Tough Not to be Sweet on All-Dessert Espaisucre in Barcelona

Espaisucre
Calle Princesa 53
Barcelona, Spain
34.93.268.16.30
www.espaisucre.com

It would be easy to say Spain's top pastry chef Jordi Butron's all-dessert restaurant, Espaisucre, is a sweet treat, but that's not entirely true. It's also savory.

The restaurant, which features three- and five-course tasting menus, serves up such combinations as raspberries with red pepper and chocolate with tobacco. Every plate is an unusual mix of flavors and textures that neither left me feeling as though I'd overloaded on sweets or needed a more traditional dinner.

While the five-course menus tend to not be vegetarian-friendly, offering dishes such as cod rice with tomato ice cream, there are plenty of other menus for vegetarians, including the chocolate menu and the cheese menu. The chocolate with vinegar, strawberry, mint and pepper (above) shows up on a couple of the menus. This is one of the few dishes I tried where one flavor - the strawberry - overpowered everything else. That's not to say it was bad, but it tasted less creative than perhaps it was on a technical level.


Each flavor in the passion fruit, coffee, lemon cress and mint sorbet with lemon foam (above), on the other hand, stood out well on its own while at the same time complementing the others. The variety of textures, from the coffee-flavored cake to the light foam, was also appealing.

Despite a strange mix of ingredients that included chocolate, prunes, oak, rum and tobacco (above) this blend came out very well. The prunes were oddly moist and there was an occasional hint of tobacco and oak, but it was difficult to tell what part of the dish the flavors came from.

This goat cheesecake (above) with raspberries, red pepper and ginger was an interesting mix of savory and sweet. The cheese was surprisingly strong on its own, but softened with the other ingredients.



The truffle mushroom, butter, hazelnut and chocolate concoction (above) had a strong truffle flavor with a topping the texture of crumbled Oreo cookies.

Each menu concludes with an assortment of petits-fours in flavor combinations such as sesame with licorice and green apple with laurel.

All menus come with a choice of wine pairings or it's possible to order wine by the bottle or glass.
Tasting menus range in price from 30 to 50 euros and wine pairings are from 10 to 18 euros.

Kauai Grill: A Beautiful Place for Beautiful Food

Kauai Grill
St. Regis Hotel
5520 Ka Haku Road
Princeville, Kauai, Hawaii
808.826.9644
www.stregisprinceville.com/dining/the-kauai-grill

I tend to have a soft spot for several of Jean-Georges' restaurants. A large part of it is no doubt that many of them are vegetarian friendly and the other part is that they're consistently good. Kauai Grill at the St. Regis Hotel in Princeville is no exception.

In an area of Kauai where there's no shortage of restaurants that offer vegetarian fare to cater to the many local vegetarians, Kauai Grill is able to stand up to the best of offerings from nearby restaurants such as Postcards and BarAcuda. The one major downside is the vegetarian menu doesn't change much. In two visits late last year and in looking at what appears to be the current online menu, the two vegetarian entrees haven't changed.


The salads haven't changed either. I don't think they're expecting many frequent repeat guests. The salads are good, fresh and highlight local ingredients. The heart of palm salad (above) has vine-ripened tomatoes, avocado and coconut. The produce was sweet and flavorful. A nice start to dinner.


The watermelon radishes on baby romaine salad (above) with baby arugula, avocado and spicy corn vinagarette does not appear to be a staple of the menu. While not as tasty as the hearts of palm salad the various flavors and textures worked well.

I started this blog, in part, to feature restaurants where vegetarians could get something other than tofu and seitan. I've always felt if I wanted something that took on the flavor of meat, I would eat meat. But I admit the tofu with a nut and seed crust in a sweet and sour sauce (above) can hold its own against most any non-animal-based dish I've ever had. Tofu or not, it's simply good. The tofu has a nice firm texture and the crust provides flavor and texture. I was not at all disappointed to find this to be a staple on the menu, although I would certainly like to see Kauai Grill expand and change its vegetarian offerings over time.

Service is basically what you might expect from waiters who are more accustomed to spending time on a surfboard than in a fine restaurant. They’re pleasant and they get the job done, their skills just aren’t as fine-tuned as one might hope.

Prices are about $26 for entrees and $14 for salads.

