Around the World in One Meal . . . and Chardonnay

This post is dedicated to my friend Jerry Anderson, who asked me to review reasonably priced chardonnay. I'm not a big fan of chardonnay, but I like Jerry, so while I was out grocery shopping yesterday I picked up a couple of bottles. One was from Australia: a 2006 Yalumba Eden Valley Wild Ferment Chardonnay, which I picked up on sale for $6.99 at World Market. The other was a French chardonnay: 2007 Red Bicyclette Chardonnay.

Since the temperatures zoomed to almost 104 degrees today, it seemed that something light and interesting was in order. My daughter suggested sushi.

I learned how to make sushi from a kindly sushi chef at Whole Foods who walked me through the steps of making a California roll. The hardest part, in my opinion, is getting the sushi rice to the right consistency and making it into the proper shapes without having rice sticking all over your fingers. I haven't quite mastered that, so rice was flying everywhere and I discovered to my annoyance that this was one thing the basset would NOT clean up for me. However, I managed to make tuna sushi and spicy tuna rolls. The secret to spicy tuna is a mixture of chopped raw tuna, mayonnaise, chili oil, and a splash of sesame oil. It's not traditional Japanese cuisine, but it is delicious!

However, the sushi didn't look like it would adequately feed the three of us who enjoy raw fish, and I had a non-sushi eater to feed as well, so I left Japan and turned to the Mediterranean for inspiration. I had half a box of mussels left over from the last seafood extravaganza, so I did the garlic/shallot/bread crumb topping and put them in the oven along with some French fries for Jackson. On the stove I boiled shrimp with Cajun seasonings and, in another pot, an ear of corn (again for Jackson, my very American kid). And garlic bread (just in case anyone was still hungry). This is how a simple meal ends up getting a little TOO complicated. It was an eclectic meal, to say the least!

Meanwhile, back to the chardonnay. We opened both bottles tonight so we could do a side-by-side comparison. The Australian Wild Ferment was, indeed, wild. The taste, to me at least, was rather harsh -- not quite cooking wine, but not something I would go out of my way to drink again. The French Red Bicyclette, however, was quite nice: fresh, not syrupy, but not a light white wine, which appealed to me (the red wine drinker). I'd definitely buy this one again and it was under $10 at Super Target. Alice Waters also makes a good, reasonably priced chardonnay.