The Iron Chevsky Wine Blog

A world’s great cuisine must have a noodle dish. Certainly, the French would realize sooner or later what the Italians, the Chinese and the Japanese have known for centuries. A simple noodle can be sooo satisfying. Of all the different kinds of Japanese noodle, when done right, udon is perhaps my favorite. The right place is usually not going to be in the middle of a touristy area, nor will it need to be expensive. The right place should be a secret, known by locals and guarded from foreigners, unless of course the foreigners have local friends who don’t mind driving them an hour away from the city center into the inner sanctum of the Kyoto suburbs, a place only for those in the know. Right? Wrong! Ok, not exactly. Our friends know a good udon when they see one. Though hardly a proverbial hole-in-the-wall, they've been coming to Hanamaru for years. Since opening in 2001, Hanamaru has become Japan's largest udon franchise chain. The shop is located at the outskirts of Kyoto, as ...

An hour after arriving to Kyoto, as soon as we drop off our luggage at the Matsubaya Inn ryokan, we head for our first site – Daitokuji Temple. In the city famous for the breathtaking grander of its Zen Buddhist edifices, Daitokuji is quite a modest specimen. Then why? But of course: Izusen ! This famous shojin-ryori establishment specializes in Zen vegetarian cuisine. Meandering our way through the twists and turns of the temple grounds, only peripherally taking note of the 700 year-old architecture, we finally locate Izusen, and are seated in a tranquil outdoor garden. Two kaiseki-style omakase tasting menus priced together at ~$90 boast a dramatic display of food, parceled into a progression of many small dishes. Definition: Shojin Ryori Type of vegetarian cooking introduced into Japan together with Buddhism in the 6th century. Shojin is a Buddhist term that refers to asceticism in pursuit of enlightenment, and ryori means "cooking." In the 13th century, with the advent ...

Shinjuku is a metropolis inside a metropolis. One of the liveliest neighborhoods in Tokyo, Shinjuku grows out of the Shinjuku station - the world’s busiest railway and metro hub. In a neighborhood that pulsates energy 24x7 like no other on earth, Hiro - a friend of a friend, led us to a quiet oasis of a restaurant – Ushi-no Yotare - a traditional robata grill, translated as “around the fireplace”. Hidden away from the hustle and bustle of the street, located in a cozy little space on a third floor of what appeared to be a hole-in-wall entrance, he took us back to an ancient time when a family sat around a sand pit or an irori – a charcoal-fired hearth, glowing coals in the center, grilling humble but sublimely satisfying foods. Historically inexpensive fare of the commoner, in Today’s Tokyo, a meal like this will run you about $80/person to start with, and can easily go up from there. The main ingredient of each dish is harpooned onto a wooden stick with one end tipped toward the ho...

First I hated sushi. Then I loved it. That was all there was to Japanese food. Then came Iron Chef, and my mind expanded. Last night my palate followed, when it all changed at Mao's gracious hand. Don't know how, but when I woke up the next morning, I was neither stuffed nor hung over. After multiple courses, and 3.5 bottles of wine shared among 4 friends, I don't know how that was possible. There is something mysterious in the Japanese culture that a rough americanized Russian Jew like myself might never get to see. How lucky am I to have friends who help me unpeel the layers; and slowly the foreign becomes more familiar through an inaugural masterpiece of a first-ever home-cooked Japanese meal. While sushi does seem to go with sake or beer better than any wine I've tried, Japanese food is so much more than sushi. Elegant, subtle and refined like so many things Japanese, the fresh and savory ingredients with a splash of the right sauce turn into gastronomic delights fo...

Under the rubric of inspired pairings comes another awesome combo from last night's dinner at 1-star Michelin restaurant in Saratoga - Plumed Horse . Though they feature a cellar full of 20,000 precious bottles, I brought my own - a 1990 Chassagne-Montrachet by Leroy - a wine I had not had, and boy-o-boy this is the type of wine that makes one a believer! The wine at nearly 20 years of age was absolutely young and fresh, with no signs of brown/orange tint, still with plenty of tannic grip, zingy acidity, and amazing concentration of fruit to stand up to that acidity, and with secondary flavors in full swing, gorgeous now, but easily, in my opinion, lasting another decade in the cellar. Sometimes people wonder what "secondary" flavors in aged wines mean. Think of it like this - normally one tastes cherry, cranberry type flavors in Pinot Noir. But yesterday - I kept asking myself what is that fruit or berry that I am tasting? - and I couldn't quite describe it - the fru...

Unclear why anyone would want to drink aged Barbera, a wine grape that is associated with easy quaffing and everyday meals. In the land where Nebbiolo is firmly the king, why mess with that? Let Barbera and Dolcetto play their lowly part in the food chain. Affordable, refreshing, satisfyingly easy drinking table wines. What would the world do without them, no? But of course someone is always ready to challenge status quo, try to make an eagle out of a sparrow, a Boeing out of a paper plane. Treat Dolcetto like a more serious grape, and you get Dolcetto di Dogliani, deeper, richer, more ageable. Treat Barbera like that, and what do you get? On Monday, a small group of enthusiasts got together at a Ross Bott tasting in Los Altos to assess 1999-2001 Barberas by La Spinetta. La Spinetta has a "standard" or lower-end Ca' Di Pian wine that costs in the teens, and a higher-end wine that costs $40-50. Having tasted Gaja's 1995 Barbera "Sitorey" earlier this year and...

One of my wine friends had suggested that Chateaneuf-du-Pape goes well with dim sum. Well, obviously that's a generalization because there are so many different dim sum dishes. Practically any small plate of Cantonese food is dim sum, just like tapa in Spanish. On Sunday, a group of Rona's Chinese friends joined us at Hong Kong Saigon Harbor Restaurant in Sunnyvale - where I was clearly the only Caucasian in the house - always a good sign! The restaurant is named after a seafood district in Hong Kong, called Saigon, and has no relation to the famous city in Vietnam. "Dim sum" means "drink tea" in Cantonese. However, this time - surprise, surprise! - I decided to drink wine. Two bottles - one white Chateauneuf-du-Pape, and one red, both full bodied, ripe, and fruity. Authentic Chinese restaurants (i.e. those full of native speakers) rarely see wine. Beer and tea are drinks of choice for the vast majority of guests. Which is goodness to me, since most of the t...