by Miss Terry Diner
There is much more to imbibing in Pattaya than the (now
fallacious) image of merely beer swilling. Over the past decade, Pattaya’s
residents have shown an increasing interest in the grape, rather than hops,
with the president of the Royal Cliff Wine Club, Ranjith Chandrasiri, being
one of the leaders in this movement.
Marco
Bacci.
Last week, Pattaya had two distinct functions dedicated
to Tuscany wines with a wine dinner held at Dicey Reilly’s Irish Pub and a
wine tasting held at the Royal Cliff Beach Resort. Both events were
supported by ItalThai, with Channel Manager Anuchit Saeng-on present on both
evenings.
The Tuscany wines themselves were represented by Marco
Bacci, the owner of three Tuscany vineyards, and as passionate an Italian as
only Italians can be. Once started on his favorite subject (his wines),
there appeared to be no stopping the enthusiasm he showed for his product.
The dinner at Dicey Reilly’s was a relaxed affair, but
with the dress shirts of the serving staff and elegant table settings the
‘pub’ atmosphere gave way to more of an up-market restaurant venue, and the
guests were treated to a four course dinner and five Tuscany wines, with
Marco Bacci floating around the tables personally explaining his wines to
the diners.
The Dicey Reilly’s kitchen and the cellar worked in
harmony, presenting courses which complemented each other very well, and for
me, the risotto with champignons, Parmesan cheese and pesto with the
Castello di Bossi Chianti Classico Riserve Berardo DOCG were the dishes and
wine of the night, but as always, wine appreciation is a very personal
matter. The Castello di Bossi Vin Santo Laurentino dessert wine came a very
close second, and was one of Marco’s wines to score 96 points from
celebrated wine judge Robert Parker. (I also noted that executive chef Luis
Zamora has returned to the Marriott and Dicey Reilly’s after a ‘sabbatical’
in the Maldives, so we may be getting such culinary events more regularly in
future.)
The
following evening at the Royal Cliff Beach Resort was a much more formal
affair, with a wine tasting of the same Tuscan wines for the members of the
Royal Cliff Wine Club, but this time it was with group education from Marco
Bacci, but with the same intense enthusiasm.
Marco described his three vineyards, Castello di Bossi,
Renieri and Terre di Talamo, and how he became involved with winemaking
after a lifetime of being in the rag trade. He bought the first one, the
Castello di Bossi as a real estate venture, but the wine heritage of the
1000 year old castle got to him and he decided to continue the tradition of
making wine there.
Over the next decade he deserted the clothing industry to
then purchase the Renieri and Terre di Talamo and over the next 20 years
became a walking text book on Italian viticulture and Tuscan in particular.
He lectured the Wine Club members on the different
appellations used such as IGT and DOCG and how these classifications are
rigidly maintained. His vineyards use no fertilizers, herbicides or
irrigation. The quality of the grapes depend entirely on the ‘terroir’ and
in bad years, the wine is sold off in bulk, while in good years the grapes
are unhurriedly brought to the high standards as expected in Old World
winemaking. It was obvious that Marco did not agree with the New World
methods of wine production!
He described the areas in which his vines were grown, and
how the soil can be so different (sometimes volcanic), even though they can
be less than 40 km from each other in some cases. His number one grape is
the San Giovese, a grape which is identifiable with the Tuscany region.
He also noted that Italian wine is the number one wine
export to the USA with 20 million cases every year, with Australian wine 13
million and French, once the number one producer, down to a mere 8 million
cases.
A spirited Q&A session brought forth much more from the
encyclopedic Marco, and even if not all the wines were to my taste, (but the
Castello di Bossi Chianti Classico Riserve Berardo DOCG was excellent) I
left a lot wiser.
Prawn and Oyster Five Spice
The main ingredients are available very cheaply. At last
count it was less than B. 100 for 100 gm of shelled oysters. This is also a
dish to prepare the prawns in European fashion, removing the heads, shell
and tails. Devein by slicing down the back and removing the central vein
before cooking too.
|
Ingredients Serves
4
Large prepared prawns
500 gm
Oysters
100 gm
Garlic (crushed)
1 clove
Five spice powder
1 tspn
Corn flour
2 tspns
Salt
1/2 tspn
Vegetable oil
4 tbspns
Chicken stock
250 ml
Coriander leaf (chopped)
1 tbspn |
Cooking Method
Mix the Five Spice and salt in a saucer. Take the
de-shelled prawns and dip into the mixture of Five Spice and salt, making
sure they are covered.
Heat the oil in the wok and stir-fry the crushed garlic
for 30 seconds. Add the prawns and quickly stir-fry until they are a pink
colour, then remove the prawns with a strainer. Add the chicken stock to the
wok and bring to the boil.
Mix the corn flour with two tablespoons of cold water and
add to the wok. Stir until the sauce thickens then add the prawns and the
oysters and stir well.
Remove and sprinkle coriander leaf as garnish and serve
with steamed jasmine rice.
