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 Lunch at Jordnær at Jordnær
This restaurant comes somehow out of nowhere.
To get there takes a short train ride and walk from the center of town. The neighbourhood is affluent with lots of stately villas, but the hotel which houses the restaurant is a nondescript building which does not really look inviting. However all of this falls away when you enter the dining room. The... More
This restaurant comes somehow out of nowhere.
To get there takes a short train ride and walk from the center of town. The neighbourhood is affluent with lots of stately villas, but the hotel which houses the restaurant is a nondescript building which does not really look inviting. However all of this falls away when you enter the dining room. The heavy ceiling beams, painted light grey, the dark but warm wooden floors and chairs, and the tables covered with white cloth create an instant welcoming but also elegant environment. Chef Eric Kragh Vildgaard and Restaurant Manager Tina Kragh Vildgaard created something really special there.
The ingredients are local, but the execution and plating French and Japanese influenced. Chef Eric also has the courage to focus and celebrate the main ingredients instead of loading a dish with extra flavours. The execution is precise and flawless. All of this creates an extraordinary food journey which keeps you interested throughout the 18 courses and slightly disappointed when it ends as you wished it could go on a little longer.
The menu as of the time of visiting was composed mainly of seafood and fish and only one meat course, the mallard. Most of the dishes were outstanding. There were simple but at the same time had great layers of flavours.
A good example was the Raw Shrimp with Horseradish and Dill. Five shrimp lying on a dill-oil cream sauce are topped with one wasabi flower. The sweetness of the shrimp was encased by the dill and the wasabi flower delivered a strong punch as a contrapoint. Other, less talented and more timid Chefs would have added 2-3 more flavours and texture for fear of creating something boring. This plating is flawless beauty and precision.
The brioche is another study in courage were the chefs add butter all the way to the limit where the dough breaks and one has to start again. The trick is to stop just before. Amazing.
Some other dishes like the Turbot with Yuzu Kosho and Truffle is a highly complex construction which superficially reminds one of a hand roll in a sushi place. Here the turbot is seasoned with yuzokoshi and then wrapped in black truffle to create the illusion of a nori wrapper. Stunning and very tasty.
Where all of this is coming from is unclear. Chef Eric cooked at Noma, Sollerod Kro and Almanak and says he has not yet been to Japan which makes this food even more surprising. Chef Eric had some deviations in his young life, but it is absolutely clear that with his wife at Joednær he found his calling. How they can manage their six kids on the side will remain an enigma.
I was deeply impressed. This wife/husband team will go places beyond where they are already. This is going to even further complicate my life as there is another MUST-GO stop in Copenhagen.
PS: When riding the train back to the center of town I couldn't help myself smiling about the doomsday choir for the Guide Michelin. If they found this place after only 10 months, they cannot do everything wrong. Here is it to that! Less
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Lunch at Fyn Restaurant at Fyn
Stunning space on top of a downtown building. Huge space with open kitchen reaching out into the dining room to blur the lines between dinners and cooks.
The menu is Japanese influenced but with African ingredients. Some innovative dishes like a squid ramen and a springbok tataki.
Great place for lunch and dinner.
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Lunch at Cafe Orca at Cafe Orca
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Dinner at Under Lindesnes at Under
This is not a meal, this is a journey.
A journey below the surface of the cold ocean in Norway, 5.5 meters below to be precise. It starts with coming to Lindesnes, the town closest to the restaurant, a beautiful drive from the airport leads through a rugged landscape, broken up by bays and lakes. The final stage is a walk along the bay approaching... More
This is not a meal, this is a journey.
