Osteria da Fiore, Venice, Italy

In my visit to Venice back in October 2011 I had the opportunity to visit Osteria da Fiore, in San Polo.

Today I publish the delayed review, because the osteria is one of the best restaurants in Venice, and continues to carry with pride one Michelin Star.

Osteria da Fiore

The amuse bouche was crispy tiny shrimp (gamberetti) on a bed of white polenta. 

Amuse Bouche, Osteria Da Fiore

The first dish I tasted was a mixed raw seafood.

Carpaccio di tonno – Osteria da fiore

Misto crudo di carpaccio di tonno e scampi.

Scampi crudi - Osteria da Fiore

The Scampi were served on top of a creamy mix of fennel (finocchio) and fresh cheese.

Baccala mantecato – Osteria da fiore

The second dish I tasted was another appetizer, one of the trademarks of Venetian gastronomy: “Baccala  mantecato” (dried Atlantic cod, soaked, poached and whipped until mousse-like), served with bruschetta spiced with garlic.

Overall a perfect light lunch in a wonderful environment.

 

Osteria da Fiore, Venice, Italy

In my visit to Venice back in October 2011 I had the opportunity to visit Osteria da Fiore, in San Polo.

Today I publish the delayed review, because the osteria is one of the best restaurants in Venice, and continues to carry with pride one Michelin Star.

Osteria da Fiore

The amuse bouche was crispy tiny shrimp (gamberetti) on a bed of white polenta. 

Amuse Bouche, Osteria Da Fiore

The first dish I tasted was a mixed raw seafood.

Carpaccio di tonno – Osteria da fiore

Misto crudo di carpaccio di tonno e scampi.

Scampi crudi - Osteria da Fiore

The Scampi were served on top of a creamy mix of fennel (finocchio) and fresh cheese.

Baccala mantecato – Osteria da fiore

The second dish I tasted was another appetizer, one of the trademarks of Venetian gastronomy: “Baccala  mantecato” (dried Atlantic cod, soaked, poached and whipped until mousse-like), served with bruschetta spiced with garlic.

Overall a perfect light lunch in a wonderful environment.

 

Ristorante Madonina del Pescatore: La immortalità del cibo

Today’s post is about my visit to Moreno Cedroni’s restaurant “Madonina del Pescatore”, in Senigallia, near Ancona, Italy. I was there on my way to Tuscany, and decided to have lunch at the restaurant before proceeding with my trip.

Senigallia is on the Adriatic coast, south of Rimini, the birth town of Fellini. I was there back in the summer of 2009, when I visited the “Uliassi” restaurant, on my way to Ravenna.

It was late December. The long road by the beach was empty in the middle of the day, in sharp contrast with the pandemonium of the summer. The air was not cold, but humid, and the atmosphere hazy. The big lady dressed in dark greeted me and suggested to have a good lunch, as you never know when life will end. She then turned back to her endless gazing at the sea.

The restaurant has been awarded two Michelin Red Guide stars many years ago, and has managed to keep them, a good indication that time is acting to the chef’s benefit so far. The theme of the chef’s creations is “la immortalità del cibo”, i.e. “the immortality of the food”. It sounded very good to me, especially after my encounter a few moments before. I entered the restaurant and ordered the menu of the chef, eager to taste what the chef had in store, eager to immortalize my humble existence for even a split second. .

The beginning was hygienic, as I was asked to brush my teeth and then wash them with the greenish liquid.

Mojito alla Lavanda e Nocciolina.

Then came the aperitivo, a tasty white foam on a bed a martini cubes, accompanied by a fake pistachio in his crust. So far so good.

There was no amuse bouche, the action started straight away.

Raw amberjack, leeks and lemongrass sauce, pancy, basil and fried amarant. The amberjack was sweet and tender but with texture. The sauce was discrete, supporting the fish taste.

Oyster with sour cream, green onion, raspberry caramel and pearls with black tea. Oysters require subtlety and superior balance. They can get very watery and soft, or dry and tough. In this dish, the chef has achieved perfection. The pearls of black tea complemented the flavors superbly, by adding a slightly bitter note to the harmony.

