GASTROMONDIALE

CROWNE PLAZA ANTALYA SUCKS

Imagine a city which is visited by about 10 million foreign tourists in a year.

This city is Antalya in Turkey along the mediterranean coast. It is only second to Istanbul as the major tourist attraction in Turkey.

Crowne Plaza is a five star hotel in Antalya.  It charges accordingly.  The room prices are rather steep.

I had the misfortune of spending four  nights there.

A nightmare.

MIZAI: BEST KAISEKI IN KYOTO

PH: 075 551 3310

CHEF: HITOSHI ISHIHARA

EVALUATION: 18.5/20

Linda and I visited Kyoto in November 2010 to dine at Mizai,  Nakamura,  Hajime and Gion Sasaki.  I had previously reviewed Hajime and Nakamura based on Spring 2010 visits.  My second meal at Hajime was less good compared to the first one and I ranked this meal 15/20.  Nakamura was almost as good as the first one and should rank 17.5/20.  Sasaki is very impressive and in my opinion it deserves 3 stars and should rank 17.5/20.

A Trip to Catalonia

During the last phase of the World Cup when Spain was triumphing based on skill and strategy and when Rafael Nadal was clobbering everybody else in Wimbledon, my wife and I spent five days in Aqua Blava Hotel.  We then used Aigua Blava as our base to explore some of the most interesting restaurants in Costa Brava.

Ciya Review (by Gokhan Atilgan)

Few would disagree that Ciya Sofrasi is one of the most celebrated restaurants in Turkey, especially in international food circles. Most recently, the restaurant and its chef, Musa Dagdeviren, were covered very favorably in The New Yorker and the Financial Times. The restaurant is located in Kadikoy district in Istanbul and one needs to take a 20 minute ferry ride from Eminonu, in Old City, to get there.

Chef Dagdeviren travels around the country researching regional peasant home cooking and recreating some of those dishes in his restaurant. He’s also a regular attendee to many Culinary Institute of America (CIA) events in the States, highlighting Turkish and Anatolian cuisine. With his wife, Zeynep, they publish a quarterly magazine called Food and Culture which includes essays regarding the history and culture about the region’s rich and less documented cuisine. In each issue, chef Dagdeviren brings to life seven unforgotten dishes from the region by providing their recipes in the magazine.

 

TWO KAISEKE MEALS IN KYOTO: KITCHO AND NAKAMURA

RANKING:  I need to eat more kaiseki meals to be confident about rankings.  This said, I think three Michelin stars to Kitcho is fully justified.  But I am puzzled by only two stars to Nakamura.  My meal at Nakamura was an unforgettable experience.  Only a handful of the chefs in the world can perform at this level of precision and sophistication.

DATE VISITED:  March 21 and 22, 2010, respectively.

PHONES: Kitcho 075 881 1101  Nakamura 075 221 5511

SUMMARY:  Japanese haute cuisine, the kaiseki meal, is a must if you visit Kyoto.  At its best, it is subtle, rigorous, harmonious, appeals to the eye and taste buds, and the course of the meal is driven by the availability of the best ingredients on the day you visit the restaurant.  (So the word ‘seasonal’ or the cliché ‘farm to table’ remain inadequate.)  I was taken aback by how much discretion chefs enjoy when designing exclusive kaiseki feasts for their guests.  At Kitcho in Arashiyama, the chef-owner Tokuoka-san works like a calligrapher, his style is quite restrained, and it is easier to appreciate him when his whole work is complete rather than on a dish by dish basis.  Nakamura-san, on the other hand, is capable of making some bold statements, and his cuisine is quite lusty by Japanese-kaiseki standards.  One thing that unites the two chefs is their absolute commitment to their profession and their attention to detail.