A Night Alone in Zurich

(September 21st, 2013) As Kim made her way across the Atlantic, I was left with a night to myself in Zurich. I had instantly fallen in love with the city upon disembarking from the train. I think that the warm weather and blue skies had something to do with that after my time in Stuttgart. 

After dropping my bags off in my hotel, I set out for a ten mile jaunt along the waterfront, passing through the old town first. Like many other European cities, old town Zurich is a giant pedestrian mall. I love those car free areas, and deeply wish that we had more communities like that planned throughout the US. Perhaps one mistake that I made when I first arrived in Zurich was assuming what the exchange rate was. During my run, I saw hotdog stands selling hotdogs for, approximately, 7 Swiss Francs. Somehow, I got it into my head that the exchange rate must have been 3:2 (oh boy, was I mistaken when I later realized it was 1:1).

After my run, I headed to Oepfelchammer for dinner. I sat in the old room where only water and wine could be served with dinner (nothing with carbonation) due to the age of it.  The room had hundreds of years of names carved into the walls, tables, door, and rafters.  Character.

Dinner itself was amazing. For my first course, venison carpaccio with poppyseed mousse.  So creamy. Sometimes a dish is meant to have all ingredients eaten together, but not this one...each portion was so good on its own.  The tender and smokey venison carpaccio almost melted in your mouth, and was paired almost perfectly with an aged balsamic and juicy, juicy radishes.  The poppy seed mousse was a striking contrast, smooth and creamy...perfect for spreading on bread.

Next, for my main course, wachtelbrustchen an portosauce auf ratatouille serviert mit orangenrisotto: quail with ratatouille and risotto.  By contrast, this was meant to have all ingredients eaten together.  The savory quail, the creamy risotto (with a hint of citrus zest), and the tart ratatouille.

To drink, a local rotwein...himmelsleiterli from a grape I've never heard of before (Beerenaromatik?), and for dessert, apple beignets with vanilla sauce. Served with quince, mini kiwis (mini kiwis!), blueberries, and gooseberry.  Those of you that have been to New Orleans know that one beignet is decadent.  Well, 4... The apple tasted subtle but nice. There was actually a layer of apple within the beignet that made it even more fantastic.

Afterwards, a stroll through the city by moonlight before turning in for bed...

Time to leave Torino

(September 14th, 2013) Has it been a year already? It's amazing how time flies when you: 1. buy a new house, 2. get married, 3. start writing a book, and 4. have a kid on the way. Yes, the last year has been quite busy, and, as you can guess, things will only get busier...

Anyways, it's time to finish up with Torino. The last thing that I had wanted to talk about was La Baroque (sorry, no web page for you). Luckily, as we all know how good my memory is, I took notes:

La Baroque.  Fish tasting menu.
Everything on the menu looked so good...I couldn't decide.  Luckily the tasting menu had most of the dishes that I was contemplating (except the fresh eel,  but I'm sure that I enjoyed the red mallet much more than I would have the eel.  I'm trying to think of the last time that I had a meal this satisfying...certainly, this was better than the multi-starred restaurant in Paris.

0: goat cheese mousse with raspberry sorbet. Light, creamy, but melted in your mouth.  Very smooth, I didn't know that you could get that texture out of goat cheese.

 1: marinated, raw scallops, toasted quinoa, daikon, burrata sauce. Textures complimented each other perfectly. Scallop flavor paired well with burrata sauce, though a little rich. And the toasted quinoa...crunchy but still quinoa, one of my favorite grains.

2: fish of the day, a red mallet, served with burraba beans, a seaweed cream wine reduction, topped with salmon roe and finishing salt. The sal de mar, cubed, had just the right crunch and taste to finish the dish off as the other flavors were all mild. Italian white wine from nearby piemonte. Hints of pear amidst its floral notes. In contrast to the later wines, almost had a Chardonnay flavor....but very subdued compared to an actual Chardonnay... much more pleasant really.

3: squid ink tortelli, stuffed with angler fish in a wine sauce. Wine pairing was a local piemontese grape I had never heard of (Erbaluce). Slightly creamy with a wee bitter note at the end. Very graceful (ie smooth and pleasant).Matched the sauce well.  Just about the thinnest pasta of my whole trip.  Delicate, but flavorful.  Accentuated the angler fish stuffed inside.

 4: white fish (mollet? From sea south of Italy) with porcini, creme de celery, mustard sauce, wilted spinach. Tamarind decorating sides of plates. Fish a bit like rockfish, but much larger (see the size of the steak!). Wine from umbria....subtle flavor to contrast the potency of the celery cream and mustard. Finishing salt a flake...punctuated other, creamy flavors.

