Lamb shank with spring onion mash and wilted spinach

I ahve been absolutely rubbish at updating my blog recently and I am very irritated by this, so I am now going to pick it back up and hoipefully be regimented as surely the Christmas period is going to be filled with delicious meals.

For breakfast today I just had a bowl of cereal, it was Oats and More with almonds, perhaps my most favourite cereals in the whole world.

Mr P and I went shopping at Westfield today, so on the way we picked up a bagel each, I had a health seed bagel with turkey and guacamole. It was alright, a little dry, but it tasted very green and good. The turkey had that gross jelly stuff you get on pork pies, which I did not appreciate though.

Mr P made his usual Saturday night treats, while I watched X Factor. We had lamb shanks, which tasted good, but could perhaps have done with a little longer in the oven, but after leaving them in the oven for 2 and a half hours when it got to 9.30 we were both pretty peckish. We had it with some very buttery spring onion mash, which was superb, some lovely spinach and a minted lamb jus, which i made with the juices from the gravy, a but of mint, some red wine and a few gravy granules. It was a lovely dinner.

whin.es weekly

This week was our Christmas big taste at the wine shop...

The basic setup for the weekend is open 30 different wines and get people tasting, talking and mainly...buying. My job for the weekend was to be on the tasting counter talking up and discussing wine. I had to wade my way through the wasters and strays, pick out the serious customers and try to convince them that their opinion of one or more of the wines was that they loved it and that they wanted to buy 12 (or more). Which to my credit, I did brilliantly. Everyone has a wine they'll quite happily fall in love with and if you get them to try enough, then you'll generally strike gold somewhere along the line.

We picked an excellent range of wines to contrast and compare over the weekend, and we picked wines to play against other. So, in amangst the 30 wines we had open, were three Argentinian malbecs and three different Bordeaux reds (the winter call for white wine is low so we had mostly reds open...)

My general tack with a sales based tasting is to start somewhere comfortable and get them to try a wine they will generally like first. So it's "Red or white?" or "What style of wine do you normally like?" and "Can I recommend one I've got open?". One chap that I spoke to was great, and highlighted something I really like about wine. Learning.

His initial line was "I'm fairly new to wine, and would just really like to try a few new wines and learn a little". Brilliant, not a sales pitch for once, but the opportunity to pass on some knowledge. I knew he was looking to buy eventually, so didn't need to try. We started somewhere simple, a straight up chardonnay. I really enjoyed passing on bits and bobs, and letting him taste his way through some wines. We skipped to a Marlborough sauvignon, a muscat, a Chablis, a torrontes and an Australian chardonnay/viognier. All different but the chap started to get a bit baffled but really liked the chrdonnay/viognier and the torrontes. (Torrontes is the only indigenous Argentinian white grape, really floral and pretty in taste and aroma). We did have a brief skim of the reds, but he was obviously realising that he had a lot to learn, so had a quick try of the three Bordeaux reds.

As a general rule, Bordeaux reds are a blend of three grapes. Cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc. Depending on the appellation and the winemaker depends on the dominiant grape, either merlot or cabernet sauvignon. We had a 2009 (amazingly complex for such a young wine, drink in 2014) and a 2005 (a little thin and more fruit based than I'd expect for a 2005, drink in 2011) both merlot based and a 1999 Haut-Medoc (gloriously earthy and mellow, drink now!). The guy was impressed with and interested in the differences between such a complicated and famous region. He'd really only scraped the surface, but bought a bunch of the wines and went on his way.

The contrast between the malbecs is a pretty intereting one too. Malbec is an old, old grape. Previously heavily grown in France, but there's hardly any planted there anymore. However, Argentina has taken the grape as its own and really ran with it. They seem to squeeze out lots of different styles of wine from this one grape, which is a testament to the dedication and passion of the Argentinian producers. The three we had open were El Dominnio, Mendoza, 2009, a juicy fruits wine, bright purple and easily drinkable and a great match for a light gamey dish and would definitely go well with a christmas roast turkey. The second was another 2009, Casa Marguery. This is a much more full bodied wine, with depth and oak and more tannins. The third wine was a 2007, the Eral Bravo, (which, in Spanish, is a name of a breed of fighting bull... Wowzers!) this wine really does its name justice, it's big and scary, with a lot of big fruit, it has been oaked for 13 months and that earthy wood and toast come right through. Such a variance between the fruit driven style and the powerful oaky style, but all essentially the same region and grape. Cool huh? Not like Bordeaux, based on differing blends, just simply different winemaking styles.

Now, the good thing about working in wine shop, means that on a weekend where we were giving out tasters of 30 different wines is... You're going to have a little bit of wine left over. It's not like we can sell it now...so I managed to take home 3 half empty bottles of red and 2 half empty bottles of white (whoo!). Being the good son I am, I gave the whites to my mummy. I gave her a Chilean sauvignon blanc and an excellent (half empty) bottle of Chablis. I'm good. I left some tasting notes scrawled on the bottles in black pen so my mum knew what to expect. The note for the Sauvignon read "lively, young and fresh..." and the Chablis read "mineraly, dry and crisp". I left them in them fridge and got comments back from my mum the next day (what a wonderful way to research a wine, write some notes on the bottle and wait for the review to come to you). Well, my mum believes that she doesn't normally like dry, dry wines and I stand by the fact that she hadn't tried enough good wines (spend some money everyone, you get what you pay for). It turns out that she enjoyed the flinty Chablis much more than she though she would, but at the end of the day she still preferred the younger and livelier sauvignon blanc.

Anyway, I spent the last few days polishing off the wines I kept for myself...a New Zealand pinot noir, a Portuguese trincadeira and the 2009 Bordeaux I mentioned earlier (it was open anyway!!). All are reviewed in the sparkly new (and brilliantly named) 'reviews' section. Go take a look.

That's it for now, you can check out my website http://whin.es and follow me on twitter @whinesblog. You can also come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.

whine.es weekly

I’ve been getting asked lots of questions this week. Some of them are tremendously tedious, some of them plain stupid and some of them actually interesting. Well, one of them was vaguely interesting. Either way, I think I'm going to make this a new reoccurring thing called ‘Your Questions Answered’. YQA catchy. Every time I get asked a (seemingly, possibly) interesting question, I’ll remember it (write it down) and then every 5 (or so), I’ll answer them.

Questions for this week:
Wines on tap/pump, good or bad?
Can you recommend me a wine to go with duck?
Should I treat this malbec like a Rioja?
These big elaborate bottle openers, are they any good?
Hi young man, do you know about wine?

In essence, all of these have a predictably short answer, but in general, all were asked in such a way that lead me to want to answer it more fully.

I was working at The Alex, and a rep came in from Cabana, a drinks company asking where we get our minerals and fizzy pop from and whatnot, they offer such classics as Dr Pepper, Sunkist, Irn Bru and Virgin cola, and their (excellent) own brand Cabana Cola and Cabana Applause (a refreshing fizzy apple drink apparently). All of this was irrelevant anyway, but the parting documents included something that really interested me and should have been his primary focus for the venue The Alex is. A really attractive 2 tap font and a unit to dispense wine on draught. The unit looked great from the pictures and they provided equipment and installation for free as well. The only downside was the range of wines available. Cabana Dry White or Cabana Fruity Red just doesn't sound appealing to me or a consumer. I’ve also seen the same thing in Wetherspoons, Echo Falls mertlot, chardonnay and pinot grigio don’t sound like something I’d drink on a night out, or in a pub. The idea behind having a wine on tap is great. Just like draught beer, cider, ale, coke and orange juice. Its good for the bartender, being a quicker way to serve glasses of wine and it’s good for the environment (less packaging and less waste of glass bottles) I’m confident that it’s not the wines fault, it doesn’t taste any different than a bottle of Echo Falls or a bottle of Cabana Dry White. I’m sure that they are unpopular due to the lack of any decent wines being made available for use with the pump system. Get a better wine producer on board, get some excellent venues on board and I think that (with better marketing, and a better company rep) people could really appreciate this method of wine delivery. I’m not saying its ever going to replace the bottle, just that it could really be much better.

Right, I get a lot of food matching requests in the wine shop, loads in fact. A white for pork (something with a bit of body an oaked Australian or South African chardonnay), a red for pasta bolognaise (northen italian, tuscany, chianti). As a general rule, I usually recommend something country specific, Spanish food goes with Spanish wine, French wine goes with French cuisine. Still, this chap that came into the shop spent some time wandering around on his own, happily browsing the shelves before asking me “Can you suggest a red for a roast duck dish I’m cooking tonight”. My usual starting points are price and what style they prefer in general. So then I know what they normally like and if any of them fit already and I know where to start with something they haven’t tried before. So he answered that he usually preferred big spicy reds and that he was looking to spend about £10. So, a quick think and I came up with an excellent Syrah, Gouguenheim Syrah, 2008, peppery, fruity, dense and definitely a match for hearty game dishes. The customer replied instantly with “not that one...”. Brilliant. I confirmed he’d not had it before and that it would really be a great match for the dish, but he was adamant that he didn’t want that particular wine and opted for his own choice of a wine.

What's the difference between a Rioja and this Malbec? This seemingly innocent but scarily obvious question struck a chord with me for some reason. I was so baffled by the obviousness of the question posed by a customer I assumed knew what he was talking about, asked in such a way that almost made me look like the idiot, that I fumbled my answer and let my manager cut in and say exactly what i was trying to get out. Basically, everything and nothing. They’re from different countries for a start, Rioja being a region in Spain and this (and a lot of) malbec(s) being from Argentina. They are completely different grapes, Rioja being mainly tempranillo (and a malbec being malbec). Also, trying to compare one Argentinian malbec to a whole region of Spain is incredibly difficult. Think about regional blending of grenache grapes, different vintages, different ages (a young Rioja differs wildly from a wine that has been aged for 2 years) and then try to sum them up into one taste to compare to a different wine.

The taste between these wines however have their similarities though. I think this is the answer he was looking for. “They are both fruity and deep purple in colour, but the malbec will be more tannic and a higher concentration of fruit, a similarly aged Rioja would be more earthy and a little more lively. I’d have the Rioja with food and the malbec with friends”. So you can go buy both wines if you want. The malbec was the Adnams Selection, El Dominio, malbec, Argentina, 2009 and a comparitive rioja would be something like Perez Burton, Rioja, 2007.

Has anyone every used one of these Bottle Openers ? Do you like it? Did it break? Did you realise after you’ve paid £50 for it that it isn’t any quicker than a spoon? The elaborate, gift fodder style bottle opener, with a separate faff for a foil cutter (use a knife), they frustrate me. When asked direct I was honest and said No. Why? 3 reasons.

