About
travels for friends, food and wine - in exactly this order
From
San Sebastian, Spain
Born
July 21
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Restaurants
- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Dinner at Vea at Vea
Counter seating in a HongKong high-rise in the top floors. Come early and don't miss the cocktail lounge, some very good drinks are prepared there.
Chef Vicky Cheng is classical French trained, he knows how to cook this way and also how to use some of the must-have ingredients in this type of cuisine.
What sets him apart is the combination with... More
Counter seating in a HongKong high-rise in the top floors. Come early and don't miss the cocktail lounge, some very good drinks are prepared there.
Chef Vicky Cheng is classical French trained, he knows how to cook this way and also how to use some of the must-have ingredients in this type of cuisine.
What sets him apart is the combination with very Chinese ingredients and cooking techniques. He told me that he is moving further and further away from his training when composing the dishes as he wants to pay respect to the place where he cooks and his upbringing.
The result produces some interesting dishes, sea cucumber with hairy crab and fish maw with caviar. A Western palate might not be calibrated to really enjoy a fish bladder, but when it is, this dish is great.
I wonder where the journey will go, I am sure I will be part of it, when I go back. Less
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Lunch at Ta Vie at Ta Vie
This meal must have been the biggest surprise of my last stay in Hong Kong. More or less forced by my friend @growingboy to go there. I went by myself and was also the only lunch guest, so I had not only the entire focus of myself but of the team on my lunch.
This is very good food, maybe even great food (I am hesitant to jump to great after only... More
This meal must have been the biggest surprise of my last stay in Hong Kong. More or less forced by my friend @growingboy to go there. I went by myself and was also the only lunch guest, so I had not only the entire focus of myself but of the team on my lunch.
This is very good food, maybe even great food (I am hesitant to jump to great after only one meal there). It is unashamedly focused on ingredients and seasonality. But for me, what really lifts it up to a level which intrigues me is the Japanese focus on purity. Take the homemade pasta with seaweed sauce and sea urchin on top. Cooked to perfection the tagliatelle added texture to the softness of the uni while the seaweed sauce complemented the sweetness of the uni. Genial.
The snow crab combined with cherry radish into a refreshing salad to start you off.
However what really knocks you off the socks is the fact that this Japanese operation in Hong Kong serves you a different piece of bread with almost every course! And all are homemade and all are very good. As an Austrian we are very discerning when it comes to bread, as we believe that we produce the best on earth, but this bread is astonishing.
This is exactly the food I am looking for, seasonal, ingredients focused, perfectly executed but most importantly, focused and simple. No gimmick, not one flavour too many, pure pleasure!
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Dinner at Tian at TIAN
Sister restaurant of the one star vegetarian restaurant of same name in Vienna. I have been in. Vienna once before and had very good memories, but this place here bores.
It is always hard to keep a palate interested throughout a tasting menu when using only vegetables but there are plenty of restaurants which can do this. Not here.
The execution... More
Sister restaurant of the one star vegetarian restaurant of same name in Vienna. I have been in. Vienna once before and had very good memories, but this place here bores.
It is always hard to keep a palate interested throughout a tasting menu when using only vegetables but there are plenty of restaurants which can do this. Not here.
The execution was precise but the combination of flavours was so that all the dishes blur into one continuum which makes indistinguible.
By far the best course was the cheese with truffle, an excellent bite.
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Dinner at shami at shami
Incredibly popular Asian Fusion restaurant in Munich Schwabing. However not recommended for people who actual ate Asian food in Asia.
However, the drinks are excellent.
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Dinner at Matsu (天ぷら 松) at Tempura Matsu (天ぷら 松) with I. Anna A
Interesting Kaiseki/Tempura restaurant right on the banks of the river Katsura with the counter seats directly looking out to the river.
The menu is built like a traditional kaiseki meal, but the tempura portion is vastly expanded. The old Chef unfortunately died last year and his son took over. He trained in Europa which one can see in some of the... More
Interesting Kaiseki/Tempura restaurant right on the banks of the river Katsura with the counter seats directly looking out to the river.
The menu is built like a traditional kaiseki meal, but the tempura portion is vastly expanded. The old Chef unfortunately died last year and his son took over. He trained in Europa which one can see in some of the dishes, for example a sea bream in tomato pesto.
Overall, a fantastic place a friendly family setting. Less
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Dinner at Souvenir at Souvenir with Neil Walker
Excellent meal in Ghent. Souvenir delights with a mostly locally sourced vegetable cuisine with fine calibrated tastes, textures and flavours.
Certainly a must when heading into this part of Belgium.
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Dinner at Sushi Kibatani at Sushi Kibatani (鮨 木場谷) with hiro ura
I love this pace, Kibatani-san is such a friendly person and makes you feel very welcome. He sources most of his fish from the same supplier than Kataori and after an initial competition they now work together. His shari is seasoned just the right way and his otsumani are well cooked.
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Japanese Spanish fusion restaurant, both husband and wife could worked in Spain and therefore could speak Spanish.
The ingredients are mostly sourced from Ishikawa but the composition of the dishes clearly influenced by their experience in Spain.
Very pleasant lunch with super interesting dishes which all were very tasty.
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Lunch at 紀茂登 Kimoto Tokyo at Kimoto (Matsuo) with Adley Zayan and Peter Chang
Best possible ingredients, flawlessly executed, but painfully expensive.
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal The final year of Hans Haas at Tantris at Tantris
Tantris is an institution. The first restaurant to be custom built in 1971 to be a restaurant. The first restaurant to get three stars from the Guide Michelin outside France. It had only three Chefs - Eckart Witzigmann, Heinz Winkler (who also received three stars there) and jetzt seit fast 30 Jahren Hans Haas, all three of them Austrians.
I have... More
Tantris is an institution. The first restaurant to be custom built in 1971 to be a restaurant. The first restaurant to get three stars from the Guide Michelin outside France. It had only three Chefs - Eckart Witzigmann, Heinz Winkler (who also received three stars there) and jetzt seit fast 30 Jahren Hans Haas, all three of them Austrians.
I have not seen the menu for decades, I actually don't remember ever looking into it. When I call to make a reservation the Team around Hans Haas knows what to do, Create for me an extended menu of whatever they think is best on this given day. I must have more than 80 of Hans' handwritten menu at home.
The cuisine is classic French with excellent ingredients and luckily (or ironically for me) with hardly any Japanese influence. In fact only one course had one Japanese component, the Yuzo in the first dish, the variation of Crustaceans. The execution is always perfect and the temperature is correct. The Variation was served almost like a seafood salad and the Arctic char (Saibling) was just hand warm, just melting in your mouth. Hans Haas is also one of the few people who know how to cook big pieces of meat, his lamb côtelette was so flavour full and just perfectly cooked to the point. This food does not surprise you, it does not wow you, but it is like coming home. It leaves you deeply satisfied.
I deeply regret the decision of Hans Haas to retire at the end of this year, after standing in the kitchen of Tantris with its 50 year old equipment for almost 30 years, to stop cooking and apply himself to his other interests. This announcement made a table at Tantris the hottest commodity in Munich. Luckily, I have already booked as many as I could for the remainder of this year.
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