Make-ahead Meat Dishes

From what the names suggest, pork rillettes and gyuniku shigureni sound like two dishes from entirely different worlds, but in reality they were surprisingly similar. Both were meat based and made use of only a small set of ingredients; both involved slow cooking to bring about the intense flavor, and both can be made ahead and served at room temperature (no reheating required!), which made them great candidates as part of a simple home-cooked meal.

Rare flight of vintage G.H. Mumm

Just a couple days before my "accidental" long vacation trip, I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon in TST at a champagne tasting of several rare vintages from the famous champagne house of G.H. Mumm, led by their cellar master Didier Mariotti, who was in town to promote the brand in this part of the world.