Virtual Gourmet

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       With the single exception of New York, no city on earth now possesses the vigor and variety of dining out as does London, where restaurants have become as much entertainment as any show in Soho and where restaurateurs and chefs have become celebrities as popular and ubiquitous as TV stars, in some cases as TV stars (and occasionally for being foul-mouthed boors who happen to cook like angels).
   No one who has visited London in the past decade can come to any other conclusion but that the city has not just come a long way from bangers-and-mash but quite easily rivals Paris as a great city of great restaurants. (So, too, thinks the Michelin Guide, which has lavished stars on London restaurants.) If London’s chefs too readily copy French models—especially when it comes to opening bistros and brasseries often more Parisian than those in Paris—they also have a knack for creating real excitement at every stratum of gastronomy, from better-than-ever pub food to sushi bars and on up to haute cuisine.
     A case in point is the venerable but remarkably modern Wiltons (55 Jermyn Street; 011-44-20-7629-9955; www.wiltons.co.uk), which opened its doors in 1742 and has been under the same owners since 1942, when Olaf Hambro, eating oysters at the bar during a Luftwaffe raid, asked for the restaurant to be put on his bill, and that was that. Though its location has moved all over St. James, it has been at its current address on Jermyn Street since 1984, so these are remarkably new premises for a 262-year-old institution.
    So one should not go to Wiltons thinking it will be an antiquarian experience with food to match. In fact, now under director Margaret Levin, the place has never seemed more sophisticated and up to date, its renovated decor as smart as any in London. You enter through archways into the bar, where many take their lunch from a selection of oysters and other shellfish, along with fine British cheeses. Or you proceed to the dining room (below), led by manager Ernesto Cacace, who knows the regulars as much by their name as by their peerage and regiments. One will still find a host of Forsyte Saga types, along with business people, Fleet Street publishers, and pols--the last time I entered Wiltons I almost knocked over an exiting Maggie Thatcher--so dress counts (jackets required for men, though open necks are now tolerated at lunch and brunch), and women tend to dress with telling savoir-faire. The service staff could hardly be more genteel. The walls are the color of pale English mustard, the hunting prints of exquisite quality, the linens soft, and the Pullman booths much sought after. The rest of the well-set tables are roomy, although the moss green chairs are as uncomfortably tight as a coach class seat on Aeroflot. wiltons

      Wisely Wiltons has maintained a traditional Anglo-French menu while allowing chef Jerome Ponchelle, formerly at The Connaught, to offer daily specials that give him some culinary freedom. Wiltons revels in "proper" fish and game cookery, and that is precisely what you should order here, beginning perhaps with dressed crab or lobster bisque Newberg or a cup of vichyssoise, that is if you don't just gorge on the cold shellfish platters offered here in profusion.
          There's no point in trying to coax me away from the Dover sole meuniére at Wiltons, because it is such a paragon--magnificent fish cooked gently in plenty of butter, its flesh yielding from the bone at the nudge of a fish knife. There is also Scottish lobster, plaice, halibut and turbot daily, along with grilled meats of unstinting quality, including lamb kidneys and bacon. The game is superior to almost any in town, including fallow deer in a red wine-pepper sauce and a tourte of partridge with foie gras and truffle sauce that seems as modern as it is truly classic. There's also grouse in season, roasted pink. A side dish of petit pois purée was as green and creamy as could be imagined in springtime, and the potatoes gratin dauphinois were brown, buttery, and addictive. Thoroughly delicious was an omelette with lobster, crab and truffles, and this is a restaurant where they still serve "savouries" like anchovies on toast and Welsh rarebit, sometimes enjoyed as appetizers but otherwise, in strict British regimen, taken after the sweets (something I find both outdated and just plain ridiculous). Instead, have some of those wonderful cheeses, like a great Stilton with a glass of Port, or move on to bread and butter pudding, a raspberry crème brûlée, or perhaps old-fashioned Sherry trifle.
        Wiltons' wine list is chock full of great French Bordeaux and Burgundy and priced accordingly, with a smattering of Spanish, Italian, and New World wines available. There are, however, a good number of wines under $50, all well chosen, and a decent selection of half-bottles too.
             You definitely need a reservation to dine here, and don't try it at the last minute, but once in the door, you'll be treated as graciously as any well-behaved regular. Appetizers here, both at lunch and dinner, run £6-£30 ($17.50-$37), main courses £14-£40 ($17.50-$50).

