Supelsaksad Café @ Pärnu, Estonia

A short photo essay of a wonderful café in Pärnu. Definitely worth a visit, if you happen to be at the Summer Capital of Estonia, Pärnu. You'll find Supelsaksad at the corner of Supeluse & Nikolai street.



















Our daughter thoroughly approves:



:)

Nami-Nami recommends: Eating Out in Tallinn and beyond in Summer 2009

NOTE that I'll be updating this post during the summer, as I get to frequent places again myself. I'll put a handy link to the right hand side of this blog, so you can find the post easily.

I've received numerous emails during the last few months asking for café and restaurant recommendations in Tallinn and elsewhere in Estonia. I've outlined my favourites before - Tallinn: Culinary City Snapshot - was published on my friend Johanna's blog back in February 2007. I also did an eGullet foodblog in September that year that included lots of restaurant suggestions. But things have changed since then, so it's definitely time for an updated review. However, instead of replying individually to each of you, I've put together a list of suggestions, explaining what and where alongside. Hope at least some of you will find it useful. If you do have any further questions, please leave it in a comment section and I'll reply as soon as possible.

Note that I gave birth to a gorgeous baby girl in January 2009 and as you can imagine, I've had to reduce the occasions of eating out over the last six months considerably. However, I've still been out and about, especially in cafés, so it's not totally out of date :)

GOURMET RESTAURANTS
If you are looking for a special gourmet night out in Tallinn, then my two top recommendations are the award-winning Ö (Chef Roman Zaštšerinski, Mere pst 6E, +372-6616150; Mon-Thu 12noon-11pm, Fri-Sat 12noon-midnight, Sun 1pm-10pm) and STENHUS (Chef Tõnis Siigur; Pühavaimu 13/15, Tel +372-6997780; Open for lunch and dinner, Courtyard Garden open during the summer months). I've written about Stenhus twice before, in October 2007 and February 2007, but I've been there on numerous occasions since then, most recently in November and December 2008.

VEGETARIAN
Being a vegetarian AND eating out is not easy in Estonia. Although most restaurants and cafés would have something on the menu to suit your diet, the choice is often limited and much less creative and interesting than the non-vegetarian menu. However, there's a restaurant in the Old Town, called AED ('garden'; Rataskaevu 8, tel 6269088, Open Mon-Sat 11am-10pm, Sun 11am-6pm) that's taken its vegetarian menu seriously (they also highlight gluten-free and lactose-free dishes on their menu).

There is also a new vegetarian diner Maitsev ja Tervislik ('tasty and healthy; Narva mnt 6; Open 10am-9pm), but I must admit I haven't had a chance to check this place out yet. It seems to be the only place in Tallinn serving vegan food, for example.

LUNCH
There are several places I can recommend for a quick lunch.
Bestseller & Boulangerie (Viru Keskus, 3rd & 4th floor) are part of the Imre Kose Emporium. Nice salads and pastries, special offers during lunchtime, and as both cafés (with slightly different menus) are part of a bookstore, then I've had lunch there often. Ask for sea-buchthorn juice!!
Bonaparte Bistro has recently opened in the Foorum Keskus (Narva mnt 5), and the food is excellent.
Vertigo (Chef Imre Kose, Rävala pst 4, 9th floor) is known as one of the more expensive restaurants in Tallinn, but their lunch deals are good value. My partner K. heartily recommends them, and as he works in the adjacent building, he knows what he's talking about.
Vapiano (Hobujaama 10) serves Italian food (pizzas, pastas, salads - I like their pizzas more than their pastas).

CAFĒ
If it's a good cup of coffee and a slice of cake that you're after, then in the Old Town try any of these cafés:
Matilda (Lühike jalg, Open Mon-Sat 9am-7pm, Sun 9am-6pm; their Pavlova is great)
Bonaparte (Pikk tn 45, Open Mon-Fri 8am-10pm, Sat 9am-10pm, Sun 10am-6pm; they also run the Tristan & Isolde Café under Raekoda aka Town Hall)
Anneli Viik (Pikk tn 30, Open Mon-Sat 11am-11pm, Sun 11am-7pm).



