Chirimen-like Shawl

There is yarn called Hard Twisted Yarn.
If you weave with this yarn, the yarn eventually tries to unwind itself, and this will create bumpy texture. The fabric called Chirimen uses this yarn for the weft.

 I bought Hard Twisted yarn from HABU, and made a shawl to see if I could create this bumpy effect.

The warp was HABU wool crepe, the weft was HABU linen.
The wool crepe was the Hard Twisted yarn.

The yarn was highly twisted and it tended to tangle, so warping was a kind of struggle.
After dressing the loom, it was a plain weave so the rest went smoothly.

When I took down the fabric from the loom, it was flat.

Then I washed it with hot water and dried it, and finally I saw the bumpy texture.
It felt like magic!

I used Hard Twisted yarn only for the warp so the warp shrank and it caused the bumpy texture sideways. If you use Hard Twisted yarn for warp and weft, you will have the wavy effect for both directions (so I heard).

This shrank, of course, because of this texture, but more than I was expecting.
Now I have to figure out how to use the shawl which is a little too short.

Sudden Wine Maker?

Although I live only one hour from Napa by car, this area is consider to be unsuitable for cultivating Cabernet Sauvignon.
However, when I saw the vine at a nursery, I couldn't resist the idea of harvesting Cabernet Sauvignon in my garden.
It was 10 years ago.
The tree kept growing but I never saw grapes.
I gave up the dream of grape picking and just enjoyed the leaves. Then, three years ago, the vine suddenly started to bear grapes.
This year, I trimmed excess leaves and immature grapes, and ended up with twenty clusters of healthy grapes.

Now there is only one thing I would do with them. Making wine!

I rinsed them lightly and destemmed them.
In a clean glass container, I crushed each grape by hand.
Liquid was clear at first, then soon started to catch pink color from the skim.
It smelled really green.
I covered the container with cloth, and kept it over night in a fridge (cold maceration?).

Second day, I took out the container from the fridge. No big change.

Third day, still nothing happened.
When I crushed the grapes it didn't feel very sticky (probably there weren't enough sugar), so JC added a little bit of sugar.
By the way, chaptalization (adding sugar) is banned for California wines.

Punching down the skins on surface to the bottom every day, and the forth day, it finally started to ferment!
I saw bubbles and I heard bubbling sound.
The color was deep purple.
It became to smell like flower.

It's been ten days now. It smells more like fruit.
Fermentation is slowing down but still continuing.

Next week, I have to move to the next step. But what should I do?
There is no barrel for this size and I don't have any wooden container which can mimic oak barrique.
JC suggested to store in a glass bottle and throw cinnamon stick in it.
I'm a little skeptical of this proposal, but maybe have no choice...

Paella-style Rice

JC gave me a blind tasting test.

R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Bosconia Red Reserva 2004.
Red wine from Rioja, Spain.
Tempranillo 80%, Garnacha 15%.
Deep ruby color with garnet hue.
Dried fruit, sour cherry, earthiness, coffee candy.
I tasted oak but it was very soft. Good wine.
At first, I thought it was Chianti. Then JC gave me a hint that this was a blend, and I got it Rioja.
Not bad for me.

We had this wine with Paella. Or, Paella-style rice.
The fish market was closed so we only had frozen shrimp and chicken.
It still had good flavor, and of course was delicious with Rioja.

We opened Yalumba Patchwork Shiraz 2013, too.
Shiraz from Barossa Valley, Australia.
Ripe fruit, sweet spices, lots of oak.
Wine itself was good, but the alcohol was too high for this dish.

By the way, the Paella rice comes in a very cute bag.
I find this rice at Spanish store or other European food market.
There are other colors and other designs for different kinds of rice, but this blue color Bomba rice is my favorite.

It's shame to waste this cuteness, so I usually keep this bag and make something with this.

The Bomba Rice Bag is one of them.

There is a recipe for Paella on the back side of this bag.
Not only cute, but also useful bag!

Pommeau de Normandie

I like wine and I like to learn about wine.
On the way to learning about wine, I sometimes encounter other great drinks which I wasn't expecting to enjoy that much, or didn't even know before.
This happy find makes me like wine even more.

