Text 9057, 130 rader
Skriven 2006-12-20 10:12:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: hotelfood, rumtasting703
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Leonore S., who has some kind of discount card, took us to the
Hyatt, where the Riverview restaurant offers a noontime buffet
($45) and an evening one at $5 more. Being bargain hunters,
we took the former.

I ordered the Henschke Innes Pinot Gris, which was off, and
the only other thing I wanted to drink for less than many
dollars a bottle was the Mitolo Jester Shiraz 04, which
turned out a ripe rich super-chocolaty wine with a bit of
sweetness. This dictated the order of my attack upon the
buffet. Started off at the meat table:

roast lamb with mint sauce was shamefully overdone; I was
probably the first to get to it, and it was gray through
and through; it seemed to be okay lamb, though;

Chinese-style barbecue pork was gristly; the usual cuts
are fatty, which I prefer. Gristle is okay as well, so I
had a few pieces but was not surprised that it remained
essentially untouched when I scoped the table out half an
hour later;

there was a nice gingery flavor to the chicken in green
curry, whose defect was that it had very little if any
chile heat; the chicken was quite fine;

roast chicken looked pretty dodgy but in fact was wondrous,
one of the better chickens I've eaten, not because of any
fabulousness of spicing or melting crispness of skin, but
because the raw ingredient was truly excellent. I had a
thigh, ceding a bite or two to Carol, and went back later
for the other thigh - nobody else had touched the chicken
in the meantime;

roast beef was quite rare but from a cut that managed to be
both tasteless and gristly; this was sided with tender
brilliant green beans, though.

As one of the big draws of this place is lovely Tasmanian
oysters, I cleansed my palate with a couple slices of smoked
salmon (Leonore made most of her meal out of this, which was
quite nice but I thought lacking in texture) and continued
on with a Cooper's pale ale.

On the shellfish and appetizer table, there was a dish of
cold green-lipped mussels in red curry: these had a bit of
fire (unlike the chicken), and the freshness was exemplary.

What was described as Szechwan eggplant was a perfectly
decent soy sauce eggplant with a few flakes of red pepper.

Cajun perch was tender but prefrozen fish coated with a
facsimile of Paul Prud'homme's Seafood Magic.

Large beady-eyed prawns again were offputting of appearance
with their antennae waving in the breeze but delectable in
taste and texture. I had several but didn't see many others
tackling these, certainly nobody in our section.

I ended up taking three trips to the oyster station - a big
silver gravy-boat-shaped thing with oysters (shucked inside
the kitchen) tipped in so they went every which way,
including upside-down. The oysters were excellent and briny
and didn't suffer from being upside-down as the turnover
(har har) was very rapid. Twenty oysters didn't leave me
much room for afters, so I mostly watched as my companions
ravaged the dessert table.

Things tasted at the table included a chocolate buche de
Noel, a flourless chocolate lump (got good notices), a
Christmas pudding (got excellent notices), a mediocre
somewhat soggy almond tart, and an average creme caramel.

A cheese board looked rather like an airplane cheese board.

Carol intercepted the bill before anyone else could.

We returned to Leonore's comfy home and desserted again on
chocolate-coated kumquats (of her own manufacture) and more
Cooper's pale ale.

=

Rum tasting at Glen's -

Havana Club anejo especial - light yellow, clean-looking;
nose of wood resin, vanilla, and nail polish; lots of
alcohol and harshness on the palate. Medium finish.

Havana Club anejo 7 anos - amber color, sugary, some
dried fruit; palate had shoes and acid, but not unpleasant.
Quite dry. Long sugary but not sweet (dry in fact) finish.

Sapori Essence - this is not a rum at all, but rather 72%
neutral spirits with artificial rum flavoring and caramel
color; lightish with a slight haze. Nose of artificial
banana resolving to artificial rum as in "rum cake" or
"butter rum Lifesavers" - not surprising, as this product
is meant as a flavoring for confectionary; fairly nasty
to drink.

Appleton VX - dark amber, one of my favorites, Mostly
smooth with a bite at the back of the throat. A side note
of almond. Off-dry. Long finish.

Tanduay 12-year-old - one of Glen's favorites. Medium
amber, nutty, smooth and dry. Medium finish.

Bundaberg OP - dark amber, very harsh, medicinal. At
115 proof, hard to tell the finish as my taste buds were
sort of shot off.

Don Alfonso Coco Vodka (aged with prunes) - medium amber,
a strange puckeriness but went down surprisingly nicely.
Finish of prune pits.

And two liquors of unknown source:

Arak Beras Gwan Gwan Hoo - lovely light amethyst color;
aroma of Concord grape, very weak flavor of Concord grape.
No finish whatever. Glen thought this incredibly nasty;
Carol and I thought it merely a bit strange.

Arak Pendawa - clear with no aroma at first, a touch of
some aroma (pandan leaf?) coming out. Pronounced coconut
on the palate, not unpleasant. No finish.

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