MARIANI’S

  March 27, 2005                                                        NEWSLETTER

                                                                              "The Last Supper" by Leonardo Da Vinci

NEWS UPDATE:  My web site home page is now up and running, in which I will update food & travel information and help link readers to other first-rate travel & food sites. To see it, click on: home page

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Great Resorts: The One and Only Palmilla, Punta Mita, Mexico by John Mariani

NEW YORK CORNER: AQUAVIT by John Mariani

QUICK BYTES

The One & Only Palmilla
by John Mariani

   You might expect to find one of the finest resorts in Mexico way, way down at the reclusive tip of Baja California in Los Cabos, but you don’t expect to find one of the finest exemplars of modern Mexican cuisine there.  Yet this is very much the case at the One & Only Palmilla--not a descriptor I would have chosen, but one that the "One & Only" hotel chain uses for its properties, which include hotel/resorts in the Bahamas, Dubai, and Mauritius.
     The Los Cabos venture, opened a year ago, is an exquisite balance of elegance and casual chic, along with two handsome restaurants of note, the Latino-Mediterranean themed Agua and C, a dining room run by Chicago’s celebrated Charlie Trotter.
     Lying between the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez, built in 1956 by Don Alejandro Rodriguez, the resort was taken over by One & Only and, after a $90 million investment, has become one of Mexico’s most luxurious, with a splendid, long white beach with sufficiently dramatic surf and shimmering pool areas circled by  impressively tanned women, banks of exotic flowers and desert hillsides. In the casita-style rooms of Mexican art, tile, and wrought iron, you have your choice of three different types of bed linens and a butler at your beck and call.
     There are 61 guestrooms, 91 junior suites, and 20 one-bedroom suites, and if you could rent one of the 13 private villas that function as Spa treatment rooms for your stay, you might melt into a nirvana of sweet blossoms and salt air.  I never wanted to leave after a two-hour massage. In the casita-style rooms of Mexican art, tile, and wrought iron, you have your choice of three different types of bed linens and a butler at your beck and call.
     There is a signature Jack Nicholson golf course here, an executive conference center, and deep sea fishing, snorkeling and whale watching are but yards from your room.  A library and business area allows free access to the Internet, or you could just sit in the sun away from everyone else and think hard about what form of margarita you will have next.
     The two equi-distant towns Los Cabos--San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas—are quite different: the former mainly a strip of good local boutiques, bars, and tacquerias, the latter a good deal closer to the nightlife of Cancun, Fort Lauderdale or South Beach, traffic, neon and noise included. I fear that fast growth in this area will soon blanket the hillsides with homes and condos, something already in progress, but for the moment, O&O Palmilla is relative secure from such development.
    Back at the resort all is bliss.  Indeed, the service demonstrates the gentleness of people with an innate sense of courtesy and caring.  Every staff member greets you and bids you good-bye with a smile, while holding a hand over his or her heart--a lovely gesture that speaks volumes about the details that go to make Palmilla unique. And everyone speaks English with remarkable facility.
    Dining here sets a high standard for any similarly fashioned resort in the future, especially at Agua (below) , an alfresco, Adam Tihany-designed dining area (which can be enclosed in poor weather) adjacent to the pool area, beneath a massive, very beautiful beamed, thatched roof.  The bar (left) and walls are faced with Mondrian-like lighting, Moroccan lanterns, the floor is a beautiful terra-cotta tile, and the tables are of polished wood, set with excellent wineglasses, all the better to accompany an exceptionally rich wine list whose exemplary Mexican bottlings form 60% of the selections.

     Here chef Larbi Darouch is from Morocco, which explains his service of a wonderful tall ceramic tagine of escolar sea bass with sunchokes, but he has   fashioned a superb modern "Mex-iterranean" cuisine that may begin with a flight of three tequilas and canapés, then move on to a marvelously sweet fresh corn soup with morsels of Baja lobster and a huitlacoche foam.  Then perhaps a carpaccio of artichokes with shaved Parmigiano, and thick, juicy, well-fatted pork chop in the Mexican “pibil” style, with crisp skin, with an achiote sauce. There is sautéed foie gras with blue corn polenta and a reduction of red wine, and duck breast is dusted with cinnamon then seared rare and served with couscous, pearl onions, and golden raisins.  You may end off with cajeta crème brûlée and Mexican peanut brittle called palanqueta.  In my experience, the food at Aqua achieves a perfect balance of Mexican and Mediterranean traditions bound by a modern culinary sensibility with grace and great color. This place is a treasure and a hallmark for Latino-inspired cuisine everywhere else.
     C is a more sedate interior restaurant—one of designer Tihany’s finest rooms, with glass-enclosed wine cellars, bell-like silver lamps, and very fine glass artwork on each table.  Trotter installed his longtime chef de cuisine from Chicago, Guillermo Tellez, in the kitchen, but  I found the cooking a bit precious for this laid-back atmosphere.
    At the end of either meal you are likely to indulge in a Cognac or perhaps an aged añejo tequila and count stars as bright as a lighthouse beacon buoy up a lazy moon the color of Mexican silver.
 

