Jamie Oliver's Fifteen - London, England

Striding from Old Street Station to my friend's London apartment, I always passed Fifteen. I was struck to find out that Jamie Oliver's flagship restaurant was five minutes walking distance from me. His restaurant quickly got onto my "London To Do" list. I've seen his face on cookbooks and The Huffington Post. Who was this man and what was he capable of?

We had a reservation for four persons. I was excited. As the only one Fifteen newbie, my friends ordered the Antipasti Board with seasonal vegetables pictured above. This featured large green olives, creamy mozzarella with olive oil and spices, mortadella, salsami, pickled beets and charred butternut squash. My favorites were the mozzarella, mortadella, and charred butternut squash.

The delectability of the mozzarella drove me to the mozzarella starter. This featured mozzarella with citrus fruit, almonds, and rocket at Fifteen. The creaminess provided the perfect base for the acid and bitter flavors from the rocket and citrus fruit.

While I was enjoying the first of my two starters, one of my friends was enjoying this dish featuring pan seared scallops.

Here is the wood smoked salmon with potatoes, greens, and capers. It was an utter revelation. Nearly two months later, this dish has the longest lasting impression on me.

Dessert time was upon us. There were four of us and we had a troubling time deciding, so we ordered four desserts. This is one of my favorites, the basil pannacotta with strawberries.

The British cheese board, my second favorite dessert. Mix and match, it's such an enjoyment.

Our third dessert. There are no tasting notes.

Our fourth dessert. There are no tasting notes.

Fifteen
15 Westland Place
London, N1 7LP

Dinner by Heston - Mandarin Hotel, London

Welcome to the Mandarin Hotel, home to Dinner by Heston. I was staying in London with good friends, foodies and cocktail enthusiasts. I value people that value great dining and drinking experiences. It's not enough to just eat for calories, one must occasionally savor. We talked of Fat Duck, 3 Michelin stars, far away in distance and budget. Then we moved to Dinner by Heston, possessor of 1 Michelin star and ranked #9 on The World's 50 Best Restaurants. Through mild wrangling, my friend and I landed an afternoon reservation.

We were escorted through the lounge area, subtly lit yet eye catching to the color-ADD among us. I was excited. Meat Fruit was foremost in my mind. My friend could only describe it as pate that looked like fruit. To the internet!

Wow! Heston is a culinary artist! I was singing Meat Fruit all week leading to this event. When isn't an anticipated restaurant not an event? We ordered as if we were on a mission. There was mild debate about the second course, but went with Meat Fruit, Black Foot Pork Chop, Tipsy Cake, and Brown Bread Ice Cream.

While we waited, they served us bread and lightly salted butter. The wait staff here is charming, efficient, and their timing impeccable. They serve without hovering, charm with but an accent tinted phrase. Having finished the bread, they ask "Would you like some more?" And hem and haw, knowing I shouldn't, but the gentleman says "Why not?" Why not, indeed? More bread is in front of me and I continue carb loading waiting for my Meat Fruit.

Chicken liver parfait encased inside a mandarin jelly mold accompanied by grilled bread. The orange color is correct, it has the topmost dimple, yet there is something off about this mandarin. 

Discard the "stem" and gently cut open. The orange exterior reveals the creamy meat parfait lurking beneath. Spread liberally on your grilled bread and lustfully enjoy. It will leave you hungering for more.

Here we have the Black Foot Pork Chop featuring Hispi cabbage, lardo, ham hock & Robert sauce. The cabbage and lardo were a lighter airy side to the brash ham hock. I had expected the lardo to be much more decadent and rich, but the ham merely hinted. The Pork Chop was good, but not great. I suppose I did not fully appreciate that this came from the Black Iberian Pig.

While researching Dinner by Heston, I found a featurette video highlighting tipsy cake. It's a spit roasted spiraled pineapple with a custardy brioche (I'm borrowing from other descriptions here. I must inquire more specifically if there's a next time). The pineapple had been rotisseried, cooked and basted in caramel for 2-4 hours. Since my mind was occupied with whole pineapple images, it hard for me to fully appreciate this dessert. It was certainly a rich complementary pairing.

