What do you do to celebrate a 40-year friendship to quell those fearful thoughts of “where the hell did that time go?” Perhaps by trying somewhere that’s not even 40 days old! The Sultan, down the docks, or Cardiff Bay as it’s corporately known these days, may provide that solution.
They seem to have discovered an interesting way of wooing customers in these early days. Free Turkishbread sets the tone, and while they seek a license to sell alcohol complementary glasses of house red and white wine are more than welcome.
Sampling the wine meant we didn’t hear the option of starters first, so we ended up with that Mediterranean meze experience of everything at the same time!
The friedhalloumiwithfigjam was perfectly textured. The babaganoush was perfectly balanced to allow the aubergine taste not to be overwhelmed. The Lokum was a perfect blend of slices of filletsteak andmashedpotato with a CafedeParis sauce… what a sublime dish it was to, topped off with redkapiapepper. As for the asparagus, it was perfectly crunchy. Such was the delightfully presented array of tasty temptations the VegPide ended up as a perfect doggy bag takeaway!
The freebies hadn’t finished either with a complementary glass of Turkishtea to help the digesting of a real treat of a meal.
Until we speak again, this was a meal 40 years in the waiting. Don’t copy us, go now while they are bookending your meal with the complementaries!
Once upon a time in Patagonia, some Welsh folk settled many thousands of miles from home. It must have taken them some time to get there. But, come on, cariad, why did it take over 150 years to send the indigenous produce back to the homeland?
Whisper it quietly… you don’t really need a tri-walker and walking stick for rounding up prime steer along this part of TheHayes in Cardiff. A restaurant booking will now do the trick nicely…
I guess some meals are designed for the outdoors in sunshine. But, come on, this is the centre of Cardiff, not the Mediterranean! Even in nearly record-breaking September sunshine, a serious meal in Cardiff requires some dimming of the light, a darker backdrop to provide the right atmosphere…
So much for the hype of a new dynamic eating place arriving in the city (albeit more than 20 years after London), show us what you’ve got to offer Argentina.
Well, for one thing, the menu is reasonably small… something regulars to this blog will know I count as a positive characteristic… hopefully equating to focus and quality. Me, I can’t resist an indigenous starter dish of empanadas, this choice filled with Wagyu beef. These knock Cornish pasties into a cocked hat. Crispy pastry surrounds tangy flavoured melt in the mouth textured beef.
As for my co-conspirator on the night… sautéed prawns with deliciously hot tomato and garlic came in the skillet that their whole life was designed and lived to meet…
So far… excellent! Then came the test of a good or a not so good restaurant. It may be the first week of official opening to us ordinary punters… but even a really good restaurant doesn’t have to get everything perfect immediately. It’s how they respond when they get it wrong that counts.
Because the starters were that good we took quite some time tasting and discussing the experience. Perhaps the kitchen didn’t get the memo… don’t prepare the main course until the punters are ready!! So, semi-cold steaks and tepid chips arrived the second we were putting the starter cutlery down. Sorry hombre, this place isn’t even your average price… so expectations of quality are high.
With little or no fuss, the staff apologised for the error and promised to prepare the whole meal from fresh immediately. What is more, they recognised we had a little extra time to wait, and our bottle of fabulous Malbec was fast emptying. So, again without fuss, a second bottle was brought to our table… on the house! Strange how the same fabulous wine tastes even better when it’s free…
When the freshly cooked fillet steaks arrived the wait was definitely worth the time spent sipping at that smooth velvety wine. Yes, the plates look big. But, these are the usual 225g steaks. Here they also have to accommodate the 400g steak punters. People for whom one meal needs to last heaven knows how long. Gaucho’s are out on the range long hours, for all I know. As for me, you can keep your horseback-bull-lassoing affair, I’ll take 225g of Argentina’s finest and definitely come back for more another time…
Until we speak again, a certain blog site informed me that Juno’s View is 10 years old this very week! That free bottle of Malbec served a more than satisfying purpose after all.
Jay Rayner once said… no, he’s definitely not the subject of the title. As the UK’s eminent restaurant critic, he often cited Cardiff as a place not to go to if you were in search of a fine dining experience.
Now, on the other hand, if you’re in search of chips, chains, and generally loading up for the alcoholic blowout… well, look no further!
