Travel : Tiny Bites

For Coca-Cola in the Philippines, happiness is reuniting OFW families

2 Comments Karen HamiltonDecember 7, 2011

Coke has been my drink of choice since I was a kid, and it’s my family’s fault. Every one of my Pinoy brethren is addicted to the stuff. It was the drink habit that was hardest to kick when I was pregnant. My aunts show up to family potlucks with their own 2L stashes to avoid shortages. I even link it to my identity as a Filipino; if my motherland ever sunk into the depths of the Pacific, I suspect Coca-Cola’s stock would take a severe nose dive.

Unsurprisingly, it was my cousin, who is just an avid a Coke fan as yours truly, who brought this video to my attention. She got teary-eyed watching how Coca-Cola reunited several Overseas Filipino Workers with their families at Christmas, saying how lucky she feels for having been born in Canada and having her family intact throughout her childhood.

This ad hit closer to home for me. My father moved to Vancouver in 1981 when I was 14 months old, preparing a Canadian life for my mother and I in Manila as he struggled to fit into a foreign land. We didn’t see each other again until my mom and I immigrated late in 1983, when I was 3.5 and was suspicious of him and his intentions towards my mother. Being too young to miss him or understand the sacrifice, I can only imagine how painful the separation must have been for my parents.

So thanks, Coca-Cola, for making Christmas a little happier for those OFWs this year. I’ll drink a can or twelve this holiday season in your honour.

Categories: Food, Philippines, Yummy Products

On Argentinean wine and Mendoza bodegas

1 Comment Bruce NguyenApril 14, 2010

The Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival is just around the corner. With Argentina and New Zealand being co-theme regions this year, it seems opportune to share experiences from my recent jaunt through Argentina this past Christmas break.

A primer on Argentinean wine

Let’s start with some basic Spanish-to-English terminology:

vino = wine
bodega = winery
viñedo = vineyard
salud = cheers
uno mas, por favor = one more, please

The above, plus charades, got me through three weeks in Argentina!

In terms of vino, Argentina is mainly known for its Malbec. This grape has its roots as one of the handful of kosher varietals allowed in a Bordeaux wine blend. The most popular Bordeaux blends these days, however, do not contain this grape at all, mixing Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot instead. It’s said that the Malbec grape was so maligned and unsuited to the wet and cold French climate that it earned the lesser name of côt. I’m told that it’s not an endearing name, but all wine varietals sound Greek to me when I first hear them.

It wasn’t until the late 19th century, when Malbec was planted in Argentina – where the scorching sun shines over 300 days a year – that the grape finally came into its own. And now, if you believe the marketing hype of my tour guide, Malbec is one of the hottest crazes in wine. In other words, the story of Malbec is the story of a poor French immigrant achieving the great (South) American Dream!

A lesser known wine varietal equally coupled with Argentina is Torrontés (Torontel). You may have had a more intimate experience with it in the form of Chilean Pisco. Crisp, floral, and fruity, this was our white wine of choice in our travels. Perhaps “choice” is the wrong word, as it was rather insisted upon us whenever we asked for a white wine recommendation.

Argentina’s Mendoza region is known for its Malbec, while the best Torrontés are said to come from Salta. While we didn’t get a chance to visit the latter, we did make it to Mendoza, visiting a couple wineries between taking mid-day siestas, feasting at parrillas (grill houses), and discovering surprisingly good Italian food (a tale for another day).

The two wineries we visited were Vistandes and Don Artuo, both located in the Maipú sub-region. Here, glacial waters from the Andes, high altitudes, and large day/night temperature swings lead to successful vineyards. The temperature swings, called thermal amplitude, makes the grapes constantly expand and contract, drawing in and concentrating the flavours and nuances of the terroir.

Personally, whenever “terroir” is brought up during a wine tasting, I have a tendency to disguise the rolling of my eyes with a swivel of the wrist, a sniff of the glass, and a murmur that “mmm, yes, the yeast is quite expressive”. While I would never claim to have nearly as nuanced wine-buds as the rest of Team Tiny Bites, I’ve learned long ago to never pick a fight with a sommelier.

Bodega Vistandes

Vistandes is a boutique winery located in the Cruz de Piedra sub-region of Maipú in Mendoza, Argentina. While the owners have been selling grapes to other wineries for years, they only recently set up their own in 2006, giving them a modern winery with access to older vines. The winery’s entry hall doubles as a music hall. Unfortunately nobody was playing when we were there mid-day, which in retrospect was a bit of a tease since we do appreciate the Tango.

Known mostly for their Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon, this winery likes to combine grapes from both their two vineyards, one in Mendoza and one in the Famatina Valley of La Rioja. The claim is to a more sophisticated flavour profile.

