Corfu all over you...

When we'd initially set off on this trip we'd always planned to spend a few weeks hopping between Greek islands, immersing ourselves in an as authentic Greek experience as possible. However our time in Europe is quickly running out and the bank account appears to be diminishing at an ever increasing rate. Our compromise was a week in Benitses on Corfu, a Greek island that's just a thirty minute ferry ride from the Albanian coast. We tried our best to have that authentic Greek experience. Our days went something like this.

Mornings began with us rolling out of bed when we felt like it for a breakfast of Greek yoghurt and honey, and some fresh fruit.

We'd then trek the tough two minutes down to the beach, pull up a sunbed and acquaint ourselves with one of the various cold coffees that the Greek people love so much. We are now very well versed on the differences between a frappe, a freddo espresso and a freddo cappuccino.

After a fairly strenuous four or five hours reading, gazing longingly at Albania, soaking up the sun and jumping into the cleanest and clearest sea we've swum in so far, we'd be feeling a bit peckish. Enter Greece's most beloved export - the mighty gyros.

We'd intended to be very methodical in researching Benitses' best gyros with a goal of trying all that Benitses had to offer before settling on our favourite. But after stumbling upon the particularly nondescript Kebab House and taking that first bite we knew that we'd found our winner. The meat was juicy and moist on the inside and browned exquisitely on the outside, some chopped tomatoes, cucumbers and onions were thrown in, as was handful of chips and then the additions that took the gyros from good to great - the condiments. Firstly, a Tzatziki chock full of so much garlicky goodness that you would immediately feel yourself sweating cloves as the garlic's fire raged around your mouth, and then there was the special sauce. Among other ingredients that we can't remember were oregano, lemon juice, olive oil and some type of mustard. This is special sauce that is truly special. The heavenly combination was all wrapped in a pita like none other that we've had before.

I know everyone at home has their go-to gyros joint and anyone who's been to Greece thinks that they've had great gyros but this is next level stuff. This particular gyros cannot be improved upon. Greece's gift to the world is gyros. The world's gift to us is that gyros.

After that gastronomical delight we'd wander back to our apartment for our daily Ouzo dose and our take on Greek meze - generally some onions and toms drowned in olive oil with olives and some Tzatziki and Taramasalata.

The nights normally ended with too much red wine, another penalty shoot out and another late night.

We also squeezed into that busy schedule a sampling of the Greek classics moussaka, stifado (an oily beef stew with shallots), sofrito (slivers of beef cooked in wine) and Retsina (resinated Greek wine),

souvlaki, Metaxa (Greek brandy), dolmades and baked feta. All delish!

Did we have the experience that we'd hoped for? Probably not. Any authenticity that this small fishing port once had is mostly gone (as evidenced by the English language chalkboards out the front of every single bar and restaurant) and we were probably twenty years late in getting there. Although upon reflecting on the above, I suppose we did a reasonable job. We can't complain too much......

Significant Insight from the Significant Other - Michelin Meal, Take Three

Copenhagen...  Home to one of my most fantasised eating dreams, Noma.   No, sadly, we didn't go - it was go to Noma and not be able to treat ourselves to any other good meals throughout Europe or compromise and split those savings across a few splurges.  In hindsight I think the compromise was the wrong choice given our uninspiring Michelin meal in San Sebastian, but that doesn't mean we weren't going to give another Michelin meal a crack.  I narrowed down our choices and we decided on Relæ .

Relæ was opened in 2010 by Christian Puglisi, a former Noma chef, and received its Michelin star in 2012.  Its concept is simple dishes using only a few ingredients, that are mostly locally sourced and 90-100% organic.   They have gone for a really laid back atmosphere which was extremely enjoyable.  The maitre'd was in a flanno, the chefs brought your dishes to the table, there were no napkins awkwardly placed on your lap and of course the cloakroom had a drawing of a teddybear with a cock.  Built into the table was a secret drawer which contained your menu, napkin and various sets of cutlery to self serve as you went along - brilliant!

