Staying for the winter: what will please the guests in the restaurants of Moscow
New Year's holidays are a great opportunity to indulge in new gastronomic experiences, especially since many interesting events took place in Moscow's restaurant life at the end of the year. The most striking and notable of them can be found in the traditional Izvestia review.
New Year's classics
By good tradition, the brand is the chef of the Buro restaurant.Tsum Egor Makarov launched a festive set at the end of the outgoing year, in which he plays some popular dishes for the New Year's feast.
A trio of tartars a la russe
It all starts with a trio of tartars a la russe in the form of gently salted tuna over a "coat" of beet mousse, "mimosa" with scallop tartare and salmon with avocado and cucumber. This is followed by a delicate oxtail jelly with spicy mustard cream and a completely delicious Soviet-style olivier, though not with a doctor's degree, but with a mortadella.
Foie gras pate with green apple
Next comes the turn of the most delicate foie gras pate, decorated in the form of a green apple. He is replaced by Okonomiyaki. A traditional Japanese omelet is brought to mind in a dim sum, which gives it an airy texture, and is served with roast beef and vitello tonnato sauce.
Okonomiyaki with roast beef and truffle
Among the main hot items are dumplings (Makarov makes them from the thinnest dough, fills them with moose meat and serves them with rich broth) and layered pie with duck and foie gras, complemented by thick and spicy onion consomme.
At the end, "The Nutcracker" comes on stage — a light and delicate dessert in the form of coffee mousse under scarlet velour.
The New Year holidays this year stretched for 12 whole days. But in Buro.Tsum decided to extend the holiday set until the end of January.
Heading North
This fall, the Aina restaurant on Ostozhenka opened a new page in its history: the kitchen was headed by Ivan Shtuchkin, who presented an update of the menu with elements of northern traditions. This decision was not born spontaneously, but became a logical continuation of the project's philosophy, in which special attention is paid to the study of ancient gastronomic techniques and work with unique products.
Minced veal with porcini mushrooms and marrow bone from the fire
"Northern cuisine is a survival cuisine, every element of which — from the method of salting fish to cooking meat on an open fire — is a centuries—old experience, honed to perfection and imbued with deep respect for nature," chef Shtuchkin told Izvestia. — In a world where everything is speeding up, we decided to offer our guests an authentic taste of slow time and patience, with the help of characteristic northern products.
Black cod dumplings with sea urchin caviar
As an illustration of his approach, our interlocutor mentioned dumplings with Murmansk cod and sea urchin sauce, representing the North in its two guises.: harsh and generous. Dumplings are a deeply folk, almost family story, and cod and sea urchin are gifts of the cold seas, their most concentrated, mineral taste.
Deer fillet with baked celery and cranberries
In the center of the meat story is a fillet of deer with lingonberry beetle and celery root baked in coals. The chef deliberately moved away from the classic sweet lingonberry viscosity towards a bright, acidic flavor, emphasizing the sweetish note of wild meat, reflecting the archetypal taste of the tundra. And the celery stewed in coals allows you to recall the most ancient method of cooking, to feel the smoky taste of the campfire and the smell of the camp.
Muksun steak with caramel carrots
Muksun steak on coals with carrot puree is a reference to the great Siberian rivers. Muksun has a delicate taste, which is carefully preserved in "Ain", thanks to its rapid roasting on coals. This technique gives a light crust, but leaves the core almost melting. A seemingly simple carrot puree with its natural sweetness and velvety texture creates the right balance in the dish, highlighting the fat content of the fish without unnecessary heaviness.
Field kitchen
The changes also affected another project, the Polye restaurant on Zubovskaya Square. In early November, his kitchen was placed at the disposal of brand chef Alexei Volkov, who thoroughly updated the menu, focusing on local seasonal products, aged meat, dishes from the fire and from the oven.
Duck
"We work a lot with associative perceptions, and the first thing that pops up in the memory of a Russian person when he says the word "field" is, of course, cereals, cereals, herbs and vegetables, as well as game, mushrooms and berries," explained brand chef Volkov to Izvestia. — All this is on our menu and is prepared in very interesting techniques and combinations. We experiment a lot with dry-aging chambers, including withstanding wild duck, quails and grouse. We pay special attention to vegetables.