But… he used to have one exception to the rule…
Located down in an old bank vault…
Well, who needs windows when the focus of your attention is on the vision of beauty laid out in front of you? Particularly when a great RiojaReserva is ready to whet your whistle… accompanied by a BlackPepperGnocchiwithTrufflesand Mushroom Sauce?
Forget looking out on the street… concentrate on that delicate suite of flavours that are performing a friendly assault on your taste buds. Sip some water, my friend, and clear your palate for further seduction.
Got the crabs? Never quite like the way this Italian influenced delight on the far side of that table will tickle places you didn’t expect to be disturbed. The Squid Ink & Brown Crab Ravioli is guaranteed to satisfy everything you’ve brought along for tantalising…
But wait… what’s that at the forefront of the picture? A pig that looks so much better in death than it ever did in life! Why, this is one porcine that lived a life determined to provide ultimate pleasure for its human recipient (and we’re not talking former UK Prime Ministers here!). 😉
Roastporkbelly, pig cheek, crackling that simply cracks with delight, and the ultimate in all-meat sausage action… quite the climactic experience. A dish to leave you snorting… maybe!
Until we speak again, The PottedPig provides that rare moment of tasting a few items on a short menu, but leaving you instantly wanting to try every other dish… just in case you’ve missed another of the ultimate experiences of joy.
Culinary Cardiff continues to challenge a historic reputation. A city with a taste for fast food and standard chain restaurants. It’s even widely recognised as the home of the street dedicated to ‘the chip’!
Other posts on this blog search for and support the many independent gastronomic delights the city has to offer. Now, it’s time to add the next entry… a place where Wales meets Spain. Step up Asador 44.
Quay Street may once have been the location where all manner of wines and foods could be offloaded directly from boats on the River Taff. That’s long ago, before a world-renowned rugby stadium was built on reclaimed land following a man-made rerouting of the river.
Nowadays, Quay Street is frequently close to water when the Cardiff weather is characteristically acquatic (i.e. often!). But good wines and foods can definitely still be found on this old thoroughfare by the discerning few who forsake the corporate pleasures of nearby St Mary Street.
A largely Spanish dominated wine list provided a wide selection (and price range) of the welcome Rioja grape, but the gaze was immediately arrested by the option of a ‘Paranormal’ Rioja. Would this be some kind of spiritual drinking experience? Perhaps it was an elaborate hoax giving the impression that there was wine in the bottle and we needed to use our powers of extrasensory perception while drinking from an empty glass. Well, I can report that it was a real and very ‘earthy’ version of a Rioja, somewhat lighter than the usual experience of this grape… but not that light that it became a supernatural experience!
As for the food, starters of grilled mackerel and grilled asparagus dishes were presented in the fashionable fine dining style… a possible means of drawing attention to the manufacture of the plate through acres of uninterrupted porcelain. However, both were mouth-wateringly good, and contrary to appearances contributed to a satisfying sense of fulfilment.
Neither of us were particularly drawn to what would be more Welsh-influenced plates of sirloin or rump steak. So, it’s a joint decision to go for the Welsh beef slow cooked and served up in a Spanish style… with beef infused rice and salsa verde. With a defined texture the meat performed that most satisfying of tricks by simply falling apart at the merest touch of the eating irons. Oh, and that Welsh influence with a Spanish twist also emerged through a tasty side of Olive Oil Chips… just dipping them in the beef was a taste not even Caroline Street can conjure up for its regular punters.
Until we speak again, England and France can continue their centuries old rivalry, but for Wales and Spain a fusion of love has been nicely set up at Asador 44!
Don’t be put off by a glimpse of the menu’s of the future… yes, technology is even invading the sensual pleasures of fine dining. No opportunities for a casual glance at a physical menu while passing by here… trust your instincts, sit down, and a digital menu will be provided. If you don’t like what you see simply get up and walk away… the staff won’t be offended, but you will have missed out on a wonderful treat!
For punters of an advanced age, when the waiter offers you a tablet its the menu… not to be mistaken for the cocktail you may be taking a few times a day under the care of your medical team!
But first, getting there… the location is Sorrento in southern Italy, and the final mode of travel is on foot through narrow tourist shopping alleyways. From the central square of Piazza Tasso take the narrow pedestrian Via San Cesario through to the even narrower Via Fuoro.
