A clutch of blinded wines that recently made me pause, and an unrelated Tonkatsu picture from Tokyo in November. I had very low expectations for the meal, I'd just landed and the restaurant, name forgotten, was within a department store. . . How amazingly wrong I was. Next level crunch and meaty juiciness. Simple, but superb. 

The wines. 

J.B Becker Kabinett Trocken Riesling 2005. My last bottle. I've forgotten where I got this from, but I've been holding back on this, trying not to open it prematurely. I figure this, a dry German riesling, is a blind tasting ace, I just need to mask the green glass. . . Vinolok sealed. Clear and bright, it behaves like a 5-10 year old. A sulphurous nose - which I discern as a woolly jumper.

The Eileen Hardy that I once knew (circa 1990s) was a multi regional blend - with fruit from four states (Yarra, Tasmania, Tumbarumba and the Adelaide Hills). This bottle is a little more geographically focused - with all the fruit from Tasmania - but in keeping with the blended roots, it features fruit from the Coal River, Derwent and the East Coast. 

2021 Eileen Hardy Chardonnay. 13.5%. Very good. Worked and busy nose. Oak, spice, flint, match stick. Almond meal.

2023 Grosset Polish Hill. Riesling, Clare, South Australia. Like kara-age and pistachio gelato, I feel compelled to return. . . I've been blogging about wine since 2006, if you search you'll find tasting note streaks for various well known wines. . . Bindi Quartz, the Cullen Diana Madeline nee Cabernet Merlot, the Clonakilla SV, the Art Series Chardonnay, the Bouchard Baby Jesus. . . and of course - the Grosset Polish Hill.

A humble and incredibly delicious plate of fried chicken from the Kyoto Torisaki store near the Keihan Kiyomizu Gojo subway station. You can purchase a fried chicken 'mountain' set for about $A10. . . Though I'd recommend their trio of fried chicken set. . .

I have a mild obsession with kara-age. I've linked to some previous pictures of the stuff. . .

The colour enhanced photos you see of the Kyoto bamboo groves are hauntingly beautiful and unpopulated. . . BT - before tourists, 2020 in the midst of COVID restrictions perhaps. . . When I visited in November 2023 there were hoards of phone wielding tourists.

In the middle of Shibuya crossing, a moment of prepared street theatre. A gaggle of costumed youth gesturing to the sky. . . 

It's supposedly the busiest cross walk in the world. It's certainly the most amusing one that I've visited. It's my speculation that at least 70% of the pedestrians are tourists and they add to the congestion by crossing back and forth in every possible direction, lots of double, triple and quadruple counting. . .

At regular intervals I've been making my version of Hunter chicken with these lovely shrivelled olives. You could never sell them, they seem to odd, medicinal in taste; but give them a pot, a chicken, tomatoes, white wine and a handful of garden herbs and they sing. . . 

I've been trying to get the recipe for the olives - so far only a few incomplete cryptic clues.

1. Pick the olives when black. 

2. Wash. 

3. Salt and season - add salt, herbs - like oregano, chilli. Don't cover with salt.

A pair of white wines to begin. The 2022 Limefinger 'Solace' Polish Hill Riesling, with its leaf green label. Tasted blind, my thoughts were still muddled and biased. I knew my tasting companion had just returned from Germany and so I wondered - could this be a suit case wine, an off dry European Riesling perhaps (My differential diagnosis being a Great Southern). . . It seemed to have a different spectrum of citrus, a trace of tropical, and a few grams of sugar.
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I've acquired several packets of orphaned, expired vermicilli. For the first bag - Bun bo xao. . . A NYT recipe with a few minor additions and modifications.  

I started early, walking into Highgate for an almond croissant, a kouign amann and a double shot of caffeine. Suitably fortified I julienned 1.5 carrots before doing the same with half a smallish daikon. The matchsticks were then salted with 1/2 tablespoon of fine salt granules. I'm not wasting my diamond crystals on this. . .

Bindi Quartz. 2021. A second glance at this tremendous Chardonnay. There are so many notable aspects, but the texture and then the acid caught my fleeting attention. Lush, thick, nectar like; before a sting of bristling acidity. My favourite wine of the clutch. 

The Faiveley Èchezeaux. 2010 was altogether too mature and too stern for my mood. Leafy and deep, a smudge of ink on the nose, plum, leather, shrooms. I was hoping for something more ethereal and light.

The Thivin Côte de Bruoilly.
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