Chocolats de Pierre (above) has a great courtyard, good choice of cakes and hand-made truffles (Vene tn 6, Open daily; see my previous post).
Kehrwieder is a chain of cafés dotted across the city centre. They're coffee is of varying quality, but the venues themselves are rather nice.

KADRIORG
Kadriorg is a beautiful park area within walking distance from the Old Town (or take Tram no 1). It's definitely worth a visit because of the new National Art Gallery, KUMU. While in Kadriorg, there are several places where you could stop for a pastry or lunch. Here are some of my favourites:
NOP (Köleri 1, Open 8am-8pm) is a great place for breakfast or lunch, and they've also got a small deli shop next to the café, where you can buy a range of organic and/or local food items. Before having the baby, I visited them several times a week. (Oh, they've got a children's area as well).



Park Café (above, Weizenbergi st 22, Open Tue-Sun 10am-8pm) has a German-trained baker on premise, making their cakes slightly different from the usual offerings in Tallinn. I love their outdoor seating area (below) just next to the lake in the Kadrioru Park. Another good place to visit when you've got kids.



TIGU seafood bistro (Vilmsi 45, Open Tue-Fri 12 noon-10 pm) is a cosy seafood-oriented and French bistro style establishment in the outskirts of Kadriorg. They're small and popular with local and loyal customers, so make sure to book a table in advance if you want to have dinner (+372-56668493). However, they've got a summer terrace where you can quickly order lunch and don't need to book in advance, so you may want to try that.
KUMU kohvik (Weizenbergi 34; Open Mon-Sat 11am-8pm, Sun 11am-6pm) is located on the ground floor of the KUMU Art Museum. You can enjoy your coffee outdoors if the weather is nice.
Creperie Kristjan & Kristiine (Vase 14, +372-6448462; Open Mon-Sat 12 noon-10pm, Sun 12noon-6pm, currently closed until early August) is a small restaurant specialising in salads, crepes and pancakes with sweet and savory fillings.

ESTONIAN FOOD
This is actually trickier than you think. There are some restaurants that heavily advertise themselves as Estonian, but neither I or my friends have really enjoyed the food. So I skip that bit. However, there are couple worth trying in Tallinn:
VANAEMA JUURES ('At grandma's place'; Rataskaevu 10/12, +372-6269080; Open Mon-Sat 12noon-10pm, Sun 12noon-6pm) serves unpretentious, but really tasty food.
KULDSE NOTSU KÕRTS (Dunkri tn 8, +372 628 6567; Open daily from 12noon-midnight) also serves Estonian food, including famous items like sült (headcheese/meat jelly/brawn), Estonian pea soup and Kama, of course.
KOLU KÕRTS (Kolu Tavern) is slightly out of town, at the Open Air Museum (Vabaõhumuuseum; Bus nr 21). They serve old peasant dishes, including kama (again :)), soups, mushroom salads. The menu is limited, but it's a beautiful open air museum, so if you're going on a (half)day trip, there's no need to bring your own sandwich.

RUSSIAN FOOD
If you're keen to try some Russian food, then there are quite a few restaurants in Tallinn.
Troika (Raekoja plats 15, +372-6276245) - I like their pelmeny dumplings, cold soups and pickles, honey and sour cream starter. They've got two outdoor seating areas on the Town Hall Square.
Nevskij is a slightly more upmarket Russian restaurant on the ground floor of Hotel St Petersbourg (Rataskaevu 7, +372-6286560, Open Tue-Sat 12 noon-11pm)

