Sake and truffle fries

As I discovered when I visited Akashi Tai in Japan last autumn* sake is coming out of its shell, no longer a niche product to drink in Japanese restaurants but a versatile beverage to pair with food.

Last week I had it with several umami-rich dishes at a fancy restaurant called Dalloway Terrace in Bloomsbury - a preview of their forthcoming sake menu which included a mushroom soup and a dish of chicken breast with mushroom and truffle sauce.

I went full truffle by also ordering their Twineham Grange and truffle fries which actually proved an even better match with the full-flavoured Heavensake Junmai 12 sake I was drinking and a combination you could easily replicate at home (less expensively than at Dalloway Terrace where the chips are £8 though that isn’t out of the way for London these days.) Twineham Grange is a vegetarian parmesan-style cheese which is made in Sussex.

You can buy the sake, which is made in collaboration with Regis Camus, the cellarmaster at Piper Heidsieck champagne for £29.99 from simplywinesdirect  or from Laithwaites for £33

* See also 8 foods you might be surprised to find pair brilliantly with sake

I ate at the restaurant as a guest of Heavensake

Smashed potatoes and low alcohol IPA

You might not think that potatoes merited a pairing on their own account but then i guess you haven’t tried making Poppy O’Toole’s rosemary and garlic sharers.

Poppy is a young British chef who has amassed an incredible social media following for her immoderate love of potatoes and I don’t use the word incredible lightly. She has 1.8 MILLION followers on TikTok where she posts as poppycooks.

This is one of her recipes which if you’re not a subscriber to Tiktok you’ll find on Instagram (@poppy_cooks) and it’s basically super-crisp parmesan and rosemary crusted potatoes dunked in a parmesan, garlic and mayo dip. Which is as good as it sounds

I wouldn’t say I’d found the ultimate pairing for them (I’m leaning towards champagne though have yet to try out the combination) but can report that a well-chilled can of the impressively hoppy Green Light Quarter IPA - a 1.2% alcohol beer from Powderkeg - hit the spot nicely.

No and low-alcohol beers are getting so good these days.

And this may be the ultimate beer snack.

Photo © Nick Austin

Choucroute and Alsace riesling

I do love a tried and tested terroir-based wine match and there’s nothing better to pair with a dish of choucroute (almost Alsace’s national dish*) than a glass of the local riesling

I didn’t come across it in Alsace though but at a wine evening last week at my favourite Bristol wine bar Bar Buvette. The guest winemaker was Marie Boesch of Leon Boesch, a family-owned producer I visited a couple of years ago and whose wines are imported by Vine Trail which is also Bristol-based.

Although they’re biodynamic they’re not at all funky, just incredibly pure, live and expressive. The 2016 Les Grandes LIgnes riesling which I’ve subsequently bought was my favourite but the sylvaner worked very well too.

The choucroute was also unusually good. It can be a bit of an acquired taste - quite sour and sharp from the fermented cabbage but this was a big hearty wholesome plate of food with a good dollop of mustard.

Bar Buvette also does a cracking tartiflette

* Yes, I do realise Alsace is not a country but it's a very different part of France that almost feels like an independent nation!