They are usually pretty heavy, so even for an elderly person or someone with weak wrists or someone incredibly LAZY they aren’t that much extra help (a screw cap is much easier).
Even as a gift for someone who likes wine they are useless. They’ve probably either already got one or know that are cumbersome. I’ve been given them as a ‘Free Gift on orders over £1’ and as birthday presents and they sit dusty on my shelf.
They are a pain to use, and every make and brand I’ve tried, they break. No matter how simple they claim, they are elaborate and over-engineered pieces of equipment to do a rather simple task.


Get one of these Pulltaps waiters friend, they are the absolute best, I’ve got 3.

So, on reflection, here is a quick round up of the questions I’ve dealt with this week.

Q: Wines on tap/pump, good or bad?
A: It depends on the wine.

Q: Can you recommend we a wine to go with duck?
A: Gouguenheim syrah, 2008, Argentina.

Q: Should I treat this malbec like a rioja?
A: No.

Q:These big elaborate bottle openers, are they any good?
A: No.

And finally...

Q: Hi young man, do you know about wine?
A: Of course I do. I work in a wine shop.

That’s it for now, you can follow me on twitter @whinesblog and you can come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.

Pork belly with spring onion mash and home-made apple sauce

Feeling totally back to normal this morning I got up and had a bowl of cereal plus a cup of tea for breakfast before gettign the train to epsom to have a little day out with Mr P.

Whilst in Epsom we went out for lunch at a Slug and Lettuce, where I had my second platter of the week, this time a tex-mex one. It consisted of:
* Mini flour tortillas
* Chilli beef
* Shredded lettuce
* BBQ ribs
* Jalapeno and cream cheese croquettes
* Tortilla chips with grated cheese
* BBQ sauce
* Sour cream
* Salsa
* A strange kind of bruschetta with chopped cucumber on (not the best as it made the toasted bread kinda soggy)

My sister came round for dinner and Mr P mad eus a slap up treat... we snacked on a few pistachios while he cooked and he then dished up pork belly on a bed of spring onion mash, with spinach, carrots and home-made apple sauce.

The pork belly was absolutely and utterly delicious - probably the best thing he has ever made me. The meat was so succulent and tender with the beautifully crisp crackling on top. The spinach and carrots were both perfectly cooked and the mash was so so smooth and presented beautifully in a circle underneath the pork. I am not usually a huge fan of apple sauce, but this was seriously the best I have ever tasted, it was more like a purree and had been seived to make it smooth. According to Mr P alongisde the apple he had also added white wine, salt, pepper, sage and mustard. Outstanding.

This was followed by a lemon cheesecake courtesy of Waitroise - tasty but I was so full I felt sick ... again. So I couldn't quite finish this.

whin.es weekly

France.

I've spent a lot of time looking up bits and bobs on France this week. France is a pretty interesting place when it comes to wine. That's a pretty obvious statement, but it's true. They call their grapes different names, they refer to the wines solely by region or chateau and they have a specific word that encompasses everything from soil, sunshine, rain, wind, geography and geology. Terroir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terroir). A weird, but terrifyingly interesting lot they are.

So, here is a quick whip through France: there's (loosely) 4 main regions, plus a whole host of others. There you go.

Ever heard of Bordeaux? Some of the most famous red wines in the world come from this area, plus it's split up into a serious number of appellations. Including Medoc, Saint-Emillion, St Julian, Paulliac (the list is endless). What I've been looking at with Bordeaux is the differences between the two common divides. Right and Left bank. In general a more fruity merlot based blend comes from the right bank which included Saint-Emilion and Pomerol. And a more dense, Cabernet Sauvignon predominant wines come from the left bank, which includes Medoc and Graves. I've prattled on before about Medoc and Haut-Medoc, I once described a Medoc (Chateau chantelys) at a wine tasting as a wine that I could drink with a packet of crisps or a piece of toast for breakfast, some people even agreed with me, they understood the excellent food matching capabilities of that wine. Idiots.

I don't drink the Bordeaux dry whites. There's more interesting whites about and the main grape variety is semillion. Some are ok, but you've got to do your research (if you want, get in touch and I'll look into a couple and write them up). Drink the sweet Sauternes though, excellent with a Christmas pudding and some vodka margarine.

Burgundy is on the right side of middle France, a massively divers, with some absolute classic regions and wines. I'd have at it with a mineraly, flinty, bone dry Chablis and a handful of oysters with a little rock salt. Definitely also try a light burgundy red, or a Beaujolais. I think Beau is underrated; the Cru Beaujolais (Beau top 10 essentially) cover their tracks by using their village name instead. Clever. Look out for a Brouilly or a Julienas and definitely a Fleurie. All Beaujolais, all light, but all different.

A highly underrated region (in my opinion), because of its diversity is the Rhône. The northern Rhône and southern Rhône are really different. Up the top you've got mainly red wines like Cote Rotie and Crozes-Hermitage et al, where they blend up to 20% white grapes in with the reds. It's a bit more regimented than that, the French make sure each region has specific rules for blending different varieties. Genius. Make each region different. By Law.

The southern Rhône includes cote-du-Rhône and the CdR Villages regions and of course the famous Chateauneuf-du-Pape region. With blends of load of different grapes including spicy syrah and Grenache grapes, but can be (as is the case with C-d-P) 18 differnet regional grape varieties! Eighteen, wow, that blew my mind this week. Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape. That's just the French, they called it syrah first and everyone else called it Shiraz, why not? Because they didn't want to be the same as France? I think so.

The other region I've been looking at is the lesser known, main region. The Loire. There are some absolute gems in the Loire. Obviously Sancerre, but maybe a chenin blanc! Vouvray produces incredibly fresh, crisp white wines with a hint of sweetness and plenty of fruit, made almost exclusively from chenin blanc, a grape that has been made popular by south Africa. The region called Chinon! One of the few red regions in the Loire, Cabernet Franc grapes are at the forefront here. There is a small amount of Cabernet Franc in Bordeaux, usually as small part of the blend, but in Chinon, it's usually at least 80% which produces light reds. Chinon reds go exceptionally well with food, a red for white meats and risotto dishes, with more depth than a burgundy or New Zealand pinot noir.

Writing about France brings me back to the time I went to work there. I learnt stuff, ate nice thing and generally had a relaxed time in a hotel as a waiter. I had to speak French and everything.

I spent two weeks working at the l'Hotel Les Tourelles. It is in north-west France, near the town of Amiens, but on the coast. When we were not at work me and my colleague Luke spent most of the time wandering around. The little village of Le Crotoy is pretty much empty, not much to do but eat and drink wine. Excellent. The work involved being a runner in the hotel restaurant at night and serving on the outside patio for lunch. I got thrown in to serving real customers on day 3 after proving I could hold my own in French, and Luke got stuck with pouring drinks and carrying food about. I was amazed by the customers knowledge of the food and especially of the wines and the wine list. People were asking constantly for specific vintages of specific regions of France, only France. A common knowledge and interest in eating and drinking, a passion for quality and preference you just don't see in England. Not one person said “le vin du maison” (house wine).

We did venture on the dodgiest bus service I've ever been on into Abbeyville, closer but smaller than Amiens, but still definitely a town. Luke constantly looked like a tourist, even when we're in England he dresses like a tourist. Bright yellow board shorts, flip flops and a face like a ripe tomato. I tried desperately to look normal, but we got clocked as English Aliens wherever we went. We wanted (needed) some wine to take home so stopped in at the French equivalent of Lidl for some supplies and spent ages trying to figure out which wines were which. There wasn't one country other than France and lots were local but mostly from the nearest region, the Loire. You just don't get that anywhere else in the world; ignoring every other wine producing country and being happy with the wine available on your doorstep. We were stuck scrabling for ideas when a small, walking stick wielding batty old French lady hobbled up to us and muttered in broken English, “you, err, wan... some 'elp?” to which I replied in French “oui, votre favourite vin rouge, sil vous plait”. She seemed pleased I'd replied in a Suffolk accented French and directed us to her favourite local reds, and Anjou and a Chinon. Me and Luke both bought a bottle of each for a total cost of about 10€ (4 bottles 2€50 each!!) and when we got home were completely blown away but the character and quality, and have both kept an affection for the regions. You just wouldn’t get that in England in either. If I came up to you in a supermarket, harbouring my love and knowledge of wines and suggested you take a chance on something new and interesting, I'm pretty confident I'd get a lot of “thanks, but no thanks...”, but reading it here is obviously a totally different story, huh?

Next week Italy. Not.

That's it for now, you can follow me on twitter @whinesblog, check out my website http://whin.es and you can come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.

Chinese take away

Feeling more than slightly worse for wear today after a night of wine drinking and karaoke singing. Could not raise myself from the sheets of my bed until around 6pm and therefore could not bare to eat anything until then.

Mr P however had popped out in the middle of the afternoon for a sausage in batter and some chips, so I teasted my fragile stomach with a couple of soggy chips warmed up in the microwave. After leaving these for about half an hour I discovered they were safe and so moves onto Heiz spaghetti and sausages. Half a tin of this made me feel almost human again, so Mr P and I decided a chinese take away would be a grand idea to help get our energy levels back up.

We ordered:
2x chicken and sweetcorn soup
1x House special noodles for me
1x Sweet and sour chicken balls for Mr P
4x Cans of Coke

Pretty much back to normal now thanks to our local Chinese Bamboo.

Sharing platter

Yoday was my last day at Bookseller Towers - sob. To mark the last day working together MR P and I decided to go for a slap up breakfast... at MacDonalds. I had a sausage, egg and cheese bagel and he had a double sausage and egg mcmuffin meal. Always a great way to start the day, but usually leaves my stomach a little fragile.

I bought lots of goodies in to celebrate my last day, so for much of the morning I was munching on mini rolls, party rings, pink and whites, chocolate cornflake cakes, etc etc.

We went out for a girly lunch at Zizzis, where three out of five of us had our favourite dish.. strozzapreti somethingor other - pasta with chicken, red pesto, spring onions and cream fraiche - delicious.

In an attempt to line my stomach whilst ina bar for my leaving do me and my friend Fliss ordered a sharing platter consisting of ribs (tricky to eat with one hand whilst standing in a busy bar), cheesy garlic bread, calamari, breaded chicken - it was a tasty selection - just wish it had been able to line my stomach more adequately...

Chicken black bean stir fry

Breakfast: Marmalade on toast

Lunch: Chilli and pumpkin soup with roll

Dinner: Chicken black bean stir fry made by Mr P.

