SHOP: Salumi Cured Meats

Salumi Cured Meats

309 Third Ave South (between Main and Jackson, across from Seattle Lighting)

Seattle, WA 98104

Phone (206) 621 8772

http://www.salumicuredmeats.com/

Salumi es una tienda especializada en Salame. El dueño es Armandino Batali, padre de Mario Batali.

RECETA: Spaetzle

Ingredientes (2 o 3 personas):

1 cup harina
1 teaspoon sal
1/2 teaspoon pimienta
1/2 teaspoon nuez moscada
2 huevos grandes o 3 medianos
1/4 cup leche
3 tablespoons manteca

Preparación:

Poner a hervir una olla con sal gruesa, marina o kosher.
En un bol mezclar la harina, sal, pimienta y nuez moscada.
En otro bol batir los huevos con la leche.
Ir agregando la mezcla de huevos y leche lentamente y batiendo a la mezcla de harina.
Dejar reposar por 15 minutos.
Poner la masa en un Spaetzle Maker y cuando los spaetzle floten en la superficie dejar 2 minutos.
Retirar del fuego y colar. Enfriar con agua fria para cortar la cocción.
En una sartén poner la manteca, agregar los spaetzle y saltear unos minutos.

CHOCOLATE: Summerdown Pure Mint

En nuestro último viaje a New York, de excursión por el Chelsea Market (75 9th Ave, New York, NY 10011) nos compramos una deliciosa caja de chocolate peppermint creams de Summerdown Pure Mint (http://www.summerdownmint.com) en Chelsea Market Baskets (chelseamarketbaskets.com)
In-cre-i-bles!

SOPA: Eating Right Soup: Spicy Thai Noodle Soup

Eating Right Soup: Spicy Thai Noodle Soup

Un caldo picantito con noodles, Thai lemongrass, lima, y jengibre.

Deliciosa!!! y con muy pocas calorias!!!

Cadbury Caramel Egg

Que hace más grande a un gran pais? El dulce de leche!!!

En USA, Cadbury vende Cadbury Caramel Egg, huevos de pascua rellenos de dulce de leche!!

Deliciosos!!! Que pasa que a nadie se le ocurrio antes????

TRAVEL: An Epicurean Pilgrimage: Meals Worth the Price of a Plane Ticket

By R. W. APPLE Jr from NY Times . Published: October 22, 2006
http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/travel/22apple.html?pagewanted=all

AFTER half a century of assiduous eating in restaurants around the world, first avocationally and more recently professionally, I have become accustomed to certain questions: “What's your favorite restaurant?” “What will you order for your last meal on earth?” “Which is best — French cuisine? Italian? Chinese?” All unanswerable, of course. Now comes a more modest proposition: Name 10 restaurants abroad that would be worth boarding a plane to visit, even in these fraught days.

O.K. Here's my list. Please note, this is neither an enumeration of my favorites (though some of those are included) nor a ranking of the world's best (like those fatuous lists put out each year by Restaurant magazine in London). Rather than reciting a long list of two- and three-star gastronomic temples, I have chosen purlieus both grand and small, better to reflect my own eating habits. And rather than loading up my list with French and Italian addresses, I have arbitrarily restricted my choices to one per country, for much the same reason. I would expect no one else to choose the same 10, but on the other hand, I would be astonished if many of my nominations disappointed.

FLEURIE, FRANCE Auberge du Cep, Place de l'Église; (33-4) 7404-1077;

French country cooking — or bistro cooking, as its urban variant is called — deserves, but is not often accorded, a place among the world's culinary glories beside French haute cuisine. Based on regional products, honestly handled, “unfoamed and unfused” in the words of my friend Colman Andrews, late of Saveur magazine, it is the specialty of this small restaurant on the main square of a prettily named village in Beaujolais. It is a specialty unflinchingly embraced by its proprietor, Chantal Chagny, who five years ago banished lobster and truffles from her menu and turned her back on two Michelin stars in favor of the simpler dishes she adores, like herb-crusted, perfectly fried, never-frozen frogs' legs, crisp-edged sweetbreads, soup made of garden herbs, roast wild duck from a local river and rosy tenderloin of regional Charolais beef, France's best.

