Excuse me while I change in front of you

Just a quick note today. You may have noticed a couple of changes recently. I've been bored. I'm a flippant thing, I need change constantly.

Over coming days, I will be migrating this blog to a different platform, and there may be some turbulence or at least slight bumps. My fonts may bounce around the cabin. My wine reviews might just spill all over the person next to you. Margins will slide up and down the aisles no doubt. I'm slightly concerned at this point that all my images will get sucked out into the vacuum. But the pilot assures me a smooth landing, on time, and in the correct destination. Let's just pray that flight Hedonista doesn't get hijacked.

Current subscribers might receive an email shortly asking them to re-subscribe. Or they may not. But if you do,  please re-submit your details with excitement and pleasure, and encourage all your friends to do the same.

And if everything goes black, don't worry, I'm like a phoenix. I'll rise from the ashes, dirty, but otherwise good as new, probably better.




Now... where did I put that black box?

A Guide to Australian Country Pubs

When I put the words “travelling in Australia” in my mind and shake them up to conjure an image, I end up with a quarter-acre stretch of lawn leading up to a slouching weatherboard homestead with a thick verandah shading wooden tables and chairs. My kids are running on the lawn with pot-glasses full of raspberry lemonade, only leaving the green sea to scramble into the bushes and hunt for lizards. I’m nursing a cloudy ale, the glass frosty and dewed. Magpies and bellbirds duet in the gum trees. It’s only the lunch stop on a long journey, and yet it’s the part of the day that always returns afterwards. Aussie pubs will always find a place in your mind and your heart.

A journey around Australia MUST involve several pubs. Ignoring them is dodging our culture, and even teetotallers should get themselves in for a lemon lime and bitters and a pie and chips. The style of the pub is a reflection on the community that surrounds it. They are often well over a hundred years old, and besides the Police Station and the Post Office, probably the only continually running business in most country towns. They support local business and produce, and they are filled with the locals after a hard day’s work. Talk to the publican, eat the local grub (that’s Aussie for food, not a worm), and before you know it, you’ve got a true taste of the region.

Beaune 1er Cru les Marconnets - Maison Remoissenet 2009

Expect to see more good reports on this Beaune house over coming years. It changed hands in 2005, and since, a key character from Louis Jadot (Bernard Repolt) has joined the team. 2009 was a pretty good year in the region. Fruit all round is fairly concentrated and deeply coloured, and it's expected to cellar well in the short-medium term (acid is in the main a little low, so although tannins are good, long-term cellaring might not pay off so well)

This partiular one is from Les Marconnets, a sub-region of Beaune, just out of town, and carrying Premier Cru status.
It's a vibrant wine, deeply coloured as the vintage would suggest. The nose is concentrated, if a little closed at this point, with promises of blood and roses but at this

The Top 5 Restaurants in Dubai - Part 1

Well, you asked for it, and here it is. It's not the Time Out Dubai Restaurant Awards, but it's a little bit like it. It's not the What's On Black Hat guide. It's a very different list to Ahlan's top 100 restaurants. It's definitely not Michelin.

My top five restaurants come in categories that I consistently get asked to recommend in. I must stress they are my picks, not anyone elses. So - if you're not a middle-aged Australian expat with some restaurant experience behind her, two kids and a dog, and a desire to have a glass of wine with almost every meal, then you may find my picks a little different to what you would select. Saying that, they have all been selected carefully, and these are the restaurants I find myself returning to time and again.

Recipe: Haloumi and Herb Salad

Haloumi is a vital part of Mediterranean cuisine, particularly in the arc around the eastern shores. It's awful when you eat it straight out of the fridge - it's got this squeeky, rubbery texture, and it's about as salty as the Dead Sea. No - you have to cook it. Some like it simply pan-fried and served with a generous squeeze of lemon, but I think it needs the fresh flavours of something green and aromatic - enter herbs. A great salad for those who need a little more substance with their greens.

Ingredients:

• 150 - 200g Haloumi Cheese
• a sprinkling of plain flour (about 1-2 tablespoons)
• 2 slices of bread (large dice)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 cup parsley leaves (plucked, not chopped)

Pieropan Soave 2011

There's a whole heap of Soave out there that makes it hard for any decent producerer in the region to charge a reasonable amount for their product. It's a bit like all that $5 Australian Chardonnay, in that it's created a niche for itself that is broadly "tastes OK for a cheap wine". And so, we can buy any number of Soaves off the Dubai shelf for about 30AED - they've got a little in the way of aromatics, some zing, and are always good with food (probably because they are so watery and neutral).

