. A highly regarded vineyard. I had in fact reviewed this wine very favourably in my report on Oct 22. I recorded “well balanced, good flavours, enjoyable, more please“. Something happened from Oct 22 to May 23 with this wine, maybe a dud bottle, or just me. I found this bottle to have a distinctly medicinal flavour, most unappealing. I am sure that if you were feeling unwell, a few glasses of this would make you feel better for a while, but that is not really the test.

What did attract my attention was the black label, depicting an ape-like creature holding a languid alabaster-skinned, large-breasted female in his arms. Then I saw the connection! Bestia is Spanish for Beast!  Now I get it, however, my mind was immediately taken to the notion that this was an attempt to replicate, within the bounds of copyright, some 16th and 17th-century artists, who painted images of the Incubus. Google Fuseli 1781 the “Nightmare“.  You will then understand.

This horrid squat man/beast from hell would sit on a woman’s chest during her sleep and squeeze the breath out of her and occasionally have sex with her. Nice type. In more recent times an Incubus has become the villain in so-called exorcism rituals.

Anyhow here’s the tip, if you find yourself having the good fortune of being on top of a woman and she yells “get off me you incubus“, just accept that the magic moment has passed and the relationship is doomed! I guess it is just as well that most women are unfamiliar with the term thereby saving us men from incurable self-image trauma and depression!  

Now where was I? Moving onto wine 4 the Massolino Barbera D’ Alba 2016. 14.5% a delightful wine. The Italians have perfected their skills at making wines that are harmonious with food, not assertive, just gently matching the food. What more can you say?

Wine 5 was the Andrew Thomas Hunter Shiraz from the Sweetwater vineyard, 2016 at 14.5%.   Thomas is a fine winemaker who deserves his high reputation. 2016 was only a 7/10 year in the Hunter but he has done well to get this wine to the very enjoyable stage. I thought the wine was a good example of Hunter fruit, balanced and without any wine making faults, went well with the cheese.                                                   

The final offering for the day was the Rosemount Balmoral McLaren Vale Shiraz 2010, 14.5 %. Now this was a no holds barred old fashion OZ Shiraz from the old school of SA Shiraz. Huge fruit, but balanced by superb integration of tannin/oak. Now 13 yo, still lively and drinking so well it is hard to see it not lasting for another 5/10 years, given its current presentation. This style of wine may not be to everyone's taste nowadays given the trend towards lighter styles,  but to me, it was a beautiful drink!