Lost in Spain: Jamonisimo, the best ham I've ever had

So today for lunch, Nick and I tracked down another restaurant recommendation courtesy of Anthony Bourdain's "Decoding Ferran Adria" documentary: Jamonisimo.

Birgit and John attempted the same on Tuesday before we all met up for the El Bulli Extravaganza with no success. So Nick and I were a little nervous that we might also end up with nothing to show for our efforts. Fortunately we found success.

And let me tell you, it was worth the tracking and blackberry searching and wrong turns down streets with no signage. This was by far the most incredible cured pork product I have ever had the pleasure of consuming.

So for those who are not Jamon Iberico connoisseurs, there are three different grades of Jamon Iberico. The highest grade is a type of Jamon Iberico labeled with the phrase "de bellota." Basically this indicates that these lucky swine were fed a diet of acorns exclusively which gives the meat and the fat an especially buttery texture.

After a bit of finagling over the menus (only available in either Spanish or Catalan, clearly this is a place only locals go usually), we managed to communicate to our lovely if non-English speaking store clerk that we wanted to try the sampling of the house Jamon, an animal raised "de bellota" in the Salamonca region of Spain. The selection of meats comes from three different parts of the cured ham leg, each with it's own special texture and taste.

Over a couple of glasses of cava, we slowly consumed the ham, bite by mindblowingly flavorful bite. The fat on the ham slices was practically melting at room temperature. Can I say divine? I think all ham will somehow seem pedestrian after this . . . A few bites of cheese and another glass of cava later and we found ourselves stuffed to the gills with only a few hundred grams of ham and cheese and smiling and gesturing to the shop keeper that we would be back the next day to purchase Jamon to bring home with us. There is just no way I can go back to Frankfurt without bringing John and Birgit a taste of what we just experienced.

Lost in Spain: Savoring the Sea

So after what was by far the most incredible meal I have had the pleasure to consume, Birgit, John, Nick and I lingered this morning in Roses to dine at another place we had heard about called Rafa's.

We found this restaurant after watching a DVD Birgit bought John as part of his birthday present called Decoding Ferran Adria with Anthony Bourdain. In this video Anthony Bourdain mentioned two other restaurants that Ferran Adria had taken him to, one was a Jamon Iberico store in Barcelona (we're hoping to find it tomorrow) and the other was this tiny little seafood restaurant in Roses that is Ferran Adria's favorite place to eat when he's not working.

Apparently Rafa won't even open the restaurant if he doesn't think the seafood is up to par, but we were lucky today, he was open and he was cooking up a storm for us. We ordered more food than I can possibly believe and consumed it faster than you might think possible given the quantities, but somehow, it was just so fresh, so pure that you could eat and eat and eat and not ever feel too full.

We started off with a series of appetizers, all very simply prepared on the grill with olive oil, garlic and some lemon juice. It was so hard to choose so we actually ended up with five dishes as appetizers: wonderfully crunchy but tender sea cucumber, grilled baby squid, garlicky scampis, prawns (stripy ones that looks like tiny painted lobsters), and grilled clams. And then for the main courses we had sea bream (deboned tableside) and monk fish. Both were excellent, but I think the monk fish had the best flavor of the two.

And of course no meal on this trip so far would be complete without some type of dessert. not that we actually had room for it, but we just couldn't help ourselves when the waitress offered us a special dessert plate to enjoy. Actually it was a combination of three desserts, a fresh goat cheese (kind of a chevre, but even fresher) drizzled with sweet Spanish honey, a chocolate torte and apple tart. Very delicious and a good way to finish the meal. If this is how the eating has started out on this trip, I can only imagine that I'll be heading back to Frankfurt with no need to eat again for at least a month.

Lost in Scandenavia: Food, glorious food

As Doug and I winged our way to Finland last night, we decided that we wanted to check out the only Michelin 2-star restaurant in Finland: Chez Dominique. Unfortunately they were booked solid. So we went for the next best thing (in my mind the better choice), a restaurant called Pos3.

Now the thing about Pos3 (pronounced Pos Tres is that was started by two of the sous chefs from Chez Dominique who defected right after the restaurant received it's second star. And they took a fair amount of the front house staff along with them. I love places where the chefs are young and hungry (please forgive the horrible pun), but honestly, these are the guys who always work the hardest to come up with a memorable meal. And it was definitely memorable. Completely worth the almost four hours we spent dining. We skipped the full wine tasting but there was a wine from Le Cedre (a 100% Malbec vintage) that was quite exceptional.

