Page 18 – La Muse Blue

Find your inner balance at Villa La Coste in Provence

In the countryside north of Aix, the abstract palette of Cézanne finds its contemporary expression in the stellar art park of Château La Coste. The grandest names of contemporary architecture and art convene liberally on the property where the owner offered generously a carte blanche for creativity.

Inserted into the rolling curves of the vines is also the ‘Palace’ designated Villa La Coste. A bright hotel chiselled into a hillside nesting an eco spa and a gastronomic restaurant. From the vineyards converted into biodynamic through the organic “potager” of the chefs to “clean” cosmetics, here the contemporary toxic lifestyle gets a break in this nest of eco pampering for the body and the urban mind. Now, in spring is the best time to stay, but fall’s calming hues are pleasant too. I have been three times and will come back again, for the art commissions by the Irish owner, a generous and ambitious patron, keep sprouting.

Shaded from the summer’s solar inferno, dug into a pine and oak forested ridge, the contemporary art cum architecture project lights sustainability as its mission and the wise step into the future. Bathe in the forest as the Japanese do (Shinrin Yoku), meditate on Tadao Ando‘s chairs, reflect on the pebble-paved pool surrounding his art centre and contemplate light at Ando’s modernist (a remake of a 16th-century chapel) tribute to Henri Matisse’s Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence. The chapel overlooks organic vineyards and gently flowing hills of Luberon. Behind the closed doors where a play with light awaits your wonder, still I was even more intrigued by the foursome tree spiking up in its yard. The Provencal spring scent of rosemary guided me further into the forest paths. Introspection while feeling the connection with nature, even the universe, organically weave into your mindset. There is another chapel down in the gardens, the crystal-clad walls contrast with the plant wall exterior in a striking balance of opposites.

Beauty, balance, nature

Balance also permeates some of the art installed at Château La Coste. The vast property is covered with vines, olive groves, art, contemporary architecture under its greatest names and a hillside forest that ushers you into the guest Villa. A Brazilian artist Tunga raised a sculptural allegory titled “Psicopompo” (2011). A trio of steel, Chinese magnet, Bohemian crystal and Peruvian quartz named after a mythical Greek scale used to measure a man’s soul. Timeless art.

Less naturalist, the grandson of one of the greatest French painters of the past century, Paul Matisse installed his mechanised “Meditation Bell”. Its deep sound vibration echoes in a creek paved with lanterns. Lit at night for a contemplative stroll, it sparks those after-hours reserved to the hotel’s guests.

The 28-suites and studios housing Villa La Coste make for the most luxurious accommodation in the entire Provence. You would have to travel to the Mediterranean coast to find anything comparable (like La Reserve de Ramatuelle). The most contemporary amenities were designed by the French Tangram and Hong Kong–based architect André Fu, complete with inserts like the glass and steel table by Jean Nouvel. Fu also created the airy bar, a cosy, with art, design, travel and classic literature books filled library, and the elemental spa. Light enters every inch of the Villa La Coste. An outdoor heated pool for leisurely dips, and lounging on the sun in the gardens by the restaurant keep the guests relaxed.

Spa time at Villa La Coste

The organic spa concept of east-meets-local ingredients was mastered by Aman‘s former spa director Greg Payne (London’s Connaught) embraces Provence into the spacious holistic escape. Organic oils, natural salts, grains, seeds in customised scrubs, scented muds tinted by natural pigments, and cosmetics by the British brand Ilá to pamper your face welcome all seeking rejuvenation and rest.
Across two floors, about a dozen of treatment rooms include one couples and a solo vaulted hamam for the scrubs and floating mud wraps. Inside the Villa La Coste spa you feel a monastic sense of harmony. Enveloped in a relaxing mud wrap on the zero-gravity flotation bed, the treatment eased my sore muscles and the mind. My query about the sound crystal bowl displayed at the spa lobby, vibrated an extra meditative touch into my zen cure. After showering it off, the therapist spread a nourishing butter all over my body so the skin-drying mud was balanced to perfection.

For anytime release, a coed dry sauna and a steam room invite all guests to pleasant heat therapy.
Veiled in a blanc muslin enveloping the lounge chairs, we sipped on organic tea and a late-afternoon tisane another day post-treatment prepared by our therapists. Water bottles accompany your every step all around the property, in-room they are included in your rate to keep you hydrated and plump.

Sustainable art born of luxury

Villa La Coste is an oenophile dreamscape of the Irish real estate magnate Paddy McKillen. With his former stakes in London’s top tier hotels (Claridges, The Berkeley and The Connaught) he was not a newcomer into the luxury accommodation sector. Nevertheless, here in Provence, the vineyards are the centrepiece around which all the artworks manifest. Back to nature in a sustainable business model is the halo for the future. Tadao Ando’s PAVILLON “FOUR CUBES TO CONTEMPLATE OUR ENVIRONMENT” massively illustrate the damaging vanities of our society. As if underlining the importance of climate, most of the artworks are exposed to the natural elements – frost, heat, wind, rain – collaborate on the evolution of each installation. The unfinished art, the change will draw you back.

The art park in the vineyards, olive groves, and rosemary patches surrounded by chestnut and oak forests is a work in progress anyway. The world’s most astute artists are invited to propose their vision. Some succeed in having their oeuvre realised, others may wait for years before their sketch is brought to form, some will not leave their mark on the estate. For me the most naturalistic and meditative is the damp cave of darkness-invites-light “Oak Room” (2009) by British artist Andy Goldsworthy. Weaved inside the estate’s ancient Roman walls, untreated salvaged oak wood from Burgundy was used as the organic material in this minimal waste artwork. Previous yoga retreats at Villa La Coste used it for a morning practice, but I cannot imagine keeping my limbs aligned and still inside this cold cellar.

Château La Coste is a truly international project of the greatest creative minds. The French landscapist Louis Benech (Tuileries gardens in Paris) created the orderly organic gardens, while the Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei recycled the cobblestones from Marseille’s recently renovated old port. The “Ruyi Path” symbolises power and good fortune, while it bridges the old Roman and the new estate routes.

Nurturing art at Villa La Coste

Frank Gehry’s open-air “Pavillon de la Musique” hosts concerts each June. Dug bellow the vines, the Château La Coste Art Gallery by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, invites regular exhibitions in its glass cum concrete underground structure. A photo gallery near the wine tasting room allows space for the camera art. Strolling with my Leica, capturing the objects and moods that flirted with my eyes, I realised that so much at the Château and Villa La Coste is a play with light, an exchange between art and nature. I was mesmerised.
So much more awaits you. Get some sneakers ready for the gravely stroll and participate in the two hours lasting Art & Architecture Walk in English daily at 2:30pm.
Inside the villa, the art, design and travel focused library nourishes your intellect, while the playroom behind awakens the inner child.

Dining at Villa La Coste entitles the staying guests to a healthful, delicious breakfast served in the lobby cafe or laid in your room on a glass table by Jean Nouvel. Topped either with a polished stainless-steel sculpture by Tom Shannon (the artists behind the “Drop”) or another unique oeuvre, perhaps a Damien Hirst print. Local dairy, creative assortment of breads – I love that loaf with figs, incredible house jams with slivers of oranges and chunks of peaches, daily smoothies served with custom-made eco bamboo straws, poached, scrambled or eggs Benedict, even gluten-free pancakes, all prepared with the greatest care. The minibar’s almonds and daily refreshed fruit basket make for ideal, balancing snacks. In chocolate-coated almonds and the estate wines in the room are ripe for the indulgent moments.

The restaurant is no longer helmed by the Marseille’s three Michelin chef Gérald Passédat, but the original team serves a decent French cuisine overseen conceptually by another starred chef Helene Darozze. The wine cellar is international. A fire pit teases tastebuds just a short jeep ride on the property, where Francis Mallmann’s Patagonian fire cuisine rock and rolls any palate in a casual in and outdoor setup. Even vegetarians and vegans find some superb plates in Mallmann’s Argentina meets Provencal cuisine. Unlike his Miami branch at the Faena superficiality and I dare to say better than his 1881 restaurant in Mendoza where I dined over a decade ago.
I will return, hopefully to my favourite suite where the pines seclude me behind the desired inches of privacy set apart from the public field of art. An olive tree planted just behind the bathroom window soothes you as you bathe in the extra large egg shaped marble bath. Aaah, balance feels so good!

INSPIRED BY… a poem on longing and mystery

INSPIRED BY…

A suggestion,
a sketchy line;
the incomplete stroke zooms in my mind.

An unfinished cup,
a half moon of joy;
the curiosity irrigates my youthful soul.

A shadow,
an ephemeral imprint of light;
the riddle of sun with the Earth – touching its skin.

The lips of a beauty,
nor innocent neither evil;
their duet of seduction, a tango of questions, the yin craving the yang;
harmony is where you find it.

Opened eyes, thirsty soul, unsettled heart,
all quenched and sated when calm invites peace into your mind.

