I used to write regular restaurant reviews for a regional paper and thought that those days were over. Then I visited Restaurante Zinc in Mutxamel and couldn’t resist another review. The building has new Dutch owners and has been given a welcome revival. I knew it as La Venteta about 15 years ago and it was well run by a Belgian man. After he left, standards declined and it was then closed. Now I have high hopes, because the place has an exciting vibrancy, the owners are convivial and the quality of meals served is exceptional. The old building and grounds are full of character and situated on a quiet road between Mutxamel and Tangel. There is a covered terrace with tables overlooking a pleasant garden and this combines to make a perfect rural setting for a restaurateur wanting to build a reputation. Welcome to Marcel, a chef with flair. He ran a successful restaurant in Rotterdam, also called Zinc, with his wife, Linda, and they have now sold up and moved to Spain. They are joined in this venture by Petar and, together, they exude energy, enthusiasm and personality. The menu is small and changed every two weeks. Although they only opened in June, my wife and I have already dined there three times and enjoyed each occasion. With a limited menu, it's necessary to trust the chef and be adventurous. For instance, on my last visit I started with veal tartare, something I haven’t tried before. With the addition of cauliflower florets, pancetta and truffle vinaigrette, the effect was very pleasing. My main course was seared tuna steak, tomato, black olives, almonds and bagna cauda (a garlic and anchovy paste), and dessert was lemon tart with raspberries and artisan lemon ice cream. As we often do, my wife contrasted my choice and ordered marinated salmon, fillet steak with foie and the chef’s interpretation of Eton mess. We like to try each other’s meals and I would have been equally happy with hers. We both feel that the chef knows how to bring the best out of his dishes. He has a distinctive style of cooking, elaborating on natural flavours to provide a meal full of satisfying tastes. The ingredients are of a high standard and the flavours fantastic. The three courses cost 29.50€, without drink, and this represents fair value for the meal and surroundings. The restaurant is open Thursday to Sunday, for lunch and dinner and you can check the current menu and details on their website restaurantezinc.com For those not living locally, you may wish to stay in one of their comfortable, well-furnished bedrooms …….. and then walk downstairs for a lovely meal. Well worth a visit. |
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And now for something completely different! A recipe. We’ll, actually a new thought on an old recipe. I like to make things easier for myself and sometimes question the norm. Why is something done one way when it could possibly be done another way? I reckon I make a fantastic apple crumble and have been tweaking the basic recipe for a while. Now, I think I have perfection. My crumble tastes wonderful and takes a minimum time to prepare. So I’m sharing the recipe with you. For 4 good portions - 500 gm apples (2 large or 3-4 small, not cookers, they’re too sour) 150 gm plain flour 75 gm butter 40 gm sultanas 15 gm Demerara sugar Core the apples, then cut into small pieces and place an oven dish Sprinkle the sultanas over the apples Cut cold butter into small pieces and add to the flour; mix in gently Put flour and butter mix over the apples Sprinkle Demerara on top Cook on low heat (gas mark 5, or 190°C) for about 50-60 minutes (check when cooked by putting knife into the crumble; when it comes out cleanly the crumble is ready) You may notice two things. Firstly, I didn’t peel the apples. It’s not necessary and is also quicker; the cooked peel adds to the flavour and texture. Secondly, there is no sugar in the mixture; the apples and sultanas are sweet enough and the Demerara supplements that as well as providing a crunch. Serve with custard or ice cream, delicious! It doesn’t stop there! As well as not peeling apples, I have found it unnecessary to peel washed potatoes. When making chips or roast potatoes, I always keep the skin on. Again, the flavour is enhanced and time is saved. I even retain the skin on boiled and creamed potatoes and suggest you try it as well. I’ll admit the creamed potatoes have brown bits of skin, but why not? Think of all the extra fibre! Simple changes to the norm and I’m sure I’m not the only person making them. Whether it’s an advantage because it saves time, is good because of added fibre, or is just plain laziness, I recommend that you give it a try. It’s been a while since I’ve written, as I’ve been distracted by other things happening in my life, but now I’m feeling ready to continue with my blog. Covid, the subject of previous blogs, has not gone away, but enough has been written about that and, although I could give an opinion, I doubt if it would add anything new. So, instead, I’ll opine about an article that I read recently by Mark Hix and, although not as headline-catching as Covid, has an indirect connection. Mark Hix is a noted restaurateur whose business went into administration at the start of the pandemic. He has managed to pick himself up again, with the help of a fish truck in his native Dorset, taking back one of his restaurants, and a column in The