Sabor Restaurant, London

Pan Tomate, Cecina
at Sabor, London

I had to return quickly to Sabor to make sure that first visit hadn't just been a nice dream.  It so easily could have been given that the restaurant has been 11 months in the making and its opening so eagerly awaited.  On my visit last week, their first day open (something I almost never do), everyone involved was on their toes and ready to perform, though there was a palpable and endearing nervousness to the lunch service.  Food and service were spot-on. After a second visit, slipping into that seat at the kitchen counter already felt cosily familiar.

Undoubtedly the way I feel about Sabor is due partly to the fact Nieves Barrágan Mohacho is in charge in the kitchen and that José Etura is orchestrating front of house.  Until March 2017 both were mainstays of the much-loved Barrafina Group of tapas bars where Nieves earned a Michelin Star.  I noticed a few other staff have migrated a little further west to Sabor.  Barrafina are great at what they do but after 10 years, it's good to see Nieves able to give free-rein to her Basque roots at Sabor, and to see José spreading his talent for great service.

At time of writing the first-come-first-served ground floor restaurant, which wraps in an L-shape around the kitchen, is open.  Groups of up to 4 can be accommodated and the small bar alongside, is also open.  The cooking ranges from Andalucia through Galicia to Castile.  The upstairs, bookable, Asador space is to follow at the beginning of March.  Here the wood-fired oven (the Asador) will be roasting Suckling Pig and two enormous copper pans will be the cooking Octopus for traditional dishes the Castilian and Galician ways.

Arroz con Salmonete
at Sabor, London

Sabor translates into English as flavour and it's this that Nieves does so well.  There's a daily menu which changes slightly according to seasonal variations plus a specials board.  Pan Tomate Cecina was a slice of toasted bread topped with the juiciest tomato, expertly imbued with flavour despite the time of year, and topped with wafer-thin slices of jamon.  You have to have it.  And, of course the Tortilla.  We tried two, one with Jamon and Artichokes and, on the next visit a Salt Cod version - both wonderful.  Piquillo Croquetas, Zamorano were crisp as could be and mildly spicy with a buttery nuttiness from the Zamora province sheep's milk cheese.  The Arroz con Salmonete (Red Mullet) dish pictured above was, sadly, someone else's order. Top of my list to try next time.  We opted for the special of John Dory, which came with its fillets diced, tossed in flour and pimento then deep fried.  The deep frying of the head and skeleton, on which the fillets were then re-arranged was appreciated for the opportunity to fish-out the cheeks.  A tasty plate but, for me, the presentation didn't show the fish to its best advantage.  Our portion of Presa Iberica 5 Jotas, Mojo Verde, was served with slivers of crisply-fried parsnip and was a juicy chunk of just pink pork on a bed of the traditional zesty coriander-based sauce.  The Rabo de Toro (oxtail) was yielding and sticky from the richness of the sauce, the creamy potato side which came with it was expertly cut by a few slices of raw onion.  Sublime.

Rabo de Toro
at Sabor, London

The list of puddings is short but considered.  Seasonal rhubarb came in the form of Rhubarb and Mascarpone Tartaleta which made a very pretty plate - not yet tried.  Goat's cheese ice cream with Liquorice Sauce is an interesting combination.  Based on having tried the beautifully balanced Honey and Saffron Ice Cream, I look forward to trying it.  Cuajada de Turron, Oloroso Cream seems to be destined to be a fixture on the menu as it is so good.

Honey & Saffron ice cream
at Sabor, London

As far as wine is concerned, so far the Páramos de Nicasia from Rueda and the Pasion de Bobal have been excellent choices.  The list looks well worth exploring and Sabor Bar offers Spanish Vermouths, gins, sherries, txakolis, wines and beers to drink along with slices of Jamón Ibérico 5 Jotas, Ox tongue Carpaccio and little plates of Camarones fritos & fried egg.

If this is a dream, don't wake me up.

The Asador Kitchen brigade
Sabor, London

Sabor Restaurant
35-37 Heddon Street
London W1B 4BR

Barrafina, Adelaide Street WC2

Baked John Dory
at Barrafina, Adelaide Street

Did I really need to stick to my two visit rule before writing about the new Barrafina?  I know the original Barrafina on Soho's Frith Street pretty well so could it be so different?  Well, yes and no.  First there's the room.  Occupying a corner site, it's curved frontage is hard to miss and it feels so much bigger than the Frith Street original.  Inside, all the essentials of the Barrafina I know and love are in place - granite, glass, stainless steel, red-topped stools, Estrella on tap, happy staff, and the aroma of damn good food coming from the open kitchen.  Long-time employee, José Etura is front of house.  In these early days, Nieves Barragan Mohacho, Executive Head Chef for Barrafina and Fino restaurants, is hands-on in that kitchen, and what capable hands they are.  Owners Sam and Eddie Hart don their white jackets and one of them will generally be greeting and serving.