SUNDAY BRUNCH
Sunday Brunch is a concept only now becoming a feature in local restaurants. The only two places I know of (and although I've eaten there, I haven't tried their brunch yet) are:
MUSEUM (Chef Nikita Tšunihhin, Vana-Viru 14). Brunch is served on Sundays from noon till 4pm, a la carte menu (incl. bagels, Eggs Benedict etc).
VERTIGO (Chef Imre Kose, Rävala pst 4, 9th floor). Brunch is served on Sundays from 11am-4pm; 350 EEK per person, 150 EEK for childen aged 3-15, toddlers free)

VIIMSI
Viimsi is a suburb just outside Tallinn, about a scenic 20-minute drive pass the Song Festival Square and Pirita monastery. It also the place that Yours Truly happens to live :) In the unlikely place you've ended up in Viimsi (perhaps on a way to visit me? Or you're staying at Viimsi SPA like many Finnish visitors), there are few places to fill up your stomach. If it's just a coffee and pastry you're after, try Delicato deli at the Viimsi Keskus (Randvere tee 6; drinks and pastries are a very reasonable 15-25 EEK, cakes more expensive). Harmoonikum (Pargi tee 8, open Mon - Sat 12-20) is a lovely organic café and day spa that serves simple and organic fare, including soups, cakes, herb infusions. For pub food and a pint of beer, there's Scotland Yard (Randvere tee 6, Viimsi). And if it's the view, but not food, you're after, then there's Paat, a pub with a lovely outdoor seating area and a gorgeous view of the Tallinn skyline (but the food is unfortunately a letdown).

Nami-Nami @ El Bulli: the first 10 dishes

El Bulli dining room.
All photos by Pille & K of Nami-Nami

The surprising thing about El Bulli is that despite of their fame and the number of dishes served each night, they still take great interest in each diner's special wishes. While there is no traditional menu to choose from as such, they do want you to be able to enjoy all 30 dishes. When confirming our booking, they wanted to know about any food allergies or dietary considerations (yes, you can order a vegetarian or even a vegan meal). When we were seated, the waiter told us that the Chef has designed a 30-course meal for us, and that each dish will be explained as it is served. He then informed us that some items might be a bit unusual and off-putting - in our case razor clams and veal marrow - and could be changed for something more preferable. (I must confess I wasn't too keen on the razor clams, so I got an alternative dish. Funny enough, they forgot to mention that sea cucumber was on the menu as well. More about it later:)).

Ready? The menu could be split into five parts - savoury snacks, tapas, main tastes, (pre-dessert), desserts and morphings. However, I've opted to split the menu into three posts, explaining the various phases as we go.

Tangerine / Mandarina

The first dish we were served consisted of two parts. On a small black folded square paper were two tiny rose-scented granules. We were instructed to pop the rose granule into our mouth, and then drink the slightly foamy tangerine drink. As a result, the whole tangerine drink tastes strongly of rose :) 

Spherical Olives / Aceitunas verdes sfericas

I was so excited to see this dish! The spherical olives is probably one of the best known dishes on El Bulli's menu, and it was cool to have a chance to try them ourselves. It's an encapsulated pure olive pureé, marinated in olive oil, garlic, thyme and rosemary. We got two olives each, served with a special tiny spoon. You put the 'olive' into your mouth and when gently pressing it with your tongue, it bursts, leaving you with the taste of the best olive you've ever had. Very intense, very tasty. 

El Bulli/Ferran Adria is famous for playing with textures, tastes and temperatures. The spherical olive is a great texture-teaser - you expect it to 'feel' like an olive, and although it tastes like one, it feels totally different.  

Note that many of the dishes were to be consumed with our hands - utensils were rarely seen. Knife, for instance, was only brought to the table once (and I didn't really know how to use it then anyway :))

LYO Fruits / Frutas LYO (Pineapple chips)

Pineapple chips came on a typical plate that looked a bit like crunched sheet of metal. LYO is short for lyophilization aka freeze-drying. The freeze-dried pineapple chips look like your regular chips, but taste like pineapple and have a very fragile and slightly flaky texture.