Swordfish bites “shabu shabu” style with celeriac, pineapple and green peppers. Shabu-shabu directly translates to “swish-swish” and is a cooking technique whereby you submerge bits of the meat or fish in hot water and swish it around. The taste of the flesh was mildly aromatic and firm. Good balance of subtle sweet and sour in the accompanying vegetables and fruit.

Tribute to Giacomelli (see below): the black figure awaits the white – black bean sauce with seared scallops. I am a scallop lover. I fell in love with this dish. The scallops were seared to perfection, the seasoning ever so subtle and discrete to simply accentuate the natural flavors. The black bean sauce supporting the scallops extremely smooth and fine.

Mario Giacomelli (1925 – 2000) was a photographer born and raised in Senigallia.

Cardoon soup, camomile and cuttlefish. Soothing, smooth, flavorful, the soup supports the tender cuttlefish. A nice interlude.

Risotto with clams, red shrimps and squid, “aio oio”,  parsley and wasabi sauce. This dish is the powerhouse of the menu. The combination of “aio oio” that is “aglio e olio” that is “garlic and olive oil” with the wasabi sauce was a big success, and elevated the risotto to the sky!

Turbot with braised wild mushrooms, jerusalem artichokes sauce and white truffles acqualagna. The turbot was tender, seared to perfection, the accompanying mushrooms and the sauce as always subtle and supporting. Deliciou,s uplifting dish!

The dishes were accompanied by moderate quantities of the excellent white wine “VERDICCHIO DEI CASTELLI DI JESI VIGNA DELLA OCHE 2008”.

Sorbet of Toma Cheese with strawberry jam. Wonderful combination of flavors!

Chocolate mousse, Clementine oil and sea urchin eggs. The absolute star of the deserts, a hard core dynamite combination that blows up in your mouth. Extremely long aftertaste.

Purple ice cream, raspberry mousse and streusel spice. The best sequel to the dynamite mousse, playful in colors and subtle flavors.

Ice cold zabaione (-196 degrees). The illusion of taste. This puffy blob disappears in the mouth so quickly and so suddenly that it is like the descend to nothingness. This is the end.

On my way out I looked at the long sandy beach. Did I become immortal? Even for a split second?

Yes! In the deserted, winterly beach by the Adriatic I entered the world of split second immortality. This now occurs to me as the continuation of the path that originated in Vienna, when I visited the Vestibuel Restaurant, and I declared:

“If mortality is so beautiful, I am happy to be mortal!”

I now realize that this statement anticipated the experience of split second immortality, therefore it is the prologue to the immortality path that now took me to Senigallia.

L'Atelier de Jean-Luc Rabanel, Arles, Provence, France

Today I want to share with delay my impressions from my visit to this restaurant tucked in one of the back streets of the colorful town of Arles in South France. “Country Epicure” informs us:

“Jean-Luc Rabanel was the first chef of an organic restaurant to receive a Michelin star. This was atLa Chassagnette in the Camargue, 20 km south of Arles. But he left in the fall of 2005 and in the spring of 2006  opened his own small place in the old part of Arles. He got his star back in March of 2007. ”

Back in 2007, the prestigious french restaurant guide “Gault Millau” awarded Rabanel with the “top chef” award. The key reason was the creativity of the chef and the quality of the produce he used.

Rabanel has two Michelin stars today and is one of the rising stars in the world of organic produce gastronomy. Although it has been 18 months since I visited the restaurant, I decided to publish this review after my visit to Mugaritz in the Basque Country. The reason will be presented at the end of this review.

Down to the business now, the restaurant is more like a brasserie, there is nothing more sophisticated there, and the service is rather minimal. There is only one tasting menu and a matching set of wines. Take it or leave it.

The first dish was Ricotta ravioli with garlic emulsion. I confess that the grated cheese infused cookie that came with the ravioli was the best part of this dish.

Fish on a bed of vegetables. I do not remember what fish that was, my notes just say fish.

Black truffle cappuccino with coco almonds and parmesan cookies

Celery root with almonds, fish roe, sage and ice cream.

Pumpkin in mushroom broth and vegetables.

Ham with artichokes and sweet onion cream, served with polenta crisps.