"8 vegetables"
As an illustrative example, our expert cites the "8 vegetables" dish, in which each product is prepared using a specific technology. Jerusalem artichoke is baked in caramel noisette oil with sage. Beetroot is first dried, then restored with raspberry juice and vinegar, which gives an original taste to the familiar root vegetable. Shallots are baked in coals with aged balsamic vinegar, and cauliflower is marinated with aromatic herbs. All together they are served with pepper cream and smoked feta.
Dried pumpkin with orange and pumpkin seed ice cream
Another interesting snack is made from sweet seasonal pumpkin. It is first baked in coals, cleaned and dried, removing about 40% of the moisture from it. After that, evaporated orange juice with tart chestnut honey and black pepper is added to the pumpkin, so that it tastes like fresh dried apricots. It is served with pumpkin seed ice cream, aged sheep's cheese, pumpkin seed popcorn and tarragon.
The Russian classics were also not spared, so the menu already included the borscht on smoked kalbi ribs, which was already loved by the guests, accompanied by a pampushka with garlic and fenugreek. In addition to the soup, they offer a rich Borodino tincture.
All your own
The creators of the new bistro Svoe, which opened in late autumn in the Gogol Boulevard area, set out to demonstrate to the public a wide range of opportunities for small but vibrant farms from different Russian regions. Andrey Danilenko, a farmer and blogger, is engaged in the selection of products from domestic producers in the project, and Andrey Kolodyazhny, a brand chef, offered his author's menu based on them.
Craft cheeses with honey and whey marmalade
The choice of suppliers is impressive even in the general wave of interest in local products. This applies both to cheeses — among them there is even an unusual smoked version, the taste of which awakens nostalgic memories of sausage cheese from childhood, only in a much more noble version — and rather exotic products, like Rybinsk snail. Instead of the Kologriv goose, which is already known to many gourmets, you will be offered Rostov goose here, and Dmitry Kolistratov, an enthusiast of working with meat, has mastered, among other things, smoking in a bath according to ancient recipes.
The kitchen is still being set up, but it is already clear that the gastrobotany master Kolodyazhny got down to business with his trademark love of detail. Goose pate is served here with a hot fragrant crumpet, snail is served with mashed parsnips, and stuffed Dagestan peppers are served with fir aioli and northern sprat. Desserts have not been without classics in a new reading, special attention, as befits a truly farming place, should be paid to potatoes — a delicate cake in an appetizing crust is served, of course, on the "ground" and with berry sauce.
Grandma's School
In early December, the ever-growing list of restaurants serving modern Russian cuisine was expanded with a new project, "Parable", located on Smolenskaya Square, not far from the Foreign Ministry building. The chef Yaroslav Inshakov is responsible for the kitchen, offering an extremely clear menu that is conducive to feasts that reproduce the family atmosphere as much as possible.
Beef dumplings in demiglas cream sauce
The kitchen in the establishment does not claim to be high. Guests are offered familiar dishes: pies, pancakes, dumplings, jelly, borscht, potatoes with mushrooms. Everything is executed very soundly and at first glance it is emphasized simply. "Like my grandmother's," Inshakov insists. Meanwhile, the chef worked hard on each position, changed the ingredients somewhere, played with textures somewhere, and completely reassembled something.
Olivier salad with trout
For example, Olivier's salad was seasoned with a mixture of mayonnaise and sour cream, achieving a very delicate and unexpectedly original taste. Chebureks are made tiny, stuffed with tiger shrimps and served with thick bisque sauce. Dumplings are made from cherry flour and wrapped in cottage cheese and sorrel dough. Pancakes are served with duck, persimmon and honey mustard sauce, and the pike cutlet is cooked "Kiev-style" - in breadcrumbs and with a lot of melted butter inside.
Desserts are just as interesting. The brushwood is served with ryazhenka mousse, and the cupcake — intentionally dried — is complemented with raisin ice cream with cognac. An absolute hit is a honey cake with ice cream made from kvass wort. Dense, spicy, with a neat sweetness and a piquant rye bitterness, the cake has every reason to claim the title of the best in the city.