Telegraph. His article was about waiting staff; suggesting that waiting at tables wasn’t a lowly, pretty-simple job, as he’d heard people say it was. I read this a day after visiting Resto René, a new restaurant close to my home on the Costa Blanca. If I can add ‘waiting efficiently and in a pleasant manner', I’d agree. A good waiter or waitress can make all the difference to a dining experience. Resto René would be termed 'up market' and offered food prepared to a high standard in a very pleasant setting. The front of house staff were dressed in black and white, including black aprons and masks (reference to Covid again) and appeared to be genuinely pleased to have their jobs. They were trained, efficient and confident. Our particular waitress served in a subtle deferential way, yet controlled the table. She anticipated our needs and, although East European, spoke Spanish and English with charm. Contrast this to waiting staff who do their job without care or attention (and yes, there are too many of those) and there is no comparison. The pity is that there is no need for such a difference. Training and recognition that good service is part of a successful meal experience is not expensive for a restaurateur. The cost of training is easily offset by the benefits to both diners and waiting staff. People rarely go to restaurants just to eat; they want a pleasant experience and staff are part of the permutation that enables them to achieve that. Whilst still at school, I had a weekend job waiting in my uncle's restaurant. I soon learnt that I could double my wages with tips if I worked well and was friendly. I enjoyed the work and seeing satisfied diners. After college, I stayed in catering and have always had an interest in customer satisfaction. It’s surprising how often a person running a business, not only in catering, seems ignorant to the requirements of their customers. Customer loyalty can be earned if they’re appreciated and listened to, and if they are served efficiently and pleasantly. Repeat business is easier to retain than forever finding new customers; why don’t some business owners recognise that? Keeping good staff is also more profitable for a business, so an owner needs to be aware of staff problems and train their employees so that they work to set standards. Tipping restaurant workers is an established custom and an immediate show of satisfaction (or not) that is not so in all jobs. Very often, waiting staff are the only human link between a diner and the restaurant. Thus, the impetus for a person working in restaurants to be efficient is more immediate, and is an indication to the owner of customer satisfaction. Not everyone is cut out to wait at tables. There are no qualifications to do so and anyone may think they can do it. However, when you find a person who is good at the job, you realise the difference of someone who is not. Accepting mediocre service is, thankfully, becoming less acceptable. Picking people with potential and then training them is the key; it’s too easy to see when that hasn’t been achieved. Do it properly and it’s a win-win situation for all involved. There is no universal agreement that a lockdown, or closure under force, of a country is the best way to control Coronavirus, but many countries have decided to enforce this. Some countries, like the USA and UK have tried partial measures that haven’t been rigorously followed by the population, so are not producing the desired results. People have shown that they can be very selfish. Whether the lockdown of a country is an effective measure or not, and that can only truly be judged in hindsight, there have been consequences that were not foreseen. The media is saturating our minds with constant updates of Coronavirus numbers and daily deaths. Every death is a tragedy, but looking at the number of deaths which normally occur, without a pandemic, I was surprised. Under normal circumstances, an average of 1,711 people die each day in the UK (that’s 9.4 per 1000 per year of the population),1,185 in Spain (9.2 per 1000) and 7,883 in the USA (8.9 per 1000). If we read those figures in the papers daily, we’d be horrified. But that is the norm. The unexpected effects of the lockdown, both good and bad, are interesting. Firstly, I’ve noted that climate change has all but disappeared from the news. That was the subject of doom in daily drip feeds previously. Pollution is still being reported, but for a different reason. We now see that clouds of air pollution have reduced globally, and especially where manufacturing and population movement has slowed down. The sight of cleaner canals in Venice, now home to fish and not tourists, is a welcome demonstration of this. Another unexpected benefit of the lockdowns is that crime has been drastically reduced. Burglaries have been cut by half; it wouldn’t be clever for a thief to be caught skulking around deserted streets. Whether domestic violence and divorce will increase as families are forced to share space for days on end is yet to be seen. Politicians have, at last, shown that they can be civil to each other and party lines have propitiously blurred. Support from all parties for the leader of a country will surely be appreciated by the majority of voters. The measures being taken will certainly result in a huge economic effect on a country. Whereas governments have previously fought