Last Saturday Stanley and I took the train to Belmar to visit our friends Janice and Eric, and we had dinner at Skratch. The menu combines Italian with Cajun. It was generally excellent, with only one misstep. Stanley had a fig appetizer which he liked a lot. I had artichoke hearts coated with goat cheese and lemon, wrapped in prosciutto and grilled. That was the only disappointment, as the goat cheese was overpowering and the prosciutto too salty.
For mains, I had shrimp and grits and he had a pork loin special. Both very good, and we took half home for another dinner.
Janice and Eric shared fried calamari (a massive plate) and both had a scallop special. They enjoyed all of it. We took a couple bites of their pistachio tiramisu, which was impressive.
Skratch is a bring your own restaurant, so you can save some money by bringing a nice wine.
Thanks to Ziggy on Hungry Onion we tried Bananas last week, and it was a wow. The rare restaurant week menu that actually offers good value, and plenty of choices.
We ordered one menu and an additional main course, for the 2 of us to share. It was plenty of food. The menu begins with 2 starters, shrimp chips with shrimp dip, and chicken on a pancake. We chose the char siu pork with caramelized bananas and garlic rice, and for the second main course (not on the RW menu), we got the shrimp and shrimp wonton etouffe. For dessert we chose the frozen banana and they brought out one for each of us.
Wine is pricey but we enjoyed a bottle of a Hungarian white. Overall good value and the food is delicious.
Service was excellent too, and it turned out the hostess knew us from Do Wha, our favorite Korean restaurant which unfortunately closed several years ago.
Cafe Mutton has quickly become a hot spot in Hudson. It is only open for breakfast and lunch except on Fridays, when it is dinner only, and that’s when we tried it. The dinner menu changes every week and there are usually some organ meats, which we love. Portions are quite large so I suggest not ordering too many dishes. We had 2 appetizers and 2 mains and it was more than we could finish.
Appetizers we had were pig’s feet and chorizo stew, brown bread topped with caramelized onions, cheese and pig’s ear mortadella. If they have this dish again I would ask for just a plate of the mortadella as it was the highlight for me. For mains we had smoked whitefish pie, which was enough for 2 by itself, and blood pudding on a bed of mashed potatoes, which was not bad but unfortunately rather one-note.
Overall, we enjoyed it very much. With a bottle of wine, tax and tip, the bill was $210.
This had been recommended by Indian friends some time ago, but I was hesitant because the menu is mostly vegetarian. As it happened, we were going to be in the neighborhood, and searching restaurants I found it would be convenient, so I took another look at the menu and saw enough meat and fish choices.
The prix-fixe menus are $88 for 3 courses and $98 for 4. 3 was more than enough food for us. The style is modern Indian, very creative and quite different from the typical Indian dishes we are used to.
We shared everything, including lamb dumplings, pork dumplings, rock shrimp, pickled pork ribs, chicken malai tikka and beef tenderloin. For accompaniments we picked smoked bacon kulcha and dal with naan.
Everything was so good I would consider trying some of the vegetarian choices next time. A bottle of a very good Riesling was $70, a high markup from retail, but we enjoyed it and the slight sweetness worked really well with the flavors of the food.
We departed Porto in the morning and flew to Paris via Munich, arriving in time for dinner at Chez Michel, an old favorite of ours.
The prix-fixe menu is 48 euros for 3 courses. A few dishes carry supplements. Stanley started with pate de campagne, and I had soupe de poisson. Then I had grouse, as they always offer it in season and I always order it. He had coq au vin. For dessert we both had ris au lait (rice pudding). With a bottle wine for 30 euros, the bill was 144.
Afterward, we took an Uber to La Varenne, where we stayed
with our friends Ana and Bertrand.
Friday, 10/3
We started our day in Paris with lunch at Gemellus.
This 2-year old restaurant has gotten rave reviews, so we were expecting a lot, and it delivered. From the amuses-bouche to the mignardises, everything was excellent. We chose the 3-course lunch for 55 euros. The first course was morels with bread and egg in a delicious sauce. The second course offered 2 choices, so we had one of each and shared; iberian pork and rascasse. We preferred the fish but the pork was good too. For dessert I had a chocolate souffle and he had figs. Service was flawless.
With a bottle of cotes catalan for 60 and coffee, the total was 180.
After that we went to the Rodin museum.
Following that, we went to the Musee d’Orsay, where we saw a temporary exhibit of paintings by John Singer Sargent, including many of his best and most famous works.
Dinner was at Amarante, another old favorite, where we met 3 other people whose acquaintance I had made through Hungry Onion (all Americans no Parisians unfortunately), where we all participate in discussions of food and restaurants. Everyone enjoyed their meals and the company.