To decode my poem, I offer an insight into my creative process. My consciousness weaved a string of poetry from recent experiences, and memories that resurfaced all at once this morning. My lips whispered the longings of my creative soul into my pen.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? a notepad at the Fundació Joan Miró teased my brain. I had to take a stash of the comment cards with me from my most recent visit in Barcelona. Once in a while, I get into the “mood” and scribble something on it.
INSPIRED BY:
Le Thoronet Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery built on the brink of twelfth and thirteenth century in Provence. The Romanesque gem is sited between the truffledom of Lorgues and Brignoles, near which Alain Ducasse’s Hostellerie de L’Abbaye de la Celle invites your for a superb Michelin meal and a room to stay.
I took Islamic and Japanese calligraphy lessons while in Marrakech and Kyoto last year. Penetrating the centuries old culture of the pen and ink, I was wowed by its accent on precision. Handwriting needn’t slip into antiquity, but all of us should connect our hands and the brain through its artful whoops and strokes.
A daily ritual of drinking tea calms my mind, but sharing it with a dear friend, a tantalising conversationalist or a mysterious stranger offers more.
Hiking and walking in nature regularly replenishes my urban lifestyle. Strolling through the art forest at Château La Coste in Provence, an optical installation by Tom Shannon, the “Drop” caught my eye. As the angle of the day’s sun shifts, the oak trees wield a majestic brush over the landscape, and so do the artworks installed on the inspiring property.

When working in fashion, I was told often that my lips are perfectly shaped. Their harmony is not boring though. In their sensuality they suggest, seduce if they wish or whisper the unspoken into the ether of the inner world.
My yogic insight has deepened over the past year, with gratitude to my new Indian teacher, Madhu. Yet, it was an injury and accumulation of disharmony in my physical body that deepened my awareness. We abuse our bodies so much, I learned that balance is the remedy to all human sorrows.
As a teenager, I used to write poetry in my native Czech. I did not dare to publish anything. I’m still embarrassed for my English, the language I taught myself through life. Still, over the past year I craved to play with words again, like in the olden days, when youthful emotions showered my mind with words. This morning I wrote the above poem and decided to let it fly. Its wings are free and they liberate my shy soul.
As the blank notepad I took suggests, let me know what you think?
What are you inspired by? What blocks you from expressing your creativity?

Learning biodiversity through farmers markets in Turin, Italy

The farmers markets in Turin, Italy, are the most intriguing botanical affairs for edibles in Europe. If you wonder what the difference between citron [cedro] and lemon is, keep reading as more confusing, unusual, yet superior ingredients are found at the green markets around Italy’s first capital.

Seeking biodiversity while traveling

Traveling the world, always seeking the best foods and above all rare local gems, has excited me ever since I packed my first suitcase. I was heading for Italy, and two decades later I keep returning. I circled the globe countless times. Exploring local food in depth, the magnifying glass of curiosity tied my belt of knowledge tighter. China, Thailand, Colombia, Peru, Japan, Morocco, California, and Italy emerged as the most diverse ingredient hubs. Mexico was a close tie. Some markets were Anthony Bourdain’s hives of “W.T.F.! This is real”: frogs jumped our of the buckets in Bangkok, fried bees and beetles ‘winged’ on me in Southern China, snakes whirled the water in buckets in Hong Kong, horse heads freaked me and my sister out in Cuzco and offal tuned my stomach into yogic inversions in Istanbul.
Wiser through experience, these days I tend to float towards fruits, herbs, spices and vegetables. In that regard, Italy feels more like home to me. The Slow Food nation celebrates its native plants with the flamboyance of an Armani-clad male. French ingredients are too polished, usually less fragrant, and further from their delicious, yet less regulated wilderness.

Farmers markets in Turin

Even if you are not an obsessive foodie like myself, never miss checking out the farmers markets in Turin. It is a cultural trip, for food is a serious social affair in Piedmont. The former royal capital of Savoy is a dichotomy of its former grandeur and rustic I-do-not-care shabbiness. Yet, here the oldest cafés in Europe frame the flaky facades, the Italian constitution was negotiated at its first parliament, best quality chocolate is made traditionally and in the contemporary single estate purity.
The farmers markets in Turin are as distinct as the produce sold at them. Turin’s reputation as a socially liberal city draws authenticity and diversity in.

Porta Palazzo Market

The Porta Palazzo Market is the busiest and at times messiest of all. At the biggest open market in Europe, almost 700 vendors trade under the naked sky and inside the market halls daily, except Sunday. Regular hours and policed geolocation are its hallmarks. It’s not all hyperlocal. One vendor brings delicious sweet mangoes, pomegranates and other sun-lovers from Sicily.
The vast space shields a covered fish market, butchers hall, cheese and dairy in controlled temperature environment. Blended in is an imported bounty outdoor market and my favourite local farmers market tucked behind. Cheese makers, sausage specialists, vegetable growers, free-range egg vendors, mushroom foragers and wild flowers pickers from the Cuneo Province stream in.

Over the years of hedonistic tourism, my tastiest discoveries at the farmers markets in Turin were:
The citron (Citrus medica), a large fragrant citrus fruit with a thick rind. It is one of the original citrus fruits from which all other citrus types developed. Sliced ultra-thin like a carpaccio, poured over olive oil and gem salt, a gourmandise at its best.
For five years in hay-aged goats and sheep cheese.
Crosnes: I was disappointed by the stringiness of the “Chinese radish” also known as Chinese artichoke by the only Asian vendors at the market, who sold me a tough, rough, almost tasteless crosnes. I enjoy the twirled roots’ delicate nutty taste (boiled and grilled with butter), but these were a tough chew. To their credit, their flowering pak-choi and Chinese garland chrysanthemum leaves were extraordinary.
The less spicy than Asian but a juicy daikon (originates in the Mediterranean).
Scorzonera (black salsify), a black, long, radish-like stick that peels off into white nakedness.
Barba di becco, in a flan with cheese
An abundance of wild greens such as bittersweet grespino comune.
Diversity of oranges – some honey sweet, others flowery fragrant, some extremely juicy, others more firm.
Saltwort, known also as agretti and barba di frate (scientifically Salsola Soda) with its mineral taste reminds of seaweed crossed with spinach. Excellent blanched or parboiled and served with white fish.
The cardoon from any producer was too bitter, only eggs, butter, cream or other smoothly enveloping ingredients balanced it.
Ancient grains like barley in all shapes, einkorn, spelt, kamut and millet.
Beans (fagioli) of dozens of subtypes and other colourful dried legumes, some resembling artful ceramic fragments.
On the fringes, cables, electronic jumble, third-hand scarves and plenty of waste-not appliances and frocks that some posh citizens would call rubbish – are being haggled with multi-ethnic entepreneurs.
Piazza della Repubblica, Torino
Monday – Friday 8:30am-1:30pm; Saturday 8:30am-6:30pm

Mercato di Campagna Amica

More like a co-op is the Mercato di Campagna Amica. The “Friendly Land Market” assembles regional growers and mainly food artisans on the city’s squares on weekly rotations. On the third Sunday this March the Piazza Madama Cristina was spring festive, the pace more relaxed and it felt more clean, orderly and spacious than the rather suffocating Porta Palazzo’s hush.
Here, the local high society shops. Nevertheless, the emblems of the “km0” [kilometro zero] philosophy clashed with exotic, imported cocoa in locally made chocolates. Otherwise foodstuff proximity is the guiding principle at this Turin market.
I bumped into its bright yellow stands while jogging towards the Po river. Like at other farmers markets in Turin you find: Ancient grains and flours, cookies bread (gluten-free), home-baked cakes, Piedmont wines, Fontina Valdostana, Robbiola cheese, Ricotta, Primosale or Seiras di mucca mountain cheese. Piedmont DOC hazelnuts – raw, roasted, pureed into paste, pressed into fragrant oil or incorporated into pastry, pasta and snacks.
Specialties: Bagnet ross, a typical Piedmontese tomato and pepper sauce.
Marmalades with peach and ginger or Pom Matan – a native green-red apple variety grown around Turin.
Barley, rice and hazelnut puffed crackers (galette) and wholemeal spelt pasta by La Peracca.
Marmalades, typical Ligurian pesto, creative organic and biodynamic dips and condiments by Molino del Conte in Alessandria. I liked the nettle-olive and golden purslane (portulaca oleracea, also known as little hogweed) accompaniments to pasta, fish or meat. The later, omega 3-rich, salty stems with their tiny leaves are healthy for their antibacterial, antioxidant, depurative and diuretic potencies.
Sundays 9am – 7pm

Oltremercato

Market of natural and ecological products with 34 exhibitors in front of the municipal house. Monthly, thematic demonstrations and classes include wine tasting, bread baking, stone milling, tincture making, everything bees or garlic, even global organic cotton presentation.
Piazza Palazzo di Citta, Torino
Fourth Saturday of the month (excluding July and August)

Ogni frutto ha la sua stagione

A market based on seasonal products organised by the Italian confederation for farmers.
Piazza Carlo Alberto, Torino
Third Sunday of the month.