Salty 'catanias' / Catanias saladas


Toasted walnuts covered in walnut praline and dusted with bitter cocoa powder. These managed to taste sweet and salty at the same time, and were apparently a play on a much-loved Catalonian chocolate-almond bon-bon.

Nori-trias

Lightly salted and creamy black sesame paste filling, wrapped into a fragile-crispy nori sheet.

Tomato cookie / Galleta de tomate

Intensely tomato-flavoured crispy cookie, garnished with a gold leaf and wasabi dot. Very interesting texture.

Beetroot coral / Coral de remolacha



Slightly similar to the tomato cookie texture-wise (a bit crunchier, perhaps), but intensely beet-flavoured. First the crispy beetroot 'coral', then a spoonful of beet juice :)

The above small dishes fell into the savoury snacks category, and were served several at the time. The following few dishes are the tapas-dishes, served one at the time.

Shiso flexia caramel with its own soft candy / Shiso caramelo flexia sus gominolas





This was one of the trickiest dishes to eat. The soft candies were VERY soft, and almost burst between our fingers (our only 'utensils' at this point). The 'flexia caramel' contained flecks of shiso (leaf? flower?) that were prone to fall all over the place when not eaten carefully. But flavour-wise, it was a lovely combination of mildly sour and sweet.

Pistachio sponge cake with acid milk mousse / Bizcocho de pistachios con mousse de leche acida



At first we thought this is the same pistachio mousse dish that Ferran Adria shares in the Foams and Espumas chapter of The Cook's Book (a brilliant book, by the way!) - we had tried that at home. However, it wasn't - the visual similarity was all that was common. This pistachio cake was dry and fragile - as a result of lyophilization - and not moist and sponge-like. The pistachio cake was served with acid milk mousse (photo below) and we were given a tiny spatula for scooping up the mousse.


That red tome? Oh, that's their modest wine list :)

Black sesame sponge cake with miso / Bizcocho de sesamo negro y miso

This was one of my favourite dishes - with a cool texture and lots of flavour. Toasted black sesame seeds have been ground into a paste, mixed with egg and flour, pressed through an ISI Gourmet Whip and then microwaved until cooked and fluffy. (We had tried a similar recipe with pistachios, printed in The Cook's Book: Step-by-step techniques & recipes for success every time from the world's top chefs). We were instructed to devour the sponge in two mouthfuls, starting with the miso paste part. Again, a great combination of textures (remember, we were holding the 'sponge' with our fingers) and flavours.

Nami-Nami @ El Bulli: Prologue

5 April 2008, 

Better late than never, they say.

Yesterday exactly one year ago K. and I had a chance to have lunch at El Bulli. A spectacular lunch. A long lunch. A very tasty lunch. A memorable lunch. I-so-have-to-tell-everyone-about-this lunch. Funny enough, it took me a whole year to actually blog about that. When we got home from our 10-day Spanish road trip early last April, I had several deadlines looming. Some at the University, plus I had been commissioned to write some articles about our visit to El Bulli*. I wrote a short piece (one page) for the biggest-selling Estonian food magazine Oma Maitse (May 2008). Then a whole A3-size spread for the main weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress (22 May 2008). And then a richly illustrated detailed review of the menu spread over six pages for the other local food magazine, KÖÖK (Summer 2008). But somehow I didn't get around to writing about it on my blog.

Well, until now. To mark the one-year anniversary of our visit to El Bulli, I'm gonna give you four blog posts over the next week detailing what happened when Nami-Nami went to El Bulli :) (I could do one long post, but considering we had 30 dishes that all looked fabulous, it's easier to split the post into four).