Le Pere Jules Pommeau de Normandie

Le Pere Jules is a producer of Apple Cider and Calvados from Normandy, France.
Pommeau de Normandie is an aperitif made by blending Calvados and apple juice and ageing them in oak barrel.

Beautiful color.
It had a taste of apple and sweet baking spice, but didn't taste "obviously" sweet.
I liked its decent sweetness.
This tasted great by itself, but I was told that I could pour Prosecco on top of it and garnish with lemon peel.
That sounds good, too.

Umeboshi Making

Umeboshi is salty and sour pickled plum.
It's popular ingredients for Onigiri (rice ball), or placed in the middle of white rice in the obento box so it looks like Japanese flag.
You can buy Umeboshi at Japanese stores, but it's not so difficult to make it by yourself.

Around May or June, you would find plums for Umesh (plum wine) at Japanese supermarkets.

Choose ones which are ripe. If they are green, leave them for several days to ripen.

Wash them thoroughly, dry them, and throw them into sanitized container with salt which is 18% of the weight of the plums.

Place a weight on top of the plums so that the moisture from plums (called Plum Vinegar) comes out quickly.
This is crucial because without being covered by the Plum Vinegar, the plums would be likely to get moldy.

Optional: Find a bunch of red color Shiso (Japanese herb), trim off hard parts, scrub them with salt then add to the container for red color.

Choose sunny, hot day (I usually do this in September), and take the plums out from the Plum Vinegar and let them dry under the sun for three days.
If you used red Shiso leaves, dry them too until they become crispy. This tastes good with rice.

Now Umeboshi is ready to eat, but they taste better if you let them rest for a year.

To tell you the truth, Umeboshi is too salty and too sour to eat for me, but JC loves this so I mostly make this for him.
I like the flavor itself, so I chop the Umeboshi and make it into paste and use as a condiment.
Plum Vinegar can be used to pickle other vegetables such as cucumber.
Or you spread Plum Vinegar on plastic wrap, make rice ball with this wrap and the rice ball would have salty plum flavor.
There is nothing to be wasted!

Making Waterproof Tote Bag

Making a waterproof tote bag before the rainy season.

First, cut the waterproof fabric into the size of the bag.

Sew the handle and zipper.

Then sew the sides and the bottom to make it into the bag shape.
I used a plastic plate to reinforce the bottom.

Make a lining.
Attach a pocket first then sew the lining fabric into the same shape as the outer bag.
Sew the lining to the outer bag seam allowance by the zipper.

Flip over the bag and ta-da!

Simple tote bag. Easy to make, easy to use.
Now I'm ready for the rainy season. But please do not rain too hard.

ArPePe, Rinaldi, Sagrantino...

When I have a chance to try many wines at tasting events, it's fun and informative but I might not get a clear picture of wines after tasting so many of them.
So, for this Italian Wine Tasting held at an Italian restaurant Desco in Oakland, I made a mental list of wines I would focus on.

First, ArPePe from Valtellina, Lombardia.

Inferno Fiamme Antiche 2010 had mineral and fresh fruit. Lightest of three.
Grumello Rocca Piro Riserva 2010 had nut and fruit.
Sassella Rocce Rossa Riserva 2002 was earthy and delicate, and there were still lots of fruit. Complex. Tannin was high but soft. Great as I expected.

Francesco Rinaldi from Piemonte.

Grignoloino 2015 had greenness of asparagus or freshly peeled apple skin. Good wine for vegetable dish.
Barolo Cannubi and Barolo Brunate, both 2012. They had apple and quince.
2008 Cannubbio had tree fruit. High but soft tannin.
2007 Le Brunate had characteristics of strawberry, black tea, herb, and cream-like softness. Complex wine.

And I wanted to try Valpolicella Classico and Amarone side by side.
Venturini Massimino is from Veneto.
Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso 2012 had fresh red fruit.
Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2011 and Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Riserva 2005 were like concentrated dark fruit. Coffee candy.

Drusian Francesco's Procecco di Valdobbiadene from Veneto.
Scacciadiavoli's Metodo Classico Rose Brut from Umbria.
They were very good sparkling wines.
Both were non vintage.
Rose was 100% Sagrantino, first time I tried.
It was very fruit, like freshly grated yellow apple.
I wasn't expecting this from Sagrantino (my image of Sagrantino was full of tannin). Interesting.