Biological market alla Giajone

A fair trade initiative of Tutto Un Altro Mondo, New World and City Ward 2 underneath the arcades of the Giajone farm building. Coffee, tea, herbs, chocolate, sugar, biscuits, cakes, candies, honey, jams, Italian rice, pasta, cous-cous, quinoa, spices, freshly squeezed fruit juices mix in books, magazines and information briefs about fair trade.
Via Guido Reni 102, Torino
Saturday: 9am-1pm

Mercatino delle erbe (Herbal market)

The market of typical plant-based Piedmontese products. Vegans rejoyce at this animal-friendly affairs.
Via Garibaldi e Piazza Palazzo di Citta, Torino
First Sunday of the month from 9am

Donne in campo (Women in the field)

A purely feminine market of agricultural and handcrafted products from Piedmontese women producers. Social justice, not a touristy hanky-panky.
Via Roma, via Cesare Battisti & Piazza Carlo Alberto, Torino
Second (June) & third Sunday of the month (March, June, September and December)
On weekdays smaller markets shuffle around Turin and the nearby towns. Find an updated rotation calendar on Piemonte Coldiretti Torino website.

The farmers markets in Turin are not as scenic as the monthly organic market in Dolceaqua, where Monet found his muse, but they are the most multi-ethnic, to slow-food dedicated urban food assemblies in Europe. The foundation of modern, immigrant Italy itself streamed from Turin. The Slow Food University nearby in Pollenzo and its graduates disseminate its ethical values so proactively that the local consumers chime in.
I love visiting particularly late in the fall, winter and early in spring when the Alps are snowcapped with fluffy hats. The annual cycle of seasonal impermanence had almost vanished from our cosmopolitan globalised lives, but the resurgent locavore trend revived the quest for nutritional quality and harmony in the millennial lifestyles. Buying food directly from the produces is more emotional and transparent pursuit that brings more satisfaction with one’s diet.

Ristorante Piazza Duomo Alba

Ristorante Piazza Duomo in Alba is a dichotomy of delectable mystery. Located in the core of the cobbled Alba, the splendour of the Duomo cathedral levelled on the primo piano of the restaurant, you may dine veiled in ignorance. The square you see is not named Piazza Duomo as in Milan or Florence, but in a true nationalist pride, you sit at Piazza Risorgimento, the liberal political movement that rid the heeled boot of royalty, transforming it into emotional Italy as we know it today.

Piazza Duomo in Alba: Italian emotions, Japanese precision

Enter the fuchsia door, and the play with meanings goes on – your cravings will and won’t be met at Piazza Duomo. It all tastes marvellous, rest assured, yet it depends on your expectations since surprises lace the three Michelin star plates. Enrico Crippa inserts some unexpected – grown locally from faraway seeds – ingredients into the menu. Beyond legendary Milanese kitchens, working in Kobe and Osaka, Japan, formed the Italian chef’s experience and culinary sensitivity.

In an authentic Italian expressionism, feelings guide his work: “I believe that only with yearning can there be real pleasure: there is always a small gap that cannot be filled, as in love.” Desire, longing for more, philosophically tease your palate. As with a good book, the chef skilfully authors tension. Mystery cloaks the sprawling table with delectable secrets that only your palate attentively plugged in the brain can riddle out.

Biodiversity: local bounty beyond the truffle

You wonder, I am in Alba. The seasonal rarity, the local, wild, white gem – the truffle – will be served in the short-spanning fall season, but the fragrant mushroom does not dominate the menu, it whispers from the underground. The chef highlights herbs and vegetables in his creative meets traditional Piedmontese cuisine. Each plate shows some, even the chamomile desert. Grown on the Ceretto property, a family villa cum sprawling organic winery near Barolo, the garden provides endless inspiration for the signature Salad 21,31,41,51… Changing daily, a seasoned ‘dashi’ broth from the diverse plants drips into a glass container designed exclusively for the restaurant. You eat the leaves with tweezers to taste the personality of each herb, flower, leaf, root, even seaweed. All eventual plants are in latin inscribed in a blue-green card that you can keep. You can purchase the glassware and the custom-made tweezers for at home entertainment as I did.

Cautious, we ordered a la carte at our first visit a few years ago. Developing trust with Enrico Crippa’s cuisine, we dove into the nine-but-more courses La Degustazione recently. The menu can be lighter with his vegetal touches. Still, the tasting menu is a royal affair for your belly. We barely walked into our suite just a duo of doors away from the dining room (the promising wine list prompted us to book one of the in-house rooms). English may introduce slight misunderstandings, so be clear and ask the waiters for repetition since they often got lost in translation. Nevertheless, their pleasant attitude excuses any trouble.

The signature tasting menu at Ristorante Piazza Duomo in Alba can accommodate small alterations. Two changes were the maximum the chef was willing to surmise, so my husband had to keep the gout-arousing scallops if he wanted pasta instead chestnut with liver risotto (ethically, no foie gras for me), and fish in the place of lamb (when I eat meat I must be sure I consume it all, and here, personally I smelled waste) as I did.

The portions a la carte are large, yet plenty of green shoots, flowers and vegetables star Enrico Crippa’s plates, lightening them slightly. In any case, first, you are treated to tiny teasers with your aperitif (sparkling, a wide selection from whites by the glass and some Coravin luxuries or a cocktail like negroni et al.). The snacks include elegant puffed rice crackers, copied like the abundant salad by Matteo Baroneto at Ristorante del Cambio in Turin. Del Cambio version embellished the crackers with a rainbow of natural tints – beetroot juice, greens, black sepia ink, seeds. His salad is richer, with less purity then at Piazza Duomo.

The Beginning…

In La Degustazione, the amouse entertainment that is spread all over the table is over the top, a meal on its own. It reminds me of Pierre Gagnaire, one is overfed to the point that you can hardly point out what you like and what not. I was professionally focused enough, and found it all delectable.
“The Beginning” of antipasti included:
Anchovies, green sauce
Puntarelle and burrata cheese
‘Bruxelles’ sprouts and flowering mustard
Mushrooms – preserved micro button mushrooms with flowers
Sweet marinated pumpkin with Piedmont hazelnut, borrage flower, and fresh herbs
Romanesco florets and leaves in cream
Meatless ‘caponet’ for me as my husband relished the regular foie-gras and meat stuffed vegetable. Like petits farcis in Niçoise cuisine, a squash blossom, cabbage, pepper and other vegetables envelop ground meat filling.

Restaurant interior that rises questions: pink walls, cages and vines

At lunch facing the windows on the ochre brick arches of the Duomo cathedral are the best tables. After sunset looking at the frescoed walls inside the main dining room intrigues more. You will not forget the quirky interior, ever.

The soft peach-hued arches were frescoed with imagination of Neapolitan artist Francesco Clemente in 2007. A crawling grape leaf as a tribute to the Ceretto family business branches into metaphorical depictions along the walls. Inspired by the Langhe landscape, a stag peaks from a window, otherwise life and emotions like love puzzle you as in an art gallery.

There are eight tables in the main dining room. A less memorable bright room behind a cosy lounge is for larger groups.
The artistic pursuit drives the success of Ristorante Piazza Duomo. The genie strikes the mind when it is open, so the chef may draw from his subconscious or after an intense brain storming.

The sea meets the Alps with tradition coated in innovation

In contrast with the Piedmontese meet-centric cuisine on the foothills of the Alps, the proximity of the Mediterranean imprints enough seafood on the menu. Our Scallops, Mediterranean Sea Urchins and sheep’s Pecorino blended mountains in. The quality of the Sardinian scallops was not what an Atlantic specimen would bring along, less tender and rather flabby. The pudding with sea urchins would make Japanese chefs laugh, far from Hokkaido’s plump richness.

Everything else was superb though. A delicate Cod and pumpkin, cooked sous-vide, the tender fish dissolved on my tongue like a dollop of fresh cream. Served with gorgeous red nasturtium flower and its leaves the canvas was naturally tuned in.
Instead of the lamb main course we had Seabass, Fiolaro broccoli, Bagna Cauda. The last, a local 16th century specialty of garlic and anchovies was mellowed so not to overpower the superb wild fish. The crisp sprouting broccoli introduced more leafy greens and vibrant garden colours of flowers added feminine charm.

Still, in Piedmont one must have veal. The Fassona Garibaldi was also tenderised gently in slow sous-vide preparation. For me a Chambertin Grand Cru Burgundy (poured through a Coravin) accompanied lovingly this sublime Piedmontese cut of veal. The Garibaldi style includes a Marsala sauce with spices in the young meat. The best veal in Piedmont I have had to date.

