All posts filed under: wine

Greek Wine Review: Why you should drink Greek wines

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Hope you had a lovely weekend with nice food and wine. I spent the weekend without hubby so with extra time on my hands, I put together the information and write about wine. Of course, I’ll write about Turkish wines but let me start with Greek wines. I’m a wine lover so obviously I love wine, not only reading and talking about it but actually drinking it.  So I drink a glass every day, which is my secret to good health but also entails…. money. I’m not rich but unfortunately my palate is. I used to spend on average $150 by-monthly or even weekly at The Wine Society in Sydney, but here, even if I drink less, my monthly wine bill isn’t any smaller. To reduce my wine expenditure, I was buying many Spanish wines for a good value but then I discovered Greek wines after the trip to Lesvos a few years ago, and they have become my No.1 choice for every day wine ever since. Not only do they offer value for money …

Spring Tradition: Goat Kid Caul Fat with Liver and Fennel (Ciğer Sarması)/ Firriato Wine

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Spring is all round and farmers’ markets are once again vibrant with the colours and smells of spring. Despite my ongoing laments for Turkey’s lack of gastronomy, one thing I did miss while I was in London was this fresh seasonal local produce. All the wild plants started to come out, wild asparagus, fennel, ebegumeci, stinging nettles and what not. I’ve written an article about Turkish wild plants for Koreans since they are very keen eaters of wild plants. I might replicate it in English this spring. Anyway, I put together a classic tasting platter using the goodies I’d brought; Jambon Iberico with Asparagus and Brie, Smoked Salmon with Fennel and Avocado. Yummy as always… In my in-laws’ house, on the other hand, a different culinary tradition was happening. The Thracian region has a tradition of eating lamb liver but Canakkale has a very special delicacy, which is eaten once a year in spring months. Goat Kid… That tradition is the consequence of goat dairy production and, as the article says, it’s better to use it rather than waste it. I tasted kid meat for the first time 2 …

Portugal Wine Tour: Part 2- Lisbon and around – Ultimate Lisbon Guide

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You were probably disappointed by the lack of wines and food mentioned in the first post. Well, it’s because we were mostly on the road. The bigger portion of our time was spent in Lisbon, which was a last minute change to our original plan, and that’s where we truly delved into the food and wine of Portugal. You’ll get plenty of wines in this post! When I look back at my past travels, Portugal is probably the first country I’ve ever regretted for not having studied beforehand. There’s so much to see! I usually let things happen, in the belief that spontaneity always makes you discover wonderful things. However, for Portugal, my super power didn’t work so well and  I missed out on some great things. What it means, though, I should go back there!! Luckily, our friend moved to Portugal last year so I definitely see us going back there. Also, we liked the Douro so much that we made a promise to do the valley cruise one day. On the way to Lisbon, we stayed for …

Passed one more hurdle in my wine journey – WSET Level 3

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I was itching to share this exciting news earlier when I got my exam result 4 days ago. YEAH!!! That felt so good after the 8 weeks of nervously waiting, wondering and mentally preparing for another trip to resit the exam, etc., just so that I can drink more quality wines, eat a variety of ethnic foods, and bring the foods which I can’t get here. But I don’t need to, because I have passed WSET Level 3 Advanced!! The next step is a Diploma, which hadn’t been on my bucket list but completing level 3 sort of gave an ambition to go further, “Hmm, why not?” Of course, as soon as I got home, I picked a good bottle to celebrate from my cellar, which is now quite well-stocked after several wine trips here and there and it was Chateau Kalpak BBK 2011, one of which I got from the last Thracian wine trip, which I’m meant to write about! I opened this one, saving Chateau Kalpak for better foods, since the platter quickly …

cauliflower

Cauliflower Steak with Thracian Wine

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Winter is almost over as the temperature is heading for the 20 range and the daylight saving will start in started a couple of days ago. For some reason, WordPress is working again so I’m going to cram blog! I couldn’t because of the unbelievable nation-wide power outage yesterday, but it’s more to do with my personal affairs happening all at once lately, which makes it very difficult to sit down and write. Amid all this, I find it important to continue writing and let things off my chest. Some of you might have detected some sort of change in my voice as if molten lava boiling its way through a tiny crack. Well, I’m dramatising it a bit but I think there will be quite a huge change with my life soon but until it really happens, I’ll keep silent not to stir up the good karma, however, I’ll try my best to keep you informed and inspired just about everything I come across, culture, food, history, and my observations and random thoughts, which …

Slow Food…11 Hour-Cooked Duck and Sweet Potato Sage Gratin Cheat

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It’s been quite a while after the last post about after the Korean event, it’s been full-on but mostly because of me cooking Korean food and socialising offline. I had many people requesting for a Korean dinner and ended up cooking Korean food nonstop for two weeks. I’ve never cooked so much Korean food in such a short period, which was a good exercise to review my Korean palate but also meant that I didn’t have interesting recipes to write about. So after serving the last Korean dinner to Mr.O’s parents, sister and her friend, and cousin, I decided to put a full stop to Korean food for a while and get back to exercising my culinary brain. I’ve had enough of making dumplings and rolling kimbap. Having said that, I’m not sure when the full stop will be removed as I see growing enthusiasm for Korean food after the event so I’m thinking of creating some Korean-inspired recipes occasionally. The downside of Korean food is that it’s very difficult to match it with wines …