Editor’s Note: After reading the title of this post, you may be pondering why Catavino has an article on North-East Chinese cuisine, which is a very good question. Edward Ragg, our Chinese correspondent, has been sharing his experiences living in Beijing as a wine consultant, which have included very detailed and descriptive articles on the state of Spanish wine in east Asia, as well as his experience with pairing traditional Chinese foods with Iberian wine. Considering that Edward is magically finding time to share his knowledge with us, between wine fairs and teaching WSET courses, we are clearly very appreciative. And if you have any questions for Edward, please don’t hesistate to put them in the comments.

It’s now almost two years since my wife, Fongyee, and I moved to China to begin work as wine consultants, a profession that barely exists in a country that only really began importing wine some fifteen years ago and whose own wine industry is dominated by massive government corporations.

Much of that time has, of course, been devoted to setting up a company – no easy thing in the PRC – getting to know the wine importers and fledgling wine magazines as well as becoming more and more familiar with the different national wine markets – Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and further a field – the extent of wine knowledge at consumer and trade levels, people’s expectations of wine in general and what myths v. facts abide in an emergent wine culture.

Trying myriad Chinese wines, judging at Chinese wine competitions and the teething pains of setting up a website and blog – ever works in progress – have had their own challenges. But we can hardly complain: this invaluable …

It’s been awhile since we really blogged. You know the original blog post, a wrap up of the blogger’s life and ideas that pop in their heads. Usually we write in a more educational manner trying our best to educate. Today is different. This weekend we had a perfect storm of visitors. Our old roommates from the good old days when we lived in Madrid were in town for the long weekend, which inevitably meant lots of fun foods and some unexpected card games of Liar. A wonderful weekend, as well as an opportunity throw down on a few meals since I had such an attentive audience. First night, it was port brined pork loin (that’s a mouthfull), followed by Country chicken paired with roasted purple potatoes and green beans with walnuts and cured ham the following night. Both meals deserved pictures and descriptions, but alas, the food disappeared before I had a chance. For those of you with a grill and some gumption, however, here’s how to cook the the Pork(everyone’s favorite)!

Combine in a large pot, or bucket, the following: 1 x3lb-5lb piece of whole pork loin, 1 bottle cheap Port wine(ruby), a few cloves, a few sticks of cinnamon, 2 bay leafs, a cup and a half of rock salt, a cup of sugar and half a nutmeg nut chopped coarsely. Cover the meat with cold water and let sit for approximately 8 hours.

When the meat has finished brining, get a very hot two stage …