Next landed another staple on the menu, the silky smooth and gooey Potato Cream seasoned with Lapsang Souchong tea. Like the french aligot, it is dangerously delicious. In fall, the white Alba truffle is shaved on top instead of the smoky Chinese tea.
The Under Brush of mushroom ravioli instead of the risotto with foie gras was a superb choice. Seeing unfinished plates of the risotto at other tables, our al-dente pasta with fresh spinach leaves forest tea broth were a better match in the now overwhelming tasting menu. Cheese puffs were served with it on the side.

We could not imagine eating desserts, but we did.
Pre-desserts include a fine Piedmont D.O.P. hazelnut crisp, exquisite fragrant chamomile sorbet, slightly sour candied orange triangles, a cold-brewed infusion, and a disappointing mushy bread stick coated in milk chocolate (together with the bread basket, the weakest morsel of the night).

It was time for either a coffee by Lavazza with famous estates like the Jamaican Blue Mountain staring the menu or tea. The tea menu is not specific enough for a camellia snob like myself. Simply marked as Taiwanese oolong, Chinese green tea, when asking for details did not help I went for an Italian tisane. The special blend of cardamom, liquorice, orange was meant to facilitate a better digestion. Feeling really full, I mused that a post-dinner walk through old Alba would do better than the tea.

Yet, more sweet gourmandise with the digestive Tisana Speziale arrived. Local specialty – the hazelnut cake Tarta a la nozziole, a milk ‘latte’ shot, chocolates, … My brain could not process it any more. We got an extra cake in our room.

The wine program measures up to the expectations of a wine region setup. Two lists: “Only Piedmont” and “All the Rest”. The owner of the building and the restaurant, the Ceretto family (their other projects include a tavern La Piola, Relanghe confectionery shop sourcing from its hazelnut orchards, and curated art exhibitions in the region) includes much of its cellar in the Piedmont album. At Ceretto all estate-owned vineyards (160 hectares) are organic, some, in Barolo and Barbaresco (20ha), plus the Monsordo Bernardina Estate vineyards (10ha), employ biodynamic principles.

By the glass, the offer is so generous that Coravin, the bottle preserving system enables more special wines like the famous ‘Super Tuscans‘ to be sipped by the glass, seduced us. Special tasting journeys include a €500 Nebbiolo feast of three rare local wines that my husband embarked on. Barbaresco Crichet by Pajè 2008, Barolo Gran Bussia 2009 from Roagna and Ceretto’s precious Barolo Cannubi San Lorenzo 2006.

I was more cost-conscious, selecting a better value Grand Cru Burgundies (€60-80). For most of the tasting menu, these lighter, rounder, more fresh less tannic French Pinots work better.

Ristorante Piazza Duomo in Alba is a project of desire by the Ceretto family. Enrico Crippa was called in to fill in the creative culinary gap in traditional Piedmont. Since 2005, the ascent from the first star within a year from opening and third within a decade, now includes four, contemporary rooms filled with art and connected to the gastronomic restaurant. A convenient gourmet staycation in Alba. The fresh, minimalist rooms feel like being in a house. Just step through the doors to be greeted by the Italian staff in the restaurant’s spacious lounge.
What we further appreciate is that the chef Enrico Crippa focuses solely on his culinary projects in Alba, not seeking faraway fame of virtual social stardom.
Piazza Risorgimento 4, 12051 Alba (Cuneo Province)
+39 0173 366167
Lunch 12:30 – 2pm; dinner 7:30 – 09:30pm

Haruki Murakami Men Without Women: lessons from love, solitude, and the everyday life

Men Without Women is a collection of seven short stories embarking on insightful cruises where solitude takes over a male character’s life. As we spend more time alone today – loneliness, love and simplicity puzzle us. The virtual world has trapped us in a social bubble, so we live single more than ever: “You are a pastel coloured Persian carpet, and loneliness is a Bordeaux wine stain that won’t come out. For Men Without Women the world is a vast, poignant mix, very much the far side of the moon”, I love this engendered joy and shadow metaphor of Haruki Murakami and many others.

Timely are Murakami’s humoresque, yet sad stories. Unspoken thoughts reveal far more than words voiced loudly in conversations, and until a mind-reading software emerges, books are the only lens into the depths of human mind. I recommend to read and connect with the universal feelings that emerge in Men Without Women. Written in an accessible, clear style, without embroidered, challenging to comprehend prose, the everyday transforms into the alluring through Murakami’s pen. My kind of a man. The globally applauded Japanese author deserves your attention. The ride will be smooth and entertaining, I promise.

Tension, friction, mystery and the personal

Murakami employs mystery, even surrealism in the melancholic lifestyles of his characters. Under the conservative covers of Tokyo’s everyday life, his emotionally vulnerable male characters arrive at significant crossroads. A Tokyoite himself, he said to employ western writing style, is shunned by the culturally sensitive Nippon naysayers, yet praised by global writing pundits. The fertile wordsmith produces ten pages a day, runs ten kilometres, translates, reads (Kafka mesmerises him) and listens to classical (he wrote a book about it based on his interviews with Japanese conductor) and jazz (penetrates all his books) records that all fuse into his distinct fiction with autographical glimpses into male, and curiously even a female mind and soul. For me personally, in this novel genders connect and meet. The septuagenarian is married and like all of his characters in Men Without Women is childless.
Much of Murakami’s humour is born from the basic and the mystery of the untold. The later he keenly employs also in his other books (such as South of the Border, West of the Sun which I loved but have yet to review). Friction sparks on his pages, yet it’s the inner tension he mainly voices out.

Above all, Men Without Women is about awkward, careful, faithful, fatal, forgiving, nostalgic, pathetic, reckless, romantic, selfish or self-less, unrequited, even wasted love. The scope of loving is broad, yet “once a partner has began to loose interest, there is apparently little the other can do to arrest the process” Alain de Botton wrote in his book On Love.

Drive My Car is a vehicle for opening old man’s wounds. Unexpectedly. As the widowed actor is chauffeured around Tokyo to theatres and other appointments, his driver’s quiet, smooth yet insightful pace knocks on his consciousness. The bereaving and nostalgic veteran realises that “only through knowing could person become strong.” On the flip side of his past life “the most excruciating thing, though, had been maintaining a normal life knowing his partner’s secret.” The infidel legacy of his attractive, child-less actress wife tortured his conscience even a decade after her cruel death. Although “shedding his self, his flesh and blood, in order to inhabit a role was his calling”, he was unable to direct his relationships in a genuine, truthful act.

Ancient theatre
In Yesterday, Paul McCartney’s song echoes autobiographical snippets mould together with the wasted love life of the author’s quirky friend. “Music has the power to revive memories, sometimes so intensely that they hurt”, he writes as his passion for aural prowess vibrates through the prose. Ironically, attachment and a mid-life crisis of the playboy plastic surgeon friend is fatal for the “number-two lover, rainy-day boyfriend, a handy partner for a casual fling”. His unsettled lifestyle was torn apart by a horrific book on Nazi concentration camps and finally, a woman he deeply fell in love after the lost decades of superficial relationships.

An Independent Organ is about a “lovesick” man choosing a brutal fate as the painful lies of his lover surface and his emotions become unbearable.

jazz club Manhattan
Nezu Museum’s hood is Murakami’s favourite stage and it is beautiful there. Taking over an aunt’s business in Aoyama and transforming it into a cosy bar and a home above, Kino saw an escape from his disappointing marriage and a job as a salesman. “Like dry ground welcoming the rain, he let solitude, silence, loneliness soak in.” A flare-up with a customer with whom he shares dark secrets follows by a series of unsettling events. An auspicious regular at his bar calms the fire of his destiny. As snakes encircle the house, it’s time to move. “But the movement of time seemed not to be fixed properly. The bloody weight of desire and the rusty anchor of remorse were blocking its normal flow.”

Fall leafs at the garden in Japan
Two very strange mysteries employ the author’s beloved Kafka’s Metamorphosis as their blueprint. In Scheherezade, unrequited teenage love surreally transforms the seductive story teller into a lamprey eel. Murakami deserts his male character from the outside world for unworded reasons. “Like a blackboard wiped with a damp cloth, he was erased of worries, of unpleasant memories.” In his “house” the only comfort is an unnamed housewife, whom he calls Scheherezade. Her “breaking-an-entering” of stories shared upon each scheduled visit, kept him plugged to life.
Samsa in Love awkwardly injects the Prague-set Metamorphosis into the Japan-staged short story collection. Gregor Samsa’s limbo is aroused by a chance meeting with a hunchback locksmith. “There were so many things he did not know. Yet had he been a fish or a sunflower, and not a human being, he might never have experienced this emotion.” A crooked situation, but what is happening outside is much worse. Our inner life can be an escape from facing what is out there.

Malibu hiking trails
Becoming Men Without Women “probably” imagines a teenage romance with a free-spirited “M”, the third woman he dated who had killed herself. The pain associated with loss of a partner, the loneliness, and that “you loose that wonderful west wind waiting for someone you don’t know somewhere between knowledge and ignorance” puzzle him. “Some crafty sailor must’ve invited her to run off with him.”