I had calf brains and guinea hen. Stanley had lentil soup and sweetbreads. We had 2 bottles of wine for the 5 of us, a white from the Savoie for the first course and a red from the Languedoc for the second. The total per person was 64 euros.
Saturday, 10/4
The first order of business was lunch at Maison.
This is another example of a restaurant in Paris run by a Japanese chef, creating dishes that are French with an Asian twist, very creative and delicious. We very much enjoyed our 5-course tasting.
With wine and coffee, the total was 229 euros.
After that we went to the Bourdelle museum.
Antoine Bourdelle was a major sculptor of the early 20th century. The museum was formerly his studio. Inside are displayed his castings for the sculptures, while outside in 3 gardens are bronze sculptures, not his originals which were commissioned for public spaces elsewhere, but reproductions made by later artists from his castings.
After the museum we went to the Marais, where we strolled for a while before heading to dinner at Le Servan.
Stanley started with corn ravioli and I had beef tartare. These were good. For the second course, we both had carre de cochon. Though tasty, uinfortunately mine was almost entirely fat and gristle. His was better, but still partially inedible. For dessert he had ice cream with figs and I had an almond tart with berries. These were also very good. The wine was 44 euros but the bill showed 50, so I had them correct it, a reason to always check the charges. The total was 167 euros.
Sunday, 10/5
We spent the day at home with Ana and Bertrand. Ana accompanied us to the farmers’ market in the morning, where we bought food that Stanley and I would cook. The afternoon meal consisted of smoked herring for appetizer and sausage-stuffed quails with a girolle mushroom sauce, haricots verts and mashed potatoes for the main course, and flan for dessert. For the evening meal I made sauteed rouget with herbs, garlic and mustard, and served it with carrots and noodles.
Monday, 10/6
We left for the airport in the early afternoon. Originally we had planned to leave on Wednesday, but we heard the past Thursday that a strike by air traffic controllers was planned for 10/7 to 10/10 and that it was very likely to happen, so I changed the flight to Monday rather than risk being stuck in Paris. As it turned out, they called off the strike on Sunday, but we were content to stick with the plan to leave on Monday. We had a lovely 3 and a half days in Paris so no regrets.
We got to the airport in the early afternoon so we could have lunch before our 5:00 flight. The only sit-down restaurant is Bistro Benoit, which has some vague connection to Alain Ducasse, but you’d never know it from the food. Not that it was bad, just overpriced and unexceptional.
I started with an heirloom tomato salad with tuna mayonnaise, which was quite good, and Stanley had cream of carrot soup, which was decent. We would have ordered chicken, but they didn’t have it, so we were stuck with orechiette pasta, which was poor. There were very few choices on the prix-fixe menu, and a la carte would be a lot more expensive. For dessert we both had poached peach with unripe strawberries and currants, topped with a lot of whipped cream and shortbread cookies. The wine, which was marked up a lot from retail at 30 euros, was excellent. With coffee, the total was 122 euros.
The flight was comfortable and we arrived on time.
We took a morning train to Porto, arriving before noon at Sao Bento Residences, an apartment hotel directly across the street from Sao Bento station. We had a huge studio apartment, complete with kitchen and 3 balconies. It’s an amazing deal at about $325 per day.
Lunch was at Vinum, with a winery tour and port tasting at the adjacent Graham’s cellars.
Lunch was superb. I started with clams in garlic sauce, then had duck with foie gras. Stanley had seafood soup and suckling pig. With a glass of wine each, and coffee, the total was 132 euros.
Next was the tour and port tasting, which cost 60 euros each.
It was a great tour with a very informative guide. The tasting consisted of 3 different ports, with an accompaniment for each, chocolate, cheese and a custard tart. Afterward, we bought 2 bottles of port to take with us.
Dinner that night was at Gruta, a Brazilian restaurant with a rather small menu comprised entirely of seafood.
We enjoyed everything. I chose to have 3 appetizers, starting with oysters and then going on to langoustine with kohlrabi and lemongrass, and a mixture of barnacles, mussels and razor clams. Stanley had the cod. We shared a baba au port for dessert. With wine and cocktails, the bill was 180 euros.
Monday, 9/29
This was the day of our tour of the Douro valley. We started at the meeting point at 7:40 am. Thankfully it was pretty much across the street. The reason they start so early is that they can’t have all these tour buses in this area after 8:00. That means we get a 25 minute stopover in Amarante on the way to the tours and tastings, which is not an entirely bad thing as the town does have some charm.
