Cogumelos Aporcalhados

Wistub du Sommelier

2009-06-15T23:07:00.004+02:00

It's been a long while since this blog has been updated. Unfortunately both of us didn't find the time to blog, but nonetheless we did find some places with exceptional food :-)

One of these places is the Wistub du Sommelier in Bergheim, Alsace, France. Run by a couple, she is responsible for the wine, he is responsible for the cookery. Both are doing a perfect job, a well fitting wine to a brilliant menu. I started with Foie Gras, continued with Risotto of Asparagus and Saffron from the Alsace and finished with the best Crême Brulé I ever tried. Acompanied by some very good white wines from the region it was a near perfect menu. Finished by a digestive from Jean-Paul Metté it was a nice experience.

Reservation is advisable as we managed to get the only table available in the small restaurant by sheer luck.

Casa de Chá

2008-01-02T13:48:00.001+01:00

Casa de Chá
Originally uploaded by nfcastro

Tea House inside a medieval castle (Figueira de Castelo Rogrido, Portugal). Very warm (inside; quite cold outside...) place with a nice tea selection. You will find it near the Castle main entrance.

Bacalhau Com Broa, Em Cama de Espinafres

2008-01-01T23:46:00.001+01:00

Originally uploaded by nfcastro

Faz-se uma cama de espinafres cozidos. Sobre ela depositam-se as lascas de bacalhau obtidas a partir de generosos lombos do mesmo. Cobre-se com um refogado de pimentos, cebola e alho. Rega-se à vontade com vinho branco e azeite, juntando-se sal e pimenta a gosto. Cobre-se com uma fritura de broa moida em azeite e vai ao forno para dourar. Acompanha eventualmente com batatas assadas e seguramente com um tinto encorpado.

Semmelknödelsoufflee mit Pfifferlingsauce

2007-08-05T23:22:00.001+02:00

Semmelknödelsoufflee mit Pfifferlingsauce
Originally uploaded by perreira -> ipernity.com/home/nils

Soak some dry white bread (cut in small bits) in milk for some time. Add slightly fried Echalotte and Speck (Ham) and one or two egg yolks. Add beaten white of egg. Put into soufflee forms and put it in the oven at 200°C for about 20mins.

The sauce is fried echalotte, ham, chantarelle mushrooms and cream, thickend whith ice cold butter. Salt and pepper to taste...

Tea Time

2007-06-02T01:08:00.001+02:00

Casa de Chá
Originally uploaded by nfcastro

A magnificent selection of teas. A must in Granada.

Wurstlstand

2007-03-19T22:28:00.003+01:00

Wurstlstand
Originally uploaded by perreira.

All around Vienna you'll find these Sausage Parlors. You can get there nice hot dogs and similar stuff. Try "Eitrige", literally "purulent", a sausage with cheese bits in it.

Cafe Central

2007-03-19T22:22:00.001+01:00

Cafe Central
Originally uploaded by perreira.

Vienna, 1. Bezirk, Herrengasse 14

One of the more chic cafés of Vienna. It also has a Wikipedia entry. I had lunch there, quite nice. A very stylish place but not as expensive as it appears. Nice place to go...

Cafe Hawelka

2007-03-19T22:18:00.001+01:00

Cafe Hawelka
Originally uploaded by perreira.

Vienna, 1. Bezirk, Dorotheergasse 6

One of the famous vienna Cafés, it even has an entry in Wikipedia.
The coffee I did not try, but as it is not possible to get bad coffee in vienna :-) The Budweiser (the beer from Budvar, not the awful stuff from the US of A) was good, but expensive. A definite must if you are at Vienna, if the beer would be cheaper I would make it one of my favourite cafés.

Cogumelos on Flickr

2007-01-04T16:44:00.001+01:00

Crustacea
Originally uploaded by perreira.

Cogumelos Aporcalhados is proud to present you the flickr group of the same name... A place to put your pictures on culinaria, good restaurants and bars, recepies etc.