This destination requires that you ignore several other gastronomic temptations along the way. Just remember that patience rewards the brave as you arrive at the unpresupposing Fuoro 51… a restaurant and wine bar simply named by its number and the street!
An outside table is highly recommended for added people watching, though if you’re seeing people in your glass, you may have had one too many of the delicious local red wines…
Carpaccio sounds like something Italian car mechanics might do. In reality, it was invented in Venice in the 1960s as a way of presenting food very thinly sliced and raw. Put any preconceived food phobias to one side (you’re not in Japan after all!), and treat yourself to two of the most incredible apertisers…
The venisoncarpaccio is marinated in a spice mix, then smoked for added flavour, and served with purple fig sorbet, kefir, blueberries, and walnuts. This would definitely be part of my death-row final meal! By the way, that meal would have so many of my lifetime favourite courses I’ll be keeled over long before it was completed.
Then, in the interests of balance (specifically for BBC viewers), there is a mouthwatering swordfishcarpaccio, smoked, and served with toasted almonds, raspberry, and hibiscus. It’s my newfound belief that swordfish are queueing up off the Sorrento coast to be auditioned for this type of performance.
I need to make the statement of the obvious at this point… takeyourtime, you’ve entered into culinary heaven. But, when you’re ready for the main course, having spent hours distracted and meandering around that tablet, the animal kingdom provided a couple of simply delicious representatives in the form of a wildboarpasta dish, and a slow cooked vealcheek with the most delicate versions of mash. A shared side of roastedMediterraneanvegetables added more colour to the glorious palette of our table…
Until we speak again, it appears that hibiscus is not just that rare flavour you might find in tea! Vegetarians and vegans do come up with some interesting ideas… for enhancing proper food!
Done Pompei already? Or maybe looking for something equally entrancing but more compact and less overwhelmed by tourists? The shadow of Vesuvius casts you a choice… even if none were offered to so many local residents in AD 79!
The town of Erculano hosts the beautifully excavated Herculaneum. Experts have identified the different fates of Pompei and Herculaneum residents during the same disaster. The former were hit by ash and rocks while the latter were incinerated by molten mud slides. This matters because it underpins the different qualities of what’s preserved between the two sites.
At Pompei, you have a larger town with a sense of public spaces and private lives. Whereas Herculaneum is distinctively exhibiting a smaller, more intimate sense of private residence. On arriving at the site, you have the benefit of elevation to take in the panoramic view…
Getting down into the excavated ruins you initially experience very much the street view of the former bustling port…
But then there is the distinct detail that provides that home view of private lives lived in the shadow of what would become a short-lived terror…
But finally, there is the emotional view, what also distinguishes Herculaneum from Pompei… hundreds of preserved skeletons at the lowest level of the site portray a vision of the horror, as many residents attempted to shelter at the port side stores from the advancing mud that would engulf and ultimately preserve their remains…
Until we speak again, was that a perfectly preserved cat, or simply the chilled out undercarriage view?
Now, I’m sure there was a toilet around here somewhere!
Like many humans, fish present me with something of a personal dilemma… sometimes they can look so damn good, but alas, in the end, you just have to follow the lead of cats… and eat them. But, before you do, it helps to pay people who know how to present them for eating. This was certainly the least of our problems on a recent trip to southern Italy.
Take Naples, for example. It may well have been a city totally consumed by its recent football success as Italian champions for the first time since the Maradona infused party of 1990.
But not even that could diminish the opportunity for several acquatic species to leap onto our plates in search of a fulfilling end of life! Even if it was a wobbly table in a back street port district car park. Fried calamari, octopus, grilled calamari, fully tooled-up squid, and more docile looking swordfish were simply leaping off the menu to accompany the local white wine.
Taking a boat trip across the Bay of Naples around the Amalfi coast in order to maybe witness dinner in its more usual and natural habitat proved a futile challenge. Ultimately, the coastline is far too distracting.
In the end, it seems the best place to see these fellas is on a plate a few hundred metres above sea level. Ravello provided the ideal place to sample some more octopus. The location also provides breathtaking views out across a coast that could well be the starting point of your dinner’s own journey.
Meanwhile, a boat trip back around the peninsula to Sorrento offers plenty of man-made structures from which you may wish to indulge in dangling your ‘string on a stick’ trap for catching the more stupid of local fish.
