Dinner at Sarti, Glasgow

Well, I was meant to write this blog last weekend but I have not got around to do so till today. I think it's too late to refer this as Valentine Dinner, especially all restaurants have now moved on and start promoting Mothers' Day menus, so I just call it Dinner at Sarti but it was not just a dinner, it was fabulous as always.

Originally we were not thinking about going out for dinner on Valentine's Day until a week before that we found out what would be in their Valentine's Day menu.  Grilled swordfish was on the menu.  I normally do not like fatty or oily fish but I do like grilled swordfish. It reminds me of Italy too as that was where I first tasted it grilled with herbs and lemon sauce. You hear about health and ecological concerns about this fish (e.g. mercury level and sustainability).  But... you don't get swordfish on a menu that often and that was another thing that got me - I had to have this.  So we booked a table on Valentine's Day.

We like dry, refreshing white wine, so with Sarti's recommendation, we tried Tufflolo Cortese from Piemonte in Gavi. The description on the label mentions delicate hint of lemon and perfect with fish. That sounded great. I ordered pan seared scallop for starter and grilled swordfish so it would go very well with them.

As we left it too late to book our table, out reservation was for 5pm, yet the restaurant was already busy with valentine diners. That was however fine with us as we were enjoying this refreshing wine whilst snacking Sarti's delicious focaccia.

Our first courses arrived. Mine was Capesante dell'Amore which is pan seared scallops served in the shell in white wine and garlic with wilted spinach. I am not usually a big fan of scallops however I really enjoyed this starter - I thought scallops were cooked perfectly and could tastes its lovely sweetness.

My husband had Risottino Cupido which is creamy Arborio risotto with artichoke and toasted pine nuts. He likes artichoke. I tried this risotto and liked the addition of pine nuts. The portion size was really generous too.

Very rarely I cook risotto at home and thought I have done a very good job of it till I come to Sarti, try their risotto and realise the big difference in the level of al dante or the existence of 'bite' and creaminess in their risotto rice in comparison to mine.  Maybe I should cook risotto more often at home to perfect it. Practice makes perfect, you know.  That also means, literally, slaving over a hot oven, keep stirring and adding ladleful of stock little by little....  this is a lot of ask for me being a lazy cook if I have to do this frequently.
I think I am quite happy to come to Sarti to have their perfect risotto instead....

We then move on to the main course - the arrival of my long anticipated Pesce Spada Dolce Amaro which is grilled swordfish with lemon sauce served with radicchio and baby potatoes.  Here, radicchio was served grilled. It has a bitter and a bit spicy taste but I thought it goes very well with the grilled swordfish with lemon and herb sauce.  I never tried radicchio before till that night. I have seen Giorgio Lcatelli cooked radicchio and red wine risotto on a TV cooking programme many years ago (http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/512129) and always wanted to try this vegetable.  Well, maybe I shall practice making risotto using his recipe - it uses risotto rice, radicchio and red wine. It sounds rather apt to choose this recipe if I were to slave myself over a hot oven.  After all, the recipe uses 250ml of red wine! It would be much enjoyable too....

My husband had Linguine Degl' Innamorati which is linguine in a white wine and garlic sauce with pan fried red mullet.  Red mullet is a delicate and beautiful fish. Very generous portion of two fillets of this beautiful fish were served on top of tasty linguine.

What I liked about Sarti's Valentine menu was that they had swordfish and red mullet which you don't often see in a menu at many restaurants.  You often get salmon, sea bass, monkfish or even lobster. Because we don't eat meat, sometimes selections could be limited so it was a welcome change for us.

We really enjoyed our starters and mains and moved on to desserts.

I wanted to have something refreshing so I opted for Sgroppino, pronounced 'score-pee-noe' which is a hybrid of cocktail and dessert often served after meals in Venice, made with lemon sorbet and prosecco. According to internet, the name came from a word meaning 'untie a little knot' referring to the state of one's stomach after a large meal and relaxing it.  It was really refreshing.

I have just realised, having written thus far, everything I have consumed had lemon, even in the wine! Suddenly I feel healthy and don't feel too bad about my over indulgence. (Hope I can still fit myself into the mother-of-bride dress that I have recently purchased for Emily and Craig's wedding.... diet from tomorrow ...???)

My husband had Formaggio di Cleopatra, traditional Italian cheese platter with biscuits and honey.  I forgot to ask them what kind of cheese they were, sorry.... but we did notice there was a big drop of balsamic vinegar in the honey.  That was interesting. It never occurred to me to do that so we may try this at home.

After that we had coffees to finish off our wonderful meal.