Sharpness

2006-12-20T23:10:00.001+01:00

Sharpness
Originally uploaded by perreira.

There is nothing more handy than a sharp (and I mean SHARP) knife.

Restaurant Sintra - Erlangen

2006-12-02T23:17:00.000+01:00

Erlangen, Martinsbühlerstraße 1

Opened recently, Sintra is the only portuguese Restaurant in Erlangen. Located at Martinsbühler Straße, it is a bit off the main roads, but still not that remote, being close to the E-Werk.

We had a "Bife de Pimenta" and a "Coelho a moda de Sintra", which were both excellent. The service was very nice, although a bit confuse. The two (very good looking) ukranian waitresses were extremely kind, but still not very experienced. We ordered a red Borba, which arrived as a white Borba. (As the white Borba is also quite good, we didn't refuse it...).

The restaurant definetly needs more personell in the kitchen, the food took extremely long to arrive. It was well worth the wait, but still... Sometimes it seemed that the waitresses also had to help in the kitchen, which is usually not good.

General impression: quite good, but needs improvement. The place has potential, if it manages to get the kitchen sped up and the service a bit less confuse. The prices are a bit above average for Erlangen, we payed something like 25 Euros per person for a meal and wine.

Casa do Alentejo

2005-09-09T22:03:00.000+02:00

Lisbon, Rua das Portas de Santo Antão 58

A bit of Alentejo in the centre of Lisboa. You not only get the finest food, you also enjoy a house with an interesting architecture. Influenced by the arabs, the style of Dom Manuel and various other mixtures, Casa do Alentejo is a gem of architecture. Combine this with excellent food and some of the best wines of Protugal and you are close to heaven...

Percebes

2005-09-09T21:38:00.000+02:00

Percebes are a species of crustraceans, they are a kind of Barnacles (Pollicipes cornucopiae). They grow in the surf of the rocky coasts of the Algarve and Galicia and are collected by local fishermen. These fishermen have to climb down the cliffs and collect the percebes while trying not to be smashed by the waves on the rocks, the most dangerous job on the european continent. Percebes are a rare delicatesse.

How to eat them

Secure the upper part.

Fiddle around until you can get the outer skin of the foot to move.

Remove the outer skin.

Enjoy...

Casa dos Pasteis do Belem

2005-09-09T21:35:00.000+02:00

Lisbon, Rua de Belém 84-92 Homepage

In the centre of Belém, the place for Pasteis do Belem (or Pasteis de Nata as they are known outside belem). A Cafe with a lot of back rooms, offering much more space than it looks like. Since 1837 you get the finest and best pasteis here, eat them while they are still warm!

Cafe Internacional

2005-09-09T21:29:00.000+02:00

Much less well known than Peter's Cafe Sport, the Cafe internacional is the place for the locals in Horta. It looks like the place where the telegraph engineers met in 1900, having the charme of a place lost in time since about 100 years. Much less overcrowded and much more a normal cafe than a tourist attraction we preferred it to Peter's. Definitely a must and an insider's tip if you are visiting Faial!

Kreativpause

2005-09-09T21:14:00.000+02:00

Sorry for not updating, but Cogumelos Aprocalhados have been travelling around Europe to find new and interesting places... Check back to see where we have been.

Restaurante República

2005-09-09T21:11:00.000+02:00

Location: Faro, Rua da Republica

Opening hours: Lunch all days except sunday (?) and dinner all days
Prices: expensive, but well worth the money

A place where, when you ask what the chef recommends, you get shouted at that everything is recommendend, this is not one of those places where only one dish is good and the rest is crap, here everything is good. And amazingly enough, the chef is right. Everything is brilliant. We had sole with clams which was excellent, as dessert we had Tarte de amendoims and some other typical algarvian sweets, you just cannot have enough of it. A must!

The first steps of a future gourmet

2005-07-06T12:56:00.000+02:00

Extreme Home Schnitzeling

2005-07-04T05:26:00.000+02:00

Don't try this at home.