The dinner was tasty althought very spicey because the noodles were chilli, the sauce had chilli in and Mr P also decided to put an extra chilli in to spice it up a bit, hmmm. The chicken was beautifully tender though with vegetables including, bean sproutes, courgettes, pepper and mushrooms lovely and crunchy. Perhaps a little less spice next time though.

Chorizo pasta

Breakfast: White toast with marmalade

Linch: Chilli and pumpkin ssoup with a brown roll

Dinner: Chorizo pasta - ingredients including:
* Chorizo
* Onion
* Garlic
* Chopped Tomatoes
* Mushrooms
* Courgette
* Pepper
* Chilli
* Seasoning
* Milk
* Pasta

T'was yum.

Jerk chicken with rice and peas

Breakfast comprised of one piece of toast with marmite on - most definitely not enough!!

For lunch I was ravenous so decided to treat myself to an egg mayo baguette, some crisps and a chocolate bar, but was left utterly disappointed. My baguette had no butter and was really bland and tasteless and my kit kat chunky caramel had no caramel in it. This is not the first time this has happened... The first time I had one it had no caramel in it, but I decided to give them a second chance. On discovering this one also lacked the vital ingredient I decided to write to Nestle to tell them of my disappointment and they sent me a £2 voucher, which oddly enough I am yet to spend. So months later I decided today to try again and buy another one as Nestle had assured me there had been a problem with a machine... but I discover much to my horror this one is also caramel free - so now I am sworn off kit kat caramel chunkys for life. In other news I had a packet of smokey bacon Wheat Crunchies, thank goodness they lived up to be everything the packet said it would be.

My sister came round for dinner and we decided to make jerk chicken with rice and peas.

With the chicken we put eight drumsticks in a dish and then added paprika, cajun pepper, chilli, tomato ketchup, lime juice, salt and pepper, some diced red and white onion and a diced tomato and then put it into the oven for around 35 mins checking it and turning the meat around occasionally. With the rice and peas we fried off some red onion and red chilli before adding a tin of coconut milk, some rice, a tin of beans (Caribbean style) and some chicken stock. We left it simmering for about 20 mins and then served it with the chicken. It was tasty, moist and tender. A great meal after a long day at work.

Goats cheese and Mediterranean vegetable tart

I attempted the cream cheese croissant thing this morning, but having never made it before and without a recipe to follow, I added a little bit too much sugar and my cream cheese mixture ended up looking a little browner than it was supposed to. It still tasted good though.

For lunch we were out and about, so bought packet sandwiches from Sainsbury's. I am never really a fan of packet sandwiches, they always look a lot better than they taste. They are always a bit cold and bland, saying that however this sandwich was quite tasty. It was beef and horseradish with some kind of lettuce. There was several thick slices of the meat with a god helping of horseradish, which certainly added to the taste.

After Mr P made me such a tasty dinner last night it was time for me to cook him something, so I decided to make a pastry dish I have been saying each nigh I would make for over a week now after buying some rolled puff pastry a fortnight ago.

I started off frying some strips of red onion with some garlic and olive oil. I then added a finely chopped tomato, some red pepper and some chopped courgette and fried for a further minute. I rolled out my pastry rectangle and piled the vegetables on top leaving a gap around the edge for the pastry to rise. I then added halved olives and goats cheese and put it into the oven for around 20 mins. I served it with fresh spinach leaves tossed in balsamic vinegar.

It was pretty enjoyable and all the flavours went very well together. It would be nice in the future to try out different toppings.

Roasted duck leg with potato rosti, savoy cabbage and plum sauce

Mr P made a delicious cream cheese croissant thing for breakfast today. IT was basically torn croissants topped with a sauce made of cream cheese, butter and demerara sugar and then baked in the oven for 15 mins and sprinkled with cinnamon and netmeg. Absolutely gorgeous, but hugely fattening.

As we ate this at about 12ish we didn't really have lunch, but after a trip to the gym I was feeling rather famished, so I had some good old marmite on toast.

Mr P certainly proved he is a man not to be messed with in the kitchen with tonights dinner. It was simply amazing and looked beautiful - I should really have taken a picture to post on here as my description will not do justice to the food, in this case a picture really does speak a thousand words.

We had gressingham duck legs which was resting on a potato rosti and cabbage, with chantenay carrots and a plum sauce. The rosti was deliciously crisp and not too greasy, which I often find rostis are. The savoy cabbage which sat upon it was perfectly cooked, not soggy at all. The duck leg was then placed upon that. The skin was so crisp and tasty, ye tht meat underneath still tender and moist. Mr P had laid a few of the mini carrots around the plate and put a spoonful of plum sauce on top. I am not often a fan of sweet foods in savoury but the sauce perfectly complemented the meatiness of the duck and the earthiness of the cabbage. A beautiful dinner.

whin.es weekly

I'm excited to mention two chums of mine have opened a restaurant. Good time to do that apparently, booming. Anayway, I'm sure they'll do well, the menu and wine lists are excellent.

So this week I’m gonna skim through my thoughts on and processes behind putting together a restaurant wine list.

My friends have called their restaurant the townhouse (no capitals because it cool...)

The best thing I like about the townhouse's wine list is that the wines match the (my) commonly viewed best examples from regions around the world. Grapes you'll probably either know or have heard of from the region that it’s well known for. A quick bit of word association. Malbec - Argentina. Merlot - Chile. Shiraz - Australia. Sauvignon Blanc - New Zealand. Chardonnay - Australia. Chenin Blanc - South Africa. Well, that’s how the wine list reads. Not forgetting the obvious classic regions such as Sancerre, Chablis, Valpolicella, Rioja etc either. Excellent.

I've seen a lot of restaurants make the wine list too 'out there', packed with expensive wines you've never tried or even heard of (I would have obviously, but you get the point...), or odd grape/region combinations because it looks cool. I've got an Australian Shiraz/Viognier in the cupboard but I wouldn’t buy one in a restaurant. Viognier, is a floral white grape and the wine is 5% viognier blended with 95% shiraz, giving the spicy warmth of shiraz an interesting floral note, confusing but wonderful. This technique is the only lawful production method in a specific region of France, wines from the Côte-Rôtie AOC region. Legally they can blend up to 20% viognier with shiraz, but most choose not to. These wines usually retail at £40 up to £400 in wine shops and can be much more on a wine list, but this Australian version is £10 retail. But without knowing all that I’d definitely be reluctant to take the chance in a restaurant.

Good news for me (and you guys) is to look out for the special wines at the townhouse because I'm gonna be recommending them and posting a review here and telling you to go there to try it. (They call that 'Cross Promotion' kids.) Not sure when the wine recommendations are going to kick off, but until then I've tried the Pitchfork Shiraz, from the Margaret River region in Australia. Which is actually similar to the Juniper Crossing, Margaret River Cabernet/Shiraz from last week. Big and bold with a deeper, spicier intense flavour, from being only a shiraz. I've also tried the Merlot, Julio Bouchon, Maule Valley, Chile. An excellent example of Chilean Merlot. A little bit of oak aging and a little lighter and more drinkable than the Shiraz. I'd have a glass of the Merlot if I was nipping in for a drink and I'd have the Shiraz with the Oxtail or the Grilled Lamb (It’s too much for the Venison, have a bottle of the New Zealand Pinot Noir instead £25 though...).

I think its sensible and good buisness sense for a restaurant to have a standard wine list and a changing specials board, just like any restaurant does with its food menu. This ideal, was mirrored by a lady I met last week called Christine. She works for a company called Enotria and they specialise in wholesale distribution of excellent wines from all over the world. At one of the restaurants I work at (The Alex, Felixstowe) we use Enotria for our special wines (like the townhouse is going to do with Adnams and me) and we ask (and trust) her recommendations on interesting wines that we think will match some of the dishes on the menu. We generally try to change our special wines every 3-4 months and try and tie it in with menu changes.

She popped in to say hello to me on Tuesday. Pretty quiet and at 11.30 am we popped about 8 bottles of wine by Chilean producer MontGras. We tried a Chilean Viognier. Chile not being well known for this grape, it's produced in smaller batches, and really given some attention, it's wonderfully subtle viognier with a snappier finish than I expected. Christine and Ginzalo (Donoso, from MontGras) just looked at my reaction and smiled. They did the same with the 2006 Carmenere riserva. High up in the Chilean mountains there's an incredibly small vineyard with a wickedly small yield of only the best grapes. So much depth and so many layers. Both the Carmenere and the viognier would be lost and possibly neglected on a standard wine list, but with the simple addition of 2 special interesting wines, paired up with a specific dish on the menu (and bought and sold for a reasonable price) these two wines would be an absolute winner and an easy sell for the most moronic waiters (see last week).

I'm not saying this is the wine list ideal for everyone. Country pubs and smaller outlets need a sensible wine list that they tailor pretty much to the wants of their customers. Expensive, posh restaurants will have a sommelier or knowledgeable waiters and immaculate wine lists, with specific vintages and chateaux's and regions and not a screw cap in sight. That sort of wine list definitely has it's place. If you're paying £20 for your main you're going to pay £40 for bottle of wine, and thats fine. You might have a different wine for each course, And that's fine too. There is however a massive gap in the middle, and plenty of those restaurants have got it wrong and they could help themselves by having a read of this blog and a look at the townhouse's effort.

That’s it for now, you can check out my website http://whin.es and follow me on twitter @whinesblog. You can come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.

Take-away curry

After a lovely long sleep in our cosy little inn we went for breakfast in the pub part of the inn. We started with orange juice, coffee and toast (I had one slice with marmite and the other with marmalade). We then had a choice of either porridge, kippers or a fried breakfast, so we shared and had half kippers and half a fry up.

For lunch we walked about half an hour from Arundel to a pub on the river called The Black Rabbit. It was such a lovely picturesque setting. Mr P had a jacket potato with cheese and bacon and I had a crayfish and avocado baguette with a bottle of cider. Delicious.

After travelling back home and feeling rather peckish we decided to get a take-away, which was rather naughty of us after having a night away. We ordered from our usual Indian and it didn't dissapoint. We had:

Lamb rogan josh
Chicken korma
Saag aloo
Pilau rice
Naan bread

We ate every last mouthful and it was really incredibly good. Just what I felt like.

Roast lamb with winter vegetables and rosemary jus

As Mr P and I have a few days off together we thought we'd induldge in some fatty brunch and so Mr P russled up a good old fry up consisting of:

Grilled smokey bacon
Sausages
Scambled egg with onions
Fried mushrooms
Potato Waffles
Tomatoes

It was gorgeous. I absolutely love potato waffles.