The restaurant gave us lovely and chilled limoncello as digestive. Lemon theme continued. I feel not only 'healthy' but also 'happy', thinking about all these wonderful foods we managed to consume that night.  Definitely diet tomorrow ... oh no, I can't as we are meant to go for an afternoon tea tomorrow afternoon, so diet after this weekend.... maybe....

As we were leaving, I also received a lovely single rose to go home with. What a lovely gesture!

Well, we have had a lovely dinner at Sarti, as always. Everyone works there is really friendly and very attentive no matter how busy they are and food is always fantastic. And we really enjoy varieties of choices we have in menus on special occasions and advice on wine selections to go with it.  Eating dinner at Sarti is not just about eating food for the sake of it, it's a lovely dining experience as a whole. That's why we keep going back to Sarti.  This means that I can never go on diet.... I hope I can fit myself into the dress for the wedding or squeeze myself into it with a little help of spanx if I have to....

That's all forks!

You gotta eat Sushi in Japan

I know it's rather cliche but when you are in Japan, you gotta eat Sushi. You can buy sushi from everywhere now, even from Tesco, Boots, M&S or Costco. I have even seen meat sushi, hah???
But once you go to Japan and try Sushi, you would know the real difference.

Sushi literally means sour-tasting as it originally started as a fermented rice and fish, adding vinegar for preservation. Sushi we know now (i.e. not fermented) was originated in late 18c to 19c in Tokyo (or known as Edo in those days), using freshly caught fish in Tokyo Bay (or Edo Bay). Wasabi is often smeared between the rice and a slice of raw fish to reduce the risk of food poisoning and light pinkish coloured sweet picked ginger, called gari, is eaten between sushi courses for cleansing palate and aiding digestion. You can eat sushi with fingers.

Eating sushi used to be a very special and expensive dining experience until conveyor belt sushi (kaitenzushi) gain popularity in 1970, making sushi inexpensive and more accessible to family dining.  According to wikipedia, the inventor of convener belt sushi had problems staffing his small sushi restaurant and had difficulties managing the restaurant by himself. Having watched beer bottles on a conveyor belt in an Asahi brewery, he designed and developed the first conveyor belt sushi in Osaka in 1958.

We went to Ganko-zushi, one of those conveyor belt sushi restaurant chains in Osaka for a quick lunch. Typical sushi plate (with 2 pieces of sushi) costs around £1.00 - 3.00 (based on exchange rate of approximately £1 = 180 or 185 yen last year). We ate reasonable quantity of sushi between 5 of us and came only about 6,000 yen, which was equivalent to approximately £35! Wow, definitely good value for money!

Window displays of what they serve.

We were seated by the rotating conveyor belt with good selections of sushi.  The restaurant was busy enough so turnover of sushi was good and you could still get almost freshly made sushi. Sushi chefs are constantly making sushi to add to conveyor belt, which is a good sign.

We love Anago (grilled eel with tasty sauce) so we ordered those to start with. By the way, you can get water or green tea for free, unlike some conveyor belt restaurants in UK who charge for a glass of water off the tap!

We also had tuna. This one was 180 yen which was about £1.00!!!

This one below is called gun-kan (literally meaning army ship) filled with sushi rice and tuna and grated mountain potato on top encased with seaweed.  This one was freshly made. If you can't find sushi on the conveyor belt or want fresh one, you can ask sushi chef to make one fresh for you.

You can also order miso soup with clams.

In the meantime, varieties of sushi keeps coming around. I see salmon sushi is approaching .....

I asked sushi chef to make me "aji" sushi or jack mackerel. This comes with grated ginger and chopped spring onion on top. This was yummy, especially sushi rice was hand-held warm.

Emily and Maria tried crab gratin and loved it. It had lots of crab meat inside!

We tried different types of sushi between us.

I think we had enough.....

It did not break our bank, in fact it was Emily and Maria's treat!  Even better!

As we were leaving the restaurant, more people kept coming in and chefs were busily preparing more sushi.

At home, you can also order sushi from nearby sushi shop to be delivered to your home (the one in the front).  Yellow ones are tamagozushi (egg), white ones are ika (squid), orange ones are sake (salmon), red ones are magiro (tuna), light pink ones are hamachi (Japanese amberjack) and silver one is saba (mackerel).

The ones in the back, brown sushi, are called "inarizushi", a pouch of fried tofu filled with sushi rice. It is named after the Shinto God Inari who is believed to have a fondness for fried tofu. The ones surrounding inarizushi are makizushi or rolled sushi wrapped in seaweed. These all home made by my mother.

The one in the middle is typical county-side food with tofu, fried tofu, cooked vegetables such as mountain potatoes, carrots, roots vegetables and also some local red akagai (surf clam).  These preserve well and are often eaten during year end or new year when shops are closed for holiday as they live in a small town in country side (although shops are not necessarily closed in a big city like Osaka or Tokyo anymore ....)