The extra space in Adelaide Street has allowed for a longer bar accommodating 29 stools and more space to wait comfortably for one of them.  It's also good to see there's space to breath for the staff, more room for equipment and, hence, a more extensive and adventurous menu.  Don't get me wrong, after 7 years of eating at Barrafina in Soho I still feel a sense of excitement thinking of what might be on the menu this time.  But the two tiny cooking areas there do restrict what can be served up even by the best chefs, and Barrafina's are very good indeed.

Stuffed Courgette Flower
at Barrafina, Adelaide Street

At this second incarnation the Barrafina philosophy holds true - top quality ingredients served up with "minimum fuss".  The menu at first glance looks similar and you're likely to find some old favourites but a closer look reveals additional sections on 'Frituras' and 'Chargrill'.  Suckling Pig's Ears or Milk Fed Lamb's Brains, perhaps.  The biggest difference comes from the installation of a Josper charcoal oven which allows dishes like whole fish for sharing to be served up in 10 minutes.  It also produces those Milk Fed Lamb's Kidneys, served on their skewer grill over a little hillock of smoking charcoal.

Dishes we tried included Crab Croquetas which were outstanding; a lovely mix of dark and white meat, good consistency and just enough chilli heat to bring out the crab flavour.  A fried Courgette Flower stuffed with goats cheese, finished with honey and a bunch of micro herbs, was pretty as a picture and, though a safe choice, was summery and delicious.  The John Dory was succulent and perfectly cooked - simply baked with a crust of breadcrumbs, garlic, herbs and olive oil and dished up with a wedge of lemon. We ordered the deep-fried Ortiguillas - Sea Anemone -  out of curiosity but didn't really get the point of them.  But the hints of iodine brought memories of seashore rockpools.  A dessert of Milhojas was as rich as it looks in this photograph but a delicious version and perfect for sharing.

If that Estrella beer doesn't grab you, there is a good list of sherries and wines , including a specially selected Manzanilla en Rama.  Personally, I find a glass or two of the familiar Cuatro Rayas 2013 Verdejo Viñedos Rueda, at £5 a glass, difficult to resist.

Milhojas
at Barrafina, Adelaide Street

So, yes I did go twice, and so will you.  The biggest problem now is in choosing which Barrafina to head for.  Go to Barrafina Frith Street for the cooking of Allyson McQuade - perfect small tapas.  Go to Adelaide Street for more space, a bigger menu and the fish and meat dishes that come out of that Josper charcoal oven.  Join the queue at either Barrafina for the buzz, great food and drink and excellent service.

Barrafina
10 Adelaide Street
London WC2N 4HZ
29 stools
No reservations, first come first served
Adelaide Street has more space than Frith Street to enjoy a glass and a bite while you wait for a seat.
Groups of 8+ can book the downstairs private dining room

First flush & a taste for tortilla

Tortilla

It's waiting time on the allotment.  Almost everything is planted - save for courgettes, squash and pumpkins - and tender stems are reaching for the light.  My two plantings of broad beans have germinated well and stand between  8 and 12 cm tall.  Looks like Chocolate Spot is going to scar the pods this year as some of the leaves already bear the distinctive marks.  Not a threat to the beans but not a pretty sight.  The peas we planted alongside are struggling, making my carefully constructed pea-stick arch look a little optimistic this year. I could plant again but late peas usually fall prey to pea-moth, no matter how I try to protect them.  I'll keep my fingers crossed that there are stragglers just waiting to emerge.  It's a time to take a breath, weed, weed and weed a bit more, and bide our time.

Spinach 'Dominant' & 'Bordeaux'

Still, we have spinach - vibrant green and reliable Dominant and beautiful, red-stemmed and veined Bordeaux which is much more prone to bolt.  Sown three weeks ago, it feels good to have a fresh crop to pick instead of searching for a few new leaves on the ragged, over-wintering, Rainbow chard.  

Most of the tender leaves went into the salad bowl and, next day, the remaining pickings were added to beaten egg, softened onions and fried potatoes for a tortilla.  I sometimes use chard or a few herbs (coriander is good) instead of spinach.  The Tortilla shown was served just-warm with a mix of salad leaves which, sadly, were not my own.  I doubt there is a prettier, fresher and more interesting mix of salad than that supplied by Chegworth Farm.  They are now my first stop whenever I can't glean what I need from my own plot of land.