Before we got to El Bulli, we decided to 'get into the mood'. Ferran Adrià is from Emporda in Catalunya, which is (in)famous for its harsh tramontana-winds that blow from the Pyrenees. The Spaniards believe that these very tramontana winds make the locals a bit funny. Who knows. The world's best known Surrealist, Salvador Dalí, is from the region as well, so it might just be true. In any case, as El Bulli is just an hour's drive from the Dalí Museum in Figueras, we decided to visit the museum first and set the mood :)



The road from Roses (the nearest town) to El Bulli is a spectacle of its own. It's narrow and high and zig-zags alongside the coastline (I wouldn't want to navigate it after a merry meal at the restaurant, that's for sure!). The restaurant itself  is surrounded by cypress and pine trees, and overlooks a beautiful Cala Montjoi bay.





Over-excited as we were, K. and I arrived in our rented Mini Cooper (the best and cutest rental car ever!) a bit early. We parked the car and wondered around the garden. Spotted a group of young stagés chatting on the back of the restaurant:



And large canisters of liquid nitrogen - giving an indication of the type of restaurant we were about to visit:


Once inside, we were greeted by Señor Luis Garcia (what amazing blue eyes that man has!?!). He confirmed our reservation and asked if we wanted a small tour of the El Bulli service kitchen. Of course we did! Garcia assigned us a young waiter, who led us to the kitchen. El Bulli serving kitchen is large, some 130 sq m. It was divided into two - the hot and the cold section. We spotted Ferran's brother Albert working on some pastry (top left photo), and numerous young stagé cooks doing various prep work. Apparently there are 40 cooks taking care of the 50 diners each night - and given the number of people we saw in the serving kitchen, that's indeed very likely. Remember, each El Bulli meal consists of 30 courses - multiply that by 50 (the number of diners) - and you get 1500 dishes. No wonder they need such a huge number of cooks (plus waiters!). Compared to the tiny restaurant kitchen I've worked in (I've never really told you about my stagé at the top gourmet restaurant in Tallinn either, have I?), El Bulli's was huge, spacious and looked like something from a space ship - all shiny metal and a bit futuristic :)



Furthermore, the your waiter assigned to us asks if we want to take a photograph with The Chef? Of course we did!!! Here's our million-dollar picture (K's on the other side of Ferran Adrià, but he's camera shy, so I've promised not to show his face on the blog here ;))



After the short kitchen tour we were led into the surprisingly traditional-looking dining room. Luckily for us, we were seated at a small corner table just under the window, meaning we'd have beautiful natural light for taking pictures.

But more about that next time..

Back from Spain, plenty to blog about

Well, K. and I got back from our ten-day Spanish trip late last night. We've almost unpacked everything, and are in the middle of sorting out our photos (ca 900 of them!). There's lots to do at work at the moment, so it will be a few more days before I'm blogging properly again. But I'll leave you with a taste of what's to come :)


Click on the photo to enlarge!

Hõbelusikas - Silverspoon: Estonian Gastronomy Awards 2007

Me (on the left:) and the winner of the Chef of the Year Award, Tõnis Siigur from Restaurant Stenhus, Tallinn at the Estonian Gastronomy Awards ceremony yesterday. Photo by K.

Just like last year, I had a chance to attend the Silver Spoon 2007 Gala Dinner last night. The Estonian Gastronomy Awards were handed over at the ceremony attended by many of the food-loving bold and beautiful in Estonia, including me and my dear K :) There were small ballet dancers, singing by Chalice, lots of good food, and plenty of food-related chatting, of course.

The festive dinner menu was created by the winner of the Chef of the Year award of 2006, Dimitri Demjanov, the grand old man of Estonian haute cuisine, and it was full of surprising local ingredients like Baltic herring, my beloved kama, sea-buckthorn, black pudding/blood sausage, to name just a few. I'll reprint the menu with my musings below, but first, the award winners.