After lunch we wentr away to a place in Sussex called Arundel to have a mini-break. So we scoured the restaurants in the town for somewhere nice to eat and settled on a tiny little English restaurant called the Town House. It was a lovely lovely meal.

For starter I had panfired pigeon breast kept very rare, just the way I like it. It was served with a salad, which alongside the usual leaves was made up of ceps and figs, the mushrooms were so meaty and the sweet figs worked so well with the tender pigeon.

For mains I had roast lamb, once again cooked medium-rare, yum. It was sat upon a selection of chunky roasted winter vegetables including carrot, swede and parsnips with a rosemary jus. The componants were all absolutely delicious, but I felt that lamb, which is usually such a springtime meat is perhaps more suited to lighter vegetables, perhaps baby carrots or leeks would have been better suited. I am not saying it wasn't tasty though because it really was, it's just if I had a restaurant I would have opted for a slightly different dish.

Drapers awards dinner

Speacial K for breakfast.

For lunch I decided to make myself a right old comforting lunch - I had potato waffles, mushy [eas and tomato ketchup - quite simply delcious. I really loved it.

Went to the Drapers awards at Grosvenor House tonight to meet all my new colleagues and people from the trade. was a lovely glamourous evening with very tasty food, although I can't tell you exactly what it was as I didn't see a manu, but I will give it a go at explaining.

Starter - Mozzarella with sun dired tomatoes and olives
Main - Fish (not entireoly sure what kind, but was lovely) This was served with a zesty citrus sauce, potatoes and some delcious spinach. The spinach was so so nice, not entirely sure why, I think it may have been creamed.
Dessert - Can't really describe this one, it was a round mouusey cake type thing which tasted a bit like horlicks. It had a gooey berry filling and was served with cubes of jelly on the side.

A very nice meal indeed.

Pittas filled with chilli

Some more marmite on toast for breakfast this morning, before another shopping trip with mumatron for even more Christmas presents followeds by a lovely coffe at The Townhouse.

For lunch mumatron and I met up with my granparents and went to a pub called The Ship at Levington. It was a very nice setting and was all cosy with an open fire. To eat I had smoked haddock with crushed new poatoes, sugar snap peas and sauce vierge. It tasted delicious, but was a little oily and the oil all congregated underneath the fish with the sugarsnap peas, making them slightly greasy. Nonetheless it was delicious and the potatoes were gorgeous. We shared a couple of desserts - one was a lemon posset (possigbly the smoothest and silkiest of all the desserts) and a brandy snap basket with a trio of ice cream; vanilla, chocolate and ginger. So nice!!

I headed back to London this evening, so Mr P and I had something quick when we got in. He had made a tomatoey mincey concotion the night before so we added a hint of spice and some beans and had it inside toasted pittas. T'was tasty.

Pork tenderloin with boulangere potatoes

At home with mumatron for a day of Christmas shopping so started the day with some whiolesome brown toast - 'proper' butter and marmite. Proper butter and marmite are just so damn tasty. Margarine is simply not up to the job.

After spending a morning of wandering around the shops in Bury st Edmunds and cooing at the lovely clothes yet not buying a thing we decided we had earnt a little break so we went to Strada. We shared a risotta and pasta becuase we couldn't decide what to have. The risotta we shared was absolutely delicious, so delicious I think I may attempt to make it again, it was pumpkin and butternut squash risotto with wilted spinach, crispy pancetta and pine nuts. Seriously tasty - but also boiling hot! We also shared a penne pasta thing with courgettes, peppers, olives and tomatoes. It was scattered with chunks of mozzarella which were so tender and creamy that they literally melted away as soon as they touched your tongue. Heavenly. I had a lovely glass of red wine and truely felt like a lady who lunches, I could definitely get used to this life.

Despite having a big lunch after hours of shopping (I managed to buy half my Christmas presents) we were very hungry agaiun. For dinner mumatron made a lovely pork tenderloin, which I know she put in the oven, but I don't know much else about. It was served with boulangere potatoes, baby corn, cabbage and courgettes. Oh and a lovely 'jus'. Good work mumatron.

Thai seabass

A lovely lazy Sunday morning and Mr P made me pancakes. I had four, the first one with cheese in ketchup (much to Mr P's disgrace), I then had the other four with sugar and lime - lovely.

I went back to see the parental unit for a few days today, so papa Gallagher made a delicious dinner. We had whole baked thai seasbass. The fishes were stuffed with garlic, ginr, chilli, lime and lemongrass (maybe a few other things, but I'm not sure). The fish was absoilutely delicious, the flesh was so soft and had so much flavour. It was serve with some baby new potatoes which had been crushed and tossed in butter and some mange tout. We weashed it down with a glass of Chablis. A seriously delicious meal.

Home made pizza

Got up relatively late and then decided to do a major blitz of the flat, so didn't really have breakfast and instead had brunch at local cafe Rosie Lee's.

I had hash browns, scrambled egg, beans and tomatos with crusty white toast and orange juice. I like to think that it was pretty healthy with the orange juice, tomatoes and beans making up three of my five a day. The hash browns, although probably frozen were yum and I loved them with the beans and the tomatoes. The egg was alright, a little pale and insipid in colour though.

Mid-afternoon while watching a little bit of Soccer Saturday Mr P had a cup of tea and a cherry bakewell. I haven't had a cherry bakewell in years after having a slight obsession with them when I was at high school. The little afternoon treat was lovely.

For dinner we made home-made pizzas, which we have never done before and was so much fun. I was very keen on getting a pizza dough mix as I'm not a big fan of measuring, but Mr P insisted on making the dough from scratch with yiest and strong flour. We then put it in a hot room right next to the radiator for an hour so it could rise, before rolling it out a\nd making nice rectangular pizzqas soi they would fit well on our baking trays.

To my rectangle of dough I added creamed tomatoes, then sliced mushrooms, strips of onion, pieces of ham, chunks of artechokes, them a large scattering of mozzerella, then several handfuls of olives before sprinkling it with oregano, some salt and pepper.

We then left them in the oven for about 20 mins before eating them with a glass of red. I couldn't quite believe how delicous they tasted, the ingredients were so fresh and you could taste each different topping so distinctly. The base was good, but if we were to make them again we would probably add a touch more salt to the dough and roll it a little thinner.

It's wine time

This week, post food tasting, I did a wine tasting, with a colleague (yes, you Glyn).

Skip to 2 hours before. The pub has a quarterly menu change, and they cook up one of each new dish and the staff tuck in. Most members of front of house see menu tasting as an opportunity of a free dinner. (sorry guys) Starving themselves all day, ignoring the chef, not asking questions, not even trying some dishes because "they look a funny colour" and stuffing their faces as quickly as possible. Which ruins the whole point of what we're achieving. Spending time, money and effort in order to help staff answer questions, sell and promote only works if they're actually going to taste, take an interest and learn. Which is pretty similar with wine. Too many times I've been to a wine tasting and the people there aren't even interested in wine, they just fancy a free drink (This isn't going be one long rant this week, I promise, I've got a point and a direction). I've even been on the receiving end of a bunch of disinterested 18 year olds asking questions such as "If its fizzy, is it still wine?" and "What's the difference between a red wine and a white wine?"

Now any tasting, has a purpose. It just depends on the specifics of that as to how you conduct yourself, how you conduct the tasting and the people you want to come and taste. For instance if you're a small, independent wine shop and you're trying to get some extra customers by having a wine tasting you want whoever you can get through the door to drink whatever they like. On the basis they'll buy something and then come back and buy some more. If you're a pub with 10 wines by the glass and 30 by the bottle then you want your staff to be able to help customers make a decision and suggest wines. If you can, you want them to stay sober and remember the difference between red and white until a customer asks. If you're me, and Glyn asks "teach me about the wine list Dan", you're gonna sit at the bar and get drunk together. Which is what we did.

I've peppered this account of the night with some quotes in brackets to give you a feel of how it went (downhill).

We made sure we had the wine list, a pad and paper, the internet (to prove I know what I'm talking about) and some wine. We started off with the basics of wine tasting, I start generally with an eyes, nose, mouth tasting approach (when you can't feel your shoulders, knees or toes, you stop drinking.) To which I got the reply "most wines just taste like wine", at that point I could tell it was going to be a long night. Not being a fan of red wine we were sticking solely to whites. Also, Wednesday nights are "any wine off our menu £10 a bottle" night. So we were tasting wines by the bottle instead of by the glass.

First up, a crisp, refreshing Burgundy. Dry and smooth with apricot and citrus. Trying to explain words like finish and crisp ("how is a wine like a crisp? You're not eating Dan") is tricky so we cracked open a terrible German Leibfraumilch to compare it to, sweet and like a cheap fruit juice with no finish or flavour. We were actually taking notes and looking at the wine, comparing colours, body ("syrupiness Glyn, is it like water or honey?" "neither...its wine."). Giving it a smell, Glyn thought all the wines at some point smelled like pears. Taking time to taste them and write up our notes before finishing the bottle and moving on. We had an A6 sheet per wine with a heading and everything to start with. The list looked a little like this so far.

French Burgundy
eyes - straw coloured
nose - pears and citrus fruit
mouth - dry, crisp, long finish

German Leibfraumilch
eyes - golden, and syrupy
nose - really fruity, oranges and pears
mouth - short finish, sweet and doesn't taste of much at all

Pleno Viura (from the Navarra region in northern Spain)
eyes - similar to the others
nose - pears
mouth - "Dan, i don't like this one it's too dry" "at least you're learning Glyn"

Casa Rivas Sauvignon Blanc (from the Maipo Valley in Chile)
eyes - looks like wine
nose - smells like wine
mouth - wine

I think we managed those 4 wines tasted (read: bottles drank) before Glyn got bored and asked "just recommend me a wine that will 'go down well'...". A challenge. I took It. Other than 'going down well' I had Glyns reactions on the last few wines to go by and I suggested a French country style Côtes de Gascogne, Cepage/Colombard. Well rounded, off-dry, fruity and it certainly 'goes down well'. Glyn was happy with my choice and decided he wanted all of it so I got myself a red. Which by this point was a very silly idea. Still as everything was only £10 I opted for the most expensive one (obviously) normally £21.50. Juniper Crossing Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot, 2005. This well fermented, 14% abv wine has a deep colour, big flavours and did I mention it was 14%??

Anyway, I don't remember the walk home.

That's it for now, you can follow me on twitter @danprobert and you can come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.

