Closing the season: what's new in Moscow restaurants this summer
There is an opinion that the restaurant industry goes into a lull in the summer, but this trend does not apply to the main tourist destinations of the country, which, of course, includes Moscow. The restaurateurs of the metropolis continued to delight the guests with gastronomic finds throughout the warm season. The most striking of them can be found in the traditional Izvestia review.
Train your Dragon
In the midst of summer, San Si opened the doors on Petrovka. The two-level establishment with a stylish, moderately oriental design, huge panoramic windows and plenty of air inside positions itself as a restaurant of modern Chinese cuisine. The reservation is more than appropriate. Of course, there are authentic Chinese establishments in Moscow, but they are not visible, and they are mainly aimed at representatives of the diaspora. For a wide audience, something else is objectively required - something more understandable, familiar, and in any case highly adapted. San Si turned out exactly like that.
Dim sum with shrimp
Vasily Zaitsev is responsible for the kitchen, and he has extensive experience working in various pan-Asian projects from Zodiac to Koji. In addition, before the launch, he spent several months in China in order to get in touch with its gastronomic universe as closely as possible.
The menu carefully contains everything that Muscovites usually associate with authentic Chinese cuisine – dim sum, spring rolls, noodles, pork ears, broken cucumbers, duck soup with homemade noodles, gongbao chicken, pork char sue and, of course, Peking duck. Everything is moderately spicy and rather restrained in taste, but with the right textures, original sauces and beautiful serving.
Of course, as expected, there was a place in the menu for a certain number of items that formally remain outside the general concept. For example, there are sashimi and tartars, wasabi shrimp and wagyu samsa, lamb quiche and steamed halibut. This category also includes the entire dessert section, which is simply not available in traditional Chinese cuisine. The sweets here are purely author's, but all are executed in a characteristic "oriental" style, whether it's cold mango sago soup, Three Chocolate puree or mochi with melon.
Eggplant with ginger sauce
In short, San Si is exactly the place that should have appeared on Petrovka.
Across the seas, across the waves, and beyond
Chefs Artem Losev and Vitaly Istomin have prepared the first full-fledged gastronomic set for the Avrora restaurant, the flagship project of the AVA Team, which they opened together with restaurateur Anton Pinsky. The set is named the same as the establishment. Moreover, in the storytelling accompanying the pitch, the name is played out in a variety of ways, referring to the history of the Russian navy, then to voyages around the world, then to romantic legends.
The actual gastronomic narrative, presented in nine "chapters", is divided into two unequal parts — sea and land. The set opens with a textured gougere with halibut bacon and black truffle, continues with a delicate tartlet with crab and tomato jelly, the freshest caesar accompanied by cloudberry sauce, Sakhalin scallop baked in celery with botarga and smoked sturgeon with cauliflower and black caviar.
Goujer with halibut bacon and black truffle
This is the end of the sea part of the Aurora, while the land part is announced with a rather fervent sorbet of spicy pickled tomatoes and pickled cucumber granite. The decision is not indisputable, but it certainly has the right to exist: in any case, such a transition will be remembered for a long time. The sorbet is followed by a stewed beef rib, previously marinated in gorgonzola and garnished with bone marrow in caramel glaze. Along with the celery scallop, this is one of the most notable positions in the set.
The last two serves are given to desserts — honey cake with ryazhenka ice cream and cute birds, small, literally one bite, sweets in the form of sherbet, sponge biscuits, lemon roll, mango marmalade and chocolate truffle.
Honey cake with ryazhenka ice cream
The set turned out to be slim, balanced and not overloaded with ingredients. This is a well-executed, understandable, modern and moderately complex meal. In short, exactly what you enjoy.
New shift
Major changes have taken place in the kitchen of the Relict restaurant. Chef Ilya Romanov left the project, and two people took his place at once. However, for Alexander Likhovodov and Roman Shilov, the situation is quite familiar — until recently they worked as sous chefs in the same institution. The new position, however, requires greater independence. In September, they promise a full-fledged menu update. In the meantime, future prospects can be assessed based on a small seasonal offer.