Millennium
580 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415.345.3900
www.millenniumrestaurant.com

Millennium, the highly acclaimed gourmet vegan restaurant, has an innovative nightly menu, but also numerous special events. My favorite is their monthly winemaker dinners. Whereas sommeliers generally pair wines to food, chef Eric Tucker takes these opportunities to develop dishes for the wines that are brought to him, generally from small California winemakers. The results are most always enjoyable and sometimes nothing short of perfection.

Tucker uses seasonal ingredients. The November and December dinners focused on mushrooms and and truffles and the November dinner featured Zepaltas wines, a wonderful find as all the wines, especially a very earthy 2006 chardonnay were stellar.
The dinners generally feature six courses and run about $95 with wines. Among the standout pairings were the warm chicories salad (above) with pear poached in chardonnay, vanilla and allspice; seared velvet pioppini mushrooms; and a roasted chestnut-polenta crouton. This was paired with that 2008 chardonnay that was quite unlike any chardonnay I'd had before. Instead of a buttery taste it was more like the earth and the ingredients of the salad were chosen to match.
Linguini with broccoli rabe, fried sage and and shaved white truffles (above) was paired with a 2008 pinot noir from the winery's Suacci Vineyard. The wine was good and the truffles were wonderful. The dish was very light, intending to showcase the truffles.

A baked collard roll (above) with farro and enoki mushroom filling and smoked black lentil ragu was excellent, especially with a bit of mustard-fig mostarda to add sweetness. This was served with a 2007 syrah.I had no idea candied mushrooms could work so well for dessert as these did on top the pistachio-mandarin tartlette with chantrelle scented ice cream and meyer lemon-vanilla bean caramel. This was served with a 2008 late-harvest chardonnay.

The winemaker dinners at Millennium sellout quickly, and there's generally only room for about 35. To learn more about them, sign up for the restaurant's mailing list. Of course, eating in the dining room off of the nightly menu is generally a treat too.

It's Easy to be Grateful for the Food at Gracias Madre

Gracias Madre
2211 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94110-1811
415.683.346
www.gracias-madre.com

Vegan or not, Gracias Madre is possibly the best Mexican cafe in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's somewhat a child of the raw foods Cafe Gratitude, where dishes have names such as "I am Wonderful", but don't let that stop you. Cafe Gratitude serves up amazing Mexican food using organic produce, cashew cheeses and heirloom corn. The textures are so rich and the tastes so flavorful, I can't imagine meat eaters missing the pork or chicken in their sauteed mushroom tacos or mole enchiladas with mushrooms and cashew cheese with sauteed greens and beans (below).

I've yet to have even a mediocre dish here. The guacamole is rich and abundant in flavor. There is a wide selection of salads, such as the persimmon salad with mixed greens, toasted pecans and chipotle vinaigrette with Acme bread and queso blanco, as well as soups and desserts.

The setting is light and comfortable and service is friendly. One of the best deals is to show up between 4 and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday for happy hours when there are $3 cocktails and organic beers on draft. Entrees range from $11 to about $15.

Food at Postcards is Worth Writing Home About

Postcards Cafe
5-5075 Kuhio Hwy # A
Hanalei, HI 96714
808.826.1191
www.postcardscafe.com

I've eaten at Postcards at least a half a dozen times. Sometimes I'm taken with it, sometimes I'm not and don't return for a while. I decided it had been long enough so went back last night, and I'm glad I did.

Postcards offers a good selection of vegan and vegetarian dishes - most all using organic ingredients that come from the island. The result is fresh, flavorful plates with a local flair.
I began with a portobello mushroom cap (above) filled with spinach, onions, corn and white cheddar cheese. As the server noted, it was kind of like a pizza on a big mushroom. It was a substantial starter. The ingredients melded together into a rich mash of goodness.
I'm not a big tofu eater, but the grilled tofu (above) with garlic potatoes, ginger carrots and broccoli was fabulous. The tofu was firm and dry, which worked perfectly with the sweet peppered pineapple sage sauce. The ginger carrots looked a bit like baby food, but were out-of-this-world. The carrots really just provided a base to carry the ginger.

More traditional fare included the Francesca pasta (above), fussili with sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and Kalamata olives sauted in a spicy sherry marinara sauce. It was puttanesca with a twist, slightly more tangy and sweeter with less bite.
Postcards sits in a charming cottage. The original building was constructed in the 1860s and once served as the Hanalei Museum, but 1992's Hurricane Iniki did it in. It was carefully rebuilt as an exact replica of the original in 1996 and has been Postcards Cafe ever since.