Here is my favorite dessert, the Brown Bread Ice Cream featuring Salted butter caramel, pear & malted yeast syrup. Our server advised that we cut through all three layers with our spoons. I appreciate the care they take with their presentation. Three textures, intertwined flavors, a savory marriage. 

Our palates were finished with an Earl Grey Chocolate Ganache and Caraway Seed biscuit. I enjoyed the biscuits and my friend enjoyed the two ganache.

Want more Heston? Click here.

Room with a view - the kitchen.

Champagne service.

The menu.

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, 

Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park

66 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7LA

The Search for Ginger - Perchè no!

I have a passion for ginger root. I desire the spiciness, the sweet heat. At sushi restaurants, I will eat your leftover pickled ginger. My eyes light up at new ginger products especially ginger beers and ales and ice creams. I rushed to Boulder, CO once I heard about Bitter Bar's Ginger Overload. I rushed to Glacé for their Candied Ginger ice cream once I arrived in Kansas City for Christmas 2010 (they were out). I splurged at Boulder's Frasca for Fever Tree Ginger Ale ($4 for a little bottle).

I'm obsessed and particular. Typically, my search leads to disappointment. Bitter Bar nailed it by muddling ginger right there. Reed's Ginger Ale makes my favorite ginger beer and ale. I love ginger candy for capturing ginger's essence remarkably well. Manifesto makes the fiercest ginger candy I've met yet. Ginger ice cream regularly fails me. Typically it's tame, spicy heat nullified by cream, whitebread, non-daring for mass exploitation.

Fortunately my non-diagnosed ADD (yay, bright lights!) lead me to unexpected finds. By late Sunday evening, I had already eaten 14 gelato samples at the Firenze Gelato Festival. I was aimlessly wandering when randomly flashing bright lights caught me attention. Blue! Green! Red! Yellow! Welcome to Perchè no!

They had many selections including alcoholic gelato (negroni and another), sorbetti, granata, and 2 soy-based gelatos. I was close to abstaining until I spotted this:

The heavens opened and shined upon the ginger gelato. I thought of all the wonderful and strange flavors I had already tried and capitulated. One scoop of ginger gelato in a cup, please.

So, not only does the ginger gelato display feature ginger root, this €2 single scoop gets layered with a ginger reduction! Ahhhhh! The heat, the spice, the actual ginger root bits, the fragrant ginger syrup on top, I was in heaven. Perchè no! delivered where previous ice cream establishments failed.

Another image of the ginger backdropped by the sorbetti and negroni.

Reviews of this fine establishment.

Another entrance shot.

Lists the flavors at the festival. Somehow I did miss their booth and I'm very sad I did.

 Perché No!
Via dei Tavolini, 
19-red, 50122 
Firenze, Italy  
+39 055 239 8969 ‎

Capoue - Parkour Style

Unusual hobbies and peculiar food inclinations have a way of rewarding one in unusual ways. My Brussels wanderings brought me to a popular site, the pissing cherub near the Grand Palace. Denying my tourist instincts to snap that popular picture (I succumbed later), I focused on the green and red awning covering an Escargots stand instead. I was already full, but how many opportunities does a person have to sample 10 sea snails for €3.50? And the snail decor was so inviting.

While I was debating, the proprietor went inside a nearby restaurant. I waited and paced. I settled near the left front support next to another Belgian. "Do you do parkour", he asks. Perplexed, I reply affirmatively, "yes, in Colorado". This led to a discussion of DemonDrills (aka. Ryan Ford of Apex Movement), Colorado parkour, telltale signs of a traceur (backpack, camelbak, bashed shins - if you do this sport resign yourself to being injured 50% of the time [his quote]), serendipity, and that he's waiting for several Germans and a Japanese girl to arrive for a Saturday parkour jam.

Parkour versus snails? Duh! Parkour always wins out. And who wants to run and jump with snails in their stomach? The guy looking directly at the camera is Jo, the person who invited me.

First stop was SQUARE where we spotted two other traceurs training, Bastien and Rodolphe. It's a great area to work on wall runs, cat hangs, supports, climb ups, QM, rail balancing, striding and precisions.