   riv cafe

Newer in years but bound by the best traditions of simple Italian cooking, The River Café (Thames Wharf, Rainville Road; 011-44-20-7386-4200; www.rivercafe.co.uk) has maintained its eminence despite all fashions and follies thrown against it since opening in 1987. To say that chef-owners Rose Gray and Ruth Rodgers revolutionized Italian cooking in the U.K. might be a bit of an exaggeration, but their simple, ingredients-based, regional Italian menu, with plenty of grilled items, most certainly had enormous influence on the development of Italian cooking in London. Their five cookbooks have all deserved to be bestsellers, and their own very personable image has never advanced to the neurotic egotism of some of their media-seeking contemporaries. They are not eccentric women (like the Two Fat Ladies) and neither is their cooking; nor have they ever strayed from the distinctive style they developed early on--no fusion Ital-Japanese or Mediterranean-Caribbean nonsense here. So, too, the room itself is all lightness, in cool white and gleaming stainless steel, with a royal blue carpet to add the only real color, and a charming clock dial shadow thrown on one wall..
    The menu stresses seasonal goodness, so this winter you'll enjoy dishes like roast pheasant and pigeon salad with prosciutto, radicchio, chestnuts and aged balsamico, or char-grilled squid with fresh red chiles and rocket salad. The pastas are uniformly wonderful--I ate with great relish the squash-stuffed ravioli with ricotta, a hint of marjoram and sage, and just a gloss of butter and Parmigiano. Tagliarine with juicy red mullet, tomato, bay leaf, parsley and a little ginger worked very well, and everyone at our table fought over the Gorgonzola-rich risotto cooked in a fine chicken stock.
    Fish has always been a stand-out here, usually treated to some extra virgin olive oil and roasted or grilled. I had wood-roasted turbot with capers, marjoram, and radicchio. There was a roast loin of pork (cooked a tad too much for me) with a scenting of rosemary, carrots, celeriac, leeks, beets, and herbed olive oil, and I was delighted with a ruddy rare grouse with pancetta, thyme, wild mushrooms and Aleatico wine. If there seems to be a repetition of seasonings on the menu, the rationale is easy: those flavors at this time of year go best with other flavors at this time of the year. As they would in Italy.
    The River Café has always had scrumptious desserts, which on my visit included a tangy lemon tart, a pear and almond tart, and an espresso cake studded with crunchy hazelnuts and served with ice cream flavored with sweet vin santo wine. A selection of Italian cheeses with garnishes is also available. A very appropriate wine list accompanies the food here, with many good wines under $50.
    Even after so many years--and a this way-and-that, winding Mr. Toad-like drive from London's center out to Thames Wharf--The River Café is not only packed day and night but still tough to get into on short notice.
       Antipasti cost £10-£12.50 ($12.50-$15.50), pastas £11-£12.50 ($13.75- $15.50) and main courses £25-£32 ($31.50-$40.25).

While I was in London everyone was talking about the hottest new place in town, The Wolseley Cafe-Restaurant (160 Piccadilly; 011-44-20-7499-6996; www.thewolseley.co.uk ), located right across the street from The Ritz in premises last occupied by an auto showroom, before that a Chinese restaurant (which explains some gilded Orientalism in the decor), with an august, rather somber 1920s facade. The huge room is done up in austere black marble pillars, giving the place the ambience of a bank building with dining tables moved into its lobby. Its cheeky heat-of-the-moment is generated by the fact that the owners, Jeremy King and Christopher Corbin, also run the very tony Le Caprice, The Ivy, and J. Sheekey. I was informed it was impossible to get into for lunch and dinner (it opened last November), but at breakfast I found the place mostly empty. I make no pretense, therefore, to review the food here, because all I had was a perfectly good continental breakfast of crispy croissant and creamy cappuccino (£6.75). The service staff, all in black or gray-green, tries to be accommodating, but I found most no speak Een-gleesh vairy good, so things dragged a bit. Frankly, I was not much encouraged to call in any favors to facilitate a table at lunch or dinner, because the lunch-dinner menu, served from 11:30 AM-midnight, is so dull: one page of sandwiches, salads, and things like smoked salmon on soda bread, steak tartare with frites, and chicken soup and dumplings--any of which one could find at a Prêt-à-Porter food shop in town, along with another page of Viennese-style desserts. I can't imagine Chef Chris Galvin, plucked from Conran's superb Orrery, is excited by what he now dishes out here. The Wolseley seems to be no more than it seeks to be, which seems perfectly all right with those who can slip in here with ease or those willing to fight or pay off to get a table at any cost. There are a lot more interesting places to go in London for good food.

