#77 - Plantain Chicken & Saffron Risotto With Two Wines

Yesterday, we finally went to and I can recommend Big Star in Wicker Park, Paul Kahan's take on Mexican street food. The hipster quotient was a bit through the roof but the staff is wonderful.

But it didn't touch plantain chicken and saffron risotto with two of our favorite wines. Not. Even. Close.

It's an absolute shock to me that we hadn't had this meal since starting this blog. We took a bit of a hiatus since the discovery of wine can chicken.

Food: Plantain chicken with saffron risotto and spinach

Plantains mashed and wrapped with sandwich ham, then wrapped with chicken pounded flat, forming a sort of roulade in a way. The roulade-style concoction was then rubbed in rosemary, salt and pepper and then braised with an orange. Leftover-spillover goodness in the skillet was finished off with lemon juice to create a goopy sauce to drizzle over everything. Peri-peri sauce to put on the chicken.

Saffron risotto made with almonds, saffron and finished off with parmesan. Probably better with pistachios but we didn't mind one bit.

Raw spinach as a base and parsley all over the entire plate.

It's a Cuban-Spanish fusion that's definitely on the short list on 'last meal' type talk. I don't know what else I can say. It has everything you could ever want from a meal and has to be tasted to understand its perfection. Even gluten and dairy free, if that matters to you.

And it was glorious with the wine.

Wine: 1999 R. Lopez de Heredia Gravonia Blanco ($22 - Binny's) & 2005 Királyudvar Tokaji Sec ($22 - Berkeley Wine Co.)

I THINK...this was the first time we had the '99 Heredia. We've had plenty of the '96 and '98 but I don't remember the '99, specifically.

100% Viura. Pale gold in the glass. Grilled pineapple and honey on the nose that followed through on the palate. Compared to the '96 and even the '98, this one has much more viscosity to it - especially with the food - along with a smoked pear note. Still the unique nuttiness that defines Heredia whites and good, solid, wonderful acid. A glorious wine. More volatile than previous years as it changed constantly throughout the evening and with the food. A smoky olive oil hint was a constant with more lively, meaty fruit than previous years - the sort of fruit that had a smokier overtone but still jumped out of the glass and stayed bright enough. Can't say it's better than the '96 or even the '98, just different. I love you, Heredia. And it was so nice to revisit everything that you are. Available everywhere.

The Királyudvar showed just as well. 80% Furmint, 20% Hárslevelű. A much lighter yellow in the glass than the Heredia with citrus on the nose. It's been three months since we last had it and while it's changed a bit, the lively acidity still carries the day. While the fruit last time showed more orange and exotic fruits, this time it went more into the world of lemon verbena and maybe peach with only splashes of orange notes and a tad more sugar on the palate than I remember. It's in the dry style (the grapes in Tokaj are naturally sweet) but Mrs. Ney found a Fresca note that nailed it, like a hint of slightly sweet carbonation with a grapefruit peel note. This one's five years out now and is still going strong. Tough to find but stupid good.

(A side note here: Királyudvar's vineyards are run by Noel Pinguet, head winemaker at Domaine Hüet, home of the recently drunk and utterly wonderful 2005 Clos du Bourg Demi-Sec. Pinguet was given sole control of Hüet in 2002 when Gaston Hüet died, but in 2003 he sold off majority financial control to the Chinese-American financier Anthony Hwang, creator and owner of Királyudvar, and the famed Tokaji winemaker István Szepsy, who used to own Királvudvar's vineyards until 2006.)

That's two $22 wines. Both were equally great. If you don't like white wine, try these two. If after drinking them and you still don't like white wine, I can't help you.

Pairing: 95 Only a 95 because 95-100 should probably be left for the unknown. I'll know it when I have it.

Perfect is such an arbitrary word. But it's probably our time-tested favorite meal everywhere, anytime, on any temporal plane. It's the one we enjoy the most, especially with two of our favorite wines, which these are.

The Királyudvar was better with the plantain chicken and the Heredia and risotto might be the best pairing of wine and food I've ever had. It's in the least the benchmark I've used to compare. When I first had that pairing, I kinda understood what perfect food and wine pairings were for me.

In the end, the beautifully graceful acidity in both wines cut through any fat/starch in the plantain chicken/risotto just enough to be able to enjoy both the food and wine exactly for what they were with flavors in each matching up perfectly. Even peri-peri sauce, something with an intense chili-herb flavor, worked great with the wines.

Everything was topped off with Portuguese almond liqueur bought in Cleveland. Cheapest label you've ever seen and even had a bit of crap coated on the bottle when we bought it. I'm not going to say it's delicious. I'm going to say it's freakin' delicious! Wonderfully subtle with barely an alcohol hit. Creamy almonds without the cream. Just glides down the throat and was a great finish to a great meal. Crap, that's good. All of it.

#41 - Mado With '07 Pingus PSI & '05 Királyudvar

Third time's a charm, I guess.

We've set reservations for Mado twice since September and both times one of us was sick.

But we finally made it back last night.