On arrival we were asked if we would like an aperitif and snack...  Umm, yes!  Immediately poured in front of us were two glasses of delicious bubbles from Austria where some of the grapes had been pressed with their skins to give it the delightful colour.  Then our snack arrived in a leather bowl - fresh potato bread with goats cheese and herbs.  The chef advised us to eat it with our hands...  To which I (probably too quickly) responded he didn't need to tell us that!  The combination was fantastic and wine pairing spot on.

You have two eating options at Relæ - Herbivore or Omnivore, in the form of four courses.  To cover more ground we decided to get one of each, with the wine pairings to match obviously.

Course one

Herbivore - Baked onion, sol and birch syrup, paired with Susucara 5 '12

Presentation of this dish was beautiful.  The individual layers of red onion were sweet and filled with seaweed from Iceland.  The essence of sea that came through was incredible - it was like the concentration of a thousand shellfish.  The wine was really different but worked so well.  I must admit I shuddered when I saw the cloudy pink liquid flow into my glass, preparing for some super sweet swill, but it was dry and tannin-y from all the skins, and heightened the natural flavours of the dish.

Omnivore - Razorclam, cucumber and spinach, paired with Opok '08

Brim's dish looked like some alien seaslug that got lost in a forest.  Not so sure about the presentation but the mouthful I was gifted was divine.  Inside the wafer thin slices of raw cucumber was the meatiest razorclam I had ever seen.  It was cooked perfectly, so sweet - similar to a slightly chewier scallop that mated with an oyster I guess.  The cucumber provided crunch whilst the wilted spinach inside gave an earthy element to heighten the sea flavours.  The wine came from vines grown on clay soils, making it quite an earthy white, adding richness to the sea flavours.

Course two 

Herbivore/Omnivore - Mushrooms, grains and ramsons, paired with O2 fruits '10

We were both treated to this delightful next course.  A mix of grains had been cooked and added to a dark green garlicky broth, topped with slices of raw mushroom.  Yum!  Barley, burghal, sunflower seeds, you name the grain and it was here.  The broth was indescribable other than we wanted a thermos of it to take home.  Simple slices of mushroom took on the quality of meat and soaked up all the flavours.  Ramsons are like a wild chive, so added a real freshness to the broth.  We tried our best to slurp up every last drop of this one!  The wine was amazing.  They don't fill the barrels all the way so that the wine can oxidise.  This resulted in all kinds of whiskey and calvados flavours and aromas coming through, complementing the earthy flavours of the dish.

Course three

Herbivore - Carrots, hollandaise and oxalis, paired with Roc cab '12

My meatless main.  Carrots that had been slow roasted like you would meat, to take on a meat texture and quality.  Looking at the photo of the dish, if you were to assume that oxalis must be the purple thing and the carrots are hiding under the hollandaise, then you would be wrong - at least you didn't ask the chef and be responded to with a confused look "um that is carrot", pointing at the purple.

Turns out the carrots are thinly sliced and then stacked back together basically in the shape of a steak (mmm... steak...).  Oxalis are the four-leaf clover looking bits that taste exactly like the leaves of some sour plant that me and Pippa used to nom when we rollerbladed down my driveway growing up.  I gleefully told Brim about this little blast from the past but he didn't get it, or care for that matter, so I piped down and munched my rabbit food.  Tasty yes, but like my course one, I felt it was trying too hard to emulate its meaty counterpart, a goal that can never be reached, and should have been focusing more on the original vegetable flavours.  The wine match was a delicious red, again trying to replicate the red meat/red wine combination.

Omnivore - Sodam chicken and celeriac, paired with Navine '07

Brim's main consisted of a pile of chicken, but this wasn't any old chicken...  It was slow cooked at a low temperature so the meat was pink but cooked through and retained a lot of the raw meat texture.  The celeriac slices on top of the chicken had been fermented, giving a powerful acidity to cut through the chicken.  Neither of us can remember what the sauce was exactly...  But it was good.  A lovely unfiltered chenin was the wine match and its dryness worked perfectly with the rich dish.

Course four

Herbivore/Omnivore - 5yo Parmesan and apple, paired with La Mailloche' 09

This was an optional cheese course, but who are they kidding, when is cheese ever an option?  I said to the waitress right at the beginning that we would share the cheese course to which she laughed and said I'll ask you when we get to that time.  My brain was just going cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese.  So the parmesan was delicious and the apple jelly was a great accompaniment, but we felt cheated.  If I wanted 5yo cheese plonked on a plate then I could buy the cheese and plonk it on myself.  We like to eat at good restaurants for the purpose of them providing something I can't do myself.  Knowing that we were sharing the wine (a crisp Chardonnay), they gave us two smaller pours in separate glasses which was great service.

