Tag: restaurant reviews

Postcard from Guanajuato, Mexico: Wishing these dining spots were not 600 miles away

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Have tried to whittle this down to three recommendations for eating out in Guanajuato but failed to do so. These four were our favorites during our month-long stay, and, hopefully, the photos will convince you to roam a few blocks off the main squares to find them.

A bowl of warm vegetables with salsa to smear atop fresh bread is an unusual amuse bouche that gets meals off on the right foot at Mestizo. The seafood ceviche there is the best we have tasted anywhere, and we had difficulties weaning ourselves away from it to try other starters. Just before we left Guanajuato we broke rank and ordered the tuna carpaccio, and it was equally as good. The Mister grew particularly attached to the chicken in achiote oil, while I enjoyed the shrimp pasta as much as any pasta we had in Bologna. The Mister’s found his filete de res served as rare as ordered and extremely tender. Fish, chicken and meat entrees are offered on a bed of small roasted potatoes or perfectly prepared vegetables. Free from dictatorial reach of the Chiles en Nogada Council of Puebla, the chef shunned the batter. Sorry, Puebla, but this fresh-tasting and not-over-sauced chile rises above its heavy fried cousins to the southeast.

Even if you try nothing else, the corn and jalapeno fritters with queso fresco at Los Campos Cantina y Restaurante are a must-have. If you are not sharing them with anyone else, they make a meal unto themselves. Two kinds of guacamole tempt you as starters as well, one topped with roasted tomatoes and splashed with mezcal and the other featuring roasted corn and chapulines (read more about grasshoppers in dishes here). An unusual dish to fall in love with – a huge bowl of lentils. This was so good I tried to somewhat duplicate at home this week. Studded with bits of serrano ham, the lentils were flavored with smoky paprika and topped with a poached egg, saffrony roasted tomatoes add fried onions. Quesadillas were made with homemade corn tortillas rosily colored from beets in the masa, and the serving of burritos was so ample some had to be taken home in a doggie bag. Roasted pork was served room temperature over cauliflower puree with a morita chile salsa. And the black bean burger provided for a nice break one day.

A Punto white chocolate mousse
El Midi bouillabaise
A Punto eggplant salad
Los Campos quesadillas
Los Campos margarita
A Punto Shrimp pasta with pistachio pesto
El Midi apple tart
Mestizo amuse bouche
El Midi shrimp salad
A Punto chicken and wild mushrooms
A Punto avocado soup
A Punto riso marinara
El Midi smoked salmon tagliatelle
Mestizo pescado with asparagus
Los Campos burrito
A Punto dessert atop membrillo
Mestizo achiote chicken with potatoes
Los Campos corn fritters
Los Campos mezcal guacamole
El Midi vegetable tian
Los Campos serrano ham salad
Los Campos pork atop cauliflower puree
Mestizo chile en nogado
Mestizo tuna carpaccio
El Midi sauces for couscous
Los Campos bean burger
Los Campos lentils
Mestizo achiote chicken with vegetables
Mestizo salmon with potatoes
Mestizo
El Midi
Mestizo enfrijoladas
A Punto stuffed figs
Mestizo cake
El Midi bar
El Midi goat cheese en croute
Los Campos guacamole with chapulines
El Midi vegetable couscous
Mestizo
Mestizo margarita
El Midi pasta marinara
Mestizo shrimp pasta
Los Campos rice pudding

A deep bowl of rich bouillabaisse an order repeated at El Midi Bistro. The goat cheese en croute is a wonderful starter in this touch of France in Guanajuato. The layers of roasted eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes in the vegetable tian make a great dish to share. Both the smoked salmon tagliatelle and pasta marinara are flavorful, and a salad topped with shrimp definitely can serve a full meal. Although we failed to try any of the breakfast pastries for which the French bistro is known, the apple tart certainly serves as an enticing advertisement for them.

A Mediterranean restaurant, A Punto, is spread out on the first floor of the same building housing El Midi. For a luscious start, treat yourself to roasted figs stuffed with blue cheese and topped with glazed serrano ham all nestled in preserves. The roasted eggplant “salad” arrives layered with sliced tomatoes and generous amounts of goat cheese. Avocado soup is refreshing without reliance on the heavy-handed use of cream. Both the riso marinara and the shrimp pasta with a pistachio pesto please, and the chicken is well paired with a port wine sauce and wild mushrooms. A white chocolate mousse is among the artfully presented desserts.