There are ten categories at the Estonian Gastronomy Awards, and I list them in no particular order:

Estonian Gastronomy Awards, 2007

BEST GOURMET RESTAURANT
Bonaparte, Tallinn - nominee
Stenhus, Tallinn - winner
Ö, Tallinn - nominee

BEST RESTAURANT
Vertigo, Tallinn - nominee
Vinoteque In Studio Vinum, Tallinn - winner
Karl Friedrich, Tallinn - nominee

BEST CAFE
Cafe Truffe, Tartu - nominee
Lounge UpUp, Tallinn - winner
Cést La Vie, Tallinn - nominee

BEST PUB
Restaurant-Brewery Beer House, Tallinn - nominee
Suure Tõllu Körts, Saaremaa - winner
Altja Kõrts, Lahemaa - nominee

BEST CHEF
Tõnis Siigur, Restaurant Stenhus, Tallinn

BEST WINE & FOOD MATCHING
Vinoteque-Restaurant In Studio Vinum, Tallinn

FAMILY RESTAURANT
Suure Töllu Körts, Saaremaa

BEST BEER SERVICE
Restaurant-Brewery Beer House, Tallinn

MOST REPRESENTATIVE RESTAURANT OF MODERN TALLINN
Restaurant Ö

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Restaurant Tchaikovsky, Tallinn

Now. First let me tell you that I'm extremely pleased that Tõnis Siigur, the young and talented chef of Restaurant Stenhus in Tallinn won the Chef of the Year award. You see, I love his restaurant, and more importantly, I also had a chance to work in his restaurant for 10 full days in December (what? you mean I've still not told you about the Cookery Diploma I successfully did last autumn and which included an 80-hour internship in a restaurant? Well, I did, and I did my internship at the best gourmet restaurant in Tallinn, and Tõnis Siigur taught me a lot. The fact that I ended up sitting next to him at the ceremony was pure coincidence, however:)

Stenhus won the best gourmet restaurant award for the fourth time, and if that's not a sign of quality, I don't know what is :) But K. and I also had a wonderful meal at Restaurant Ö just recently, and I would have been happy for either one to win. I'm a bit unsure about the café category, however, as none of my current favourite cafés (Chocolats de Pierre, Anneli Viik Chocolate Café, Café´Park) made it to the shortlist. Next year, hopefully. K. and I are really not pub persons, so neither one of us has personal preferences for the best pub, but apparently the winner of the category - the Tavern Suur Töll on the island of Saaremaa - serves excellent home-made pub snacks (while also being the most family friendly establishment!!), so we'll make sure to check the place out this summer.

And now to the menu:



Dimitri Demjanov is known for his respect for local, traditional ingredients and dishes, and this was clearly evident in the menu. Whereas I didn't think that all dishes worked so well (sea-buckthorn coulis was way too sweet to do any justice to the excellent berry), there were some real inventive and delightful gems. The creamy black pudding soup was both delicious and intriguing; the pork lard with herbs and goat cheese butter accompanying the breads were definitely different; the decision to serve caraway infusion as an alternative to coffee with petit fours was brave, but justified, and chosen by many. K. and I were unsure about the food and alcohol pairings - there was beer, mead, vodka, sherry, calvados, champagne and white wine, and although I only took a sip of each, I could feel it this morning :)

Silver Spoon Gala Dinner 25.1.2008
Hortes Palm Hall, Tallinn

Dimitri Demjanov
Cuisiner

Amuse bouche: Traditional Setu pie and mead drink

Citrus marinated Baltic herring with capers, almond potatoes and frisee salad

Creamy black pudding soup with apple and cinnamon wafer

Gooseberry sorbet with caraway seed liquour and Veuve Cliquot champagne

Suckling pig belly confit with sauerkraut and pearl barley

Fruitcake slice with goat cheese mousse and blackberry confiture

Kama parfait with sea-buckthorn coulis and spun sugar

Coffee or chamomile-caraway infusion

Petit fours
***

It was a great and enjoyable night, and we'll be looking forward to the 2008 awards next January. Tõnis Siigur will be in charge of the menu, you see, and knowing what he's capable of, the meal is worth waiting for :)

Budapest: Café Gerbeaud and Dobos Cake

I needed to attend a meeting last Friday in Budapest, so I flew over on Thursday morning to do some sightseeing. I stayed in a very conveniently located Starlight Suiten Hotel on Merleq utca, unpacked and headed to town. I had been to Budapest before, but that was dozen years earlier, so it was nice to wander the streets again - it's a rather grand city. And just like Vienna, Budapest is famed for its cafe culture, so I headed to one of the heavy-weights, Café Gerbeaud in Inner Pest.