Tortilla Slice

So, when is this egg dish a Tortilla and when is it a Frittata?  It seems the difference is in the finishing.  If you cook one side in a pan then slide it under the grill, you have a Frittata.  If you turn it out onto a plate and then return it to the pan to finish it, you have a Tortilla.  I prefer Tortilla and here's the way I make it.

Tortilla
(Serves 2-4)

1 medium onion, thinly sliced
4 medium waxy potatoes, peeled and sliced or diced
4-5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
A handful of spinach or chard leaves
4 eggs
salt and pepper

Gently soften the onion in 1 tbsp olive oil, then put to one side.  In the same pan, gently cook the potatoes in 2 tbsp olive oil until just softened.  Wash and blanch the spinach or chard leaves in boiling water for 1 minute then drain and refresh in cold water (if the leaves are very young you can skip this step).  Drain and chop the leaves roughly.  
Mix the eggs lightly, add the onions, potatoes, leaves and seasoning and mix together.  Heat a round sided 20cm frying pan with a little olive oil until medium hot before pouring the mixture in.  Cook over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes until it's firm enough to slide it out onto a plate larger than the pan (uncooked side up. Place the pan onto the plate and invert so that the uncooked side is now facing the bottom of the pan.  Cook for 2 minutes more before turning it out to serve.

Monvínic Barcelona

Rockfish Pasta
at Monvínic

I've long had a liking for Spanish wines and, although it's based on no great learning, I know what I like and I like the wines at Monvínic very much indeed.  Not that you'll only find Spanish wines here.  Their copious cellar houses several thousand bottles from all over the world, and a reference library satisfies the most discerning oenophile.  But a visit last week confirmed that's not all this stylish temple to viniculture is about.

Taking in the leather apron-clad sommelier/greeters behind the desk, the copper ceiling, low lighting and pony-skin seating in the bar area we did wonder on entering whether our wallets could stand the heat.  Being handed a digital wine list, initially, didn't help but a quick run-through by Ramiro allayed our fears.  Starting at under 20 Euros a bottle, and with around 50 wines served by the glass, for us this proved the best way to make discoveries at Monvínic.  The wines on offer are constantly changing, to the point where a second glass of the one you just enjoyed may not be available.  We were determined to stick to local Catalan wines so sampled a lovely crisp, dry Castellroig DO Penedès 2010.  We followed up with Portal del Montsant DO Brunus 2009, a Carignan, Grenache, Syrah blend which was  blackberries in a glass, for me. Finally a gorgeous, honeyed orange with white-pepper 2007 Moscat from Emporda in the North-East adjoining the French border   

Loin of Veal
at Monvínic

As good as the wines are here's where it gets even more interesting.  A low-lit cosy bar opens out into a sparse glass-walled dining room. You can eat in either according to how you feel.  A Menu del dia of 3 courses for 20 Euros including mineral water and one glass of wine was on offer.  OK, so the day before we had eaten for 12 Euros, but this was in an altogether different league.

A bowl of Onion soup was presented with an egg gently poaching in the heat of the stock. A sweet/savoury and comforting introduction which we were glad we had both ordered.  Next, for me, Mediterranean Rockfish with Orzo pasta.  A dish which relied on exceptionally good fish stock, and this certainly came up to the mark.  A just-cooked prawn topped the dish off.  For N, a dish of tender and tasty Loin of veal with a lovely, sticky veal jus.  Pudding was a choice of Creme Caramel or a cream-filled choux pastry with candied fruits and pine nuts and a slick of sweet wine with a quenelle of goat's cheese ice cream alongside.

Choux pastry dessert
at Monvínic

You can spend a lot at Monvínic, if you're so inclined.  With a total of three glasses of moderately-priced wine, mineral water and coffee our lunch bill came to 52 Euros for a stunningly good lunch. With Sommeliers like Isabelle and Ramiro providing exactly the sort of service you want, this is definitely where I'll be heading next time I'm in Barcelona.

Monvínic
Diputació 249
08007 Barcelona
Tel: +34 932 726 187

UPDATE: Revisited March 2014: New chef.  Food easily as good as I remember.  Still offer this great value lunch - 3 courses for 22 Euros.

Tortilla Monvinic style
March 2014

The Calҫots are here - Food Find

The annual Calҫotada festivals are a feature of winter in Spain's Catalunya region.  Somewhere between a spring onion and a leek, calҫots were orginally the onions harvesters missed in the autumn. The alliums remained in the ground over winter and in January/February sprouted from the old bulb.  These days they are a delicacy and are planted deliberately to over-winter.  Their harvesting is often celebrated with a festival when calҫots are consumed in vast quantities.  In Valls, in the province of Tarragona, the biggest Calҫotada takes place on the last Sunday in January.  Visitors manage to get through some 100,000 calҫots in a single weekend.  