Fish tails with garlic and ginger.

Lamb with vegetables

After all the dishes I was rather full, and asked the waiter to bring me some cheese instead of desert. The chef obliged and I tasted one of the best cheeses ever!!!!! Ossau Iraty, a sheeps milk cheese from the Pyrenées. For more information go the relevant website.

Overall, the experience of eating at Rabanel is mediocre. It is indicative the the strongest gastronomic memory of the place is the cheese. Not a dish!

Although the dishes have potential, they do not hit the mark. They also do not have a clear focus. By assembling all these materials on the dish you do not necessarily create, you just assemble. This could be the key problem with Rabanel. He has a nice garden, collects nice stuff from it and then dumps them on a plate. This is hardly gastronomic!!! And I do not mean the “haute” gastronomy, I mean the gastronomy of every day life.

May be the chef had a bad evening.

Mugaritz Restaurant, near San Sebastian, Basque Country

This is a long due review of my visit to Mugaritz in June 2010. Mugaritz is listed as number 5 in San Pelegrino’s “The Top 50 Restaurants of the World”. Michelin’s Guide Rouge has awarded him two stars for the last 7 years. Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz is considered to be one of the most exciting new chefs in the world. I had the pleasure of visiting Mugaritz in 2003 for the first time, and I returned in 2010. Originally, the date was set for February, but a mishap prevented me from going. When I called a few days later to reschedule, Amaia (the ever gentle lady in charge of bookings) told me that a fire had destroyed the kitchen and the restaurant would re-open in June.

The entrance to the restaurant is the entrance of a farm turned restaurant. Idyllic and calming. It is difficult to find without a navigator, but it is worth the try.

“I was about to remark that farm-to-table cuisine is nothing new to Americans when a waiter placed two stark white bowls on the table. One held a smooth garlic aioli for dipping; the other contained purplish-white orbs that resembled rarefied Japanese stones. These were Aduriz’s famous potatoes, which he’d spent a year researching and perfecting with his pharmacist sister, using a nutrient-rich, edible white clay called kaolin. To obtain the fantastical result, Aduriz dips little boiled Basque spuds in a mix of kaolin and lactose—which makes the coating smooth—then dries them at low heat until a brittle coating forms. Aduriz serves the potatoes in a bowl, among real stones. When I bit into one, the eggshell-thin casing dissolved into the sweet, meltingly tender flesh. I could see what Aduriz meant about luxury.”

Source: Anya von Bremzen

Clay Potatoes with Aioli (photo by "summer of innocence")

The clay potatoes as described by Anya were served in a smoking area outside the main restaurant, and I did not have my camera with me. I could not have believed that such a sumptuous aromatic taste would come from a potato! This is one of the reasons why one should visit Mugaritz. Because you visit the realm “beyond”.

Artichokes sliced paper thin, dressed in Iberian ham fat. Very subtle, and aromatic dish. Its key feature  though is the texture, as the artichoke is practically raw, and therefore crunchy. One of the challenges of the dish for me was that I am used to have artichokes with lemon, and I was thinking lemon while eating it!

“RAZOR CLAMS flavoured with a rich black bean broth, perfumed with cinnamon oil. SWEET BLACK BEANS.”

I come from the school of serving the razor clams grilled with parsley and garlic. To have them like that, swimming in a sweet broth, was a big change. Eventually, I came to like it.

“Over a gelatinous pine nut cream, GLUTINOUS COD FISH and mastic resin.”

This was a really challenging dish, as it combined the belly of the cod with pine nut cream and masticha, the resin from the mastic tree on the island of Chios. Again, Aduriz turned things upside down, serving the gelatinous flesh with a sweet aromatic dressing. It worked quite well though, and it made me feel proud, because masticha comes only from Greece. There is no other place in the world where this tree grows.

Salsifi cooked in the calcium oxide to produce a self pureeing vegetable.

I had no idea what salsify is, but it turned out to be a tuber/root that grows in the sea. I really loved the texture of this thing. Slightly chewy and tough on the outside like the skin of a roasted Japanese sweet potato (this texture reallyexcites me), the inside remained moist and firm but giving. Subtly sweet, it was accompanied by some briny cod roe that exploded with flavour and a sprig of spring onion.”

