Gourmet everyday life – Style

He promised and returned

Moscow restaurateurs like to open several restaurants at once. This time the Folk Team of Dmitry Romanov and Veniamin Ivanov distinguished themselves. Just a week ago we told about their new brasserie Anchovy’s club and now another restaurant, this time of Spanish-Portuguese cuisine Padron, has opened its doors on Strastnoy. In a couple of weeks, a bar will open right there. Padron is a real premiere not only because it offers cuisine from Spain and Portugal, which is rare in Moscow, but also because the kitchen is run by an experienced chef, Argentinean Adrian Quetglas, well known from the AQ Kitchen restaurant on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya, which closed last year (he worked in he is 9 years old) and at the Adrian Quetglas restaurant in Mallorca, which has been awarded a Michelin star more than once. Ketglas left Moscow for some time, and has now returned to Padron. In the local kitchen he is accompanied by the brand chef of the Folk Team restaurants, Evgeny Tsyganov.

Rewinding, it’s worth remembering that Quetglas was once one of the first chefs to discover molecular gastronomy for Moscow, but Padron has nothing to do with it. Ketglas seems to know for sure that the Muscovite has had his fill of the “molecular” and now wants understandably tasty food and a varied menu. The restaurant is divided into several zones: a rectangular veranda with floor-to-ceiling windows and figured frames in the style of the most famous Spanish architect Gaudi, a second and main hall with small and one large (for 20 seats) tables and a view of the huge Argentine grill asador on the entire wall, where fish and meat are fried. There are also two wood-burning stoves, the coals in which do not go out even at night: they will be used to cook mainly traditional Spanish paella. Finally, the third room is a bar with a counter reminiscent of the famous Portuguese yellow tram, the vaults are lined with azulejo tiles – uncluttered, unusual, romantic. Now about the kitchen: it has a lot of fish, meat, fresh vegetables and exclusively natural seasonings and sauces. The menu is divided into clear sections. Appetizer of octopus, cut into thin slices, in the form of carpaccio, served in a sauce of fresh tomatoes, olive oil and codium seaweed. Beef tartare with piquillo pepper aioli and salty churros (a Spanish pastry, usually sweet, made from choux pastry). A hot appetizer of rabbit kidneys is prepared in a sherry-based sauce and served with mashed potatoes and celery tartare. The famous Argentinean empanados are prepared exactly according to the original recipe from the right dough.

They come in two types: with lamb and thick port wine sauce and with crab and black cod (you should definitely take it at least for the table). The main course in the fish and seafood section is black cod with large white beans, which are boiled in pil-pil sauce (olive oil, fish broth) with garlic chips. Meat: saddle of lamb with port wine sauce and artichoke puree. The meat is of excellent quality, much of it grilled (dishes from it form a separate section of the menu), dry-aged in a chamber located in the restaurant. For dessert: Basque cheesecake – a round piece that looks like a large cheesecake with Gorgonzola cheese, which adds a spicy kick. Also in the open kitchen, as befits a real Spanish restaurant, there is jamon pork leg, which Adrian skillfully cuts with a long, thin and sharp knife.

High gastronomic dictionary “Kommersant Style”

Umami is considered the fifth (after sweet, salty, sour and bitter) food taste, discovered in 1908 by Tokyo University chemist Kikunae Ikeda. Think about the flavor enhancer glutamate: umami is also an amino acid – a natural glutamate that is found in some foods – soy sauce, mushrooms, dried meat, corn, green peas. Umami is characterized by a long aftertaste, profuse salivation after consumption, and a deep and meaty taste.

The attractiveness of umami is due to the fact that the substances in it activate receptors that recognize the presence of glutamates (taste enhancers) and nucleotides. Some foods do not have an umami taste, but for example, if you boil meat, it will develop an umami taste, and the same thing happens with some foods when they are fermented. At Sangre Fresca, the umami flavor is present in an octopus dish with Mexican rice and corn salsa. It’s seasoned with chicken broth and blended tomatoes, and the umami flavor comes from fermented tomatoes and bonito flakes. Gnocchi with duck, oyster mushrooms and stracciatella from Moro restaurant gets its umami flavor from the 18-month aged Parmesan cheese added to the sauce.

At Miss you cafe, Parmesan is also responsible for the umami taste, but in pumpkin soup with Parmesan mousse. This takes advantage of the potential of a dense Parmesan crust. Pumpkin soup is prepared with the addition of these crusts, which enhance the flavor and complement the simple vegetable base with a deep cheesy “body.” At the B12 restaurant, umami is found in the miso ramen soup with grilled salmon, where it is achieved through miso paste combined with wakame seaweed.

Olga Karpova