1.) Rock Oyster with Guava and Piquinho Pepper
The oyster was incredible, a great mix of salty & sweet. But the real star was the guava, which would become a recurring trend in many dishes, both here and at all the other stops. Great way to start the first course of the first tasting menu stop.
2.) Trio of (1) Scallop & Heart of Palm Tartlette, (2) Kale, Codfish and Potato Sandwhich and (3) "Fancy" Ham Tomato & Bread
All of these were great, but the scallop & heat of palm tartlette was just exquisite. So well crafted, adn teh tartlette was strong enough to last 3-4 bites (I hate doing the "eat it all in one bite" routine. The other two were also quite good, the kale & codfish was probably slightly too crumbly, but really well cooked. The fancy toast was great except for my aversion to raw tomato. Take that little slice off, or change it to a raw fruit or something, and it may have been the best bite.
3.) Trio of (1) Crab & Lime Croquette, (2) Shrimp Soup with Brazilian Cracker and (3) Cheese and Nut Bread Bolinho
The crab in the croquette was nice, but the fingerling lime dollop on top was just amazing. Really added to the dish. The soup was interesting because the green color is just a parsley top, but the real star of the dish is the shrimp and cassava underneath - a really nice three to four spoons. The cracker, to be honest, didn't really add much. Finally the cheese bread (pan do queco) with nut was just divine. I love these almost dessert like early dishes to add a hit of sweetness...
4.) Trio of (1) Pork Tartare with Yolk, (2) Mochi of Shrimp & Olive and (3) Fish Tempura
... especially since the next trio was mroe umami, salty. It's almost like they plan these things! The pork tartare was quite good but the worst of the three. Worst is definitely relative, but probably so because it was the most traditional. The shrimp & olive mochi was just incredibly - such a great squishiness feel in the mouth. For the tempura dish, always amazed how good tempura can be at professional places like this - no ounce of dust or oil, just perfect crunch and great fish inside.
5.) Pork Belly, Pineapple & Kimchi "Cervantes" Sandwhich
The "Cervantes" is a famous eponymous sandwhich sold at a Boteco in Copacabana - featured at the tail end of the Rio Somebody Feed Phil episode. Here it was upscaled a lot and just divine. Probably my favorite course. I love it when a place like this takes a local street food specialty, keeps it qjite similar (so not just hit it with some molecular gastronomy) and go from there.
6.) Butter Langostine with Cashew, Mushroom and Heart of Palm
This was a fully new dish which was just amazing. That langoustine was just so divine. I don't know where they get these giant shrimps but anway. The other components were nice too. The heart of palm was somehow both crunchy and soft and buttery, same with the butteriness of the puree. All of this just worked.
7.) Seabass with Corn Four Ways
My only critique of this dish was after one cut into the fish the pieces of baby corn on it started falling off - but if anything maybe it makes it better, because the baby corn on top infused with the corn broth below is just magic. This was probably my favorite main - a personal favorite type of dish for me, where they just take an ingredient like the humble corn and beautify it up multiple ways.
8.) Mushroom and Barley
To be honest, having a hard time remembering the specifics of this other than all the variations of mushroom was excellent and that cream sauce was awesome as well. Oro this time around replaced two of the mains (and I guess altered the main protein on a third) and I think all of them for the better. Just great stuff.
9.) Short Rib with Chestnut Puree
The short rib was cooked amazing. Like truly one of the best cooked short ribs I've ever had - better than Korea, better than anything. The chestnut puree was probably 10% too chestnut-y, which is still a nice flavor, but if anything may have slightly distracted from the perfectness of the short rib.
10.) Coconut Many Ways
The desserts were uniformally quite good on all of the tasting menu spots. Oro was the only one to have just one dessert (technically they have two, of which you pick one). I went with a panoply of coconut as everything on that plate is either fully or largely built on coconut. It was sublime, and I don't even like coconut taste in many forms. Great dessert - just which I could've tried the other one.
