International Wine Guild
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The Silk Market
Hangzhou is famous for it’s silk market......
Going to dinner – June 30, I am already loosing track of the days of the week now that classes have begun. Also the fact that Hangzhou is 14 hours ahead of Denver time means it is tomorrow in China when you get my emails.
This was the end of the first day of the Certification Seminar. We went to a restaurant specializing in seafood.
As you walk in the door they have on display all of the fresh seafood, had this been an ‘up-scale’ restaurant all of the seafood would have been in tanks – still alive and you would have pointed to the food you wanted to eat and they would catch it for you. At the restaurant we went to it was fresh, within 120 minutes of the ocean or river. With ‘fresh’ fish arriving hourly.
Fresh ingredients are a hallmark of Chinese food – at every level, in every restaurant. I don’t know about street vendors (I have also been advised to be cautious about streat food vendors in China).
Food cost is subsidized in China. I can remember visiting Moscow in 1990, when it was still the USSR, and eating a 5 course meal for $2 per person. Although I would say the quality of food in the USSR then, was not good (actually, it was horrible), the quality of the food in China has been excellent.
If you look at the photo of the menu, the price of each dish is along the bottom (for example, 18 or 20 yuan). The yuan is worth 0.147 US dollars, so a 20-yuan dish, which will easily feed 2 or 3 people, costs $2.94. A large steamed crab (6 to 7” across) for $2.94! So a seven-dish meal, which is common, is $20.58. Tipping is optional and rare (meaning - not recommended).
I had originally though they were ordering all those dishes because I was there, then, as I began looking around the restaurants in which we were dining, I saw that every table had 5 to 7, or more dishes. Even the tables with 1 or 2 people!
Also, nobody takes the leftovers home. No doggy bags because many people do not have any place to store or cook the food.
Green tea is often served, upon request. It is a specialty of Zhejiang Province (Hangzhou is the Capital). There are at least 20 different kinds available in the City. The very best, grown only in a small district of the City costs more than gold – per ounce. Of course an ounce of tea would be enough to last several months, still, $2000 an ounce is rather expensive tea.
Beer is the next most common beverage in the ‘everyday’ restaurant. Chinese beer is different: it is very light, does not produce much of a head, and is 1 to 2% alcohol. That’s right – 1 to 2%; it is lighter in alcohol than the lightest American beer. People order an entire case (12 bottles), per person for dinner! It often comes in a 576 ml bottle. I have no idea why such an unusual bottle size – my guess is that this matches an older Chinese measurement when converted to the metric system. I will have to ask. A case of beer may be as cheap as $2.00US (roughly, 14 yuan).
Restaurants are not very large, the largest I have been in, so far, would seat 50 people, maybe 60; many only seat 20 to 30. However as we travel around the city I can see 5, 6, or more, restaurants on every block, in every direction. There are, literally, tens of thousands of restaurants in the city.
Most people do not cook, many are working in Hangzhou and are ‘visiting workers’ who must ether become a resident of the city or go back home after a specific time frame. So, many, but not all, often go out to eat for every meal, every day.
Service is very fast and very efficient, the food often beating the customer to their table. Dinner is served from 4 to 10 or 11 at night, every night (although it is a ‘late dinner’ after 8 or 9 pm in most restaurants). A small restaurant will often serve 200+ people a day, every day.
They would not let me take photographs in the restaurant – so I will describe the meal and refer back to the photos of the main ingredients.
Our meal consisted of the following dishes: (1) three styles of steamed oysters – one with garlic sauce, one with pepper sauce and one with spicy sauce; (2) steamed white fish in a salt and fish stock sauce (the sauce was simulating sea water); (3) mussels in a steamed egg custard, (4) stir-fried ‘spitting’ fish, (5) stir-fried white fish (they looked like country fries), (6) stir-fried roe sack (with roe inside); (7) steamed octopus and (8) wheat noodles with seafood.
This was a very light meal, with many steamed dishes. Nowhere near as heavy, rich or spicy as the two dinners preceding it. A nice shift.
The spitting fish, that was stir-fried (dish #4, above), is shown in the menu items #1, it is in the top row of fish in the picture, the third from the left: the long, thin fish with the extended and pointed mouth. They spit water at insects to make them fall in the water so they can eat them.
The white fish that was also stir-fried (dish #5, above) is immediately to the right of the ‘spitting’ fish.