Love and skill are lavished on the simplest dishes — tiny, tender lamb chops, neglected freshwater fish like perch and pike-perch (sander), eggs poached in red wine (oeufs en meurette), toothsome squab, black currant sorbet, even snails — great fat ones, bubbling happily in their shells, bathed in garlic, parsley, butter and Pernod. Here is the food most of us travel to France to taste, and who can resist it once tasted? Here, too, are the little regional wines we search for — especially Beaujolais, 60 of them, including 30 from Fleurie itself, one of the 10 designated crus known for excellence.

SANT'AGATA SUI DUE GOLFI, ITALY Don Alfonso 1890, corso Sant'Agata 11; (39-081) 878-0026; www.donalfonso.com.

Americans of my vintage (b. 1934), weaned on the red-tablecloth food of the Italian south, were later taught that it was uncool, compared with the blander specialties of Milan and Venice. But we were also taught that in Italian cooking, the quality of ingredients is everything, and it is the south — the Mezzogiorno — that produces the juiciest fruits, the briniest clams and tuna, the best buffalo-milk mozzarella cheese, and the world's most sumptuous tomatoes, known as San Marzanos and raised near Mount Vesuvius, just south of Naples.

Alfonso and Livia Iaccarino (she of the zippy white patent-leather boots) grow herbs, lemons and peaches, artichokes and eggplants and, of course, prize tomatoes, plus the olives for their own tangy, fruity oil, in a sun-kissed garden facing the Isle of Capri near their restaurant on the Sorrento peninsula. In their lovely pastel dining room, they serve fresh, understated, unmistakably Italian food in great profusion — ravioli with caciotta (a sheep's milk cheese), wild marjoram, barely heated chopped tomatoes and basil; rolls of baby sirloin filled with raisins, pine nuts, parsley and garlic, atop a ragout of wild endive; rabbit simply but exquisitely grilled with herbs; squid and baby octopus of a very high caliber. The tufa cellar, first excavated by the Etruscans, is stocked with wines from all around the world.

SAN SEBASTIÁN, SPAIN Arzak, Avenida Alcalde Jose Elosegui, 273; (34-943) 27-8465; www.arzak.es.

I'll take a pass here on El Bulli; for one thing, you don't need me to tell you about it, and for another, Arzak is more to my taste. It is nicely poised between an older, French-inspired style of innovation, as represented by Juan Mari Arzak, who trained in the nouvelle cuisine kitchen of the Troisgros brothers in Roanne (where I myself spent a few happy days long ago), and the new wave of ground-breaking Spanish cooking, as exemplified by Ferran Adrià and his disciples, including Mr. Arzak's daughter, Elena.

The result is an enriched, reinvigorated Basque cuisine that retains a sense of tradition and place. One fine Easter day, my wife, Betsey, and I ate our Paschal lamb — a custom throughout Christendom, and especially among the sheep-herding Basques — at the Arzaks' 110-year-old roadside tavern, rated three stars in the Michelin guide. Rather than run-of-the-mill gigot, however, a faintly gamy deboned chop came to the table wearing a tissuelike coffee-flavored “veil” — a taste-enhancing shroud made by baking a layer of café con leche between sheets of Silpat pan liner. With the pan juices poured over the meat, partly melting the “veil,” you get a sauce remarkably reminiscent of American red-eye gravy.

Arzak's food is modern and entertaining like that, often witty, never overwrought, limited largely to local ingredients — white tuna, fresh figs, fino sherry. Or a hyperfresh egg, seasoned with house-made truffle oil, wrapped in plastic film, poached and served with a slim txistorra sausage made not just with the traditional paprika but with dates as well. The egg emerged looking a little like a flower, and cutting into the ravishingly milky white revealed a richly orange yolk. Magic.