Certainly the best of the new serious restaurants-is Tom Aikens (43 Elystan Street; 011-44-20-7584-2003; www.tomaikens.co.uk ) in Chelsea, much more popular with London's foodies than with the celebs--although I must report that the table to my right was occupied by Andrew Lloyd Webber and his wife and the one to my left by the former police commish of NYC, Bill Bratton, so I felt both buoyed and bodyguarded at once.
    As you can see from the photo to the left, the room is minimalist in the extreme, the warmth and conviviality provided by a first-rate staff (mostly French) overseen by Laura Aikens, whose husband Tom (formerly of Pied à Terre) keeps his talents in the kitchen and lends his name to the enterprise.     White, black, and gray are the dominant shades throughout, but the lighting is soft and good for people watching. I'm told that there are paintings by someone named Anthony Krikhaar, though I honestly don't remember seeing any.
    The menu is fixed at a very reasonable £49--about $62 (lunch is £24.50 and a 7-course tasting menu £59), with no supplements save an option of cheese for 10 pounds more. The wine list is very well chosen, and good bottles are to be found under $50.
    Aikens (who, I later learned, had once been a private chef for Lord Webber) is very much in the swing of modern British cookery, which is to say deep, braising flavors, plenty of confits, and plates full of shanks and offal. He makes a boudin sausage from langoustines, serves it with a roast langoustine, then tucks some lovely pumpkin macaroni and braised veal shin on the side. Scallops are roasted and served with braised Jerusalem artichokes, a confit of duck wing, baby squid, roast onions and a shallot sauce, which, remarkably came together quite amiably. For my main course I opted for a superb roast partridge with a pear purée and fondant that added a subtle sweetness, and truffled mashed potatoes with roast foie gras, cabbage and a pear-truffle sauce. Blanquette de veau was not quite what I expected--a creamy stew of veal and vegetables; instead it was veal fillet with roast sweetbreads and braised onions--but very good after all.   One might sense one is getting a tremendous amount of food on the plate, but in fact all is sensibly doled out, the richness of every morsel and every reduction preferable to huge portions. If reductions seem too similar to one another, it's difficult to object to those delicious, winey-caramelized flavors Aikens obviously adores.
     For dessert we had more caramel: a caramelized pear with pear sorbet, chocolate mousse and Italian meringue, which really was three delectable items on one plate, and almond panna cotta with caramel ice cream, caramel jelly, caramel mousse, nougatine and almond mousse, which got a bit cloying after two spoonfuls. Coffee and petit-fours are of very good quality here.
     The menu, as at many London restaurants these days, adds a discretionary 12.5% service charge (which is a lot better than the 20% and up so many Americans insist on leaving, lest they be not loved), and a "voluntary £1 for Streetsmart, which funds a range of homeless charities in London." The Aikenses also request that smokers show consideration to others and ask that cigars and cell phones be kept out of the dining room (Hear, Hear!).
    It was just announced that the restaurant has acquired its first Michelin star, which will make getting into Tom Aikens tougher than ever, and I hope it does not drive up the prices, which are now quite reasonable for this high quality of cuisine. But then, dining in London for a Yank is nothing if not expensive these days, when the weakness of the US dollars forces us to fork over $1.85 per British pound!

