Docsconz- The Blog

Sweetly Sweden

 

If I could do this trip over again, I would have allowed for more time in Sweden. With only two days, we barely got to scratch the surface, but what a surface we scratched. From an afternoon and night on the quiet island of Oaxen in the archipelago south of Stockholm to a day and a night in the vibrant city of Stockholm, we experienced two sides of Sweden and two of the country's very best restaurants, both on The San Pellegrino World's Fifty Best List.

 

We took a morning flight from Oslo to Arlanda Airport outside of Stockholm, where we rented a car to take us to Oaxen, the home of Magnus Ek's idyllic restaurant, Oaxen Krog. We got there early enough to check in and relax on board our hotel for the evening, the spectacular small ship The Prince van Orangiën. Owned by Ek and his lovely wife Agneta, the early 20^th century ship has been refitted to provide intimate, luxury accommodations for guests of the restaurant. The combination of Ek's beautiful, forest-rich cuisine and serene surroundings were sufficient to help me feel more relaxed almost immediately. Waking up the following morning to actual sunshine and the ship's breakfast delivered to our cabin helped even more.

Chef Magnus Ek of Oaxen Krog 

Unfortunately we didn't have time to linger and needed to head back on the 9:30 ferry to make the most of Stockholm on our one day there. An added bonus was being accompanied on the ride to Stockholm by my friend, the legendary Food Snob, who we had run into at dinner the evening before.

 

We spent a glorious day sightseeing in Stockholm, walking around the city and finally finding a real food market, the Östermalms Saluhall. The market combines wonderful seafood, produce and meat retailers along with a number of small restaurants selling prepared dishes for immediate or take-away consumption. We tried some fish soup, a shrimp salad sandwich and a shrimp and crayfish salad between us. Washed down by an invigorating Swedish pear cider, it made for a fine snack.

 

The better part of the afternoon was spent at the incredible Vasa Museum. If one has any interest in history whatsoever and one finds oneself in Stockholm, this unbelievable connection to the past should not be missed. The Vasa was to be the foremost Swedish warship of its time in the early 17^th Century, built to battle Poland during the 30 Years War. Elaborately decorated and heavily armed, it was constructed at a cost of about $40 million of today's dollars only to sink on its maiden voyage even before it left the Stockholm Harbor. Found and removed from the depths in the 1950's, it moved into a specially built Museum approximately 20 years ago. Both the sensationally well preserved ship itself as well as accompanying exhibits were outstanding.

 

On the first truly sunny day of our trip, we left the museum and walked past an enticing Gröna Lund amusement park to catch the ferry to Gamla Stan, the atmospheric old town of Stockholm. We strolled across that small island and across the bridge back to our hotel near the Central Station to prepare for our final dinner of the trip. We stayed in the Adlon Hotel. It was, on first impression less than exciting, but we found the room, a two-room triple, to be one of the better and more attractive ones on the trip. With a location convenient for travel, a fair price and a surprisingly nice room, I would return.

 

Mathias Dahlgren is a legend in Sweden. A winner of the Bocuse D'Or, Dahlgren's previous restaurant, Bon Lloc, achieved great critical acclaim until he closed it to move into the opulent Grand Hotel in Ostermalm. There he actually has two restaurants, the formal Mathias Dahlgren Matsalen and the more informal Matbaren. We ate at the Matsalen. Though Dahlgren wasn't there that evening, the luxurious, but not stuffy restaurant was superb, with outstanding service, wine and food. It was a fitting end for an extraordinary trip.

Norwegian Nutshells

 

Make no mistake, Norway is a country containing much in the way of spectacular natural beauty from fjords to waterfalls to lush green valleys. It also has lovely, friendly people. Those things are easy to come across when visiting Norway. Less easy is finding reasonably priced, good food. Expensive, mediocre-at-best food, no problem. Cheap food, good or bad, really difficult. Then again, unlike Denmark & Sweden, I didn't really go to Norway for the food – at least not as the principle draw.