Huge sushi mug I bought for my husband for souvenir at Kansai International Airport

Sushi fridge magnet I bought at a Japanese department store.

Wow, talking about sushi makes me wanting to eat sushi in Japan. We just need to go back to Osaka again very soon.....

That's all forks!

Little Cafe near Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery in Glasgow

Having had a fab lunch at Ox and Finch (this is a follow up from my previous blog), Emily and I went to visit Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery for a bit of culture in the afternoon.

We walked back Sauchiehall Street, passing the snow-covered bowling green with University of Glasgow and the Museum and Art Gallery in the background. What a beautiful afternoon it was. When the food (at Ox and Finch) was so good, it did make us feel so good too.

Glasgow University (right) and Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery (left)

As we were walking toward the Museum, we discussed what we actually wanted to see at the Museum for a bit of culture. We both said, "Those floating heads!" We were actually talking about a series of white heads, suspended from the ceiling in the area dedicated to Expression, depicting a number of human facial expressions as we just wanted to take photos.  Emily declared, "I want to see the big elephant too!"

Floating heads and elephant, sounds like a great plan, maybe not much of a culture but off we went.

Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery

When we arrived, we also learned they were having an exhibition of Scottish writer Alistair Gray's art work. Ok, since we are here, why not see that too for a bit of culture.

We went through the South entrance to enter the building. As soon as we were inside, we saw the massive pipe organ by Lewis & Co, the centrepiece of the central hall. Unfortunately we had just missed the pipe organ mini concert at 1pm. 

Our plan was to cover the whole ground floor exhibition first before we search for Floating Heads, however as soon as we had a glance of them, we went the area straight away for lots of photo opportunities. 

The lighting from ground below, changing colours from purple to pink to white to yellow, giving an interest effects on floating heads and the ceiling above, whilst contrasting the traditional displays below against contemporary floating heads above. Very interesting ....

We then went upstairs, enjoyed the changes of colours of floating heads and their surrounding ambience. And more photos from the upper level.

I posted this on Instagram for my sister in Japan to see.
She did not like it.... I think she thought they were eerie...

We spent far too much on taking photos of these floating heads and almost forgot to see Salvador Dali's surrealist religious masterpiece Christ of Saint John of the Cross.

We then went downstairs to see the Museum's popular resident, Sir Roger, the life-size elephant that Emily wanted to see.  I asked Emily if she wanted her picture taken with him but she said no.

We then went down to the lower level floor to see Alistair Gray's artwork. The exhibition will run until 22 February 2015 and is £5.00 for entry.  We did not know much about him or his art work so it was interesting and it was a bit of culture for us indeed.

After this, it was time for a nice cup of tea or coffee. Unfortunately museum's cafe downstairs was too full with people cueing to get in, so we decided to go outside. As we were leaving, we saw Elvis.

"Thank you very much for visiting!"

We crossed the road and found this cafe named Little Cafe at 1361 Argyle Street, Glasgow G3 8AF.

On the window, it says Suki Tea - Proper Tea Sold Here!  Yes, I shall try that.

We asked the staff what flavours they got. He explained the list of flavours they got and let us smell some of leaves to help us choose. Emily decided to try apple and mint whilst I chose green tea with ginseng.  Emily also ordered a slice of Salted Chocolate Brownie, which turned out to be a really yummy and chewing delicious dessert.

My green tea with ginseng was really refreshing, soothing and relaxing.

Green tea with gingseng 

Emly's apple and mint tea smelt really delicious. She really enjoyed this tea so much she has just ordered some on-line through Amazon.

Having checked some reviews on Tripadvisor, they have quite good reviews, apparently their home-made pizza is very good.  The service at the cafe was also good and friendly too.

Well, we really had a great day in Glasgow - we had a fantastic lunch at Ox and Finch, an interesting afternoon with a bit of culture at Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery, and then a lovely Suki Tea at Little Cafe.  We were then off to a Chinese supermarket to buy some Japanese food for dinner as we were thinking about having Okonomi-Yaki (see my earlier blog about Okonomi-yaki in Osaka!). 

Always thinking about foods, of course!

That's all forks!

Ox and Finch in Glasgow

Emily and I have just has a mother and daughter day out yesterday in West End of Glasgow.

Our plan was to go for a lunch, visit Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallerty for a bit of culture and then go to Chinese supermarket to buy some Japanese ingredients for dinner.

