Anne from Feast invited us to host another wine dinner for Feast Wine Club at Feast (our East on Gorey Pier) on Thursday 20th November.
The evening was a Thai style food event and we had to select some wines to compliment the Thai food. It was another fantastic evening and the talented, enthusiastic team at Feast put in so much effort to create an atmospheric cosy Thai feel for the night, with some beautiful colourful window dressing in place, the creative skills of Lorraine were put to very good use indeed..!
It is always a challenge to match Asian style food with wines (and I confess to you now, that as an ex brewer I also sneaked in a bottled beer to show at this event..)
We started the night off with either a glass of Champagne Gallimard Brut Cuvee Reserve 'Les Riceys' N.V. currently on Christmas offer at £15.95 a bottle or a cold Tiger Beer -£24.95 a case.
We also offered these choices again with the starter of Classic Thai nibbles – rare chilli and lime tuna, chicken satay, duck spring roll. When you have a mix of flavours, texture and spices like this the Champagne worked very well, allowing each part of this dish to reveal its self.
Next on the menu was the Tom Yum Soup with Crab & Prawns, and with this dish we showed a Spanish white wine, Albarino A20 from Bodegas Castro Martin at £8.95 and a few people (mostly the boys) stayed with the Tiger beer option. The Albarino drank beautifully, it is clean crisp and fruit driven and I thought it complimented and copied with the Thai flavours very well, but if I am honest I personally thought that the Tiger beer was the better match for me on the night with the spicy Tom Yum soup. This beer brewed in Asia and imported to the UK, is made using German hops famed for their floral aroma and slightly spicy taste and it really does work very well with most Asian style food with its zesty, upfront hoppy crisp flavours. (Just like the hint of Riesling does in the white wine that we served with the Green curry).
We then had King Prawn and Scallop Thai Green curry and we offered two Australian wines, the St. Hallett Semillon/Sauvignon/Riesling ‘Poachers Blend’ 2007 currently on Christmas offer at £5.45 which I loved with this dish. The crisp ripe Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon fruit with the added hint of zesty Riesling fruit coming through on the end, really complimented the Thai green & coconut flavours. We also served St. Hallett's red, the Shiraz/Grenache/ Touriga Nacional ‘Gamekeeper`s Reserve' 2007 (also currently on Christmas offer at £5.45). It did cope well with the heat of the curry (you need a rich, ripe fruit driven red to compete with the heat of the curry) but I personally think the clear winner was the zesty, white wine or indeed the Tiger beer (ok so I admit it that I still really enjoy a cold crisp beer with spicy food, once a brewer, I do appreciate a good cold beer..)
Dessert was the superb Grilled Pineapple with ginger and lime glaze, pineapple fritters and coconut and pineapple ice cream. With this dish we showed the Hollick Botrytised Riesling 'The Nectar' £9.95 a half bottle (made in Coonawarra, Australia) and it was a very successful match, complimenting the tropical fruit and coconut flavours without being too sickly sweet an ending.
Luckily for those attending my throat/voice completely gave up at this point, so I had no choice but to leave everyone in peace for the rest of the evening and I have to thank Anne`s husband, Oliver, for making me a very gratefully received mug of lemsip with lots of honey, the perfect end to my night…
It was another very enjoyable evening at Feast, thank you Anne and Oliver and your fantastic team.
Please contact Anne at Feast on Tel 611118 for more information. http://www.feast.je/
Liz Mitchell
General Manager
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