If you can't get to Spain for the festivals and you live in London, you're likely to find them on the menu at Jose Pizarro's tapas bar and restaurant in Bermondsey.  You can also buy them from good grocers.  Tony Booth of Tayshaw, trading on Druid Street SE1 goes to the trouble of buying them direct from a Spanish farmer.  From tomorrow you'll be able to get them for the next few Saturdays from his Bermondsey railway arch.  Here's a link on my way with Calҫots and a recipe for the essential Romesco sauce to eat with them.

Location of Tony Booths Tayshaw arch and other nearby Saturday food traders:
Spa Terminus

Donostia, London W1

Donostia
Cod cheeks Pil Pil

Cod cheeks don't get better than this.  These little morsels, as desirable as the 'oysters' on a chicken, can be ruined in the wrong hands.  At Donostia in London they certainly know how to bring out the best in this traditional Basque dish in Pil Pil sauce.  Here the gelatinous quality of the cheeks was extracted by cooking in oil and put to luscious use in the sauce infused with just the right amount of guindillas (very small, hot peppers).  The attention to detail is evident from this photograph but you'll have to trust me on the taste and texture.  Let's just say this is a dish to keep all to yourself.

Opened 3 months ago by Nemanja Borjanovic and Melody Adams, owners of Mountain Valley Wines, Donostia (Basque for San Sebastian) was inspired by buying trips to the nregion.  Ex-Barrafina chef, Tomasz Baranski is heading up the kitchen. Barrafina is one of my favourite places so expectations were high on the two visits I made to Donostia before writing this piece.  Sitting at the kitchen bar, the focus and attention to detail is evident but staff are more than happy to talk about the food and drink if you show interest.  This is how I discovered the Angulas stuffed peppers were not to be missed.  Eel leaves me cold but here tiny elvers, shipped across from a trusted Spanish supplier, are stuffed into small red peppers, given a featherlight coating of batter and briefly fried. The matchstick sized Angulas are surprisingly meaty and make for a deliciously satisfying small dish.

The menu is headed up Picoteo £2-3, Pintxo £3-4.50, Cold Plates of fish from £4.80 to hand-carved 3 year old Jamon Iberico at £18.00, and Tapas to encompass the rest with dishes between £3-19.  A Pintxo of Crab on little gem lettuce was a lovely fresh mouthful, served in the Basque way on a soft piece of bread rather than the crisp slice I would have preferred.  Croquetas are flavoursome and pillowy, putting to shame the gooey, floury mess I was presented with in another London tapas bar recently.  Courgette flower stuffed with goats cheese, lightly battered, deep fried and served with orange blossom honey was good.  Lightness is a feature at Donostia, even the Classic Tortilla managed to be airy and almost virtuous.  A serving of two cuts of plump Pluma Iberica on a perfect, crunchy Romesco sauce was juicy, tender and full of flavour, and served only just pink as Pluma ought to be.


Puddings are not an afterthought here.  A Lemon Tart tasted great but though the pastry was clearly very fine, time in a fridge had tragically softened it - the Food Standards Agency strikes again.   It was saved by being given the sugar and blow-torch treatment before serving, creating a wafer thin caramel layer to restore a little crunch.  Purple figs were warmed briefly on the plancha, split and stuffed with caramelised citrus peel and toasted hazelnuts. Served with a kind of liquid marmalade sauce and vanilla cream it was completely delicious.

Given the ownership, you would expect wines to be good and the ones I've tasted so far certainly are.  Rueda is always a lunchtime favourite with me and the Riojas work well.  The "wines of the week" include some real gems.  There are also a couple of Sidras at £1 and £2 for a Basque-country glass.  Both are fresh and lively and, as you'd expect, go really well with the food.

Basque, especially San Sebastian, cuisine relies on the very best basic ingredients, absolute freshness and pure flavours.  For variety of ingredients, this region, wedged between sea and mountains, benefits from a mild, rainy climate.  Partly why, as Paul Richardson points out in A Late Dinner, "... the cuisine of this land has a wider, richer repertoire than that of any other Spanish region (though Catalunya runs close)."  If we see this reflected in the kitchen at Donostia Londoners are in for a treat, and it has certainly started well.

The location could be a problem but I really hope not.  On a quiet street of small shops just north-west of Marble Arch, it's hardly a food hot-spot.  The small, 40 cover, space, is smart with white walls, marble and stainless steel softened by panels of warm, knotted wood.  It can seem a little chilly until the space fills up but with food this good and focused, welcoming staff, I don't think they're going to find it difficult to build up a loyal customer base.  Tomasz's Cod Cheeks Pil Pil dish and those figs alone are well worth crossing London for.

Donostia
10 Seymour Place
London W1H 7ND