Fäviken, Sweden

Pronounced 'Fair-VI-ken', last night was an experience that put Magnus Nilsson and his exceptional approach to ingredients into our group of top four favourite restaurants. Fäviken sits alongside longside Noma, El Bulli and Arzak. But please don't ask me to try to put them in any kind of order!

After an eye-opening evening,  Magnus came to chat, charming his guests table by table. It was the icing on the cake to find him so gentle and personable. He happily explained his methods for each dish when asked, and we had an interesting discussion that included comparing his Swedish ättika vinegar with British non-brewed condiment for fish and chips and how he makes the skin on his squeaky fresh curd cheese.

Magnus' approach to his food seems to me to be similar in some ways to Fergus Henderson's of St John. Most notably in its adherence to a set of self defined fundamental principles. All his ingredients must be sourced locally and available at that time in the season. This resulted in a scarcity of vegetables in our dinner, and any that did appear were generally pickled, fermented or preserved in some other way. And his dishes are not there to appeal to the masses, but instead to give the diner an experience of what lives and grows on the Fäviken estate and to eating, Magnus Nilsson style.

This is what we had:

To start, a succession of little savoury treats while we reclined in the downstairs lounge:

• Thin, transparent crackers with flax seeds and a blue shell mussel emulsion for dipping.
• Warm teacup with whey and a square of freshly made cheese (left to form a skin for about half an hour) and powdered lavender.
• Fresh, unseasoned wild trout roe in dried pigs blood croustade with sea salt flakes.
• A lollipop of pig's head meat dipped in sourdough batter, deep fried and topped with a slice of fermented gooseberry and pine salt.
• Reindeer 'cloud' lichen dusted with dried trout roe and icelandic lichen with dried egg, served with a mild garlic cream.
• Thin slices of cured wild goose.

Then we were invited upstairs to the dining room, decorated with hanging sides of cured pork and bunches of dried flowers, to enjoy:

• Scallop au natural, cooked in its shell over birch coals, cleaned and served in its own juices on moss and juniper wood.
• Hot plate seared langoustine with 'burnt cream' - cream cooked down until it caramalised and thickened.
• King crab leg poached in butter and burnt onion infused 'ättika' vinegar, with lobes of burnt shallots and an emulsion made from burnt onion, egg and king crab stock.
• Cod brushed with honey and pan seared and a quartered preserved carrot, cooked in whey, both served with spruce oil and ättica vinegar jelly.
• Raw blue shell mussel dusted in powdered birch leaf, with raw Brussels sprouts and toasted sunflower seed emulsion.
• Pea flour tart with sea urchin, sea urchin cream and pickled Rowan berries.
• Porridge with fresh and toasted local seeds and grains, a lump of salted butter, fermented root vegetables, dried chives, beef broth and chive oil.
• Cow femur marrow roasted and sawed open in the dining room, served mixed with raw ox heart and grated turnip, to be topped on toast and sprinkled with green lovage salt.
• Seared beef (hung for a month and then aged for four more months), shaved raw vegetables - beetroot, carrot and turnip and soft, shredded sour onions. 

• Blueberry ice, lingon berries preserved in water served with sour cream and sugar.
• Egg yolk preserved in sugar on pine bark flour cake, with meadowsweet ice cream (churned by our table) and preserving liquor.
• Raspberry jam, whisked duck's egg and milk sorbet.

 To finish we were taken downstairs again to drink herbal tea or coffee, and nibble from a wooden box containing:

• Paper twists of raspberry sorbet, freshly baked cake, meadowsweet candy, a salty sweet tart of sticky birch sap with shavings of cured reindeer, sunflower nougat, smoked toffee, pickled gooseberries, pine resin, tar liquorice and dried blackberries.

Here's the photos and comments:

Menu for dinner on January10 2013

Welcoming fire pits on arrival, along with Johan and Sara, who braved minus 10 degree temperatures in only a cardigan.

The downstairs lounge.

An alchemist's dream of pickled and dried ingredients behind the bar, and a reindeer fur coat.

Slightly salty-sour and very moreish, the dip reminded me of unsmoked taramaslata, or the fish roe pastes the Swedish seem to be fond of.