11.) Petit Fours
Oddly, the one they intentionally gave two of was probably my least favorite. The otehr were perfectly squishy, marshmallowy, gelatinous and fun.
Ephedra
1.) Beetroot, Yucca and Green Tartlette
Sadly, writing this without the menu (parents have our one copy for the moment), but man was this a great start. Little bite, with the loveliest cream and a far stronger beetroot flavor (in a good wawy) than you would normally think. Great start.
2.) Corn, caramelized onion cream tamale
I'm 100% sure they didn't call it a tamale, but whatever, it looked like one, and tasted like one, but the loveliest, sweetiest damn tamale with the caramelized onion giving the littlest hint of sweet spice. Just awesome. By the way, called these #1 and #2 but technically these courses did not count.
3.) "Atacama Mole"
Just incredible. The picked vegetables were nice and cute, but that mole was something ungodly good. Like nearly Pujol "Mole Madre" good. Like one of the more special dishes I've had in a while good. They were also served with these little sopapilla tortillas which made it even better. This is when I realized this is a special place.
4.) Trout with Tubers and Black Garlic
You can't see the little delectable pieces of trout - they're under the tubers, but the trout was cooked brilliantly. The tubers, like all fancy tubers in Chile (or Peru) was awesome, and the sauce itself was thick and unctious. This was a dish worthy of say Central.
5.) Trout tartare, roe in trout skin
So, I appreciate all the effort and preparation that went into this dish - a testament to Ephedra's no-waste style of cooking, in this case using all parts of the trout, but thsi was the only miss. It was just too salty. Granted, that seemed to be very much the intention.
6.) Vicuna Pastrami with beet and rocks
The idea was taking a cut of alpaca and turning it into pastrami and it did basically that to a tee. The rest of the dish became this crumbly beet sauce and potato that worked great as well. A really nice turn away from teh trout to something just as interesting and so Atacama-esque.
7.) Lamb, Pumpkin and Tasty Paste
The lamb was insanely well cooked, so tender and tasty. The pumpkin leaves were a lovely little touch as well, even if they were probably prettier than they were tasty (not really a criticism). The most interesting part was their Atacama version of "tasty paste", a Japanese unctious creation, which was just excellent. Chef Sergio Armell took such pride in explaining how they made it and it elevated what was already an amazing dish.
8.) Maracuyo Palate Cleanser
For a palate cleanser, it was a damn good one. But like most palate cleansers, you move on...
9.) Guava, Pumpkin Film and Raspberry Tartlette
Now we're talking, this was just a beautiful dessert, the guava sorbet on top was excellent, the raspberry below was tart and sweet, but that pumpkin film was just audacious and beautiful. It's truly amazing the range of things that they pump out in this little Atacama outpost.
10.) Completely forgot....
Yeah, I can't really recall what this was, which I hate to admit. Will be updated once I see the menu again...
11.) Almond, Pumpkin Pannacotta and Black Garlic
One of the best desserts I've had in a long time truthfully. The pannacotta was excellent, the pumpkin was real pumpkin and real softness. The shaved ice part was great. The black garlic tuile was a lovely, pretty and umami-fulfilling touch. Just an amazing dessert and way to finish off the meal.
Borago
1.) Spring Juice of Fava Beans and Picoroco and Tucupi
Having been to Borago before, I now realize a few of the courses will be similar but adjusted for the season. The first part of the two parter was that, with a lovely fava bean juice drunk through that vegetable straw with just the best smell of jasmine and fennel. Teh star though is the picoroco, which should be a far more common seafood if its normally anywhere near to how Borago serves it. Just the most succulent little fleshes of meat.
2.) Sea Lettuce with Chilean Truffle, Loco Abalone, Luche Seaweed and Marico and Almond Cold Cream
Just a great set of three stages, the first being that beautiful sea lettuce (chewy) with the edible beet stem (crunchy), then that lovely little trio of squishy and nutty underneath, with the final bit being a palate cleanser almost of almond and honey. Every sense, every texture.