If you ever want to be very nice, send me one of these bottles...

5: goat cheese cheesecake, with raspberries and pistachio ice cream topped with crushed pistachios. Slightly nutty and chocolatey base. All together, fantastic.  Different texture than a normal cheesecake....creamier really. Harkened back to the goat cheese mousse that started the meal. To drink, a Sicilian dessert wine. Very sweet and thick like a port, but lighter in character.

6: chocolate and crispy rice...reminiscent of voodoo donuts. Cookie: slightly nutty cross between a french cookie and a butter cookie. Nut covered tart filled with a lemon cake. pistachio canolli...ricotta cream was so fresh and va bene. Macaroon with extra dark chocolate shavings.  So bitter by themselves, but an after thought with the creamy macaroon. Raspberry custard tart...trio of flavors and textures meshed so well...tart alone like an egg tart. Cinnamon cookie had a pleasantly contrasting texture to other morsels. Perfect compliment to the espresso. Truffle: uncoated  chocolate ganache rolled in bittersweet chocolate. Very soft, melted in mouth.

And yes, I ordered an espresso for all of the sake of everyone back home since I don't drink coffee.

It's amusing to think that I was worried that I'd leave hungry when I first came in here.  For one of the first times since I arrived in Italy, I am full.

Description of restaurant exactly as billed, though easier to find. Inside it was elegant, like Lauduree but with ample spacing between tables.  Louis Armstrong gently played in the background, and my timing had been impeccable as the restaurant went from empty to full within minutes (I was the first dinner guest at 7:50.

The evening grew late, Louis continued to serenade me, and the wines slowly were imbibed...

Not Just Your Average Pasta!

(September 8th-13th) I am, as you can imagine from all of my running, a huge fan of everything pasta. That being said, I was completely unprepared for how extraordinary pasta could be when made fresh and served right! I won't recount every meal in detail, but a few special places stood out during my time in Torino.

'A Furcina (just a Google page, most places didn't have web pages). This neighborhood gem was precisely that: the type of restaurant that would be my go-to neighborhood haunt if I lived here. Between the waitresses that were all happy to help me make heads or tails of the Italian menu, and the splendid food, this place never failed to satisfy me on my multiple visits. My first visit led me to enjoying aubergine (eggplant) as a first course, and orichette with tomato and ricotta salata as a second with the house wine, which smelled like grape juice (very fruity) but had a sharp, full taste.  

The aubergine was almost like a calzone: ham, cheese, but eggplant instead of bread. And the orchilette, fantastic fresh pasta...al dente, but slightly thicker than we're used to...wonderful texture.  After this trip, I can confidently say that orchilette is my favorite form of pasta now.  Over top of the orchilette was ricotta salata. One word: wow! It was so fresh and pure.  I didn't know you could shave ricotta like that.

For the most part, my dining schedule was diametrically opposed to the Italian schedule of eating. Whenever I was ready for a meal (at a normal American time), it seemed that nowhere was open. Restaurant after restaurant would be closed till well after 1 pm...but just when I had given up hope during my daily wanderings, a street market would appear, complete and full of vibrance.  1/2 mile long, 1/3 of stalls were food...fresh produce with giant, round eggplants, teardrop shaped heirloom tomatoes, fish being carved straight from the carcas (a sword fish)

Before I get into my favorite restaurant of this trip, a few assorted dishes:

You can't very well go to Italy without having a pizza. So fresh, crispy, and delicious. A true carb-lover's paradise!

A typical salad. Lot's of great, high quality ingredients adding layers of flavor.

Don't ask me for the name of this traditional Piedmontese dish, but it was vegetables fried in dough. As I said, a carb-lover's paradise!

Gelato! Me and my colleague from Oxford enjoying a few different flavors.

A different take on brussel sprouts.

Caprese salad with aubergines.

Pasta with mushrooms. Nothing else. So simple, but so incredibly good.

Fresh octopus carpaccio.

A calzone. The bread was fried just right. Fantastic.

And now for the other restaurant that I wanted to highlight, La Barrique. This highly rated restaurant was something that I was saving for my last night in Torino. I splurged, a bit, too, by enjoying their fish tasting menu.

Everything on the menu looked so good; I couldn't decide.  Luckily the tasting menu had most of the dishes that I was contemplating (except the fresh eel,  but I'm sure that I enjoyed the red mallet much more than I would have the eel).  I'm trying to think of the last time that I had a meal this satisfying...certainly, this was better than the multi-starred restaurant in Paris. 