BRUSSELS Comme Chez Soi, Place Rouppe 23; (32-2) 512-2921; www.commechezsoi.be.

I'm an unapologetic classicist, no particular fan of foams and chemical legerdemain in the kitchen (although I have maintained a fondness for the then-revolutionary cuisine of Haeberlin, Bocuse and Guérard since encountering it for the first time in the 1960's). I can still find refined food that tastes like what it is, to quote Curnonsky's maxim, at Paris three-stars like Taillevent, but no place there or elsewhere excels Comme Chez Soi in this genre — and at Comme Chez Soi you dine in a superb décor of warm, tawny wood in the style of the great Belgian practitioner of Art Nouveau, Victor Horta. Nor is price a minor matter: a set-price meal is served at lunch and dinner, for 67 euros (about $85, at $1.30 to the euro), no snip but a real bargain in these days of watery dollars.

There is originality, even alchemy, in Pierre Wynants's sole stuffed with crab, which comes to the table with shrimp in a tarragon sauce, but there is no trickery. Betsey and I feasted years ago on a saddle of lamb that was merely perfect, a triumph of technique.

Even on the small menu, generous to a fault, there is no dearth of imagination or regional and international inspiration; on one recent visit, it included a shimmering green pea soup with oxtail and Chimay beer, filets of eel with Espelette peppers from the Basque country, chicken with turmeric and apple chutney and the silkiest, most delicate floating island of my life, better even than my sainted grandmother's.

LONDON Wilton's, 55 Jermyn Street, SW1; (44-207) 629-9955; www.wiltons.co.uk.

Clubbish in location, in looks and for the most part clubbish in clientele, wonderful Wilton's in fact affords a cheerful, courteous welcome to all who show up in properly sober clothes, ready to pay the sobering prices. The best English food (as opposed to the best food in England, which is so grandly cosmopolitan these days) is still that which has been least messed about with. That is just what Wilton's delivers. “Noted since 1742 for the finest oysters, fish and game,” it says of itself, with every justification.

You might start with a half-dozen oysters. They will set you back a pretty penny, but then they are imposing creatures, five inches across, pale beige rather than silver-gray, in shells as flat as saucers. They come from West Mersea, on an island off the Essex coast, from beds that are harvested exclusively from rowboats, lest oil or gasoline pollute the waters. They are opened by London's best oysterman, Patrick Flaherty, a 40-year veteran when I last checked. None of the briny juices escape. No nasty bits of shell creep in. Then maybe a wild salmon from the Spey in Scotland (increasingly rare), or a snowy hunk of halibut — “a nice piece of fish,” as I once heard Rex Harrison call it.
But whole Dover sole is the overwhelming choice of English connoisseurs: brushed with melted butter, sprinkled with salt and pepper, turned quickly on the grill so that the grill bars burn a dark lattice pattern into the fish, then cooked under the intense heat of the broiler for roughly 12 to 15 minutes.

Perfectly simple, simply perfect and entirely sufficient. This is the porterhouse steak of fish. No sauce is needed, partly because cooking the fish whole (“on the bone”) helps to keep it moist. You may well come across an occasional apostate who insists upon tartar sauce (much too robust, in my view) or hollandaise (too rich). In game season, both partridge and grouse are exemplary.

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN Sjomagasinet, Klippans Kulturreservat 5; (46-31) 775-5920; www.sjomagasinet.se.

I envy the Swedes their social conscience, their gift for design and urban planning and their fish. Especially their fish. And among their fish — sole, cod, plaice, scallops, langoustines — especially their unmatched herring. Leif Mannerstrom, who owns and cooks at this charming former warehouse of the Swedish East India Company, built on the waterfront in 1775, is so widely admired for his knowledge of things piscatorial that he is pictured on a national postage stamp, and more than 10,000 people come from all over Scandinavia each year for his Christmas-season feast of 16 herrings.