The female essence in Men Without Women

Murakami tapped on the essence, the likely reason why women vanish from men’s lives. I won’t spoil the book’s climax for you, but as a woman who ran off with many “sailors”, I applaud to his insight into the female psyche. The author reeks out insight and wisdom through his metaphors. The stories contain important humanising lessons not just for Men Without Women but for all of us. To grasp existence with more ease, we need to be reminded of the perplexity of life by friends, partners as much as literature.

Prado Restaurante Lisbon: new Portuguese cuisine coated in Nordic-style over local undergarments

Prado Restaurante expresses the most sensibly the current gastronomic hot wave in Lisbon. Casual, enthusiastic, genuinely simple, laid-back and cheap for Europe. The Portuguese are amped about the opportunities that recent influx of talent and ideas swelled in. The corner bloc of a former conserve factory is tucked behind tram-lined thoroughfares in a compact cobbled street on a foothill in Baixa.

Prado Restaurante sets itself apart from other food venues in Lisbon

After trying some adventurous fine dining (Loco) and the most popular offshoots of upscale restaurants (Minibar, Bistro 100 Maneiras, …) in Lisbon, my best meal was at a year-old venue that a word of mouth delivered to my ears at a breakfast table. My sister nods, Prado Restaurante surprises, but not too much, just right. In the still popular Nordic-style, Prado delivers delicious plates suggestive of organic nature in a friendly, urban café ambience that reflects the millennial fashions.
The Portuguese Ark Studio took over the arched interior with that East London meets Brooklyn cum Copenhagen poise. A hanged bicycle at the back like a painting echoes millennial, urban hip lifestyle. The textiles were hand-woven by Portuguese artisans, ceramics by Anna Morgado from Northern Portugal, while vintage and contemporary furniture like the Scandi spindle-backed Hay J77 chairs keep you straight and perky.

Raw beauty celebrating natural pigments

In an ocean-washed country not only farm-to-table, but also from rod-to-plate is served on the plain wood tops. By shedding preposterous linen, undressed, the barren bounty of the fields and the rambling ocean is served sensibly yet creatively free (no corsets), while posing simply like a slip dress.
Sharing is not just caring, but more fun at Prado Restaurante. Most plates are quite small, so order about four to six for two hungry people (like us Czech 30-something skinny sisters). A grey-slate-hued naturalist print of the concise, seasonally tweaked menu suggests raw material focus on ingredients dressed in a free-flowing, simply-coloured kaftan of seasonings. You find no ballgowns on the plates at Prado.
A basket of Barbela sourdough wheat bread was served with two spreads –
Fresh goats butter, smoked salt & sea lettuce (loved this one)
Whipped Iberico pork fat, garlic & bay leaf (not for every palate, taste little first)
A know-how cooperation between the local baker and miller Gleba the recipe was post-noted by Prado. The springy moist dark loaf accompanied some of the saucy plates well.

Aside from the bread basket and ice-cream in deserts always in season, each month and week slips into the familiarly structured menu. The kitchen plays around with local beef (Barrosã tartar or rib eye), seafood (Black scabbard fish, Cockles, Line-caught squids from Azores), Iberico pork (Smoked lardo on toast to start or presa sausage), fruits, mushrooms and vegetables.
Early spring tosses in asparagus and butternut squash. In winter cockles, chard (or other leafy greens like spinach) and leeks stride in. We started with Hispi cabbage, goats cheese whey & pumpkin seeds. Walnuts accompany this refreshing pistachio-toned starter in alterations to the winter menu. The bread came in handy. Next arrived a plump al-dente Line caught squid, ink & leeks. From the specials we ordered the Wild Portuguese sea bream, broth and radishes. Chlorophyl meets the Atlantic in a blast of freshness. On a similar theme was Mackerel, parsley and sea lettuce vinaigrette. Wood fire is used to char some of the ingredients, especially the meat, but we had enough jamón around Monsaraz.

‘Vinho’ au nature

The wine list is international, brief yet ideologically precise with only organic, biodynamic, and natural wines. My recent review of Graça do Vinho, a neighbourhood wine bar on the other side of the slope from Prado, confirms that this alternative movement took ground in Lisbon. Practical for the responsible lunch cap, about a dozen wines are served by the glass. Locavores appreciate that about half of the list tags Portuguese wines. The white Em Cru by Quinta da Pellada from Dão was made from indigenous Encruzado grape, with an intriguing citrus, rose and mineral touch, but the sample did not lit the bulb of my brain on so I inquired the female sommelier about other local samples. An orange wine could not miss out on the naturist opportunity to be featured at Prado. The Raiz Macerado from the Vinho Verde region, a skin-contact Loureiro Tiago Teles, was the surprise of the trip. After trying many new and old Portuguese wines beyond the world-famous Douro Valley, this was a bottle to remember. Well, the eyes of the biodynamic Nat Cool Drink Me are unforgettable. The thick-skinned and tannic Baga grape (known in Douro as Tinta da Bairrada and most popular for sparkling winemaking in Portugal) co-made attentively and patiently by Niepoort family in Bairrada D.O.C. sparked with its typical acidity but just a touch astringency as it was allowed to ripen fully into a balanced cherry cum tobacco light juice. It was lunch for us, so one white and one red sufficed. From the gringos, Gut Oggau from Austria, De Martino from Chile’s Maipo Valley, Greek, German, French Italian and Spanish wines, even Australia zeroed out anything from Northern America. Supplier, price or tax issue perhaps?
Craft beers, gin or bourbon based cocktails fix the rest, while a house kombucha, daily fresh lemonade, cold dashi ‘tea’ (kombu seaweed broth) joined the non-alcoholic millennial beverage crew.

The sweet plates break preconceptions about deserts as many contemporary restaurants try to do. Frozen, seasons-crossing treats accompanied the desserts. Sorrel, fennel and other vegetables are used in granitas, milk is smoked for ice cream, sweet potatoes – desert in themselves? Acorns were replaced by Mushroom ice cream with pearl barley, dulse, caramel in the dulce finale we ordered. Like a breakfast grain bowl it was spooned out with coffee on its side.
The only negative was the over-brewed espresso from Fábrica Roasters. My barrister sister critically shunned the worst cup of coffee she had in Lisbon. She even ordered an off-the-menu americano which was drinkable, but not spotless. After the lunch, ‘Mindshake’, a blend of green tea, toasted rice and elderflower cozied me inside while watching the gushing rain outside.

A lifestyle concept for contemporary mood

Prado Restaurante is more than just seasonal, locally sourced, contemporary restaurant in Lisbon. Shelled into a five-star lifestyle concept by The Lisboans, the impeccably designed apartments above create a home away from home, with fresh coffee, pastry, and juices delivered to your bed or sofa.

The project includes a small gourmet shop selling local bounty. The impeccably sourced Portuguese produce whets your mouth. Portuguese jamon de bellota (the famous dehesa of Spain crosses into Portugal where same quality, but less commercialised thus better priced ham is produced). I got exquisite star-pressed dried figs stuffed with blanched almonds and an award-winning Portuguese chocolate. Most of the wines from the restaurant list are sold there as are small snacks and sandwiches.

As almost everything in Portugal, the quality and price ratio is perhaps the most favourable in Europe. Unlimited filtered water is only €0.50/person is a no-nonsense offer that more restaurants should consider as a fair-deal for their customers.
Travessa das Pedras Negras 2, 1100-404 Lisboa
Wed – Sat: 12noon – 2am; 3:30 – 7pm ONLY WINE BAR
SUN 12noon – 5pm. Reservations required for parties of 6 or more.
+351 210 534 649

Graça do Vinho: The slow-food wine bar in Lisbon that connects then and now

Graça do Vinho must be the most relaxed wine bar in Lisbon. Set on a steep slope of the Graça neighbourhood, climbing up its cobbled ground on your feet in a turtle speed organically fuses into its slow-food philosophy. Once called Alis Ubbo “the delightful shore”, Lisboa authentically whiffs the chaos of its 18th-century earthquake in a charming puzzle of the new, the abandoned and the resistant.

Connecting past and present in rapidly gentrifying Lisbon

As with the tremor, times are changing rapidly in Lisbon these days. Graça is one of the last central strongholds of the locals. Yet, the Alfama and Castelo backyard is hip now with trendy young Lisboetas moving in and the older generation upset that prices are climbing higher than the capital’s mythic seven hills. I was staying at one of the loveliest, homy, cosy and cool, boutique hotels in Europe. A labor of love of its owner, a Portuguese journalist who knows local food scene better than any guide, and her hands-on guardian. The tip to go to Graça do Vinho came from her.
Hungry and with a whetted appetite for some local wine, I asked where to lunch around casually. My sister, a sommelier would not settle on any bar, so an authentic, ideally local, approach to the wine selection was key to pleasing us. Sadly, with gentrification looming and rents hiking up, the park-side building is changing hands. Every personally curated design or vintage peace is being currently sold out in an Instagram auction. Hopefully, the cosy wine bar survives the boom and bust.
Graça do Vinho strongly claims its sense of place. Local artists exhibit here regularly, cheeky old movie posters fit in the cinephile city, while street life photos by Vagabundografia, tell the stories of the easy-going yet rough life in Lisbon. I could not resist buying the polaroid postcards. My parents probably did not appreciate the retro look as I did, but remembering while on the road counts.