The place is indeed opulent, as Rick Rogers states in his Kaffeehaus - all golden wall decorations, heavy curtains and fancy chandeliers. There were four large salons, some smoking, some non-smoking, each packed with locals and tourists alike (Gerbeaud can sit up to 330 guests in its salons, and another 300 on its open-air terraces, so we're talking about a huge café here!). As it was 4pm by that time, I decided to have both coffee and my dinner, so I ordered a home-made goose liver terrine with Tokaj wine, roasted endives and walnut dressing (above) to start with, and the famous Hungarian cake, Dobos Torte (below), to finish. The goose liver terrine was very nice - I liked the sweet Tokaj dressing that it came with, as well as the light-textured small brioches. The portion was too large to my liking, however - goose liver is quite a mouthful to eat, so I could only finish two slices (and I was hungry, believe me!).



But the cake? Well, I was expecting something much more impressive. The cake sure looks grand - it consists of five thin discs of vanilla sponge cake, layered with chocolate buttercream icing. The cake is then covered with wedges of caramel-glazed cake. Beautiful! My favourite bit was the caramel-coated top layer. Other than that I thought the cake was too sweet, too rich and utterly non-interesting. I'll choose a slice of moist Estonian layered honey cake any time :)

But seriously, now. Was I disappointed because the Dobos Cake as such isn't to my liking? Or was the chief konditormeister at Café Gerbeaud not doing the job properly that day? Unlikely, considering that their website mentions Dobos Cake as one of their specialties, and Rick Rogers claims that "In Hungary, the name Gerbeaud is so famous as a sign of quality in baking that it is worth millions". I will still pop by in Café Gerbeaud next time I'm in town - the atmosphere was very much to my liking, their boozy María Teresa coffee excellent, and I didn't even get to sample their pretty handmade bonbons - but I'll opt for Esterházy Slice or Gerbeaud Slice instead.

However, if somebody could tell me where to get the best Dobos Cake in Budapest, I'd appreciate that. I may be back soon.

Gerbeaud House
Vörösmarty tér 7.
1051 Budapest

Celebrating a year of living in Estonia with a gourmet meal at Restaurant Stenhus, Tallinn

Exactly one year ago today I moved back home to Estonia after seven eventful years in Scotland. I still remember arriving at the Tallinn airport shortly after midnight to discover four of my best girlfriends singing a children's song about home* in the middle of the arrivals hall, holding an enormous poster with 'Tere, kodu' (Welcome, home!) in their hands, with K. smiling amusedly on the background. I was utterly bemused, to say the least! On the very same day I also moved in with K, so today is the anniversary of my return to Estonia as well as moving in with him. I know that 'cohabitation anniversary' doesn't sound as grand as engagement anniversary or wedding anniversary, but it's been a beautiful and delicious year and we wanted to celebrate it in style. As K. is somewhere in the Netherlands on business today (you see, dear Ximena, you're not the only one celebrating the actual annviersaries on her own), then we celebrated the anniversary last Friday, when K. took me to one of the best restaurants in Tallinn - Stenhus. I've mentioned Stenhus before - it's the restaurant where K. took me over a year ago as well for our first proper meal together in Estonia. There was no Menu Estonie this time, and the prices were higher than I remembered, but we had the most exquisite meal that neither one of us could find any fault with. The flavours were bold, the dishes creative, the plates were beautifully executed, the food delicious - Stenhus fully deserves its title as the Best Gourmet Restaurant in Estonia that it has won for the three previous years. Sitting under the vaulted ceiling of a 13th century building makes you feel million dollars (well, at least kroons:). It's head chef, Tõnis Siigur, is a talented chef, and he certainly managed to surprise and please us with every single course of the Degustation Menu. Siigur is still in his early 30s, so I'm sure there's plenty more to look forward to - and I'm definitely already looking forward to our next visit there. I just need to find an excuse :)

