Junior Smalls

There he/she is, Junior Farrell, hello.

Fantastic, looks very comfortable indeed, much love to you Luke & Christine & these are for you Junior.

04 Shake Shake Baby.mp3

17 Come See Me.mp3

09 Shakin' All Over.mp3

Big Ship

Listening to Mr Freddie McGregor, Big Ship sailing on the ocean, great record, this image of Big Dave at my dear friends wedding just seemed so apt.

I thought I'd share that with you, along with Big Ship and a couple of crackers from Yellowman & Afu Ra.

Enjoy x

1-01 Big Ship.m4a

Strong me Strong.mp3

13 Sucka Free.mp3

Tokaji

Right lets go to Hungary, why ? To visit my dear friend Lady Nia & I've recently taken a bit of a shine to Tokaji wine, of which I'm learning more & more, here is a a bit of info. Tokaji is a sweet wine & can be absolutely delicious, stunning even, the wine comes from one of Hungary's better known regions Tokaj Hegyalja (hence the name).

This region is close to the Slovakian border and there are two rather large rivers that run alongside, the Bodrog & Tisza it is the mists that rise from these rivers that create the ideal conditions for Tokaji wine. Tokaji wine is strongly affected by noble rot which is a type of fungus & is widespread in the vineyards of this area.

There are 4 main types of Tokaji wine.

Tokaji Furmint

Is unaffected by noble rot & is a dry to medium wine, which for me is not what I'm after

Tokaji Szamorodni

Szamorodni means 'as it comes' this is were all the grapes that have been harvested are thrown together wether they are healthy or suffering from noble rot. So this means that the wine could be dry (szaraz) or sweet (edes) depending on the proportion of noble rot. These wines are then aged in a traditional cask, these casks are known as Goncs.

Tokaji Aszu

Aszu literally means nobly rotted grapes (are you still with me). In this production the healthy & noble rot grapes are separated, the healthy grapes are used to make dry white wine & the noble rot grapes are set aside. These noble rot grapes are extremely rich in sugar which means they hardly ferment. So the Aszu grapes are then smashed & pounded into a paste which they then add to the dry white wine, the sweeter the wine required the more paste is used.

You may have noticed on Tokaji wine, on the bottle it has a labeling of 3-6 puttonyos, I always wondered what this was, well this is the measurement of paste (Aszu) that is added to the wine. A puttony was the name given to a 20kg hod which they used to use to add the paste. Now this measurement just refers to the amount of residual sugar content that is in the finished wine.

So wines of 3 puttonyos have around 60gs, 4 puttonyos 90gs, 5 puttonyos 120gs & 6 puttonyos 150gs

The wines are then matured for between 3 - 6 years in traditional casks.

Tokaji Aszu Essencia

Is made in the same way as Aszu the exception is that it is only made in the best years & only from the finest vineyards. The sugar content is always 6 puttonyos & above, probably around 200gs of residual sugar, this enables the wine to age for well over a century without losing any of that delicious rich flavor.

Essencia therefore is the 'Daddy' truly wonderful wine, some of the worlds finest sweet wine, which is another reason to go to Hungary. If you have not tried any of this wine then please let some of that sweet Hungarian mist drift up into your soul & feel the warmth envelope your body.

I have been asked to run the Budapest marathon this year, I may go over but it will not be to run a marathon it will be to stock up on Tokaji, but good luck with the training Nia, hope it's going well.

I'm going to leave you with two wonderful pieces of classical Hungarian music which was introduced to me by my favorite marathon runner (no pressure Nia). These pieces are by Roby Lakatos a Hungarian gypsy violinist, I think you'll agree that they are absolutely wonderful.

Blessings x

11 Sunrise, Sunset.mp3

11 Hungarian Dance No.6.mp3

Harvey

The wonderful DJ Harvey has appeared on the brilliant beats in space radio show, cracking selection of records please follow link, listen & let the sunshine into your life.

The Blob

I've been a little slack on the blog, so I'm going to make up for it by posting three wonderful records & of course a fantastic image courtesy of Mr Brown aka 'The Blob'. The first track is for you Dave, thanks for the images.

Just come across this great music compiled by the legendary Lux & Ivy, please check it out, you can download there favorites just follow the link & enjoy it really is wonderful.

