Restaurant Heaven: Le Bernadin

Having lived in Manhattan and worked as a consultant (translation: Lots of business dinners at great restaurants) for many years, Herr J has been to many of New York's top restaurants. We've tried unsuccessfully a couple of times to visit some of his favorites. While we did have an amazing steak frites lunch at Les Halles, a Christmas blizzard forced us to cancel most of our reservations. 

So, when we went back to the US in May to finalize some wedding plans, we decided to celebrate with a visit to somewhere truly special - Le Bernadin. 

Herr J had raved about this place. I was slightly skeptical, since I'm not the biggest fan of haute cuisine and fancy French food. (Not that I don't like French food...I just go for the simpler and less rich dishes). But Le Bernadin surpassed all my expectations. 

With 3 Michelin stars, it's not surprising that we had to take a 10:30pm seating to get in on a specific Friday night. After a few days in Charleston planning and after an afternoon visit to Long Island to pick out wedding bands, we were finally able to relax and unwind over a fabulous dinner. 

We started in the bar area, with a glass of prosecco and their tasty snacks. The trio of snacks had candied walnuts (likely with a little fish sauce for that great salty/sweet taste), rice crackers, and popcorn with bits of dried seaweed. I could have happily stayed there and just had the bar snacks!

But it was time to move into the dining room for the main event. 

As this was a celebration for us, at the end of a very hectic week, we decided to splurge and do the tasting menu with wine pairings. There generally are two tasting menus available, all consisting mainly of seafood. Yes, this was where I was suprised....while it's fine French dining, there isn't much cooking and there's a strong Asian influence.  You can, of course, order a la carte and find some lamb or steak, but the real treat here is the seafood. 

Before the first course came an amuse bouche, consisting of a trio of salmon, lobster, and a bisque with parmesan crisp. All excellent mixes of flavors and textures.

The first course - Fluke sashimi with jalapeno lime broth - was probably my favorite. Every dish came out perfectly arranged; then the waiter poured on a light sauce. All were very flavorful, without overwhelming the fish. This one was a great mix of mexican and Asian flavors, and my first time eating Fluke. 

This next picture does not do justice to the perfection of the fish.  Whoever so perfectly seared the yellowfin tuna and then cut it in such thin slices is truly an artist. Not only did it melt in my mouth, it looks like candy!  

After these first two courses, we kept being amazed by the tastes and presentation. And the wines were so well paired. We're certainly no wine experts, but this was one of those times where the wines were so perfectly matched to the food that you just say "wow!"  The diversity of the wines was impressive too, and that most were from smaller, local vineyard.  Next up was a lovely decorated seared escolar (in kaffir-lime and lemongrass). Not only two of my favorite aromas, but I adore escolar sushi. You don't find it often, but there's a sushi restaurant in Austin that serves it and it's outstanding. 

After the lighter fish, we start to get heavier and more cooked, with a still very lightly seared salmon in a lightly buttery sauce. This one still was excellent, but not as outstanding or unusual as the others. However, it was paired with a fantastic Swiss wine. There aren't many Swiss wines, and very few of them are exported, so we were excited to try one.  This one was a white wine from the Amigne grape. For more on Swiss wines, see this NYT article. 

Which brings us to the final dish, and the only one that really was cooked. (Not at all a complaint....I LOOOOVE sashimi and sushi....but it was not what I expected from a top French restaurant. And it was great!!). The sauce with this crispy black bass was made with black garlic and Persian lemons, for a really subtle and tasty accent. You see a chunk of black garlic on the left side.  This one was paired with a very light red wine - our only red in the tasting. 

After these main courses, we cleansed our palate with a glass of pink champagne and roasted pineapple sorbet. I will definitely be trying something like this in future kitchen experiments, since roasting the pineapple first really enhanced the flavor and cut down on the sweetness. It was a more mellow pineapple flavor. 

And for the final course (or, so I thought), we had a "Black Forest" trio. Very appropriate for two visitors from Germany!  Apparently the new pastry chef likes to do some deconstructed dishes. I just enjoyed the different textures, temperatures and the chocolate and cherry flavors.  This dessert course was paired with a dessert Riesling from the Mosel valley. 