While the adventurous were finding ways to source their own sustenance, we preferred to respect the more interesting and apertising welcome offered by a trinity of tuna, grilledcalamari, and swordfishpasta…
Until we speak again, carnivores need not worry. Should you drift on by the amazing coastline of southernItaly, you will be catered for with the same vigour and probably a collective sigh of relief from the local fish population!
OAP… bollocks. Even Juno would have recognised that the recent letter indicating eligibility for a State Pension was sent to the wrong address. In her estimation, her servant might be an idiot, but surely not an old idiot!
But, hold on… this getting old malarkey maybe isn’t so bad after all! It all depends on where you get to do it, I guess. You may have the misfortune to be in a damp sleeping bag spread out on the gravel floor of a farm out building, with a tractor tyre for a pillow. Hang on… that was a previous European tour in the destitute years of teenage invincibility after a never-ending Austrian thunderstorm somewhere near Saltzburg. Whoever said that was a welcoming country to visit?
Now that the seventh decade has reached its own middle age years, it’s time to welcome an unwelcome milestone with a bit more style! A villa apartment with a fabulous view will do…
Particularly if they make their own wine and olive oil!
Then, all that’s needed is a restaurant with great food and a table with one of the best views in the world…
Until we speak again, Ravello high above the Amalfi coast in SouthernItaly is as good as any place to set the tone for the older years.
Ah, this is more like it… so a couple of cats went to Bath!
At times, the sheer volume of tourist visitors to this internationally recognised city of historic and cultural heritage can be overwhelming. So, pick your timing for a visit carefully. Instructive street signage combined with an unusual welcome from a top-hatted bird might just help set a favourable tone!
But I’m sure what you, and millions of others, came for was undoubtedly a glimpse of the Royal Crescent. Always good to spend a few moments dreaming of what is and what can never be, I guess!
But climbing that hill while taking in a large dose of culture and history will surely require some sustenance. Maybe a chance to stretch the finances to indulge those fantasies of wealth. Well, fear not, award winning nosh is close to hand, not to ignore the tempting wine selection hidden behind the restaurant name… Corkage comes with great prior reviews, so let’s give it a look…
Amongst a wide range of liquid temptations, an enticing invitation from Puglia takes centre stage. With a little nudge from the wine waiter the more expensive vintage is ordered, in a nod to the opulent surroundings of this whole trip.
But the question is what to have with it? Maybe ‘spiced sweet potatoes with pickled red onion, lime and sumac yoghurt’ sounds a mystifying enough temptation. Then again, ‘frogslegs pan fried with grilled baby gem, lemon breadcrumbs and satay sauce’ would at least demonstrate the British openness to all things European, in the ongoing shambles of Brexitland. Then again, ‘colley fillet with wild rice, pan choi, tarragon hollandaise and chilli oil’ keeps swimming into vision. But the wine choice is red, so perhaps that ‘lamb rump with smoked mashed potato, roast parsnip and coffee jus’ is what’s really standing up to be counted here. But, wait a minute, ‘rabbit ragu with tagliatelle and mustard’ also comes hopping into view.
Decisions, decisions… with a further range of other tempting options putting up their hands for attention across a small but extraordinary menu. Then it comes to you… there is that most wondrous of phrases in the English language… ‘All of the above‘! And just then, you’re helpfully reminded that this restaurant does a small plates approach to dining. Not to be confused with tapas, no, not that small. Something that perfectly solves the ‘all of the above’ dilemma…
Such perfectly proportioned finery may even permit space to encourage surprise and more than a little admiration from a certain US based dessert aficionado. Why not bring on the burnt Basque cheesecake with mulled wine plums, garçon! After all, I’ve given in to more of these dessert temptations during this spring season than I have across the previous decade. However, I don’t think anything more than the world’s smallest spoonful of that chocolate affair, even with its rhubarb ganache, miso cream and crispy caramel, will pass these lips though.
Such a fine and delicate dining experience demands a post-meal walk; which is beautifully accommodated by this place of history and intrigue…
A comfortable place to rest is the next item on the itinerary, preferably with a seductive location for breakfast. Got that covered as well, as long as you’re not spooked by a strange equine companion closely observing you…
Until we speak again, perhaps there is a near perfect cappuccino to be found more easily than a recent US quest! Step forward Cortado, near Pulteney Bridge… and chill (return and repeat)!
JUNO's VIEW 