Review: Noema

25 April 2024

The advertised snowstorm didn’t happen, I wish it did. Because my last full day on this trip was dealing with the endless drizzle. Stockholm was still beautiful, but it was wet. I was wet. And I was tired. Now on day 7 of this trip, I’ve clocked over 90km (56.5 miles) on foot, often hilly and icy terrain.

Luckily last night’s amazing dinner at Brutalisten is fluelling me all morning. But I need to sit down, and I need lunch.

So I sought out one last opportunity to get something that’s not easily found back home in the US — a nice, old dairy cow steak. I found a place called Noema that serves mjölkko from Brålanda for lunch, so I headed there. I had that amazing raw dairy cow meat last night at Brutalisten, I had to have more!

The lunch rush was just ending, so it was a relaxing time. Sipping on some wine, I ordered my food and chilled – and pondered heading back across the Atlantic tomorrow. Sigh…

The appearance of my steak cheered me up. This was a delicious piece of meat, wonderful texture, beautiful taste, cooked perfectly. After several “top” Chicago steakhouses absolutely screwed up my steaks (I didn’t name and shame them, which I now regret…) recently, I fully enjoyed this to the very last bite.

The frites were quite good, and the nice bowl of tomatoes added to the total lunch experience quite nicely. Such a fine lunch, and I got to rest my legs for a little.

I was full and happy, so one little tipple and coffee and I headed out, refreshed, for a little bit of final exploration of this city that I’ve grown to really love over the decades I’ve visited it.

Noema
Birger Jarlsgatan 64
Stockholm, Sverige

Best Way to Do a Layover at CPH (Review #2: Mash)

19 April 2024

I was excited to start my very crazy, almost dizzying trip around the Nordics. I planned this trip when the nearly-bankrupt SAS offered an almost too-cheap-to-believe roundtrip to Europe, albeit with some twists. It was cheaper for some reason to have extra connections from/to Copenhagen before the transatlantic flight…so of course I took advantage of it.

I arrived at CPH after a relatively good red-eye flight. I had paid for a better seat, and the aisle bulkhead seat was the best one on the plane by far. Consider it was cheaper than a checked bag, that was money well spent.

I had about 3 hours at CPH before my connection, and we zapped through Schengen very quickly. So I had some time, and I headed to my usual at CPH, Mash. I’ve dropped in on many connections over the years since first doing so in 2014, enjoying their excellent Danish ribeye.

Alas I was a little early for their 12 midday opening, so I went to buy a discounted thin coat from shops trying to unload them as spring is here. I see in my itinerary some weather that may be worse than I had anticipated (I didn’t bring a jacket with me), so I bought one that was conveniently 50% off.

I headed up to Mash and relaxed with a much-appreciated cocktail overlooking the bustling terminal around the B gates entryway. I usually don’t like to drink or eat before a flight, but the next one is a quick one. Then not long after the good stuff arrived.

Yep, what I always get here, the excellent Danish ribeye. Lovely flavours, good temperature. Considering the plague of overcooked beef I’ve had in the US recently from “top” steakhouses, this was very welcomed!

A side of mushrooms, which is a change from my usual jalapeños, but it worked very well. A lovely lunch to have when you have a little time, and you almost forget you’re in an airport. Probably one of few places in an airport anywhere in the world I would be happy to eat at.

My flight is not far, so I decided to enjoy a last tipple and even a dessert…

Far bigger from what I usually have (especially as a non-dessert person), but this is the start of what should be a very fun trip, so i went with this nice combo. I was very happy and fuelled up for the second flight, and I thanked my excellent servers and walked down the stairs towards my gate for Bergen. What a great start!

Or was it? To be continued…

Mash
Københavns Lufthavn
Terminal 2
Kastrup, Danmark

My New Local Meat Heaven – Review: El Che Steakhouse

20 June 2023

One thing I miss most about Argentina is the way they grill meat. It’s not just the quality of the meats, but also the prep. I’ve had a hard time finding places that properly replicate Argentinian grill establishments. Bunch of fakes that thinks putting a thing of chimichurri will trick 90% of their dining audience seems to be the establishments du jour.

I found an especially crappy one in Chicago called Artango and their fake “tira de asado” they jokingly serve. It was not “tira” nor was it “asado” if you can believe it. That almost turned me off exploring, it was that much of a joke.

But I found a place called El Che Steakhouse and it looked fabulous, so I took a chance after work one day earlier this week. A quick bus ride out of The Loop west and I soon arrived. I was nice and early, so took a bar seat in the corner closest to the grill. Ah, this looks proper, so I was satisfied. But we’ll see when the food arrives.