Matjes, pickled, fried or bathed in mustard-and-dill-sauce — the richly flavored herring — is, of course, available all year long at Sjomagasinet, to be devoured with well-aged, Cheddar-ish Vasterbotten cheese, with or without cumin, and icy draughts of O. P. Anderson, Gothenburg's favorite aquavit. And all year long, Mr. Mannerstrom turns out a definitive version of Janssons Frestelse, or Jansson's Temptation, a confection of scalloped potatoes, onions and herrings cured in the style of anchovies, which I find an inspired combination of salty and creamy flavors.

BUENOS AIRES Avenida Cabaña las Lilas, Alicia Moreau de Justo 516; (54-11) 4313-1336; www.laslilas.com.

I can hear you sputtering from here. What? Fly all night to Argentina to eat in a parilla when every big city in the United States boasts steakhouses promising (some even delivering) prime U.S.D.A. beef? Well, this is grass-fed beef, raised on the vast ocean of chlorophyll called the Pampas. It's different. Some, including me, would say better, with a rounder flavor, leaner texture and sweeter fat. You eat in a handsome wood-and-leather room in the redeveloped Puerto Madero docklands area, and drink from a wine-wall stocked with fine Mendoza reds like those of Nicolas Catena.

Octavio Caraballo, the owner, supplies all the beef from his own ranch, or estancia. We flew there with him — big guy, bigger cigar, even at 8 in the morning — on his private plane, admired the spread and ate beef (what else?) for lunch. The selection was bigger at dinner back in town, with medallón de lomo (tenderloin) and cuadril (rump) and ojo de bife (rib-eye) covering every inch of the big grills. Little “bombon” sausages and sweetbreads, too.

Warning: They will ply you with so many delicious breads, so many salads and such superb cheese and olives and peppers, that you might not be able to do justice to the beef. Which would be tragic.

SHANGHAI Jean-Georges, 3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu 1; (86-21) 6321-7733; www.jean-georges.com.

I have lived in Asia and eaten more than my share of Chinese food, Lord knows, but I remain a man of the West, not the East, and I still find the Chinese passion for “gristly, slithery and squelchy textures,” as the English writer Fuchsia Dunlop calls them, hard to cope with. Delicacies like sea cucumber and bird's nest have little taste, Asian friends tell me, but great “kou gan,” or mouth feel, which escapes me.

Hence I tread lightly here. I would happily fly to Shanghai to eat the seraphic — yes, seraphic — soup dumplings at Nan Xiang, or the snails with chopped, spiced pork at tiny Chun. But I would be more likely to go to Jean-Georges Vongerichten's glamorous place on the Bund, the best of all his places, in my view, where the food is a little Eastern, a little Western.

A year ago, as I reported in the Travel section, Betsey and I ate a nearly flawless meal there. A single Kumamoto oyster wreathed in Champagne jelly was followed by raw tuna brightened by Thai chili paste. Then cubed raw kingfish with Taiwanese mangoes and chili-lemon granita was utterly irresistible — peppery, sweet and acidic, yellow and orange and red, all at once. A second trio, equally satisfying, comprised crab dumplings with black pepper oil and tiny local peas; seared sweet scallops from Dalian, nestling with clams in a tomato jus; and superbly fresh snapper with crunchy cucumber strips. Vaut le voyage, as Michelin would have it.

MUMBAI, INDIA Trishna, Birla Mansion, Sai Baba Marg, Fort; (91-22) 2270-3213.

This, I think, is the only truly remarkable restaurant I have ever discovered solely on the recommendation of a friend of a friend. Dubious, Betsey and I made our way there one night years ago and liked it so much that we went back 72 hours later. It was not the décor, which is shabby, or the service, which can be surly, and certainly not the menu, which is very nearly useless. It's the food, stupid, the seafood.