And if that weren't all enough...with the check comes another plate (each) of sweet bites. 

This was the perfect treat to us to have finished our wedding planning and to relax for a night. For me, it was also celebrating surviving a really hard 6 months at work. We finished our busy season that week, so this was a double celebration for me! 

It's hard to know if restaurants live up to the hype, but this one does. The food, the service, the wine...everything is perfectly done without being too stuffy.  You can definitely tell the work that went into every aspect of the meal, starting with whoever went to market and picked out the fish.

In traditional fine French style, there is a huge staff, all of whom have very specific duties.  But they were all friendly and eager to answer questions or provide more infomation. We learned quite a bit from our sommelier - she was quite happy to tell us more about the grapes and vineyards and how each wine was unique. 

With the wine pairing, it's quite a feast and a big splurge. But I'm hoping we can pop in for a smaller taste of the experience next time we're in town. They do serve much of the menu (and the full tasting menus) in the bar area. I would be perfectly content with a glass of wine, those tasty snacks and a small plate or two to share.  And if we're really being honest, that "Chocolate-Peanut" concoction on the dessert menu is calling to me...Madagascan Chocolate Ganache, Peanut Mousse, Salted Caramel Ice Cream...mmmm....

Friday Photo Favorite: Castle at Český Krumlov

We spent last weekend in the Czech Republic... anywhere but Prague.  (Blog posts coming soon...)

This was the view from our pension on the first night, spent in Český Krumlov - with a view of the castle!

Friday Photo Favorite: Foggy Munich Morning

A foggy morning at Olympiapark. I still love the greens, but we've been having so much rain and fog lately that I ask myself daily: Summer? What summer? 

Pantone Merkel

This week, the fantastic color chart of Angela Merkel's suits has hit the internet. While she may not have much variety in style, it's an impressive array of colors! Besides...she's a little busy with other things to be spending much time on fashion...so I applaud her for likely having just bought the same suit in myriad colors. 

The neatly arranged color chart that's been best described as the "Pantone Merkel" actually is part of a larger project by Dutch graphic designer Noortje van Eekelen.  Her graduation project, "The Spectacle of the Tragedy," contains this and other collected images of key players in the Euro crisis. 

As described on her website, "The Spectacle of the Tragedy tells a visual story about the politicians that navigate the Euro crisis,"  It shows us what is happening behind their political smiles and gives us an insight into their irresponsible behavior. " It's a "Visual database of the European Show and its Leading Actors."

In addition, you can also find the "Extraordinary Romance" of Merkel and Sarkozy, the "Girls of Berlusconi" (unsuprisingly, NSFW outside of Europe), and my second favorite..."The Carla Bruni Handbag Collection".

Enjoy!

Friday Photo Favorite: Summer Flowers

Unlike Texas, where spring is beautiful and everything dries up in summer, summer is when the beautiful flowers come out in Munich. 

Awkward Office Moments in Europe

Yesterday I read an MSNBC article entitled Awkward! How a workplace hug can go awry. It was basically about the etiquette of hugging coworkers and how awkward moments can arise when one person goes in for a hug and another for a handshake. 

It makes me think of a similar dilemma we have working in multinational European offices - kissing in business settings. 

Photo:Reuters

First, there's the question of to kiss or not to kiss, which can result in some similar awkward moments. But then it gets more complicated from there with the question of how many cheek kisses.

It's not that simple...For a French colleague, it will be twice (once per cheek). For British colleagues, sometimes it's twice, sometimes once. And then I have to just remember which Dutch colleague has two and which has three (as many Dutch and Belgians do). 

It's probably a good rule of thumb in Germany to expect a handshake from a German colleague, though depending on the person and the formality of the office, you may be surprised. German companies still are more formal than those in the US, where you may still wear a suit and tie 4-5 days per week and work with a colleague for 10 years and still be on a Sie (formal "you") basis. But, times are changing and the influences of other countries are working their way into the workplace here. 

