Oddly enough, a lot of my drinking get-togethers were around this area. Thinking back, I suspect the idea was that once summer came, going out to meet up would become a hassle, so we should get our drinking in beforehand. I looked around for a place that would work for a daytime drinking session, but as the saying goes, the old ones are the best, and nothing beat 2chef. The manager was very kind and accommodated us in all sorts of ways.

The white wine of the day

It was the house recommendation, and they said it was from Switzerland. It is being imported a lot these days and supposedly good value, so we ordered it. It tasted good, but was slightly sweet. Having Riesling in it does not necessarily make it sweet, but it was a bit different from what I expected. Everyone knows the problem with sweet booze: if you drink something too sweet from the start, it gets in the way of whatever you drink next. If you want to drink a lot, you should start a bit dry, but well, it was tasty and shared among several people, so it was not a big deal.

Bread

This was a bit ordinary, but it came out right when the drinks did, so it was fine as a nibble.

Soup

Ordinary.

Whelk

I have had this dish before, and it was just as good the second time~

Pork belly

The genre of the cooking is a bit hard to pin down for something called fine dining, but as daytime drinking food it leaves nothing to be desired.

We drank some red wine too.

Since they had gone to so much trouble for us, we opened another bottle of the house wine, a somewhat pricier one. The recommended wines really are good.

Bolognese pasta

Maybe because I have been eating superb bolognese at Polpo lately, the taste was just so-so. For a wine gathering, though, this is good enough.

Steak

As readers of my blog will know, I have been eating far too well lately, so even a dish at this level was not all that satisfying. But there is no place as comfortable as this, so the next time a daytime drinking session comes up, I will probably end up at 2chef again.

Pedro Ximénez sherry

This sherry was, I think, the main event of the day. A wonderful member brought it along. It is a top-class sherry made by the solera method, sweet as syrup. It made an excellent dessert. We have to drink sherry diligently so that good whisky can be matured, after all. I sometimes think there ought to be a law requiring a glass of sherry for every glass of sherry-cask whisky you drink.

The Caol Ila 18 I brought back from Japan.

The correct pronunciation is closer to “Cull-eela”, but in Korea it gets called “Kuila”, perhaps because of the manga Bartender? It sounds a bit like koala, which makes it endearing, but this is a heavily peated whisky. I like the smooth taste of sherry-cask maturation, but I also have a fondness for this kind of tough style, though in Korea it tends to divide opinion.

Cheese plate

Even after the meal was over there was plenty of booze left, so we asked for a simple snack. Once again, the gathering did not end with any alcohol left over.

What we drank that day

The VIZCARRA was the red wine the restaurant recommended, and the Kim Crawford and the Sauternes were brought by members. There was a lot of contributed booze again that day, and the atmosphere of a group where everyone voluntarily brings a bottle is really something to cherish. We should keep meeting up often~

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