You may or may not have noticed that all my posts make absolutely no reference at all to wine. I concern myself with food only.
There is a simple reason for this. I must profess here to a total lack of desire for, or liking of, wine.
SHOCK, HORROR!
My question to you - do you think this takes away from my food experience? Do you think the wine component adds that extra dimension to a meal which I am obviously missing out on?
A couple of my friends have debated this issue lately. They probably consititute Hobarts biggest spenders of wine-related money ever! They say they just can't understand how I can contemplate a meal without wine. They have, at various times, called me the biggest heathen out for pulling the worst face (like sucking a lemon) when forced by them to try a wine which they claim ANYONE couldn't help but think the most wonderful sample of nectar of the gods ever bottled. They are always wrong.
With the best will in the world, it is totally lost on me. Save your Grange Hermitages, your pinots etc. You'll find me to be the cheapest date. A glass of water to accompany my meal is sufficient.
I can't blame my upbringing. My father is the biggest wine snob ever. Since I was a toddler, my siblings and I were bought up to revere this age-old custom of letting the wine breathe, de-canting it, buying the correct (Reidel) glasses, sniffing it before tasting etc etc.
I love cooking with it. I believe adding wine to some dishes adds body to the food which you can't possibly get with any other ingredient. Marinating meat in wine can produce spectacular results.
But - there is one positive - I love the sweeties - the sauternes, the Wellington Iced Reislings, the botrytis-ey wines. Only one glass, but make it a decent one. I tend not to order them in restaurants though because staff seem set on serving these sweeter wines in a pissy port glass. One sip and it's gone. Even when I explain that I'd like a normal sized glass like the rest of you, and am prepared to pay for it. "But it's a dessert wine, Madam." I don't give a shit! If I'm willing to pay...., I'm the customer, give it to me now. To no avail.
So, it seems like I am outnumbered here. You wine-drinking bastards have it all over me. I have never been able to use those standard old lines I've heard over the past 58 years, like, "I feel like shit today. Got a huge hangover"; or ""I had too much to drink last night".
I've never been drunk. Not because I'm one of those chooks-bum women who is a teetotaler and disapproves of all who take a drink. Just because it tastes like shit to me!
Friday, 4 May 2007
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10 comments:
Yes Rita good call. For many the enjoyment of food is entwined with the appreciation of wine.
Unfortunately like foodie-Wankerism their is also a healthy Wine snobbery attitude also.
Curiously many winemakers we've met are not really interested in food which we find puzzling as we hold the opinion that the two are made for each other.
Again thare are no set rules, we make poo poo thye barcardi'n cola brigade who'll sup it with their filet Mignon but if they like it, what difference does it make in the end?
For some people its about follwing, adhereing to & administering the so called rules.
Not us.
Whatever floats your boat, as they, whomever 'they' are, say
Thanks for your endorsement Gobbler. I have never been one to pay any heed whatsoever to societies dictates, hence always being able to withstand the good old peer group pressure of my teenage and early adulthood years.
Nowadays I'm just seen as an old fuddy-duddy anyway, so that peer group pressure issue has disappeared, but still, obviously, friends can't understand it.
I figure, if I'm mature enough to recognise that even though I myself don't find one single virtue or value in having wine with my meal, I understand and respect that almost everyone else on the planet DOES. I figure then that that also applies in reverse.
They need not judge me as the world's biggest looser!
They say they just can't understand how I can contemplate a meal without wine.
I hear you Rita about being out of balance - however mine was the reverse situation - I only started to take an interest in food to make sure it didn't bugger up the grog.
PS. Also, my experience is pretty much the polar opposite re the-gobbler's observation about winemakers not really being interested in food - most of the grape squeezers I've met seemed to take their tucker pretty seriously.
Oh, Rita! I'm sure there's a drink out there that will taste good to you! I'm a fairly recent convert to wine, probably because people insisted on serving me cardonnay, which I despise. I still won't touch red, but I like a nice, cold sauvignon blanc (preferably served with ice, South African style and as the ultimate anti-wine snob drink).
But something must suit your palate - a nice cosmopolitan, perhaps? Or a mojito made with fresh mint and Appleton Estate Jamaican rum? Baileys on ice, maybe? I'm sure your perfect drink is out there, so don't despair.
But for food appreciation, no, wine is certainly not necessary. All you need is iced water to cleanse your palate between courses.
Hi pc and redcap - great to hear from both of you. Loved your last post too, red, by the way. You expressed all I feel at work!
pc - you certainly seem to have made up for that lack of interest in food now. Your blog is really food-focussed. Love the photos of the dishes you eat too.
redcap - is a cosmopolitan sweet? If so I'd have one. Or a mojito?
I sometimes have a Baileys on ice when the girls meet out for a drink, but when that happrened last week, and you're taking turns with buying a round, it hardly seems fair to saddle them with the cost of my $14 Baileys on ice, when they're on the $5 - $7 ones.
I have tried the Baileys with my main course but it really doesn't work for me. Sounding now like one of those whining old dears in a home, so I'll stop.
Rita, maybe this sweet tooth of yours in wine colours your taste in food.
You loved the Lee How Fook but a responder said it awful.
Certainly, sweet drinks colour the taste of what you eat, just as a ripe cheese can make a wine you know taste absolutely different.
And artichokes can have a massive effect of what follows!
A fascinating subject.
I find, like Pussycat, that winemakers do love their grub, despite what Gobbler thinks.
Sir Grumpy
PS Rita I have found many of your experiences coincided with my opinion.
Even my favourite asian restaurant varies.
I've had great food there. I've also been disappointed but not often.
So maybe it was because they were having an off night at Lee How Fook.
Cheers, Sir Grumpy.
Hi Sir G - yes indeed, a very interesting subject, as you say. I agree to a certain extent about the sweet palate affecting the taste of the food. I know I love a sweet & sour type flavoured dish, but conversely I love a Stilton cheese, which to my mind is pretty sharp and "tart", if I can use that word to describe a cheese.
My taste buds were greatly affected by my chemo, and I think skewed my tastes. I much prefer savoury flavours now, compared to a very definite sweet bias pre-cancer.
I tend to think the Lee How Fook experience is as I've said before - you can have 3 separate tables all having a totally different restaurant experience at the same time on the same night - all because of their varied tastes, expectations, life experiences, tolerance levels, prior experiences etc etc.
I noticed that often when I was a waitperson. I miss those days!
I think you are on to something Rita with the individual experience thing. One really important factor is the company one is dining with. Dull, boring, negative company is hardly conducive to having a great dining experience. On the other hand delightful companions can make dining at an average restaurant a very enjoyable experience. How would your Marque IV evening have been if you were there with someone you didn't like?
Obviously I agree Pedro. The experience itself, in whatever package it comes, overwhelms the whole thing, so I can't tell you if I'd been with someone else at MIV, whether or not the food would have had the same effect as it did being with my partner that night.
But don't forget the rest of what I claim - not only can it be the company that affects the experience, but your tastes (as well as other things). If we're together at, say, a curry place. We both order a curry. You love yours, I hate mine. We taste each others. Yours seems fine to me.
My past eating habits have resulted in my liking of a hot curry. Over the years, the more curries I've eaten, the hotter I probably like it, gradually.
You like a spicey flavour, but you don't like it to the degree that your lips are smouldering after the first few mouthfuls.
Therefore, if either of our curries wasn't what we preferred (or liked) then we'd judge the experience a failure, and tell people we had a crap meal there.
The food itself might have been OK. The restaurant were probably playing it safe & trying to appeal to the majority by not making it too hot, or spicey or whatever.
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