Course 0: goat cheese mousse with raspberry sorbet. Light, creamy, but melted in your mouth.  Very smooth, I didn't know that you could get that texture out of goat cheese.

Course 1: marinated, raw scallops, toasted quinoa, daikon, burrata sauce. Textures complimented each other perfectly. Scallop flavor paired well with burrata sauce, though a little rich. And the toasted quinoa...crunchy but still quinoa, one of my favorite grains.

Course 2: fish of the day, a red mallet, served with burraba beans, a seaweed cream wine reduction, topped with salmon roe and finishing salt. The sal de mar, cubed, had just the right crunch and taste to finish the dish off as the other flavors were all mild. Italian white wine from nearby piemonte. Hints of pear amidst its floral notes. In contrast to the later wines, almost had a Chardonnay flavor....but very subdued compared to an actual Chardonnay... much more pleasant really.

Course 3: squid ink tortelli, stuffed with angler fish in a wine sauce. Wine pairing was a local piemontese grape I had never heard of (Erbaluce). Slightly creamy with a wee bitter note at the end. Very graceful (i.e. smooth and pleasant). Matched the sauce well.  Just about the thinnest pasta of my whole trip.  Delicate, but flavorful.  Accentuated the angler fish stuffed inside.

Course 4: white fish (mollet? From sea south of Italy) with porcini, creme de celery, mustard sauce, wilted spinach. Tamarind decorating sides of plates. The fish was a bit like rockfish, but much larger. Wine from umbria....subtle flavor to contrast the potency of the celery cream and mustard. Finishing salt a flake...punctuated other, creamy flavors.

Course 5: goat cheese cheesecake, with raspberries and pistachio ice cream topped with crushed pistachios. Slightly nutty and chocolatey base. All together, fantastic.  Different texture than a normal cheesecake....creamier really. Harkened back to the goat cheese mousse that started the meal. To drink, a Sicilian dessert wine. Very sweet and thick like a port, but lighter in character. 

Course 6: a medley of morsels. First, a chocolate and crispy rice...reminiscent of voodoo donuts. Next, a cookie: slightly nutty cross between a french cookie and a butter cookie. Nut covered tart filled with a lemon cake. Pistachio canolli...ricotta cream was so fresh and va bene. Macaroon with extra dark chocolate shavings.  So bitter by themselves, but an after thought with the creamy macaroon. Raspberry custard tart...trio of flavors and textures meshed so well...tart alone like an egg tart. Cinnamon cookie had a pleasantly contrasting texture to other morsels. Perfect compliment to the espresso. Truffle: uncoated  chocolate ganache rolled in bittersweet chocolate. Very soft, melted in mouth.
 

And yes, I ordered an espresso for the sake of everyone back home since I don't drink coffee.

It's amusing to think that I was worried that I'd leave hungry when I first came in here.  For one of the first times since I arrived in Italy, I am full.
 

The description of restaurant exactly as billed, though easier to find. Inside it was elegant, like Lauduree but with ample spacing between tables.  Louis Armstrong gently played in the background, and my timing had been impeccable as the restaurant went from empty to full within minutes (I was the first dinner guest at 7:50). 

The evening grew late, Louis continued to serenade me, and the wines slowly were embibed...

 

Matt's Portland Food Blog, Part 2 of Many...

(August 10th and 11th, 2013) Funny how moving, teaching, and being overloaded at work can cause this blog to go on hiatus so abruptly, but we already knew that to be the case from last year! There're still four more restaurants in Portland from my trip that I'd like to mention. First, I'll start with Pok Pok's sister restaurant, Sen Yai. As you may remember how much I love Pok Pok, Sen Yai did not fail to deliver a great meal.

After a morning of hiking up and down Multnomah Falls, the Suki Haeng, pictured above, hit the spot. "Like sukiyaki, minus the soup, and fried instead. A clever Thai derivation of a derivation of the classic Japanese hot pot dish." The sauce was very interesting...slightly sweet but spicey at the same time.

This dish was pretty interesting, it was water spinach, which came as these hollow-tubed greens that you see. Before being served, they were lit on fire, which gave the already nice green flavor of the water spinach a nice, smokey compliment.

Kim ordered the Tom Yan, lemongrass in a coconut broth. Overall, superb! Savory, coconuty, and the seafood blended in well.

