Food Explorer & Home Chef
First cafe outing for 2021 at Slow Coffee @The Hubs, SS2 in Petaling Jaya. Hopefully it won’t be the last for some time, as the number of Covid cases are on the rise again. ‘Twas so nice to be out and about with my girlfriend …
This year has surely been a strange year for all of us. I’ve attended zoom meetings, conducted zoom interviews and now, a virtual luncheon. No. 1 son asked whether I actually got to taste the food or was it just a “see food” affair since …
Green tea is loaded with polyphenols, natural compounds that provide health benefits such as reduce inflammation, lower the risk of heart disease, help with fat loss and fight cancer, etc. If you don’t already know, it’s supposed to be one of the healthiest beverages you could possibly drink.
Since everybody says green tea is good for you, we drink copious amounts of it. But there’s an art to drinking green tea, and the Japanese would know this best as they have been drinking green tea since 815, apparently. Story goes that Buddhist monk Eichuu offered tea, regarded as a precious gift thought to be enjoyed only by the religious, royal, and elite societies of Japan, to the Saga emperor.
Green Tea, Oolong Tea and Black Tea are all from the same tea plant, but processed differently. I learnt something new during a ‘Japanese Tea Experience’ recently: fresh green tea leaves are steamed to prevent oxidation this helps retains its colour! Earlier I just thought they were plucked when young, hence they retained their greenness. Haha!
The most common green teas would be Sencha, Matcha and Hojicha. Sencha is derived from steaming, rolling, and drying the youngest tea leaves, and the most commonly consumed green tea in Japan.
Matcha is made from tea leaves grown in the shade. Steamed and dried without rolling to produce Tencha, this is then grinded in a stone mill to a fine Matcha powder.
Hojicha is from toasted and chilled leaves, which gives it a slight reddish brown colour and a roasted flavour.
Shizouka Perfecture is the largest tea producing region in Japan, accounting for 40% of all Nihon-Cha production, mostly Sencha.
I had a chance to try Nihon-Cha from Yame, a city near Kyushu Island and Uji, south of Kyoto. Different types of teas have their own properties promoting different uses. High quality Sencha contains more caffeine and acts like a stimulant, so if you’re wondering why you’re awake after healthy cups of green tea, there you go!
Chilled Hojicha is supposed to be good for rehydration and highly recommended while Green Tea with high content of catechin, produced when its strongly brewed with hot water and consumed regularly, is touted to be good for lowering cholesterol levels.
Beyond your ordinary cuppa, there are many other ways to enjoy green tea eg. extract Tea Espresso with a Coffee machine for Matcha Latte, a cold brew to get the ‘sweetness’ of the Green tea, and green tea powders can also be used for making cakes, ice-cream, cocktails, chocolate and other desserts.
To learn more about green tea and for purchase, log on to https://secaimarche.com/buyer/login/user_login
I only learnt how to make Kimchi jiggae when No. 1 came back from UK and taught me how easy it was. So what’s the difference between kimchi soup and kimchi jiggae? The amount of water! The broth for the stew is just a little …
Tiger is synonymous with hosting street food festivals, complete with games and activities, live performances, great selection of street food and, of course, Tiger Beer. This year, Tiger is taking the street food festival experience to the next level: from the streets, and onto your …
Thanks to inspiration and the mastery that comes from experience, the passage of time has revealed the grandeur of Dom Pérignon’s Vintage 2010 .
The label plays out its aesthetic and sensorial values: precision, intensity, touch, minerality, complexity and completeness, a way of embracing and sustaining the note.
An unyielding commitment to express the grapes of a single and the same year means that some years, a vintage will not be declared.
The Dom Pérignon Chef de Cave, Vincent Chaperon expressed, “The creation of Dom Pérignon Vintage 2010 took equal parts mastery and humility. The Vintage 2010 is the fruit of intuition and a mastery nurtured by experience, passed on and reproduced. I hope it never ceases to inspire you.”
In 2010, the winter was rigorous, spring dry and late. After a particularly sunny decade, such freshness was surprising. Summer was hot, but not excessively so. Then, two days of diluvian rain brought this ideal trajectory to a halt. In just a few days, botrytis mould developed on the grapes, mainly on the pinot noir.
