You can get Australian wine and Australian cheese. You don’t need anything else.
You can get Australian wine and Australian cheese. You don’t need anything else.[/quote]
Good one!
fenlander, for sure you are not implying that that thing that comes in bottles and says Wine from Australia is drinkable - either it is something with my taste, or I just a bad string of wines from down under. Mind you, Château LaTour is on the top list on my taste (although I would argue that some vintages of Don Perignon don’t really fill my palate). My preferences are also some Brunello di Montalcino, Chianti Classico, Douro Reserva, Estremadura and Alvarinho (for the Vinho Verde).
For the cheese, how many native cheeses does Australia has?
[quote=“mr_boogie”]fenlander, for sure you are not implying that that thing that comes in bottles and says Wine from Australia is drinkable - either it is something with my taste, or I just a bad string of wines from down under. Mind you, Château LaTour is on the top list on my taste (although I would argue that some vintages of Don Perignon don’t really fill my palate). My preferences are also some Brunello di Montalcino, Chianti Classico, Douro Reserva, Estremadura and Alvarinho (for the Vinho Verde).
For the cheese, how many native cheeses does Australia has?[/quote]
umm I am not going to even get into any discussion with you about wine as you obviously have me totally out gunned on this subject. I will make a tactical retreat on this as compared to you i know shite about wine. So unless some wine expert on forumosa can refute you about wine in Taiwan. I will agree that wine in Taiwan is shite.
you win!
I’ll bite. You can get practically any wine you want here – as long as you’re prepared to pay.
But for sheer value for money, you can’t beat RTMart’s selection. Absolutely NOTHING special, but for the money there are some very drinkable wines. Last night for example, I had a bottle of white Cotes du Rhone that was very pleasant. NT$199. They have a large selection of French wines. Part of a partnership deal with the French Achans supermarket chain, I think.
These are everyday wines but very good value for money IMO.
If you really think your palate is such that you can’t drink anything for less than NT$3,000 a bottle, the choice is even wider. Your palate isn’t, by the way – not if you’re seriously talking up vinho verde.
Exactly. And they can keep their beef exports too! No thanks.
You can get Australian wine and Australian cheese. You don’t need anything else.[/quote]
:roflmao:
Exactly. And they can keep their beef exports too! No thanks.[/quote]
Aussie wine aside (I didn’t even know there was such an aberration until I came to Taiwan - Knew America made wine, but knew it was shite before I came here) I have to disagree on that one.
I quite like Aussie beef and lamb (ditto for New Zealand). Perhaps because I find it more similiar to the same back home, as opposed to the other foreigner barnyard crap to be purchased here. No problem at all with Aussie/NZ beef and lamb in my opinion…
Exactly. And they can keep their beef exports too! No thanks.[/quote]
Aussie wine aside (I didn’t even know there was such an aberration until I came to Taiwan - Knew America made wine, but knew it was shite before I came here) I have to disagree on that one.
I quite like Aussie beef and lamb (ditto for New Zealand). Perhaps because I find it more similiar to the same back home, as opposed to the other foreigner barnyard crap to be purchased here. No problem at all with Aussie/NZ beef and lamb in my opinion…[/quote]
Maybe we should start a separate thread to discuss beef…but, Australian beef is just plain awful. I’d take anything over it. American, Canadian, Kobe, are much, much better tasting.
Oz beef? Lean and mad cow free? I like it a lot.
King Island cheese and cream . … . mmmmm!
And you really never heard of Margaret River reds? My god man you’re depraved and deprived. Probably used to swilling that boer muck.
HG
Lean, or not, is more about the cut than the country of origin. And for the record, North American beef is very safe. I’m certainly not worried. There was a lot of stupid politics involved in the mad-cow scare. Could have happened to anyone.
Beef - we gets Kiwi, USA and the odd Oz cow parts here. All good. Its even better when I mix it with some pork and make my delicious meataballsa.
But as to ‘normal’ cuts…nada. How I would love to be able to get a New York Strip cut from my butcher.
Just can’t hardly get him to understand that there are actually specialty cuts from a side of beef…and not every thing I order from him has to be chopped up into little slices.
How does on say New York Strip steak in Chinese or Taiwanese?
Wine - Some good Oz choices here. But from what 've been told by 2 distributors and the Owner of my local bottle shop (who’s also a distributor), Taiwan does not bring in the really top shelf wines. Just not large enough a market for their higher priced wines. So what is here is lower mid-level to low level under labels made-up for export. Some are quite drinkable…even approaching OK, but nothing outstanding. And I’ve has some very good Ozzie wines…in the USA.
Good or excellent USA wines are about non-existent here for the same reasons.
Also some very good to excellent Argentinian wines are available.
Sandy is spot-on about the selection/price values at the local RTmart…Outstanding. VERY drinkable Spanish, Chilean (which I have gotten into heavily in the last 2 ears), some Italian, German, of course French - I think I’m ending my boycott of vin de France since Sarkozy has been elected, Kiwi and even a good selection of South African wines. Starting as low as NT$189 for some very good table wines.