Enormous king crabs fresh from the Indian Ocean, awash in butter, and seasoned with garlic and pepper until they make the lips tingle but not sting, draw an eager crowd of Mumbai businessmen and Bollywood stars to this little establishment on a crowded, noisy alley in the old Fort district. If you like, your crab will be brought to the table before cooking, still alive and dangling from a string held by a waiter.

These are among the world's choicest crustaceans, and I say that as someone who lives 25 miles from the Chesapeake. But Ravi Anchan has plenty of other savory delights up his sleeve, including tender little pomfret (a kind of butterfish) barbecued in the style of Hyderabad, with black pepper; deep-fried squid; and gorgeous, never-frozen tiger prawns grilled with mint. Don't mind the waiters; insist and they will bring what you want.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA Billy Kwong, 3/355 Crown Street, Surry Hills; (61-2) 9332-3300.

Among Sydney chefs, Tetsuya Wakuda, with his confit of Tasmanian ocean trout, and Neil Perry of Rockpool, with his mud crabs, get most of the international ink, and rightly so; they are as gifted as any of their counterparts in Europe or America. But I would head from my Qantas jet for Billy Kwong, my favorite neighborhood restaurant (whose neighborhood, unfortunately, is exactly 9,758 miles from mine). This is the trim, dark, bustling domain of Kylie Kwong, a 36-year-old wunderkind whose mile-wide smile and black-framed glasses are as well known Down Under as is Jacques Pépin's cherubic face Up Here.

Her food is delicious, and her place gives off none of those Chinese-speakers-only vibes that plague us Anglophones; Ms. Kwong, Australian-born, speaks no Chinese herself. So order to your heart's content, in English, and flail away as the plates arrive, rat-a-tat: prawn wontons, little flavor bombs bursting with the tastes of shellfish, black vinegar and chili oil; star-anise-flavored tofu and black cloud-ear fungus, with Thai and Vietnamese herbs; chive crepes with smoky caramelized eggplant salad; steamed line-caught blue-eyed cod with ginger and shallots; spectacularly crisp-skinned duck with a sauce made from ruby grapefruit; and sung choi bao — wok-fried mouthfuls of moist, gingery pork and vegetables, wrapped in crisp lettuce leaves. The inspiration is Cantonese, absorbed by Kylie at her mother's table, but the execution is all her own.

I have shortchanged Turkey, Thailand and Japan. I know, and I apologize. Put it down to limited space and inadequate depth of knowledge. There should be enough here to hold you — hopefully to set you soaring — for a few weeks or months, or even years.

TRAVEL: Tokyo

Leyendo la revista GQ de Marzo 2008 encontré una interesante nota sobre restaurantes extranjeros en Tokyo (en inglés)
http://men.style.com/gq/blogs/alanrichman/2008/02/made-in-japan.html

BEBIDA: Vino Château Hourtin-Ducasse

Esperando un avión en Paris y disponiendo de un par de horas de espera decidimos comer una rica carne en el restaurant Hippopotamus (http://www.hippopotamus.fr) y para acompañarla nada mejor que un rico vino francés de Bordeaux: el Château Hourtin-Ducasse 2002 de DO Haut-Médoc
Uvas: 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25 % Merlot, 5 % Cabernet Franc

Delicioso!

SHOP: US Food Catalogs

The Swiss Colony
http://www.swisscolony.com

SHOP: Gaucho Gourmet

La tienda online de GauchoGourmet se especializa en productos de Suramérica, España e Italia.
http://www.gauchogourmet.com

TV SHOW: Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels

La cocinera Rachael Ray's visita un gran lista de lugares en USA y América buscando sitios interesantes donde comer y aporta un par de recetas relacionadas con el sitio.
Disponible en Food Network.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ry/0,2677,FOOD_23076,00.html

SALSA: Develey Curry Sauce

La salsa alemana de curry Develey es una mis salsas favoritas, perfecta para hamburguesas, salchichas y pollo. Exquisita!!!