Last year, Germany's prominent etiquette group, the Knigge society, called for a ban on office kissing and maintaining a 60 cm distance during a handshake.

Personally, I find a kiss on the cheek hello or goodbye can be a nice thing. But I can see where it could be uncomfortable when it's between boss and subordinate or if you have a sleazy coworker (fortunately neither are an issue for me!).  

I generally observe someone's interactions with other colleagues first (to see if generally they're a kisser or a handshaker) and also let the other person take the lead.  Though I've had many of the funny awkward moments of going for two instead of one, or stopping at two cheeks when someone is used to three. But it's something we do laugh about as a common and very minor cross-cultural miscommunication. 

Schneiderweisse Meets Brooklyn

Over Christmas, we made a trip to the Charleston Beer Exchange to see what kind of German beers they had.  While we were pleased to see they carried Augustiner Edelstof Export, we were more excited to try a couple of the beers we'd heard about but hadn't been able to find here. First, we tried the Sam Adams - Weihenstephaner Infinium collaboration.  Given that it was a bit of a novelty (a champagne beer), we were more excited to see that they carried the Schneiderweisse-Brooklyn Brewery collaboration. 

I've generally enjoyed the Brooklyn brews that I've tried in NY restaurants when travelling. Please don't ask me to tell you which ones, but they are usually a solid choice when you don't know any of the beers on the menu.  And I really like Schneider's dunkleweissbier. 

Before we get to the collaboration, a bit about Schneider.  Officially known as G. Schneider & Sohn, this is Munich's oldest weissbier brewery (founded in 1872) and is still owned by the Schneider family today.

After several expansions and destruction of the Munich facilities in WWII, its beers are produced across Bavaria, with local ingredients such as Hallertau hops. After wheat beer lost its popularity in the mid-1800s, the king decided to sell brewing rights, and the Schneider brewery was born. It's not always the easiest beer to find on store shelves, but it's worth a try. And you can always find it at the historic Schelling Salon. 

Back to the collaboration.... according to the back label:

Schneider & Brooklyner Hopfen-Weisse is a collaboration between brewmasters Hans-Peter Drexler of the Schneider Weissbier Brewery and Garrett Oliver of The Brooklyn Brewery.  Garrett and Hans-Peter have long admired each other's beers.  Now together they bring you a new sensation, a pale weissbock robustly dry-hopped with the Hallertauer Saphir variety grown in the fields near the Schneider brewery.  Hoppy, zesty and supremely refreshing, Schneider & Brooklyner Hopfen-Weisse is a delicious blend of Bavarian craftsmanship and American ingenuity. 

There actually are two versions of this collaboration:

In the first (which is what we tried), Oliver travelled to Schneider's Kelheim brewery and the two brewmasters used Hallertau Saphir hops to dry hop the brew.

Later, Drexler travelled to Brooklyn (bringing his weissbier yeast with him), and they brewed another version using American hops for the dry hopping. 

The dry-hopping technique is also a bit unusual, for a European or a weissbier. Normally, hops are added toward the end of the wort boiling stage. However, this boiling often greatly reduces the aromatic properties of the hops. So, sometimes the brewers add unpasteurized hops to the beer after the wort has cooled in order for the beer to soak up the flavor and aroma of the hops. This is very common for an IPA and is becoming more widely used in the US. It's not very common in Germany, and is quite unusual for a weissbier. In this case, the beer was open fermented for a week, then transferred to another tank to complete the fermentation atop the dry hops. After removing the hops, the beer follows the rest of the weissbier brewing process...adding a little unfermented beer before bottling it and letting a secondary fermentation in the bottles create those lovely little weissbier bubbles.

For any of you home brewers out there, BrewersFriend has some good tips on dry hopping your home brew.

We quite enjoyed this tasting. Collaborations are always fun, and this Hefe-Weizen Ale (8.2% ABV) was something different.  It wasn't bitter, but it was a good weissbier for someone who doesn't love theirs so sweet and banana-clovey. Unfortunately we didn't have the chance to compare both versions, but we did find two guys online who reviewed both.