Graça do Vinho: slow-food wine bar: local, seasonal and authentic

Whatever is in season appears in baskets and bowls around the cheese, cold cuts and fresh oysters “kitchen” counter. Preserved olives, fish and seafood conservas stacked up on the shelves, marinated or smoked fish and creative dips accompany your wine for a small change. Ordering a generous tabua mista or a mixed plate of whatever is around is then a natural choice.
Like most food in Lisbon, it’s cheap for the quality you are about to savour. Ripe persimmons, swollen grapes like cows’ udders calling to be juiced out (in the electric extractor de sumos set next to the coffee machine and sturdy toaster), crisp celery, a pea shoot, even edible flowers, all accompanied my Portuguese cheese plate. Preserved jam sweetened the dairy treats. Unspoiled by experience and knowledge, always more open in a new country where I am not familiar with local food, I ordered whatever the only waiter suggested – unpasteurised semi-soft sheep’s milk cheese made at the foothills of the Arrábida Mountains – Queijo de Azeitao D.O.P. and a blend of goat and sheep milk by Joaquim Duarte Alves. Sheep cheese is most typical, but the harder goat’s blend was decent.
A terracotta bowl of vegetables and fruits suggests what the daily options are. The millennial chef merged with a dreadlocks-haired waitress sliced a mixed salad topped with green shoots to go with my bread, cheese and fruits. The bread is bought at local padaria, wrapped in paper bag, some of it toasted if not from this morning batch. No wasting of great food, please. You hardly find plastic at Graça do Vinho, polluting and wasting is not trendy within the natural wine community. The meat and cheese though came wrapped in foils, so if you aim for zero plastic in your life, go directly to the farmers.

Organic and natural Portuguese wines

Starting with a refreshing half bottle of local sparkling vinho, the Murganheira brut by Tavora-Varosa “super reserva” 2014 was not bad. I would say like an average cava. She treated us to other wines by the glass currently opened in her coolers while chatting about the Portuguese vinous potential. An organic Albarinho from the northern Vinho Verde region where these super-dry crisp wines pair with the seafood and the scorching heat of the summer was my choice. A red Macanita from the Douro DOC was too strong for a midday cuppa, but the fingered t-shirt clad young lady gave me a sample at least, so I knew what she liked. Obrigada! I thanked her in Portuguese, quieting my Spanish speaking sister with her “gracias“. I heart that they are quite sensitive to language mixing here. English or French seems more accepted by the worldly locals.

The rustic, bare-stone-walled Graça do Vinho relaxes your soul like chilling in your living room. There are is a lamp in the darkest corner, even books to borrow, so if you are solo, dive in. Leather sofas in one corner tempt to slow sips and a conversation with a friend, while a delicious, quick and simple, locally sourced lunch (daily changing soups and salads next to the small regular menu) or tapas can be served at the tiny bar counter. The spinning stools are comfortable just for that quickie.

Eye-catching bottled IPAs from small Portuguese breweries all lay by the feet of sexy beach girl in a bikini. In an orgasmic pose facing the sun, the flower-nippled beauty, her hand from writs down missing, was spared of her dignity is a straw hat someone placed over half of her face. A weird decorative piece, whose attire is subject to change, but it suggests the bohemian indulgence you are about to relish.
If you drink too much, do not panic – the salvaged flying chairs indeed hang upside down from the ceiling. So much vintage ‘crap’ decorates the quirky wine bar. From dial phones, large glass spirit and wine carafes, to useless travel souvenirs of the owners (charms and necklaces).

The coffee is almost always superb and cheep in Portugal. Unlike at the ubiquitous cafeterias, each of you might sip from a different cup. Uniquely distinguished in its shape, colour and the overall design – blue-haired fairy, floral paint, a wide white mug, an ochre thick glass… as if these were leftovers from what was left over after the earthquake. The ease and friendliness of this wine bar is so attractive in today’s copy-cat style of globalised design cafes and bars. Go before the tremor shakes the metropolis once again.

Graça do Vinho: Calçada da Graça 10 A/B, 1100-266 Lisboa, Portugal

Mon-Thurs: 11AM–12AM

Fri0Sat: 11AM–12:30AM

Sun: Closed

CLOSED American Tea Room: talking and sipping tea in coastal California

The American Tea Room was a shining diamond sparkling just off the Pacific coast. After closing its first branch in Beverly Hills, the other two – Downtown Los Angeles and Newport Beach also closed down for business in 2018. The concept tea store that has pioneered the American tea revolution in the health-focused California for 15 years.

Here is my interview with the late founder of the best concept tea room in America to date. His battle with cancer took its toll. Hopefully, some passionate tea connoisseur will take inspiration from his visionary approach to tea.
The philosophy of the American tea Room is inspired by “America as a melting pot, which does not have its own tea culture, but is curious about blending different cultures and tastes together”, said the cofounder of the American Tearoom David Barenholtz during our interview.

Iced tea is hugely popular in America. “It is more like a cocktail with a wonderful flavour“, he added. Iced teas do not need to be loaded with sugar and lots of chemicals like most of these sold bottled in stores. “If you buy our teas, you can infuse them and make without the negative chemicals at home, put it in the fridge to cool and then taste the wonderful natural flavours that are intensely fragrant on their own.” No need for any artificial additives and flavours, nature has it all.
Their fabulous recipes for homemade iced teas from the American Tea Room blends pioneered the recent trend in tea cocktails. Tasting the real kick of ginger, the sweetness or tartness of dried fruits, spices and the other natural ingredients in these tea blends gives you an entirely different quality perspective about iced tea.
David spoke very passionately about his teas and as he fired his know-how I wondered, why he has opened a tea room after being a businessman for years? “When I was traveling to Europe I had so much great tea, I liked the tea houses in France, Austria, Germany and wanted something like that in the US.” So, he went for it with his partner, and now the American Tea Room can rank amongst the best tea rooms in the entire America.

The redesigned store in Beverly Hills opened at the beginning of 2017 with a more appealing, cleaner and hip to hang out at space than was its previous layout. As all my photos show, the space is now brighter and more fresh. “We try to change the image of tea not being just something healthy to drink, but we want to show the great taste and encourage people to try new things that are actually thousands years old.” Further, the company aimed at teaching people about each tea and how to brew it correctly. There were Tea*vents on the premises, but also when you bought tea, you were advised in detail about the preparation on the label. David explained the main challenges: “People are sometimes intimidated by tea, as they do not know much about it, but I always tell them – you also do not know much about all food and still go to restaurants and try it. The tea business is now like the wine business in the 1970s US, people do not know the differences between tea from Assam in India and tea from Yunnan in China. But, luckily it is evolving and there are more people like us educating our customers about our products.”
For my favourite blends by the American Tea Room check my earlier post on the American Iced Tea.

Global tea accessories at the American Tea Room

Serving tea in style was not only important for the Victorian ladies in England, but the modern tea accessories have never been as diverse and practical as they are now.
Alongside the established global and innovative manufacturers, the American Tearoom shop in Beverly Hills also introduced their own range of tea pots, cups, tins, spoons, strainers, and other accessories.
The company is not afraid of technology and I always found an interesting gadget making my tea enjoyment easier. From temperature controlled tea kettles to smart and stylish ice tea jugs.
They also pack your teas in elegant bento boxes with a wrapping paper in the tea spirit. The wide selection of teas including their house blends make a nice gift.

Tea Trends

We spoke also about the current tea trends in America, and David confirmed that: “Cocktails with tea are now increasingly popular with bar tenders, baking with tea is also the new trend and even in cosmetics tea is being used.” Like with wine, tea infuses our everyday life not only from the inside but also from the outside. Matcha has caught the palates of healthy lattes fans, but at the American Tea Room it is also prepared pure as a concentrated shot served with a slice of orange.
Chocolate with tea is also very popular. The American Tea Room offers Mast Brothers chocolates and further works with the chef Valerie Gordon, who creates scones and other sweet and savoury tea pastries.

As people travel much more now and visit countries like China and India they come to contact with tea more and bring it back from their travels. Then they seek these teas back home.
Even tea drinkers in countries like Taiwan, that has one of the most refined tea cultures and uses high technology, they import a lot of tea (or they buy lots of Indian tea plantations in Darjeeling) and import the tea to drink it at home. The Japanese do that as well since they only produce about 5% of all tea in the world.
This all considered poses a significant challenge to the further supply of high quality tea. Since tea cannot be grown elsewhere, its price will inevitable rise. Thus, rise your cup and enjoy it in full before it gets too pricy! Cheers.
In Beverly Hills, there is a large Persian community accustomed to drinking tea all day long. Tea has a huge potential to appeal to the local palates more than coffee. Tea consumption is now blooming even in the country of Starbucks. The coffee giant acquired Teavana, a specialty tea and tea accessory chain originating in Atlanta and merged its products into its own branches. So, what is next for tea business in LA?