Source: A Summer of Innocence

“MEGRIM STUFFED WITH VEGETABLE PEARLS and pickled herbs. Small sautéed carrots.”

Megrim is a type of sole fish. It was juicy, firm, tasty. I loved the baby carrots.

“SKATE FILAMENTS bounded in toasted butter glace, Iberian mild sheen.”

The skate worked perfectly with the butter.

“LOIN OF DUCK. Served with iodized compliments; crumblings and shavings of summer truffle.”

This was a minimalist dish, bringing forward the taste of the duck and in the background the subtle truffle.

Braised pork shoulder with garlic. The pork is braised at a temperature of 65 degrees Centigrade, so that haemoglobin does not coagulate and the meat does not turn brown. The garlic was crunchy and mighty. I even ate the flowers!!!

“Tradition, ocean and land: braised IBERIAN PORK TAILS AND PAN FRIED LANGUOSTINES. Reduced braising juices
infused with Iberian “jamón”.” For this dish I posted a short note back in June. I think this is the dish I will ask to eat before my departure from this vain world.
“SELECTION OF EUSKAL HERRIA CHEESE. Artisanal ewe, cow or goats milk cheeses; abbey, monastery and farmhouse
cheeses; mountain and meadow cheeses…”
There is something about cheese in the Basque country, they manage to produce everything and everything is delicious!!! I sound like a primitive being, but the simple truth is this. This stuff is so good, that I cannot ever have a proper Basque meal without cheese.
Broken walnuts with cool milk cream and Armagnac jelly.Although I am not a friend of sweets, especially after my glorious cheese plate, I really enjoyed this creation, which fooled me, as I thought that the walnut shells were real. They were not!!!! They were made of chocolate.

The Wine: Mendraka, a Txakoli from the Basque Country. This steady friend of a wine, kept me going throughout the meal. Txakoli is a perfect second violin to the glorious cuisine of the Basque country!

The double face of experience.And at the end time for philosophizing. These two cards were laid on the table at the beginning, but I present them at the end. They present the two sides of the 150 minute experience.

The Threat
The Opportunity
Au revoir Mugaritz!!!


RABITOS DE CERDO IBÉRICO ESTOFADOS Y CIGALITAS SALTEADAS: The Princess entangles the Serf in a messy enjoyment of life

Iberian Pig’s Tails with crayfish.

The humble tail with its skin intact and crispy combines with the white immaculate flesh of the crayfish in a never ending game of pure pleasure, amplified by jamon iberico crisps.

The flesh of the tail is surrounded by streams of fat, the best tasting fat in the world!

The contrast in the texture between the skin and the subliminally soft, almost creamy fat  is unbelievable.

And when you get back to Earth after this excursion into extreme pleasure, the crayfish comes into play and with its soft flesh and sweet flavor takes you to the cool ocean of elevated joy.

A crisp of jamon iberico completes the palette of tastes and you find yourself asking the simple question:

“How could I ever taste something more satisfying than this?”

The Princess has danced with the Serf, the lights are off,  and the Prince with the skull on hand walks by wandering:

“To be or not to be?”

He obviously didn’t manage to get even one bite!

P.S. This dish is on the menu of the re-opened Mugaritz Restaurant, near San Sebastian in the Basque Region, which was completely rebuilt after a fire destroyed the entire kitchen and a big part of the dining area on the 15th February 2010.

Restaurant Steirereck – Vienna, Austria

Introduction

Today I continue with my second gastronomic experience in Vienna, the first being in the Restaurant Vestibuel, reported a couple of days ago.

After a rather long meeting and under very wet conditions I found myself in the comfort and warmth of the Steirereck Restaurant in the middle of Stadtpark in Vienna.I selected it after reading the Michelin Red Guide, which has awarded two stars to the restaurant and is overall very enthusiastic about he place.inside

I will start with the food, and finish with the wines.