Anyway, I highly recommend checking out Pos3 if you happen to find yourself in Helsinki sometime soon.

Here's what our 7+ course meal looked like:


Pressed shoulder of lamb with Fennel and Truffle Oil








Duck Foie Gras Terrine with Brioche and Saffron Vegetables









Seafood Stew with Brill and Crayfish in a Potato Shell with Lobster and Fried Scallop, garnished with Asparagus Foam and Spinach Puree






Sorbet of Lemon with Champagne








Roasted Deer with Black Truffle, Shepard's Pie and Wine Roasted Pear








Goat and Sheep Cheese Selection






French Macaroon with White Truffle and Hazelnut Mousse**
Rose Marmalade Turkish Delight
Vanilla Marshmallow

**These were so good that we asked for extra macaroons to bring back to the hotel with us.



Peach Melba with Vanilla Ice Cream, Raspberry Sorbet with Fresh Peaches and Raspberries, and Raspberry Juice








Chocolate Ravioli with 12 Chocolate Sorbet

**Note 12 Chocolate is apparently a Venezuelan brand of chocolate

Here's to smoking!

After an insanely long day/night of flying and almost a full day of work, I finally hauled my suitcases (which appear to have filled themselves with weights during the trip back) up the stairs and into my apartment. How wonderful to be home.

A little while later, battling the overwhelmingly soporific effect of my travels, Nick and I caught up over a light dinner from the Italian place downstairs, Trattoria Promis. A surprisingly good and reasonably priced place, I had a really delicious wild boar and chestnut ravioli in tomato sauce for dinner. Plus, whenever I stop by for take out after a long night at the office they ply me with prosecco or red wine while I wait for my food. Can't beat that!

Anyhow, over pasta our conversation rambled through wedding stories and pregnancy tales (sorry for the scare, Nick!) from me and snowy tales of Vienna and rowdy birthday parties from him until all of a sudden we could barely hear ourselves over a raucous chanting song that poured in from the alleyway.

Of all the things to see winding through the streets of Frankfurt at 8pm on a Monday night, the last thing I expected to see was a pro-smoking protest. They had signs and banners and even their own song! Given that my state in Germany, Hessen, recently passed a smoking ban in public places (this includes bars and restaurants), I'm curious to see how public opinion reacts as the weather gets colder. It's a new thing for this country and seeing as how Germany has one of the higher smoking rates in Europe I can't imagine people are too happy about it. Well, come to think of it, a protest on Monday night is a pretty clear sign that they're not thrilled. Then again, I think the Germans will protest just about anything right now, what with the rail strikes and such going on. Forgive the blurry nature of the photos, it was hard to get a quick shot off while they walked by in the dark.

Anyway, it was a lovely welcome home after my oh so brief sojourn in the States.

On the restaurant note, if you're interested in good Italian food in Frankfurt, I do recommend my little neighborhood joint.

Trattoria Promis
Gartenstraße 17
60594 Frankfurt am Main

Excellent Italian food for a pretty decent price.

2007 F&W Best New Chefs!

Some of you may remember that a few years ago I took a brief foray into the world of public relations and had the chance to work with some amazing chefs in Chicago and Kentucky. Well, one of my favorite former clients, Paul Virant, was just named one of Food & Wine magazine's 10 Best New Chefs in 2007.

So if you are in Chicago and have the chance, or you haven't been in a while, I highly recommend you check out his restaurant, Vie. It's about 20 minutes outside of the city by Metra and his food is fantastic. Plus he's an all around nice guy and I just love promoting people I like even if I'm not paid for it anymore.

You can learn more about him and check out some of his recipes and even watch him prep one of his dishes here:

Oktoberfest 2007: Kick-off in Frankfurt

Well, yesterday people heading down to Munich for Oktoberfest this weekend started to arrive in Frankfurt. Actually, we're now only missing my fantastic brother, Marc, who gets in on Saturday at 6am (yikes!!) and the illustrious Kent Middleton, Creative Director extraordinaire who will be meeting us down South.