A cocktail in hand as they are having happy hour, so I decided to have some snacks. Drink was strong and good, but having skipped lunch, I decided to switch to wine for my food.

The chorizo was part of the happy hour, and it was delicious.

The morcilla was not, but very much worth it. Extremely tasty. This all gave me confidence about this place so I ordered more wine and my main. I think you can guess what I ordered, as it’s my go-to dish, one where I can really discern the quality of this place.

Yep, tira de asado, and this is actually really tira de asado – unlike how Artango missold their “tira” and “asado” when I went there. And this is nice and thick, even better than the one I had at the fabulous Parilla Peña in Buenos Aires. This is so succulent I almost ordered another!

But I also had these asparagus to keep me honest, so that filled me up nicely. That was very enjoyable, and another to-go place for me if I have meat cravings, especially these amazing short ribs!

I left happy, knowing I will be back. It’s not inconvenient from my office, so it’s yet another safe place for me to enjoy some fine food! Heavily recommended!!!

El Che Steakhouse
845 West Washington Boulevard
Chicago, Illinois

Good, But Almost the Price of a One-Way Ticket to Donostia – Review: Asador Bastian

4 May 2023

I was already in River North in Chicago, after a long work day and running an errand at a nearly phone store, I wanted to have a nice dinner having skipped lunch. I heard about a new Basque-style steakhouse in the area called Asador Bastian, and decided to give it a go.

I took a seat at the bar area. A bit dark, my eyes not adjusting well from the blazing sun outside. But all that was relieved with a very strong martini. I looked over the menu and it looked impressive. Let’s just see how it turns out. I ordered a starter and finished my drink, switching to a much-needed wine before my snack arrived.

Nice jamón ibérico de bellota, although not too thrilled about these extra long slices. Lovely flavour, deep and rich, way better than the mess of an ibérico dish at Washington DC’s Taberna del Alabardero…

Slowly enjoyed this treat…it is a treat, after all. Now I feel pretty good, so it’s time for some meat. I placed an order. Pricey as heck, but hopefully it’s worth it. I relaxed with some wine, chatting with the bartender, before my main dish arrived.

This is the “galiciana” grade beef from the Vintage Beef Company in Australia, cooked medium rare. It was quite delicious, but I will be honest – this don’t match up with the txuleta I had at Brücken in Köln a few years ago. But it was delicious, so that was nice.

A side of piquillos, and this was a good dinner. Although it was big, I took care of this quite easily. As I was finishing my wine, I was talked into a dessert by the bartender.

Gazta-tarta, the burnt Basque cheesecake that I’ve not had for ages. It was a good end to the dinner. Not totally genuine, but it did as well as it could. So I wish you can get good beef from the Iberian peninsula here, but we’ll have to do with the Australian stuff for now.

A healthy pouring of calvados and I was happy. A good chat with some fellow patrons at the bar, I was ready to go. A good, if not expensive, night. Good once in awhile, but all it does is make me miss Europe even more, where you can have a night out like this, if not better, for a third of the price…

Still, very recommended. Excellent crew too.

Asador Bastian
214 West Erie Street
Chicago, Illinois

* Only think that ruined the evening was a brain-dead rideshare driver who made a simple ride so complicated by being extremly unobservant…

Review: Jim’s Steak House

29 October 2021

It’s been a long week, and I decided I needed to treat myself. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in an office all week, so I was tired but hungry — having skipped lunch (like I always do when I worked in an office). I hopped on a city bus downtown and soon arrived at my dinner destination quite early — Jim’s Steak House.

A venerable Peoria institution, I was told it was the best steak in town. We shall see, but the Midwest does now how to do their steaks — except Rockford, Illinois, that is… As it was a busy Friday night, I decided to camp out at the bar and enjoy my feast there.

Very quickly a much-needed martini was in hand and I relaxed… I also snacked on some garlic bread as I was hungry, and drinking on a totally empty stomach isn’t always a good idea.

I eventually looked over the menu, and went with the large rib-eye. There was a larger one that’s bone-in, but I decided against it. I also ordered a nice but simple bottle of chianti. I have noticed that the wine mark-up is remarkably low in this town…

I enjoyed some banter with fellow guests at the bar before my simple salad arrived, and I took care of it before my main course arrived…

Quite excellent cooking, the temperature was perfect. The “cajun” spice also worked very well tonight, giving the quality meat just one touch better. Delicious, and the herby rice worked wonders soaking up the jus from the rich steak. Job well done!

No dessert, nice and full, so I eventually drained the rest of my chianti and had a liquid dessert. In fact that turned into a few, as I enjoyed the excellent musicians performing at the piano for the rest of the night and continued the excellent conversations with other patrons.