We continued on to the first tour and tasting, with lunch. This producer specializes in moscatel, the lesser-known sweet wine of the Douro region. It was good, though we can see why port is the more important one. The lunch was very good, consisting of a leek and potato soup, lettuce and onion salad, gratin of cod and potatoes, roast pork with potatoes and cabbage, flan and fruit for dessert, a glass of moscatel for aperitif and one for dessert, and coffee.
We then were taken to the port of Pinhao for the 50-minute river cruise. On the way we stopped to take some photos.
After that we continued on to the Quinta da Roeda, the vineyard and winery where Croft port is made.
Back in Porto, we had dinner at Digby.
We had a very nice dinner, starting with a sardine tartlet for each of us. Stanley had suckling pig and I had a tripe and bean stew with a hunk of perfectly medium-rare to rare pork. I made a mistake when I ordered the wine and ended up with a reserva at 88 euros instead of the 38 euro I had intended to get. Of course it was a wonderful wine though, and with cocktails the total was only 208 euros anyway.
Tuesday, 9/30
Our first stop in the morning was the cathedral, just up the street from the hotel.
Next to the cathedral is the bishop’s palace, which is definitely worth exploring, even though there is a separate admission charge.
Then we headed to Casa Guedes Progresso for lunch. No reservations so we arrived early, but it turned out the restaurant was not busy at all.
We both had francesinhas. This is a sandwich that is a specialty of Porto. They offer 2 versions, the traditional and the Guedes. I had the Guedes which contains Bread, Roasted Pork, Egg, Mortadella, Red Sausage, Fresh Sausage, Ham, Gouda Cheese and Special Sauce. Stanley had the traditional, which has steak instead of roast pork. The slices of cheese are on top of the sandwich, then a fried egg is placed on top of that, and the whole is smothered in gravy. You eat it with a knife and fork, and it is heavenly. I drank a glass of sangria with tangerine and ginger and he had stout. With coffees the bill was 41 euros.
After lunch we took a 2-hour boat cruise on the Douro, which was lovely.
Dinner was at Casario, where we sat on a terrace overlooking the river, a beautiful setting.
This was the best dinner yet in Porto, and the cheapest. It’s a small plates restaurant, and they suggest ordering 3 or 4 dishes for 2 people. We started with cocktails made with port from the Cruz winery, which were excellent. We then shared 4 dishes: Crab terrine, asparagus souffle, turbot and guinea fowl. A bottle of wine from the Douro was 27 euros. The total came to 100. Quite a bargain.
Wednesday, 10/1
We began with a visit to the Soares dos Reis Museum.
It wasn’t especially interesting. The 2 paintings above were the only ones I thought worth photographing.
Then lunch at Ora Viva.
It’s a small restaurant that takes a limited number of reservations only up to 12:30. We arrived at noon without a reservation and got right in. The food is good but very traditional. Stanley had melon with smoked ham and then grilled flounder. I had octopus salad and cod. With a half liter of sangria and coffee, the bill was 66 euros.
After lunch we went to the Bolsa (formerly the stock exchange, which moved to Lisbon, it is now the chamber of commerce) for a half-hour tour.
For our last night in Porto, we had dinner at Almeja.
This is a very attractive restaurant with a limited but interesting menu. Dishes we had were pig’s head terrine with apple and brioche, goat cheese with honey and truffle, grilled pork with blood sausage, and roast kid goat on rice. With a bottle of wine, and cocktails, the bill was 135 euros.
The next morning we left for our flight to Paris via Munich.
We took the train from Lisbon to Coimbra, arriving late morning. Our room wasn’t ready so we left the luggage and went out for a stroll until 12:30 when we had lunch at Devaneio Bistro.
The food was very good though portions were small. I had seabass crudo and tiger prawns. Stanley had braised shrimp with asparagus and grilled sea bass. With a glass of wine each, the bill was 100 euros.
After lunch we were able to get settled in our room at the Hotel Mondego.
Then we went to the university for our 3:00 tour of the library. They don’t allow photos but the architecture is spectacular. This also inluded the Sao Miguel chapel and royal palace, shown here:
After relaxing back at the hotel, we went to dinner at O Palco.
This was Stanley’s birthday dinner and was suitably spectacular. We don’t normally care for tasting menus but this one seemed like it would be worth it, and it certainly turned out to be. The philosophy is to use only local products and to waste nothing. Each dish has many ingredients, which the staff painstakingly describes. Palco in Portuguese means stage, hence the acts and scenes of the menu. We also were lucky to get the one table that faces directly into the open kitchen so we could watch the chef and his assistants at work.
The menus offered are 5, 8 and 12 courses. We chose the 8 course:
With a bottle of wine for 29 euros, cocktails and one coffee, the total was 240.
Sunday morning we departed and took the train to Porto.
Robert Rems' Open House 