Part I: The Food

troutThe first bite came compliments of the chef. Trout with onion and yellow ginger. Succulent and full of aromas, a nice way to start the meal.

oysterGillardeau Oysters with buttermilk, glass pasta and pea shoots. This is the first dish in the 5-course set menu of the chef. The dish evolves around the oysters and magnifies their taste and flavors. A subtle and discrete dish.

oxheartBraised “Oxheart” Carrot with fillet, milt and marrow from Styrian beef. When I first read the menu, I thought that this was the heat of the ox! Wrong! Oxheart is a type of carrot, named so because its shape is like the heart of the ox! The braised carrot was served on top of raw Styrian beef fillet sliced paper-thin, and topped with a very light vinaigrette with marrow. The sticks you see on top are a type of rich bread with majoram.

breamGilt Head Bream and Moscardini, with black radish, rocket and parsley. The fish was pan fried to perfection, its fresh firm and juicy. And -as always- the skin was the best bite of all! The bream was served on top of a angel pasta bed and was accompanied by one moscardino in vinaigrette, and paper-thin black radish, which was delicious! I must say that I somehow lost the flavors of the moscardini, this iwas rather neutralized. But if you exclude that, everything else in the dish was perfect.

pheasantPheasant breast with chevril root, chanterelle mushrooms and yellow dates. What a wonderful dish! The breast was cooked to perfection, succulent, full of flavours, accompanied by the mushrooms and the dates. But the real taste booster was at the bottom. The skin of the bird was served with a semi sweet and savoury sauce, and this made the difference!

cheese

Cheese selected from a trolley with 60 different cheeses from Europe (mainly France and Italy). My only comment on the cheese is that next time I visit the restaurant, I will ask to have a five course cheese menu!

Part II: The Wines

I now come to the wines of the evening (wine maker, grape, year):

wine

1. Prager, Gruener Veltliner, 2008. Very young, fresh, a superb introduction to the menu.

2. Hiedler, Riesling, 2008.

3. Emmerich Knoll, Riesling Kellerberg, 2007, Smaragd. A knock-out! ? Never had a riesling like this, and I have already had quite many!  Intense fruity aroma, pepper aftertaste, full body! It stood up to the strongest and most mature cheeses like the best brunello! Totally unbelievable!

Epilogue

Value for money: We were a party of three, and the bill for all of this, which lasted exactly 4 hours with immaculate service, was 140 EURO per person.

Style of cooking: This is the type of cooking that builds on the tradition, but is not blinded by it. Especially in the oxheart dish, I felt that all the centuries of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, were somehow encapsulated in the dish. Hegel would be very proud of this dish, as it more or less excemplifies his concept of history as eternal progress through time.

P.S. At the time of the visit, the restaurant was recommended by the Michelin Red Guide as “two stars”.

Ristorante Uliassi – Senigallia, Marche, Italia

Ristorante Uliassi is located in the small resort town of Senigallia, on the Adriatic sea, a few kilometers away from Ancona. It comes highly recommended from Michelin Red Guide  (two stars) and the Italian Gastronomic Guide Gambero Rosso.

As I was on my way to Ravenna, I decided to stop by and taste the creations of the chef. I arrived just in time one late summer night, to experience the dying light and the emerging darkness.

dining_balconyMy menu choice was the “Tuto Crudo”, meaning “Raw all the way”. This would highlight the qualities of the ingredients and the synthetic ability of the chef, as his contribution to the dish would be primarily the synthesis of the ingredients.

potatoes_oysterThe first dish was oyster with potatoes and red onion ice cream with a leaf of chocolate.

The oyster was sumptuous in taste, full or aromas and it was perfectly supported by the tasty potatoes and the heavelnly onion ice cream. The leaf of chocolate gave the necessary bitter undertone.

shrimp_foie

The second dish was shrimp with duck foie gras and strawberry paste. The raw shrimp is sweet in its own way, ans the acidity of the straberry supplemented it in a harmonious way, while the foie added the body that seafood does not have.

cod_tripe_sea_urchin_eggsI now come to one of the absolutely fabulous dishes of the evening and my entire life as a food lover. Frozen sea urchin eggs with cod tripe. What a pandemonium of tastes,  aromas and all of them encased on the tender silky texture of the cod tripe!