Postcards is open nightly from 6 to 9 p.m. Reservations are taken only for parties of four or more.

Vic Falls Hotel Needs to Focus Less on Dress, More on Food

Livingstone Room
Victoria Falls Hotel
2 Mallett Drive
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
263.13.44751
www.africansunhotels.com

The Livingstone Room of the Victoria Falls Hotel looks lovely - a grand ballroom decorated in deep red with glorious high ceilings. The diners look good too as the dress-code is strictly enforced. During a late-August visit, the host eyed each guest up and down, checking for collared-shirts, socks, dress shoes, and slacks for men, sending some away from the nearly empty dining room. While the goal may be to preserve the elegance of dining room at this "grand old lady of the Falls," the attention would be better placed elsewhere, such as on the quality of the food.

While the dinner presentation was attractive, the quality left much to be desired. I realize the challenges that Zimbabwe faces and that many people would love to have any food to put on the table, but the expectations are set high here as are the prices. Expect a two-course dinner to run $40 a person without wine. My money would have been better spent grabbing a sandwich and feeding some people outside on the street.
The meal started out well enough, with a cream-based corn soup that was mild in flavor (above).


A tomato and greens salad was rather skimpy and the tomato was bland (above).

The big failure was the risotto entree. It came to the table looking so tasty with garnishes of greens and cheese and as though it had a bounty of flavors, but it needed a good 10 minutes more cooking time. It was simply inedible. The host checked on the entree about five minutes after it was served as it sat on my plate untouched except for one bite. He did little more than say, "Oh," when I mentioned that it was undercooked to the point it was impossible to eat.

Go look at the hotel, marvel at the views and see the Livingstone Room. But don't waste money eating there. If you need an alternative, try the hotel/casino next door that makes a tasty grilled cheese sandwich.

Update: On October 15, I found the following on a booking website for the hotel. "As a result of many requests from visitors, The Victoria Falls Hotel has decided to relax aspects of the long-standing dress code in force in its premier dining venue, The Livingstone Room. This is in recognition of the fact that many travelers do not bring with them the more formal clothes that have until now been mandatory in this restaurant. Smart casual wear is now acceptable in The Livingstone Room at dinner each evening." Unfortunately, fixing the food will be a bit more difficult.

A NICE-Enough Meal at a Culinary School in Namibia

The Namibian Institute of Culinary Education (NICE)
2 Mozart Street
Windhoek, Namibia
(264) 61-300 710
www.nice.com.na

I like to visit culinary academies. The food may be imperfect, the service may be a bit off, but often you get a good meal for a relatively low cost and the money helps to support students’ education. So when I found the National Institute for Culinary Education (NICE) in Windhoek, Namibia, I was eager to try it out, especially reading that it was operated by Wolwedans, the exceptional safari lodge group in the Namib Desert. The school trains students to work at safari lodges at Wolwedans and at other camps. The host at my hotel, after I gave her a selection of three restaurants in the area I was considering, reaffirmed my selection of NICE without so much as a brief pause.

The restaurant is in a refurbished home. As a result there are several separated dining rooms, with each holding no more than about 20 guests. With all the small rooms, though the restaurant was quite full, there was very little noise and each dining room had an intimate feel to it. All of the dining rooms are warmly decorated and attractive – far moreso than most culinary academies I’d visited, where you might be dining in a classroom.

I had written the restaurant in advance to ask if they could accommodate vegetarians. I received back the menu with a few items marked that they could be modified for vegetarians.

The waiters are not students; only the chefs are. I was far more forgiving of the inattentive service (no checking back on the quality of the food, little attention paid to drink refills) until I found this out. The first dish out of the kitchen was quite tasty - vegetable tempura served on skewers with soy sauce.

The orange-flavored butternut soup did not have any orange flavor that I discerned, but it was good, creamy and baked potato chips were a nice topping.

The tomato-mozzarella ravioli in tomato sauce was the miss as it came out of the kitchen quite bland. Salt and pepper made it more flavorful, but it would have been preferable to have this come out well-seasoned.

The food and service may be a bit hit-and-miss, but overall the National Institute for Culinary Education gets high marks and is a worthwhile stop in Windhoek.