Surprisingly unseasoned except for the sea salt flakes, so you tasted more of the 'fishiness' of the roe, in contrast to the deeply earthy dried pigs blood mixed into the pastry casing.

Warm and comforting, with a thin skin that burst to release the creamy curds inside. Couldn't taste the lavender myself. 

One of the highlights. Fried outside, slightly sour, gooey batter and then soft, fatty meat, gooseberry tang and a floral pine finish. You could eat bowls of these.  

This was pretty weird. I liked the texture of the cloud lichen, but the flatter Icelandic lichen tasted bitter and I couldn't taste the dehydrated egg yolk 

Very dark, strong tasting, blood-rich meat. Reminded me of the elk we have tried. 

Upstairs dining room.

Interior decoration.

Beautiful presentation.

So simple - perfectly cooked and sweet, with salty, smoky cooking juices.

Incredibly seawater juicy and soft. The 'almost burnt' cream was a subtle but well conceived foil for the meat.

Another juicy piece of shellfish, this time buttery and mildly sour, paired with tastes of charred onion. The ättika vinegar used here is apparently historically a uniquely Swedish product - similar to acetic vinegar but made from wood. Ferociously strong, here it was infused with burnt onion and became the dark brown sour note, blended with melted butter. 

The combination of soft, flaky cod, sour slightly chewy carrot and sharp ättika jelly was sensational, all rounded off with the clean, floral taste of the spruce oil.

Interesting...raw shellfish, green, leafy powder, almost cloying sunflower seed paste and raw sprout crunch. Wasn't entirely sure what to make of this - tasty yes, but I wouldn't go for a main course sized portion.

Despite sea urchin being one of my favourite things, this was challenging. Not sea urchin in the Japanese super clean, super sweet sense, but in the Mediterranean earthy, tastes of the sea, slightly bitter sense, with floury almost sandy pastry and sharp pickled rowan berries. 

Absolutely heavenly, another highlight. Different textures of toasted, crunchy, chewy seeds and soft oat porridge, a very light beef stock and the chives only adding a mild note due to being dried.

Oops I forgot to take a photo of the raw ox heart with bone marrow. The heart was an interesting texture, surprisingly tender with  little bounce. I liked the celery-ish lovage salt. Here is Magnus having at the ox leg bone with a hacksaw.

The white, silky sour onions underneath the discs of raw root vegetables were an unusual accompaniment to the beef - looking almost like horseradish cream but tasting sour and fermented instead. The beef was deeply meaty. We realised why it tastes so intense when Sara told us it had been matured for 5 months in total.

Who wouldn't like blueberry sorbet?

A taste from Magnus' childhood - his grandmother would give him thick sour cream with lingon berries preserved in water. A lovely, delicate sweet. 

This tasted overall of liquorice and honey, chewy-sweetish yolk and crunchy crumbs.

Churning the sour milk sorbet.

The whisked duck egg seemed too rich to me, but I find duck eggs almost too...much so this is a personal thing. Sour sweet raspberry jam and cool milk ice. The whole thing reminded me of a cold savarin, sort of.

What a lovely box of treats. The reindeer and birch resin tarts were sensational. We all liked the paper wrapped raspberry sorbets, toffees, nougat wrapped in leaves, sour gooseberries, dried blackberries and golden meadowsweet candies. The tar liquorice was for those liquorice lovers out there and the pine resin that looked like an inviting square of chocolate? Very good for your teeth and breath apparently. Think everlasting Christmas tree chewing gum.

What a dinner!


Magnus has also recently published his cookbook - Fäviken


Fäviken Magasinet
Fäviken 216
830 05 Järpen

Tel: 0647-401 77
Fax: 0647-401 47
email: info@favikenmagasinet.se

Crabshakk, Glasgow

On a blustery November evening splattered with hard pellets of rain, heaven is a place called Crabshakk.

Arriving windswept and forlorn, all thoughts of the unrelenting Northern chill were banished with the arrival of bisque.