The guy that owns this place was the chef of the group that took over the Pottery Barn of a restaurant that I used to work at in Lincoln Square and boy, can the guy cook.

It's farm-to-table, all local products, all made in-house and it's just plain delicious.

This was our fourth time (?) and it was par for the course.

Food: Mado

Appetizers:

Chartuterie plate of chicken liver paté, country paté and copa with bread, mustard and pickled fennel

Farm Fresh Egg Bruschetta

Braised fennel with saffron aioli

Brandade with grilled bread

Entrées:

Rainbow trout with arugula and pine nuts

Pig's head meatball stew with chickpeas and kale

Dessert (to-go):

Pistachio shortbreadish-type cake

Dark chocolate bark

$115 and we were both bursting at the seams. Always a great meal.

Food: 2007 Pingus PSI ($32 - Binny's) and 2005 Királyudvar Tokaji Sec ($20 - Berkeley Wine Co.)

Before with Mado, I think I recommended a lighter red. We did not follow such advice.

The Pingus PSI is the new, third-tier offering from Peter Sisseck, the guy that burst on the scene in 1995 with his cult Ribera del Duero offering, Pingus.

In 1996, Sisseck made 325 cases of Pingus at a release price of $200 a bottle. Parker went nuts over it, calling it "one of the greatest and most exciting wines I've ever tasted." A ship carrying 75 of the cases sank in the Atlantic right around the time Parker released his tasting notes and demand in conjunction with the ship-sinking story went through the roof.

For example, the 2006 was released at $750 a bottle.

It's pretty much the über-cult wine of the last decade or so.

But this is the third-tier wine at a very reasonable $32 while the 2007 is the first offering of this label. The second-tier label, Flor de Pingus, has been made since the beginning and usually runs about $75. We have the 2006 but it still needs some time.

Dark crimson in the glass, wild brush and fruit on the nose, this one got better with a little air pretty quick. All the hallmark flavors of Ribera were there. Sort of wild and bucking, tasted like buttered toast dizzled with blackberry juice and slathered in dirt and tree bark with a wee hint of a creamy vanilla (?) element. A bit tight. Even one year would make it more welcoming. For $32, we'll be buying it again just to see what happens.

The Királyudvar has been covered before here at Food With Wine. It's currently our favorite white wine. So many layers, so versatile with food.

Great floral and mineral background to support its exotic fruit profile, fruits that constantly change and are always in balance. Less lemon this time for me and more something like kiwi mixed with guava mixed with a dash of honey. Still some great orange overtones as well.

If you can find it, get it. Wine Discount Center doesn't have it anymore but Randolph Wine Cellars has it listed on their website.

Pairing: Not great but very good

With the chicken liver paté, the white tasted like a dirty gym sock. And the red wasn't much better.

Overall though, there were highlights. The Pingus PSI pairs almost flawlessly with the pig's head stew and the copa in a weirdly gnarly way. The Királyudvar helped the braised fennel and saffron aioli, the brandade and the trout, though it wasn't spectacular.

Oddly, the egg and bruschetta was quite good with the Pingus. Something about the heavy char on the bread made it work.

On the whole, we were happy, even if nothing made for an experience that was supremely greater than the sum of its parts.

And check that "lighter red" advice at the door. In the winter, the chef gets a bit more comfort foody and things will be fine if you bring it up a bit.

Except for an Australian shiraz. Maybe not that.

In fact, that would be terrible. Or would it?

#25 - Chicken Breasts/Pumpkin Risotto & '05 Hungarian White

I discussed Hungarian whites in a catch-all post two weeks ago on a trip to Ceres' Table.

We have little experience with such things but the ones (three now?) we have had have been delicious, balanced and incredibly food-friendly.

Tough to find, nothing too expensive when you do and entirely worth the effort.

Dinner was Chicken Breasts, Pumpkin Risotto and Arugula Salad with Balsamic and Pumpkin Seeds paired with Big Chef Takes On Little Chef, a show that I want to like as it's a good concept but it's struggling to authentically ramp up the drama.

Big, honkin', herbed-up chicken breasts with a squash risotto recipe modified with pumpkin.

Just a really good, clean meal. Fresh. Nothing too dense but still filling.

The 2005 Királyudvar Tokaji Sec, with the gray hairs this one is already showing, is a gracefully aging wine showing a touch of floral notes, a wee bit of oil, lemon and exotic fruits with a medium finish. Dry and a tad herbal. A hint of sugar amps up the exotic fruits here and there (I've read guava and that would be a good description). Great stuff.

You can read more about it here (we've had a Nero d'Avola - Nerojbleo - from the other winery discussed in the piece and while hit and miss from bottle to bottle, it can be quite good).

The pairing was as close to perfect as our understanding of wine pairings knows.

Extremely food-friendly and should be quite versatile, the wine had just enough acidity to hold up to everything on the plate and had a beautiful harmony with every bite. No complaints about anything. Nothing fell short.

That little bit of oil and herbs elevated the entire dinner to a great food and wine pairing.

Search this one out.