August, 2009

Uncategorized — No Comments
27
Aug 09

Phat in Hangzhou II: Dragonwell Manor

Dragonwell Manor is the best restaurant in China. Yep. Luckily, we just happened to be in the neighborhood!

Dragonwell is situated on a really nice farm filled with tea fields, manicured gardens, and a small flowing creek. Upon arrival, we were greeted by qipao-wearing xiao jie who led us up a winding path to a private villa equipped with our own washroom & attendants. Pretty luxe!

dragonwell-04
Everything at Dragonwell is organic, locally sourced, and picked the day of. You can tell by their dated menu. Don’t those farmers look proud?

dragonwell-01
We started our meal off with fresh-pressed soybean milk, served sweet – with the perfect amount of sugar, or savory – with dried shrimp, green onions, and soy sauce. This meal was certainly phatass-approved. We had an assortment of dishes; fresh-picked greens, tofu soaked in chicken broth, soft-braised wintermelon, pork belly with bamboo shoots, and much, much more.

dragonwell-03
Another fantastic chicken soup – the meat was so tender it just fell off the bone. Flavored with some kind of bug we mistook for ginseng.

dragonwell-02
I also got the opportunity to enjoy some Chinese delicacies I’ve never had before, including sea cucumber and some really legit Long Jing (dragonwell) tea. At $80RMB (~$11USD), it was pretty spectacular.

After our meal, we spent some time wandering around the gardens and perfecting our Chinese tourist poses…

See ya in the fall, Hangzhou!l

Uncategorized — No Comments
26
Aug 09

Phat in Hangzhou I: Farm Food

Me & some good peoples – Gee, Ado, the InfaMou, & Sammy took a weekend trip to the most beautiful Tier 2 City in China; Hangzhou.

After lots of Chinese-style jostling & pushing through crowded train stations, we arrived fresh off the train (straight f.o.t.-in’). We promptly threw our bags down, and directed our Shifu (driver) to take us to the best place to get farmer food.

Ok, my mandarin is the sucks, so I can’t really tell you how to get here or how it works. But basically we rolled up to this family owned restaurant and were invited into their kitchen to choose what we wanted to eat. Here’s a sweet lil video I’ve dilligently prepared in iMovie.

Hmm, my editing skills are pretty lackluster.

So anyways, we sat down in this superflourescent private dining room and enjoyed some formaldehyde -free local beer. Within minutes the feast began to arrive:

hangzhou-02

Veggies! Kabocha stir fried with rich salted duck egg yolk, super fresh eggplant with minced pork.

hangzhou-02

River shrimp with ginger & green onion, chili pepper & beef stir fry.

hangzhou-01

Whole xihu river fish & the chicken-iest chicken soup ever, complete with chicken head.

All served with plenty of hot rice, beer, and good company!

$$ — No Comments
11
Aug 09

Phat in Madrid: Bazaar

This meal took place in March 2009.

Bazaar, along with La Finca Susana and Restaurante Public, is an outpost of a chain of cheap and trendy restaurants in Madrid. They are really popular with locals and tourists alike. For example, when we arrived at Bazaar half an hour before they opened for dinner, there was already a line halfway down the block! And for good reason. Bazaar has a simple formula for success: trendy but not overdone interiors, good service, low prices, and quality food.

tuna rosabif mango chutney bazaar madrid spain
Although the restaurant bills its food as “mediterranean,” the menu features a fusion of dishes from across all culinary backgrounds. You’ll find fish flavored with nori and Thai-style noodles served along Italian and French preparations. To start, we indulged in the tuna rosabif – slices of quick-seared tuna served with dallops of mango chutney and pickled pearl onions. A little bit of sweet from the chutney + acidity of the pearl onion over the tuna made it the perfect appetizer.

3368315491_5556b29ab9
We also shared an order of the “milhojas magret,” which turned out to be braised duck in gravy sandwiched between layers of puff pastry. Amazing. The gravy was rich and thick, and made you want to use the pastry to soak up as much of it as possible. The duck was so tender and came in a very generous portion for the price.

3368316777_ba53dc38eb
For dessert, we enjoyed the chocolatissimo, a superbly moist chocolate lava cake that unloaded its gooey contents onto the plate the moment we cut into it. A perfect finish to an amazing meal.

Calle de San Marcos, 35
Chueca
Madrid, Spain
+34 91 523 3905
www.restaurantbazaar.com

$$$$ — 1 Comment
11
Aug 09

Phat in Madrid: Casa Botín

This epic meal took place in March 2009.

Last year I had an amazing opportunity to visit Madrid Spain and dine at the legendary Botín – aka the oldest restaurant in the world, est. 1725! Amazing. I was delighted to join the ranks of Hemingway and Goya in trying Botin’s specialty – the Castillian suckling pig, called cochinillo asado.

botin madrid spain cochinillo
The restaurant is a certified tourist trap, but nonethless the food and the interiors are amazing. The low ceilings, winding staircases, and exposed stone walls really make you feel like you’re in a different century. Once you enter, you can peer inside the kitchen and check out the chef roasting up delicious little piglets for dinner.

botin cochinillo madrid spain
The cochinillo (£22.50 / $30USD) is really fantastic. The portion is pretty generous – you get two hunks of amazingly juicy and tender pork and some potatoes. The meat is just so flavorful and spurts juice when you touch it.. and the skin! The skin is thick and crispy, roasted until it cracks. I loved that they preserve the integrity of the porky flavor by serving this dish simply with the pan juices and salt on the side.

botin cake tarta de la casa madrid spain
We also tried Botin’s signature dessert – a cake layered with pastry cream and topped meringue called “tarta botin.” On paper it sounded really good, how can you go wrong with pastry cream? But the cake itself had an overwhelming taste of egg – I felt like I should have topped it with tabasco and called it breakfast.

All in all – an amazing dinner. An epic meal I’ll always remember!

Casa Botín
Calle de Cuchilleros, 17
Madrid, Spain
+34 913 664 21
www.botin.es