The One & Only Palmilla can be reached toll-free from the U.S. at 866-829-2977; outside the U.S. by calling 954-809-2726.

NEW YORK CORNER
by John Mariani

AQUAVIT
65 East 55th Street
212-307-7311
www.aquavitrestaurant.com

     When the original Aquavit opened in 1987, set in a spectacular West 54th Street townhouse once belonging to Nelson Rockefeller, it had far more than grand design to bolster its appeal.  It was the first restaurant in decades to showcase a highly refined form of modern Scandinavian cuisine, first under Chef Christor Larssen, then Jan Sendel, then Marcus Samuelsson, who not only established himself as one of the most creative chefs in America but also was, and is, the only Ethiopian adopted by Swedish parents to become a world-renowned master cuisinier.
       Samuelsson's tenure, with owner Hakan Swann, was based on a consistently evolving cuisine that featured the best seafood cooked--or more often than not, not cooked--in wondrous combinations with herbs and spices.  The menu was full of fragile, silky textures and carefully modulated strong flavors with lustrous seafood and game.  Yet Aquavit's food never strayed into the kind of culinary experimentation that bolstered the chef's ego rather than his reputation.  It was always stunning, always beautiful, and always set within one of the grandest, airiest designs in restaurant history.
        But then a new landlord entered the picture, tried to up the rent exorbitantly, and Swann  and Samuelsson made plans to move.  (A Minneapolis branch of Aquavit closed last year.) Along the way, Samuelsson has become involved with consultancies and management contracts that have kept him out of Aquavit's kitchen, but I thought sure he would be back behind the stoves at the new Aquavit when it opened two months ago.  Apparently, according to staff I spoke with at the new restaurant, that has not been the case; chef de cuisine Nils Noren, a young Swede who has been with Aquavit for some years now, has taken over the apron strings, although it's quite clear Samuelsson's mark is all over the menu.
       There was no way that the new Aquavit could have attempted to reproduce or even echo the old premises, but they've done a splendid job with most of the decor, largely done by Scandinavian designers, furniture makers, and goldsmiths, in this large new version.  The most wonderful part of the design is the bar, (above) located past a shadowy café and a hallway that opens into a glow of light and clean lines. Swiveling leather chairs by Arne Jacobson, burnished wood, an undulating ceiling, and imaginative floral displays give this space a height and depth that has pure sophistication written all over it.  And Aquavit is a very sophisticated, very cosmopolitan restaurant.  It is also very expensive.
     I am not quite so bowled over by the main dining room, which is rather spare and looks to me rather like a first-class lounge for SAS Airlines circa 1965.  That is not a bad thing, but I find it somewhat lacking in warmth and soul.  The only note of real color is a curious painting of mother and child on one wall that doesn't quite seem to jibe with the austerity of the rest of the room, but I'm happy it's there.
      The menu at the café is extensive, ranging from a herring sampler and an old Scandinavian dish of potatoes and onions called "Jansson's temptation" to roast cod with mussel sauce and gravlax sandwiches with espresso mustard, ranging from $5-$32, with a smörgåsbord assortment at $19.
      In the main dining room the three-course fixed price dinner is $75, with many selections.  Among the appetizers I enjoyed excellent seared squab with Asian pear, jicama, coconut cream and Port wine with a basil reduction, which might well have made a very fine entree. A salmon plate was composed of the finest, silkiest wild salmon imaginable, presented as seared gravlax, and spiced and smoked, with espresso mustard sauce and goat's cheese ice cream, a highly questionable mixture that really worked marvelously well.  The delicacy of Taylor bay scallops was somewhat compromised by the assertive flavor of caviar and a mango-mustard sorbet, to which a lily bulb salad and celery-yuzu juice added little.  Lobster roll with apples, trout roe, bacon and egg dressing sounded delightful, but it was a goopy dish, soft and unappealing to eat in that form.
      Main courses became more problematic, for Chef Noren seems to be pushing as far to the edge of modern gastronomy as he can, not into the extremes of trying to fool the palate but sometimes blurring flavors on the plate.  Sautéed skate was good, simply served with chorizo, Napa sauerkraut, broccoli purée, and a potato aïoli sauce.  Spice-rubbed venison loin with fennel, caramelized ginger, star anise broth and apple celery root purée was at least  two ingredients too much, though the venison itself was first rate.  Rare seared tuna and scallops with a bean ragoût, white anchovy-spinach purée, orange foam (silly) and trumpet royale mushroom was a mess, with none of the ingredients coalescing and most distressing the subtlety of the tuna. Poached lamb loin may not be the best idea in the world, but the mushroom ragout, smoked lamb's tongue, mint jus and rutabaga purée worked.  The problem with this dish in particular, and the other dishes in general, was that the portion was so small--four or five slender strips of lamb amounting to what seemed no more than about three ounces of meat.
     Desserts were curiously enough much simpler--an "Arctic Circle" of goat's cheese parfait with blueberry sorbet and passion curd, and a hazelnut ice cream sandwich with caramelized sweet potato, citrus salad and a pinch of fresh thyme--all quite lovely and a good ending for the meal.
      This is highly evolved cuisine, though I can't say a look back on my evening at Aquavit with enormous pleasure.  Some of the concepts were far too iffy or just plain silly, and none of the dishes would I be dying to have again.  If I want simpler Scandinavian food I shall return to the cafe, but I'm not at all sure that I'm again ready for  a dish like rare seared tuna and scallops with a bean ragout, white anchovy-spinach puree, orange foam and trumpet royale mushroom.  Simpler usually is better, especially in cuisine.
       There is a tasting menu of 7 courses at $100, and longer one at $125 of bites and morsels,  and a vegetarian tasting menu at $90. The wine list at Aquavit is long, well selected but very top heavy in very expensive bottlings.