tagliatelle_di_sepiaWhat followed was another absolute masterpiece, cuttlefish tagliatelle with pesto of nori seaweed. The cuttlefish was tender and tasty, drassed in the incredibly rich in aromas pesto of the nori! Heavenly, heavenly, heavenly!

rossetti

The saga continued with “rossetti” which is some type of scampi with olive oil, scallions and pine kerners. It was the perfect calming down dish, after the wild extravagant taste of the previous dish. Back to “normal”, civilized, food!

scampoWe stayed on the scampi family, the next dish was scampi in their shell, with tamarind. I confess I am crazy for scampi in their shell, with minimal add ons, as you can really taste the sea in all its glory!

lonzino_lecciaThe next dish combined surf and turf, with glorious mouth melting smoked lonzino (a type of cured ham) accompanied by raw leerfish (lecchia), and pears soaked in grapa!

ricciolaAs we approach the end, leerfish is again on the menu, this type with coconut milk and olive oil!

bacalaoThe last dish of the menu was “esquisada di baccala”. Raw cod chunks (salted cod from San Sebastian in the Basque Country, quite possibly the best in the world), with potatoes, pendolini tomatoes and basil.This is a hymn to primary ingredients of the best quality, as the cod’s texture  is supplemented by the sweetness of the potatoes and the incredible acidity of the small tomatoes that have been blessed by the volcanic soil of Vesuvius.

tiramisouThe tirami-sou that followed was deconstructed and absolutely fantastic! The mascarpone was intense and ever present, the cream golden and thick, the chocolate dressed in coffee chunky and bitter! A caramelized wet biscuit on top provided the necessary absorbing agent.No cake needed!

Ristorante Il Pagliaccio, Roma, Italia

Today I want to share with you the impressions from my visit to the restaurant “Il Pagliaccio” in the historical center of Rome.  I went to Rome for professional meetings, and decided to stay overnight so that I could enjoy a good meal and visit the Vatican the next day.  I found this restaurant in the Michelin Guide, which has awarded two stars to it.

Let me start by saying that the service was impeccable. Polite, not overbearing, as restaurant service should be. I selected a menu based on meats, the chef’s menu was something like 7 dishes, which after a very long day is not exactly easy to have.

The first item on the table was a Millefoglie (Mille-Feuille) with ricotta.

Millefoglie
Millefoglie

The pastry was divine, light and crunchy, and it went very well with the noble taste of the cheese. A good start.

A snack based on squid followed.

Squid
Squid

The squid was tender and tasty, the broth even more!

What came next was a dish based on suckling pig’s meat. The full name of the dish is:

“Maialino da latte, prugne caramelllate, sorbetto al latte di cocco e salsa di arachidi”

Suckling pig
Suckling pig

The meat was melting in the mouth and was full of flavours. The darkness in the color is due to the wine where it was marinated. The caramelised prune was tasty, but the sorbet had no place at all! Talking to the head waiter, he explained ot me that the chef wants to emphasize the contrast between hot and cold. Not very convincing in terms of taste.

The next dish was a light one, a risotto, whose full name is:

“Riso, fico, mandorla, capicollo calabrese”

Risotto
Risotto

The center of the circle is occupied by a fig, while the ring is the risotto. The red spots are dried pulverised “capicollo”, a cross between salami and ham from the region of Calabria. Very light taste, I enjoyed the fig and the rise that had mandorla in it, and the capicollo was top. The chef though seems to have a fixation with cold things, so he put a dollop of another frozen concoction on top of the fig, which destroyed the unity of taste of the dish, turning it into a lukewarm mass.

Last dish was lamb, the full name is:

“Kebab di agnello, pomodori secchi e mozzarella”

Lamb
Lamb

This dish was trully delicious, even though it did not look at all like a kebab!

The two cubes on the left were tender pink to rare lamb’s meat, wrapped in delicious thin pastry, on the right you had a couple of pieces of the skin, accompanied by a mozzarella slice, tomato, and parsley sauce. The little gondola like dish on the side was cous cous, without any interest.

The head waiter suggested to accompany the meal with a selection of Italian wines, and he was right. The wines were excellent, coming primarily from small wineries unknown to the large markets, never exported to other countries. What a delight!