GASTROMONDIALE

HISPANIA: A MUST VISIT IN CATALUNYA

Ranking:  5/5 STARS (Informal Category)

Last Visit:  Nov. 16, 2009

ADRESS:  Arenys de Mar

TELEPHONE: 937 910457

SUMMARY: This is not only a great Spanish/Catalonian restaurant but one of my favorite informal restaurants anywhere in the world.  Sisters Pequita and Lolita and son Raimun are all great cooks, and they are all passionate about ingredient quality.  I have dined there five to six times and would claim that the quality of the products in this restaurant rank well above the five Michelin three star restaurants in Spain.  Dishes may look simple but it is hard to think of any improvement on them without compromising their integrity.  Cooking is often precise but I have also noticed some overcooking of meat and vegetables on a couple of occasions.  But this is also a rare restaurant in the sense that they normally excel in fish, meat as well as vegetable preparations.  They also serve a crème catalane which should be the guidepost to compare against when ranking other crème catalanes.

CA L'ENRIC: WOODCOCK FEAST

Ranking :  18/20 (Formal Category)

Date Visited:  November 14, 2009

ADRESS:  2 kilometer east on C-26 from the small town of l’Hostalnou de Bianya

PHONE: 972 290 015

SUMMARY:  An all becada (woodcock) meal may not provide sufficient basis to evaluate a restaurant. However this is my second meal at Ca L’Enric and my ranking is the average of the two meals: 17/20 and 19/20, respectively.  This is one of the most under-rated restaurants by the Michelin guide which gives only one star.  The becada meal was outstanding, and together with the November meal at L’Ambroisie where Pacaud served his incomparable wild duck tourte with tartufi-pico magnatum (a quality not found in Alba town), I  would argue that this was one of the two most memorable meals of 2009. Please note that there is an interesting book in Spanish by Jaume Coll entitled “El Crepusculo De La Becada”. My understanding is that Joan and Isabelle Montois, brother sister team in the kitchen (photo below), relied on some of the historical recipes found in this book to prepare this meal. The eldest brother of the trio which owns the restaurant, Jordi Montois, is also the sommelier and his selections should not disappoint wine lovers. 

SIMPSON: FLAVOR EXPLOSION IN COSTA BRAVA

RANKING:  5 STARS (Informal Category)

Date Visited: 13 November, 2009

Address: Passeig de Cipsela No. 10.  Llafranca

Tel: 972 301157

SUMMARY:  This is an excellent restaurant  in its own category. It does not pretend to be an haute cuisine temple. It is rather a friendly, casual place, like a bistro or osteria. Mirabella works virtually alone in the kitchen and her husband Felix is in the living room. Mirabella has not been formally trained and she works by instinct and, not unlike the two sisters who own the great Hispania of Arenys del Mar, she concocts unique dishes with great character.  Her cooking is very light but flavorful. Both vegetables and the seafood is of outstanding quality. Indeed the restaurant receives several shipments of fresh shellfish each day from local fisherman. (SEE PHOTOS)  The langouste of this region is especially noteworthy in the sense that it is quite sweet and flavorful and not cottony.  I am impressed by the technique and ingredient quality of this place.

The clientele is primarily well off Catalonian families who have summer residences in CostaBrava.

 

 

BRAVO SWITZERLAND: SOME RECOMMENDED SWISS WINES FROM CASTELLO LUIGI ZANINI AND OTHERS

During the last six months I had the privilege of dining twice at Rochat and twice at Pont de Brent, two leading Michelin three star restaurants in Switzerland.  I used the opportunity to taste as many Swiss wines at possible which turned out to be inriguing to say the least. Below are my recommendations and rankings.

COMMENTS ON JANCIS ROBINSON’S COMMENTS ON TURKISH WINES

Less than a month ago the reknowned wine writer Jancis Robinson visited Turkey and conducted an extensive tasting of Turkish wines in front of a large group of wine professionals and producers.  She also visited two producers, Corvus and Kavaklidere, and tasted several wines from their barrels.  She then published her tasting notes and overall conclusions both in her website and the FT. Those interested to read her extensive notes should consult them.

My own interest in Ms. Robinson’s  views on Turkish wines simply stems from the fact that I am Turkish and that I write twice a week for the Turkish daily Milliyet (Sundays on restaurants and Tuesdays on wine related topics). I also have my own TV show where I visit and evaluate restaurants in Turkey, and while eating different dishes I offer some tips on food-wine matching to the extent allowed by draconian Laws in Turkey which discourage wine consumption. (The program is called Vedat Milor’la Tadi Damagimda and is aired three times a week on prime time by NTV.)  I should also add that, although I am known in Turkey primarily for restaurant reviews, I consider myself first and foremost a wine lover. 