If any of these dishes appear extravagant, they are not. The Mister noted upon returning to el norte that the most expensive meal of the trip was consumed in the Houston airport. Sadly, it consisted of two not-very-good chicken sandwiches, one glass of house red and one PBR. Welcome home.

Postcard from Parma, Italy: City’s cuisine living up to its namesake ingredients

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Chef Roberto Pongolini is among the growing number of chefs who walk away from the pressure-cooker kitchens of a Michelin-starred restaurant. The chef closed his La Cantinetta in favor of an intimate contemporary bistro, Borgo 20. The informal setting is extremely comfortable and affordable.

The riso al parmigiana di collina at Borgo 20 is without a doubt one of the most memorable dishes ever to enter my mouth. Similar to a risotto but made with parmesan aged 29 months (yes, it does only get more incredibly flavorful with age) spiked with smoky bits of crispy pancetta counterbalanced by the sweetness of a prune or two on top. A dish that certainly bore repeating on another visit.

And the chef also bravely has tinkered with the traditional pizza, although the menu refers to its altered state by another name, pandiro, as a warning to purists. Using multiple grains and flours, the dough for pandiro lowers the speed limit of slow cooking. It is left to rise for five days with a wonderful result – a crust that somehow is rendered both thick and airy light, yet crispy on the outside. And, again, we had to have this more than once. We sampled one blanketed with Parma prosciutto and one with salad-like seasonal vegetables.

But wait, we also had our favorite dessert so far at Borgo 20. We have failed to become huge fans of Emilia Romagna’s Lambrusco, but Borgo 20 turns it into a refreshing, not-too-sweet sorbet topped with extremely drunken cherries. And, yes, it was just as good melting on our tongues on a subsequent visit.

Trattoria Corrieri
Borgo 20 winner taco
Borgo 20 fish with salad
Gatta Matta tortelloni
Borgo 20 lambrusco sorbet
Tiffany braseola salad
Trattoria Corrieri
Kimera grilled vegetables
Tiffany grilled vegetables
Tiffany ravioli
Gatta Matta salad
Borgo 20 vegetable pizza
Kimera black pasta
Kimera tomato and ricotta penne
wheels of parmesan
Gatta Matta scallops
Kimera basil panna cotta
Borgo 20 risotto
Trattoria Corrieri
Kimera asparagus riso
Borgo 20 prosciutto pizza

Another neighborhood spot offering casual comfort at lunch time was Kimera. The squid ink pasta was studded with the contrasting paleness of tender calamari; fresh ricotta was smoothed into a rich tomato sauce in another pasta dish; and fresh asparagus brightened a creamy riso. A basil panna cotta was a perfect springtime dessert.

Normally, I wouldn’t include a first-stop restaurant selected only because it was nearby and we were starving, but Tiffany Wine Bar offers a surprisingly nice selection of salads. Thinly sliced bresaola, cured beef, served with fresh fruit and radicchio presents an ideal counter to so many regional heavy dishes. Tiffany also sits at a great corner for watching locals walk and pedal by on the narrow streets.

Trattoria Corrieri is one of the Parma classics that everyone says you must try. The massive gathering spot for huge tables of locals on weekends made for great people-watching, but we blew our ordering. We needed to order what they all did, but we placed ours before having time to spy on neighboring tables. This is the place to order heaping platters of thinly sliced meats and the traditional accompanying fried bread. Locals follow that course with a bowl of shared pasta. Mal-ordering aside, the convivial crowd made it worthwhile.

Our only stumble was our most expensive meal. In the kitchen’s defense, the owner (?) seemed to be having a bad day created by the police outside threatening to tow his car. The pretty salad was a great starter, but… amazingly for Italy, our pasta at the touted Gatta Matta was way overcooked. The pair of scallops in pureed cannellini was perfectly cooked, but even the pasta was overwhelmed by the quantity of the sparingly seasoned puree.

The photos above include shots of the huge wheels of parmesan cheese found at shops everywhere. Specialized stores offer primarily a combination of fine meats and regional cheeses.

And one thing we have yet to consume, at least not to our knowledge, is as prevalent as pork – horse meat. Parma does not shy away from its consumption. Not only is horse meat commonly found in butcher shops, but carne di cavallo in some format is on the menu of almost every restaurant in Parma, from the lowliest to toniest. The regional favorite is served tartar. Maybe next time?

