Prawn raviole and white Bordeaux

Having spent 3 days in Bordeaux last week I’m spoilt for choice about my match of the week but I’m going for one of the less obvious pairings (so not Pauillac and lamb!).

This was at a rather glorious outdoor lunch with Chateau Faugères in Saint-Emilion - the best of the trip from a food point of view cooked by a freelance chef called (I think from a hastily scrawled note) Matthieu Detchart.

The dish was rather grandiosely called raviole de crevettes aux légumes fondants, bouillon de carcasse à a citronelle et curcuma and was basically a giant Asian-style raviole filled with prawns and shredded, stir-fried vegetables (mainly carrots) with a light broth flavoured with lemongrass and turmeric.

It wasn’t really spicy at all just delicately aromatic and a brilliant match with the Chåteau Faugères Bordeaux Blanc 2011, a three-way blend of Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Gris which was also very light, elegant and citrussy (more grapefruit than lemon). Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be available in the UK but you could subsitute a similar young white Bordeaux without too much obvious oak influence.

I do think white Bordeaux is hugely underrated.

 

Sliders and juleps

Although you can drink wine with a burger I’m coming to the conclusion that beer and cocktails are a lot more fun and, particularly with the modern American-style ales, have the sweetness to deal with the multiple flavours of today’s adventurous toppings.

That, of course, applies to sliders as well - mini burgers which are becoming a popular part of the current burger craze in London - as I discovered on a visit last week to the newly opened Slider Bar at The Player in Soho* which is run by the highly rated Lucky Chip*

You can order any two so I skipped the more straightforward Double Cheese Burger in favour of the El Chappo (aged beef patty, smoked bacon, roasted jalapenos, blue cheese and aioli) and the Royale wit Cheese (aged beef, applewood smoked bacon, tomato, onion, ketchup and mustard). Both went really well with the fragrant, herby Rye and Rosemary Julep I ordered (Sazerac rye, rosemary, mint, sugar and sweet vermouth) - though not so much with the weird frothed up frozen tub of Orangina on the side - a bizarre piece of product placement. The sliders and chips are great though.

High end drinks like champagne and cocktails and fast food seem to be quite on trend at the moment as you can see from this recent post on Bubbledogs and my delicious cocktail pairing at Dabbous.

*whose website appears to be down at the moment but also operates out of the Sebright Arms.

Coffee-infused pale ale and jalapeno cornbread

I’ve been making a policy recently of ordering good craft beer when it’s on offer instead of wine which is how I came across this stellar pairing at the newly opened Caravan restaurant in Kings Cross. (Terrific - I’ll tell you more shortly.)

They have a brew made for them by Camden Town Brewery which is infused with their own coffee - one of the things they’re known for (the coffee, not the beer). It didn’t have much of a coffee flavour, just enough to cut the edge of the sweetness of the American-style ale but it was absolutely cracking.

We actually ordered a number of dishes with which it rubbed along fine including fried chicken and watermelon (a surprisingly good combination) and some opulently cheesy grits with truffle oil but the dish I’d recommend - and the only one they’ve brought over from their Exmouth market branch - is the most outrageously moreish jalepeno corn bread with chilli butter. Which I recommend you order with the beer while you try and decide what to eat. The menu is so good it may take some time . . .

 

Chablis and snails

I’m a great believer in eating and drinking like the locals when I’m on holiday so when we stopped overnight at Le Pot d’Etain in L’Isle sur Serein in Burgundy last week there was nothing for it but to order a starter of snails with the Chablis we were drinking.

I realise this won’t go down that well with some of you - snails apparently topping the list of least favourite foods according to a survey that's just been released - but I must confess I like them.

The taste of course you’re matching is not the snails themselves (though they have an earthy quality that demands a wine of some power and persistence) but the garlic and parsley-flavoured butter that anoints them.

That calls for a crisp dry white in my book and none better than Chablis though the 2007 1er Cru Les Forests (right) from Vincent Dauvissat was probably a rather better example than we needed though it did come into its own with our mains of stuffed rabbit and sea bream with Mediterranean vegetables as you can see on my Facebook page. A young Chablis (2010 at the time of writing) or even Petit Chablis from a good producer would have been fine.

Other options would be Muscadet, Picpoul de Pinet and - oddly - a fresh style of non-vintage champagne like Taittinger which I can remember once drinking with snails in Reims. As you do.

Incidentally the Pot d’Etain is well worth an overnight stay not only for its snails and spectacular wine list but its really excellent cheeseboard which I’ve posted about on my cheese blog here.