 

Coming from eating at multiple Michelin stars in Denmark and knowing that Norway would be quite expensive, my hope was to find reasonable, simple food as we ventured from Oslo to the western fjords and Bergen. Oslo has some restaurants with good reputations and Michelin stars, but none that appealed enough to justify their associated lofty tariffs. The restaurant that I did choose in Oslo, based on some internet research, but no recommendations from anyone I knew personally, Solsiden, was well situated on the shore of the Oslo fjord. Their specialty is the seafood plateau, which I thought would offer a nice contrast to the complex dishes of Copenhagen. A meal of simply prepared Norwegian shellfish sounded like a good change of pace...and it might have been if it had actually been good Norwegian shellfish as I had assumed it would have been. We all know what happens when we assume. Priced per person (635NK or about $100pp) for a minimum of two people, the plateau was large and more than enough food for two or even three people. Quantity wasn't the issue. It was billed as consisting of oysters, scallops, shrimp, lobster, mussels, king crab and crab. Unfortunately for me, I didn't ask about the food's origins until we received the platter. The lobster and shrimp were from Canada and the oysters (2) were from France. I'm not sure where the mussels or the crab were from, but the only things actually from Norway was the king crab legs (2). It's not that any of it was bad (though the lobster was not fully cooked), it just wasn't very good. The bulk of the platter consisted of the shrimp, which were small, unpeeled and head-on. I didn't bother peeling them. The shells were soft enough to eat and it wasn't worth the effort to peel them. It seemed that nearly all of the shrimp were roe-containing. I didn't mind eating the roe, but I had to wonder about the wisdom of harvesting all these breeding shrimp. My biggest issue with the shrimp though was that I really wanted to taste and eat the rekker or small Norwegian fjord shrimp, which I had heard so much about and had assumed would be on the platter. Since we ordered the platter for two, we only received one French oyster and one small scallop (sans anything but the adductor muscle) each – disappointing. The platter was served with an aoli, a mayonnaise and a cocktail sauce, none of which were very good. It did not include drawn butter. Ultimately, the tastiest component of the dinner was the mussels, which were served separately in a garlic, parsley and white wine sauce, however, they were no better than any other competently prepared mussel dish. With only one night in Oslo, we didn't have a chance to explore any where else.

 

The food didn't get better when we ventured north to the small coastal town of Alesund. As one might imagine of a Norwegian coastal town at the head of a major fjord, boats are ubiquitous. I was told that there are more boats in Alesund per capita than anywhere else in the world. While I don't know if that is true or not, there certainly are plenty of them. Presumably they fish with at least some of them. With the so-called “best restaurant” in Alesund closed on Saturdays and Sundays (the days we were there) we were recommended a seafood restaurant down by the docks called XL Diner. Their specialty is bacalao and the only fresh fish on the menu was farm-raised Norwegian salmon. They did offer a cream-based fish soup that was actually quite tasty, but the bacalao dishes were practically inedible. It's not that I don't like dried cod. When well-prepared, it has a wonderful texture and the salt is almost entirely mitigated. That was not so in either case here. The cod was still quite salty with an unpleasant texture. The various preparations were ascribed to a number of national identities, but neither the Italianate or Norwegian varieties we tried proved edible to me. The following night in Alesund as we waited between Hurtigruten boats, we resorted to a Pan-Asian restaurant, which would actually have been ok if it wasn't about 4 times what a similar dinner would have cost in the US.