I headed out just after midnight and caught the bus (!!) back to my temporary lodgings, having very much enjoyed this much-needed evening. Much have changed in my life, but some things have not, and I’m always glad for a good night out with excellent food in a convivial environment. Perhaps this relocation won’t be so challenging after all…

And now I know where to find a reliably excellent steak — and fun people to enjoy it with.

Jim’s Steak House
110 Southwest Jefferson Avenue
Peoria, Illnois

Imaginary Trip — Day 2: Warsaw (Part 1)

10 April 2020*

So yes, the #imaginarytrip continues. After that wonderful first imaginary day in NYC, I did the red-eye and arrived in beautiful Warsaw the next morning. Despite being drained (and hungover) from a busy first day in NYC, I was happy to be “back” in Europe.

Warsaw is always one of my favourite cities, having visited several dozen times over the last 26 years. Plus, I get to use the Polish I learned in university, and for most of the day here I will happily communicate po polsku. Mam nadzieję, że wciąż pamiętam…

Chopin/Okęcie is so convenient now with the train to Warszawa Centralna, and I zoom into town and head to my hotel two blocks away. So good to be back, to hear the language, to feel the history. But also, to eat. I’m hungry, and I need to have lunch soon on this day 2 of my imaginary trip.

When I am in Warsaw there’s 2 places I often choose for lunch. I have one imaginary day here in town, and for proximity reasons I choose one over the other. So I sadly I will have to leave the excellent Folk Gospoda and their excellent and hearty Polish fare to next time…

For today’s lunch it’s Butchery & Wine, one of the best beef joints in Central Europe. Over the years I’ve come to really appreciate the European steakhouses, especially when they source their beef locally. And one of the joys of eating at Butchery & Wine is you can have excellent Polish beef. But first, a starter, and what a starter…

I love mangalica pork in any case, and this belly is just divine… There is something very special in the flavour of the fat from mangalica pigs. Goes well with the bottle of surprisingly good Polish red I’ve ordered. That’s another thing, Polish wines are starting to get quite good. Then my steak arrives…

I’m not fond of places taking noticeable trims on rib steaks, but the beef quality is so good here that didn’t matter as much as 99% of other places. Lovely quality beef, juicy and flavourful. Local Polish beef is so much better than you imagine, when beef taste like beef and not some industry-contrived idea of what beef tastes like (this is why so many people can’t tell between beef and faux beef these days in North America). So good.

I finish my bottle of wine and enjoy a nice glass of vodka to close and a rare dessert…

What a lovely lunch, easily fuelled me for the rest of the day — which I will need as it’s my only “day” here in Poland on this imaginary trip.

I thank the excellent staff and head out, and smile as I walk next to this lovely display of their inventory… Oh the joy of this excellent beef.

I enjoy a long afternoon walking around beautiful Warsaw, still amazed compared to the first time I visited in 1994. I always feel so comfortable here, and within a few hours my Polish is starting to flow much better again.

Po południu odwiedziłem Muzeum Narodowe. Niestety, ostatnim razem kiedy odwiedziłem, Sala Matejki była zamknięta… But this time, for this imaginary visit, it’s open…

The glorious works by Jan Matejko fully enjoyed, I wander the museum for the remainder of the afternoon. As much as I usually enjoy strolling through cemeteries, I also adore art museums, and this is one of my favourite in the world.

The lighting in the Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie is quite good, as they are keen to ensure as little bad reflection from the oils as possible — something many major museums fail to manage.

It’s easy to get lost in this museum for hours…

Such lovely works by artists such as Piotr Michałowski and Marcin Zaleski…

And of course, they also have a lot of works by another Polish painter whose work I really enjoy, Henryk Siemiradzki.

That was a good afternoon. It’s so good to be back in Warsaw, to spend a day in one of my favourite places in all of the world. Beautiful art, lovely people, excellent food, a true sense of history. What’s not to love about this place?

Then there’s dinner, of course…to be continued!

Butchery & Wine
Żurawia 22
Warszawa, Polska

Review #2: Ward’s House of Prime

9 May 2019

I woke up on this final day of this tiring trip tired, unsurprisingly. It was time to say goodbye to Madison, a city I’ve had a soft spot for many years. I’ll miss this town, especially the always-reliable Forequarter…

With the weather still not very pleasant, I started the crawl east, making a few stops along the way and dipping into northern Illinois. I had to make a stop at Belvidere as I eventually made my way to Waukegan. The sun was coming out, but the oversaturated ground was still a muddy mess…I had to change my shoes at this point…

I headed north and arrived in Milwaukee. My flight was not until dinner time, so I had a few hours to kill. Made a few stops, one of them was for lunch. I headed into the construction-addled downtown and dropped into Ward’s House of Prime — one of the best prime rib joints in the country. I had an excellent meal last time here, and decided to have a nice big lunch, since I probably won’t have the chance to eat anything but a nibble at the airport later.