Chicken curry

For lunch I was slightly delicate after a night out so had a scrambled egg and sausage sandwich on white bread with ketchup. Although scrambled egg is not the easiest thing to eat in a sandwich there is no yolk situation that you get with fried and it goes amazingly well with the ketchup - yum.

With only four days left at work I went out with lunch with a couple of colleagues, one of which I won't be working with again. We went to Cantina Laredo, a new Mexican in St Martin's Courtyard. We had toriklla chips with a salsa type dip and then the waiter made a bowl of guacamole in front of us, which was amazing. He scooped out the avacado, chopped tomatoes and mixed it with chopped red onion, lime and corrider. Seriously delicious. We shared some nachoes as a starter, which were strange, but amazing. They were little rectangular pieces of tortillas with cheese, beans and chicken layered on top, then with sour cream, guacamole and jalapinos on the side. I had chicken fajitas for mains. A sizzling plate on chicken, onions and peppers arrived, which smelt amazing. It was served with three flour tortilla, guacamole, sour cream, re-fried beans and rice. I loved it. The decor was also great with stylish black booths - I will definitely be going again.

Mr P made a delcious curry for dinner, but I sisn't really watch him make much of it. I do know that his petsel and mortar came out and he ground up a selection of spices including cumin, corriander seems, cardamon.. and some other things. He also put a tin of chopped tomatoes in, lots of onion, garlic, chicken, mushrooms, spinach, creamed coconut. It was served with some lovely fluffy rice. It was really really good.

Spinach and ricotta pizza

I didn't go straight into the office this morning and instead got the train to Cambridge, so decided to get breakfast at Kings Cross station. I am a huge fan of McDonald's breakfasts, yet have never had a Burger King one, so I though I'd try one out and got a sauage, egg and cheese 'butty' with hash browns and a black tea. Oh the dissapointment, it simply paled in comparison to McDonalds. The bread was too similar to a burger bun, the egg, sausage and cheese filling tasteless. The little hash brown bites were pretty tasty and very crispy on the outside, but I think in the future I will stick with Maccy D's.

I was pleased I'd had a big liunch as on returning to the office gone 2pm I went to the fridge to find my soup had been stolen. Luckily Mr P had bought me a wholegrain roll which I ate on its own with a handful of almonds - not a good lunch, but too busy to pop out and buy something else and I was outraged at having to fork out for something else after someone else ate my lunch!

I spent dinner at a friends house with lots of wine before going out clubbing. We had garlic bread and spinach and ricotta pizza, perfect for lining the stomach before a large amount of vodka.

Thai red curry

Breakfast - Alpen sans raisins and a cup of tes

Lunch - Covent Garden Tomato and basil soup

Dinner - Red thai curry
* Chicken
* Onions
* Red Thai curry paste
[Fried together with a drop of oil for about 7 mins]
* Mushrooms
* Yellow pepper
* Coconut milk
* Bamboo shoots
[Added and then simmered for about 15 mins]
* Thin egg noodles

Yum

Creamy tomatoey chorizo pasta

Same old same old for breakfast and lunch today. However I did have an olive roll with my lunch, which was delicious.

Today someone on Twitter mentioned they were having turkey and stuffing soup from M&S - I most definitely need to track this down and find it - It sounds amazing!!! Imagine it with some freshly baked cranberry rolls. Delish!! Perhaps I could cook this. With a week off work next week there will be ample time to concoct some treats.

Mr P made chorizo pasta for dinner and it was really really delicious. He made a creamy tomato sauce, which has to be my favourite type of sauce in the whole world. Also, he fried lovely strips of onion in white wine as to not make it too greasy. We had it with big chunks of chorizo, garlic, courgettes, green pepper and mushrooms, all mixed together with pasta and the yummy tomatoey creamy sauce with a hint of spice due to some added cajun pepper.

Mince and mash

Picking raisins out of my Alpen is getting seriously tiresome. Thank goodness I've almost finished the box and can move onto something else.

For lunch I had covent garden winter vegetable soup. I'm not an overly huge fan of winter vegetable soup as I think they always taste predominantly of parsnip, swede and turnip. It's much the same with this variety, but it's not too offensive. I had it with a rye and pumpkin seed roll, I love picking the pumpkin seeds off the top, they're really delicious and crunchy.

Throughout the afternoon I snacked on unsalted cashews (definitely no where near as good as the salted kind) and dried mango (once again, no where near as good as fresh mango), so they were both slightly disappointing.

For dinner Mr P made some lovely light fluffy mashed potato and I made a mincey gravy type thing that you have read about plenty of times before. This time it was with frozen lamb mince. The meal was much appreciated after a tiring gym session.

Beans on toast

I was in a bit of a moany mood today for a variety of reasons. I have another ulcer, which pains me to eat, drink, talk, basically it stops me from enjoying any of the things I love. So Mr p made me some eggs on toast for breakfast as I really fancied some. It was delicious. I had it with ketchup as well which added delightfully to the taste of the meal, but of course stung my ulcer immensely.

For lunch Mr P and I had done a bit of shopping and I was moaning about how cold and hungry I was so we decided to go to a noodle bar in Beckenham called Miso. I had a roast duck dish with noodles, duck sauce and Chinese leaves. I am usually a big fan of these kinds of places, but I wasn't too impressed by this dish. i know duck is usually pretty fatty, but this breast was really fatty, the sauce a little too sweet and thick, and the noodles were a bit overdone and glutinous. Also the portion sizes were huge, which isn't something I would normally moan about but they were a little overwhelming.

Because we had a late and large lunch we weren't particularly hungry for a big meal in the evening so Mr P made us beans on toast and I loved it.

Chicken and butternut squash risotto

Mr P and his mum went to the local greasy spoon, Rosie Lee's forbreakfast this morning, but as I was a little late in getting up I bought a brekfast pannini form a coffee shop at St Pancras. It was filled with egg, bacon (again not my favourite), sausage and ketchup. It tasted perfectly fine but although it was toasted on the outside it was pretty chilled in the middle, so I would have preferred it if it were a little warmer.

Mr P and I didn't really have any lunch after our late abnd big breakfasts. Plus we went to Harrow Borough fc to watch them play Chesterfield (Mr P's team) in the FA Cup, so we just shared a couple of packet of crisps, one salt and vinegar hula hoops and one oriental ribs flavour mccoys.

Mr P made dinner tonight and it was absolutely delicious. He made butternut squash and chicken risotto. I didn't really watch him make it as I was too engrossed in either Strictly or X Factor, but I do know that he roasted the butternut squash before mashing it and adding it into the risotto. He also added cream cheese to it, which I thought was a very good choice. The chicken was still beautifully moist and tender, he's a very good chicken cooker in my opinion. He also seasoned it with lots a sage, which went perfectly. Yum yum yum.

It's wine time

Cheap wine. My parents drink it, I drink it, you drink it, but are there any hidden gems?

The other week I did a scientific test on biodynamic wine and after re-reading it today, I've decided it was a bit too intellectual. I've also been giving advice and suggestions on more expensive wines. So, the plan: buy a bunch of cheap wines (sub £3) and see if they're any good. The caveats: They can't be on offer as that's cheating and my rules, my opinion. After last week's wine-less blog, this week is a veritable wine-fest.

I'll probably just swing by some supermarkets and see what I come across, no brain power necessary.

So after a trip to Tesco, I came back with Tesco Value Spanish wine, in a 750ml tetra-pak, red and white both £3.30 each (30p over budget, there were some at £2.99 but they sounded so hideous I couldn't even bring myself to buy them, yet alone drink them).

Right, here we go. Now a slight confession, I've had the value red before. Now before you stop reading my blog anymore, I decided a while back to get 'Any 4 x 185cl bottles for £5' on offer just to try a few and threw this one in for interest. The red is thin, watery, tastes pretty much like watered down wine, (the other 185cl bottles that time tasted like cheap wine too) Still, it's only 11% abv and if you can get past the fact that you're drinking wine from a tetra-pak, well, I'd have to say that this wine really isn't too awful. It is pretty bad, but it tastes too fruity rather than disgusting. Something to glug at, and not savoured. Luckily enough it was a similar affair with the white, fruity and drinkable, refreshing but certainly not interesting. I'd say for both of these, they get away with being OK because they're both 11% abv, so slightly under fermented and keeping a little sweetness to them gives them that over fruity character. If I went for a run and ran out of water I could drink either of these instead.

Holy Flip Batman! Sainsbury's, you've outdone yourself on the cheap wine. They have a Sainbury's House Wines section. Amazing. There is a Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Soave, Chardonnay, Generic Medium, Generic Sweet, Generic Rose all at £3.49 each, and if you're really treating yourself there's a range of French AOC (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée) House Wines including Generic Claret, Rhone and Beaujolais, a Rioja and a Chianti for £3.99. An absolute bargain. I didn't try all of them but on the whole, fairly obvious examples of some popular grapes and regions.

Well done Sainsbury's, I'm totally impressed with the gusto you've put into peddling super cheap wine on to the masses. Helping them avoid quality in exchange for the obvious. However, you do have a massive range of wine and are only employing the obvious supply and demand reaction to uneducated penniless consumers. Luckily everyone else, I'm here to help you navigate the myriad of the supermarket shelves.

Turns out then, that you get what you pay for. Time to answer the question “Are there any hidden gems?”. No, there isn't.

Buy this instead: La Gioiosa Merlot 2007, £6.50, Northern Italy, nice and plumy.

Moving on.

A few weeks ago I mentioned Hungary, and their wines. Now, I said I'd emailed a merchant called Mephisto Wines (www.meohistowines.com) asking for some samples and guess what, they sent me some. Well, these wines aren't cheap, they all retail about £7-£10 which I don't think is too bad for the quality of wine your getting and for the leap of faith your taking with opting for a Hungarian wine. Well, let's take that leap off the table because I'm gonna tell you what 3 of them are like. Great. I actually mean they're great tasting.

The Nyakas, now Mephisto sent me this wine and I can't find it on their website, great. Anyway, a wholly unpronounceable white grape variety called Irsai Olivér, similar in style to viognier and in genetics to muscat, so it tasted pretty. Quite syrupy look about it in the glass with a light gold hue in colour. Tasted and smelled floral, lavender and possibly herby with a hay field feel. Weird really, off dry and unusual, my mum liked it.

The second white was Malatinszky's Noblesse Serena, 2009. (Nobless...Brilliant. Where's my sensible hat?) Anyway, it's another pretty, but not as floral as the Nyakas, blend of 50% Chardonnay with Reisling and Muscat Ottonel. So similarly straw like in colour and it swings pretty syrupy in the glass too. Fresh and fruity, with a clean long finish, just not my type of thing. Not enough acidity and a little too weighty for me, I prefer a crisp refreshing style of white.

