Wines for Christmas

December 15, 2011January 21, 2015 - Alex Leave a comment

Disclaimer: I was sent the four wines by Wine Selectors.

When Wine Selectors got in touch and asked me if I’d like to try some of their wines they didn’t really have to ask twice! This was particularly the case because NOT ONE of the wines they offered to send was a Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc. Not that I have anything against Kiwi Savvie B but I really don’t understand why Australians drink so much of it when they should be supporting local products.

So, if you’re guilty of always reaching for the NZ Sav Blanc – PLEASE READ ON!

And if you’re not, please read on anyway, and we’ll have a chat about wine and food and Christmas.

Let’s begin with a wine that needs no food at all – but, as far as Christmas goes, if you must do food, think breakfast. I was sent the Peterson’s Sparkling White NV. This wine was very pale and, on the palate, it was crisp with some good acidity and TONS of citrus. It’s not a particularly complex wine (and let’s be reasonable – if you buy a case it’s $9 a bottle) so I wouldn’t try pairing it with food. Keep it as an aperitif but it would also be perfect for breakfasts and brunches and anyone who wants a Bucks Fizz.

Next up we had the Sauvignon Blanc replacements: The Lions Den Barossa Valley Babylon Block Riesling 2010 and the Jackson’s Hill The Under Block 2011 Semillon from the Hunter Valley.

Both wines were citrussy – the Riesling lemon and the Semillon lime. In terms of acidity, the Riesling outshone the Semillon, making it a better partner for any richer Christmas dishes. Have the Semillon with your oysters and prawns and save the Riesling for your baked ham or roast pork, or even your Boxing Day fish and chips. I’d also opt for pairing the Riesling with roast turkey, if you’re having one and really want to drink white.

The final wine was the Brokenwood The Bentley’s Boot 2010 Pinot Noir. While this wine showed the raspberry aromas and flavours that are pretty typical of Australian Pinot Noir it also had a substantial green component – think raspberry or strawberry leaf. There was a bit of spice on the palate and some reasonably grippy tannins. We had this with confit duck legs (yes, I know – pairing duck with Pinot Noir shows such imagination …) and this wine would work really well with your turkey. There’s also no reason why you couldn’t drink it with ham or pork, but I do think there the Riesling would be the better option.

So there’s some ideas for your Christmas drinking … hope you find them helpful!

Competition: Win with Spreets

December 12, 2011 - Alex 2 Comments

12 December 2011

Eating Adelaide is excited to be hooking up with Spreets, the Daily Deals Australia site, to offer one reader a $25 voucher to use as they please. That’s right – you can spend your $25 credit on any one of Spreets’ Daily Deals. While Spreets does offer a wide range of food and wine related deals, it also offers pretty much anything else you can think of. For example, today’s Adelaide deal is a car wash.

All you have to do to enter the competition is to leave a comment below. To double your chances, like Eating Adelaide on Facebook. Please make sure that you use the same name in your comment as you do on Facebook!

As the prize is $25 credit, this competition can be entered by anyone, anywhere in Australia!

The competition will run until 5pm (Adelaide time) next Monday 19 December and the winner will be drawn, randomly, on Monday evening.

Get entering and good luck!

Maru Japanese and Korean Restaurant

December 1, 2011 - Alex 2 Comments

date of visit: Saturday 26 November 2011

We actually had dinner more or less all lined up and at the last moment we decided we just couldn’t be stuffed cooking. What to do, what to do … pizza? fish and chips? Neither of those options was really taking our fancy but then I remembered seeing Maru from the bus one afternoon.

Maru (no website, but you can see the menu on UrbanSpoon) is a relatively new Japanese and Korean restaurant in the small group of shops just outside Flinders Hospital. It’s tiny which is worth bearing in mind if you’re planning a visit. In our case, we were planning on takeaway, which was very fortunate because if we’d turned up at 7pm on a Saturday night there’s a good chance we would have been turned away.

The menu does a good job of covering the Japanese and Korean classics: sushi and sashimi, tempura, bento boxes, noodles and (most importantly if you’re me!) bibimbap. We ordered steamed gyoza, bibimbap and the spicy pork stone pot – obviously not served in a stone pot for takeaway purposes! This came to the princely sum of $34.

Having been pleased with the cheerful phone manner of whoever took my order, it was great to arrive at the restaurant and receive the same level of service. Our food was ready (always a plus!) and off I trotted, my stomach rumbling away as I drove home.

The gyoza, which we scoffed quite quickly, were good. They look rather anaemic in the photo (blame that on being steamed, but we really didn’t think that fried would survive the take away journey) but they were tasty, with plenty of spring onion.

Main course wise, I ploughed through my bibimbap like a woman possessed. It was great – all the vegetables were fresh and crunchy, and the supplied chilli sauce (gochujang) was really hot. Of course, not being in a hot stone pot did mean the rice lacked its crispy base but if you’re too lazy to go to the restaurant to eat you can hardly complain!

Andy’s spicy pork stone pot was also good (I did try some but it was after I’d started slathering my bibimbap in gochujang so my taste buds might have been a little fried …). While nowhere near as spicy as my chilli sauce laced bibimbap it did have some heat to it and it was such a massive portion that he had the remainder for lunch the next day.

Hopefully you can tell that we really enjoyed our takeaway and actually eating in at the restaurant is definitely on the cards.

Maru
3/4 Rupert Avenue (at the entrance to Flinders Medical Centre)
Bedford Park SA 5042
phone 08 8374 3668