Archive for July 2008

Jul

Coffee Served, Wine Service

Jacob Gaffney in Red Wines, Barbera 1901, Andaz Hotel, Coffee, Italy, Pret a Manger

InterWined is happy to report we had a coffee.
This coffee, in fact, was consumed at Fitch Rating’s offices in Moorgate. Nice, filter coffee, made from a pot, some grinds and hot water. What could be simpler?
InterWined had two cups.
Tomorrow will find InterWined having another coffee. This time with the manager of the Pret a Manger […]

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Jul

The Coffee Continuum

Jacob Gaffney in News Coffee, EAT, Pret a Manger

It seems that InterWined.com is temporarily becoming a food and coffee website. We promise more diverse news soon, but the coffee issues surrounding our lives just won’t die down.
In fact, InterWined recently enjoyed an espresso beer from Dark Star Brewery. We thought it was great of course, but would be interested how such a product […]

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Jul

Chicken Liver Summer Salad

Sean Sellers in White Wines, Blow the Bank, Meat & Poultry, Furmint food, Hungary, Planet of the Grapes, Recipe, summer

InterWined Food

Each week, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

This week, ‘Blow the Bank’ brings you a simple Chicken Liver Salad to see us through the summer.

Like other forms of offal, chicken livers languish on supermarket shelves largely ignored by soccer moms and dads doing the weekly shop and chosen only by the frugal pensioner and the odd foodie. (After all, we can’t eat at St. John’s every night or drag ourselves to Smithfield’s each morning.)

It’s a shame too, really; because far more than most any other offal, chicken livers are both delectable and versatile. Consider this: in the past four years, I’ve managed to have chicken livers on lemongrass skewers in a restaurant on the Kowloon peninsula of Hong Kong, in pasta at a little Italian eatery hidden on the first floor of a rather non-descript Melbourne side street, as chopped liver served al fresco at a kosher trattoria in the Jewish quarter of Rome, and with salad in a Spanish tapas bar in London’s Piccadilly Circus.

While my favourite method of preparation would most certainly fresh from the pan with a touch of salt and gently fried in olive oil, they are remarkably good served with a slice of orange or Mandarin and few choice leaves of salad, making them perfect for a light summer luncheon.

Most often, people will recommend pairing liver with a big tannic red wine, the tannins serving as a safe partner for the savour flavour of the offal; however, an occasionally considered alternative — especially in the case of foie gras — is Sauternes, a sweet and acidic French dessert wine made of botrytised white wine grapes.

As with the French Sauternes, the Hungarian Tokaji Aszú is another well known wine made of botrytised wine grapes occasionally matched with foie gras to excellent affect. Given Hungary’s culinary acuity when it comes to all things liver (many consider the country’s foie gras among the best in the world — even France imports it), I decided to pair the Simple Chicken Liver Summer Salad with its dry Tokaji Furmint cousin, hoping that the drier wine would better suit the flavours chicken livers and salad.

Although, not quite the perfect match that I had hoped, but still a very good one all the same, the 2004 Oremus Tokaji Mandolas Dry Furmint (13%), £13.50 from Planet of the Grapes, is honeyed and buttery with an strong citric edge and a bit too much of an oak-y aftertaste that clashes slightly with the strongly textured flavour of the liver. This is a very impressive wine, nonetheless, and a rarity to find most places outside of Hungary to boot. Those seeking a white wine outside the realm of the overfamiliar Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc could do a lot worse than this. It would pair nicely with soft, flakey fish and seafood or make an excellent wine to enjoy on its own. It also maintains its form once openned, its oak-y aftertaste only marginally increasing over a few days.

Now, because InterWined is sometimes asked to ascribe numerical value to the wines it tries like judges at a sporting competition, let’s give this one some sort of score that suggests an excellent near miss, close the bullseye — something like 8.whatever.

(For more on InterWined’s complex ratings system, be sure to visit the Ratings page.)