The head of the ‘spitting’ fish is entirely cartilage, so when the dish arrives at the table the insides of the head are not present (probably used in a sauce) but the cartilage is still attached. The fish is cut in half, one half having the head, the other the tail. The proper way to eat them is to pick up the head half, with you chopsticks, by the back of the piece. Turn the head to face you and bite it off – spit it out on a plate, or the table, and then proceed to eat the rest of the fish (optional – eat bones and all) while you hold it in your chopsticks. To eat the back half you can eat everything as well, including the tail. If you don’t want to eat the bones, you use a classic Chinese soupspoon to scrape the meat off the bones so you can pick it up the small bits of fish with your chopsticks.
Learning Chinese dining etiquette is interesting – many dishes have a specific technique you are suppose to use to eat them. Knowing all of the techniques is a sign of a ‘well-rounded’ and ‘intelligent’ diner.
The roe sack is shown in Menu items #2, it is located in the picture (if you start counting at the upper right-hand corner of the picture) 3 over and 3 down. The yellow-orange objects in the pan directly below the empty pan.
The complete roe sacks were cut into pieces and stir-fried. They tasted like a vegetable, like squash, breaded with corn meal and stir-fried. I was quite surprised.
We completed the first day of classes, pouring wines from France, Germany, Australia and Italy – a good indication of the growing range of wines currently available in China.
Dr. Lim (the Director), Ms. Soon (the GM of the School) and I went out last night to another restaurant specializing in Hangzhou cuisine – this time spicy cuisine. Also, the restaurant served a unique wine, also developed in Hangzhou.
The wine was slightly effervescent and made from coconut milk – a style of wine that has been produced in both China and India for over 2000 years. It was slightly sweet and bubbly, was quite popular – judging by the number of patrons drinking it, and made the spicy food even more spicy.
Other Chinese wines, made from European grapes – such as Cabernet Sauvignon, were available but not being ordered. They are still too new to most diners in a traditional restaurant like this one. Also, the Chinese tradition of serving all dishes at once, not in any order, makes the European concept of wine and food pairing very difficult.
This may change over time or new concepts of wine and food pairing will be developed.
They took our order as soon as we arrived, even before we had a table. By the time we sat down at a table our food was already being placed on the table. Of course, following the Chinese tradition the food arrived as the Chef produced the dishes and since there is no first or last course, like European or American dining, we began eating as it arrived and was still hot – thermally as well as being spicy. The dinner was as good as the previous night and quite different. Most of the dishes served were fairly spicy, but not to a point that the spices masked the flavors of the food.
Since it was quite warm outside (37C – 99F) and 100% relative humidity, the spicy food helped keep us cool.
The dishes included pickled jellyfish, freshwater prawns in a spicy tomato paste. Crayfish and peanuts in a sauce made from five spices, a mixed dish of mushrooms, pork, chicken and beef. Also, pickled cucumbers in garlic and vinegar, rice starch and vegetable soup, eggplant and pork in a spice and green onion sauce. The last dish served was peanuts roasted in spices.
The crayfish dish and the prawn dish were specialties of the restaurant and very good. The crayfish dish is shown in the picture. You eat them using your fingers, not chopsticks. It is the only dish which you completely consume before going on to another dish because you need to wash your hands before continuing.
Of course the normal way to eat a Chinese meal is to take small bites from each dish, not eat them one at a time. You do this with your chopsticks, portions are not ‘plated’ for each guest. So you take a bite from a bowl, rest it on top of your bowl of rice and then eat that bite. Take another bite from another platter or serving dish and repeat the process. It is actually a very efficient way to eat.
Did I mention that the prawns were still alive when they were brought to the table. The color of the spicy tomato paste sauce was exactly the same color as their shells and you had to hunt for them with your chopsticks as they swam (literally) around in the sauce. Learning how to eat them reminded me of visiting New Orleans – “bite the head off, and suck out what’s inside” with the added skill of using your chopsticks to pinch the meat out of the shell.
The Jellyfish was amazingly crunchy – not gelatinous as you might expect.
Also, the trick to eating a smoked duck tongue – it seems that a duck’s tongue has a bone running through the middle, and you scrape the meat off the bone kind of like how you eat artichoke leaves, by scraping the artichoke off the leaf with your teeth. Only in this case you are holding the back of the tongue with your chopsticks while scraping the meat off with your teeth. Tastes a lot like slightly salty, smoked ham.
Arrived in Shanghai at 5:00 pm on Sunday evening – in a driving rain (it is the rainy season). The actual flight time was 12 hours – San Francisco to Shanghai. However, you go through 14 time zones and the international date line – so you arrive the day after you leave: left San Francisco at 1:45 pm Saturday, arrive Shanghai at 5:00 pm Sunday.