Chef Hanne Frosta of Hanne Pa Hoyden 

Fortunately, we moved on to Bergen, a lovely city with a fair bit of history and quite a few restaurants. I was also lucky to contact an old eGullet friend from Bergen, Christopher Haatuft, an accomplished cook in his own right. Christopher grew up in Bergen and developed much of his cooking chops there. He spent the past year or so cooking at the Norwegian Embassy in Paris and is shortly heading to N.Y. to be a sous chef at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. He knows food and steered us to two excellent restaurants in Bergen. The first, Jacob's Bar & Kokkern serves modern influenced, but well grounded  cooking using a preponderance of Norwegian ingredients. They focus on seafood and use only fresh, locally caught fish, avoiding any farmed or imported seafood. The food was creative, well prepared and very tasty. Like the rest of Norway, it wasn't particularly cheap, but it was, for Norway, a very good value and well worth the money spent. The following day, we had a late lunch at Hanne Pa Hoyden, Bergen's answer to noma. In fact, the chef owner, Hanne Frosta and some of her staff have cooked at noma. Hanne Pa Hoyden, is a true Slow Food restaurant, using only the finest ingredients from Norway. Like noma, the restaurant is crafting a New Scandinavian cuisine and though not as elaborately prepared as the dishes at noma, the dishes are quite tasty and satisfying. One aspect quite unique to Hanne Pa Hoyden is that the only wine they serve is wine made at and by the restaurant. Since grapes don't grow in Norway, the wines are not grape wines. We sampled a number of wines made from such produce as sea buckthorn, rhubarb and other local fruits and vegetables. Though somewhat one dimensional, they were very tasty and provided wonderful pairings for the food as they were not generally high alcohol and contained sufficient acid structures. In both restaurants, dishes utilizing seasonal fresh mackeral stood out. The one at Hanne Pa Hoyden and been cooked on the flat top in a coating of spelt, providing a wonderfully crunchy exterior. Prior to this trip, I had never been a huge fan of mackeral, but the examples eaten at these two restaurants and that at AOC in Copenhagen were amongst the best dishes of the trip, completely opening my eyes and mouth to the greatness of the fish.

 

The remainder of our Norwegian eating experience was unremarkable as we took the scenery rich extended journey back to Oslo called Norway in a Nutshell. Like the bulk of our Norwegian experience, it was rich on sights and weak on food.

 

The funny thing is that Norway is not without extremely competent chefs, including several Bocuse D'Or winners. With a few exceptions like those in Bergen, it doesn't appear to entertain much of a creative restaurant culture. Perhaps that is because of the high cost of everything or perhaps many of the better restaurants are simply not very well known outside of Norway. It may also be that most restaurants, especially in the areas we visited cater to tourists and don't really need to be very good. There is no doubt there is good food to be found there, but it can be somewhat hard to find. During my pre-trip research, I couldn't really come across any really must-visit recommendations. I was hoping to try Geier Skeie's upcoming restaurant and the famous Bagatelle, but the former hasn't opened yet and the latter closed over the past year. Ultimately, though, given the exorbitant cost of food and the difficulty finding the better places, Norway is not a legitimate culinary destination. That is not to say that it is not worth visitingr, however. The scenery of the fjords, the rich Viking and Hanseatic history and cultural stops such as the Edvard Munch Museum, The Viking Ship Museum and the Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo and the Edvard Grieg House in Bergen are well worth experiencing.  

elBulli 8/29/2005

 

To date, this meal at elBulli, five years ago today, remains the single greatest and most memorable meal of my life. Pictured here is Felix Meana, then a waiter at elBulli and now a budding restaurateur in Asheville, N.C.. Felix was a significant factor in helping make that such a great and memorable meal. He and I ran into each other in Asheville at the end of June. Amazingly, we both recognized each other. It is a small world. This is also the 5th anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans. Little did I know then how significant both events would be in my life.

A full description with photos of this meal can be found on the eGullet Forums here.

Copenhagen - More than Just noma

 

Copenhagen has evolved into a truly world class restaurant city. Everyone who is seriously interested in food now knows noma, Rene Redzepi's New Scandinavian tour de force restaurant that has set the culinary world on fire. The truth is, noma is good enough, that if one could get a reservation, it would be worth traveling to Copenhagen just for a dinner or a lunch there, however, it would be a mistake to travel all the way to Copenhagen and not venture beyond noma.

I had first become aware of Rene Redzepi and noma late in 2006 when reports of this amazing new restaurant in Copenhagen began filtering through on eGullet, led by my friend, Gabe Quiros. At that point neither Copenhagen nor the rest of Scandinavia were high on my culinary tourism wish list. It's not that I didn't think there would be any good food, but up until that time I hadn't been particularly aware of anything or anyone to draw me there. Fast forward to January 2008 in Madrid, Spain, when the culinary revolution that had been fermenting in Scandinavia was recognized at Madrid Fusión with a special emphasis placed on the new chefs of Scandinavia who were building a new cuisine based upon Scandinavian tradition and the resurrection or adoption of impeccable ingredients from Scandinavia. Even then, Redzepi was noted to be in the forefront of the movement. He had become known for foraging for new and special ingredients from around all of Scandinavia and applying to them techniques from the Spanish Vanguard and beyond. Despite his ability to embrace vanguard techniques, Redzepi's cuisine remained more focused on product quality and presentation than a showy display of technology for its own sake. His was a quest to build a new cuisine, maintaining successful elements from Denmark's culinary traditions, while adding his own touches.