Bollywood on a plate
Indian cuisine in general is still not very familiar to Russians, but many people are genuinely interested in it. You can now get to know her thoroughly at the new Tandoor restaurant, which has been operating since autumn in Armory Lane, near the Mayakovskaya metro station. Assembled by Chef Mahesh Singh and his team, the menu includes an impressive 150 items even for Moscow and is essentially a full-fledged gastronomic atlas of India.
Pani puri
In order not to get lost in the variety of flavors, you should start with an assortment of snacks served on a special heated tray. This set includes vegetable and meat samosas, traditional grilled cheese, fried shrimp, chicken and eggplant. The appetizers are accompanied by mint yogurt chutney and sweet and sour tamarind chutney. Spicy lovers should pay attention to pani puri, crispy balls with potato filling served with spicy, sweet and fragrant broth.
Assorted curries
There are more than two dozen variations of curry here. Among them are the tender lamb lam beliram in a yogurt-onion sauce with spices, light chicken curry (soft, balanced in sharpness, it goes especially well not only with rice, but also with hot garlic naan tortillas baked in their tandoori) and an exotic version with shrimp in a delicate lemon-garlic sauce.
You can end the evening with classic Indian desserts, such as kulfi ice cream with apple and beetroot. They are similar in texture to sherbet, but softer and more delicate. Another interesting sweet item is the santa saloni curd dessert with orange zest and milk sauce. The menu also features traditional Indian drinks, such as aromatic masala tea, rich in spices, and several types of refreshing lassi.
On your own wavelength
The gastronomic map of the capital continues to grow with new centers of attraction for lovers of delicious food. One of these places is the territory of the Rassvet business district, which was recently expanded by the muhr restaurant, specializing in fish and seafood dishes. It was opened by a team of well-known Soma and Billie projects.
Baked sea urchin with northern shrimp, parmesan mousse and bone marrow biscuits
The muhr kitchen is headed by chef Artem Chudnenko, who is well known to many for his passion for gastronomic experiments and his ability to create beauty on a plate. His dishes are remembered not only for their interesting flavor combinations, but also look like design objects.
The chef elegantly complements the baked sea urchin with northern shrimp with parmesan mousse and bone marrow biscuits, and tuna tartare is hidden inside a peeled pickled tomato laid on a pillow of shichimi pepper cream. Marinated sardines floating in miso oil have a sweet accent in the form of spicy raisins. Crumpets made from black onions are smoked on wood chips right in front of the guests, and then dipped into a delicate cream with black caviar.
Pie with trout, oily fish and spicy sauce
Of the hot dishes, a thin-crust crispy pie stuffed with trout and oily fish deserves special mention. It is served with a fragrant spicy sauce, which harmonizes interestingly with juicy fish. The tentacles of the octopus are placed on a pedestal of potato gratin and accompanied by a picturesque spot of romesco sauce.
Quince terrine with seaweed ice cream, with matcha crumble and black caviar
The dessert section also evokes both gastronomic and aesthetic pleasure at the same time. An undoubted success is quince terrine with seaweed ice cream, matcha crumble and black caviar. Well, Pavlova's obligatory for Moscow restaurants with lemongrass and yuzu sorbet looks like a work of art.
Imperial noodles
In mid-November, the second Oshi Izakaya bar opened on Petrovka, with the word Emperor added to its name, meaning "imperial". The addition is quite justified, since the new establishment periodically hosts omakase sets, during which brand chef Mikhail Chagai prepares delicious improvised snacks for guests. And in addition to hand rolls, sashimi, katsu-sando sandwiches and wagyu beef dishes, the bar's regular menu includes a rather unusual item — a pot of noodles.
The Noodle Kettle
The tradition of serving noodles with a kettle of hot broth originates from Japan and allows the guest to assemble his own dish from different ingredients. As a base in Oshi Izakaya Emperor, you can choose pieces of duck, meat or seafood, adding vegetables, mushrooms or seaweed. Noodles (wheat ramen or buckwheat soba) are already served in broth (fish suiomono or rich chicken) in a metal kettle with chopsticks sticking out of the spout. Armed with them, you can mix all the ingredients in a porcelain bowl and enjoy your unique dish.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
