Singapore Noodles

Yesterday was such a beautiful spring day and I had finished all my Monday paperwork and errands and was home by the civilized hour of 4pm. By 5, it had cooled off enough to move outside and enjoy some Garnacha on the patio. What you see below is a classic Ann-pour. Our glasses are marked with a pour line so that the servers pour a consistent amount for each glass. The bottom of the W logo represents a 5-1/2 ounce pour or a fifth of a bottle. When Ann pours for herself, note how far up on the W logo it comes! Also note last year's parsley bolting to the right of the water bottle in our little garden.
I very rarely get in the mood for any kind of food. I'm a classical omnivore; if it's for dinner, I'm all about it. But yesterday I had Singapore noodles on the brain. By the way, Singapore refers to a style of noodle flavored with Madras curry powder, not a noodle dish that you might find in Singapore. While it's not a dish from Singapore, it's also not an American one either, being more of a pan-Asian fusion dish that is common in Hong Kong. Moreover, it is one of my favorite of favorite noodle dishes.

Below you see the mise for this dish, absent the bean sprouts, thin egg noodles, Madras curry powder, and fish sauce. From the chorizo clockwise you see ginger, garlic, preserved vegetable, green onions, edamame, and cilantro.

Before you go getting all technical on me, I'm going to state that I have had Singapore noodles hundreds of times and I know that they are traditionally made with very thin rice noodles. I also know that the best I ever ate in a crazy good hole in the wall Chinese place was made with wheat noodles like I used here. And chorizo? Yes, chorizo because it was what was in the fridge. Traditionally the dish is made with char siu, Chinese roasted pork. Well, damn it, I didn't feel like making my own char siu, which is the only way to get it around these parts. And, consider the role of the char siu in the dish. It is there for its bright reddish color and for a little punch of flavor. And that's exactly the role of the chorizo in the dish. A thrifty Chinese cook would approve.

The edamame are definitely not traditional either, but you'll find every kind of vegetable garnish known to man in some version somewhere. I was just looking for bright green color and there were edamame in the freezer. Typically, I make the dish with slivered yellow onions, because Madras curry and onions is a match made in heaven, but I had these gorgeous green onions that needed to be used.

In other words, it's my dish and I'll fry if I want to, fry if I want to! All I am saying is relax: noodles, like soup, are a great vehicle for whatever ingredients are at hand.

Below you see the finished dish, a result of sautéeing all the ingredients while the noodles were cooking, adding the drained noodles to the toppings, and finishing to taste with copious amounts of curry powder and fish sauce.

Hot Dogs and Garnacha?

Sunday, Kelley and Marco Due came out to the house first to give us some pointers on training Grace the Wonderbeast and then to visit Linden Vineyards. Many thanks to Mark for being the DD! This was Mark's first visit to Linden and Kelley's first since she came with us during our spring break two years ago. Ann and I were just there two weeks ago with Karen.

On the drive down, the red buds could not have been any more glorious! Entire sections of road were swathed in pink, just phenomenal! And the weather was nice enough, despite the brisk northerly breeze and the threatening rain, for us to sit outside to enjoy the spectacular view from the winery deck. With no windows between us and the outside world, we got an earful of cheerful spring bird songs, including a virtuoso serenade by a male bluebird.

Before heading outside, we did the obligatory tasting—Oh darn, another tasting? Twist my arm!—and this one yielded a couple of surprises for me. The 2009 Claret that was all angular and disjointed two weeks ago has really come around full circle and is drinking so well now. But there was something funky with the bottle of Vidal-Riesling: no nose and acid out of balance. It may just have been too cold because I tasted another sample from a bottle that was opened the day before and it was a lot warmer and a lot more open. So goes it. I am convinced that some bottles just develop differently no matter how careful you are.

After a plate of cheese and sausage, some bread, and a couple of bottles of 2008 Hardscrabble Red (I kept mumbling, "This wine is awesome!"), we headed back to Winchester and stopped by the restaurant for some provisions for dinner.

This is one time I wish I had a better camera with a faster lens. This is a great portrait of Kelley and Mark, but would have been better with a better lens. Oh well!

We started with a little guacamole from a bunch of avocados sitting on the counter trying to get overripe. It seemed like everyone pitched in bits of prep for the guacamole. You see it here with some tortilla chips that we had leftover from Saturday night dinner service at the restaurant.

And the main attraction! Some weeks ago, we were watching DDD on Food Network and just got a major hot dog jones going, seeing all the great dogs being served all over this country. So I asked my specialty supplier to see if he could locate some good dogs for us. And he did. We got a case of huge 4-ounce dogs from Berks of Reading, PA. The flavor of these dogs is just wow! I would have grilled them outside but it was dark and a bit rainy. Crisping them in a pan is not so bad either. The casing isn't the best, but without fail, everyone who tastes these dogs is just blown away by the flavor. And what wine to serve with a hot dog? Whatever you like! We opened a spicy Spanish garnacha that was just delicious with the dogs.

Ann wanted pasta so I grabbed some gemelli, goat cheese, roasted red pepper, and hard Spanish chorizo. I lightly caramelized some onions and slivered garlic, then added the chorizo, roasted red peppers and a touch each of basil and pimentón. Once the veg were good and cooked and the pasta was just al dente, it all went into a big bowl with 5 ounces of goat cheese and some salt and pepper. How simple and how fantastic!

Another great Sunday with friends!

Tapas and Paella with Don and Terry

Wow! Wow! Wow!

That's all I have to say after visiting friends Donald and Terry on Sunday: "Wow!"


Ann and Donald with a bottle of Glen Manor Hodder Hill 2009, the wine that just won the Governor's Cup as the best wine in the state. Damn good it is too!

Carter and his mother in one of Carter's calmer moments, a rarity these days.

Check out the tapas spread the guys had awaiting us!


White bread cut-outs with olive oil, cheese, and smoked salt—addictive!

Asparagus frittata. It's pretty cool how the asparagus float in the eggs and separate themselves.

Dates stuffed with Manchego and walnuts.

Olives, walnuts in hickory salt, and Marcona almonds. The olives were my favorite. I can live on olives.

Mushrooms stuffed with corn, chorizo, and cream cheese. Yum!


We started our tapas with the 2009 Amalie Robert Pinot Meunier that I brought and what a neat wine this is! Intense fruit and excellent acidity in such a light-bodied wine. I am not sure that I could tell this from Pinot Noir if tasting blind. And then Terry surprised us by opening a bottle of 2010 Borsao Garnacha "Tres Picos." I know Borsao from the restaurant where we have carried their wines at times over the years. Still I was not prepared for this full-on modern-style prestige Garnacha with its huge fruit and lavish oak regimen. A fun wine for drinking with friends!


After many tapas, much wine, and a lot of catching up, we got around to dinner itself, starting with a fantastic salad of arugula, marinated melon, jamón serrano, and curls of Manchego.

The pièce de résistance was the paella and what cojones Terry has to attempt his first paella ever with a chef in the house! Here is the fabulous concoction both before and after cooking. It was notable for me because Terry used Valencia rice, which I have never had before. I make my paella at the restaurant from either Bomba or Arborio depending on what I have on hand. The tiny little Valencia grains were fantastic.



The guys would never let us leave without an overload of dessert, including a membrillo and pine nut tart, chocolate dipped apricots, strawberries, and grapes.


Just look at this tart! It was as delicious as it looks good.


Naturally, one must have a piece of chocolate for that last swallow of red wine.

And finally, I had to finish with this shot of the grapes just because I like it so much. I guess if you click the shutter long enough, you're bound to take a good photo every once in a while.