All posts tagged: food and wine

pork kimchi

Slow Roast Kimchi Pork with Super Crispy Skin – Paired with Mavroudi or Mavrud of Thrace

Published by

Celebration and indulgence… That night marked the end of the long-distance living or dual location households. It’s OVER! Hooray! It was hard; it was costly; it was stressful; it was emotionally damaging. I know many couples are doing this, whether or not by choice, and I wonder how they manage it. Well, it didn’t fit for us and the biggest struggle was not being able to eat together and, for him, not finding any food outside. When I asked what he wanted for dinner on his moving day, he screamed ‘PORK!’. So I took out two packets of pork shoulder cut from the freezer the first thing in the morning. I scored the skin in a criss-cross pattern and rubbed it generously with coarse salt. I also drizzled some kimchi juice over the meat and sprinkled Schiuan pepper and rosemary. After resting in the fridge the whole morning, it was ready for the oven. Since the cut was individually packaged, not in whole, I had to find a way to make it sit with the skin …

pumpkin tortellini

Pumpkin Leek Tortellini with Duck Ragu

Published by

Finally comes the duck story… And I’m afraid yet delighted that you’ll hear more duck stories this winter. How come? Well, I’m spreading the duck spirits around me and so many people are eager to eat more of the delicacy. Leading up to the last day of my sejour at the winery, I was thinking hard everyday about the duck: how and when to cook it.  Sensing the accumulated anticipation of almost two months, I decided to get the task over and done with. Originally, it was destined for Duck a l’Orange, but I incorporated a Chinese Peking Duck method by adding more herbs and oriental spices such as star anise and cinnamon, and also by drying out the skin for crispiness. The warm aromas had the effect of stimulating a holiday mood as well. After resting in the fridge overnight, rubbed with salt and spices, it was ready for the oven the next morning. Despite some unexpected events, I managed to cook it for as long as 2.5 hours. The tough parts, the wings …

Greek Wine Review: Why you should drink Greek wines

Published by

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 …

odettes

London Guide for Food and Wine: London Wine Week

Published by

I’m going through a phase these day, hence the silence on the blog. This May has been a particularly crazy month for me, involving frequent trips up and down. I’m glad it’s almost over and I’m looking forward to relaxing with good wines and food in June. This time of the year is the best time for wine enthusiasts to be in London. The London Wine Fair ended 3 days ago and the London Wine Week will kick off on Jun 5. When I was in London in March, I was surprised by the rising wine and culinary scene. There were so many new wine bars opened in the last 3-4 years and I felt sad to leave for the first time. So I thought I’d share some places I’d discovered for both visitors and locals. You could probably soak up the festive atmosphere in your own style by visiting these places if you can’t be bothered to follow up the event calendar. Or if you want something different. #1. Bottle Apostle As my primary focus was trying as many wines as possible, this …

wine

Korean New Year Feast and Chamlija Wine Tasting

Published by

I’m back home after finishing the three-day Korean New Year Feast event and spending extra days catching up on personal affairs in Istanbul. The event was great, especially the part of meeting new amazing people, which is why I love what I do. Here I’ll share the atmosphere and delicious foods we ate and the special wines we drank for those who couldn’t join us. As promised, I presented 4 good wines from Chamlija (Papaskarasi is missing in the photo). Many thanks to Ozkan Uner from A2A Photography for excellent photos. He’s a very talented and respected photographer and, though his expertise is in aviation photography, he takes great food photos as well. By sheer coincidence, two chefs were in matching red to celebrate the year of Rooster. Really, I didn’t think of it when I decided to put on my red skirt. Anyway, since it’s a special day, for one of the starters, I offered a royal dish, which goes by the name of ‘Gujeolpan – Nine Delicacies‘. We started with the colourfully arranged little delicacies with seasonal vegetables and home-smoked trout and …

Korean Soirée @Eat with Me Istanbul

Published by

Last Friday I was invited as a chef to cook in a dream kitchen for Korean Soirée. What an honour, a professional chef promoting a home-cook to a ‘Chef’! The idea of a Korean night came as Mr.O and I recently returned from our Korean trip and had some Korean goodies. People would normally keep them to themselves as they’re often very difficult to get hold of if you live abroad, but I wanted to share as I always do. That’s why I did my first Soiree des Gourmandes after returning from my Jura wine tour where I met my life saving foodie friend, Dolores. A Korean dinner had already happened two nights ago but people who saw the menu post on my Facebook page got so excited that they demanded that it be held soon or they will die. I didn’t know there was so much interest in Korean food. Yes, I’m not so Korean inside as outside and I hardly cook Korean at home; I had enough of it growing up! Though I …