What I learned in Madrid, though, was that Redzepi was not alone. Other chefs in Scandinavia, primarily in Sweden & Denmark, had also been working to craft a new Scandinavian cuisine. There was already plenty of Scandinavian culinary tradition, but when it came to fine dining, French cuisine predominated. There had been no shortage of fine French dining, especially in the region's capitols. This has been reflected since the 1980's by Scandinavia's extraordinary record in the biennial Bocuse D'Or competition in Lyon, France. Scandinavia has produced many medals and a number of winners including the most recent, Geier Skeie of Norway. In recent years, though, led by Redzepi and others, this new high profile, elegant, regional cuisine developed bestowing a regional culinary identity to be proud of.

Three and a half days of determined dining are hardly enough to make more than a dent in Copenhagen's marvelous dining scene, especially when one dinner and a lunch are devoted to noma, but we made the best of it. The amazing part is that in that time we did not have a bad bite. In fact, everything was rather excellent and that was not limited to the restaurants one would expect. From the full-flavored and crunchy hot dog in French bread, exquisite frites and perfectly prepared and seasoned half chicken from a small non-descript vendor at Tivoli Gardens to a deceptively simple, yet extraordinarily delicious open face sandwich of boiled potatoes, parsley and mayonnaise on rye bread from a little coffee shop near noma called Sweet Treats to the top temples of cooking, the food satisfied. I would never have typically ordered something like the potatoes on rye (too many carbs), but it had specifically been recommended by Rene Redzepi himself. It was good enough that with a little additional refinement it would not have been out of place at noma.

Noma was as sensational as expected (perhaps even a bit more). On my first full day in Copenhagen, Chef Scott Boswell of New Orleans restaurants Stella! and Stanley (he and his lovely wife, Tanya flew over to Copenhagen to share the experience with my wife, my son and I) spent the latter part of the morning and the beginning part of the afternoon at noma, getting a tour from Chef Redzepi and getting a behind the scenes look at how the restaurant is able to do what it does. Chef Boswell and I were fortunate enough to return that evening for an incredible dinner featuring the recent dishes from the restaurant, many of which highlighted the kitchen's talents with herbs, vegetables and fruit. The following day, inspired by the legendary bon vivant and nomaphile, “Food Snob,” we returned along with our wives and my son for an incredible lunch featuring dishes from noma's recent history. This was a more protein-centric meal. For the dinner, I indulged in the very well chosen wine pairings, but for the lunch, I opted to try their juice pairings instead with juices made by the kitchen. I didn't regret any of the choices.

 

While Chef Boswell and I were enjoying dinner at noma, our wives and my son were enjoying their dinner at Kodbyens Fiskebaren, a highly regarded seafood restaurant not too far from our hotel. With great fish and seafood, Fiskebaren is a restaurant I would have loved to try for myself, but I will have to wait for my next visit to Copenhagen.

 

Restaurant A.O.C., which had recently been awarded a Michelin star had the dubious distinction of following noma as our evening dinner destination. Not as culinarily masochistic as myself, my wife and son did not join us for that. Instead, Trine from the blog, very good food, from whom I garnered much of my Copenhagen restaurant information, did. Following noma or not, AOC provided extraordinary New Scandinavian fine dining in an elegant, but still relaxed setting.

 

Though it was the New Scandinavian cooking that attracted me to come to Scandinavia in the first place, we did not limit ourselves to that. Kiin Kiin is one of only two Thai restaurants in the world with a Michelin star. To say that it was the finest Thai dining experience I've ever had would not sufficiently indicate how marvelous the food there is. While the food is clearly creative haute Thai and indelibly bound to that culinary tradition, it is simply a wonderful restaurant without any additional qualifiers needed. That it was such a great experience the night of our arrival made it even more impressive. Similarly, other non-Scandinavian restaurants in Copenhagen share Kiin Kiin's fine reputation. With more time, I would have loved to explore these as well.

