Summer time: what to try in Moscow during the warm season
The Russian capital welcomes the summer with new gastronomic addresses and interesting updates. In the traditional Izvestia review, we will tell you about the latest discoveries.: a modern Georgian restaurant, a project with traditional Turkish cuisine, a new establishment with an emphasis on farm products and a sushi cafe in a new trendy location. At the same time, let's figure out how the menu of the "Gastrodachi Vselug" has changed after the arrival of chef Andrey Kolodyazhny and what was included in David Emmerle's farewell set at Grand Cru, and share the main sweet impressions of the summer season.
Tbilisi in Moscow
Shrimp satsivi, pear phali, penovani with tomatoes and anchovies, cheesecake with pelamushi. This is exactly the view of Georgian cuisine offered at the Verico restaurant, which recently opened on Brestskaya Street. The name is a tribute to the legendary Georgian theater and film actress Veriko Andjaparidze. And this is quite consistent with the general concept of the institution, which seeks to find its own place in a series of Georgian restaurants in Moscow.
Mini khinkali with beef a cacho e pepe
Nikita Rendino, the brand chef, is responsible for the kitchen. In the menu, the familiar Georgian classics are intricately intertwined with bold innovative experiments. So the guest always has a choice — to order a proven position or take a chance and step into another, still unexplored gastronomic space.
Baked ramiro pepper with nuts
For example, you can take traditional khinkali, large and juicy, or a dozen mini khinkali seasoned with cacho and pepe sauce. Try eggplant roll with nuts or baked ramiro pepper with mint matzoni and chanakhi, choose Ajarian khachapuri or khachapuri with pear and gorgonzola, give preference to tashmijabi puree or spinach sauce.
Among the most interesting positions in the context of modern reading, we note the excellent kharcho meghruli with roast beef and polenta instead of hominy, gebzhalia from mozzarella, the already mentioned penovani with anchovy and pear with ice cream and matzoni cream. And from the classics, you definitely should not pass by kubdari with veal, vats with lamb shoulder, khachapuri on a skewer and a Tbilisi doughnut.
Roast beef tabouleh
Experiments with traditional cuisine can only be welcomed, because a step away from time-tested recipes sometimes allows you to get a very useful and sometimes unexpected gastronomic experience. But this approach, as always, has many opponents among those who believe that "the best is the enemy of the good, and to change is only to spoil." However, there is no more suitable place to end even the most heated arguments than a generous Georgian feast.
The Sea of Japan
The new metropolitan gastrocluster on Presnya has another premiere — the restaurant "My Fish in Japan" opened there this spring. The concept is clear: the menu of the already popular fish restaurant in Moscow takes on a Japanese twist, while at prices that are quite restrained for the capital.
Scallop and truffle aioli roll
The geographical affiliation of the local cuisine is clear from the threshold — the chamber room is decorated using recognizable Japanese motifs. Some of the hits from My Fish have migrated to the menu — for example, salmon rolls with crab, keto rolls without rice, dim sum (with crab or shrimp) - but mostly the cuisine here is quite independent. The main focus, of course, is on rolls, sushi and guncans.
The usual positions for Moscow — for example, "California", "Philadelphia" roll, which can be served with tuna or salmon, or "Dragon" roll with eel — are juxtaposed with more unusual ones. For example, with keto rolls without rice (you can choose between avocado, crab, tuna and salmon, or tuna, salmon and shrimp, which is a novelty of this establishment), scallop roll and truffle aioli. Surprisingly, it is these non—standard positions that the restaurant succeeds better - after the most delicate keto roll with crab and avocado, any ordinary roll will seem a little rough, and the roll with scallop and truffle surprises with a rich and noble taste.
Doshirak soup
If you want something more satisfying, you should pay attention to soups - for example, Doshirak soup, a potential hit with young bloggers, despite its modest portion size, will please not only with fragrant fish broth, a substantial amount of noodles and meaty shrimp, but also with an unusual price for Moscow — less than 500 rubles per serving.
Just this week, the menu has also been expanded with hot dishes — the choice is inferior to the rolls section or the raw bar, but you won't leave hungry. Among the options: teriyaki salmon with pak choi and rice, unaki eel with egg and crab cutlets with mentaiko and young peas - all in the best traditions of Japanese cuisine.
Assorted mochi
Of the desserts on the menu, only mochi, but this is the main pride of the restaurant. They are brought to Moscow from Japan, and the dessert meets all the canons: with a slightly stringy but tender rice dough and plenty of creamy filling. There are five flavors to choose from (mango – passion fruit, strawberry, chocolate, peanut – caramel, coconut), but you need to hurry to try them — many flavors are already running out by the evening. Coffee lovers should keep in mind that they adhere to the absolute fidelity to the gastronomic culture of Japan, so you won't find coffee on the menu — only a large selection of teas, but very fragrant ones.