TE: Les Contes de Thé

Les Contes de Thé es un te francés espectacular. Lo compré en la tienda Amate en Madrid (ver mi blog de Madrid), aunque si tienen la suerte de visitar Paris pueden encontrar su tienda en:

60, rue du Cherche Midi

75006, Paris, France

Tel: 0892.350.145

Receta: Rabas Perfectas

Ingredientes:

Anillas de calamar
Bicarbonato Sódico
Huevo
Harina
Aceite de Girasol
Sal y Pimienta
Limón

Preparación:

Se sumergen las rabas en agua con bicarbonato sódico (proporción aproximada: 1 cucharada cada 250 ml) y se las deja reposar en el refrigerador un par de horas o un dia entero.
Calentamos el aceite a 180ºc. Batimos un huevo. Sin enjuagarlas, pasamos las rabas por el huevo y luego por la harina.
Las introducimos en el aceite y al sacarlas (que estén doraditas) dejarlas secar sobre un papel absorbente.
Luego las rociamos con jugo de limón y les ponemos sal y pimienta.

RECETA: Croquetas de Bacalao

Ingredientes:

* Bacalao
* Patatas
* Ajos
* Perejil
* Huevo
* Condimentos.

Preparación:

El día anterior introducimos el bacalao en salmuera en agua fría y dejamos 24 horas.
Se lavan las patatas, cuando estén bien limpias las pelamos, las cortamos en trozos grandes, y las ponemos en un recipiente con agua junto con el bacalao (la cantidad de ambos ingredientes a gusto, aunque yo calculo aproximadamente la misma cantidad de ambos productos).
Lo dejaremos cocer durante 35/40 minutos.
En un bol ponemos ajo picado muy fino y unas gotas de aceite de oliva. Una vez cocido agregamos el bacalao y las patatas junto con los ajos, y mezclamos hasta que quede un puré.
Luego le echamos los huevos y lo mezclamos todo, agregamos el perejil, sal, pimienta y con una cuchara o con las manos le damos forma ovalada.
Rebozamos con pan rallado y freímos en aceite muy caliente (180ºc)

