There used to be plenty of foodie meetups in the club I’m part of, so most of the time I could just quietly tag along. These days, maybe because everyone’s busy or because of the recession, there aren’t many chances to get together unless I organize something. So once again I put together a meetup. We held a small wine dinner at Trattoria Molto, which apparently renovated its kitchen recently and took its cooking up another notch.
But the actual start was fruit bingsu at Mealtop..
A little palate cleanser before the meetup proper, nice touch~ Personally I felt the ice ratio was a bit off, and the banana, pineapple and kiwi didn’t really add much to the overall flavor, but the syrup was tasty and covered for all of it.
And of course we couldn’t skip their signature patbingsu (red bean shaved ice), right?
I think it would have been even better with a bit more rice cake on top. Though that’s partly personal taste.
Palates cleansed, we moved to Molto to enjoy the dinner in earnest. The exterior wasn’t renovated, so it looks the same as before. They said the kitchen got a bit bigger.
Bread and butter
I didn’t know much about the world of butter either, but ever since my visit to Echire I’ve been curious, so I bought three kinds of butter myself.
These three
One is Echire, the others are a butter made from Hiruzen Jersey milk and a Calpis butter that is apparently made in Hokkaido. Tasting them side by side, Echire was the undisputed king. It melts in your mouth like fresh cream. The Hiruzen butter and the Calpis butter were both far tastier than ordinary butter too. Echire is unsalted while the other two were salted, but spread on bread there wasn’t a big difference in taste between salted and unsalted. I suppose there’d be more of a difference when you cook with them.
We started with sparkling wine..
Probably the house wine.
This was fried fish..
My memory of what it was is hazy.. an easygoing flavor, I think..
Mentaiko (pollock roe) pasta
They used low-salt pollock roe, so it wasn’t salty at all. Low-salt mentaiko is supposedly a rather pricey ingredient, and this was a really delicious mentaiko pasta, the first in a long while. I make it at home now and then too, but if I pile on the ingredients it gets very salty. So I end up gulping down wine, which is a treat in its own way -_- For eating elegantly, though, this level seems just right.
Molto’s signature dish: Hanwoo steak
The photo is blurry, but Molto’s lighting is poor so my shots always come out shaky there. Buying the camera that’s due out next month might help a bit, so I’m looking forward to its release. Around this point we opened the Kilikanoon Covenant I’d brought, and I think it would have been better if we’d decanted it a little. Timing the wine is always the part I end up regretting.
Hamburg steak
Apparently it’s a recent addition to the menu, but I’ve eaten plenty of hambagu in Japan, so it didn’t especially move me.. That said, hamburg steak is an unusually hybrid dish that goes with both Japanese-style and Western-style sauces, so there are lots of ways to enjoy it. Give it a try if you get the chance~
Lasagna
I think it tastes a lot better than the lasagna they used to make.. but my photo is so bad it might not look that way. We ate this much on the chef’s special course and emptied a few bottles of wine too. Happy happy~
Swedish-style apple pie for dessert
A Swedish-style dessert shop has opened near Apgujeong Station. When I think of Sweden, nothing but IKEA comes to mind; being Europe, I figured dairy farming would be decent enough, but I didn’t expect anything amazing. This time, though, one of our group brought an apple pie, and it was surprisingly good. The thinly sliced apples had melted into a soft, jelly-like layer, and the cheesecake inside was smooth and rich. Swedish desserts.. I may have to reconsider..
Armani chocolates
These are the chocolates I brought. They’ll probably be the finale of my lineup of luxury-brand chocolates, after Gucci, Bvlgari and the rest.
Dragées
Nuts coated in chocolate, very sweet and delicious. You could call them the ultimate luxury version of those little round candy-coated chocolates.. I liked them so much I’ve made up my mind to buy them again next time.
Just chocolates
Tasty, but they lacked a bit of the punch of the dragées.
The affordable version of Markus Molitor’s ice wine
We opened a bottle of ice wine again this time. It’s cheap and not overly sweet, so anyone can drink it easily. This was my last bottle, which is a bit sad, but I’m sure I’ll get another chance to pick one up.
It was a dinner with wonderful company. My heartfelt thanks to the chef for hosting us and serving such delicious food~