A Meal to Make You Slap Your Mama
Yesterday, I finally made it to Nak’s Oriental Market in Menlo Park. And while I was disappointed that there wasn’t much seafood, I did stock up on a load of basics for Thai and other Asian cuisine. The wheels started turning when I picked up a bottle of sweet chili sauce, as I remembered the 2005 Bargetto Gewurztraminer I bought when I went to their tasting room on my visit with the penguins in Monterey.
I recalled the Gewurz being fairly mild, and my memory didn’t fail me. On the nose, I got pineapple, lemon, and honeysuckle. Then when I tasted it, the first thing that struck me was apple, then lemon pudding, and finally some hint of tropical fruit, which I don’t eat much of…so I’ll take a guess. Papaya? Overall, quite sweet, especially compared to the one at Fogarty.
My meal looked too good to spend any more time on just the wine, so I had to dig right in. And man, I haven’t done so well in a while. As I made the caesar dressing, I threw in a fair amount of wasabi, hoping it would pair with the spiciness in the wine, though I would have liked more–in the wine, not the dressing. Sweet potatoes in the oven again, but this time sprinkled with garlic and a flutter of brown sugar, which worked quite nicely. But the star, the big winner, was the chicken. I let it seep in a combo of vanilla yogurt, milk, salt, and a little beaten egg while I made the batter of flour, garlic powder, and salt & pepper. Then after frying and finishing in the oven, I sprinkled the sweet chile sauce (we used to call it Mojo sauce back home) over the finished product. Oh, my, but it was tasty and perfect with the sweetness of the wine. Just checked the residual sugar online, as I suspected, it was 1%.
Readers and drinkers, if you want to make this chicken, and I suggest you do, pair it with any off-dry Gewurztraminer, and you’ll be slapping your mama (another thing we say back home).
I’m still thinking about it…(the chicken, not the slapping)!
2005 Bargetto Gewurztraminer, Gewurztraminer pairing, delicious chicken
…Farley Walker
January 24th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Hey little sister (that is something we say down here in the south),
You really got it going girl. I’m ready to run out and grab a bottle of Gewurztraminer and stock my kitchen with the ingredients to make that meal!
Were you born with a silver pen in your mouth? Your words stirred the flavors of taste to life inside my head… yum, yum. I want to learn more about pairings and you are doing a great job helping me out. (Seems our roles sometimes reverse, huh?)
By the way, please don’t slap your mama. I’m smaller than you are.
January 25th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Wow. Debbe is right. You can pen one mean meal review. And that Gewurz sounds excellent.
Slap you mama. That’s quite Louisiana.