This triggered a race against the clock, the grapes were not yet fully mature, but a decision had to be made quickly. Dom Pérignon deployed its full resources to trace a precise map delimiting the maturity and health of each parcel in its vineyards. This expert vision of the situation gave the possibility of saving excellent plots of pinot noir grapes.
Dom Pérignon decided to focus exclusively on the grapes the botrytis had spared. When the vendange was over, a portion of the harvest had been lost, but the pinot noir grapes that had been saved were absolutely glorious. They showed richness, concentration and balance – actually the best in the past 30 years.
The scent affirms itself on the palate, tracing a solid, welcoming presence. Amplitude, generosity and firmness compose a harmonious balance, accompanied by a peppery vibration until the silvery reverberations of a lustrous finish. The striking contrasts of this perilous year seem to express themselves with unexpected assurance and modesty, swaying with surprising serenity.
For purchases, contact Moet Hennessy Diageo Malaysia for more details.
Press release
Darn, just as I thought we had a Get-Out-of-Jail card and could be social beings again, it’s CMCO – Conditional Movement Control Order – and we have to stay put again to stay safe! Well, it’s back to the drawing board, or rather, the kitchen, …
Johnnie Walker, together with master blender Jim Beveridge, has come up with its latest addition to the fold, Johnnie Walker Aged 15 Years Sherry Finish. Carefully blended from some of the finest single malts and finished in ex-sherry oak casks that once held sherry from …
Fireworks in the day time? Sure, why not? After all, it’s not every year that you get to celebrate your 150th birthday! We were not flown to the actual site for the live event (how I wish!), but we did get to attend the viewing party/dinner held in town recently.
In commemoration of Hennessy X.O’s 150th anniversary, a special collaboration was struck with well-known contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang for a “Daytime Fireworks live event” – a spectacular 15-minute fireworks event in three acts – that was akin to a theatrical performance. This artistic odyssey exploded with drama, poetry and colour as multicoloured fireworks were launched from 150 oak barrels floating on the Charente River, echoing Hennessy X.O’s 150th anniversary.
Cai is particularly renowned for his large scale artistic installations and his use of fireworks as an artistic medium to stage spectacular public events. The project was the first daytime fireworks conceived by Cai launched from an aquatic environment broadcasted to a global, real-time audience. This was staged using exclusively non-toxic, reduced-smoke and CE certified pyrotechnic products.
In celebration of Hennessy X.O’s 150th anniversary, Moët Hennessy also unveiled a limited-edition decanter designed by well-known architect Frank Gehry. The 91-year-old master builder, renowned for his iconic structures such as The Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and The Foundation Louis Vuitton, collaborated with the Maison to reinterpret the legendary Hennessy X.O’s timeless bottle.
Drawing inspiration from the rich Hennessy X.O blend and the glistening Charente River in Cognac, France, which runs through the Hennessy Maison, Frank Gehry has created a bottle enveloped in a crinkled sleeve of 24-carat gold-dipped bronze, evoking the radiant movement of water as it reflects the light. The sculptural decanter is encased by a fractured glass glorifier, which further amplifies the inspiration of water and light.
To commemorate the anniversary locally, Hennessy Malaysia will be hosting a showcase tour, featuring Frank Gehry’s iconic masterpiece from Oct 7 to 31, 2020. The tour will commence from Eki Bar, Penang, followed by installations in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, Loon Sing Taman Daya, Johor and a private final showcase in St. Regis Kuala Lumpur, where the celebrated bottles will be auctioned off.
Only an exclusive limited run of 150 numbered decanters, imprinted with Gehry’s signature globally is available. A wider release of limited-edition Hennessy X.O bottles also created by Gehry will be launched in markets worldwide, retailing at RM938. Check out Hennessy’s Facebook page for more details.
MHD Malaysia will also be hosting its “Luxury Decoded” which invites consumers of Hennessy X.O to be part of the festivities and stand a chance to win a limited-edition Hennessy X.O bottle designed by Frank Gehry. The initiative will be activated in participating Hennessy outlets around the country throughout the month of October 2020.
This year, 2020, has been a bit of a downer as you can’t do all the things we took for grated – travel, hang out with friends, cafe-hopping – not in the way we used to anyway. Here’s what Apple Fox has done to make …