Panko-fried yellowtail with truffle honey and sparkling sake

I honestly didn't know which dish to pick out of this extraordinary pop-up at The Dead Doll’s House Islington last week, hosted by wine importer Bibendum PLB who now also bring in a wide range of sakes. So I’m going for this one because it was the first and one of the simplest.

The meal was prepared in a corner of the private dining room by Endo Kazutoshi, former head sushi chef at Zuma and was one of the most spectacular Japanese meals I’ve ever had.

The dish was a couple of slices of incredibly fresh yellowtail tuna coated in panko crumbs, deep-fried and served with truffle honey and citrus zest.

Deep fried foods are always good with effervescent drinks and this gently sparkling Atago no Matsu sake from Nizawa Brewery was no exception. I knew umami was the perfect foil for sake but the sweetness of the truffle honey with the slightly sweet sake was a revelation.

The Nizawa brewery which was founded in 1873 was badly affected by the Great East earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and had to relocate but now has a state of the art new brewery with equipment that can apparently polish a rice grain down to 8% of its original size!

Apparently Atago no Matsu means ‘waiting love’ which is rather charming. Turns out it’s available on Amazon though at rather more than the prices you find in the states. Good sake has still to become affordable in the UK.

Apologies for rubbish pic. Very low light and a communal sharing board which made photography particularly difficult. (Excuses, excuses ... )

I was invited to the pop-up as a guest of Bibendum.

Matcha cheesecake and shiso icecream with Smith Teamaker Astoriamaro ‘Digesteaf’

It might seem perverse to pick a tea pairing as my match of the week after four days in wine country and one of the leading beer cities of the US but this combination was so unexpected and so brilliant I had to single it out.

It was at the end of a six course ‘konnichiwa’ dinner, one of the high profile collaborations between Portland’s home grown talent and chefs from elsewhere in the states and Tokyo at Feast Portland, the city’s annual food festival.

This dish was devised by Justin Woodward of Castagna and was a delicious pale green mess of matcha-flavoured cheesecake and ice-cold shiso ice-cream, something you would have thought would defeat practically any beverage but the ‘digesteaf’ - a deep, complex, floral infusion of cascara (the dried outer skins of coffee berries), rose petals, bourbon vanilla and various other botanicals* - complemented it beautifully.

The infusion which was devised in collaboration with Portland barware specialists Bull in China was diluted then shaken over ice with fresh lemon juice, a strip of lemon peel and a little sugar syrup and topped up with a dash of tonic water.

Obviously it would be impossible to replicate exactly without the Astoriamaro but it certainly opened my eyes to the possibility of pairing infusions with desserts. If you want to try it for yourself you can buy it online direct from Smith Teamaker but be quick as it's a limited edition release!

There’s a fascinating account of how the blend came together here.

* the full list is cascara, chicory root, orange peel, honeybush, rose petals, blackberry leaf, sarsaparilla root, cassia, bourbon vanilla bean and osmanthus.

Sauvignon-semillon and seared salmon carpaccio

Some weeks are tougher than others when it comes to picking my match of the week. Last week which included an excellent lunch with Carolyn Martin of Creation Wines at Sexy Fish was one.

I dithered over whether to highlight the two duck and pinot pairings - one with a duck and watermelon salad, the other a delicious, glazed honey and shichimi duck breast, kimchi and pickled daikon - but you all know about duck and pinot, right?

So I’ve gone for the salmon carpaccio and Creation’s 2015 Walker Bay sauvignon-semillon. It’s a blend that often gets overlooked in favour of the brighter, zestier flavours of straight sauvignon but I love its smooth lush texture and almost tropical fruit. Apparently it’s aged in 320 litre cigar-shaped barrels which allows more of the wine to be in contact with the lees.

The elements in the dish that made it work so well were the yuzu (Japanese citrus) and the sesame oil in the dressing which keyed in to different elements in the wine. (The viognier was pretty good too.)

Helpfully Carolyn gives detailed pairing suggestions and recipes with all their wines. I also like the sound of this simple pickled fish recipe.

For other pairings with salmon see 10 ways to serve salmon and the wines to pair with them. You can see my review of an earlier visit to Sexy Fish on the decanter.com website.

I attended the lunch as a guest of Creation Wines.

Fried sprats and grower champagne

A reminder this week of just what a perfect match champagne and fried fish is - with a twist. The fish was one of the cheapest of catches, the humble sprat.

It made no difference at The Scallop Shell in Bath, a restaurant I’d been hearing great things about and finally got to last Thursday. This was one of two starters we ordered - perfect, crisply fried, spankingly fresh little fish served with some excellent tarragon and chive mayo. The other was the plump, garlicky mussels you see in the photo. And of course we had to roadtest their fish and chips, which again was exemplary - a huuuge portion of haddock in a crisp, lacy batter.

We wouldn’t have normally ordered champagne but we were *researching* (honest!) a ‘Fish & Fizz’ event on which I’m collaborating with the restaurant on Sunday October 9th, the last day of the Great Bath Feast. Details to follow on social media on the restaurant’s own Twitter account @thescallopshell and mine, @winematcher, but it will basically be a fabulous 3 course lunch with a selection of different sparkling wines.

The champagne was a cracker from grower Chartogne-Taillot, a rich, creamy but perfectly balanced non-vintage cuvée called Sainte Anne. It’s supplied by Fine Wines Direct UK which sells it online for an incredibly reasonable £27.99. Unsurprisingly it’s out of stock at the moment but if and when it comes back in I’m tempted to buy some myself.

You might also enjoy reading 6 of the best matches with fish & chips.