Friday, December 3, 2010

#135 - Shrimp And Quiche With Stift Göttweig Grüner Veltliner


Or quiche, garlic baguette and arugula salad with a side of shrimp.

The quiche was that good, taking all the focus off the shrimp.

More bald advertising for good cookbooks with today's offering.

Quiche maraîchère from Around My French Table, a cookbook given as a gift that's quickly turning out to be something needed and goshdarn great.

Shrimp from The New Portuguese Table, a cookbook that's proving to us over the last few months that Portuguese food can be a wee bit timid for what we want and like.

Food: Shrimp and quiche with garlic baguette and arugula and basil salad

Shrimp soaked in peri-peri sauce and quickly cast-ironed, seasoned with salt and pepper and topped with lemon juice squeezed on at the table. Fine shrimp, tasty to a point shrimp but we missed what shrimp has meant to us recently, like black garlic shrimp or Spanish shrimp with a big garlic hit or carrot juice/chipotle shrimp like in the recent past. Tasted...too simple...and just shrimp, really.

We aren't quiche people. But this wasn't eggy quiche. Only one whole egg, one egg yolk and supplemented with gouda cheese. Red pepper, carrot, celery and leek quiche that tasted buttery but light. Great balance and utterly delicious, especially once we got into it.

Arugula and basil salad to finish and garlic baguette on the side.

I'll return to an old favorite - movie comparisons. The meal was like Taken. I barely knew anything about the movie when I pushed play. By the time it was over, all I could think was, "That was kinda awesome!" Very little plot, no character development, stupid "American revenge in a post 9/11 world" overtones, but just 90 minutes of brutal and highly entertaining action.

Just a good time, like the meal. And the wine had a place, if only in a supporting actor way.

Wine: 2006 Stift Göttweig Gottschelle Grüner Veltliner ($21 - WDC)

It's simplified since we last had it. Less alive and jumpy, more settled and bordering on one-dimensional. Still exotic fruits floating around and a good acidity still lingers. A pronounced orange peel note shot up on occasion. Even creamy white peach. I've read people found a plum juice note with this one. Maybe. Right now, it tastes like some of the cheaper Hungarian whites we've had. Interesting to a point and exotic enough to be intriguing for a few minutes but definitely settling into the more simple vein.

Pairing: 85 Never offered anything other than being an acid component to the meal

The orange peel notes and cream kicked up with the quiche and garlic baguette but never offered enough to bring a complimentary/original element to the meal.

Served more as an acid counterplay with the quiche/baguette while falling fall with the shrimp, which already had lemon juice.

We needed a wine more guts, maybe a touch of sugar, possibly something more bone-dry, maybe an oily quality, to get it into a realm of a solid pairing. As it was, it was kinda boring.

But that quiche. I heartily endorse such things.


A quick note: Paprika on Lawrence just east of Rockwell pumps out some great Indian food. After Hema's earlier this year, we were hesitant to jump back on the Indian wagon, but this is great stuff, fresh and cheap as all get out. Various naans, chutneys, samosas and a chicken tikka masala eaten with a sparkling Vouvray favorite, NV Domaine Vigneau-Chevreau Demi-Sec Sparkling Vouvray ($18 - Binny's). The refreshment brought on by the sparkling aspect of the wine served as the primary goodness with the food but that was okay with us. Good enough. Check out Paprika. Along with Semiramis, it's a new great BYO option in the neighborhood.

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