Swiss mountain eats made-from-scratch to excellence at Chesa Rosatsch

The boutique hotel Chesa Rosatsch in Celerina treats athletes and food lovers who care about provenance and quality with wholesome delights. Chef Jan Gasser impeccably instructs his team at Uondas grill in a very broad menu that pleases anyone – meat-centric carnivores, sweet-loving kids and vegetarians. Together, they present a transparent offering where most ingredients’ origin is set in print and sauces, save for the ketchup are made in-house. Consistency is the hallmark of Uondas. Over the years, each winter we marvel at how perfect every single dish is. No fuss, no overt complexities, just deliciousness at its mountain best.

A few minutes drive or about half-an-hour signposted walk from St Moritz, deeper in the Grissons region, the painterly Engadine house roofs a trio of culinary concepts. I wrote about Stüvas, the slow-food, dinner-only restaurant. There is also traditional Swiss Heimatli. But where we eat most frequently is the Uondas Grill, where lunch is a conundrum of an efficient service, superb food preparation cum al-fresco sunshine bliss. The indulgent mountain affair attracts us each time we cross-country ski on the Swiss-perfect marathon run through the Engadine valley. Our only rule, first ski, sweat, then sit down at Uondas to replenish the burned calories. The menu is huge and teases you to come back after your plate arrives tasting so perfect, but we lunched there at least tow dozen times, tried much of it, so my review can unburden your choice.

Laced with snow capped peaks, dipping into a river that flushes the melted snow into the pristine blue lakes, Celerina is a village popular with Nordic skiers, while cyclists, runners rollerbladers take over in summer. After a morning workout outdoors a lunch at the contemporary grill is a treat, the reward for your physical effort.

From the wood stove lands the best tarte flambé outside Alsace. Baked to an ultra-thin crispness with local dried venison ham when in season (otherwise imported from New Zealand), parmesan, tomato, sometimes rocket but always drizzled with olive oil, the tschierv is our favourite. In summer, when fresh figs ripen, the caprino with goat cheese, chives, pine nut and bacon is the perfect seasonal choice (in winter they use dried figs). There are also sweet, dessert versions of this crisp treat that kids will relish.
Smoked fish and meat by Patrick Marxer (his factory DasPure is in Wetzikon near Zurich) top the flambés or are served sliced with onion, giant capers, herbs and house relishes. If you, like me only eat meat occasionally, when its provenance and humane treatment of the farm animals is guaranteed, Uondas and the other restaurants at Chesa Rosatsch are your call.

House cellar aged prime meat at Chesa Rosatsch

Seasons are preserved by the kitchen team into aged meet, preserves, ice-cream, otherwise fresh ingredients inspire the menu.
In a specially dedicated cellar of Chesa Rosatsch dry aged (4 and up to 12 weeks) “madürà” veal, beef and lamb is either chopped raw into tartars (photo bellow), grilled on lava stones to steaks or pounded to burger patties. Ageing on the bone improves the taste and tenderness of this regional, premium quality meat. The daily cuts, when mature are scribbled on a slate board with available serving sizes. Served simply with a vegetable mix, each tender chop charms with a slightly nutty flavour. To sample order a small (35g each) tartar served three ways – all on one plate dry-aged veal, swiss prime beef and yellow tail tuna.

There are many gourmet burgers. A classic beef-pork blend patty, buffalo, tuna (yellow tail from Maledives), Caesar’s rib-eye. Each with a choice from house-made spicy or mild sauce, customised as a double decker (additional burger patty for the hamburger and buffalo burger), topless without the upper bun or naked burger without any carbs. We love the Buffalo burger that is more like an extraordinary panini. A crisp ciabatta bread stuffed with Swiss buffalo patty, creamy buffalo mozzarella, tomato, leafy greens, roasted onion and a succulent house BBQ sauce. Served with ultra-thin fries, but if you prefer order any other side – my favourites are the perfectly crisp Sweet potato fries with homemade mango-curry ketchup, the grilled zucchini, pepper, olive oil and garlic in Sott’olio. The better than your average mixed leafy greens with a quite dense balsamic vinaigrette for the healthiest combo.

Plant-based eaters taste the world at Uondas

Vegetarians rejoyce as the Indian lentil curry with yogurt lassi, root vegetables and a juicy sprinkle of fresh pomegranate seeds is superb. A filling, wholesome, not-spicy meal. As with most dishes with two available sizes, the smaller portion is large enough (about 70% of the full portion). An Israeli shakshuka of a tomato-bell pepper gratin, chickpeas, egg and yogurt lassi. Both can be made vegan. Verdura, a quinoa bowl with goat’s cheese, chopped vegetables and pomegranate seeds is another, lighter and naturally smaller option. The cheese is from a biodynamic farm at the idyllic Silsersee lake run by Cadurisch family. The Parmigiana hot vegetables baked with parmesan cheese is a heartier side suitable as a starter. I also like the sweet potato soup that can be made without bacon. Creamy without dairy and richly nourishing.

Comfort mountain meal served fast

The clear oxtail soup with an egg feels lighter, so ideal as a mid-exercise warmer. Also the traditional Barley soup dissolves any chills within the minute your lips dip in.
From the small-sized “bowls”, my husband likes the Chicken with leafy greens, parmesan made like a Caesar salad. On a similar note is the Field salad with bacon, egg and croûtons with your choice of additions such as sautéed and sliced chicken breast or a crisp falafel. Dressed either with balsamic, Italian or French condiments. As a small snack, the fried chickpea balls (five falafels) are served with yoghurt dip. All dishes are labeled for allergens, so a gluten and lactose-free side of sott’olio – grilled zucchetti, red peppers with olive oil and garlic; the Verdura bowl and many other dishes tick the gluten-free box.
Trenette, spaghetti or malloreddus pasta (all can be made gluten-free) are served with your choice of freshly made sauce. For a table to share, the valuable three or four course menus called “tavolata” include the sweet vanilla soft-serve ice cream.

Swiss icy and chocolatey treats

Swiss chocolates by Laderlach (slabs sold by weight) or Uondas house-recipe vanilla soft-serve (made for them offsite) can accompany coffee. My indulgent après-ski replenisher is the affogato combo with an espresso. The chocolate changes but usually a milk with hazelnuts, caramelised nuts with dark chocolate, or 70% CABRUCA walnut (trinitario premium cacao with roasted walnut nougat) cocoa slabs are broken for your pleasure.
The lush and creamy soft-serve can be sprinkled with naughty kitchen whims – „fuatscha grassa“ bisquits, chunks of Toblerone, chocolate sauce and egg liqueur of savognin et al. or sweet delicacies from the wooden treasure box that the waiters parade around. Kid’s heaven!

To drink, an exclusive beer is brewed in nearby Pontresina for the hotel’s three restaurants and bar at Chesa Rosatsch. Water – Allegra is served in a refillable container widespread in the Engadine cafés and restaurants. Yet, the local filtered mountain water donates to Viva con Agua charity that supports drinking-water projects worldwide. Mountain herbs blended into warming tisanes cosy you up on the rare cold days. The sun shines through the valley for most of winter, so I feel often more like having an ice cream than schnapps with coffee or mulled wine.

Non-alcoholic warmers like herbal tisanes, hot ginger ginger ale (elderflower sirup, ginger and lime) or Vertschi Hugo juice from green grapes with elderflower are creative. Refreshing Swiss soft drinks like Mint with lime, the iconic sugary Rivella, Shorley an apple juice with spring water marketed as “a natural fitness drink and energizer” by Mosterei Möhl by Lake Constance or Fermented apple juice with/without alcohol join the cater-to-all concept sat Uondas. Chesa Rosatsch is indeed the “home of food” and we miss the Uondas grill whenever we leave this beautiful and remote piece of Europe.
Like elsewhere in the mountains, the provisions are expensive (mains between CHF 20 – 60 and large steak cuts will go aboard).
daily 12noon – 11pm

Via S. Gian 7, 7505 Celerina/Schlarigna

+41 81 837 01 01

St Moritz: the birthplace of winter tourism still has it all

Precursing the conception of the Winter Olympics, savvy European jet-setters vested into the mountain oasis of St Moritz. Revelling in the pristine Alpine air, the affluent and trendy still sport their bodies and tan their faces to a beaming, magazines-filling glow. No wonder, sun is the emblem of the resort town. The panoptic Alpine resort blends Swiss precision with Italian hospitality skilfully. Come summer, fall or winter, the sunny Engadin valley lures in quality lifestyle seekers. From Italian fashion scions (Donatella Versace has house here) through London or Zurich-based CEOs, to professional athletes, St Moritz is like the year-around Aspen of Europe. Beyond Tyrolean rusticity, here the old and new money meet athletic spirit in the altitude.