 

Fine French influenced dining is not dead either, despite the ascendance of the New Scandinavian paradigm. We had our final lunch in Copenhagen at the Michelin starred restaurant Herman at the Nimb Hotel at Tivoli Gardens. The restaurant was lovely in every way and Thomas Herman's French influenced food was more than worth a visit during a limited Copenhagen itinerary.

With more time, I would have included restaurant's like The Paul in Tivoli Gardens and Sollerod Kro just outside of Copenhagen. There were also a few restaurants that I had been extremely interested in that had either recently closed such as MR and Bo Bech's Paustian and those that have not yet opened including Christian Puglisi's Relae (now open) and 2011 Danish Bocuse D'Or contestant* Rasmus Kofoed's Geranium II. Noma is the biggest culinary draw in the city and will likely remain so as long as Rene Redzepi can keep his focus and interest centered there, but even without noma, Copenhagen would be a world class restaurant city. It's not too soon to start thinking about a return!

Rasmus Kofoed won the Bocuse D'Or bronze medal in 2005 & the silver in 2007. He did not represent Denmark in 2009.

SK001 Test Dinner

Corn Juice . Lemongrass . Scallop . Truffle

Honeydew Melon . Mirin . Salmon Belly . Yuzu Tobiko . Buds and Alliums

Wagyu Zabuton Tataki . Watercress Ice Cream . Tonburi . Planeta Oil . Wasabi

__________________________________

Brown Butter Dashi . Skate . Sea Beans . Kinome

Razor Clam . Roasted Garlic Kosho . Lovage

Steamed Halibut Cheek . Raw onion Marmalade . Green Coriander . Shiso

Potato . La Ratte . Oxtail Terrine . Walnut Foam

Carnitas . Cipollini "Agrodolce" . Prune . Lady Grey Tea

St Agur . Speck . Fig . Buckwheat Honey

Chocolate . Smoke . Coffee . Cardamon . Orange

via blog.sholaolunloyo.com

Sounding good! I wish I could be there for the opening!

A Visual Definition of Hungry

 

A Slow Picnic on Top of the World

Kim Feeney and Kevin London

Slow Food Saratoga Region president Kim Feeny and her husband, Chef Kevin London, once again hosted the Slow Food Saratoga Region Chapter at their farm-to-table Lake George restaurant for one of our monthly dinners. The restaurant, Farmhouse at Top of the World, is aptly named, considering that they operate their own farm on the property, which has one of the most stunning bird's eye views of Lake George of anywhere on the lake.

The restaurant is typically an indoor facility. For this occasion, however, the party was brought outside for a "picnic." As lovely as the restaurant interior is, having this event outside was simply marvelous as the weather was absolutely perfect. Our timing was fortunate, as the weather for both the prior and following evenings was not quite as ideal.

The Londons served their own garden produce as well as items procured from nearby farms. The bounteous buffet included beautiful local cheeses,  roasted leg-of-lamb from Elihu Farm, beef from Mack Brook Farm and chicken from The Garden of Spices as well as razor clams from Massachusetts, local trout and a variety of vegetables. This cornucopia of local and regional food was served for $35pp for Slow Food members and $40pp for non-members inclusive of tax and gratuity. Alcoholic beverages were additional.

Dessert Blossoms

When I saw these beautiful squash blossoms last weekend at the Kilpatrick Farm stand at the Saratoga Farmers Market, I could not not buy them. Fried or baked, I have always had squash blossoms as a savory component of a meal, but this time I thought I would try something a little different. I chopped up a sweet Pennsylvania peach along with some bing cherries, mixed them with Liza Porter's fresh chevre and a little cinnamon and stuffed the delicate blossoms. I baked them at 325ºF for 15 minutes and served them. I did not add any additional sugar. They were plenty sweet (and nicely tart) for me, but if someone wanted them a little sweeter, I would think a drizzle of good honey across the top would do nicely.