I was told that lobster, langoustine and crab shells are slow roasted to produce a caramel-like marine marmite that is the basis of this deep, ruddy brown soup, enriched with tomatoes and vegetable stock. Wafer thin slices of crisp baguette also arrived alongside a pot of garlicky aioli, for dunking and floating. And like treasure at the bottom of the ocean the sweetest nuggets of lobster meat lay waiting to be unearthed. It was a cockle warming revival after a long cold day, and a magnificent start to dinner.

Next came delicate little white and brown meat crab cakes spiked with a little chilli and parsley, bound with mayonnaise and a sprinkling of panko crumbs, which seemed to disappear to form the crisp pan fried crust.

Finally, a dish of scallops and their roe, seared and served bubbling in a bath of anchovy butter with lemon and bread to dress and mop.

If you are ever in Glasgow any day except Monday (all good restaurants have to close sometime) try to go.

Crabshakk
1114 Argyle Street, Finneston, Glasgow G3 8TD

Jin Kichi

mmmmm. Wow.

We just got back from Jin Kichi in Hampstead.

Tosaka, ogonori and wakame seaweed, in dainty piles, garnished with two thin slices of lemon.

The clean simple tasting dressing? White sesame seeds, ground to a paste, combined with rice vinegar, light soy sauce, salt, sugar, a little mirin, a bit of white miso and the all important - dashi.

Grilled skewers of ox tongue. Chewy, bouncy, succulently fat squares of beefy tongue, with edges charred just enough to give a crisp edge before biting into rich unctuousness. Food porn eat your heart out.

Fat, melting mini-slabs of toro (they feel like slabs on your tongue).

Chewy, even 'al dente' buckwheat noodles, served on a bamboo mat and eaten after being dunked in a savoury dashi and mirin based sauce, spiked with wasabi and spring onion if desired, and grated daikon radish available on request.

The owner hails from Hokkaido. All the staff were lovely.

mmmm...

Jin Kichi

http://www.jinkichi.com/

020 7794 6158 - you need to book.

48 hours in Vancouver

Sitting in the peaceful quiet of Pearson Island, breathing in pine scented air, it's remarkably hard to remember the sights, sounds and tastes of Vancouver city, where I was just a few days ago. So before the memory fades forever from my hole-riddled mind, here's a few notes from a city that certainly deserves several more gastronomic trips.

Given the brevity of my visit we set ourselves a tight schedule - first on the list, lots of local seafood, both raw as sashimi, and cooked, a little bit. Next? Well, it has to be Chinese, Cantonese style and finally, Jason's favourite spot in town.

First stop was Miko Sushi, recommended by Earnest for good quality, traditional sashimi without emptying your wallet in the process. Miko also offers a large selection of appetizers, many from the robata grill. Jason pronounced their grilled ox tongue to be the best he has ever tasted, for successfully delivering skewers of juicy, springy textured meat, lacquered with sweet-salty sauce and charred around the edges. Robata grilled chicken gizzards were almost as good, but definitely came second place.

We asked for locally sourced fish sashimi. Highlights included frilly fronds of mirugai (giant geoduck clam) that tasted sweet and buttery, generous slices of pale albacore tuna with a rosy blush and fat ivory slabs of toro, ready to melt on the tongue. Sockeye salmon was an almost violent orange-red colour compared to the ghostly tuna, and displayed none of the white fat seams characteristic of most salmon. It made sense that the taste was less rich, more delicate and quite gamey.

The next morning began with a late breakfast of Japanese hot dogs...yes really. The Japadog street cart is reputedly the closest thing to the real deal, outside of Japan. We shared a Terimayo, which is smothered with teriyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise, seaweed shreds and fried onions. Instead of the familiar sweet-hot taste found in the US original, this was more porky juices, mild mayo-savoury tang and briny finish, altogether pretty good. Add some tamago egg and you have the Japanese version of an English breakfast bap!



Go fish is little more than a shack, perched on False Creek fisherman's wharf, so near to the sea you could throw your chips in. A collaboration between Fisherman's Wharf and chef Gord Martin, the aim is to raise delicious awareness of local fish.