Now, the red Takler Kékfrankos, (Kékfrankos being another indigenous grape of Hungary, no I can't pronounce this one either) was more my type of thing. Deep red in colour with tawny notes, low in tannins. Excellent full, concentrated flavours with cinnamon, dried fruit and blackcurrants. A proportion of the wine is aged in steel vats and a small amount is aged for 6 months in oak and that brings through a small amount of spice, but there's an unusual aftertaste, sort of aniseed feel to it, definitely not unpleasant, but a little unexpected, I guess that comes from trying something new. I could quite happily sink a few glasses.

Thanks Mephisto, you rule.

That's it for now, you can follow me on twitter @danprobert and you can come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.

Beef goulash

A lovely day off work at long last, so I enjoyed a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes and a cup of tea whilst watching a bit of daytime television - perfect.

As we went shopping in Croydon we ate some lunch in a cafe in a shopping centre there. I chose a smoked salmon wrap, whicih had salad, brie and bacon as well as the obligatory smoked salmon. I asked for it without bacon as I'm not a huge fan of it, particularly when it is cold and ultra crispy. However they forgot to leave it out, so I found it very salty and not my favourite wrap in the world. I had it with a diet coke - a treat for me as I very rarely have fizzy drinks.

For dinner Mr P's mum made us dinner which was so nice. Its lovely to just relax sometimes and have someone else serve you dinner (although I often get that with the wonderous MR P's cooking talents). Anyway, we had a beef goulash with rice and some lovely sour cream on top. Delicious. We had it with a bottle of red wine, which all went down a treat.

Chorizo and new potato salad

Was feeling a little tired after a very late night the night before, so had to indulge in a sau=sage and egg sandwich with tfomato sauce, which was an absolute taste sensation.

For lunch I went to Pizza Express on a work outing and had a al tirolo on a romana base. So thats a trio of mushrooms and ham. Yum yum and much much needed.

Mr P and I have his mum to stay for a while, so we took her out to Joannas in Crystal Palace where we shared a nice bottle of Montepulciano. I had chilli chargrilled squid, which if I'm honest wasn't sensational, it was a little bit cold and chewy. For mains I had a chorizo and new potato salad with a poached egg. The chorizo salad was really delicious. Very meaty and tyasty sausage with fried new potatoes. I also ahve to say that the green beans in the salad tasted really fresh and had been cooked perfectly with still a little crunch. The salad had a perfectly cooked poached egg on top, whihc went really nicely with the other ingredients, however it tasted a little bit too much of vinegar, I'm not sure if this was the vinegar used in the water when cooking the egg, or a dressing applied afterwards, but it was a little too vinegary for my taste buds. To finish I had a Baileys liquer coffee, which unfortunately was one of those times when my eyes were too big for my belly and I couldn't finish it all.

A nice relaxing evening in a lovely setting.

Morrocan fayre

Raisinless muesli for breakfast again followed by a bowl of spicy butternut squash and sweet potato soup with a triangular Tesco finest wholegrain roll.

This blog could potentially turn very very dull over the winter months with my soupy luncheons. There will be very little to report. However I was discussing this with a colleague who came up with the great idea I could talk about what I would have preferred to have for lunch, a genius idea I think.

So what I would have liked to have had is a grilled halloumi salad with some very ripe and shiny red tomatoes, some rocket and some olive cous cous. I would also have preferred to have it sat outside a little greek resturant with a large glass of fruity red looking out onto a sparkling blue Mediterranean sea with the sun reflecting off it and the noise of the waves and cicadas in the background. However I was instead sat at my desk attempting not to get crumbs stuck between the keys on my keyboard. Great.

I met up with a couple of friends for dinner at Souk Medina on Shorts Gardens near Covent Garden. I have never been there, but absolutely loved it inside. With its low lighting, rugs, cushions, lanterns and low seating it felt as though I had been transported to North Africa.

We shared a bottle of red wine and had a set menu which consisted of:

Starters: -
Humous,
Pitta,
Vine Leaves,
Merguez sausages with potatoes

Mains: -
Cous cous
Chickpeas
Creamed spinach (absolutely amazing)
Chicken tagine
Lamb tagine (this one wasnt so nice as the meat tasted like perfume and not something I'm a big fan of, it also had lots of fruit in it, which I am also not a fan of)

Dessert:-
Baklava
Mint tea

It was so so nice and i shall definitely be returning. During our dessert the music suddenly got turned up very loudy and out came a belly dancer. An odd cmoment, but amusing nonetheless.

Thai red curry

I've decided to start taking the raisins out of my muesli because I just really don't enjoy my breakfast with them in it. So i painstakingly removed all the raisins from my breakfast this morning, therefore making it far more enjoyable.

For lunch I had spiced sweet potato and butternut squash soup with a rye and pumpkin seed roll.

I made a chicken thai red curry for dinner. I fried a few spoons of red thai curry paste in some oil before adding some chopped onions and chicken. I then left it sizzling for about five minutes before adding a tin of coconut milk, some fish sauce, some mushrooms, courgettes and red pepper. I then left it simmering for about ten minutes and then served it with fine egg noodles. I loved it and even went back for seconds.

Cheese, ham and spinach pancakes

Feeling a little worse for wear after copious amounts of pinot grigio and a several glasses of green punch none of us were feeling up to a large breakfast so once again had Crunchy Nut.

We decided to have a lazy Sunday lunch at The White Hart in Crystal Palace, which was lovely. I had pork belly with leeks, bacon mash and mustard gravy. It was absolutely gorgeous and I felt so much better after eating it that I decided more wine would be a good idea and so had a large glass of their house red - lovely.

Later on in the afternoon Mr P and I decided to demolish a large packet of cool original Doritos and we weren't feeling too hungry for a big meal and so Mr P fried up four pancakes and we filled them with a spinach, ham and cheese mixture I made. I made the mixtures by adding 5 lumps of frozen spinach to a saucepan, adding some chopped up ham, some grated cheese, two dessert spoons of cream cheese and some salt and pepper. I then stirred it and left it to come together on the hob for about five mins. It was actually a very tasty meal and we finished off with a sweet pancake each - mine obviously with lime and sugar.

A quad of pizzas

Due to having people to stay, the gym to go, etc we didn't have time for a slap up breakfast so instead just had Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, which are basic but utterly brilliant. Such a good cereal.

We also had a very quick, basic lunch of cheese and onion pasties cooked in the oven and served with tomato sauce. I really enjoyed mine and it reminded me of when I was at uni and would have such easy and not to mention cheap meals on a regular basis.

With my cousin and brother staying plus a very boozy party to attend Mr P and I cooked four pizzas for us to share with a variety of topping on - a thin and crispy vegetable one, a deep pan barbecue chicken one (probably my favourite of the four), a pepperoni one and a chicago town four cheese one.

We then went dressed as dead celebrities (myself as Audrey Hepburn) to my sisters Halloween/House Warming party where I demolished a large amount of snacks:

Cobweb cupcakes - made by Mr P and I, which were little chocolate buns with cream cheese icing and black icing cobwebs - they looked pretty impressive and tasted good too.
Spiced pumpkin cookies - Once again another baked good provided my Mr P and I. The name cookie is not entirely true and they looked more like patties. While the flavouring was very good (well done Mr P with his pestle and mortar) the dough was pretty dry.
Prawn crackers
Pringles
Onion rings
Vodka jelly with added passionfruit
Mini poppadoms

On returning home at 2am me and my brother were hungry so tucked into some instant noodles drowned in soy. At the time I believed they were the most tasty meal ever, perhaps due to the sheer amount of wine I had!

It's wine time

Glasses, no, not the ones you wear on your face, that help you see. The glasses you fill with wine that make your vision all blurry.

Like I've mentioned, I did a run of amateur theatre shows. I was (low)tech, sound and lighting etc. I played the House soundtrack in the interval. Well, we were drinking some pretty atrocious pinot grigio post show 3 and 4. Well, well, community centre number 5 was a marvel. It had a bar, and two smartly dressed chaps with white hair and grey stubble pouring the drinks, a total novelty on the circuit we frequent. So interval, 9pm, I got a glass of wine, wahoo! For free too, but even if I'd have paid, it was a 125ml measure and would have been £1.60, an absolute bargain. I'm pretty sure it was a generic French 'vin du pays' merlot, I only caught a glimpse of the label. It was pretty young, 2009 I assume. Being a merlot it was pretty fruity, but had an unexpected blackjack liquorice and cough syrup feel to it, still pretty thin and not much depth, more toes in a paddling pool than diving in a swimming pool.

Aaaaaaanyway, glasses. The only downside, was the tiny little Paris goblet that it was served in. If you don't know what I mean by Paris goblet look it up (or if I get technical enough, I might see if I can 'do a photo', I took one...). I think they should all be smashed or melted, they are the lowest of the low when it comes to wine. You might as well be drinking from a shoe. A good glass makes a good wine great and an average wine, well, average, but you get the idea. This tiny little goblet they served me the wine in was frustrating, I wanted to give it a swish and a sniff but couldn't, didn't get a chance to open up the wine. Also, it was poured to about a millimetre from the top of the 125ml glass and I almost spilt it, see previous weeks posts, which was a concern.

When I'm at home, I use a 750ml glass, it can fit a whole bottle of wine in it... I don't EVER do that though. Honestly, it's stupid. I got given the glass as a joke birthday present and loved it instantly. It's a proper handful, pretty cheap so it's quite robust and I'm not fussed about breaking it. I like the room it gives, you can almost lose a 125ml measure in it, but gives plenty of room to swish and swill and sniff.

We sell loads of glasses in the shop, and in every pub you go to they have robust wine glasses and restaurants have posh, elegant glasses, different for red and white and water and whisky. Students, probably have a Kit Kat mug from Easter or a stolen pint glass.

Still, wine glasses are the lovely shape they are to engage smell, you taste with your nose too. They should be a good size, bigger than your measure, give it some room. Room to swirl, room to look at the colour, room to assess the tannins (the legs or tears you get rolling down the inside of the glass give an impression of viscosity or syrupyness or thinness). Bubbles or no bubbles however should have a different glass. The fizz flutes concentrate aroma and keep bubbles, bubbly.

Either way, the glass has an effect on the wine.