      For some time now the term "ethnic restaurant" has made me wince a bit, because it seems to apply to cuisines that have never garnered the respect they should because the connotation is that they are from Third World countries. It's been a long while since anyone called an Italian restaurant "ethnic" (at least since $20 pastas appeared on menus), and since French is the Mother of All Fine Cuisines, it stands quite alone on the ladder of world gastronomy. One would think that "ethnic" refers to any cooking that is not strictly "American," whatever that means, but the word seems now only to apply to Central and South American, African, and Asian restaurants, with the additional condescending connotation of being a place to get inexpensive food in a tatty storefront location in a lesser zip code.
     Indeed it is this kind of condescending attitude that has kept Indian, Vietnamese, Korean, and other Southeast Asian restaurants from flourishing in the way their American and European counterparts do. Ethnic food is supposed to be filling and cheap, heavy on side dishes of rice, and be packed up for take-out. Few people are willing to pay $30 for a main course at such restaurants, despite any ingredients and preparations that might go into such a dish. There are, to be sure, some pretty impressive and elegant "ethnic" restaurants around the country, including Shun Lee Palace and Tamarind in NYC, Ana Mandara and The Mandarin in San Francisco, Crustacean in Beverly Hills and Las Vegas, Mantra in Boston, and Topolobampo and Arun's in Chicago. But by and large they are small, minimally decorated, often family run, and give a lotta bang for the buck. You certainly won't find any garnering the high stars in the ridiculous poop-a-doop Mobil Travel Guide.
       Yet two new NYC restaurants show not only how delectable it is to dine out on such exotic food but how gracious and committed their owners are to fine food and, increasingly, to marrying their food to wine. Bôi, a small Vietnamese eatery whose name refers to the owners' grandmother, is a joint venture of the Tran family from Ho Chi Minh City and Bill Yosses, pastry chef at the estimable seafood restaurant Citarella on Sixth Avenue. Together they have fashioned an unpretentious spot in midtown, quite near Grand Central Terminal, where they are serving delicious Vietnamese food along with some pretty impressive desserts. You enter up a few steps from the street and are amiably greeted by Antee Tran (Tamie Trans-Le is her sister and cook) and shown to a modest dining room with lacquered walls and curtains (below, right). Tables are set with linens and glass tops, and the wait staff includes a few Americans who are earnestly mastering the pronunciations names of dishes on the menu, which is separated into tô nhõ (small dishes) and tô lón (big dishes), with specials each night. You'll want to come with at least three other people so you can all nosh through the menu, whose most expensive item is $21. Appetizers run $7-$13. There is a wine list with some admirable selections at very reasonable prices; you may have to experiment a bit, but I find wines like Rieslings and Sauvignon Blancs go very well with Vietnamese food, which is decidedly not hot like Thai cooking. boi

    With few exceptions I was delighted by what our table of four ordered, beginning with "rolls," like cha gio--something of a national food of Vietnam--crispy pockets of rice paper stuffed with shrimp, crabmeat and pork with jicama and carrot-lime sauce, and tom cuon, stuffed with prawns, vermicelli noodles, lettuce and mint with peanut-chili sauce. Two noodles dishes were delicious--mien cua, made from bean threads and highly spiced and mixed with crabmeat, straw mushrooms and aromatics, and bun thit nuong, rice vermicelli topped with grilled barbecued pork tinged with lemongrass and tossed with lettuce, mint and roasted peanut (yes, flavors and condiments tend to get repeated here in various dishes). A salad of lotus stems with prawns, cucumbers, tomatoes and peanuts with shrimp crackers, called goi sen, was all right but nothing to rave about. Excellent pan-fried filet of red snapper, called ca xa, with turmeric in a spicy lemongrass-tamarind sauce, had a quickly seared exterior and nice moist flakiness inside. Also very good were banh xeo, wonderful Saigon-style crêpes sandwiched with shrimp, meatballs, bean sprouts and lettuce in a chili-lime dipping sauce--you will probably fight with your friends over this item, though I doubt you will over muc nhoi, rather tasteless quid stuffed with equally tasteless pork and shiitakes. It definitely needed a better dose of garlic and the fish sauce called nuoc cham.
    Yosses' desserts follow the Asian style, and they are as interesting as they are very tasty, like the tamarind cake with red papaya and a jackfruit toffee pudding--not at all like the often gluey Vietnamese sweets usually found elsewhere. By all means end of with luscious, sweet Vietnamese coffee.