We had different options to go for lunch and eventually decided to try Ox and Finch (http://www.oxandfinch.com) at 920 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G3 7TF.  I first heard of this place from having read the review by Marina O'Loughlin on The Guardian last October (http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/17/ox-and-finch-glasgow-restaurant-review-marina-oloughlin) and have been intrigued about this place but not have got around to try this place until now. Because of its name, Ox and Finch, I thought this must be more meat-focused place but actually it is not necessarily so. This place caters for all taste, they even have a separate vegetarian menu too. There are so many tapas places nowadays and you feel like you are getting the same kind of food everywhere, so just think of a bit up-market tapas place with comtemporary feel, a sort of place you could imagine the West End of Glasgow would have.

It's not cheap (if you think of the concept of tapas for sharing) but the food is fantastic, everything taste fresh with great ingredients. We love this place. We can't wait to go back to this place again and it's not often we say things like this about a restaurant.

We checked the reviews on Tripadvisor beforehand. Everyone is giving great reviews. I did not want to raise my expectation too high as I often get disappointed by it. We did not book tables and were not sure if we could even get it. The place opens at noon so we tried to be there around that time, hoping that we could get seated. We parked just outside of Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery. We were lucky to get perfect parking space on Kelvin Way and walked for a few blocks on Sauchiehall Street toward the city centre direction. And here it is, sitting at the corner, we found Ox and Finch.

It did not look too busy so we went in. We were told that no tables were available for another an hour or two but the manager came up and asked if we would not mind sitting at counter tables. Of course not, we don't want to miss this chance. Actually it's not a bad place at all to sit as we could see the kitchen and chefs are in action, and on my left was the wall full of wines, great!

The waiting staff came over with menus and suggested that we try 2 - 3 dishes per person. 

We checked the menu and decided to try four dishes of Buffalo Mozzarella, Fig, Mint and Eight-year-aged Balsamic from the vegetarian menu, Crab and Crayfish with Chilli, Mango and Glass Noodle Salad,  Sea Bream, Shredded Thai Salad, Chilli and Peanuts and Salt and Pepper Squid, Blood Orange, Chilli and Saffron Aioli.  

We also ordered Sourdough Bread with Extra Virgin Olive Oil dipping to nibble whilst waiting for the dishes to arrive.  The bread was really lovely and soft and E.V.O.O. was really good too.

As Emily was driving, I could also order a small glass of sauvignon blanc to go with dishes, hee hee hee. 

We were quite lucky as the place was not too busy yet and our orders arrived one by one but fairly quickly so we did not wait too long.

First arrived was crab and crayfish salad.  This was our favourite. It was really tasty, really refreshing. We tried to dissect what was in this salad so that we could recreate this at home. There are obviously crab meat, crayfish, roasted chopped peanuts, glass noodles (or Vermicelli Noodles?), chopped spring onion, bean sprouts, red and orange peppers, carrots, chilli, fish sauce and lime and coriander.  That's all we figured out so far. Emily thought there might be some lemonglass too. 

Crab and Crayfish with Glass Noodles - really really yummy!

Next arrived was Mozzarella with grilled figs and 8 year aged balsamic vinegar. We never tried figs before so we were delighted to try this. Mozzarella was really soft and almost melt in your mouth and figs were really tasty too.  8 year aged balsamic vinegar .... wow, it sounds delectable already even if we could not tell the difference between 8 year aged one and M&S's one.

Salt and peppered squid and sea bream followed.  To be honest, I did not find salt and peppered squid was particularly special although it was still a good dish - personally I would like to have more blood orange segments.

Sea Bream was really good too, with Thai peanuts salad.

We enjoyed everything. Our favourite is Crab and Crayfish Glass Noodle salad. 

 Just as well we only ordered four dishes to share between us (and sourdough bread). We managed to scoff everything except one bit of fried squid tentacles. By that time we were too full to try desserts.  Well, we just need to come back again to try them next time.

We then ordered coffees to finish off our meal. My macchiatto was excellent.

Whilst having coffees, us 'ladies do lunches'  also posted some picture from this restaurant on Instagram.  We decided to go to Kelvingrove Museum for a bit of culture after this and thought of having some tea with desserts later on.  Emily treated me for this lovely lunch. Thank you very much, Emily. It was really really fab!  We would love to go back but next time we need to make sure we book in advance. Whilst we were eating, quite a many people came and could not get in.  We were really lucky that we could get in. I have just found out on the web that this is a restaurant by Jonathan MacDonald who was a former head chef with the McLaren formula one racing team and apparently you would need to book a month in advance if you want to eat there on a Saturday night! Wow, I can't wait that long, I want to eat it there now!

Feeling great about having managed to get in and tried lovely dishes, we felt really good for the rest of the day.  If I get a terrible food at a restaurant, I feel as if my whole day is ruined. Emily laughs about this statement but it's true.

It was a fabulaous dining experience. We also had a fabulous time at Kelvingrove Museum too, which I shall talk about another day.

That's all forks!