Here's a short recap of our anniversary meal. In addition to an a la carte menu, the restaurant offers three different degustation menus - a 4-course menu (850 EEK), a 6-course menu (1100 EEK) and 9-course menu (1450 EEK, excl. drinks). We opted for the 6-course feast, allowing our extremely friendly waiter Robert to suggest suitable drinks. (Note that we used non-flash photography, which explains why the photos are somewhat dark.)

If you are in Tallinn, and keen to splash out on one special gourmet meal, then I wholeheartedly recommend Stenhus.



We started with a glass of sparkling wine, Cremant de Loire Brut, Langlois Chateau, while nibbling on the bread from the in-house bakery. The black sesame seed bread, dark rye bread with raisins, and parsley bread were all delicious, with a nice crust and soft, with a good bite, inside.

Then we were poured a glass of Vina Montes Sauvignon Blanc (2006), and given a small greeting from the Chef, consisting of crostini with cold smoked salmon & salmon roe; crostini with marinated anchovy fillet, and a small portion of roasted organic & free range beef fillet Qualite de Charolais, which was simply delicious - spicy, but so tender and smooth. You could sense the meat was from a happy cow indeed :)



Next up, the first actual course of our 6-course tasting menu, Fruit de Mer soup. The bisque was very spicy, and I'm sure it usually comes with lobsters, but as I had specified 'fish is ok, but no shellfish', our soup had a large piece of seabass, eel and salmon each, as well as couple of poached quail's eggs and some crunchy shredded celeriac and carrot. Very flavoursome, very nice.



This was followed by this neat number - a creamy pumpkin soup with Parmesan espuma and tiny profiteroles. Again, K's version came with roasted scallops, mine with tiny cubes of fried pumpkin and a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil. Considering that we recreated the soup & espuma at home last night, you may understand how much we enjoyed this particular creation:


The waiter filled our glasses with a 2005 Sauternes, and that was a clear giveaway about what the next dish would be. The third item on the degustation menu was a large piece of fried foie gras, served with a tomato confit mini tartlet and shards of Valhrona chocolate and some rocket leaves. This was my first time to try Sauternes wine, and I was absolutely taken by its floral and peculiar aroma - loved it! Also, the foie gras was excellent - perfectly fried, with a creamy texture and not unnecessarily cloying at all.


Again a new wine, this time Marques de Coiseres Crianza 2003 Rioja. Our fourth plate was roasted wild pigeon with a liquorice sauce and celeriac, served with a pigeon leg confit. I was a bit worried about this one, as I dislike liquorice. Or at least I thought I do. The wild pigeon was perfectly roasted - still with a hint of pink inside and extremely tender, and went very well with the subtle liquorice sauce. This was - together with the creamy pumpkin soup with Parmesan espuma - my favourite dish in the menu:


Next up, another meat course - lamb rack with aubergine/eggplant stuffed small red peppers, garlic & Kalamata olive puree, green beans. By now I was getting full and began wondering whether we should have opted for the 4-course degustation menu :) Still, a very well executed dish, with delightfully gutsy roasted Kalamata olive sprinkles:


For the dessert we got a Hot-pot au gratin with fresh berries and Muscovado sugar. We could identify red currants, blackberries and raspberries in the pudding.

We had a cup of tea, which was served with a nice selection of petit fours; and K. finished his meal with a Pomme Prisonniere Calvados Pays d'Auge (Calvados being his favourite after-dinner drink).


* 'Kus on kodu, mis on kodu, kus on kodukoht' from a popular Estonian children's movie Nukitsamees.