The Fat Lady Sings

2005-05-09T23:30:00.000+02:00

Location: Obere Karlsstrasse, Erlangen, Germany
Opening hours: most of the time
Prices: above the Erlangen average, but still OK
Overall Rating: One of my favourite pubs

What do you say about a place where they play songs like The Menstrual Rag, have a good steak, fish and chips, have homemade chips, sandwiches, devilish hot pizaas and good beer? It is run by a fun irish-man, if he isn't bringing your beer it's one of the nice waitresses. Just a fun place to be, a nice pub. We need more of these, definitively.

Tomato Soup Cake

2005-05-08T21:39:00.000+02:00

I found this recipe in a book called "The New York Cookbook". It sounded so strange, I just had to try it... It's amazingly good.

Ingridients
125g vegetable Fat (in Germany this is "Palmin")
250g sugar
1 large egg
300ml Tomato Soup (canned or freshly made...)
250g Flour
1.5 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. Cinammon
1 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
0.5 tsp. ground cloves
1 dash of salt
60g walnuts
90g raisins

Preparation
Heat the oven to 180°C.
Whisk the vegetable fat that it gets a bit foamy. Join in the egg and the sugar, mix it until it gets a homogenious paste. Add the tomato soup, then join all the dry ingridients, mix until it looks like pastry. Fill in a cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes. Cover with icing sugar.

Asparagus in Orange-Vanilla-Butter with Scallops

2005-04-23T19:51:00.000+02:00

800g Asparagus
50g Butter
2 Shallots
1 tbsp sugar
150 ml white wine
1 orange (organic preferably)
thyme
salt

Orange Vanilla Butter

20g Butter
2 Shallots in little cubes
1 cask of Orange, organic
80 ml Asparagus stock
juice of 2 oranges
1 vanilla husk
60g ice cold butter
Filets of 2 oranges
2 tbsp battered cream
2 tbsp parsley<
salt and chili to taste

Scallops
12 Scallops
olive oil
thyme
rosemary
salt, pepper

Clean the asparagus and cut it into 3cm long pieces. Let the butter melt in a pan, add the 2 halfed shallots. Add sugar and let it melt. Join the white wine and the asparagus. Add the sliced orange and the thyme. Let it simmer for around 15 minutes until the asparagus is al dente. Keep the stock.

For the Orange-Vanilla-Butter melt the butter, fry shallots and the cask of an orange. Join the stock and the orange juice, add the vanilla. Reduce to nearly half. Bind it with the cold butter, add salt and chili to taste. Join the orange filets and the batterd cream. Pour over the asparagus.

Fry the scallops with the herbs in olive oils. Serve the asparagus in deep dishes with the fried scallops on top.

Variation: instead of the scallops try sweetbread.

Café du Soleil, Genève

2005-04-15T16:41:00.000+02:00

Location: Switzerland, Genève
Opening Hours: every day until 23h30, reservation is recommended
Prices: normal (for Switzerland)
overall rating: a must go there

Once in Genève, Café du Soleil is one of the spots you can't miss. According to the owners, "la cuisine du soleil, préparée avec des produits de la région et de saison, se veut simple et abordable". Although this is truth, prepare yourself to be surprised by the place, people and food.

We have tried the pavé de boeuf au poivre vert and fondue moitie-moitie. At this point, I have to explain that we were three persons at the Café. Otherwise it would be impossible to accomplish such a demanding goal. The pavé was saignant, comme il faut. It was pleasant, but not enought to justify the loss of the fondue.

The fondue is the speciality of the house and deserves a detailed description. It is made mainly with swiss cheese (Gruyère and Vacherin in equal portions), wine and kirsch. Start by squeezing small portions of bread on the fondue fork; after that you will get half an hour of pure pleasure. But be careful: according to Asterix experience, if you loose your bread in the fondue pot, you will have to dive in the frozen waters of Lac Leman. During the fondue it is normal that you need some help. A nice bottle of Chasselas white wine will do it just fine. This is a regular young wine with a subtle note of red fruits. It is not divine, but we wouldn't like to have something distracting us from the fondue. To finalize this magnificent dinner, we had a café and a calvados.