FOR THOSE SPECIAL TIMES WHEN YOU, LIKE,  REALLY GET THE MUNCHIES, MAN

Cheba restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, now lists on its menu sandwiches named after types of marijuana, including Acapulco Gold, White Widow, Northern Lights, Thai Stick, and Shwag.

MOST INTRIGUING OPENING PARAGRAPH OF A TRAVEL ARTICLE FOR  2005, SO FAR

"Cameron Diaz is skittering down a hallway at three in the morning, banging on doors.  Ms. Diaz's state of mental clarity may never be known.  But there were certainly some powerful beverages being consumed yesterday at the dinner table where the Hollywood blonde famous for dancing around on-screen in a pair of Underoos was celebrating the completion of an MTV tour with a crew filming a wildlife reality show set in Bhutan."--Guy Trebay, "A World Away," Travel & Leisure (February 2005).

 I will be hosting a very special and, I think unique, cruise event this summer from June 4-16 on the  S. S. Crystal Serenity.  I have chosen some of my favorite places in the whole world to visit and dine at, including Alain Ducasse’s illustrious three-star Louis XV restaurant in Monaco, and the enchanting Don Alfonso on the Amalfi Coast.  You will be treated to the finest these and other dedicated restaurateurs have to offer in their unique way.     I will be telling you everything worth knowing about the food and wines of the regions we visit—Dubrovnik, Barcelona, Monaco, Florence, St. Tropez, Sorrento, and Rome—including the best places to find haute cuisine to the most charming trattoria or the liveliest bistros and cafes.    
     My wife Galina, co-author with me of The Italian American Cookbook (which we’ll sign copies of), will also be giving an exclusive cooking lesson onboard I know you will enjoy.
    Between relaxing and enjoying yourselves onboard and coming with us to the loveliest sites and restaurants in the Mediterranean, you will have a unique and memorable trip and, I hope, become as familiar with these glorious places, cultures, and people as I am.     Galina and I look forward to seeing you onboard in June!    For details, go to http://www.festivalsafloat.com/html/mariani/letter.html
-- John Mariani
  

MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly.  Editor/Publisher: John Mariani. Contributing Writers: Robert Mariani,  Naomi  Kooker, Kirsten Skogerson,  Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein, Lucy Gordan, Suzanne Wright. Contributing Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery,  Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.

 John Mariani is a columnist for Esquire, Wine Spectator, Diversion and the Harper Collection. He is author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink (Lebhar-Friedman), The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink (Broadway), and, with his wife Galina, the award-winning new Italian-American Cookbook (Harvard Common Press).

copyright John Mariani 2005