Monday we set up the classroom and went over schedules and wine, and they took me out to a traditional Hangzhou dinner that night with dishes all created in an around the city of Hangzhou.
The menu, from front to back was: (platter – front and center) crispy tofu ‘skins’ with a sweet and sour sauce – a sheet of tofu ‘dough’ rolled and stir fried, (bowl to left of platter) pork dumplings, mushrooms and greens in a light vegetable stock, (bowl at top of tofu platter) hot and sour soup, (plate with greens to right of hot and sour soup) cilantro and pickled fish skin salad, (platter above the cilantro and fish skin salad) Beggar’s chicken – chicken baked in lotus leaves, (large bowl to left of Beggar’s Chicken) the ‘most famous’ dish of Hangzhou – Emperor’s Fish (fish head soup with greens in a bean paste sauce) and (bowl above Beggar’s Chicken and Emperor’s Fish) braised eels in a brown sauce. The two partially obscured small bowls (one directly behind the dumpling and mushroom soup, the other directly behind the Emperor’s Fish) are the cold salads: young bamboo shoots and bean shoots. Not pictured was a classic dish of smoked and baked pork belly.
All of the dishes were excellent, I particularly liked the eels. I even survived eating only using chop sticks.
The story I was told behind Emperor’s Chicken – the Emperor was traveling through the countryside and became hungry. So he stopped at a peasant’s hut and asked for some of whatever they were eating for dinner. The only thing they had was a fish head – so they ‘created’ a dish with fish head and greens in a fermented bean past stock. The Emperor so enjoyed the dish that he named it ‘Emperor’s Fish.’ The peasants became famous and started a restaurant, the restaurant I had dinner in is on the site of the original restaurant started by the peasants. This occurred about 500 years ago.
The restaurant is located in the heart of ‘old’ Hangzhou.
On my arrival Sunday night, we had a ‘quick’ Chinese meal, which included several dishs, one of which was smoked duck tongues – another local specialty. I discovered there here is a trick to eating a duck tongue.
More later.
International Wine Guild graduates and super-couple Zak and Olena Kilson run Creative Juices, a company that provides wine education and training, tastings, and consultation.
After graduating from the Texas branch of the Guild, the Kilsons decided to share their love, passion, and expert knowledge of wine with El Paso, Texas, which has traditionally been a beer-city.
Zak and Olena are helping the good people of El Paso to refine their wine palates, so that someday in the not-so-distant future El Paso might be thought of as a beer- and wine-city. One of Creative Juices' ongoing projects is maintaining and expanding the wine program at Rulis' International Kitchen: in the past three months they have nearly tripled the wine list.
The restaurant also has the Kilsons host wine and beer socials every Saturday, where customers eagerly catch a glimpse into the wine world thanks to Zak and Olena's expert knowledge. In addition to the extensive work they do at Rulis', Creative Juices was recently hired to track down the 100 top wines, as rated by Wine Spectator. This detective work will culminate in a private tasting of all 100 wines.
On the consulting and training side of their business, Zak and Olena are consulting for a new bar in El Paso, teaching staff about all aspects of wine, including varietals, wine-growing regions, wine making, and bottle service, to name a few. The Kilsons truly enjoy their work: to them wine is not just a job or a hobby; it's a deep love, a passion, and a way of life.
Visit their site at http://www.creativejuiceswine.com
Although Merlot is a varietal that many people believe they should not like, a new study by Nielsen and commissioned by Blackstone Winery found that Merlot "has the single largest consumer base of any varietal wine in the U.S. and, of the major wine varietals, is the one most closely associated with high quality at an affordable price."
Many believe that Merlot took a big hit from Sideways, while Pinot Noir benefited. This is untrue. It is true that Pinot Noir sales increased by about 48% - and stayed up. Merlot sales actually increased by about 5% and stayed up.
Maybe the Merlot drinkers never got the word that they were not suppose to drink Merlot. Forty-five percent of participants in Nielsen's survey of Merlot drinkers never saw the movie, and 93% of those that saw the movie say it had no effect on their opinion of Merlot. Since Sideways, Merlot dollar sales and volume have grown steadily and the number of US households purchasing Merlot more than doubles those purchasing Pinot Noir. Of course, Pinot Noir sales have never been higher than 9% of total red wine sales.
More American households purchase Merlot than any other wine variety, red or white. The varietal is reportedly enjoyed for its taste, value and approachability, and also has the highest repeat purchase rate of any wine variety in the U.S.