An organic place
Chicken liver pate with orange gel and Hokkaido bread, beef tartare with salted lemon, filet mignon with ratatouille and red pepper cream, panna cotta with herbal sorbet and wildflowers. The Ino restaurant, which has just opened its doors on Gogol Boulevard, welcomes guests with such positions. The establishment is part of the developed ecosystem of the M2 Farm, which combines its own organic farm from the Moscow region, branded grocery stores and restaurants in different parts of the capital. Ino is located in a historic building, the former dining room of the experimental commune house located next door. Both are brilliant creations in the style of early Soviet constructivism.
Beef carpaccio with truffle aioli and mushrooms
Experienced chef Nikita Kuzmenko, who recently headed the aesthetic Touch Chef's place & bar, is responsible for the kitchen. The chef honestly admits that this is a challenge for him, because four-fifths of all products come from the farm, which means he has to work almost exclusively with what is available now. This makes it necessary to constantly adjust plans and develop dishes that can be easily adapted to sudden changes and objective fluctuations in the conditions of certain products. Among other things, this means that in "Ino" the emphasis is not on the technical complexity of the execution of dishes, but primarily on the purity of the taste of the original ingredients.
Filet mignon with baked ramiro and ratatouille
That's why the menu turned out to be quite compact — about 40 items. However, Kuzmenko's handwriting can be read quite clearly here. For an appetizer, you can enjoy salmon gravlax with mascarpone in beetroot glaze, a combined green salad with sorrel sauce, basil ice cream and snails for protein balance, as well as duck ham with strachatella and baked plum.
Among the hot spots, borscht with smoked brisket, duck leg confit with different apple textures, chicken cutlet with camembert, and vekoshnik with mushrooms and truffle aioli look worthy.
Pasta in Gogol style
A rather intricate Gogol pasta deserves special mention in the form of a dense bucatini basket filled with pieces of guanchale and pork belly, generously seasoned with egg-cream sauce and topped with parmesan espuma. Since there is quite a lot of sauce left on the plate, if it makes sense to collect it all with bread crumb. Moreover, Ino has its own bakery, where they make excellent craft bread and a variety of muffins.
Dessert "Gogol" with mirin sauce and cranberries
For dessert, you can have apple tart with cider, organic milk panna cotta with wildflowers and herbal sorbet, or just a selection of decent farm cheeses.
Istanbul Express
The new cafe "Bardak" appeared not so long ago in one of the most densely populated gastronomic projects in the capital's locations — on Pyatnitskaya Street. It is located in the premises where the Bor restaurant used to be located, and it offers guests traditional Turkish cuisine at affordable prices, continuing the business started 15 years ago by the first restaurant of the same name on Maroseyka.
The Istanbul mood, set by the interior details, continues in the cafe menu, which is made up of everyday dishes from the inhabitants of the Turkish metropolis. The restaurant's cuisine is headed by Ismail Gunduz, who skillfully and delicately adapted national dishes to the Moscow taste. The title positions include king prawns in kadaif dough with pomegranate sauce, thin lakhmanjun with beef and vegetables, and thin gozleme tortillas stuffed with pumpkin. Other favorites include spinach pide, which they recommend eating with your hands, dipping into homemade yogurt. Working with the dough deserves a very high rating, which is quite natural, since Chef Gunduz began his culinary career at the age of 13 as a baker's assistant.
In the first course section, the rich soup with chickpeas, noodles and a generous portion of lamb stands out. Among the hot spots, in addition to the obligatory kebabs, the ichli kefte cutlets from bulgur with juicy lamb filling also deserve attention. On the slice, they are sprinkled with pistachio crumbs and served with pomegranate sauce. And you certainly should not ignore the classic of Istanbul street food, balik ekmek — fried mackerel wrapped in bread with vegetables. You can wash it all down with cool ayran or, conversely, hot Turkish tea, which is brewed quite strong in the "Mess" and served in armudas.
The beautiful is far away
The chef of the Grand Cru restaurant, David Emmerle, has prepared a new set and called it "Belle Epoque". According to him, this is a wonderful opportunity to recall the time when peace seemed eternal, progress was irreversible, and refined and refined culture boldly crossed any borders. On the first of July, the boss leaves the project, where he has been working for five years. So for Emmerle, this is also his personal memory of the wonderful time he spent working at the restaurant, which it was during his lifetime that he received the coveted Michelin star.
There are five innings in the "Belle Epoque". It all starts with an oyster beignet with asparagus and watercress, lightly seasoned with yuzu sauce. The chef made a hot appetizer from a scallop stuffed with tiger prawns, and supplemented it with celery julienne and sea urchin emulsion.
Cassolet with baked morels and white asparagus in a broth made from endive and mushrooms under a puff pastry cap is responsible for the "soup". The dish is additionally decorated with endive petals, and you definitely should not neglect them: they add a piquant bitterness to the broth and morels.
