Adam Balic

Peking duck with plum sauce. Wrappers etc followed by Pesto and pasta. I know, I know, but this combination was a request by visting family, so what can you do?

The Marsanne sells for about A$10 (US$5) although the winery was selling it at US$45 per case - bargin! Harvey-Nicks in the UK sell it for about eight quid per bottle , Waintrose for about seven quid. Still a bargin.

Bored with the same old Northern Rhone lovely or Cal. Cab., what wines do you drink which are unknown or unloved by the wider community? My tip is Chateau Tahbilk Marsanne. Marsanne is a white Rhone varietal and has been grown in Tahbilk since 1927. Tahbilk (in Central Victoria, Australia) has the largest plantings of this rare grape in the world ( and has had for some time) and maybe the oldest "style" of this wine as well. The wine: Un-oaked (gosh and it's Australian too!), when young it has a lemony/lime, honey and peach flavour, with age (5-10 years) it develops the most fabulous honeysuckle and honey flavours, while still retaining fruit and acid. A lovely wine. What's your tips?

Smug Philosopher Bastard.

John - do you make sure it is from female pigs or is it "pot luck" as it were. Liver from male animals can be pretty rank smell and strong of flavour. I have a recipe for salted pigs liver from the South of France - worth a go do you think? I have only used pif liver for terrine making so I have no idea what it tastes like. With calve liver cut of the thick membrane on the out side of the liver and trim off all the tubey bits. Deer liver is nice, but only from hinds.

Salt.

Egg noodles with Bok choi, bean sprouts, black cloud fungus, roast duck and holy basil. Cooked noodles in liquid used to re-hydrate fungus and simmered with duck bones. Fried off onions and ginger added bok choi tops (while bottoms were steaming), wilted those, added garlic, fungus, bok choi bottoms, sprouts and noodles. Mixed together added ketcep manis to make a sauce along with some of the fungus/duck both. Added duck slices (which had been wrapped in foil and steamed to warm) and holy basil. Mixed tasted and seasoned. Grabbed big bowl collapsed onto sofa with the wog.

Here are some links for some information about Australian Sparkling Shiraz. The first link has a pretty good selection of what is avalible, the second has details of proberly the best example in the country. Sparkling Shiraz Seppelt's Sparkling Shiraz

Alcohol is directly absorbed across the gut (ie. doesn't require specialised enzmes etc like some carbohydrates and fats). So the potential for alcohol to make you a fat bastard is not strickly correlated to the calorific value of alcohol. It's easier for the body to access it then the sugar in the wine. However, some papers also suggest that the energy required to breakdown alcohol into a usable form is so great that it isn't that fattening. Go figure.

Humans, unlike some other mammals cannot synthesis all amino acids. These have to come ready made in the diet, mostly from proteins which are broken down to peptides then to amino acids. Rice has protein, but most of this is in the bits that are taken off in during the production of white rice. You can survive on rice (many do) and soy, just not very well and you would have to eat huge amounts of white rice to get enough proteins. Much like the Irish poor were eating hugh amounts of potato pre-blight. Large amount of carbohydrate, small amount of protein.

Smug Scientific Bastards keep their roots, tubers and rhizomes in the root-cellar or failing that a cool dark cupboard. Along with the eggs.

You is right. Most plants proteins are not complete (ie. Supply all human essential amino acids) and you have to mix and match. However, tofu and other soy products are the exception to the rule and offer the complete range of amino acids. However, this isn't nutrition. Peanut butter and whole wheat toast offer the full range of amino acids to survive on - until you die of scurvy or some other disease associated with a poor diet that is.

Ron - I respect your experience and expertise in wine but snide comments such as todays "It epitomizes what the Australians have done to the syrah grape" and "All of those wines are ready to drink now." are not really helpful and in regards to the letter comment, potentially hurtful. "Snob" is a strong word and I applogize for that. I don't really like the majority of exported Australian Shirazs either, too oaky and fruity. However, that doesn't mean that they are all like that and without having tried a part of the broad spectrum of shiraz styles produced in Australia, generalisations about what Australians have done to syrah are a little tiresome.

Artful - many of the supermarkets in the UK seem to sell liquid stock, have you tried them? My local butcher sells jelled stocks of beef or game, maybe they do in your area as well.

Ron - Mr. Parker at least has some personal experience on the wine he is making comment on. Sadly, this offen cannot be said of you. Get over it buddy, wine snobbery is far to common to be interesting.

Yes, made a unique and interesting wine style that slips through the cracks of wine greatness - as defined by wine-snobs. Don't worry these things tend to get discovered by Parker et al., so it will most likely be legit. to drink it very soon.

There is a range of styles in Australia. It has been considered a winemakers wine, but has enjoyed recent popularity. The Banrock Station version is quite sweet (med-dry) and a bit sickly. Seppelts make a good Sparkling Shiraz, but this can be a little dry and tannic for some. Seppelts also make a show reserve version, which I have drank 25 year old versions of and it is fantastic, very complex, dry and still some bubbles. This is my favorite though. http://www.primoestate.com.au/cgi-bin/prim...u/Wines/Red.htm Don't tell anybody though.

Well phallophily is possible I guess, but not phallophagy I hope?

Wilfrid = Philoffaller, offallophil, lush.

She would most likely overlook his offalophiloty - maybe no his goatee though .

Eggs - no. Only people that don't like eggs refridgerate them. Butter - no in UK, Yes in Australia. Olive oil - no. Palate not good enough to detect oxidation. Milk- yes, as it sours if you don't Sauces - no, except Hoisin (no reason, go figure) Bread - no Cheese - Soft cheese yes, if ripe, no if un-ripe. Hard cheese yes (no larder). Jam/marmalade etc - random. Mayonaise - yes.

Offal and Grouse (which she claims is "feathered offal"). When we were poorer and she was away on a field trip I would buy a kilo of calf liver (very cheap in Australia) and work my way through it.

Wow, I have learn't so much from this debate - like, I had no idea that canned chicken existed.

Tony - my rice is as light and fluffy as Angel down. I have looked into buying a rice cooker and have decided that until my wife and I wax and mutiply that we really can't justify it. However, I did thin that the Iranian type cookers would be better as you can, as you said, make the crispy rice bottom in these (what is this called? Targ/ Tark?), unlike many of the Eastern-Asian cookers.

Lucky enough to get three kilos of live squat-lobster (squatties) on the weekend. I saw them at a farmers market (they are not fished commercially), when I asked the chap "how much?", he said that as he was tired and wanted to go home I could have the whole lot for four quid! Never have I made a better purchase. Boiled in salted water and served on a large platter with lemon wedges and melted butter offered they were fantastic. So sweet. They look like alien beasts so it was fun to watch my guests put the first crumb into their mouths with a look of utter fear, which quickly turned into surprise and delight. It took about fifteen minutes for six people to consume three kilos of the little chaps. After this I offered up lobster (conventional type) pasta made from local Scottish lobster caught off the Ise of Skye. The lobster was good, but no where near as good as the squatties.