Also enjoy these gems, three pieces that I cannot get enough of at the moment. The joys of Oolong tea, more Sherry & perhaps a little rudeness coming soon, until then blessings x
12 the blob.mp3
take me.mp3
07 King Minos II (Bonus Track).mp3

Juice

Here is a small celebration of my wonderful new juicer The Oscar Vital Max 900, she is truly remarkable, she has changed my life. There I was all that time using a centrifugal (spinning blades) juicer, then my dear friend Mr King introduced me to the wonderful world of the masticating (slow crushing) style of juicing, my life has changed for the better.

I juice at least once a day thanks to the advice of my favourite nutritionist Dr N W Walker please you must have a read.

Anyway thanks to my new juicer I'm taking in more wonderful enzymes, vitamins, fibre & minerals, my world is a better place.

These tracks are dedicated to the memory of Dr N W Walker & to all you juicers out there.
05 Juice Head Baby.mp3
02 Fangela.mp3

Sherry Pt1 A Brief History

I feel inclined to write about the joys of Sherry, just a little background on what has quickly become one of my favourite tipples. I have always been a fan of the sweeter styles of Sherry but it wasn't until I had the pleasure of working with The Sherry Institute of Spain that I realised the depth & vast quality of wine that Sherry has to offer, because Sherry is a wine it should be treated as such.

The wine actually takes it's name from the town of Jerez (pictured above), Jerez is in the south of Spain in the province of Cadiz in Andalucia, it's a beautiful place if you havn't been. It is not known for sure exactly where the name comes from but what we do know is that Jerez is situated upon what used to be a Moorish town called Sherish.

it is highly probable that wine has been produced in the region since the earliest times, even through the period of Arab domination until they were expelled from Sherish in 1264.

Sherry has a very old school reputation in the UK,'something that your grandmother would drink', I now know that my grandmother was on to a very good thing indeed.

The UK & England in particular has been a very important customer to the wines of the Jerez region, perhaps as early as 1530 merchants had been looking to ship it over. It is clear that during the Tudor times the wines of Jerez were extremely popular in England & it grew in popularity, so much so that vast numbers of English merchants had established themselves in the town during the 18th & 19th century. It is claimed that by 1850 40% of all wine imported into Britain was Sherry.

Unfortunately during the 1970's & 80's the market became flooded with low quality wine, which damaged the regions reputation & Sherry's popularity waned. With the support of the European Community, they ripped up a considerable area of vines which helped with the quality of wine and also helped with the balance of supply & demand. Further to this there are now strict guidlines on the amount of stock that any company can release on to the market each year. This is to make sure that the wine is aged sufficiently, therefore being of a much higher standard. Secondly there was a voluntary agreement between all the producers that they would not export in bulk & now nearly all Sherry is bottled in the region of production.

So thats a very brief bit of history in a nut shell, for further reading I recommend picking up a copy of 'Sherry' by Julian Jeffs, it's a cracking read. I will go on in future blogs to talk about production techniques, grape variety, The Solera System, Sherry Styles, how/what/when to drink it & with what.

Until then, please go grab yourself a chilled bottle of Manzanilla (La Guita is a fav round here) throw some fresh shellfish in the pan or on the BBQ, with some olive oil, chilli & garlic, serve with dressed watercress & enjoy.

Check out www.tenstartapas.com for more tips & recipes
Enjoy these two classic slices of Flamenco

11 No Naqueres Más De Mí.m4a

02 Gatlif.mp3

Two beautiful records by, Vangelis & Master Kora player Toumani Diabate, lovely image again supplied from Mr Brown. Coming soon, plenty of drink recipes, Gorgeously Rude restaurant & bar reviews, tea tips, the delights of sherry & of course some more wonderful music. Blessings.


06 Creation Du Monde.mp3

03 Ali Farka Toure.mp3

The original Master Blaster, wonderful sensible lunacy, if that makes any sense.
01 nuclear war.mp3

Mr Bo Diddley

(2) 16 You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover.mp3

Brilliant piece of music from Mr Gene Harris

(2) 543 No other.mp3

Good evening, this is the first post on my new Gorgeously Rude Blog, this could be the first of many or it could just be a flash in the pan..............watch this space, if you like.