The next day, after visiting the Rose Garden and the Chinese Gardens, Kim and I took a walking tour of the Pearl district. After a while, as we still had some time to kill before dinner, we stepped into the Streetcar Bistro and Taproom. While we did have something to eat, our main objective was to sample more of the area beers...

First up: Two Towns' Rhubarbarian (a cider), Rogue's Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Old Rasputin Russian Imperial on Nitro, Magic Hat #9's Pale Ale, and the Grapefruit Lager by 10 Barrel Swill. These were five of about fifty beers that they had on tap...

Round two, because one is never enough, Black Bear Stout, New Belgium's Feijoa, the Pin Up Porter, the Proletariat Red, and the Whistling Pig.

The consensus after we finished all ten of those, Kim's favorite was the Grapefruit Lager by 10 Barrel Swill. This was almost like a cider in nature (probably why Kim loved it so much). My thoughts: well, if this was in Albuquerque, I'd be there every time I needed to go out to a bar. Fantastic experience overall. My favorite from these was the Old Rasputin Russian Imperial on Nitro. Something about serving a porter/stout on nitro just makes it that much better!

As we stumbled out of Streetcar, we were fortunate that we only had a few block to go until we reached dinner: Yama Sushi and Sake Bar. This is how sushi should be. As a preview, the daily specials:

Judging from all of the photos below, I think we had most of them...note the "live" entries above...

First up, the salmon sampler. You always have choices at good sushi restaurants as to what cut of fish you'd like. This extremely fresh dish let us try three different varieties at once. King, Fatty, and Wild. All were fantastic as I love Salmon as much as a bear during spawning season...

Next, fried razor clams. Clams are good, razor clams are so incredibly better. They were seasoned just right and, before I knew it, Kim and I had devoured the entire plate. Too good to savor that is.

The tuna tower is one of their signature dishes. It was worth trying, but about the only thing here that I wouldn't recommend (it was good, don't get me wrong, but there was so much more to try!). It starts off all pretty like you see it above, but then, you get to pretend you're Stitch after building San Francisco - you destroy the tower, blend it all up, and eat however you can with chopsticks. If it looks big in the picture above, it's at least twice as large as you think it is. Very deceptively large and filling - a meal in and of itself (thus why I don't recommend it, unless you're very hungry!).

And now the exotic part of the menu. Kim loves sea urchin (uni). So, having it live was something that we couldn't pass up. For those of you that haven't had sea urchin, here's my impression from the very first time I ate some. Remember the first time you had a fresh oyster? How it was slimey and you just kinda slurped it down? Okay, good. Keep that thought. Sea urchin isn't slimey per se, but it's got an unexpectedly interesting texture that you kinda just suck down once you get it to your mouth. Good, but, just like oysters, it takes a bit of getting used to.

Okay, the sea urchin was clearly not adventurous enough, so next up was live abalone. I'm always surprised by how tough it is, but it was delicious nonetheless.

A bit of a respite. This was the White Tiger Roll, which was wrapped in soy instead of seaweed. By far, my favorite dish: soybean sheet, tamago, eel, avocado, masago, and soft shell crab with unagi sauce. In case you don't know, I love eel (unagi)!
 

Next, the Yama Roll - essentially fried lobster. This was exquisite...after all, they named it after the restaurant.

Last up, live scallop. Oh so good. Yama is how sushi should be. It makes me miss Yoda's in Albuquerque...

Our final culinary stop of the trip was Tasty n Alder. This has quickly become my favorite brunch place in Portland!

We sat right next to the kitchen, which let us take a few notes for how everything was made. It's endlessly fascinating for me to watch chefs at work...

To wet our appetites, we started off with a chocolate potato doughnut. This reminded me of something from Culpeper...I can't put my finger on what though, but, despite the appearance, it wasn't too sweet. Just enough to warm us up for our meals...

To share, we had the potatoes bravas. The sauce was tomatoes, sriracha, possibly molasses (it was a little sweet). The potatoes were deep fried, then tossed in the sauce and served with an egg over easy. So good, and the sauce made the dish.

My main course was the beast of a sandwich shown above...the Steakhouse Sandwich. It was big, messy, and delicious. Just the way a sandwich should be. No condiments were needed as the flavors of the sandwich went perfectly together with the shoestring onions on top.

Kim's main course was the Duck Duck Steak. A duck egg, and a steak cooked in duck fat. This managed to infuse the flavor of the duck into the steak. A very unique and neat taste that's surprisingly hard to reproduce at home. I must not be using enough duck fat!

Well, that's all that I have for the Portland edition of my blog for now. Next up, Pascal visits New Mexico!