It should be a pretty fantastic crew T.J. and his wife Melissa, Jeff Cantalupo and his girlfriend Leigh Ann (who just made the big move over to Spain to join him!), Jeff's sister and her husband, Birgit, Marc and I. It's a heavy Leo Burnett crowd, but so much fun.

Last night we went to a restaurant in Frankfurt called Silk. It's one of the molecular gastronomy crowd/avant garde food movement crowd. Obviously inspired by Ferran Adria, it's a good addition to my dining experiences in my long running quest to finally make it to El Bulli. . .

Here are the courses as best I remember them (this is definitely not all of them):

Olive -Olive Juice trapped in a soft casing to look like and Olive (very similar to a dish offered at El Bulli last year)
Salmon in a Cone - A thin wonton wrapper like cone filled with
Risotto
Pear and Goat Cheese - Pear Juice Shooter with Caviar, goat cheese and candied walnut
Breakfast Egg - Slow poached egg at 60C for 6 hours, gnocchi, Parmesan foam
Lobster
Chicken with mushrooms
Brownie withe Pine Tree Sprout Foam - pine tree foam, pomegranate compote, brownie and quark
Apple Tart
Silk Lollipop - Spun Cotton Candy wrapped around a chilled fruit cake (which I think may have been mango?)

Lost in Italy: Monterosso el Mare, Cinque Terre

After a long, traffic filled drive along the coast, we wound our way up through the hills and back down through the narrow serpentine roads until we saw our first glimpse of the sea. It was beautiful.

The village that we are staying in, Monterosso, is tucked down by the water, edging back up the hillsides like waves slipping onto the beach as the tide comes in. The houses in the sunset light look like pastel paint splashes against the green trees of the slopes. I think we might be staying in a postcard.

Although there is no doubt this is a tourism destination, somehow it feels less so because mostly it's Italian tourists with a few Germans and Brits sprinkled in for good measure. From what I've read the Cinque Terre tourism trade exploded a few years ago when UNESCO named it a world heritage site. From what I can see so far, it doesn't feel like the village has been overwhelmed by a locust cloud of tourists. It still feels like a place where you might only go because you live a few hours drive away. The perfect long weekend escape during the summer.

After getting settled in our next hotel (better than the one in Siena, but still, horrible pillows!), we wandered down to the harbor to see what we could find for dinner. A tiny little restaurant called Restaurant Miky tucked away by the beach seemed like a good fit for our first meal on the coast. And it was, they served beautiful foods. I had a local specialty, dorade baked in salt. When they brought out my fish and began pulling off the salt crust and lifting out the flesh I could barely contain myself. I did manage to ask for my favorite part of the fish, the cheeks. They are so tender and so flavorful, I love them. When all the flesh was off the bone, our waiter brought over a selection of olive oils, all locally grown and pressed. It was beautiful oil, spicy and green. Young, the way olive oil should be to compliment a baked fish. That was all there was to my dinner, the simple moist flesh of the dorade drizzled with piquant local olive oil. Mmm, I can still taste it now.

Of course we also ordered a bottle of wine. I mean what dinner in Italy would be complete without having a bottle or two of vino? So we picked out a really delicious D.O.C. wine from the Cinque Terre, a crisp bot not too dry white. The area is actually known for the D.O.C. white wines they produce and this was a pretty good starting place. Sadly I forgot to pull the label off, but I'm going to try to track down a few more bottles to bring home with me.

The other food the area is known for are the lemon groves that line the hillsides along the cliffs. So of course, dessert had to be lemon tart made with locally grown lemons. They are in season right now and I love nothing more than eating local, seasonal foods. . . .

After all that food a stroll along the ocean seemed about right, so we wandered down the boardwalk for about an hour before calling it quits and heading back to the hotel. I can't wait to hike along the cliffs tomorrow. I hope the weather cooperates.


Where we are staying:

Villa Adriana
http://www.villaadriana.info/
Address:
Via IV Novembre, 23
19016 Monterosso al Mare
Phone: +39 0187 818109

Although the pillows are awful, it is perfectly located in the village and the staff has been very kind and helpful so far.

Restaurants:
Ristorante Miky
Via Fegina 104
19016 Monterosso al Mare
Telefono/Fax: 0 187 817 608


Helpful links:

Cinque Terre Information

Wikipedia

WikiTravel