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In 2008 year one of the versions of possible logo for our city was appreciated the draft of logo designed by Stefanart. The discussion about that it is the prototype or even copy of well-known logo of Unilever Company damped down a little the attitude of jury to this undoubtedly good graphic solution.
When I was a child parents trusted to me to separate meat from bones for jellied minced meat. It was the real ceremony. At first my grandmother kept off everybody from pan with getting cold bouillon, then was my grandfather’s turn – he didn’t trusted to anyone to strain jellied minced meat. They made me sit down on stool and I spent an hour and a half for main New Year course in our huge family breathing in garlic-cock steam. The chief cook was my grandmother of course, it was she who run al the affairs and highlighted the key points of boiling. But because of everyone in my family knew «how to do it right» the main subject of our conversation on the eve of every New Year was argue about what will be better and when to do it more correct, of course apart from discussion of prices for cocks and half salary of my father who was the engineer. Many things have been changed since then, but the present days my parents argue strongly about which cock is more delicious and will do more for our jellied minced meat. So, the festive jellied minced meat according to Odessa unwritten rules must be cooked about six hours – almost without boiling! For one three or four-kilo cock you should take two home chickens, and one and a half of two kg of veal and beef. You will need four big gloves of spring garlic, a few bundles of parsley leaves, a half of kilo of carrot, a half of kilo of parsley root and a lot of good mood. Bay leaf, allspice and black pepper you will need also. Add the garlic to already coked, strained and get cold jellied minced meat, put the half of garlic to the meat and another half to the bouillon. It is important to remove all fat from bouillon and in the way so that not a single drop stays on the surface. My grandmother used for this purpose natural device – the balcony. She took the bouillon into the street and then removed frozen fat with the spoons. All separated meat was divided from skin and other not meat and minced by knife to small pieces. Good parts of cock and chickens were put in more big pieces at the bottom. We added a circle of hard-boiled egg and a slice of carrot in to every plate. Then everything were poured over with many times strained bullion and took away to the balcony for thicken. I prefer to serve jellied minced meat turning over the pieces upside down. The spicier the horseradish is the better. No mustard! Odessa jellied minced meat is the offspring of Russian one, which in its turn came from French galantine. What is the difference? In French dish is used game and rabbit meat, in Russian – beef tails and ears, pig hoofs and head. Odessa housewives dressed up and spiritualized this dish degraded up to proletarian condition and brought it to perfection in the middle of twenty century. You shouldn’t confuse or compare jellied minced meat with meat jelly or aspic. According to weighty opinion of Elena Molohovets and classic Ivan Goncharov meat jelly is food for servants. It is cooked from scraps of meat which are thickening in non-transparent grey bouillon in ready dish. Of course it can be refine and add pork or tails… but no matter what you will do with it, gelatin or agar-agar already made their work. No one prevent you from decorating meat jelly with carrot and greens but I don’t understand how people can compare jellied minced meat and meat jelly. Meat jelly has a lot of analogs in other culinary traditions. Moldavian Resol is meat jelly from cock which is served with souse from garlic and mujdei. Georgian muzhuzhi is cooked from pig legs. Let’s remember also about khash which is served hot but it’s method of cooking is close to jellied minced meat. The difference is in that khash is everyday dish which is eaten after drunken feast and jellied minced meat is cooked in Odessa only on holiday. Aspic is taken on the table no less festively. Sure it is absolutely not Odessa dish. What is the difference from meat jelly? If to trust Larousse Gastronomique French cooks refused from medley which usually is the remainders of main courses and they began to choose the best pieces trying to give them elegant shape and decorating solidified bouillon with slices of vegetables, greens and mushrooms. Frenchmen began to refine the bouillon by caviar or beaten up whites of eggs, tint it with saffron or lemon rind. Moreover aspic is cooked not only from meat but also from fish. In the gastronomic dictionary are also present such a intricate dishes as lanspic or terrine, but they are closer to paste and pâté. And these dishes absolutely far from Odessa taste, though rabbit liver terrine or pate from foie gras go together excellently on the tale with family of jellied minced meat and not only on holidays. Saveliy Libkin for Forbes magazine, January 2012. Tags: forbes, холодецAbout restaurants of Budapest. So, I chose 6 restaurant out of all variety recommended by Mishelin, Zagat, Rusian internet, concierges of hotels, taxi drivers and friends. The radical mistake was made with two restaurants: Onyx with Mishelin star and Renascence in small town Visegrád near Budapest. The mistake with Onyx was predictable because my intuition prompted me that I won’t be able to eat there and I came there rather because of curiosity. What do they mean under “the best” restaurant in Budapest? Trip Advisor, Michelin and Zagat call Onyx one of two the best restaurants of Hungary. I don’t quite understand what kinds of criteria are guided by people who praise this restaurant… I estimated general atmosphere, is it possible to eat deliciously and amicability of service. Already at first sight at Onyx empty dining area and tall models waiters of the same height daunted me. The process of apéritif offering was nice but rather affected. The order was brought on the added table with castors which was covered by big and small bottles. I also liked small warm buns. The appetizer and main course allowed to pick by pincers in the plate but no more. There wasn’t any gastronomy in these false cubes. The food looked like silicone and the taste was the same.
