Big is bootilicious

Last word about Bangkok – there is an advantage of living in a big country. Economies of scale make many things possible. Even Ajinomoto will bottle Calpis water locally in a country the size of Thailand. Porcorosso has to pay through his snout to buy Japanese Calpis imports at Mediya in Singapore. Singapore has many, many times the GDP of Thailand yet they have the best Italian restaurant in Asia (ok, maybe Sabatini in Tokyo is a little bit better). Go figure. 

One night in Bangkok or even three

Porcorosso has just returned from a long weekend in Bangkok – he went along to a media launch and was amazed to find the can do attitude and the hunger of young people for success. Then he did a bit of shopping at the new Siam Paragon mall and again, was surprised at the buzz around the place. At Chatuchak market, he was further wowed by at the fluency in English of the kway teow man and the fried chicken wing woman. Bangkok is going places – Singaporeans watch out. 

In preparation for next month’s Napa Valley trip, he decided to try some Californian wines in Bangkok – while the 2002 Opus One and the 2003 Shafer were a bit young, he is excited at the prospect of visiting the vineyards soon.

Porc and roll

Lest anyone think Porcorosso has lost his heartlander roots, he is proud to report two things – one, he watched Singapore Idol last week and two, he went on the Fun on Foot in the Heartlands trek at the weekend.

The first was appalling but the second got old Porco thinking – what is cultural heritage all about? What should we be interested in and is it more important as an export for tourists or something for ourselves as Singaporeans? You may know Porcorosso is not a fan of the Merlion, of Sentosa or the refurbished Raffles Hotel. Things he does like are Clarke Quay and Fullerton Hotel. Chinatown he is undecided on.

Perhaps it is this – if we took the sum total of the things that have happened. Things we can be proud of like the site of the first school established here as well as the places where the Japanese beheaded people and where the race riots took place. If there is something we could have or should have learnt a lesson from – then we should remember these things. 

Teletubbie

After a weekend of cooking, eating and watching DVDs – Porcorosso has to say that on this one issue, mr brown is spot on.

Battlestar Galactica rocks!

Ok, so Boxy is no longer a robot dog, Boomer is no longer black and Starbuck is no longer male but who cares. Best thing on telly.

(via mr brown)

By their deeds shall they be known

So in spite of his illness, Porcorosso was at a very nice client lunch at Mag’s where he had pan-fried baby octopus and a tenderloin of beef. We were the last people out of the place while Mag was talking business with a wine merchant at the next table. Out of the blue, she came over and asked if we would like to taste the guy’s wines. I declined on behalf of my hosts, chatted a bit, one topic led to another and then finally to barrel samples of the 2005 Bordeaux. It must have dawned on her I was at the tasting last month and we started talking about the characters who were there. This is getting worrying.

Yum Yum

Here is some food for thought from Mr Wang – he is a very clever man.

Given the challenge posed by Mr Wang – Porcorosso has this to say. This blog, or to be more accurate its predecessors, started out as an open letter to my friends when I was living in Tokyo two years ago. I wrote it every week and then gave it up when I returned to London. When I finally came back to Singapore to live, I started it again for the benefit of my friends from Tokyo and London. I write about things I think about, things which catch my eye and things which remain obscure objects of desire.

This blog is written mainly for my friends but I am happy for it to be read by everyone whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly and whose glory is their shame, who minds earthly things. As long as they are aware of it. I used to alert my friends when I updated the blog – I don’t feel the need to do that any more.

Porcorosso is a simple pig. He is not a political animal. Nor does he have any specialist knowledge of any subject. The number of people who reads his blog every day does not matter much to him. He does not keep the blog and what he has to say secure behind a password. He does not much care. Now that is not to say he does not have views on issues or opinions on things. He just does not think his blog is the place to set them out. As they say, different blogs hit different spots.

Now then, from food for thought to thoughts on food. Porcorosso just came back from a weekend of eating and drinking in Hong Kong but more on that later.  

Porc culture

Porcorosso has not been writing much here because he has been commenting in other people’s blogs (sometimes incognito it has to be admitted) – here is his take on culture.

Yesterday’s Sunday lunch

Eats:

Eggplant mousse with a red pepper coulis

Parfait of chicken liver with a port and onion jam

Shrimp ravioli with laksa pesto

Tomato salad in tomato confit

Frozen lychees

Veloute of sesame prawn toast

Crispy chicken with vegetable tagine in red date sauce

Glugs:

Pol Roger NV

De Bertoli Noble One Semillion 2003

Clos de l’Oratoire 2000

Thelema Cabernet Sauvignon 1986

Summer’s here

So the holidays must be upon us … and before one gets accused of being a Champagne socialist or worse, a Bordeaux bolshie, Porcorosso is taking a break from blogging to enjoy the sun, smell the flowers and of course, have a glass of wine. Or two. 

Crus control

So last Friday was a memorable – well, at a thousand bucks a person it should be. We started with a brief Pinot Noir flirtation – Old World versus New. DRC RSV versus Meerlust. Which was not fair as the DRC was a clear case of infanticide (although I thought the acidity in the RSV a touch heavy) so we moved quickly onto to the sweet wines.

The guys pouring out the sweet stuff would not let us get to the Y’quem straight away so we humoured them by tasting the Rieussec and the Blanck Gewurtz (the latter was nicer than I thought and none of it went into the spittoon). The Y’quem was well worth the preliminaries and I think the reason why it is better than any other Sauternes is the lemony zestiness in the nose and the finish which prevents it from becoming cloying as some sweet wines are wont to do.

Onto to the Sassicaia – my favourite wine of the night. Well integrated and drinking exceedingly smoothly at this point in time, it should become even better with another 3 to 5 years of cellaring. I think I will get some now.

Of the 2005 Bordeaux on tap (or rather in date-stamped pre-general release bottles) , the Angelus was what you’d expect it to be – a touch over-extracted (to suit Mr Parker) but young and powerful with a marked emphasis on the cassis. Good fruit, good year and should fetch an egregious price. However, dollar for dollar, the Mondotte should more than give the Angelus a run for its money – it was more complex with wild tangents in many different directions and is, frankly, much more zingy and exciting. The only question mark is whether the structure will hold after the malolactic fermentation is complete.

From the Left Bank, there were two very good examples of the slightly underpriced 1996 vintage – both the Mouton and the Lafite were excellent. Which makes me wonder why my 96 Duhart Milon is bad in comparison. Terrior should not explain everything – it was a decent year and the wine makers are the same.

We finished the evening with an old friend which virtues I have previously extolled – the 95 Haut Brion is if anything drinking even better than in 2000. It is, as Mr Parker said all those years ago, seamless.