Get a few glasses and do a little experiment. (I do love a good practical test). Do it, do it now. Well later. Get an opaque mug, a pint glass and and an average wine glass. Not a Paris goblet style glass, smash it if you've got one and spend £3 in Wilko on 4 perfectly acceptable wine glasses. Right, got that? Doubt it. Pour the same amount of wine in each glass. The three things to assess in a wine are sight, smell and taste. In that order. Now, the mug, what does the wine look like. Can you even tell if it's red, white or rose? Now smell it, and then compare the smell to the wine glass and the pint glass... Which one smells more alive? More interesting? Then try a little wine from each glass. Which one tastes the best? (If they all look, smell and taste the same to you, then stop reading now, go back to your brown paper bagged paint thinners, sit on the naughty step and think about what you've said and done...)

If I'm worth the words in this blog, the wine glass comes out on top. Better sight, you can see it. The colour gives you an impression of what the wines going to taste like, an earthy rusty red or bright fruity purple, a shiny crisp silver or warm sunshine. Better smell, more intensity and a wider range, from bin bags to cough syrup, from apples to vanilla. Better taste.

That's just the glass.

That’s it for now, you can follow me on twitter @danprobert and you can come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.

Chorizo pasta

I didn't have much time for breakfast today, so when I got into the office I grabbed one measley Weektabix which didn't do much to stop any hunger.

I went out with a colleague and a contact for lunch to Hix on Brewer street in London. Loved the atmosphere in there, it was laid back yet formal and was very bustley and lively. Those I was with had fishfingers with mushy peas and chips which I was slightly jealous of. I had monkfish tail with a shrimp sauce, which went perfectly with my sprouting brocolli and white wine. A very very enjoyable lunch.

Mr P and I spent the evening doing a strange mixture of activities, drinking Moet, carving pumpkins and baking cakes (for my sisters Halloween party tomorrow). Mr P whipped up a very nice chorizo pasta with a big chunky chorizo sausage, not the thinner slices you can get. We had it in a sauce of chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic, mushrooms, courgettes, curly pasta and a dash of cream. It tasted really delicious but was a little oily, more the fault of the chorizo having a lot of fat in than Mr P adding excessive oil.

Fishcakes and salad

Sorry I have been a little lax these last couple of days at posting anything, but we have had some internet problems at home so I haven't been able to update any of my meals.

Quick update from Wednesday... usual cereal and soup for breakfast and lunch. Then in the evening Mr P and I were a little tired after a busy press day and so we got a take-away curry:

Chicken korma
Lamb dopiaza
Saag Aloo
Plain naan
Pilau rice

It was all absolutey delicious and much needed after a stressful day.

On thursday I had marmite on crusty toast, which was a dream after the horrors of muesli this week. For lunch I once again had soup, this time carrot and corriander.

For dinner I had fish-cakes (Tesco finest) one which was salmon, spinach and lemon and the other which was cod and cheese. I had them with salad consisting of very elegantly and finely cut pepper and carrot, plus lettuce and a healthy dollop of mayo. Lovely.

Al Tirolo pizza

Muesli and soup again for breakfast and lunch respectively today, although rather unfortunately | didn't have a bread roll so instead I caved in and had a bag of salt and vinegar Walkers - yum.

I went out for another Tuesday after work pizza today with my friend Chet. I had a large glass of Pizza Express's house red, which I thought was very very nice indeed, perhaps a little too nice, I could have had another couple quite easily.

I ate Al Tirolo on a Romana base (one of the bigger ones) with fondal cheese, a medley of mushrooms (porchini, portobello and closed cup), palma ham, garlic oil and parsley. I was absolutely starving and it tasted delicious. I will definitely be ordering it again.

Mince, gravy and mash combo

Monday monday. The start of a new week and the start of a new box of cereal - exciting times for me, or not.

I decided to have Alpen this time around for a bit of a change and I'm already regretting it. I'm just not a huge fan of raisins. I can just about handle them in a hot cross bun, but on pouring out my first bowl of muesli I was horrified to see hundreds of shriveled black raisins. I tried to be grown up about it and swallow them down with the rest of the oaty goodness, but I will no longer look forward to breakfast time and instead dread their gleaming black eyes staring up at me from the sea of floury white oats.

For lunch i stuck with a safer option and had Covent Garden's spicy butternut squash and sweet potato, which I have decided could in fact be my favourite of all their soups.

After going to both the gym and Sainsburys Mr P and I were ravenous to say the least and we snacked on a tub of cocktail sausages rescued from the reduced aisle of the supermarket and still craving junk food when we returned home each had a packet of Wheat Crunchies.

For dinner we had to use up the other half of a large packer of mince we opened the night before, so I made a mince, gravy and mash combination. It consisted of chopped onions, mince, carrots, peas, gravy granules, water, wine and tomato puree all simmered up together and served over a dollop of creamy mashed potato courtesy of Mr P. It wasn't the best meal we've ever made and lacked something, yet I couldn't quite work out what it was. It did the job of filling us up though, something we were both relieved about.

Mr P's mincey pasta

Nothing special for breakfast today, just a bowl of Special K.

For lunch we met up with my siblings and my sisters boyfriend at a pub in Islington. After 20 minutes of waiting for my sausage and onion sub and watching my brother sister and boyfriend all hoover up their lunch we asked where my meal was and they went to check. My brother then suddenly realised he had not ever ordered his meal and he was in fact just finishing up my meal. He then had to go explain the predicament to the barman, which made us all look slightly silly. My lunch eventually turned up, by which time everyone else had finished and had to instead watch me eat mine.

For dinner Mr P made a mince pasta cretaion while I was watching X Factor. I didnt see him cook the meal, so am not 100% sure what went into it, but on esating it I can make a reaonable guess at the ingredients:

Mince
Onions
Garlic
Chopped Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Cream
Pasta
Some kind of seasoning

It was very tasty indeed and I was ravinous and so had two helpings, but fell asleep on the sofa before I got a chance to finish my second bowl, perhaps a good thing.

Chicken and wild mushroom strognoff

Mr P made his weekend special this morning... pancakes. Once again I had sugar and lime juice whereas Mr P had cheese and ham. They were the perfect consistency and were delicious.

For lunch we had a prawn and peanut satay stir-fry which was basically just a bag of stir fry veg, with prawns, noodles and a sauce. It was surprisingly tasty though and I will definitely be getting the sauce again, although I now can't remember what brand it was, which could make it difficult.

We had some friends round for dinner, so Mr P and I rustled up a feast.

For starter Mr P roasted cubed butternut squash and half an onion, with salt, pepper and thyme in the oven for half an hour. He then put in in the food processor to liquidise it before straining it through a sieve to get rid of any slightly more corse bits. This was then left to the side before we were about to eat, when we heated it up in a saucepan for five minutes. We served this with pan-fried scallops, which I fried in a little bit of olive oil for around 3 mins on each side. We then sprinled tiny crunchy pieces of bacon [something we prepared earlier by slowly grilling a couple of rashers then cutting them up] over the top. It all went beautifully togeter, a very good flavour combination in my opinion.

For the main course we had a chicken and wild mushroom stroganoff. For this I fried some chopped onions until translucent and then added some chopped chicken. I fried this for around 5/10 mins and then added salt, pepper, thyme and parika and left it sizzling for a futher few minutes. The mushrooms were those dried porchini and other sorts which you have to soak in warm water for half an hour. I then added the soaked mushrooms with half of the delicious mushroomy water they had been soaking in. I left this on a very very low heat for 15 mins before adding a teaspoon of dijon mustard, a glug of white wine and a tub of sour cream. IIonce again left it on a very low heat (while we ate our starters) then served it with some beautifully fluffy rice, which Mr P made. I once again enjoyed this course, the only change I would perhaps have made would have been to have some roughly chopped fresh herbs on top. I think this would have been a perfect finishing touch.

For dessert we had blackcurrent jelly [which was almost slightly disaterous after collapsing on getitng it out of the mould] with vanilla ice cream, strawberry sauce and sprinkles. I nice childish end to a tasty meal with lovely food, delicious wine and excellent company.

It's wine time

Today, I saw a man, with an ice-cream. It was raining.

The story starts, I was driving, he (lets call him Bob) was fiddling about trying to get into his car, holding an ice-cream. It was a pretty simple '99', affair, no flake. Who knows where Bob had got it from, clearly the type of ice-cream you get from a van, and not one in sight. It was a fairly un-eaten one too, I imagined Bob was going to sit in his front seat and quietly watch the world go by, listen to some music and enjoy himself an ice-cream. Two fingers up to the cold and the rain. But in this briefest glimpse into someone else's life, as I drove by, he dropped it. On the floor. And then I was gone, on my way and Bob was left ice-cream-less. Now, I know it wasn't my fault, or my ice-cream, or someone I'll ever see again, but I felt sorry for Bob. Why did I feel sorry for Bob?

I spill my wine. Frequently. The red stains on my green blanket haunt me.

Lets jump back a month or two. One occasion we were sitting in bed, watching some ridiculous, rubbish telly. I tend to rest my wine on my leg rather than have to lean about faffing with bedside tables and "can you pass my wine", and I spilt it.

Jump back a month or two further, I woke up in the night covered in half a glass of wine, lights on, rubbish telly on. I know, I know, I'd poured it after a late night at work, tucked myself up in bed, taken a swig and gone to sleep with my wine in hand. Mostly a full whack of tiredness with a lingering hint of stupidity.

Jump back to today and Bob and his drop. It's so frustrating to have invested time and money into the acquisition of a simple pleasure only to have it ruined by stupidity and carelessness. So I'm going to suggest some wines this week that you should really take some care about, don't drop them, certainly don't spill them, and these beauties will be well worth it.

A quick note on shelling out some cash on some nice wines, I'm not talking about hundreds of pounds on a 1999 Chateau Cheval Blanc or a 1989 Chateau Margaux here. If you're a casual wine drinker, you probably won't want to jump from a £6.99 pinot grigio to a £99+ Montrachet, (they're for collectors who probably won't drink it and people with more money than sense). Soooooo, I'm going to pitch my versions. Indulgent, top quality wines around the £20 - £30 mark. I tasted a Usoa de Bagordi, Rioja, Gran Reserva, 2001 the other day, only £20 and full of earthiness, oak and dense fruit, smells a bit like a newly opened black bin bag, (Thanks Neilos) in a good way!! It usually indicates a well matured wine..., could have done with an hour in a decanter to open up though.

Two ideas: First up. Get some friends over, treat them! If you're cooking a hearty stew for a few on a wintry night, get somebody else to bring some sassy walnut bread to start, another chum to whip up a seductive pudding and you won't feel so bad about parting with £25 and really enjoying an excellent wine. You don't have to glug down a bottle of Hardys sickly sweet Zinfandel rose each, it would totally trash the stew anyway.

