A random blessing in our stay in Gdansk has been our new found friends (and fellow far flung couple) K & G, who are currently living in Gdynia for a year. At least once a month we find ourselves heading up to the sea side for another evening of good food along with a smattering of beer, wine and the occasional spirit.
So it was that we ended up spending a long, warm August afternoon in paper party hats chowing down on a tray of lobster at a ‘crayfish party’ (or kräftskiva) from G’s native Sweden.
Traditionally marking the start of the Swedish crayfish harvesting season, kräftskiva are held in August – but it seems that whatever stocks they had in the southern Baltic were long gone, as despite searching the whole Tricity, not a single crayfish could be found… But fear not, a quick and tasty substitution for lobster from the far side of the Atlantic saved the day.
Aside from the small matter of no crayfish at a crayfish party, everything else was in place for the authentic Swedish experience – the garden was decked in suitably fishy decorations and the table laid with paper plates and napkins printed with the elusive shellfish.
To accompany the lobster, K served a sublime traditional cheese pie – lovingly adorned with a crayfish insignia etched in raspberry. The pie was pure cream, eggs and rich Vasterbotten cheese – stick that in a buttery homemade pastry case and you have pure pie perfection.
If that isn’t enough cheese for you, the rest of the huge Vasterbrotten wedge was served up with crackers on which to spread the moist mushy parts of the lobster – bits that I would never dared eat had our hosts not given me assurance they were safe. In fact these were the best bits – I just need more experience eating lobster…
Another essential element at a crayfish party is booze and Swedish party songs – although we were slow to pick up some of the more lyrically complicated chants, we did manage a brief Finnish shout of ‘nu!’ (’now’) before each shot of sweet schnapps.
Beer and wine followed and by the time we got the train back to Gdansk we were fuller, tipsier, happier and tired out – another memorable weekend thanks to K&G, thanks!
A few weeks ago we returned to Gdansk after a short trip home, and it was great to take to the cobbled streets of the old town (albeit through Belfast-esque weather) to try the new Verres en Vers restaurant in the beautifully restored Radisson SAS on the the main historic square of Dlugi Targ.
The Radisson itself is really a remarkable restoration job. The lobby is bright and spacious and we decided to take a drink at the Sure bar just off the foyer. This was billed as a ‘cosy Irish bar’, but the reality was that it felt like a hotel bar. A classy, stylish one with an excellent cocktail list, but ‘Irish’ and ‘cosy’ are not two words that spring to mind.
We went for a couple of cocktails at 25 PLN (£5) each. Pricey drinks in Gdansk, but really well made and just soooo good. As the Radisson has only been open a few weeks, the bar was empty, the silence broken only by us and a light tinkling of 50s swing from the sound system. The cocktails were good enough to go back to, but the price will probably discount much of a local trade.
Drinking up, we sauntered along the corridor to the restaurant. Decorated in dark woods and light creams, it certainly looked the part of a stylish bistro. We took a table at the window overlooking the main street – we had plenty of choice as there was noone else dining there on the saturday night. Hopefully, no big deal as the restaurant was new, pricey and the tourist season had been stalled by the chilly weather.
The wine list was impressive in content, but seemed obscene in price. Wine is more expensive in Gdansk in general, but a house white at £20 a bottle seems a touch expensive. We opted instead for a caraf of Alsace Reisling at £10. At 25cl the caraf was almost humourously small, but the wine was good quality and it gave us a wee glass each.
The first starter we ordered was the onion soup. This was far and away the highlight of the meal – a rich broth stuffed with crunchy croutons and packed with cheese. About as good as a French onion soup can be (that means really good) and keenly priced at 20 PLN (£4).
After the full flavours of the soup, the crab salad could not have been more bland. The crab was completely without any flavour, so tasteless that it was almost disturbing… We grabbed the salt shaker and kept grinding until it at least it tasted like salt. The rocket and mixed leaves salad was also very lame. At around £10 for the starter, this could not have been worse value.
Mains arrived with some fantastic ‘garlic bread’ on the side. In this case the bread (a very non descript baguette) was accompanied by half a bulb of roasted garlic and a knob of butter. The soft garlic cloves could then be spread onto the bread and dusted with salt to create the some of the most amazing garlic bread we have had – why don’t we do this at home?!
Main number one was the fillet of beef with a brandy sauce and roast potatoes. The beef was perfectly cooked to medium rare and was a really great slab of meat. The sauce was a little fiery with chilli oil, but very tasty and a good dip for the potatoes.
We ordered a side of Dauphinoise potatoes with this (I didn’t realise the beef came with roasties) which were adequate… but rather than being creamy had more of a dry eggy texture. Hmmm.
