Tongdak (rice-stuffed chicken) and orange wine

Continuing in the spicy food vein of last week, this time I was eating at a Korean restaurant called Bokman in Bristol.

I started with a Korean lager called Cass and could happily have carried on drinking that but was tempted by the orange wine which was available by the glass.

It was a Vincent Stoeffler, Feu Follet from Alsace, a blend of muscat, gewürztraminer and pinot gris ‘aromatics dialled up to the max’ as the wine list nicely put it.

Aromatic varieties like this that work particularly well in orange wine (which is white wine made by leaving the juice in contact with the skins as you do with a red) and it really was delicious, full of tropical fruit flavours and a touch of sweetness that took the the hot/sweet dipping sauces with our Tongdak (rice stuffed roast chicken) in their stride.

It was, if anything, even better with the sensationally good Bokman salad which consists of Chinese leaves, toasted seaweed, pine nuts and a ‘house dressing’ which I’m guessing was based on kimchi or kimchi brine. Which suggests that orange wine would be good with kimchi provided it wasn’t too hot.

You can find the wine between £22 and £28 in the UK (e.g. £25 at Victor Indigo November which is a great name) though if you’re lucky enough to live in France you can buy it off the producer’s website for €13.60.

For other orange wine pairings see here

Korean meatballs with mango, lime and ginger gin

Oooofff, Korean food is spicy! Even when I toned down the gochujang chilli paste in the meatballs I made on Saturday night they were a challenge for most of the wines I tried with them (a characterful Babylonstoren rosé powered through). But the best match by far was a gin and tonic made from Romy's Edition Mango, Ginger and Lime gin, a collaboration between Bristol-based Six O’Clock Gin and Indian food writer Romy Gill.

I made it up as a G & T with Fevertree Naturally Light tonic, plenty of ice, a couple of slices of mango and an extra squeeze of lime and its sweet fruitiness offset the chilli heat perfectly. I can imagine it going really well with Indian street food like Romy’s addictive samosa chaat too.

Six food pairings for gin that might surprise you

The meatballs were from chef Judy Joo’s new book Korean Soul Food though I used minced turkey thigh meat rather than chicken. It’s a really good recipe - the meatballs were a perfect texture. Judy suggests accompanying them with Gochujang mayonnaise which provides another fiery kick and I made her addictively spicy Korean style cucumber salad to go with them too.

I don’t know nearly enough about Korean food so am looking forward to experimenting more from this book. Hopefully my chilli tolerance will increase!

For more about pairing Korean food and wine read this archive post from Marc Millon.

I was sent the gin as a sample.

Dassai 50% unfiltered sake with lamb cutlets with Korean spices

I imagine you all know how well sake works with sashimi but it came as quite a surprise to me - wagyu aside - how well it could handle red meat and spice

This was one of a sensational series of dishes at Roka, Mayfair hosted by premium sake brewery Dassai which brilliantly demonstrated the effect of different levels of polishing rice with different dishes. The higher levels like the Dassai 23% were best with the delicate flavour of raw fish. The extra body and structure of sakes made from less highly polished rice like the unfiltered 50% supported more robust meat dishes like this fragrant, spicy lamb

I’d not come across the Dassai sakes before and was really impressed by the quality (they’re all Junmai Daiginjo grade). And I was so blown away by the food I went back for lunch with my daughter the next day!

Roka has made a major feature of its sake list which apparently accounts for 50% of its drink sales. A number are available by the glass so it’s a good place to go and experiment. They also hold regular sake and wine pairing dinners. The next ‘sake session’ is on 5th September and costs £90 a head including sake. Ring reservations on 020 7305 5644 to book. (Yes! Quaint notion. Pick up the phone! Try it!)

I attended the dinner as a guest of Roka restaurants.