Wild with excitement, we ordered battered halibut and chips, white spot prawns in sweet and sour coconut sauce and tacones, soft tortilla cones stuffed with coriander, salsa, chipolte cream, 'Pacific Rim' coleslaw (white and red cabbage, sesame and pumpkin seeds, lightly dressed with sesame mayo) and tender albacore or just cooked oysters.

As our order arrived, so did the rain. Fleeing from the unsheltered plastic tables and chairs we took cover under Jason's car boot door. My favourite memory of the whole trip is sitting in the back of the car with my legs dangling over the edge, biting into chips so hot they burnt my fingers, peeling fat rosy prawns and munching tacones dripping with fruity Valentina hot sauce.

There was time before dinner for a quick aperitivo at Rodney's Oyster House, where I savoured a long awaited reunion with my beloved Kumamoto oysters and met some new bivalve buddies - plump, sweet Summer Breeze, the darlings of Vancouver Island, and crisp, briny Village Bays from East Toronto. These were washed down with a lemony 'Zydeco Stew Caesar', apparently Canadian for a Bloody Mary, made with clamato juice and garnished with a prawn.

If this is as appetitively exhausting to read as it is to write then I apologise!

Entering the Golden Ocean Seafood Restaurant was like walking into any decent family restaurant in Hong Kong, all chintzy decor, large round tables and Cantonese cacophony. The food was also just as good. Some say that San Francisco may have lost its edge, leaving Vancouver to be crowned the new capital of Chinese cuisine outside of Hong Kong. We ate roasted duck with glazed skin the colour of mahogany, delicate double boiled tilapia (zi4 yu3) soup, juicy pork and water chestnut patties and a quivering dish of steamed tofu, prawns and oyster mushrooms.

With one lunch left, it was Jason's noodle mecca or a plane straight back to London. On first glance, Sha Lin Noodle House looks like any other shabby cheap Chinese, except all the tables are full and frequently there is a queue. Separated from diners by glass panels, Beijing chefs twirl and pull fresh noodles, plopping them into boiling water and tossing others into bowls to be dressed with soup and sauce.

To make Jason's favourite noodle dish (zha1 jiang4 shou3 la1 mein4), freshly made noodles are essential for their chewy bite. These are topped with little nuggets of chopped pork shoulder in a musky yellow bean sauce and a pile of raw cucumber shreds. You can toss the whole lot together and eat it as it is, or add lashings of black vinegar, chilli oil and/or minced garlic (if you're feeling really strong).

We could have just ordered noodles and been satisfied, but as there was a large menu and a girl with a mission, we also ate translucent hot and sour potato slivers, Chinese cabbage shreds dressed in white vinegar, cool sweet potato starch noodles with sesame paste and black vinegar and fried spring onion pancakes.


Then we left for Langdale ferry.

This is by no means a list of the best places to eat, but on a budget it was pretty good. Vancouver magazine's Restaurants section was a useful resource. It seems to offer a fairly comprehensive list of restaurants, and also gives out annual awards - take a look at the 2009 winners.

Miko Sushi
1335 Robson
Vancouver, BC V6E 1C5, Canada
(604) 681-0339



Japadog
899 Burrard St
(604) 642-0712

Go Fish Ocean Emporium
1505 West 1st Avenue (at False Creek Fisherman's Wharf)
(604)730-5040



Rodney's Oyster House
Suite 405 1228 Hamilton St
(604) 609-0080

Golden Ocean Seafood Restaurant

2046 41st Ave W
(604) 263-8606



Sha-lin Restaurant

548 W Broadway
(604) 873-1816

Launceston Place, April 23

Just got back from lunch with Sibilla. Mmmm two restaurants in two days, I'm feeling extremely lucky, and a little giddy from the over-indulgence!

Launceston Place is my idea of the perfect neighbourhood restaurant, as well as being a culinary destination worth travelling for. If you live in London then I would urge you to go. Headchef Tristan, formerly of Petrus under Marcus Wareing, is incredibly talented and never ceases to surprise and delight with his own take on Modern British cuisine. Paired with friendly, relaxed service under Hadi Aknin's watchful eye the result is a leisurely dining experience that leaves one sated and soothed.