against over expenditure, now they are throwing money at the problem. There will come a time when the overspend will have to be accounted for, but that is for the future. The health services are at near breaking point, even though staff and materials are being drastically increased. Intensive care beds and equipment are in short supply and doctors realise that they must prioritise their cases. Those who are more likely to survive, not necessarily chosen by age, will be given beds, which must put stress on medical staff who are trained to save lives. Employment issues are also very costly. In normal times, governments say that increased benefits can’t be afforded. Now, in various schemes, wages will be heavily subsidised by governments and businesses will receive loans to keep them afloat. However, some of those businesses will not survive. In the end, governments will have to accept more debt or try and balance their books. I imagine that there will be many arguments within the EU as individual countries make their case for demanding more money from the combined budget pot. The way some people are shopping has come in for a lot of criticism. Panic buying, seen as antisocial, is something few people admit to, but is happening to such a selfish extent that the amount of some products that can be bought is restricted. We are assured that ample supplies are available, but panic breeds panic and supermarkets are having their busiest time. As a result, they are relatively crowded, even when they limit the number of people entering, while a small shop owner selling non-foods is unable to do any business and is losing money. There are sensible precautions against overcrowding and there are excessive ones. These emergency measures around the world will continue for some time. Spain, for example, has just declared that their State of Alarm will continue for a further 15 days. Hopefully, as reported in China, the numbers of new cases will dry up and we can move on from the upheaval that the pandemic has caused. People surely won’t forget 2020 in a hurry, and will have innumerable stories of how they coped during the roller-coaster of these troubled times. The BBC recently introduced an initiative called 'Crossing Divides on the Move Day', to test the theory that we benefit from talking to strangers; the aim was for people to break down barriers and combat loneliness. Indeed, in many circumstances it’s not usual to start talking to strangers and, these days, one has to be careful not to offend. However, in the right circumstances, it can be refreshing to begin a conversation with someone you don’t know and find something in common with the other person. The BBC worked with public transport companies to promote the day. At a party, conference or gathering, there are ample opportunities to chat, but to speak to the person next to you on public transport can be seen as suspicious or inappropriate. On the Crossing Divides Day, some transport companies encouraged the BBC initiative. For instance, on Virgin Trains, carriage C was designated as a conversation carriage and passengers were given an extra drink free and invited to hand it to a stranger and start talking. At least passengers who entered the carriage could expect to be approached by a stranger with a cup of coffee, without feeling awkward. On Aviva coaches, the approach was more random and there were just cards on seats with conversation topics, suggesting that they were used as icebreakers. The idea may be a good one, but many passengers apparently preferred their own space and solitude. Commuters naturally tend to avoid eye contact or smiling, as they feel uneasy about encouraging a fellow passenger to respond. We build an invisible barrier around us as a defence, but in reality this increases a feeling of isolation in public places. Perhaps the method needs to be thought through, even if the idea is a good one. Loneliness is, unfortunately, not uncommon and nowadays more people are living on their own than ever before. If they stay in their homes, they may not talk to anyone and a third of lonely people have admitted taking a bus in the hope of having human contact; yet the truth is that the lonely won’t easily start a conversation and it’s not easy to find a place where they’ll feel comfortable on their own. Some years ago, I wrote a blog article (Eating Out Alone, But Not Alone - 17/09/14) where I suggested that restaurants had a 'table to chat'. People on their own could choose to sit at the table and converse with others on the same table without feeling on their own. Eating out is more pleasant when in a social setting and joining someone at a table when you feel like talking can make the meal more enjoyable. In my opinion, I’d far prefer to chat than read or look at my mobile, as so many people do when sitting alone in a restaurant. I hope that the one-day experiment performed by the BBC was successful enough to repeat, but I hope next time they’ll extend it to restaurants and cafés, where people eat in a relaxed atmosphere and it’s not combined with the stress of commuting either to or from work. |
About me Hi, I'm Robin Hardy. I was born and educated in London and followed a career in hotel and catering management. After taking early retirement, my wife, Beatrix, and I moved to Alicante, Spain. Archives
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