Cheese - a rare and pricey item…still. Some is available. Even brie can be regularly had for around NT$200 if you want it. An occasional smoked gouda. But still not a good selection…
We don’t make cheese from natives in Australia. The natives object.
Good local cheeses from Australia include a lovely grape-vine ash brie from Hunter Valley Co-op, Millawa dairy, lots of goat’s milk soft cheeses from all over, even a goat version of Roquefort. But they don’t export.
I do buy Coon cheddar from RT Mart… they even get the extra tasty version sometimes (a nice bitey tangy hard cheese).
and Bismarck: you’ve obviously never had a good Australian wine then. I agree that Yellowtail and Jacob’s Creek and all the other industrial wines are not the best, but then you get what you pay for. They are not considered anything but ‘vin de table’ quality in Oz either. I don’t see you getting a Chateau Lafite Rothschild for under 100NT either.
There are no good Australian wines for sale in most places here, so you can’t judge Aussie wines by what you can buy here.
Ever had a Cullen’s? How about a Mt Barker CabSav? or a Penfolds Bin 707, or even a Grange if you like it heavy? All delightful and the equal of $1,000 bottles from the states, and considerably deeper and more complex than most Stellenbosch wines. I know, I have lived in both countries.
As for the beef, it tastes different because it is not grain fed in feed lots: it is real wild meat grown on grass, and not laced with fat and hormones. Same goes for the lamb from Oz and NZ. i have not yet met an american who did like Oz beef, as it is not laden with cholesterol but tastes the way it should taste. Corn fed beef is soft and fatty… factory meat, in other words. Battery farming is not just for chickens.
I buy that from Jason’s. It’s the best of what’s available here. But they’ve never had it in our local RT Mart, which sells only the direst processed crap.
[quote=“urodacus”]
As for the beef, it tastes different because it is not grain fed in feed lots: it is real wild meat grown on grass, and not laced with fat and hormones. Same goes for the lamb from Oz and NZ. I have not yet met an American who did like Oz beef, as it is not laden with cholesterol but tastes the way it should taste. Corn fed beef is soft and fatty… factory meat, in other words. Battery farming is not just for chickens.[/quote]
I know what you said is that you have never met an American who likes OZ beef, but grass-fed beef is well-established in the US–especially on the two coasts.
For example, sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c … L5N221.DTL
I think it’s mainly a matter of knowing how to cook it correctly. And pass that great OZ wine while your at it. I’m not surprised to hear that there are great cheeses as well.
We Yanks have more than a few good cheeses ourselves:
[quote=“urodacus”]
As for the beef, it tastes different because it is not grain fed in feed lots: it is real wild meat grown on grass, and not laced with fat and hormones. Same goes for the lamb from Oz and NZ. I have not yet met an American who did like Oz beef, as it is not laden with cholesterol but tastes the way it should taste. Corn fed beef is soft and fatty… factory meat, in other words. Battery farming is not just for chickens.[/quote]
I know what you said is that you have never met an American who likes OZ beef, but grass-fed beef is well-established in the US–especially on the two coasts.
For example, sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c … L5N221.DTL
I think it’s mainly a matter of knowing how to cook it correctly. And pass that great OZ wine while you are at it. I’m not surprised to hear that there are great cheeses as well.
We Yanks have more than a few good cheeses ourselves:
All this nonsense about bad wine, cheese and meat from XXX country is pure snobbery or else ignorance, nothing more. I’ve had outstanding wine and cheese from every single country mentioned here. Well, I’ve never had any South African cheese but I bet they have some nice ones.
Christ, I’ve even had a very drinkable birk wine from Scotland, for heaven’s sake. It’s all about gleaning knowledge.
Grain fed seems to be more popular in Asia and the US, however it tends to deposit the fat within the meat which is much more unhealthy.
Australian cows are hay fed and the fat tends to form a strip around the cut, which can then be removed, producing a cut that is far leaner. An inexperienced chef over here may overcook an Australian cut which would leave it dry and tougher to chew than an equivalent cut from the US.
The trick is to have a very hot grill which sears the outside of the steak shut, locking in the the moisture.
As for wine, whilst I prefer a good French, Italian or Spanish Red, or a NZ / German white to Australian wines, value for money wise (that includes high end stuff), Australian wines are impossible to beat.
Its because of the wine glut. For every person in Australia, there is 100 litres of wine in storage.
Goddammit! All this talk of sizzling beef (regardless of where it is from) has me thinking steak tonight! Moo! :moo:
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Oz beef? Lean and mad cow free? I like it a lot.
King Island cheese and cream . … . mmmmm!
And you really never heard of Margaret River reds? My god man you’re depraved and deprived. Probably used to swilling that boer muck.
HG[/quote]
Boer muck?!! Come again!!