Fateer, Feteer, Fetir - by any other name, it's still quite orgasmic.

Can somebody tell me why I never tried this in Egypt? Why I had to be introduced to this Egyptian staple by an Indian girl living in Dubai? Granted, she's no ordinary Indian girl living in Dubai - she's Arva Ahmed, of Frying Pan Tours, but still. This should be something that Cairo promote as Giza, the Khan el-Khalili Souk or the Coptic Quarter. It's a national treasure.

I'm talking about Feteer (pronounced, in my Australian accent, as "fuh-teer"), a flaky bubbly cushion of crispy pastry that can be filled with anything from honey to beef and olives. Funnily enough, it always seems to contain Kraft cream cheese. Not the gourmet Philly stuff from the supermarket fridge, but giant tubs of preservative-filled, room-temperature, hyper-processed goo, glistening with unnatural pearlessence. It's slathered in drippy lardy ladle-fulls as a base for every other flavour. To my surprise again, it works a charm.

Martin Codax Albarino 2011

Warm straw coloured. Wow - smashing banana lollies on the nose, giving way to pineapple and herbs, very aromatic. Palate has citrus and apricot and some ever so-subtle lean grassiness. Finish is lemon pie and minerals. Slightly oily on the palate, in a good way - makes it very gluggable. Nice and dry, and an excellent alternative to give all my Sauvignon Blanc loving friends when I'm sick to death of New Zealand gooseberries and cats pee. Drink with grilled fish with a salty charcoal crust.

Drink Now
15/20
70 AED + Tax

Veuve Cliquot Demi Sec NV

This was served out of decanter in this occasion to limit bead and improve texture match with paired dessert. Sweet of course, lemon-puff and candied peel style with soft marshmallow and white peach middle. Slightly creamy, and a little honeyed/mineral. Slightly short on the finish, but that's pretty common with a dessert fizz. Partnered beautifully with dessert of yellow peaches, raspberries and cream.

From "Champagne in the Brain" a fizzy rundown of ranges of Veuve Cliquot, Joseph Perrier, Laurent Perrier, Taittinger and Bollinger, April 2013. Read more>> 

Drink Now
15/20
295 AED + Tax

Veuve Cliquot La Grande Dame 1998

Gorgeous. A big yeasty nose with a slap-in-the-face character of honey and butter on hot toast. Threads of hair-thin bead trail in the glass. Lovely mineral/autolytic palate with a finish of strawberries and rhubarb laced with malt and sherbet. This wine blew me away in the lineup of several champagnes, for it's length - which just went on for minutes - and superb development.

From "Champagne in the Brain" a fizzy rundown of ranges of Veuve Cliquot, Joseph Perrier, Laurent Perrier, Taittinger and Bollinger, April 2013. Read more>> 

Drink Now
18/20
1015AED + Tax

Veuve Cliquot Vintage Reserve 2004

The Vintage Brut resents dryer and crisper than the NV, with more bready character and a concerntration on mineral and savoury characters with some reserved green apple fruit. Slightly austere in flavours, but the body makes this wine more of a mouthful than other aperitif style Champagnes. Will probably age quite nicely too.

From "Champagne in the Brain" a fizzy rundown of ranges of Veuve Cliquot, Joseph Perrier, Laurent Perrier, Taittinger and Bollinger, April 2013. Read more>>  

Drink over 5 years
16.5/20
AED 375 + Tax

Veuve Cliquot Vintage Rosé 2004

Similar fruit to the NV (strawberries, red currant) but more toasty and yeast dominated, and plenty of vanilla on the nose. There is a huge candy hit in the mid-palate that some will love (I however found it disturbed the balance a little), and makes it a great Champagne for food - Christmas turkey would be perfect. Trophy winner Decanter World Wine Awards.

From "Champagne in the Brain" a fizzy rundown of ranges of Veuve Cliquot, Joseph Perrier, Laurent Perrier, Taittinger and Bollinger, April 2013. Read more>> 

Drink Now or over 3-4 years
15.5/20
450AED + Tax