3.) Native Forest Wild Vegetables
Lovely dish - pairing two delectable, beautiful flowers and many other leafs, and greens, with three stars of the crunchy root and really well cooked mushroom and a tempura leaf. Now, I didn't realize you could make a leaf tempura, but by god was it just perfectly battered.
4.) Nalca Stem
Strange but ultimately successful course. The first part is biting the red flesh on the top part, which was bitter, sour but crunchy, adn then digging for a tartare of that same stem insides adn nuts, which was excellent. It probably wasn't supposed to be as difficult to dig out pieces of the tartare as it was.
5.) Oyster with Beach Malva Green Sauce
Lovely little taco essentially, even if the leaf itself broke up a bit too easily. The oyster was poached so lightly and beautifully, and the other little components all added something nice to it as well, especially those tiny little cubes. Don't really remember what they were, or the green thing, but it all worked so well.
6.) Mussels and Loquat
Where do you get a mussel shell that big? Anyway, irrelevant question for the dish itself, which was my favorite to this point. Both components were amazing. The sauce was somethign else, buttery, tart, sweet, luscious. But the mussels, my the mussels. I'll say these were easily the best mussels I've ever had, so perfectly, evenly, lightly cooked. Just brilliant.
7.) Easter Island Seas
This was the only pure repeat dish in a way. I guess the fish was different, this time, as it was shark last time (forget what it was this time), but that switch worked for the better. The fish was really nicely cooked, juicy and light inside with a nice crisp outside. The star though is that blue sauce made up of five types of seaweed. No idea where the color comes from, but it was so effective in imparting a unique, radiant flavor. Wish they gave some bread or something with it.
8.) Milcao cooked "Al Roscondo" and Pajarito Butter
The only repeat dish, but its an ever present one, with this soft, brilliant potato bread cooked live in front of you in a bread oven, so hot the lovely butter just slides off of it rather than melt. Lovely, just also wish they served the bread with the blue sauce still there.
9.) 2 Weeks Aged Duck and Chilean Spring
The duck was so perfectly cooked (it was duck breast, sliced and put with those little red leaves on top). The leaves themselves were silky and slimy, in a good way. But the star was the duck and that red painted sauce on the bottom, and a splash of duck jus to finish it off. Wonderful dish before the main event.
10.) Patagonian Lamb with Coastal Offerings
The main event being the lamb, the one cooked slowly over an open fire for a full day. That lamb is truly one of the best things I've ever eaten in my life. I'm not sure what I would pay to eat a giant piece of it. The skin is just crazy crisp. The meat is tender, juicy and just falls apart. It is simply incredible. The first time I came to Borago, the final plate was just the lamb. Now they've added other stuff, and don't overlook those other things, these crunchy, tart, sweet random little sea vegetables. Great little bites to have in between pieces of the best thing I've tasted maybe ever in that lamb.
11.) "Pantrucas" & Patagonian Murtilla and Chilota Sheep's Milk Ice Cream
Brilliant dessert that kept surprising. The little red berry things were murtilla, a tart little ball. The pantrucas were those white sheets that almost ate like a mochi or cheese. Then you put that part away and dig into that snow which was somehow milk ice cream. No idea either. What looked like such a simple little stick and berry dish became something really interesting and delicious.
12.) The Black Sheep of the Family
Mushroom ice cream desserts are having a bit of a moment. I had a similar dessert at Pulperia Santa Elvira in my Feb trip. This was something similar, a really nice little set of bites. The marshmallow was also made of mushrooms with a little dollop of honey. In a sense not the most creative dessert but certainly tasty.
13.) Cold Glacier
The other mainstay is this little hydrogen ice nugget which is great to eat but way better to watch other people eat because then you realize the cold frost goes right out your nose in the funniest way. Not sure if this is a new thing because I didn't remember that little after effect in Feb, but either way, a funny, beautiful bite to end the night.