For now, I’m dreaming of that Borgo 20 riso.

 

 

Postcard from Ferrara, Italy: First tastes of Emilia Romagna

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This smiling whole hog symbolically welcomed us to the wealth of the traditional foods of Emilia Romagna. He seemed comfortably perched atop the counter of a booth set up for Il Cibo e Chi lo Fa Mercato del Gusto Italiano set up for the weekend on a plaza adjacent to the Cathedral. Although he continued to shrink as slices of him sold throughout the day.

This region of Italy produces some of its best-known cheeses, meats and vinegar. Think of parmiggiano and numerous goat cheeses, cured thinly-sliced Parma ham and aged balsamic vinegar from Modena. Ferrara was an ideal place to dive into some of the regional classics.

Virtually no menu is without cappellacci di zucca, a plump pasta filled with spiced pumpkin puree. It is served primarily two ways, either al ragu, with meat, or in a butter and sage sauce. The best, and most artfully presented, version we encountered was al ragu at Cibo. The meat sauce was flavorful without overpowering the comforting pumpkin. Lebanese were lurking in the kitchen, though, and I broke from the traditional for a chance to order kibbeh, a meat dish I’d wanted to revisit ever since a nephew’s mother-in-law generously contributed it to a Thanksgiving dinner several years ago.

Pizzeria Este liter of wine
diCibo fried calamari
Pizzeria Este octopus with guanciale
Babbuino grilled vegetables
outdoor market
Noemi grilled vegetables
diCibo arancello
Pizzeria Este pizza
Noemi risotto
outdoor market
Cibo cappellacci di zucca
Pizzeria Este vegetable pizza
outdoor market
diCibo spaghetti with seafood
outdoor market
Pizzeria Este Sicilian octopus
outdoor market
Babbuino passatelli with mussels
Cibo cappellacci di zucca
Noemi roasted artichoke
Babbuino licorice liquere and limoncello
outdoor market
Cibo kibbeh
Noemi lasagna
Pizzeria Este

Our go-to pizzeria proved to be Pizzeria Ristorante Este Bar, but the kitchen at the always bustling restaurant is capable of more than a great pie. We had two incredibly good octopus dishes there. One was a rich regional version in which the extremely tender chunks of pulpo topped a bowl filled with pureed cannellini beans and crisped guanciale. Guanciale is cured pork cheek or jowl that is regarded as a much more tender and flavorful ingredient than the pancetta commonly used in dishes at home. Our favorite preparation of octopus here, though, was Sicilian in style, with chunks of potatoes.

Spaghetti here bears little resemblance to the American version of the pasta. Freshly made, it emerges from the kitchen in a thicker, squiggly, more satisfying form. The best we sampled was in a casual, off-the-beaten-path, neighborhood spot, diCibo, that a tourist probably only would find if trying to locate a self-service laundry mat. The perfectly cooked pasta was topped with a bountiful array of fresh seafood.

Both the lasagna and the risotto – aged parmesan makes everything taste better – were great at Trattoria da Noemi. We tried a pasta new for us, passatelli, at Osteria del Babbuino, where a nice blend of jazz is on the soundtrack. With a texture midway between regular pasta and gnocchi, passatelli is formed from bread crumbs, egg and parmesan and cooked in broth. Babbuino’s was offered alle cozze vivaci in crema di cannellini, with mussels in a sauce made from cannellini beans.

Salads in Ferrara tend to be generous but rather basic, so we drifted often to the healthiest other option, grilled vegetables. Sides of grilled eggplant, peppers and zucchini are found on menus almost everywhere, and we were happy to quickly throw salads together at our apartment from prewashed arugula and watercress readily available. I keep longing for watercress to be offered this way in grocery stores at home.

Many of the restaurants in Ferrara still follow the hospitable tradition of providing diners with a complimentary glass of house-made limoncello at the end of the meal. DiCibo instead gave us a refreshing orange version, arancello, and Babbuino offered a choice of limoncello and liquore di liquirizia, my downfall. The bottles were placed on the table with rather large glasses for us to self-administer our servings. A licorice-lover, I poured myself a conservative helping, leaving my glass at least one-quarter empty. Every sip of the deep black liqueur was luscious, but then bedtime came. I was totally wired for most of the sleepless night.

Think the Mister has placed liquore di liquirizia on my off-limits list.