Nearby are functional sculptures. This one was great for vault combinations. The trees near this long stone bench were fun for linking movements also.

Not only is this a great view of Brussels skyline, but also notice the walls, rails, steps, and skate box. Slightly past the above sculpture, this area presents different combo options and the rails are more open here than at the SQUARE. We were practicing wall run dyno combos among other movements. There's more to explore, but people were getting hungry. More specifically, Martin from ParkourOne was craving Capoue ice cream.

But he got distracted by a nearby art piece whose mesh acted as a trampoline. Not only is it great for practicing front flips (Martin above), side flips (Benji below), but if you're feeling good, try muscle ups (John of ParkourExchange.org).

To this sculpture's right, we had more wall run challenges, rail balances, climb ups.

One spot, so many options. Great views, fun challenges, new parkour buddies, there's even something for skaters.

Finally, we were all quite hungry and ready to move on. Capoue ice cream was calling. We were informed it was a 20 minute walk from this spot. Distance dictated 45 minutes which was okay since I saw more of Brussels than anticipated especially if I was on my own. I also learned if you want to pick up hot EU Parliament interns, go there on Thursdays.

We finally arrived to Capoue and I was desperately hoping it was worth it. It's an inviting spot, the orange enough to break through the gray monotony.

I wasn't the only hungry one. We were all craving the Glacier Artisanal goodies.

Fromage blanc and pistachio. The pistachio was pleasantly brown. Brown is typically not a pleasant color, but much less suspiciously colored than bright green pistachio ice cream. It was nicely nutty and the pistachio flavor carried through well. The fromage blanc was a delight, slightly sweet with a tang. Read more about it here. If Capoue was closer to Brussels centre, I would have readily returned for the fromage blanc.

Satisfaction after a hard day of parkour. But wait! We're not finished. We discovered a kids' playground without kids.

Meet Phil, king of the playground lache to precision.


Capoue
Chaussée de Boondael 395A, 1050 Ixelles, Belgium

Santini - Lisbon, Portugal

Lines are intimidating. Raised in a society that emphasizes convenience, long lines are frightening. We want things now not later. Even if we're starving or want what others desire, we're more likely to take the least resistant path. Santini, near Lisbon's center (a short walk from the Restauradores' metro stop), seems such a place. The word "gelati" is delectable, their red and white decor inviting, but the line acted as an UNO reverse card.

Coupled with this long line was my previous experiences with Portuguese inefficiency. This could be a 30 minute wait, but the ice cream looked so good. I stayed.

The line was moving well, a good sign. Another excellent sign appeared - the sight of additional fortification. Desserts, coffee, and a sign proclaiming "the best chocolate cake in the world".

There it lies. A chocolate cake, its world's bestest claim untested. If you make it to Santini, please let me know if it matches expectations. The line was moving remarkably fast and the reasons why were soon apparent. You order first and get a ticket which you'll present at the gelati counter. This was great production flow and similar to another great gelato place in Barcelona.

I could nearly savor my future ice cream. Successful customers were walking past with their colorful ice cream. I wanted to take an ice cream troll toll, but I resisted such lowbrow reflexes.

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Several people (4-6) manned the gelati counter quickly taking orders and swirling them into cups and cones. Right before you get to the counter, there's a display board to the left listing all the varieties. One complaint - you can't see the ice cream before ordering. They are in silver containers and always lidded.

Meloa (honeydew) and abacaxi com hortelã(pineapple with mint). This cost €2.50. The meloa was so good and the mint subtly came through the pineapple flavor. I'm a huge fan of honeydew melon and they nailed the flavor.

Abacate (avocado) and Doce de ovo com pinhão (egg cream with pine nuts). This also cost €2.50. The avocado was nicely fatty, the doce de ovo struck a good balance. The pine nuts were few but present. I'm glad they didn't overpower.

Good to the last drop, I recommend Santini's. The line moves rather quickly, so don't be intimidated as I was two weeks ago. The decor is pleasant and inviting with its red and white colors. They have approximately 20 flavors to try. It's reasonably priced especially considering the ice cream's superb flavor and taste. And the line only took 10 minutes or less - Brava! Read the English scoop on this place here.