En Buenos Aires Para Comer Hay Que Tocar Timbre

Surgen cada vez más restaurantes en viviendas particulares que ofrecen exclusividad y discreción.
"Carmen, ¿qué hay para comer hoy?" La pregunta, que bien podría escucharse en una casa de familia, fue formulada por un joven que, luego de pasar por una puerta naranja con la consigna "golpee fuerte", entraba en Providencia, un muy discreto restaurante del barrio de Palermo. Con mesas rústicas y variada vajilla de distintos orígenes, este antiguo frigorífico propone un menú diferente cada día y forma parte de un nuevo concepto que se está gestando en el mundo gastronómico. A diferencia de los restaurantes y bares que abrieron durante los años noventa, en donde la ubicación, el tamaño y la publicidad predominaban, hoy la tendencia son los lugares discretamente ubicados, con pocas mesas y con una difusión de boca en boca.
"Por favor, no publiques la dirección", es lo que piden los dueños de los restaurantes y bares a puertas cerradas, en los que se necesita saber del lugar para llegar a la puerta y tocar el timbre o golpear para poder entrar. Siempre, claro, con reserva previa. "El que viene es porque lo decide. No tenés gente de paso porque el lugar no se ve", explica Agustín Bertero, jefe de barra de Ocho7Ocho, un bar restaurante que, ubicado en una zona poco transitada de Palermo, intenta recrear el juego de la clandestinidad de los bares de la década del 20, con la ley seca, en los Estados Unidos. "A los clientes les encanta entrar y que no los vean", cuenta Agustín, y añade que el target del bar es el bon vivant , aquél que disfruta de la comida y la bebida.
Como en casa Daniel Perlman, un chef y sommelier neoyorquino instalado en Buenos Aires hace un año y medio, abre dos veces por semana las puertas de su departamento, en Recoleta, y recibe a doce personas. "Es una reunión social con intercambio cultural. Las personas se sientan juntas, sin conocerse", explica Daniel. Con sólo dos mesas -una para ocho y otra para cuatro-, Casa Saltshaker propone un menú diferente cada semana. "Empezamos con amigos y ellos fueron invitando. Vienen muchos expatriados, algunos argentinos y turistas", cuenta el chef. La propuesta es de cinco pequeños platos por 60 pesos y Daniel permite que los comensales lleven su propio vino, tornando todavía más fuerte la sensación hogareña. "No es un negocio lucrativo, pero es suficiente para pagar mis expensas a fin de mes", observa el neoyorquino.
También en Palermo, en una casa chorizo que desde afuera no dice nada, está Almacén Secreto, un restaurante que con sólo siete mesas ofrece especialidades norteñas tres veces a la semana. "La calidad artesanal sólo se logra con poca gente", explica la dueña, la actriz María Morales Miy. Con una publicidad de boca en boca, María cuenta que esta tendencia posiblemente responda a cuestiones prácticas. "Es lo que estaba dentro de mis posibilidades físicas. La gastronomía es superesclavizante", sostiene.
En un lugar un poco más alejado, una residencia colonial con fachada celeste es, dos veces al mes, un restaurante que ofrece un menú de tapas para 35 personas. "La idea es dar a conocer nuestra propuesta: la fusión de gustos, los platos decorados, las mesas compradas en remate", cuenta Martín Mangiaterra, uno de los dueños de Caracoles para Da Vinci, que funciona en la casa donde vive Sofía Marrone, la chef del lugar. El precio ronda los 40 pesos y Mangiaterra observa que sus clientes son principalmente argentinos y algunos turistas. "Nos manejamos sólo con reserva. Desde afuera es una casa con un timbre", explica.
En una antigua casona de dos pisos, en Belgrano, MAAT Club Privado propone recordar la tradición de los clubes ingleses. El exclusivo lugar, al que se puede ingresar mediante el pago de una membresía de 2000 dólares anuales y cien pesos mensuales, cuenta con varios salones decorados al estilo inglés. Frecuentado por la clase alta de los negocios, según cuenta Francisco Julián, su dueño, el club ya cuenta con cien miembros en un año. Cuando lleguen a 500 miembros, el club cerrará la admisión y subastará las membresías que se vayan liberando entre una lista de espera.
En esta misma línea, 647, en San Telmo,es un restaurante que, después de las 2 de la mañana, se convierte en una disco a la que sólo pueden ingresar los miembros. Entrar en este mundo cuesta 2000 pesos anuales.
En Balvanera, una puerta, un ventanal de vidrio esmerilado y un timbre son la carta de presentación de Yuki, un exclusivo restaurante que, con un cartel puertas adentro escrito en japonés, ofrece comida tradicional japonesa de alta calidad. "Viene gente que busca tranquilidad y un ambiente familiar", cuenta Emi, la esposa de Kazuo Kaneto, el dueño. Con sólo ocho mesas, la entrada en el salón a través de una cortina evoca las costumbres japonesas. El lugar, que recibe turistas y argentinos "que han comido en el exterior" -según señala Emi-, es representativo de una tendencia gastronómica que, con sólo tocar un timbre, permite regresar a sensaciones más hogareñas.

Nathalie Kantt - Diario La Nacion

RECETA: Berenjenas en escabeche a "la Juancarlos"

Pelar las berenjenas (yo usé de las rayadas que son mas dulces que las negras)
Cortarlas en rodajas mas o menos de 4 mm
Ponerlas en el escurridor con bastante sal gruesa durante unos 15 minutos y despues lavarlas

En una olla: (dependiendo de la cantidad y el tamaño de las berenjenas)

4 a 6 tazas de agua (con un poco sal agregada)
1/2 taza de vinagre en 4 de agua (yo usé vinagre de vino)
1/2 taza de aceite
1 cucharada grande de pimienta en granos
1 cebolla cortada en aros finos
2 hojas de laurel

Poner a hervir y cuando rompa el hervor se colocan las rodajas de berenjenas.