Cutlet de volyai with chanterelles and Brussels sprouts
The special menu includes a green salad with cherries, elegant cutlets with chanterelles and Brussels sprouts, lightly smoked fillet of omul with spicy sauce and green peas, dumplings with potatoes and crab, and for dessert a tartlet with apple and honeysuckle jelly.
The style is really changing, and overall the food looks more understandable, but it doesn't seem simple at all. It is soundly and confidently executed.
Table Decorations
In July, Roman Chistov, chef of the Beluga restaurant of modern Russian cuisine, presented seasonal novelties, the list of which was opened by his author's interpretation of the traditional Russian peasant cold tyuri soup. In each region, it was prepared a little differently, but in the original version, as a rule, it consisted of bread with onions mixed with kvass, milk or just water. On the menu of one of the most luxurious restaurants in the capital, this dish looks very bold and quite unexpected.
— For me, the prison is a taste of childhood, my grandmother cooked something similar for me in Kostroma, and I wanted to make my own version, inspired by traditions and memories, — says chef Chistov. — For the guests, our prison is a curious new experience and a healthy dish, because it contains a lot of fermented foods.
Kvass-based trout, low-salt trout, fang lard
Homemade tomato kvass, sauerkraut, Borodino bread (soaked in malt with onions) and fragrant sunflower oil are used from traditional ingredients in tyura. Everything else is modern additions, which, however, are also not devoid of connection with history. The soup is served with a milfey of two types of fish – lightly salted trout and fangfish fat, as if referring to the Volga boatmen's chowder, which included pieces of dried fish. Red caviar, young greens and tomato cores assemble the dish into a complete taste and visual structure.
Among the certainly successful examples of experiments with seasonal products, I would like to mention the salmon dish with apricot and carrot in three textures, presented on the menu of the Lark Café restaurant. The head of the kitchen here is chef Yuri Goloperov, whose track record includes work in such vibrant gastronomic projects as Artest and Touche, famous for their fermentation experiments. And this school is clearly felt in the chef's solo career.
"The main task was to add some seasonal local product to the red fish, and my choice fell on apricot, since in the places where I come from, this wonderful fruit grows almost every step of the way in July," recalls chef Goloperov. — Sweetness and fruity sourness balance the fat content and rich taste of salmon, creating a fresh and gastronomic combination reminiscent of red fish tartare with mango.
Salmon with apricot
Before getting on the plate, the salmon is marinated in fresh carrots with the addition of white miso paste. Carrot puree and coconut milk are used as a side dish to the dish. Another important touch is baked carrots with apricot matured in apricot liqueur with cumin and lime zest. The fish is decorated with carrot caviar with the addition of fish garum, in order to give the dish a sea tint.
Among the unusual and rare products for Moscow that appeared this summer, we can safely include the goitre gland, also sometimes referred to as sweet meat or veal milk (it is no longer present in adult bulls). The delicacy was included in the updated summer menu at the Saviv restaurant, which chef Ilya Cherkashin created in the spirit of modern Israeli cuisine based on his internship at the Claro project in Tel Aviv.
—The goitre gland of calves is a rather specific product, which not every professional will take up, it requires a special skill," chef Cherkashin explained to our publication. — We clean it of all streaks, pre-soak it in milk with herbs, and then cook it for two hours at a low temperature using su-kind technology. After that, we divide the meat into pieces, put it on a skewer and fry it in beef fat on coals.
Grilled goitre gland with mustard vinaigrette sauce on floral honey
After heat treatment, the goiter gland is served with seasonal padron peppers and classic French vinaigrette sauce, which, on the one hand, dampens the fat content of the product due to mustard, vinegar and honey, and on the other hand, adds sweetness to the meat.
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