A majority of 90% of respondents say "taste" is the most important factor in their wine-buying decisions, with "good value" ranking second. Not surprisingly, 80% of respondents consider Merlot "a good everyday food wine," while roughly 70% find Merlot to be "a good value" (rising to "great" when priced under $12 per bottle), "a good wine to drink at home," and "approachable and reliable."
In many markets around the US a wine cellar is becoming a standard feature in new houses. For example, in the Denver metro area a house priced at about $450,000 or higher usually has a wine cellar; condos have cellars as well. This trend has been observed all over the country.
One of the first issues that confronts people who have a wine cellar in their house is learning how to buy wine for a cellar.
It seems like it should be easy, but in reality buying for a cellar takes planning and forethought. Here are a few simple guidelines:
Always taste before buying - Buy one bottle, taste it, and then make a decision to purchase more. Also keep in mind that you do not have to purchase a case of everything.
If your cellar is not large (say, less than 500 bottles) then purchasing 12-bottle cases of wine means you can have about 40 different wines in the cellar. This may sound like a lot, but if you purchase 3, 4 or 6 bottles it means you could have 80 to 100 different wines, or more, in the cellar.
As you get use to having wine in a cellar and begin to drink wine with dinner on a regular basis then having a wider range of options becomes appealing and less limiting when choosing a wine to go with dinner. Besides, the more wine you have in a cellar the less often you drink a particular producer - the worse thing that can happen is that it goes bad before you have a chance to drink it.
Keep costs in perspective - Cellars are not just for "expensive" wines. It is also a place to store the wines you drink every day. Therefore, learn to shop for values in all price groups.
Try and figure out what is a good value for the quality of the wine, regardless of the cost. Along with this, try and drink wine when it is ready to drink. Most wine should be consumed within 5 years of the vintage, but there are always wines with a longer life.
The rule-of-thumb we teach in our classes is called the "95% rule": 95% of the world's wines should be consumed within 5 years of being produced, of the remaining 5%. at least 95% of them should be consumed within 10 years of the vintage. This means that only about ¼ of 1 percent of the worlds wine has longer than a 10-year life.
Most wines with a long life are undrinkable on release, so if you can purchase a current release and take it home for dinner that night it probable does not have a really long life.
Be aware of your consumption patterns - We recommend keeping a log or diary of your consumption patterns for at least 3 to 6 months before beginning to stock a cellar. You might be surprised at how much, or how little, you actually consume. Keep in mind that if you entertain a great deal, especially for dinner, and enjoy having wine almost every night, then you are a great candidate for a cellar anyway.
Expand your palate - having a cellar usually expands your palate because you have more opportunity to have wine to drink every day. (Which, by the way, is very good for your health - one or two glasses of wine a day.) Therefore, it is not a good idea to complete fill up your cellar when you initially stock it because the more you drink the more your palate expands and changes.
Always leave room in the cellar for new wines or wines you have just "discovered." A good idea is to keep 10-20% of the available cellar storage free. You never know what new wine will become available or if you will "discover" white Burgundies after drinking nothing but California Chardonnay.
These guidelines were taken from a lecture on cellar design and management given in our Advanced Wine Course. We also offer a cellar design and management one-night class for the general public.
We have had such a positive response to those of you who like the wine reviews we are going to add another review: wine and food pairing.
I have done, literally, hundreds of formal wine dinners in addition to the dinners we do at the Guild in our Advanced Wine and Food Pairing Course. (A Level III Course.)
Once a month, I am going to write an article about wine and food pairing using as a menu one of the graduation dinners from the Advanced Wine and Food Pairing Course or one of our Guild wine dinners.
Here is the menu from the just graduated Intensive Study Advanced Wine and Food Pairing Course (completed the course on July 31st). Their theme was "old world wines." In addition, the students, as a group, must pick the wines and be able to defend their choices to the instructor.
First Course
Cured salmon with bok choy in a spicy ginger dressing and sesame crisps
Trimbach, Alsace Riesling, Cuvée Fréderic Emile, 2002
Second Course
Sous vide pork belly stuffed in peaches with pecans and savory cabbage
Guigal, Gigondas, 2006
Third Course
Redbird chicken stuffed with Tillamook cheddar and broccoli potato gratin
Domaine Barge, Condrieu, "La Solarie", 2007
Fourth Course
Creme Brulée with bananas and caramel
Schmitges, Erdener Herrenberg, Riesling Eiswein, 2004
Given the combination of salmon and spicy ginger - this wine was chosen to reduce the impact of the spice, bring the dish in to balance and allow the salmon to "show" rather than be overpowered by the sauce.