Other wines to remember:
Marisa Cuomo from Campania.
Furore Biance Fiorduva 2014 had honey-like quality.
Furore Rosso (Aglianico/Pedirosso) 2015 had black cherry and violet.
Both were very good.

Poderi San Lazzaro from Marche.
Piceno Superiore Podere 72 (Sangiovese/ Montepulciano) 2013 had herbs and black cherry. Approachable.
Offida Rosso Bordo (Grenache) 2011 had soft tannin, herbs and cooked fruit.
Offida Rosso Grifola (Montepulciano) 2012 was decent. Good structure and balanced.
It's said that Montepulciano from Marche is underrated, and I have to agree. This is a great wine.
This winery was a great find at this tasting.



DeConciliis from Campania.
Aglianico Donna Luna 2013 and Naima 2007. Black fruit, dried fruit, sweet spice.

I Favati from Campania.
Grecodi Tufo 2013 was fresh, citrus zest.
Taurasi 2008 was good, too.

Scacciadiavoli is from Umbria.
Montefalco Sagrantino 2010 was definitely a good wine.
Very decent.
Unfortunately, I still don't know how to handle wines with such a high tannin.

Liquore di Finocchietto from Profumi della Costiera (Campania) is fennel liqueur.
This digestive tasted like Anise biscotti.
Their limoncello was good, too.









I can't name everything, but there were many good wines.
And food was great, too.

Authentic and sophisticated Italian cuisine.
I would like to come back to this restaurant for dinner sometime.

Tiki Boom Continued?

JC's Tiki craze is still going on...I knew it!

This is Grapefruit Gimlet.

Full of grapefruit flavor, but the acidity was rounded.
Subtle bitterness made this cocktail taste sophisticated.
I like this! Very much!

By the way, this is Gin base cocktail, not Rum. So this is not considered to be a Tiki drink...?
Maybe JC kept his promise. Tiki boom is really over.  

Good Deal French Wine Tasting

French wine is good. Nobody argues with that.
However, good French wine has a price to match that reputation, and that price is often beyond the reach.
As much as I believe that wine producers should get paid for their hard work, I believe that the price of wine shouldn't be so expensive that people hesitate to open it with dinner.

The tasting I attended this week was a perfect opportunity to find French wines which were affordable but still possessed the great quality.

The first wine I tried was Alsace.
Cave de Ribeauville.
There were white and rose Cremant d'Alsace.
White had pear. Rose had berry. Both of them were good.
Grand Cru Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer were fresh, citrus, mineral. They were good of course but Alsace Riesling was amazing for its price.



Anne de Joyeuse is from South of France.

Southern France is known to produce good, affordable wines, and these wines were great example.
Bordeaux varietals were especially good.
They are not a kind of wine to age, but we need wine to open today anyway, right?

Domaine Duclaux Cote-Rotie.
Chante-Cigale Chateauneuf du Pape.
These are not very affordable, but would be great food wine.

My favorite: Domaine Lavau from Rhone.
They were fresh, spicy, and easy to drink.
Not because it was easy to swallow physically, but because the wine was so attractive that I couldn't stop drinking.
Gigondas and Chateauneuf de Pape were especially good.




Bordeaux I tried this day were all good, too.













I'd been searching for impressive Bordeaux which wouldn't break a bank.
This search was becoming an unsuccessful quest, but here, I found them, standing in front of me nonchalantly.

Each wine I tried this day was good, but the best thing I found was that I didn't need to look into unknown countries: I could still find very good deal wines in France.

Fried Chicken and Pinot Noir

Today's wine for the tasting: Bespoke Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 2013

It has low tannin, nice acid, characteristics of red fruits like raspberry and red cherry, and rose.
You can taste the oak but it's not overpowering.
Easy to drink fruit-forward New World Pinot Noir.
Nice wine.

JC cooked Fried Chicken for this wine.
Chicken was very soft: it was marinated in yogurt with salt and herbs before fried.
The acid of the wine cut the greasiness, and the sweetness of fruit eased the saltiness of chicken.
Very good pairing!

PATHOS, Greek restaurant

PATHOS in Berkeley is a Greek restaurant.
We heard their food was authentic and had good quality, so decided to try.

The atmosphere is cool but not pretentious. Service is professional and friendly.