Course five

Herbivore/Omnivore - Vanilla icecream, dried citrus, paired with Moscato d'Asti'12

To finish was dessert which both menus shared.  Out came a plate with a smear of vanilla ice cream, garnished with dried shards of orange and individual frozen segments of orange.  Not too much to say about this one, it tastes like you would expect.  Good, but again it wasn't anything special or using interesting flavour combinations.  The wine unfortunately was my only dislike of the night.  I don't care if it's $3 or $300 a bottle, I don't like Moscato.  So sweet and light, I understand it's purpose to cut through the cream and enhance the citrus, but it's just gross.

So overall we had a wonderful night at Relæ . The wine was definitely the highlight for me - trying natural wines that all had a little quirk to them was fascinating and something I'd love to get into more.  The low-key feeling of the restaurant was really enjoyable and meant you could focus more on what was in front of you (the food, not Brim).  The food was delicious however I think the cheese and dessert really let down the whole experience.  And I made a mistake by going for the Herbivore option - you don't make friends with salad!

Oporto You're So Fine, You're So Fine You Blow My Mind, Oporto

I dont think that we've ever been anywhere before that I've said "I love this place" as many times over as I did when we were in Porto.  There was no other basis to that statement than having an excuse to drink endless quantities of dirt cheap but amazing port.

Another UNESCO registered city, another beauty.  However what's different about this one is that it doesn't feel as heavily touristfied as others.  There isn't an Italian joint on every corner and it isn't as clean cut as others that we've been to, as evidenced by the many old, decrepit buildings that are dotted around the city centre.  It's a nice change to see a UNESCO registered city that people still actually live and exist in.

Porting it Up

Because what else do you do in Porto?

Taylor's Tour

Rather reluctantly we set off on our first morning in Porto to go and do a tour of one of the port houses.  I say reluctantly because we aren't big fans of tours and expected this one just to be a bit wanky.  We were wrong.

The guide knew his stuff and did an extremely good job of tempting the group into ripping the bung out of one of the casks and guzzling down its heavenly insides.  Thank god the tour started with a sample of their Chip Dry White.  We discovered white port in Porto, a nice little addition to our home lives I believe.  On ice, with fizzy water, in Summer, nice...

The tour began with a brief history lesson before we entered the cellar and whilst surrounded by cask upon cask of various ageing ports we were educated on a world of port that we've only ever known the tip of the iceberg of.  After the tour it was time to head back inside for a sample of their Ruby and Tawny 10 Year.  For entry level ports these were delicious.  Unfortunately the budget couldn't stretch far enough for us to have a nip of the 1855 Vintage Tawny.

Tasting at Krohn

Through disgustingly bad weather and soaking jeans and shoes we pushed on to Krohn for another couple of 'doing what they say on the label' samples.  We walked away with an €8 bottle of their Ruby.

A Couple at Vino Logia

The day ended with some further research at Vino Logia, a cosy little Port bar with an amazing little selection and pretty good company.

Takeaways

However, as enjoyable as the above few places were, we got the most pleasure out of paying €5-10 for a different half bottle each night and continuing our research back at our apartment (we lived the high life in Porto).  We didn't leave Porto worrying that we hadn't had the full port experience, that's for sure.

Port Education

So this is what we've picked up from our time in Porto (and maybe a little bit of Google to jog my memory).  You may want to skip this section if you find port boring.  In saying that, you're probably reading the wrong post if you don't have the slightest bit of interest in port.

Port can be broken down into two broad categories: wood (cask) aged; and bottle aged.

Under the wood aged you have:

White Port - strangely enough they use white grapes and are generally aged between two to three years in large casks.

Ruby-Reserve-Late Bottled Vintage Port - all of these are aged in medium and large casks with the key distinction being the length of time spent in the cask.  Rubies generally spend two to three years in the cask, Reserves a touch longer and LBVs between four to six years.  As opposed to Tawny ports the use of larger cask sizes results in the final product taking on less oak character.