       Amma, which means "mamma," is the creation of Suvir Saran, trained as a graphic designer, now prime mover and, along with partner Hemant Mathur, chef. at this scintillating new restaurant. "You won't find our kind of cooking in restaurants in India," says Saran. "You'll only find it in modern Indian families where they are more open to new ideas." Amma's food is indeed a departure from the usual items at most Indian restaurants here and in the sub-continent. Perhaps taking his cue from Floyd Cardoz at Tabla in NYC and Thomas Johns at Mantra in Boston, who mix Indian spices with American ingredients and French techniques, Saran aims at a coalescence of subtle flavors, with little of the incendiary heat of Indian restaurants in the East Village; nevertheless there is no mistaking his food for any but true Indian, for the spices and textures are all well within the traditions of that gastronomy, especially in the appetizers.
    It may not be a place to find the usual vindaloo dishes, but you may well begin with idly upma (rice and bean cakes, sautéed curry leaves and mustard seeds) or crispy fried spinach chaat with a sprouted mung bean salad. My wife and I opted for two different tasting menus, one vegetarian, one non-vegetarian. These 8-course menus are each a very reasonable $50, with paired wines, $85. (Otherwise appetizers run $6-$10; entrees $12-$28.) Of the vegetarian items we enjoyed Bombay bhel puri (rice puffs and chickpea flour noodles with cilantro, red onions, tamarind chutneys and potatoes); light, flaky pea-stuffed samosa and stuffed mushrooms with ginger and cheese-and-chile stuffed mushrooms; Manchurian cauliflower marinated in garlic and cooked Indo-Chinese style; and zucchini dumplings with an aromatic tomato sauce, called laukee ke kofte. None had the heaviness too many Indian dishes so often have, and each had distinctive spices and seasonings.
    Among the non-vegetarian dishes we liked most were Sri Lankan-style tandoori roasted shrimp with a yogurt marinade and Parsi halibut with mint chutney and wonderfully aromatic lemon-scented rice. The tandoor oven was also put to good use for lamb chops with a sweet and sour pear chutney and curry leaf potatoes. Curiously enough, while the Indian breads here were good, they were not as crisp and puffy and yeasty as others I've had around town.
     cheescekae

Desserts are often afterthoughts in Indian restaurants, cloyingly sweet and often prepared too far in advance and left to languish in the 'fridge. At Amma, thanks to Mr. Yosses, everything tastes freshly made, from the Indian ice cream called kulfi, set in a citrus soup, to a delicious and brilliantly colored mango cheesecake (left; photo by Tana Butler)
Amma's wine list is considerably in the vanguard, with a good selection of Australian and New Zealand bottlings that go well with this food, and sommelier Bikky Sharma is as enthusiastic as any wine-obsessed enophile in the city. Josh Wesson is consultant on the list, so most prices are kept at a sane tariff, although $44 for a Qupe Marsanne '01 that retails for about $14, and Taltarni Shiraz '00 at $45 vs $15, is getting pretty pricey.

"The fish arrived, singed to gold and crowned with two straight-and-narrow pancetta strips laid parallel, in perfect alignment. It was as if the double bars were saying, `Stop a moment and consider what you're about to eat.' . . . The singe on the liver jumps out against a fragile small tart filled with fresh peach, and a puff of crème fraîche makes the whole thing melt together on the tongue. It tastes like it's proud to be over the top." --Alison Cook, review of Rouge, Houston Chronicle

Mouse and rat were the featured items in a variety of dishes at a dinner in Lucknow,

India

, to celebrate the food culture of the Musahar tribes, who ate such rodents when they were unable to obtain “more wholesome food.” Roast rat and mouse kebabs were served, along with mouse biryani and a choice of rodent soups.--The Hindustani Times.