Vigilar la cocción y cuando estén tiernitas ponerlas a escurrir
Una vez frías acomodar en un tuperware.
una capa de berenjenas (yo puse algunos de los aros de cebolla) espolvorear con albahaca picada, orégano y una pizca de condimento para pizza y repetir las capas.
Una vez puesta todas las capas de berenjenas apretar suavemente con la manito (para que quede poco aire pero con cuidado de no romper las rodajas)
Poner un poco de aceite de oliva y completar con aceite de girasol (no usar aceite de soja!!!!!)

SHOP: Fassbender & Rausch: Chocolate, chocolate y más chocolate!

¿Por qué comenzar recién con el postre? La chocolatería más grande del mundo, Fassbender & Rausch de Berlín, abrió un restaurante donde todos los platos están hechos a base de chocolate.

Ver la nota completa de la BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/misc/newsid_6210000/6210207.stm

Fassbender & Rausch
Charlottenstraße 6010117
Berlin, Germany
Telephone: +49 (0)30 - 20 45 84 43
Fax: +49 (0)30 - 20 45 84 45
www.fassbender-rausch.de

El Bulli 2006 - Parte 1

El 30 de Agosto del 2006 fuimos con Pao unos de esos pocos afortunados que cada año tienen la suerte de disfrutar una cena en El Bulli. Hicimos la reserva a mediados de Octubre del 2005. Es probable que sea una de las mejores experiencias culinarias que una persona puede disfrutar.

Este es el menú personalizado que disfrutamos:

elBulli Menu – 30/08/2006

01. Gin Fizz Frozen Caliente
02. Aceitunas Verdes Sféricas-l
03. Hojas de Mango y Flor de Tagete
04. “Animals”
05. Papel de Hibisco con Cassis y Eucaliptus
06. Lyo Garrapiñado: Plátano con Sésamo a la Nuez Moscada
07. Polvorones de Nuez
08. Nube de Palomita
09. Caviar Sférico de Melón
10. Brioche Thai
11. Croqueta Líquida 2006
12. Won-Ton Campestre
13. Sopa de Tónica, Pepinos y Rosas
14. Huevo “Quebearn”
15. Pasas de PX y Moscatel con Anchoas y Brioche al Carda
16. Sopa de Tomate con Jamón Virtual
17. Las Semillas
18. Erizos y Algas
19. Navajas en Escabeche
20. Risotto de Semillas de Calabacín al Curry con Capsul de aceite de cacahuete
21. El Mar
22. Buey de Mar Marrakech
23. Sesos de Cordero Sférico con su Jugo
24. La Oveja, el Queso y su Lana
25. Liquid de Melocotón con Barbapapá
26. Timbal de Coco y Frambuesa
27. Piña
28. Brioche
29. Borracho

Bebidas

Brut Nature Gran Reserva 2002 – Cava Agustí Torelló – Penedes (D.O.)
Augustus Chardonnay 2005 – Celler Puig i Roca – Penedes (D.O.)

BEBIDA: Luigi Bosca Gewürztraminer

Hace unos años atrás leí una nota donde hablaban de una variedad de uva poco tradicional de Argentina: Gewürztraminer y en la misma nota mencionaban al Luigi Bosca Gewürztraminer ganador de un concurso internacional de esa variedad de uva.

Esperando mi avión en Ezeiza rumbo a USA o España (no recuerdo exactamente), vi la botella en Duty Free Shop y sin dudarlo la compré.

Ese vino estaba en mi Wine Cellar esperando el momento adecuado y el fin de semana pasado la visita de unos amigos alemanes (Kathy y Ben) y la promesa de un Apple Strudel hecho en casa, parecia una excelente oportunidad de descorchar el Luigi Bosca.

Y honestamente a sido unos de los mejores vinos que he tomado jamás y probablemente unos de los mejores vinos de postre. Muy recomendable!.