Friday Feast

And so I can't control myself on the 16th day of the New Year. It has been a bloody 15 days since I last had a glass or even a sip of wine. Now I find myself at Imbi Palace on a Friday night meeting up with all my wine friends for the first time since Xmas and we are all indulging in a feast.

I tried telling them about my resolutions, like usual, my resolutions will not work. And as we hold our chopsticks to "lo" the "yee sang", they all said "Resolutions are meant to be broken!"... Cheers....

The Yee Sang itself is one of the highlights of the dinner. Not only it was overwhelmed with a generous portion of fresh Salmon slices, it also has abalone slices and also Toro. Toro is most tender part of the tuna, buttery, rich toro comes from the fatty belly. Usually, it's served in Japanese restaurants and I'm quite surprised to see it here at a chinese restaurant! This plate of Yee Sang is to die for. Not only the radish and pickles are nicely done, the crackers are so crispy and tasty and the ultimate ingredient - the sauce is just fantastic.

The second highlight of the dinner was of course my favourite food - FOIE GRAS. Although this foie gras could not be compared to the one I had at Lafite, what was commendable about this dish is the creativity of the chef. Have you eaten a pan seared foie gras with fried soft toufu served with an oriental sauce? I can tell you, it's pretty interesting and the fact that both of them jived well too.

The other dishes we had (clockwise from top left) were sharks fin (chunks of fins) soup with chicken feet, brocoli with abalone slices, roasted pigeon and Japanese Black Pig (Korobuta). There was just too much to eat and I didn't really finish my food. My friends are always spoiling me with the good food and wines. How to stay slim like that?!!

The wine selection that night was pretty interesting. We had a champagne, a bottle of white wine, 5 bottles of red wine and a whiskey. Of all the wines that night, I particularly like 3 of the 5 reds I've tried. First of course would be my favourite bottle - Cos'd Estournel 2002, then it would be the Chateau Haut-Brion 1999, and the Le Petit Mouton de Mouton Rothschild.

The Haut-Brion 1999 has a fruity nose. The tannins are well integrated and it has some hints of tobacco. It's smooth and easy to drink. And the price tag - at least RM1k. The Haut-Brion and the Mouton Rothschild are all from the Premier Crus just like the Lafite Rothschild.

The grand vin is Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, of which there are 25000 cases per annum, and the second wine Le Petit Mouton de Mouton Rothschild (which I was drinking), are produced in only small quantities. It's grand vin, a bottle of can cost between RM800 to RM10k. The Petit that we were drinking is no less than RM500++ (from the web) since I didn't ask them about the exact price. The other unique feature of this wine is the labels. It is the significant aspect of the Mouton image with labels created by some of the world's great painters and sculptors and that is why its labels are very unique and differentiated.

I think I've got a pretty expensive taste for wines. So far, I have tried most of the wines from grand crus except for a few which I think I would never been able to afford. I would like to try the Château Lafite-Rothschild, Château Latour and Château Pétrus from the Bordeaux one day! Learning how to purchase a bottle of French wine is not easy and thus if you want to know more about the classification of French wines and the left bank - right bank, you can read here.

The dinner is never complete without a good puff of cuban cigar. That night we had a Bolivar each to complete the good wine and food. To go with the cigar, we had a equally good Macallan Distillery 25years from Old Malt Cask. I think that's too much for me to handle. That night, not only I cut down on my food, I also cut down on my drinking. I had Mr.L helped me with two glasses while I finished the other three. No price for guessing which 3 other glasses I chose. Lol...