The Sous vide of pork belly (roughly, pork belly cooked in warm water - not boiling) is not as rich as other cooking techniques for pork belly. In addition, some fruit character was needed on the wine to stand up to the peaches. These were the critical elements. The Gigondas is medium-bodied and medium-dry; having just the right combination of extract, tannins and body to complement these needs without overpowering the flavor intensity of the dish.
This white wine from Condrieu is bigger than the red wine, the Gigondas, that preceeded it. The chicken was served with the skin on; with the cheese and stuffing placed between the meat and the skin when it was roasted. The potato gratin also added to the richness of the dish. The Condrieu had the ability to match the richness of the food, without making the combination seem even heavier. At the same time, it allowed the cheese in both the stuffing and the potato gratin to act as a bridge between the center-of-the-plate and the side dish.
When pairing dessert wines to dessert one guideline must always be remembered: the wine needs to be slightly sweeter than the food. Also, the wine must have some way of "creating tension" between the sugar of the food (and wine) and the rest of the chemical structure of the wine. As with most German wines the tension is created by acid in this wine - the acid wipes the sugar off the palate, making the wine and the dessert seem refreshing, not cloying. The "noble rot" in this wine, with it's distinct honey characteristics, made an excellent complement to the Creme Brulée and caramel while the acid of the wine kept it all light on the palate.
Again, these wines were chosen by the students - a good indication of how much they learned about wine and food pairing during the course. The instructor is not allowed to intervene or make suggestions about the pairings.
Click here for more information on the Intensive Food & Wine Course.
A new Languedoc low sugar and low alcohol, rose and white wine have just been given the go ahead from French health authorities to be commercialized. It was developed by growing grapes with less sugar and by reducing the alcohol content with a new distillation process.
Claude Vialade, the wine grower behind the initiative, is marketing the wine with the label "So' Light" because it has only 9 percent alcohol while most wines contain around 13 percent. The wine also has thirty percent less sugar than traditional wines. It is about 2/10 of a percent residual sugar - whereas a large proportion of wine is about 6/10 of a percent (2 g/l vs. 6 g/l) of sugar.
According to Vialade, who owns "Les Domaines Auriol" near the southern French town of Narbonne, the wine is targeted at consumers who are concerned about living healthy and staying in shape while not being deprived of a little alcohol.
Claude Robbins' thoughts: we have seen low-calorie wine in the past, so this is not a new idea. Wine (except the neutral grape spirits in fortified wines) is not distilled, so it is not clear exactly what they are doing, possibly they mean a "new" fermentation process.
Looking for ways to increase wine sales in your restaurant or wine bar? A recent study conducted by Cornell University found some interesting ways to help improve wine sales. Here are a few of their findings:
(My note: I have always been a big fan of suggesting wines with food - particularly a red and a white with each dish.)
Other interesting findings of the study were:
(My note: in a wine bars there is often an expectation of your customers drinking flights and glasses over purchasing bottles - restaurants, on the other hand, are often more interested in bottles sales, although glass programs can be very profitable.)
This study was done by testing 46 different wine list techniques found in 270 restaurants located in selected major metropolitan areas (i.e., Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, the New York metro area, Orlando, the San Francisco Bay area, Southern California, and Tampa).
Do you understand what wine labels tell you? Do you prefer easy going, light-hearted labels (critters or cleaver names), lots of color or more "serious" labels. Don't ask me what a serious label is, but I know one when I see one.
Different labels appeal to different consumers. In fact, the wine label is (almost) completely responsible for whether or not a wine has market appeal. This is best illustrated by comparing the total dollars spent in each sector of the adult beverage industry on adverting.
Of the total dollars spent on advertising (in all forms), the wine industry accounts for 5.4% of the total; spirits are 29.4% and beer 65.2%. Keep in mind that wine sales exceed beer sales in the US. The fact that so little is spent on advertising means that the primary way that most wineries get there message across is with their label.
So, lets see what you know about reading a wine label. The picture with this article is a German wine label. Can you tell us: (a) estate, (b) region, (c) appellation and anything special about this appellation, (d) grape, (e) predikat and style, (f) bottle size, (g) bottling statement, (h) EU bottle statement, (i) analysis tracking statement, and an estimate of sugar content. All of it is on the label. Finally, what statement on the label would be different beginning in October 2007.
I guess I would call this a "serious" label.
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