Tawny Port - aged for ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred years in small casks before being blended and are your most complex and most highly oaked of the wood aged ports.

A 40 year old Tawny may have been blended using vintages that range from a few years old to almost 100 years old.  The 40 year title is just a reference point to its quality and complexity rather than a reflection of its exact age.

And the bottle aged (it's almost over!):

Vintage Port - uses the finest grapes of one particularly outstanding year and is aged for just two to three years in casks.  Once bottled the intention should be to age the port for many further years as is it will continue to develop in the bottle.

To summarise (and our biggest "ahhhhhh" moment of the tour), only Vintage port should be aged in the bottle (on its side of course).  All wood aged port can't age any further seeing as it's filtered prior to being bottled and is bottled to be drunk then.  What I'm trying to say here is that you now have an excuse to dust off all of those Tawnys in the back of your booze cupboard and crack them now!  Well, finish reading this first.

Game of Sandwiches

The other thing you do in Porto is eat sandwiches.  Last week I told you about our new sandwich king and the challengers to his throne.  En garde!

The Francesinha

Francesinha roughly translates as little French girl in Portuguese and it was invented by a returning emigrant from France and Belgium.  It's a bit like a glorified, gluttonised (not a word I know) Croque Monsieur (which in itself is a fancy man's ham and cheese toastie).  It has since become somewhat of a food mascot for the people of Porto.  It is now also very well renowned across the globe and regularly pops up in 'Top 10 Sandwiches of the World' lists.

The sandwich itself consists of cured ham, linguica (cured sausage), a chipolata-like sausage and roast meat wrapped in two thick slabs of white bread, it's covered in melted cheese and drowned in a hot, thick tomato and beer sauce and is served with french fries.  Sounds good on paper right?  Well, as Dad always told me, a team of champions doesn't necessarily make a champion team.

You watch the sandwiches being made and watch people around you tucking into them and you're thinking in your head that this is going to be legendary.

Then your sandwich arrives (after you've waiting in line and at your table for over an hour) and this overbearing wave of gluttony and guilt washes over you.  And unfortunately the juice (or the few days worth of calories in this case) isn't worth the squeeze.  It's just bleh.  You feel dirty whilst eating it and you feel dirty after eating it.  It's not really a pleasant experience.  And these were our feelings after just sharing one (yes the photos above are of just a half sandwich each).

We were glad to have tried it and Casa Bufete was an authentic feeling place to have done it at but never again.  I admit that it may not have been the best example of a Francesinha but I fail to see what you could do differently to that set of ingredients for me to actually enjoy it and think that it tastes good.

The Francesinha is no King of ours.

The Pernil

A massive shout out to this guy for getting us onto these.  His rep was on the line and he came through with the goods.  Nix was an easy sell, Mike had her at the word "cheese".  I was a touch more sceptical, I don't get into bed with any old sandwich.

The Casa Guedes Pernil comes in a lightly toasted bun that's loaded up with slices of pork, that had been carved off the bone and allowed to sit in a stock of its own juices, and your choice of optional extras where the soft, gooey mountain cheese is highly favoured.  Once again, the theory that pork in a bun is just pork in a bun has been debunked.  This is a great sandwich.

As per normal for us, we didn't feel as though having these sandwiches once did them justice so we returned for a second and third time.  On the third time we discovered how good they go with the house Vinho Verde.  And I also discovered that adding pata negra (cured pork) lifts the bar again.  Wow.  Two bottles and two Pernils each later we wandered home rather merry and very satisfied.

You come to Porto for the Francesinha and you stay for the Pernil.  The Francesinha is the girl that you wake up alongside and question your prior nights decision making and the Pernil is the girl that you take home to your mother.  I'd say it's like Nicola but at no point was the sandwich a bitch to me.

I believe we have not found a new King here but may have found our sandwich Queen.  The Bifana and the Pernil, our sandwich King and Queen.  Imagine their little porky babies.

Another thing Mike, your move re the poor song/poor blog title.  I enjoyed 'We Do Ron Ronda'.  I believe there's a high correlation between our partners' disgust and the quality of the title.  Onward and downwards.  Yah!