The main course is a vertical milfay of duck breast and foie gras with mashed potatoes and celery "pearls" seasoned with a delicate orange sauce. The Pavlova set ends in honor of the famous ballerina and one of the brightest symbols of the Belle Epoque. Emmerle created, of course, his own version of perhaps the most popular Moscow dessert, far from the classical one. In addition to meringue (in the form of a thin and almost invisible bowl), strawberries and mascarpone mousse, lemnograss sorbet and orange-yuzu cream turned out to be very useful here. The set is valid until the end of June.
Holiday season
At the end of May, Andrei Kolodyazhny, one of the most famous Russian chefs, a gastrobotanist and researcher of local culinary traditions, headed the kitchen of the Gastrodacha Vselug farm restaurant.
— Our task is to make a real farming project, following the example of those that I observed in the Scandinavian countries and in France, — chef Kolodyazhny told Izvestia. — I have already visited the restaurant's farm in the Tver region, where they breed their own bulls, cows, calves, goats, ducks, chickens, grow various herbs in huge greenhouses and make their own cheese. I am sure that we will be able to get 70-80% of the products for the kitchen from there.
At the new location, he has already presented his first gastronomic statement — the seasonal menu "The First green of the Rainbow", the main accents of which are placed around seasonality, young vegetables, wild plants and products from the restaurant's own farm. The appetizer section features young asparagus with cheese cream, hemp kernels and a poached egg, as well as a green salad made from chickpeas, sorrel, coriander, spinach and Rostov arugula, with pickled dandelions, asparagus, radishes, zucchini and green dressing. Among the hot dishes are ashen Azov pike perch cooked in hospera with cream of young carrots, potato dumplings and young Meadow greens, as well as farm kid with smoked pear and cranberry sauce served with burnt young radishes.
The soup collection includes sorrel soup with farm duck and sour cream and okroshka with smoked bream from Lake Kaluga on birch kvass. Completing the seasonal story is a crystal cake with lemon meringue and tartare of berries and herbs — a light dessert in which citrus acidity is combined with fresh herbaceous shades and delicate texture.
You can listen to Andrey Kolodyazhny's detailed story about gastronomy in the Izvestia podcast "Conversation with Taste"
Sweet Summer
The Filipino traditional Sanz Rival cake, unknown to the gourmets of the capital, appeared in the MoreCofeOcean by ERWIN restaurant. It is prepared on the basis of a dacoise sponge cake with cashews, with a layer of cream with added rum and a sprinkle of roasted nuts. The idea to add it to the menu was born from a personal story, because the chef of the restaurant, James Reduta, is half Filipino, and for him this dessert reproduces the taste of childhood. So the family memory turned into a new sweet spot.
The Sans Rival cake
The restaurant's team has deliberately softened the recipe of the original dessert and adapted it to the taste profile familiar to our guests. In the traditional version, "Sans Rival" is very sweet, and in its Moscow interpretation there is noticeably less sugar. In addition, instead of pure buttercream, it uses a combination of custard, which makes the texture lighter and the taste more balanced.
Another interesting sweet dish, buckwheat honey panna cotta with melon sorbet and berry compote, was discovered at Soma restaurant.
— It all started with a simple association, because panna cotta, in its essence, is very similar to warm milk with honey, which is given to us when we have a sore throat, - the chef of the restaurant Artem Chudnenko shared the details of the creation of the dish. — The first version of the dessert was a bit ironic: I made ice cream from buckwheat honey and added ginger cordial to it. It turned out to be a joke — an icy dish made from ingredients that are usually used to treat colds. And when summer came, I wanted to develop this concept into something lighter and more seasonal. That's how we came to panna cotta.
Buckwheat honey panna cotta with melon sorbet and berry compote
The main difference from the traditional panna cotta is that in the new sweet dish, sugar is completely replaced with buckwheat honey with a bright, rich taste. The dessert turns out to be very satisfying and creamy. Our interlocutor decided to balance this density with a melon sorbet, which also has honey notes in its taste. As a result, in fact, it turned out to be a fresh honey melon ice cream, complemented by the decorations that the guests love so much.
An unusual mochi tiramisu with raspberries has recently been prepared at the Rybtorg restaurant. The dessert's creator, sous chef Evgeny Lovlov, loves both tiramisu and mochi. As a result, brand chef Anton Tikhy liked the experimental hybrid, and so the dessert appeared on the menu.
Mochi tiramisu with raspberries
Mochi tiramisu in Rybtorg is, in fact, a decomposition of a classic Italian dessert in the form of mochi. Savoyardi coffee-soaked biscuits from a traditional recipe turn into coffee rice dough for mochi and coffee mousse when reassembled. Mascarpone has transformed into ice cream with a creamy sundae flavor, cocoa sprinkles turn into chocolate "earth", adding texture, and fresh raspberries give an explosion of freshness with a delicate berry sourness.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