We stared with a cocktail called Demeters Daughter.
Gin base cocktail.
It had rich texture but felt refreshing.

Appetizers were Grilled Cheese and Roasted Eggplant with House-Made Pita.
The Grilled Cheese was of course salty, but crispy and flavorful!
If it wasn't salty, I must have eaten too much, so it was a good thing it was a little too salty for me.
Roasted Egg plant was sweet with a little bit of sourness (tomato? lemon?).
Their house-made Pita was really good with the eggplant.




This is Greek restaurant, so we had to try seafood.
Grilled octopus and Fried  Smelts.

Octopus was soft and had good texture.
Perfectly cooked.
We had this with Greek white wine (Xinomavro Blanc).
I thought that Xynomavro was red grape. Or, are they totally different varietals?
There are still a lot of wines out there we need to explore.
JC said this wine was like Chenin Blanc without high acidity.

Smelts were fresh, crisp, and perfectly salted.
I just could eat this forever...

The main dish was Grilled Lamb Chops.

It was very soft. Seasoning wasn't overpowering the flavor of the ingredients.
This dish was paired with Limniona, Greek red wine with herbaceous character.
The wine wasn't sophisticated, but had its charm.
This is good wine when it's paired with right food. Of course it was great with this lamb.

We were recommended to have Baklava and Greek Yogurt for dessert.
Good suggestion!

All dishes were simply cooked, enhancing the flavor of the each ingredient.

We probably ate too much. We were full, but didn't feel heavy.
This is a sign of good food.

Champagne Tasting

J. Lassalle is a grower/producer, established in 1942 in the village of Chigny-Les-Roses.
They grow Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier in premier cru vineyards.

Their Champagne goes through malolactic fermentation which makes the wine feel softer.
After Jules Lassalle, the founder, passed away in 1982, his wife, daughter, and now his granddaughter run this estate and keep the high quality which was set by the founder.
I don't know if it's because their Champagne is made by three generations of women who work with high standard, it reminded me of the big bouquet of brilliantly colorful flowers.  

Veuve Fourny & Fils was founded in 1856.
They are grower/producer, located in Vertus in the Cote des Blancs, and farm the vineyards sustainably.
Their wine, which is made by brothers Emmanuel and Charles, has mineral, flower, and savoriness.
I think this is good food wine.



Paul Bara was established in a village of Bouzy in 1833.
This grower/producer mostly uses Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay in small quantity.

Quality-oriented. They only use the first pressing of the grapes.
The wine has fruitiness and creaminess.
Some of them have long lees ageing but the autolytic flavor is well balanced with other components.
Very good Champaign.

All of them are family owned for long time and stress the importance of "precision."
It seems like keeping the strict standard is the key to stay in the business generation after generation.

These wines are found at Kermit Lynch.

ARMANDE Cardigan Completed

I was planning to finish this before summer. It's end of summer already, but at least I finished before the season I need to wear this.

The pattern is called ARMANDE, from knitty.
Yarn is hand-spun wool.
The size is S. Needle size is #7.
The only alteration I made was that I added extra 2 rows to the collar.
It took me long time to finish this because I ran out of the yarn in the middle and had to spin more twice, but otherwise this pattern is not hard to knit.
There is no seam between front and back so finishing was easy. I like this kind of patterns.

Design is tight so I can wear jacket on top of this with no problem.

The day has come

The day has come: JC declared the end of Tiki craze.
He promised to tame his obsession for Tiki drinks, only if he could make Puka Punch one last time.

This is also the last cocktail in the "Smuggler's Cove" book.
He had been trying to recreate this cocktail at home but couldn't figure out all of these ingredients.

Lime juice
Orange juice
Pineapple juice
Honey syrup
Passion fruit syrup
Velvet Falernum
Angostura bitters
4 kinds of Rum
Mint for garnish


I learned from his Tiki craze that there were different aromas and texture in Rum depending mainly on the ageing process, but it's still beyond my imagination how to blend different types of Rum to achieve the taste you want.

Being in a boom, however stupid it is, makes you feel excited and happy, like that you are living in a moment, so although I thought that he was too zealous, I felt a sense of emptiness when he announced the end of Tiki boom.
However, I don't worry too much: when it comes to something like this, JC is not very good at keeping his word.