At Renascence everything was much merrier. The huge restaurant (about 500 seats) in the village, meant for welcome of tourist groups from another villages (post-Soviet out-of-the-way place) solely. Here they have everything for this: personnel can drum meeting the buses, the cloakroom is hanged tightly with costumes of servants and aristocracy of “Renascence” epoch, a lot of paper crowns on the tables. Additionally there are also two mini thrones with two copper crowns in the dining area. You must admit that in this situation they can don’t feed people. Crowds of tourists come there, put on the costumes, take there seats and have their pictures taken. The food for tourists is cooked beforehand, probably a few times in a month for all planned groups. I came over and above the plan but I ordered dishes from the menu, so « assembly» of food took only a short time. Below you can find the photo of the dish.
Café 21 made very good impression on me. English-speaking personnel, the menu in English, clear names and complete correspondence between what is on the plate and what is written in the menu. In addition, cozy warm colors and full restaurant of non tourists up to 35 years old. Not a hint of gourmandize but the food is delicious.
Definetly the best restaurant to my mind is Bock Bistro. The atmosphere is excellent. The chef and the manager are in the dining area constantly and seat the guests. The menu is not long and understandable. The food is cooked technologically correctly. Professional hospitality and huge practical experience is felt in every thing. It is noticeable that all the team works in this composition no less then 5 years. Everyone is quick on the uptake of everything and everybody. Everything is very delicious and exactly this thing makes this restaurant standard fully busy all the days. You can’t get there without booking. There are no available tables for dinner at all.
Alabardos is typically evening restaurant. The chef Attila Bicsar according to his own confession dreams about Michelin star and this fact has a slight impact on the way of writing the3 names in the menu and some complexity of the dishes. Nevertheless the food is delicious and looks freshly cooked. The guitarist and melodies of the Beatles, Celine Dion, Animals and Ennio Morricone mixed up with ethnic tunes are in the dining area. At this there are a lot of axes, arbalests and other weapon in the interior. The local Furmint (local wine) also added romanticism to the atmosphere. Below you can find photos of the dishes and the chef.
On the photo the chef is on the right Pesti Diszno. A youth gastropub without cuisine and with warmed-up food in the very downtown of Budapest. Nevertheless the atmosphere is very good. It is better to go there full or at least you can feed up there a little bit drunk girls. The spirits are in the priority at this restaurant, because you won’t be able to have a good meal there. And nevertheless the impression is positive because of logo and corporate identity of half bar – half café under the name Pig from Buda.
About naphthalene café Gerbeaud you can read in the interne, and it is preferably to visit it after pension, but only if your savings will be enough… Boring-pompous-historical-expensively-chocolate. Very good packing plus papers, wrappers and labels with gilding. Everything is stand on this.
Bock Bistro 5 21 and Alabardos 4 Pesti Diszno 3+ Onyx and Renascence firm 2 Gerbeaud get stuck between 3+ and 2. Tags: Будапешт, Gastro-tourism, Restaurants |
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Restaurateur Saveliy Libkin
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