There’s one upside to rushing out long-overdue meetup reviews: some diligent person who ate with us has already posted a detailed write-up, so I don’t have to tear my hair out trying to remember what the dishes were called. I have no intention of taking their opinions into account, but anyway, I’m very grateful. Though I do worry that if I keep making excuses like this, my posting will only get slower and slower..
The first place I went on this trip to Korea was Trattoria Molto in Apgujeong, which I’ve introduced several times before. This place has a very long history with the food club I’m part of. It’s had its ups and downs, but these days business seems steady and good, which is a relief.
It was a food club meetup, and since the members drop by here so often, we didn’t order a set course and instead asked the chef for an omakase dinner to go with the wine. Ah.. or do people say “chef” some trendier way these days..
Wine someone brought along
I didn’t get a shot of the bottle so I can’t remember the name, but it was a good-quality Italian wine. It went well with Molto’s food. After finishing that bottle we opened another, a Torres from Spain that’s great value for money.
Gnocchi with Hanwoo beef tenderloin and tendon
I wondered if gnocchi might be a bit heavy as an antipasto, but it was better than I expected, and better than it looks. It’s easy to eat, fitting for a restaurant that bills itself as home-style cooking. The downside is that the food doesn’t photograph well. On top of that, the lighting is brutally dark, so it was really hard to take pictures with my camera. I should upgrade to a good camera, but choosing one isn’t easy either. Above all, what I want is for shooting not to breach dining etiquette, and absolute confidence in the image quality. With that in mind, I think I’ll come back during the day next time.
Grilled rockfish and abalone risotto
As you’ll know if you’ve tried it yourself, grilling fish well isn’t easy. The rockfish was nicely cooked, but it had so many bones that picking the flesh off was a hassle -_- I’d have been happier with a fish you can crunch bones and all. And the nutty abalone risotto was far tastier than the fish.
Flounder pasta
It’s done the Italian way, on the salty side. Might be a bit much for those with weak hearts.. Apparently it used to be even saltier and has been toned down a lot lately. The noodles were slightly overcooked for my taste, but the ingredients were fresh and it was just right with the wine.
Halfbeak pasta
Halfbeak is called sayori in Japanese. Compared to fish like saury or mackerel that are dripping with fat when in season, it felt rather light. But it seemed just right to have with wine.
Lamb lasagna
Given how little of lamb’s characteristic gamey funk there was, it seemed well cooked, but the fact that I can’t really remember the taste suggests it wasn’t all that memorable. Of course, by the end of a meal you’re usually too drunk to remember much of whatever you eat. Maybe because it was a wine-focused dinner, the dishes overall didn’t have very strong personalities. There wasn’t much of the leafy stuff I enjoy, either. But honestly, I can’t recall seeing many restaurants in Korea that do vegetables well. Probably because the ingredients are hard to source.
Gucci chocolates
Last time I went to Ginza, I scoured every chocolate shop in the area, and Gucci was the cheapest -_- I’m not joking, really.. A comparable box from Pierre Marcolini was 5,000 yen.. Why chocolate is priced like this, I don’t know; probably because it’s the season. So I bought them then, kept them chilled in the fridge, and brought them along this time. They were slightly past their best-before date -_- but the taste didn’t seem to have changed much.
It only gets worse with age, but Valentine’s Day or not, nobody’s going to give me chocolate anyway -_- so I have to look after myself. Nobody’s asking, but in the end I spent Valentine’s Day itself reading books by Nabokov, Joel Spolsky and David Linden. The day flew by.
The ice wine I brought
It’s not icewine but eiswein. Should be called eiswein, really. It’s from Germany. Because the standards for eiswein are so high, I was reminded once again of the truth that you shouldn’t look down on a winery just because you’ve never heard of it. Sweet, with the acidity neatly in balance – and even a slight fizz – it has a charm completely different from Sauternes. For a sweet tooth like me, and for an ice wine, the sweetness was a little lacking, but it was cheap, so no complaints. Actually it was so incredibly cheap that I bought a case and split it with a friend, and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the bottles. And it’s 750ml! In the sweet wine world that’s practically a jug.. I wondered if one bottle would be enough, but it was plenty for about ten people. I’d love to try something ultra-expensive like Egon Müller someday, but this is more than satisfying. I need to make more occasions to drink it.
A photo of the chocolates
Here’s what’s inside.. The flavor is rich and refined, but the style is a bit different from recent Belgian chocolates that use lots of dairy and are silky smooth. You could say it’s just very Gucci. Personally, I like chocolate with this kind of clean, intense flavor. Smooth chocolates somehow make me worry about calories -_- In reality there’s probably not much difference, but I somehow feel a little less guilty..
Collecting chocolates is pretty fun in its own way. There’s probably no such thing in this world as an elegant single life, but it’s a bit of a consolation. I think I’ll be hooked for a while.