Ubuntu: Unfilfilled Promise of a Vegetarian in Napa

There are few restaurants in the world that I want to see in top form as much as Ubuntu.

For one thing most chefs today pay lip service to the potentials inherent in cooking with vegetables, but do scant justice to them.  Vegetables are often relegated to a secondary or lesser role in dishes concocted by great chefs, and sometimes one is astonisted that in some Michelin 3 star restaurants one can eat very mediocre vegetables used as "garnies" in meat and fish dishes.

For another thing, California now boasts some quite good produce.  Maybe still not on par with the best examples of the Old Continent, but a visit to the still reigning temple of California cuisine, that is Chez Panisse in Berkeley,  or a visit to Los Gatos to the shining star “Manresa”, should open anybody’s eyes to the potential inherent in California produce.

This is maybe why I was quite moved in hearing that Chef Kinch’s assistant at Manresa, Jeremy Fox, had left to become the chef of a new venture in Napa.  This very talented and nice fellow is now at the helm of the vegetarian Ubuntu restaurant in Napa. His wife is the dessert chef.

An Exceptional Restaurant in Sevilla: Jaylu

10 years ago I was enthusiastic about the high end dining scene in Spain.  Juan Mari Arzak was still cooking  great dishes;  Zuberoa was in top shape; Berasategui had not forgotten his Basque roots; and,  Feran Adria was cooking some real food and tasty dishes at El Bulli.  One could then even eat well at Akelare.

Now it is a much changed landscape. Most of the high end dining in Spain is dominated by a synthetic, artificial cuisine based on generic ingredients.  It is no wonder then that these multi starred Michelin chefs are usually devoid of a domestic client base. With the exception of a small clique in Spain organized around “Lo Mejor de la Gastronomia” and R. Garcia Santos, very few Spaniards seem to be lured by the avant-garde cooking and/or the so called “creations” of young chefs who learn about fancy plating and a panoply of experimental lab equipments and various chemical stabilizers before they can tell the difference between a rock bass and a farmed one.  Unfortunately these chefs don’t even know how to properly quarter a whole hog or cow, and they are at the behest of  those who vacuum pack teeny-tiny cuts of fish and meat to be sous-vided in the restaurant and then artistically plated.

The irony is that Spain is still a great destination for dining, but for a different reason. The reason is that Spain has arguably the best seafood and ham in the world, and, some of the worst, overoaked, over the top, international style wines in the world….

Tokyo Journal (by David Kinch)

I am delighted to publish David Kinch’s review of four outstanding restaurants in Tokyo.

The Michelin guides awards more three stars to Tokyo than to any other city in the world, but for many of us, including myself, the very best of  the Japanese cuisine  remains a black box.

Kinch, owner and chef of the Manresa restaurant in Los Gatos, where I had some of my best meals in the States, has visited Tokyo with a Japanese friend who helped him navigate some terrain unknown to Westerners.  Personally I found his reviews to be very honest in the sense that he makes a very sincere effort to come to terms with a genre of cuisine which is new to him, and he approaches this new realm with an open mind and scientific curiosity.  Being a world class chef certainly helps him to delve deeply into some details, but he never loses sight of the greater forest.

I hope the readers of gastromondiale will enjoy and benefit from these reviews as much as I did.

Vedat Milor

Alinea

SUMMARY:   Chef  Achatz  offers an avant-garde cuisine with unmistakeable personality.  Achatz  loves to compose his dishes from too many elements, but he does not lose sight of overall balance. More often than not his creations are harmonious and pleasing both to the eye and to the palate. On the other hand, some dishes are overwrought and unnecessarily complicated.  He should also be commended for not losing the clarity of ingredients, despite overly manipulating them.  This said, his penchant for seeking the most intense taste often leads to excessive use of  “de-hyrdrating and smoking” techniques to the detriment of tiring the palate and detracting from the overall progression of the meal.

The overall progression of the meal is indeed quite random. There is no well thought out rationale as to why some dishes are offered in the sequence they are offered.  The wine pairing in Alinea is also not perfect.  It is much better to order an Austrian dry Riesling and/or a Chablis than to ask for the expensive and not well conceived  wine pairing program.

Gastromondiale ranking: 16/20 or **

The Real Luau (by David Katz)

As a lover of food who has moved to the Hawaiian island of Kauai, I could either lament the lack of great restaurants, or embrace the delicious traditional preparations of the wonderful range of indigenous ingredients.

To be fair, there has long been a movement among the best Hawaiian chefs to replace the bland fare that hotels feed to visitors with elegantly simple dishes of local fish and organic produce.  But were Michelin to tour the entire state, they would find one or two places worth a stop, and none worth a detour, let alone a journey. 

Foremost among the Hawaiian culinary traditions is the feast known as the luau.