A last word for the very special atmosphere of the Café, a place where you will always find an expert advice on everything you need (even if you don't need or want the advice). If you visit Café du Soleil in January/February don't forget to ask for the nice calendars they have.

Palace Hotel, Buçaco

2005-03-06T01:55:00.000+01:00

Location: Portugal, Serra do Buçaco
Opening Hours: every day, reservation is recommended
Prices: high (for Portugal)
overall rating: a must go there

The Palace Hotel in Buçaco is one of Portugal's most famous hotels. It is located in a palace built in the beginning of the 20th century mimicking manuelinic style. Located in one of the most beautiful national parks it is sourrounded by woods featuring trees from all over the world which portuguese explorers brought back from their voyages.

In such a place only the four courses menu was an option. We began with an amuse geule (paté de figado), offered by the house. It was definitely the begining of a beautiful friendship! For starters we had espargos com queijo da serra, soupa de legumes and sardinhas à chéfe. These divine creations were followed by tamboril enrollado em bacon and massada de tamboril. Third course tourné de pato and vitela mirandesa. This abundance of delights was highlighted with a combination of desserts. As a worthy finish of such a bacchanal we chose Fim de Seculo and oporto wine (Niepoort vintage 1995 and LBV 1992).

The most notable thing about Buçaco, worth not only a paragraph of it's own, but whole books of it's own, is the wine. Only available in Buçaco and three other hotels in Portugal, made especially for these hotels in the region of Bairrada this wine is the nectar of ancient portuguese gods. The white is fruity but corpeous as only a Bairrada can be, available in vintages from 1944 to 2000 (which we tasted). The red is a largely dominated by Baga grapes, which give him a rich warm flavour, with light notes of tannines. Also this wine is available in vintages from 1944 to 2000. The 1995 is more mature as the 2000, while the younger is more vivid in it's fruit notes. These wines are definetely on the list of portugals best's wines, surpassing many famous wines from france, spain, etc.

All of Buçaco Palace Hotel forms a great ensemble, the fine food and wines are served by descrete but attentive waiters, the glasses are refilled when necessary without unnecessary invasions. Overall, this Hotel is a place to be when in Portugal and well worth the money.

Zé Manel dos Ossos, Coimbra

2005-03-06T01:45:00.000+01:00

Location: Portugal, Coimbra, Baixa, just behind Hotel Astoria.
Opening Hours: Sometimes...
Prices: medium
Overall rating: a must go there

This is the place Cogumelos Aporcalhados was born, named after the dish of the day, "porcified mushrooms". Zé Manel's great speciality, as the name suggests (not Zé Manel, but dos Ossos) is cooked pork bones, which make a great starter. Followingt this, the menu offers a wide variety of fish and meat dishes, especially good are the dishes involving boar (javali). All dishes are traditional portuguese cuisine, no distractions. Just trust the waiter to recommend you something. Everything we tried so far was good and served in great quantities.

What makes Zé Manel special is the atmosphere. The walls are covered with papers ripped of the paper table clothes, full of poems and other writings thanking Zé Manel for great evenings. Also a lot of curiosities and oddities ornate the walls. The waiter is all prepared to make a joke. The question is not what do you want to drink, the only question is white or red. The house wine is nothing special but it is not bad and does not involve a lot of headaches afterwards.

Entradas

2005-03-05T03:02:00.000+01:00

Como alguém disse, todos os prazeres da vida são, à escolha, imorais, ilegais ou engordam. Aqui dedicamo-nos aos últimos. E, se os encontrarmos, também aos outros. Preparem-se para uma aventura culinaria que irá deleitar muitas linguas e explorar os sabores do mundo, quaisquer que sejam. Stay tuned und watchen das Blinkenlight.