Chinese Food at Home

For dinner, I had some sweet-and-sour chicken, with brown rice and a glass of white (gasp!) wine.

It all came from Trader Joe's (hello again, delicious corporate overlords). The chicken is from their freezer section. Made with thigh meat, it comes breaded and fried, with a side of peculiar sauce. The first time I tried it, I hesitantly sampled a few drops of the sauce alone. It was awful- vinegary and acrid. But somehow it magically turns gingery and fragrant when tossed with the chicken. It's not the best thing in the world, but it's about as good as decent Chinese takeout, and less trouble.

We made a side of brown rice to go with it, in our new rice cooker. Sadly, the old one died a few months back. I made the mistake of replacing it with a smaller one, thinking it would take up less space. It does, but it also completely sucks. I failed to account for the surface area issue, so it takes FOR.EV.ER. to heat up. Other lesson learned? Don't overfill it. Especially not with sticky things that stain. Yes, it's still covered with blobs of fuchsia from the time I tried to make cranberry sauce and it exploded everywhere. In any case, the rice turned out nicely nutty and chewy.

The big surprise tonight was the wine. It's Terrenal label from Spain, made with an equal mix of Chardonnay and Macabeo grapes. It's also kosher, and $4.99. I bought it because I'm always curious to try unusual grapes, especially ones from Spain. The TJ's wine guy gave me a dubious look and warned me to "chill it...a lot!", even though he'd never actually tried it. Duly warned, I was surprised to discover how interesting it is.

The caveat is that I never drink white wines, and never Chardonnay. So maybe I've just forgotten what they're like. But this one is fascinating- it has sort of a ripe-nearly-to-rotting cantaloupe meets green apple aroma, with licorice, honey, and maybe a little violet as it warms up, plus the richness of Chardonnay. I think the sign said it was unoaked, and I don't taste any. I had another glass before dinner with some aged Parmigiano-Reggiano, and it was equally fabulous; next time, I'd probably pair it with a rich fish, or maybe mac n'cheese, and not funky Chinese food.