Summer Salad - Arugula, Tomato & Red Onion

Another variation of a tomato salad, this one included fantastic arugula from Pleasant Valley farm, tomato wedges and thinly sliced red onion from Kilpatrick Family Farm along with my mainstay of good quality extra virgin olive oil and aged sherry vinegar. Just to add some different notes, I also included a few sprigs of lovely fresh cilantro. Refreshing & delicious!

Corn Relish

My wife is the preserver of the family. In addition to being primarily responsible for handling the household recycling program (she's a fanatic), she loves to preserve the summer's bounty in the form of jams, sauces and other things. With corn and a number of other crops at their local peak right now, she combined a few, for the first time making a corn relish - a great combination of sweet and tart that will be a lovely reminder of this glorious summer as we head into autumn and beyond.

She used a variation of a recipe taken from the Ball Blue Book The Guide to Home Canning and Freezing using half the sugar that the recipe called for (we find most written recipes, especially commercial ones use way too much sugar for our taste) and apple cider vinegar instead of the unspecified "vinegar". All the vegetables used were from our local farmers markets including corn from Linda Gifford at the Glens Falls FM, peppers from Kilpatrick Family Farm and an onion from Pleasant Valley Farm.

What's Your Favorite Farmers Market?

If you care about this sort of thing, it's time to vote for your favorite  Farmers Market. My favorite market is the Saratoga Market. They have great quality, great variety and great community. It has been fun getting to know the farmers and other shoppers over the years and to have visited many of the farms. What's your favorite market and why? What can you get there that you can't find elsewhere?

The Agrarian Chef: Sean Brock Talks Benne

The Agrarian Chef- Sean Brock - Benne from John Sconzo on Vimeo.

Charleston, S.C. chef, Sean Brock, first became known for his use of cutting edge culinary techniques in his restaurant kitchen. While he is still very well known for his use of those techniques, he has added to that reputation by his direct interest in farming and now also the preservation and reintroduction of Southern heritage and heirloom food products, many of which he has dedicated himself to resurrecting in the fields. Utilizing a farm owned by McCrady's restaurant, Brock has begun raising heritage breeds of pig such as the Ossabaw and growing otherwise forgotten heirlooms like benne, the precursor plant of African origin to today's sesame. In this video shot at McCrady's Thorn Hill Farm, Sean Brock discusses his interest in benne and why he thinks its preservation is important.

Bar Inopia Closed

Word has it that Barcelona's Bar Inopia is now closed. New projects for A. Adria are apparently on the horizon. http://www.barinopia.com/

I'm sad that I never made it there, though I look forward to whatever Albert has up his sleeve. I'm hearing something about "macrotapas." Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be interesting and of the highest quality.

Bocuse D'Or USA 2010 - A Docsconz Video

Bocuse D'Or USA 2010 - A Docsconz Video from John Sconzo on Vimeo.

It has been 6 months since James Kent of Eleven Madison Park was selected to represent the United States at the next Bocuse D'Or competition in February 2011 in Lyons, France. This video featuring the likes of Jerome Bocuse, Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Gavin Kaysen, Alain Sailhac, Andre Soltner, Andrew Friedman, Daniel Humm, Joel Buchman and the most recent US representative Timothy Hollingsworth, strives to give an idea of what the competition means for culinary America as well as a sense of what the competition itself was like.

Summer Salad - Heirloom Tomato

One of the best things about August where I live is that it marks prime tomato season, when the local Farmers markets start to be over-run by delicious, juicy heirloom tomatoes. During this month tomato salads become a regular feature at our table. Prime ingredients always make a dish better, but for a good tomato salad, they are absolutely essential. In this salad I used primarily fully ripe Cherokee Purple tomatoes from Kilpatrick Family Farm along with a few cherry varieties. The salad was finished with a toss of chiffonaded basil, a splash of Estate grown, processed and bottled extra virgin Tuscan olive oil from Dancing Ewe Farm, a dash of 50 year old Gran Capirete Sherry Vinegar, a few twists of freshly ground black pepper and a large pinch of Halen Mon salt.