Melinda Joe

Lake Garda, one of the loveliest sites of one of the loveliest restaurants, @ristorantelido84. Brothers Riccardo and Giancarlo Camanini have turned this tranquil spot into one of the most coveted dining destinations in the world. Formerly a pool house built in 1984, the beautifully refurbished space pays homage to 1960s art deco, offering marvelous views of the aquamarine waters.

Riccardo draws inspiration from the greats, mixed with influences from his travels abroad. There’s a delicate razor clam adorned with guanciale, Tonkin powder, and pink ginger; grilled octopus with blood orange and chili; a single huge pennoni pasta served with a dipping sauce of uni; a sweet dish of pasta riccia and mallard spiced with Ras al Hanout and black lemon. Paired with aged sake, black chanterelles and chestnut honey, mixed with razor clam liver and sesame oil brimmed with umami. As always, the cacio e pepe cooked in a pig’s bladder elicited rounds of applause. Less

In the sleepy village of Vencò, an hour and a bit away from Trieste, @antoniaklugmann creates provocative culinary poetry that embodies the soul of Friuli-Venezia.

At @largineavenco, Antonia and her sister @vittoria1983 welcome you with such warmth, it feels like visiting their home. The experience is intimate and contemplative, the cuisine designed to make you think.

This time, I loved the corn flatbread topped with morchia (hazelnut butter and roasted yellow cornmeal) and Parmesan; cauliflower, enveloped in the embrace of creamy hazelnut and chestnut sauce; bone marrow enlivened by the zing of fermented red cabbage with a touch of sweet beetroot; and the smoky mushroom tagliatelle.

Antonia does not hold back from bold flavors and daring combinations. Cold fried aubergine is brushed with aubergine glaze; a sauce of fermented lemon and blackberry marmalade adds pert acidity. Ravioli stuffed with turnip leaves and rocket, topped with white turnip, is a contrast of silky, delicate texture and bracing, robust bitterness.

My first visit here was last year with @chihokanzaki and @marcelodigiacomo06. An unforgettable meal! Hope to return soon. Less

It’s been a joy to watch @maz.tokyo go from strength to strength in such a short time. Led by @santiago.maztokyo, the team’s dedication comes through in every detail. All of this is complemented by the excellent beverage selection: some brilliant wines from South America, along with enticing elixirs made with @mater.in spirits. This time, I especially loved the pisco and shine muscat kombucha and the Amazonian Bees Knees. So clever.

From my write-up of Maz published earlier this year on @cntraveler:

“Beyond the sliding door, the grey-walled interior of Maz feels like a microcosm unto itself…The seasonal menu explores Peru’s biodiversity through courses based on the country’s various altitudes. In late spring, the coastline is represented by an elaborate dish of cuttlefish and baby eel, bathed in a sauce made from cuttlefish tentacles and covered with a crispy net made from seaweed and squid ink. Coated with fine strands of turmeric-infused cacao butter, a frozen mousse stuffed with bittersweet hyuganatsu citrus and perfumed with lemongrass stands in for the high-altitude region between the Andes and the Amazonian jungle.”

https://www.cntraveler.com/restaurants/tokyo/maz-tokyo Less

For this very special dinner at @maz.tokyo, @virgiliocentral came to town to give us a sneak peek at some of the work the Central family has been doing to push the emerging Amazonian rainforest-to-table movement forward in Peru.

@centralrest has always taken a macro view of the Peruvian kitchen, exploring the cuisine through the lens of topography. With this new menu, however, Virgilio zooms in on the Amazon and invites diners to “listen” to the region along with his team.

A wonderful experience accented with ingredients from the Amazon’s rivers (piranha and all their brethren) and tributaries, its high-altitude forests (big-butt ants) and dense jungle floor (chuncho cacao and cured duck with fermented mushrooms).

Loved the charred sponge topped with hibiscus kombucha SCOBY, used to scoop up a sweet syrup made from roasted cabuya stem. Served with buns made with flying potato (yes, it’s wild) accompanied by dots of herb-fresh sauces.

But the course of king paiche, tucupi, and cessina was my favorite. Its smoky, gingery flavor evoked a distant memory of a fish dish that my mom used to make. Amazing how great food can transcend cultures and time!

Thank you so much superstars @santiago.maztokyo @sang.mater and the entire Maz team! Less

The second half of the @sezannetokyo x @thechairmanrestauranthk collaboration was every bit as spectacular and surprising as the first.

There was sweet and sour pig’s tail with strawberries – crispy on the outside and meltingly tender on the inside. Shirako, enveloped in pasta sheets, was doused with a piquant and sweet chili sauce, flecked with bits of steamed fish head.

The Chairman’s succulent char siu was sandwiched between flaky pastry and dotted with sauces made from cress and egg yolk.

But the clay pot cooked rice was a real show-stopper. Scented with a funkadelic mix of matsutake with ganba mushrooms from Yunnan, the rice was topped with grilled unagi that had been fermented in stinky tofu brine. A genius move that infused the dish with an irresistible thrum of umami, resonating with layers of savory notes that reminded me of Cantonese salty fish. I also loved how they served it with a side of garlicky pea shoots and the crunchy rice crust.