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Jul

Coffee Clear-Up

Jacob Gaffney in Health, Food Coffee, EAT

InterWined received a response from Matt Hart at EAT regarding our coffee tantrum last week.
As some of you may know, we at InterWined.com operate a policy of full disclosure…even at the expense of our own pride, at times.
Luckily this isn’t one of those moments, but rather a success story for which we feel oddly proud:
[Dear […]

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Jul

Loud music can make you drink more, in less time, in a bar

Jacob Gaffney in Health, Living, News Alcoholism, Environment, Loud Music, Noise

Commercial venues are very aware of the effects that the environment — in this case, music — can have on in-store traffic flow, sales volumes, product choices, and consumer time spent in the immediate vicinity. A study of the effects of music levels on drinking in a bar setting has found that loud music leads […]

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Jul

Coffee Confusion

Jacob Gaffney in Health, Food coffee, EAT, Pret a Manger

Is it time to switch to tea?
InterWined is feeling pretty fed up with living in a non-coffee culture. In fact, one trip to the food mechant EAT (and immediately after the same thing happened in Pret), highlights the frustrations.
The incident inspired us to write to Matt Hart, a Customer Services Manager at EAT, who once […]

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3 comments

Jul

Camp Wine

Jacob Gaffney in Red Wines, Shiraz/Syrah McGuigan Hand Made Langhorne Creek Shiraz 2006

Lucky for InterWined that we had a bottle of McGuigan Hand Made Langhorne Creek Shiraz 2006 when we went camping on the cliffs between Folkstone and Dover this weekend.
Lucky, because we forgot to bring just about everything else… and had to rely on others to provide the necessities for survival. And just when everyone thought […]

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Jul

Water Down the Drain

Jacob Gaffney in Health, Living Water

In a survey on showering habits of western Europeans, the British are the most water wasteful and care the least about any negative environmental effects from their shower gel, shampoos and soap usage.
And in particular, the women in Britain are especially guilty of wasting shower water and not caring about contaminants, says the report for […]

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Jul

Sun-blushed Tomato & Goat’s Cheese Rolls

Sean Sellers in Red Wines, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Vegetarian 2005, food, Italy, Oddbins, Recipe, Super Tuscan, Tuscany

InterWined Food

Each week, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

Sticking with the bread theme from yesterday, why not start the week right with some Sun-blushed Tomato & Goat’s Cheese Rolls?

Sun-blushed tomatoes and goat’s cheese make another great match for the the 2005 Remole Frescobaldi (12.5%), £7.49 from Oddbins, made from a blend of 85% Sangiovese/15% Cabernet Sauvignon. The tomatoes and cheese provide a slightly savoury balance to the tannins of the Remole (especially if opened the previous day with InterWined’s Olive & Parma Bread).

InterWined’s Own Recipe in Full

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Jul

Olive & Parma Bread

Sean Sellers in Red Wines, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Blow the Bank, Meat & Poultry 2005, food, Italy, Oddbins, Recipe, Stomboli, Super Tuscan, Tuscany

InterWined Food

Each week, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

There are few things nicer than a warm slice of bread and a good glass of wine. So, this week, ‘Blow the Bank’ brings you both with its very own Olive & Parma Bread.

I’ve made this bread several times and in many different ways, as a bâtard, as a baguette, and as a kind of stromboli. This recipe makes the stromboli-style.

Accompanying the stromboli is a simple glass of Italian wine in the form of the 2005 Remole Frescobaldi (12.5%), £7.49 from Oddbins, made from a blend of 85% Sangiovese/15% Cabernet Sauvignon. Oddbins describes the wine as a mini-Super Tuscan and it’s hard to disagree. The flavour is earthy and tannic with a nose that smells of cherries and summer fruits. Together, the two work well and find balance — the bread with its strong olive, salt, and cheese flavours smoothing the tannins found in the wine.

InterWined’s Own Recipe in Full

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Tasting Notes

July 2008
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July 2008

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InterWined.com

Archive for July 2008

Coffee Served, Wine Service

The Coffee Continuum

Chicken Liver Summer Salad

Coffee Clear-Up

Loud music can make you drink more, in less time, in a bar

Coffee Confusion

Camp Wine

Water Down the Drain

Sun-blushed Tomato & Goat’s Cheese Rolls

Olive & Parma Bread

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