The other course was the pork belly. At 40 PLN this was one of the cheapest things on the menu, but came as two large slabs of slow cooked pork belly with a nice crispy edge. The meat was served with potatoes and fennel in a red wine sauce, with a green side salad. While not wildly exciting, it was about as good as a meat and two veg dish could be – not bad at all.
Onto dessert, and with summer (supposedly) here we opted for two light fruity ones – strawberries with cognac and cream, and mille fuille with raspberries and cream. They were fine, fresh, fruity, did what they said on the tin, but nothing more.
Removing the cocktails and tip from the bill, the meal came to 350 PLN (£70) for three courses and a glass of wine each. While the ambiance and staff were superb, you really are paying for the location more than the uninspiring food. The onion soup was so good, though, that we might give it another chance now the summer is properly here.
Verres en Vers
Radisson Blu Hotel
Dlugi Targ 19
80-828 Gdansk
For those of you unfamiliar with Oaxen, this world class restaurant is found in a somewhat random location, around 80km from Stockholm on a tiny island somewhere in the Swedish archipelago. Now in its fifteenth season of plating locally sourced and inspired dishes, head chef Magnus Ek has become one of the highest regarded chefs in Sweden and the restaurant has spent the last few years edging its way up Pellegrino’s contentious ‘50 best’ list.
Unlike Heston’s eternal tasting menu at the Fat Duck, Oaxen has a seasonally transient menu. Not only does it change on an annual basis (I’m sure being closed for six months of the year helps – El Bulli style), but it also changes with the seasons and even weekly to keep regular diners and the local population on the island happy. This means that your meal and ours might well be different experiences – as such it seems pointless to analyse each dish in turn.
Being a Sunday night, barely into Spring and only the first weekend of the 2009 Oaxen season, the restaurant was very quiet the evening we visited – in fact there were only two other guests in the otherwise silent room. At first this was a little awkward, but as time (and the wine pairings) progressed, we relaxed and it made the experience feel all the more unique and cosy. We were sat at a table by the window, overlooking our floating accommodation for the night and the waterways and islands beyond.
My first advice is to bring a good appetite to Oaxen because the urge to fill up on bread is irresistable. Not only does the bread flow endlessly from the kitchen (in tiny individually fresh baked pans), but four radically distinct varieties were delivered. Our favourites were the crumpet-like pancake bread and the obscenely sweet and crunchy pigs blood bread. Mmmmm pigs blood bread. You really had to be there. Spectacular.
Barely nudging ahead of the other dishes was the final main of kid, or to give it it’s full title seared herb spiced roast of kid with deep-fried brisket of veal and molasses bread, cauliflower and loan lichen with sweetbread fried in garlic ash and red wine jus. Phew. Kid had been the star dish in our trip to El Celler De Can Roca (probably still our all time favourite restaurant… just) so we were looking forward to this one, and Oaxen did not disappoint. Strong sweet meat flavours, well balanced with the buttery cauliflower and sweetbread textures.
To say that this was the best course is really a disservice to the rest, as more so than any other meal we had had, all seven main courses, the handful of amuses and even the petit fours really felt like they flowed into one another – building from subtle raw shelfish, through beautifully cooked fresh cod into the rich kid dish before culminating in a light and fresh series of sweets.
Sadly we didn’t didn’t do our best work with the camera on this one – the quiet restaurant made us feel a little self concious and the plentiful wine definitely affected the focussing… Oh and the food was so appealing that the occasional dish was gone before I even remembered the camera.
In fact the wine and champagne also contributed to a very embarassing (and thus all the more amusing) situation that left us giggling uncontrollably when we both misheard ‘trotters’ as ‘tortoise’. Childish hilarity ensued… well you can never be too sure at these modern restaurants can you? We really have to apologise to the waiter and the other couple in the restaurant for the poorly concealed giggles…
Whilst on the subject of the wine – the selection was beyond superb and well worth the indulgence. Unlike the rather tame pairings of the Fat Duck, here each course brought something that not only matched the food, but also provided an interesting experience in itself – for example one wine had the unmistakable odour of blue cheese, and yet when combined with the food, tasted exquisite.
At the end of the meal it was great to get a chance to speak to the manager and somellier Angete Green about the ethos of the restaurant – a case in point: the food is so fresh and local that she had been out in the garden with a torch to collect fresh mint and herbs for the pot of tea we had ordered to conclude our meal. We were then priveldged to meet Magnus Ek himself who showed us his nifty smoking device and then around the kitchen – a series of rooms that allowed the cooking staff to expand as the season got busier and busier.
After an almost flawless meal we were so stuffed that we wrapped up our petit fours along with a few other fun souvenirs and retired to our cabin to be sent to sleep by the gentle waves rocking the boat. And the wine. Mostly the wine.
Oaxen
Tasting menu around £200 per person including wine pairings
SE-153 93 Mörkö
Sweden
