Thursday, August 25, 2016

Chef Carles Gaig's Summer Menu


[La Ventana no longer exists and has rebranded as Tapas Twenty-Six in 2018 and shifted to a new address within Dempsey Hill that is now closed.]

The lovely vibes of La Ventana and the consistent standards of food have kept me visiting fairly often. I like its paella and the friendly dishes on the menu. This August, Chef Carles Gaig was in town to present a summer menu of seven courses focusing on black truffles, turbot, and Presa Ibérica. Hopped in with the friends for a taste.

Loved the ajoblanco (a white gazpacho with green grapes and green apples as opposed to the red with roasted tomatoes and red peppers)cold soup of garlic and fresh almond with marinated Atlantic cod and the super decadent cannelloni stuffed with summer truffles and cow cheese with truffle cream. Mmmm. These were welcomed calories. The deep fried octopus with sweet potatoes were good too. Tough to go wrong with fried stuff.

Turbot and lobster suquet.
I'm not keen on the seared duck foie-gras and cherries soaked in Cassis or the charcoal-grilled Presa Ibérica with pimentos del Padrón. Or rather I passed the meats to my dining companions but ate the cherries, morels and Padrón peppers. Didn't bother to request for seafood replacements or vegetarian substitutes. Of course I didn't pass on the fish. That's my main protein! It was done in a suquet (Catalan seafood stew) of juicy turbot and lobster. Luckily I saved a piece of bread to go with it. :P It was gorgeous.

I didn't know what to make of the dessert, which was a pineapple cannelloni stuffed with vanilla mousse with burnt whisky infusion. The whisky used was not very nice. I wanted it to morph into a Malibu pineapple cocktail or rum, or just a glass of single malt with citrus notes, as long as it wasn't in this fashion on the plate. Anyway, I never care about desserts.

This isn't an inventive menu, which is what I like about La Ventana. They do what they know best. These are well-thought-out familiar dishes excellently cooked. That's all that's needed. That's exactly what I look for in a meal of comfort foods.

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