We took advantage of the very reasonable set lunch offer, £18 for three courses, I had duck salad with rillettes, pickled vegetables and wild herbs, braised beef chop with confit tomatoes and basil and a sticky, caramelised apple tarte Tatin that I could develop a very serious addiction for.

Launceston Place
1a Launceston Place
London W8 5RL

Tel: 020 7937 6912

Kiku, April 23

Ronan is going to New York tomorrow for a long weekend. So as a pre-weekend treat we went to Kiku. Kiku is my longstanding favourite Japanese restaurant. No fuss, no frills, squeaky fresh sashimi and sushi.

Our favourite sushi has no name I know of. Its a gunkan, topped with sweet ikura (salmon roe) and a quail egg yolk. Ro doesn't even like eggs much. Its gooey, yolky, seaweedy squidge heaven. Brilliant.

There is a gunkan with tobiko (flying fish roe) and quail egg yolk that is called uzura no tamago. If anyone knows the name of the ikura version I'd love to know!

Osteria di Passignano, March 21

The Osteria is in the Antinori family owned Abbey - Badia a Passignano. Opened in 2000 with Marcello Crini at the helm and Matia Barciulli in the kitchen, the restaurant earned its first Michelin star last year. Its ethos is to showcase classic Tuscan cuisine, ideally complemented with Antinori wines.

Dinner was very good. Some dishes did not quite hit the mark, in particular it was a shame that the pasta lacked the delicate, silken quality that one would expect. As well as accolades, the pressure that is often associated with Michelin Guide awards can become an unhealthy influence on restaurants, for guests and staff alike. There is a long, hard road marked out for those wishing to rise through the ranks to achieve the celebrated three star status, but the stigma associated with losing just one star can be detrimental to a future success.

This is what I ate:

Le Nostre “Frattaglie”
Panino al Lampredotto
Animelle Croccanti
Millefoglie di Lingua e Verza

Our Interpretation of Offal
Lampredotto Sandwich
Crunchy Sweetbreads
Millefeuille of Tongue and Savoy Cabbage


Taglierini al Profumo di Timo, Colatura di Acciughe,
Briciole di Pane e Crema di Cavolfiore

Thyme Flavoured Taglierini, Anchovy Essence,
Breadcrumbs and Cauliflower Cream

Agnello di Latte:
Il coscio Stufato con Crema di Sedano Rapa
Il Carré in Crosta di Erbette con Flan di Asparagi

Milk Fed Lamb:
Stewed Gigot with Celeriac Cream
Herb Crusted Rack with Asparagus Flan

Goccia di Gelato di Lamponi
e Vin Brulé in Gelo su Succo di Ribes

Raspberry Ice Cream Tear
and Frozen Mulled Wine on Redcurrant Juice

Osteria di Passignano
Via Passignano 33
Loc. Badia a Passignano 50028
Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (FI)
Tel./Fax +39 055 8071278
Website: www.osteriadipassignano.com

Trattoria Mario, March 19

Florence for lunch at Trattoria Mario. Its a tiny room with less than 10 tables covered in green checkered laminated cloth. We had excellent trippa fiorentina, tender soft tripe in a meaty tomato sauce with the consistency of silk, spiked with pepper. Bollito misto wasn't bad either, slices of boiled tongue and beef, parsley and olive oil sauce, piquant pickles to add sparkle.

The bill, including a carafe of red wine, salad and water came to just 20 euros.



Signs on the wall separating us from the chefs read as follows:

Qui si mangia insieme a quegl'altri dal 1953
Communal eating since 1953

L'osso della bistecca si ciucca con la mani
Eat your steak-bone by hand

01/03/1953 La bistecca si coce come ci pare!!!
The steak is cooked however the hell we want!!!

Noi i'brodo coi dado un si fa!!!
Stock cubes have no place here!!!

Noi i'congelatore un ci s'ha!! Qui non s'adopra la panna!!
We don't have a freezer!! We don't use cream!!

Trattoria Mario

Via Rosina 2r
angolo Piazza del Mercato Centrale
50123, Firenze, Italia

Tel: 055 – 218550

Web: www.trattoria-mario.com