It was a late hour for lunch, so there were mostly customers finishing up. I ordered my food and chilled out with a glass of wine, knowing it wouldn’t take very long. And voilà, here is my side of mushrooms…

It worked well with the main item, my prime rib…

Just lovely. Nice jus, but the meat was done so well it really didn’t need it. Lovely crust, perfectly delicious meat inside, glorious in its richness.

A beautiful piece of prime rib, so good… So few prime rib places left, so I’m glad to be able to enjoy this treat here. I’m not quite keen on their “monster-sized” prime rib eating things, since I really find that an un-enjoyable way to eat (and taste). It’s like people swallowing oysters…what’s the damn point if you don’t chew and taste it? Anyway, that was delicious, and I had room for a wee dessert…

Sadly the pistachio gelato was a bit pasty, but it did the job alongside the coffee. I thanked my now-somewhat-absent server (I was the last customer so I don’t blame her) and headed out. I’m glad this trip ended with a nice meal, but I’m so ready to head home after all the trials and tribulations this past 8 days or so…

Ward’s House of Prime
540 East Mason Street
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

* OF COURSE those trials and tribulations would continue…courtesy of a quickly-deteriorating Southwest Airlines. Having already flown on a un-mothballed antique 737 (due to the grounding of the dangerous 737-Max) earlier this trip, I was dismayed but not surprised this final flight home was delayed by over 3 hours due to maintenance — and we did not land until after 1am. This trip from hell just had to end on a crap note…

Fail by a Previous Favourite, Part 2: Vito’s Chop House (in Orlando)

30 March 2019

A long and frustrating afternoon of being stuck in traffic doing a loop towards the south-west, I headed back to Orlando and headed to my hotel room — a comped room thanks to a Hilton mishap a few months ago in Miami after that last South America trip.

I relaxed and then eventually strolled a block to Vito’s Chop House. I’ve been to this old-school steakhouse many times over the years, though I’ve never reviewed it since I’ve not been back for many years; I think my first visit was at least 15 years ago. I’ve always had good steak and wine here, and I’m hoping for a good one — so I can forget about that fail last night at previously-good Matthew’s in Jacksonville.

From the onset the service was shaky. My server was friendly but it seems she had tables across the sprawling restaurant and the whole FoH scheme seems utterly confused. I ordered a bottle of wine just to not deal with this mess. I also ordered a rather large meal for myself, as this may be the last time I visit a proper steakhouse in a long, long time…

After a little, I noticed the service was becoming nonexistent, but I’m glad they left the wine on the table so I could pour it myself. Then my “starter” arrived…and it’s bigger than my main I think.

It’s a gigantic Caribbean rock lobster tail. Unfortunately it’s a bit over-broiled, so too much of it burned. It’s never as tasty as cold-weather lobster, but not bad. A shame about the poor cooking tho, rather unlike what I’ve experienced here before…

Then for some reason it took over 40 minutes for my main to come out, and that worried me, since when does a steak take that long to cook? I asked about it and then it appeared…

Sigh, it was definitely nowhere as good as it has been in the past, this rib-eye was ridiculously fibrous and cooked very unevenly. Parts were proper medium-rare, but others were closer to medium-well. And the broccoli side I got was nearly raw. That I told them to take away, and they miraculously brought another one that was fine in 60 seconds. It seems it’s so chaotic they are confusing cooking times for everything.

Very disappointing for a previously always reliable place, and by now my server has totally disappeared. I was out of wine and water. I asked another roving server about it and he didn’t even acknowledge it except for a stink-eye. My server finally returned so I could settle up. I’m not gonna bother with dessert or anything here. Then that earlier roving server came by with a sarcastic, “did your server come by?” This is just piss poor attitude. The FoH director came out to apologise about a few things, but the night is lost.

Aside from having to listen to a few annoying MAGA-type guys on an adjacent table, mocking the hispanic runners, trying not to chuck my wine bottle at them, this was a poor food and service night overall. What again was a safe, reliable place, this time from multiple excellent earlier visits, this was even more disappointing than last night. What is going on with all these reliable places going so far downhill?

Another disappointing night. Maybe it is time to stop eating out…

Vito’s Chop House
8633 International Drive
Orlando, Florida