Monday, March 29, 2010

Bits o' Stuff - Dutch Snacks

Argh..  delinquent again!  Blame it on Final Fantasy 13.

While in Amsterdam, we came across something called Dutch Snacks on the menu at one of the many random bars we visited.  The waitress closed the deal when she said the secret magic word, "deep-fried"


These fried little balls, better known as bitterballen, were very interesting.  Inside was a runny curry flavored beefy mixture, kind of a stew texture.  Fried to a crisp, it was eaten with mustard for a kick.  I don't know if I will be craving this anytime soon, but it was a pleasant savory and crunchy companion to cold beers.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Madrid Part 2 - Tasting Menu

I mentioned before that Madrid was one of the most exciting food cities I've ever been to.  One night, I was treated to an amazing tasting menu.  Unfortunately, my feeble grasp of Spanish hindered my brain from remembering the name of the restaurant.  or where it's located.  I'm so not helpful.

We started with a fish mousse.  For some reason, I love fish in whipped form, as you all know from my love of bacalao.  So I loved this.  Creamy but light, salty, ocean-y.


The mousse was followed up by a jamon salad.  Not just any jamon salad, this one came with foie gras and pomegranate.


How do you improve the already incomparable jamon?  why, just throw some foie gras on it!  How can this salad be bad?  No, it can't and it wasn't.  The tangy pomegranate cut thru the unctuousness of the jamon and foie.  *insert homer gurgling sound here.*

Next up was mushrooms sauteed with crumbled blood sausage and eggs.  This was one of my favorite dishes of the night.  The ingredients just complement each other so well.  It kind of reminded me of Chinese food.  Yum


Then we ate more jamon.  This time, sliced thin on top of a plate of fries and fried peppers.  The fried peppers were so tasty.  I could have eaten a whole plate of those salty peppers.


I was pretty full after the first four plates, but nope, they were just starters.  On to our mains!  First up, monk fish with cockles.  It was in a tomato-y broth.  I thought it was good.  But monk fish isn't my favorite fish (but i love monk fish liver, mmmm).  So I was ambivalent towards this dish.



Following that fairly large piece of fish, was a fairly large piece of steak.  It came with fried zucchinis (those tofu looking things) and mushrooms.  The zucchinis were so tasty.  Kind of like the korean style fried zucchinis, battered in eggs.  The mushrooms were not so good.  The steak was fine, but I was so full by that times to really enjoy it.  



We finished off the meal with our own plate of assorted desserts.  I can't recall what was on that plate.  Looks like there was flan, custard-y thing, and some cake-y stuff.  Um.  



Another decadent meal down, stay tuned for my meal of innards in Madrid.  Sweetbreads, tripes, and kidneys, oh my!  





Sunday, March 07, 2010

Bits o' Stuff - Chocolatería San Ginés

After dinner one night, I dragged my eating companion to the famed Chocolateria San Ginés for some additional but non-essential nourishment, fried dough and chocolate, or churros con chocolate.



It was good but wasn't life altering. Yes, I do expect my food to be life altering. You don't? The churros were great. Very crispy and light with a slightly chewy center. The chocolate was just okay. I would have liked it to be a bit darker and more chocolate-y. It had great texture though, rich and creamy. But since the churros were just a vehicle to scoop the chocolate into my mouth, I pinned a lot of hopes on the chocolate to change my life.

One portion is definitely too much for one person. But definitely come with a friend and try for yourself.

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Madrid Part 1 - Sobrino de Botin

Food in Madrid was a revelation.  It was exciting, eclectic, and bold.  If Paris was about perfection in details, like the perfectly layered flakiness of a buttery croissant, then Madrid was all about the unexpected and explosive flavors and textures, like an addicting bowl of callos.  I loved Madrid.  Every meal was a culinary exploration.  I was so lucky to have my wonderful and generous food-loving Madrid colleagues to show me the diversity is Madrid cruisine.  Like in Paris, I was spoiled rotten.

My first real meal in Madrid was at the famed Sobrino de Botin and damn, is the fame well deserved.  Botin is not only well known for being the oldest restaurant in Madrid (Goya, my fav artist, was a waiter there!) but also for their conchinillo asado (roast suckling pig).


What is there left to say that hasn't already been said about this dish.  OMG, it was awesome.  Awesome to the 10000000th degree.  The simply prepared suckling pig (very young, like barely out of womb young), was so tender and flavorful in its own juices, almost milky in texture.  The melt-in-your-mouth meat was contrasted by the crispy and salty skin. I wished I had an whole pig instead of two slices.  I want pig!

Before we devoured the awesomeness that was the suckling pig, we devoured the awesomeness that was jamon ibérico.  I've dreamed of tasting this famed jamon for so long....


See the fat on every slice?  Yeah, that was deliciousness.  Jamon ibérico tasted very different from the familiar jamon I've had.  It had almost a forest-y flavor.  Both the meat and the fat were silkier than the average jamon, which resulted in almost none of that stringiness that you sometimes get with regular jamon.  I wanted to buy a whole leg to bring back with me.  Why didn't I?!  Argh argh argh. 


We finished the meal by sharing a trio of desserts - some sort of fritter with some sort of cream, cheesecake, and mascarpone-ish cheese with mangos.  



I don't remember much about the fritters.  I remember thinking it was good, but not much else stuck with me.  The cheesecake was more memorable, it was very light and fluffy, more Italian-ish than American.  But my favorite was the mascarpone and mango.  I basically ordered it because I am weak in the presence of mascarpone.  And mascarpone did not let me down.  It was thick and creamy yet light.  It went perfectly with the mango puree, kind of like a tangy ice cream on top of mango puree.  

After all that food and wine, we needed the very strong digestif that the waiter was dispensing.  No, not really, but whatever.  it was free digestif.  You don't say no to free digestif, no matter how many cañas and glasses of wine you've had.


Sobrino de Botin is one of a kind.  They've been cooking in the same oven for the hundreds of years. I sincerely hope there are hundreds more years to come.


Monday, March 01, 2010

Bits o' Stuff - Café Gourmand

Since I'm once again extremely behind in posting stuff, I've decided to start posting random bits more often instead of putting together a whole post.  I don't need that pressure of putting together long posts all the time, I tell you.  So for the first Bits o' Stuff, I introduce to you, the awesome French invention -  Café Gourmand.


Damn, I wish I found out what café gourmand was a long time ago.  I always thought it was a gourmet espresso or something, you know, like with whipped cream and sprinkles.  But nope, it's a dessert for those who are indecisive, like moi!  Café gourmand is basically a bunch of dessert bites with a side of espresso.  The above picture came from a random Irish Pub in Paris, yep, Irish pub.  And yet, random this Irish pub brought out a macaron, mini crème brulée, and a brownie thing with some cream.  How awesome is that!?  Much better than whipped cream and sprinkles.  Much much better.