“Top Of The World” attitude of St Moritz in its architecture

What makes the Grisons canton gem even more attractive culturally, beyond its contemporary art galleries, vip design shows (Nomad in February), is the local rumantsch dialect (derived from old latin) still spoken and taught in schools. As in Austria, the regional pride boasts its façades in the Engadin architecture, customs, cuisine, and the local produce. Dotting the valley’s towns, settlements and villages are the protected traditional whitewashed houses with beautiful decorated with sgraffito (scratched ornament) plasterwork facades. Chesa Veglia, built in 1658 houses now a good grill restaurant and a better pizzeria is owned by the fanciest hotel in St Moritz, the Baddrutt’s Palace. Money rules, as the life here is expensive. Gucci, Loro Piana, Louis Vuitton next to Hauser & Wirth art gallery and opulent rare jewelry boutiques line the main road along the Baddrut’s. While, the indulgent breakfast buffets at the Palace are accompanied by a harpist’s strings, healthier options await at the Suvretta House.

An antithesis to the contemporary floor to ceiling windows, the traditional mountain style is tiny, seemingly haphazard, and like gingerbread the see-through holes are laced with ornamental decor. A short drive to Champfér, a splendidly restored farmhouse (built in 1658) was transformed into an excellent Michelin restaurant Talvo by Dalsass. Since 2011 in the caring hands of Tyrolean chef Martin Dalsass and his son Andrea, for consistent, ingredient-driven pleasure and olive oil lovers, this is a must.

Swiss Alps Mountain hut

Bookworms may be interested in visiting the original Heidi mountain hut, a well-kept example of the more humble Engadin architecture. The Public Library in the middle of town stocks you with more print, but you can sit down in the back room and read in if you feel like. A bookstore across the street sells some books in English, Italian and German.

Engadine library Engadiner Museum

The Leaning Tower attracts visitors to Pisa, but there is one in St Moritz, and it beats Pisa’s tilt with a 5.5 degrees! Built in 1570, this former church steeple is unmissable for architecture buffs.

Digging deeper into the regional history as a spa destination, the Forum Paracelsus (free entry) ushers you into the natural taste of the local, acidic springs. The Mauritius well from the Bronze Age was discovered around 1411 BC.

Much of the newer architecture is seamlessly built in across the Engadine, but St Moritz lost its authentic local look decades ago.

The boxy Kulm Hotel, the eccentric flying saucer named Chesa Futura by the British architect Norman Foster, and worse, the high-rising apartment buildings in St Moritz Bad spoil the congruity.

architecture St Moritz Giovanni Segantini

Two, locally-focused museums are worth visiting, if at least for their architecture. The Engadiner Museum and the rotunda-shaped Segantini Museum showing exclusively the works by local artist Giovanni Segantini. His sketch inspired the architecture of today’s museum. In the dome at the top you find the last works of the painter – The Alpine triptych of “Becoming – Being – Passing”.

Naturally blessed, the Engadin valley in winter could be painted as an endless feast of whipped cream overflowing from the crisp rocky mountain cones flipped upside down. Practically set in a triangle north-west from Milan (international travellers can land at Malpensa and drive along the Lake Como, via Lugano to St Moritz), Zurich and the Austrian Tyrols, the open Valley basks in the sunshine most days. Wind from Maloja sways the clouds from the peaks, down the slopes, whisking up the egg white snowflakes covering the lakes like fluffy meringues. Just bite.

Swiss mountain town

A century ago you would arrive by train (Glacier and Bernina Express routes today climb to the St Moritz Dorf) and taxi around by horse carriage. We drive our car from Monaco, while private jets land from London and other affluent European destinations. A small airport stretches in the valley right next to the seemingly endless Nordic ski track lacing the Inn river. Traveling to St Moritz can turn into an adventure before you even put your ski boots on. The winter weather is laced with surprises in the mountains. Once we got stuck in the serpentines dipping deep into the ravines of the Alps, had to be towed down to safe road, while other times we simply could not drive through the narrow stretches on the Italian border side.

The St Moritz calendar brings European jet-setters in

There are many attractive events scheduled each year. In winter, the Polo on the Lake, the horse races, cricket, the Gourmet Festival, Red Cross Gala, Nomad design festival and other smaller art and social affairs fill up the callendar. It is a magnetising experience to watch the horses galloping on the frozen from the comfort of your balcony, so book your stay at Badrutt’s Palace ahead. In summer music enters the scene with more prominence.

Winter sports in St Moritz

The stage for two Winter Olympics in 1928 and 1948 set St Moritz on the world winter sports map. The former Olympic stadium near to the Kulm Golf annually hosts high level bobsleigh (in the only natural ice channel run in the world) and ski racing competitions regularly take over the Cresta Run. The highest peak in the canton, Piz Bernina (4,049 m) is set on the border with Lombardy (Italy). Its range defines the two glacier valleys Vadret Morteratsch and Vadret Roseg, where at least under the current climatic conditions, you can heli-ski all year round. Right around St Moritz, the Corvatch (9km run), Corviglia and Diavolezza (glacier) runs are groomed for comfort. The only inconvenience for these staying in town may be taking the funicular up that runs about every 15 minutes. If you lodge at the Suvretta House (open since 1919), their private lifts will bring you up.

The sport facilities in the region are extraordinary. Recently built Ovaverva swimming, fitness and spa (facials, massages) complex right across from the Kempinski Grand hotel has a 25m indoor swimming pool, separate children’s pool, large indoor and outdoor jacuzzis and a gym. In the building also the St Moritz cross-country ski centre is located. St Moritz prides in offering one of the best groomed scenic cross-country skiing trails in Europe if not the World and many professional athletes train here. I can easily skate on the mostly flat marathon trail snaking along the lakes and valley for hours. We prefer to drive over to Celerina or Pontresina, park our car by Chesa Rosatsch hotel, and get on the ski trails smoothly. Lunch at the hotel’s casual restaurant Uondas is our favorite apres-ski. Piste 21 further after the Engadine Airport is also good.

cross-country skying in Europe

Walking trails are perfectly groomed, signposted so anyone can stroll across the Lake St Moritz to the forested valley and a small lake that is great for swimming in the summer. Passing giant ice-sickles sculpted into anything creatively attractive that a man’s handwork can conceive, it is an intriguing walk. Dog walkers love the vastness of possibilities. In the opposite direction heading across the Silvaplana Lej (Lake) will take you under the Diavolezza glacier. Uphill, taking the Via Alpina you can hike up to your lunch on the mountain. For dining options check my article Gourmet’s Paradise in St Moritz.

The luxe travellers keep easily fit during the rare rainy or stormy days since each of the grand hotels has a great gym, saunas, and a large spa area. Even those on the budget accommodation find sauna in their bed and breakfast quite often.

Summer activities in the Alpine setting

In the Gilded Challet, Padraig Rooney writes: “Switzerland is partly a creation of our own guilt and desires: freedom, fresh air, money, corruption, chocolate, a winter holiday, heaven on earth. It’s the playground for Europe, far from prying eyes, where royalty go skiing, former royalty hide out, and collapsed dictators count their filthy lucre.” Nowhere is this as evident as in St Moritz. Unlike most ski holiday destinations, St Moritz attracts visitors also during the warm months. As the frozen lakes melt and the sunrays halo the warmer days, St Moritz transforms into a golfers turf and draws youth to its music festivals. Most hotels reopen in June after a short, muddy late spring break, the summer logistics are set for you. The Nordic ski trails turn into safe biking routes and smooth, paved roads along the river draw in rollerbladers, while the gushing rivers invite for rafting. The ski slopes transform into steep hiking and mountain biking and the lakes lend this eden to sailers, windsurfers.

St Moritz lifestyle Badrutt's Palace Hotel in St Moritz

Luxury accommodation

The historic Suvretta House offers superb more natural views away from the action of St Moritz. It’s pool is large, the ice skating ring like at Badrutt’s and Kulm hotel open for the guests, but as a popular conference venue today, the food at the Grand Restaurant is mediocre and outdated. The only luxurious hotel on the lake is the Grand Hotel Kronenhof, but in terms of comfort and quality the Badrutt’s Palace wins over the competitive set.

The Giardino Mountain Hotel in Champfer has the most contemporary interiors and the spa is superb, but the quality is not at the level of the Palace, which also offers the best views over the St Moritz lake and best dining in town.

”Switzerland has always provided something of a refuge for writers – from war, oppression, tuberculosis and even marriage – as well as an inspiration to them too”, wrote the The Bookseller. The culturally broad yet politically neutral cantons offer plenty to the savvy travellers today, but St Moritz has it all, authentically evolving with the needs of the people occupying its hotel rooms.

« First ‹ Prev 15 16 171819 20 21 Next ›Last »