We tried their Malbec, Cab Sauv, and Torrontés, with part of the group giving top marks to the Cab Sauv and the other half of the group liking the Torrontés best.

Bodega Vistandes
Ruta 60 y Carril Urquiza, Cruz de Piedra | Maipú, Mendoza
+54 261 5246213 / 5246214

Bodega Don Arturo

Another boutique winery in Mendoza, Don Arturo has been family run for the past eighty years. Our guide proudly pointed out the weeds in between the vines as proof that no chemicals or pesticides are ever used on the dirt. Heaven forbid that chemicals penetrate the terroir! Mmm, yes, the yeast is quite expressive… sorry, force of habit.

To further stress their focus on using and accepting the character of the land, the irrigation for the vineyards and the coolant system that keeps the vats at the right temperature uses glacial waters siphoned from the nearby Mendoza River. These systems were engineered to be driven by the force of gravity, with powered pumps turned on only when necessary.

Again, being based in Mendoza, Don Arturo specializes in reds, but with more blends rather than pure varietals.

Bodega Cavas de Don Arturo
Franklin Villanueva 2233, Lunlunta | Maipú, Mendoza
+54 261 154538854 / 154540843

Afterword

Unfortunately, neither of these two wineries will have a presence at this year’s Vancouver Wine Festival. Although glancing through the participating wineries list, I do see a few wineries that I have had good experiences with:

Doña Paula – Malbec
Familia Zuccardi – Torrontés (Santa Julia brand)
Finca Flichman – especially their Malbec 2007
Norton – Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 (Perdriel brand)
Masi Agricola – Granderella

That last one isn’t Argentinean, but I am so enamoured with their Granderella it that I can’t help but include it on the list!

The Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival runs Monday April 19th through Sunday April 25th. Tickets and more information are available at their website. We’ll be around, and remember to say salud if you see us!

Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival
April 19 – 25, 2010
Multiple venues | Vancouver

Vino, vino everywhere but not a drop to drink

Categories: Argentina, Events, Food, Travel, Wine

Bruce eats New York: from cheesecake to yogurt and everything in between

4 Comments Bruce NguyenJanuary 5, 2010

This is the third post in a three-part travel series called Bruce eats New York, where Tiny Bites contributor Bruce Nguyen chronicles his ‘New York virgin’ dining experiences during the summer of 2009.

Fried chicken overload at Momofuku Noodle Bar

Republic and Viet-Cafe in a Vietnamese showdown! (Pho-down?)

From cheesecake to yogurt and everything in between

New York is home to some of the most upscale restaurants in the world but it can also be done on a budget. After all, the foods that bear the city’s name include the bagel, the pizza, and the cheesecake. Speaking of which, let me first state that the advertised “World’s largest cheesecake” really wasn’t all that large.

Below is a selection of tasting notes from the rest of the trip.

Ippudo

Ramen – very tender slices of pork. Noodles were well textured and not overdone. The decadence of eating ramen with what is more ladle than a spoon has to be experienced. Still, it was the pork belly cutlets which really shone. And that’s saying a lot.

Friends appreciated the ramen here more than at that at Momofuku Noodle Bar.

Ippudo
65 4th Avenue | East Village, New York
(212) 388-0088

Cafe Fiorello

Cafe Fiorello was recommended by the same trusted hotel concierge that recommended Ippudo, so our a group of twelve met there with promises of some of the best pizza in town.

Meal post-mortem: preference still leans towards properly prepared Chicago style deep dish pizza. Maybe I just need to try a non-white-tablecloth pizzeria. Their sangria, however, is pretty amazing. Can’t put my finger on what made it stand out…cinnamon and something else that I couldn’t identify.

Cafe Fiorello
1900 Broadway | Upper West Side, New York
(212) 595-5330

Pinkberry

Pinkberry, where the frozen yogurt craze first gained popularity. The plain yogurt itself didn’t have that slightly sour tang I’ve become accustomed to. The toppings I tried (blackberries, mochi, coconut, manga) were all fresh tasting with the mochi winning much praise.

Yes, I realize the picture below is not what I just described above. Blame my horrible photography patience when food is involved.

Pinkberry
330 W 58th St | Columbus Circle, New York
(212) 397-0412

Katz’s Deli

My experience with deli meats are of the cold cut variety. It may have been the glitz of being in New York with some of my closest friends combined with the lack of sleep, but that late-night pastrami seemed like tender cuts of heaven served between two slices of bread.

Katz’s Deli
205 E Houston St | Lower East Side, New York
(212) 254-2246

And there you have it: my effort to eat my way though a weekend in the Big Apple. Throughout this series, I’ve made mention of the eateries that were memorable. The full photo gallery below contains pictures from lesser pit stops, including the not-so-large-world’s-largest-cheesecake.