Barrie-ometer of "Feel" - yip yip yip yip yip yip

Significant Insight from the Significant Other - Heston, Living the Dream

The second of my foodie dream meals!  Upon realising that making it to The Fat Duck really wasn't within our budget, but certainly not willing to sacrifice a date with Heston, we "compromised" with a booking at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in the fancy end of London.  The restaurant is within the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and we had doormen holding doors open for us with many a sir and madam references, which was very different to what we were used to!  They even insisted that they took our coats...  So we sheepishly handed over our attractive rain jackets to be housed amongst the Gucci and Burberry jackets of the fancy folk.  

Service here was THE best that I think any of us had ever experienced.  Despite it being very obvious that we were not made of money, we weren't treated like second class citizens and had multiple staff members legitimately interested in our travel plans and what we were doing.  Heck, Brim was even assisted with removing his flanno and placing it on the back of the chair! 

So a round of cocktails to begin....  Expensive but the list was too amazing to resist.   Mine was the tall thing which was sake and gingerbeer and lemon grass etc....  A kind of mule spin off.  Brim had the thing with the spoon of jam which was cognac based and Matt was a cherry something and probably the tastiest of the lot.  We also splurged on a bottle of Spanish red which I think was the best wine I've had in my memory...  And even got the tick from non-winelover Matt! 

Starters - I had the meat fruit and would happily live off of this for the rest of my life....  Even better than I had hoped!  A deliciously silky smooth blend of duck liver and foie gras, encased in a slightly sweet, mandarin flavoured gelatine case that melted the second it entered your mouth.  Matt had the octopus, which was super tender in slightly a smoked sea broth.  It came with cockles and samphire, the perfect combination.  Brim went for the bone marrow (after holding onto his meal envy of my starter at St. John) which came filled with snails.  It had a very smooth garlic flavour and looked so beautiful with the baby pickled veg on the side.  The pickled cauliflower was a taste sensation in itself. 

Mains - I had another starter which was lamb broth with a soft hens egg and veal sweetbreads.  It's always fun when the liquid isn't actually in your bowl and is poured from a jug on arrival to the table!  Matt decided on a tender piece of halibut, again coming with more cockles and samfire.  The fish was cooked to perfection and had a deliciously herby sauce.  Brim had the pork chop with a barley ragout and braised veg.  All very good again!  I had a side of kale which was delicious and we managed to get a side of triple cooked chips even though they shouldn't have been available - divine!

Dessert - I had the brown bread icecream which came on a bed of salted caramel and some kind of biscuit.  Matt had the tipsy cake which was a boozy brioche baked to order with spit roasted pineapple.  Brim had quaking pudding which was a pannacotta of sorts with poached pear and a warm spiced syrup poured on at the last minute.  Again all amazing!  Then there was little freebie of chocolate ganache with orange and Earl Grey and a caraway biscuit.

We left feeling extremely satisfied although disgustingly full (I wished that vomitoriums still existed!), and went and played with the squirrels in Hyde Park. 

And a thank you to my lovely parents who funded the dream with some birthday moneys! 

Moselle-ing on Down to Trier

To continue the relaxing with wine theme we ventured into the Moselle Valley to a place called Trier, the oldest city in Germany.  Two legs of our train trip, between Mainz and Koblenz and then from Koblenz through the Valley to Trier, offered up some of the best scenery that we'd seen in such a concentrated period.

The first day we just wandered around the city to check out the sights and get our bearings.  Nothing too much of note here apart from the little beauty below.  A little donut cross profiterole pastry that oozed perfect custard.

The following day we started of with the breakfast of champions at Kartoffelrestaurant Kiste (they specialise in potatos).  Our final breakfast in Germany consisted of gratinated potatos with bacon and mushrooms, mashed potatos combined with sauerkraut with two slabs of smoked ham on top and a very healthy dollop of mustard, and local Moselle wine.  Words don't do these creations justice.

And to make sure we'd made the most of our Moselle experience we had a couple more at a little wine bar and then a few more at a pop up wine bar in the main square where we got to try federweißer - fermented freshly pressed grape juice - which was excellent!

And that was Trier.

The Barrie-ometer of Feel - peaceful exuberance

Pug Sightings - nilch