San Francisco: Ana Mandara (415-771-6800): 4-course tasting menu at $90 pp. . . .Aperto (415-252-1625): 3-course dinner at $40 pp. . . . BeauCoup (415-409-8500): 3-courses at $75 pp . . . . First Crush (415-982-7874): 4 courses with wine pairings at $90. . . Jitney's Bar & Grill (415-982-5299): 3-course menu $40 pp with Champagne cocktail and cookies. Live music . . . . Kokkari (415-981-0983) 4-course menu, $75 pp. . . . The Mandarin Restaurant (415-673-8812) Prix Fixe menu $38 pp, $50 with wines. . . .Millennium Restaurant (415-345-3900): "Aphrodisiac Packages" are available every Sunday in Feb. with two options: dinner for two + hotel room at the Savoy Hotel for $180 or dinner for two at $45 pp. . . . Moose's (415-989-7800): 3-course menu, $58 pp. Complimentary chocolates, balloons, and live jazz. . . XYZ Restaurant (415-817-7836) 4-course menu with choices, $115 pp; with wines $30 extra; Complimentary glass of Champagne. . . . Evvia Estiatorio in Palo Alto (650-326-0983): Two seatings, for a 5-course menu at $75.

Boston: Les Zygomates Wine Bar & Bistro: 3-Courses with 2 glasses of bubbly, and live jazz, $60 pp. Call 617-542-5108 . . . . Brasserie Jo: 4-courses menu, $95 per couple. Call 617-425-3240. . . . Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro: 4 courses, $59 pp. Call 617-723-1133 . . . . Le Soir in Newton Highlands: 4 courses, $170 Per Couple, Call 617-965-3100. . . . Bambara in Cambridge: 4 courses, $120 per couple. Call 617-868-4444.

West Palm Beach: At Tsunami festivities will include rose-petal covered tables, hand massages and a gorgeous “Cupid” trailing wisps of “fog” in her wake, as she delivers complimentary servings of a “love potion” to each guest. Three-course menu $65 pp, 5 courses at $95. Call 561-835-or visit www.tsunamirestaurant.com

Marina del Rey: Jer-ne in Marina del Rey and Iron Horse Vineyards will hold a “Think Pink” wine and food event, with Sommelier Alison Junker serving “pink, red and sparkling horses” as Joy Anne Sterling of Iron Horse will discuss the wines to be served with Chef Troy Thompson’s dinner on Feb. 13. $120 pp. Call 310-574-4333; www.ritzcarlton.com

Venice, Italy: Chef Giovanni Ciresa of the De Pisis restaurant at the Hotel BAUER celebrates on Feb. 13-16 with a 7-course Menù "Duetto" at €90 pp ($112). Call 011-44-041-520-7022; www.bauervenezia.com

* On Feb. 8 Opaline in Los Angeles and the Red Car Wine Co. hold an AIWF 6-course dinner with wines; $100 members / $110 guests. Call 818-902-3724.

* On Feb 22 Atlanta’s Aqua blue will hold a 4-course Moët & Chandon champagne dinner at $85 pp. Call 770-643-8886; www.atlantaaquablue.com.

* On Feb. 24 NYC’s Careers through Culinary Arts Program's 6th annual Benefit will honor Danny Meyer and Chef Michael Romano, plus 36 of New York's best known chefs, for “A Preview of Spring Dining” at Pier 60. $350 pp General admission ; $500 & $1,000 per person VIP admission. Call 212-974-7111.

* From Feb 28-July 18 the first major art exhibition of the works of 15th century artistsPerugino will take place in Umbria, with exhibits in Torgiano, organized by the Lungarotti Foundation in collaboration with the Galleria Nazionale dell’ Umbria, and housed in the Palazzo Graziano-Baglioni, the location of the Foundation’s wine museum, the Museo del Vino. The exhibit will include culinary artifacts from everyday life of Perugino’s time from the table linens and furnishings of the wealthy to “the poor table.” Visit fondlung@lungarotti.it

MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John Mariani. Contributing Writers: Robert Mariani. Naomi Kooker, Kirsten Skogerson, Edward Brivio, Robert Mariani, Mort Hochstein. Contributing Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery, Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.

John Mariani is a columnist for Esquire, Wine Spectator, Diversion and the Harper Collection. He is author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink (Lebhar-Friedman), The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink (Broadway), and, with his wife Galina, the award-winning new Italian-American Cookbook (Harvard Common Press). To purchase from amazon.com, click on the image below.