A journey below the surface of the cold ocean in Norway, 5.5 meters below to be precise. It starts with coming to Lindesnes, the town closest to the restaurant, a beautiful drive from the airport leads through a rugged landscape, broken up by bays and lakes. The final stage is a walk along the bay approaching a structure which looks like a subway carriage which was partially submerged into the ocean. Once you entered the restaurant you get embraced by warm wood paneling. There is a stop half down to the bottom of the restaurant to have a glass of champagne. One can just see the surface of the water through a window and feels like standing in the ocean deep enough to just barely have the head above the surface. When you continue your journey to the dining room you descend a stunning wooden staircase. All furniture is light wood, no really unexpected in Scandinavia, but wonderfully shaped and curved. You marvel about the 35+ meter wall to ceiling glass windows which allows you to become for the duration of the meal part of a large community eating, the one inside the glass a tiny group of 35 humans, but outside the 30 centimeter thick glass wall hundreds of ocean creatures. I am not sure what it is, but almost all humans can watch a burning fire, ocean waves and fish in an aquarium for hours without getting bored even though nothing really happens. The creators of this restaurant managed to tap into this into our DNA hardwired reaction of ours and use it to full extent. One does not get tired of watching the fish which restlessly move from one side of the huge glass window to the other. The lumpfish male protecting the egg his partner deposited right next to the window hardly moves away from his spot. It does not take long, after you are seated that the calmness grows over you. People are so mesmerized by this spectacle that you hardly see anybody on their phones. It is like going to meditation class.
Ah, and before I forget, there is food too. Danish Chef Nicolai Ellitsgaard must have been hiding somewhere close to where he cooks now. Yes, he was at Henne Kirkeby Kro, most likely called lovingly “monkey” by Paul Cunnigham, and Måltid, but was certainly on nobody’s radar to open up a world class restaurant. He is now involved for years with the Under project and it shows. In his first season and menu, he has already developed a series of signature dishes which show pure genius. The 22 course menu oscillates between seafood, meat and vegetables, all locally and sustainably sourced. He also tries to use and refine some products which normally are by-catch like his squat lobster (very tasty). He starts you off with Limpets served on a rock which resembles the aquatic snails to the point that you can barely distinguish them. And perfect snack, great texture and taste, to get you going. The 150 year old mahogany claim, very often chewy and served with a sauce which demotes them to pure texture, was cut finely, Japanese style, to enhance the sensation in your mouth and served in a subtle sauce of green strawberry and aged chestnut. Complementing and not overpowering. The Langoustine gets glacéd with fermented honey, executed perfectly.
All great dishes but two of them were truly outstanding. Nicolais’s version of Fiskepudding is amazing. A completely different dish from what you normally get. And his first dessert a structure of 7 seaweeds, different tastes, different preparations, are weaved together into an amazing bite.
An astonishing addition to the Scandinavian food revolution, which now dominates the European scene to the extent the “Spanish Age” never could.
Kudos! Less
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Great location, especially in the summer time. Mediocre food and horrible service
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Lunch at Albert at Albert
Back for a quick lunch where Chef Mario brought out a few courseS and then made a specially requested Wiener Schnitzel
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Dinner at Honkogetsu (本湖月) at Honkogetsu
A classic kaiseki restaurant in Osaka. Top notch ingredients with seasonal crab dishes.
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Dinner at Yanagiya (柳家) at Yanagiya (柳家)
Great meal at Yanagiya. Private rooms only, cooking in open hearth, 2 different charcoals create a special heat, cooking in irori style - the food gets grilled on skewers which lean towards the heat.
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- Gerhard Huber added a new meal Dinner at Aca 1° (アカ) at acá
World calls dinner, Spanish influenced although the Chef has not been in Spain at the time of the meal,
Best ingredients, super technique and wonderful flavours.
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Takayoshi Yamaguchi - the master of them all
There you go and make a really effort and learn to experience the best sushi places on earth. You think you know something. Then you go to Sushitokoro Mekumi and life is changed. You know nothing, you wasted your life. It is that good, believe me!
I do not know where to start but let me just pick his... More
Takayoshi Yamaguchi - the master of them all
There you go and make a really effort and learn to experience the best sushi places on earth. You think you know something. Then you go to Sushitokoro Mekumi and life is changed. You know nothing, you wasted your life. It is that good, believe me!
I do not know where to start but let me just pick his crab preparations. Having heated the hair carb a little bit, he boils down the crab that has been cleaned carefully with water with a salt concentration of 1.5 to 1.6%. Of course, the boiling time is also adjusted by seconds and the salt concentration is adjusted by 0.1% based on the individual difference of the crab. Up to this point, the preparation is down. Then, the body of every crab is packed in its shell. And the shell is filled up with crab roe. Less
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