Secondly, don't be snobby about it, tell them, but don't be snobby. More "I picked up a really nice wine tonight guys". Less "careful with that bottle it's worth more than your car...!!". But talk about it, I love talking about the wine I've just poured for someone. Remember one or two interesting lines about the wine and how it goes with the food and get into it, if you're going to drink a good wine, do it properly. Do it socially, don't keep it to yourself.

I'm going to suggest Te Koko, Sauvignon Blanc, 2007, Marlborough, New Zealand, available in good wine shops for about £22. Cloudy Bay is a modern classic region and this is the premium wine from them with an interesting twist, they've really pushed themselves to compete with the famous French Sancerre style. Bone dry, with minerality and flintiness, but a really interesting complex full flavour. The reason this wine is above the rest is the roundness, depth of flavour, the balance between fruit and acidity, the length of finish. A lot of cheaper Sauvignons are over acidic or bland and almost nondescript (they just taste like wine don't they?). This one really has its own identity, something you'll remember, a benchmark you'll refer to or a stepping stone you'll jump from.

I find spotting an expensive white easier than an expensive red. Here's why.

As a red gets older and aged it starts to act a bit like your granddad. Frustratingly confused, erratic and often hard work. A dusty old fella from some remote corner of a vineyard, sat in a comfy barrel and transferred to a bottle when it couldn't make it up the stairs on it own. What I'm saying is they can be so complex, especially old Bordeaux, that I mistake them for inferior new world. An over fermented, high alcohol Aussie Cabernet Sauvignon, can masquerade as an intense St Emillion Cru. A deep almost rust colour and a real length are the leading signs to look out for in an old, expensive, good wine.

I'm going to recommend a Bordeaux. I have to. My favourite, a Haut-Medoc. 2005 Chateau Les Vimieres, Haut-Medoc, available from Wines Of Interest (www.winesofinterest.co.uk) £21.75 but absolutely in every way, worth it. Expect it to taste like a French cellar, deep and dark and a little scary at first. It won't taste as fruit driven as a younger wine and looks slightly rustier in colour. It's had a lot of time in the bottle and that's going to allow crazy slow, chemical reactions to play positive, desirable havoc with the wine, giving it a mustier, earthier, refined and more complex taste. A taste that will last for ages and keep coming back for more, unlike a lot of cheap wines, that, like meeting a girl in a bar, are initially fun but don't last.

I'd definitely suggest a cheeky decant, a rest. Just pour the whole bottle out into a jug, any old jug, and (carefully) back into the bottle if you haven't got a decanter, and don't put a stopper in unless you're about to put it away for the night. Remember your granddad, just like he needs to relax after a walk, a wine needs to relax after a pour, needs to catch its breath after 5 years in a bottle. Enjoy.

That’s it for now, you can follow me on twitter @danprobert and you can come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.

Nachos

I was feeeling a little worse for wear after a late night and perhaps a little too much wine, so I wanted something stodgy for lunch and so had a cheese and baen jacket potato, which did the job perfectly.

Mr P and I popped out for a drink after work and were a bit peckish so we decided to get some nachos with cheese, jalapinos, guacomole, salsa and sour cream. They were a very nice nd to the working week but weren't quite as good as the nachoes I make according to Mr P. They lacked a serious amount of cheese.

Duo of lamb at Foyles literary dinner

I was out of the office this morning, so didn't have my usual weetabix and instead has oats and honey special k, with a cup of tea, which was lovely.

After loosing my phone and feeling sorry for myself at Brighton station I went to Upper Crust and bought a hunters chicken baguette, which was filled with chicken, cheese, barbeque sauce, bacon and spinach. It was quite tasty, but there was a huge amount of barbeque sauce, slightly too much I'd say. I had a bottle of coke alongside it.

I went to Foyles 80th anniversary gala dinner for the booksellers literary luncheons. It was a very glamouous affair with guests including Sir David Frost, Kate Adi, Frederick Forsyth and Tara Palmer Tomkinson. The menu was:

Chilled crab salad, artichoke, french beans and tomato vinaigrette. - This tasted delicious but I didn't think it looked so pretty. It was served with Emporium Sauvingnon Blanc, Venezia 2008/9.

Duo of lamb, sweet garlic and thyme jus, rosemary potato cake, provencal vegetables, french beans. It was served with Emporium Shiraz Sicily 2008/9. The light wine complimented the tender lamb perfectly . The jus was delicate and the potato was delicious - all round a lovely course.

Dessert was a bitter chocolate mousse with orange sorbet. I was originally very dissapointed to see chocolate on the menu as I would rarely choose a chocolate dessert as I find them too heavy. However this was actually very light and went beautifully with the orange sorbet.

Chinese take-away

For lunch today I was pretty starving, so needed a little something more than just my soup and so opted for some hot and spicy chicken wings from the hot chicken wings from the Tesco hot chicken counter.

I first ate my chilli pumpkin soup, also courtesy of Tesco. This was delicious, certainly spicier than I was expecting, but really good and smooth. I've decided I really like smooth soup. I had it with a mediterranean roll, which I think may have had some kind of tomato and herb in, but wasn't anything special.

I think tucked into my chicken wings, oh what a mess. I quickly came to the conclusion that there is no way you can eat chicken wings glamourously. I had chilli sauce all over my hands, in my finger nails and around my face. Not pleasant at all. Plus I think they stunk the office out. I felt slightly odd eating meat off the bone at my desk, like eating something like corn on the cob at your desk, its just done the done thing I guess. It's kinda a personal thing getting all covered in sauce and trying to peel meat of the bone with your teeth and not the type of thing you want to siteating while your boss looks over at you thinking you're slightly strange. I ate six of the ten and then put the rest in the fridge for another time.

I once again snacked on almonds and dried apricots and enjoyed some lovely orange squash. I know it sounds ridiculous but you can't beat a nice glass of orange squash, particularly the high juice varieties. I have some M&S high juice on my desk and is a lovely change from water every so often.

Mr P and I were particularly lazy tonight and couldn't be bothered with cooking anything so we decided to get a chinese takeaway. I had house special chow mein, my fave from our local chinese, and also beef with mixed vegetables. I really like our Chinese, its not too greasy and is always really yum.

La Reine pizza

I once again had my standard Weetbix plus soup for lunch and breakfast today, which were both enjoyable.

I am getting into the bad routine of wanting a chocolate bar come 4pm every day so I decide to buy some dried apricots and plain almonds which I could snack on whenever I feel slightly peckish. So I had a few this afternoon and I can confirm that they were in fact very good at keeping hunger at bay.

I met up with my lovely friend Chet for dinner at Pizza Express on a good old Pizza Express offer, buy one get one for 53p, I have no idea why its 53p, but I'm not arguing with that. After perusing the menu for about 25 minutes and having changed my mine about six times I plumped for a La Reine pizza. For those of you not familiar with this pizza flavour it is ham, mushroom and olive. We shared a bottle of Frascati and Chet had her 'usual' a margarita.

We had a lovely meal with lots of chatting (I hadn't seen her for 2 and a half years).

Spicy tomato chicken wraps

I had another Covent Garden soup for lunch today, spicy butternut squash and sweet potato. I think this is probably one of my favourite favours, it's delicious, smooth and creamy yet spicy. I had it with a crusty cheese roll.

This evening I made a mexican chicken wrap thing with all the leftover roast chicken. I fried chopped onion and garlic puree for five or so minutes, then added chopped peppers and mushrooms and fried for a further few minutes before adding a tin of chopped tomatoes, salt, cajun pepper, paprika, thyme and tomato puree. I then left that simmering for about half an hour before adding the chunks of chicken. I cooked this for a further ten mins and then served it with hot tortilla wraps, cheese and and sour cream. I will definitely be making it again, it was really really delicious and a perfect way to use up the last few bits of roast chicken.

Roast chicken

I decided to make breakfast today as Mr P so often makes it at the weekend. I wanted to make my favourite breakfast ever - eggs benedicte.

I toasted a muffin each for us and then dropped two eggs each into a pan of swirling hot water with a dash of vinegar. I was really worried as I've never made proper poached eggs before, but you'll be delighted to hear they turned out perfectly, well apart from being a little overdone. Once the muffins were lightly golden brown I spread some butter over each and placed some ham on top, then the eggs and then drizzled some warmed hollandaise sauce (from a pouch at Sainsburys). I finished each dish with some ground black pepper and was very pleased with my creation.

For lunch we were out and about and due to being skint Mr P made us some ham and lettuce rolls, (one brown and one white each), which did the job perfectly.

Being the excellent chef that he is Mr P made a magnificient roast chicken for dinner. It was absolutely delicious. I had the most lovliest crunchy roast potatoes, chicken, cabbage and carrots with an oddly rectangular yorkshire pudding which was delightful crispy on top but still soft and spongey in the middle. He is very good at batter! It was all covered in some sublimely rich gravy. A lovely lovely meal and was topped off with a glass of Spanish muscadet.

We also bought new crockery yesterday which I certainly think helps improve the taste. Plus everything looks so much more classy now on our square white dishes.

Prawn thai yellow curry

Mr P made pancakes for lunch, I had mine with sugar and lime juice and Mr P strangely chose to have bacon.

After going to Sainsbury's and buying some nice food for dinner we had a cup of tea and some mini caramel shortbread things and some chocolate cornflake cakes (my fave).

While Mr P was making dinner I sat and had a lovely glass of New Zealand Sauvingnon Blanc and some prawn crackers. Mr P made a prawn yellow thai curry, which had onions, peppers, bamboo shoots and noodles with it and was absolutely gorgeous. Yum.

Lamb rogan josh and gurkha chicken

I had the other half of my witches brew soup today, which was very dissapointing indeed after initially loving the first half. It was a mix of pumpkin, beans and tomatoes and the beans had basically all sunk to the bottom despite my best efforts of shaking it up. So my lunch consisted of mouthful after mouthful of kidney beans and what I think were chickpeas. I was so dissapointed with it that I decided to pop to Sainbury's and buy a packet of Walkers salt and vinegar crisps and a galaxy caramel. These certainly did not dissapoint.

To celebrate the weekend after a very busy week Mr P and I decided to go out for a curry. We went to a place called Gurkha Cottage in Crystal Palace. On sitting down we were brought a shot of what I think was fortified wine and a couple of poppadoms with mango chutney, the green yoghurty dip and chopped onions, cucumbers, etc.

We then shared:

Lamb rogan josh
Gurkha chicken - a buttery, creamy dish
Two pilau rice
Plain nann

It was all very nic and was just what I needed on a Friday night.