The desserts were equally thoughtful. If my fortune cookie is right, the rest of the year will be awesome!

Thanks again @chezcalvert @acaley88 Danny and The Chairman team! Less

In my 13-plus years as a food writer, I’ve experienced more than my fair share of four-hands dinners all over the world. But the collaboration between @sezannetokyo and @thechairmanrestauranthk was a highlight.

@chezcalvert and Danny Yip are both perfectionists with an intuitive sense of harmony and balance. What makes this event particularly special is the fact that they’re such close friends. They understand each other’s food and philosophy well, and it shows.

This synergy was evident from the first bite, a gougere (reminiscent of a miniature baked bun –Chinese peeps, you know what I’m talking about) filled with silky abalone soup and served with a glass of @krugchampagne. From there, the menu unfolded like a journey through Hong Kong via not only France and Japan, but the whole universe of Calvert’s fecund culinary imagination.

A caviar-filled tartlet, covered in finely chopped amber-hued century egg and accented with ginger, arrived at the table glimmering like a jewel. Botan ebi shrimp toast was a celery-flecked mousse of the decapods encased in crispy toast points and finished with a dollop of garlic aoli (where the idea for the aioli came from, I have no idea, but it was a nice touch).

Hidden beneath a layer of clam foam shimmering like pearls, the velvet of the Koshihikari congee was studded with chunks of clam and oyster and splashed with XO sauce oil. And then the foie gras terrine, wrapped around bites of Yip’s soy sauce chicken…no words. An ideal match for the Chateau de Fargues 1979 Sauternes.

Calvert is not big on story-telling, but these first courses felt like Proustian layers of flavor memory. I can imagine these two guys sitting down to a meal of these very things after one of their long Monday hikes through the Hong Kong hills.

The star of the first half of the menu was the steamed matsubagani crab, bathed in a
creamy vin jaune sauce enriched with chicken fat. This already decadent dish was made more so by the brioche flavored with Shanghai crab roe – a crustacean collaboration of sorts.

I’ll write about the second half of the meal in another (less lengthy) post! Less

Everyone wishes they had a place like @hisapolonka in their neighborhood. Behind a cheerful blue facade in the middle of Kobarid, the cozy dining room outfitted with wooden beams and charming rustic furnishings envelops you in a warm embrace. The genial @valterkramar runs the show here, pouring amazing Slovenian wines and glasses of Polonka’s excellent house beer (after greeting you with a huge bear hug). All of this pairs with the funky aged Tolmin cheeses and traditional local fare: golden frika with crispy edges, lovage-stuffed ravioli, braised boar. And the roast beef! A thing of glory. The food is exactly what you want to eat on a chilly evening with friends. Less

50 shades of light! 50 shades of love! It’s celebration time. Happy birthday to 🌟🌟🌟@hisafranko and @anaros40.

“We both became ladies this year,” Ana says with her characteristic grace.

The new menu brims with ebullience, along with the wisdom of the mountains. A stunning snapshot of Hisa’s past, present, and glimpses of its future. Here, meat is used sparingly, “like a spice,” to add Alpine depth and contrast to Ana’s plant-forward creations. The dishes take in the breadth of her travels with inspirations from Mexico, Japan, and India. It’s a wild ride, delivered with elegance and panache.

A few highlights: mussels and seaweed in lacto-fermented tomato water, a marvelous combination with the fig leaf kombucha that starts the “juicy pairing;” potato cooked in a summer hay crust with cultured cream and caviar, a Hiša classic; hand-cut tagliolini with mountain rabbit, cacao nibs and black truffle; roebuck with nori, kiwi, and beets.

The autumn harvest was a bounty of leafy greens and broad beans with umami from roasted yeast cream. Pasta Ana shows two sides of the chef, with fillings of tangy tomato and smooth ricotta, in two-colored stuffed pasta shaped like a kiss.

Ana has always been fearless and irrepressibly authentic. Together with head chef Yvonne Simon and mixology/fermentation wizard Anya and pastry chef Alessandra, the ladies of Hiša Franko are an inexorable force. Less

Why do we love truffles? One of the most compelling theories is that their enchanting, musky fragrance reminds us of, well, ourselves. This pheromone-like allure inspires us to go to crazy lengths in the pursuit of the diamonds of the forest.

Record-breaking heat has resulted in an exceedingly small yield for this time of year, what would normally be peak truffle season. Thankfully, I know a guy who knows a guy. ;)

@luca.fantin just returned from the heart of white truffle country in Piedmont with the mother lode. These precious specimens take center stage in the @bulgarilucafantintokyo truffle menu until late December.

And what a menu it is! An opening bite of matsutake, uni, truffles and a touch of hazelnut oil. Sweet scallops, redolent of the Hokkaido kombu forests from which they were plucked, are the perfect match with cauliflower cream and truffles. And I could eat an entire pot of the ravioli filled with 36-month-old @consorziovaccherosse Parmigiano, afloat in rich chicken consommé. With wonderful wine pairings by @yukio_oya.

Even the sweet courses were given the truffle treatment, generously scattered over Luca’s signature milk dessert and used to finish a dish of persimmon and vanilla ice cream. Such a treat! Less