Wow! We had a perfect meal in a lovely restaurant at a reasonable price and met the fabulous chef and vivacious hostess. MYA in Plaza Obalisco in Escazù has only been open for a few weeks, yet I got calls from three different people raving about it. The name is an anagram of the first names of the hostess and chef owners, Milena y Ali. Ali de Paz is an absolute charmer who exudes sparkle, warmth, expertise and passion for her food. The cuisine is playful, flavors and textures exquisitely balanced, ingredients superb, presentations artistic and combinations creative. Her concept is to use the best available components from the New World, from Alaska to Patagonia, add Caribbean and local tropical lushness and fuse the food cultures of the Americas with those of Asia and Europe. Born in Puerto Rico the daughter of a master baker, she ran a highly acclaimed restaurant in Gainesville, Florida for 27 years after graduating from the University of Florida with a pre-law degree and succeeding as a collegiate volleyball player despite her diminutive stature. Her sous chef Jeff came with her.
We started with two amazing appetizers. I love calamari and know to cook it for only seconds in boiling water to maintain its tenderness, but I never had it as tender as in the calamari ceviche. Scored in impeccable diamonds, five pieces came with a sweet sake and balsamic dipping sauce, a combination superior to the usual mirin-soy or soy-Asian vinegar dips. When I discovered Jamaican pepper sauce in a bottle forty years ago, I started to put it on everything. Ali’s seventeen ingredient home-made dark tangy sauce on her jerk shrimp is so superior to anything in a bottle that I may never be able to enjoy the commercial stuff again. Perfectly cooked fresh shrimp awash in the spicy sauce sat on ripe plantain disc adding sweet and soft counterbalances. Joan’s main course was an exotic looking vegetarian Napoleon stacked with corn arepas as good as Colombia’s finest, layered with eggplant, portobelo mushroom, zucchini, sweet red peppers, edam, ginger, garlic aoli, tamarind and balsamic jam. For contrasting crunch and visual flare, she decorated the top with fried yucca threads. What a medley of sweet, sour, salty and even umami. I had Tuna “Coco loco”, medium rare grilled tuna that had been marinated in ginger and lime. A cylindrical portion of soft calabaza fortified with slices of caramelized apple sat along side. I too had crisp yucca threads.We shared a dessert of a gorgeous lacy spun sugar and sesame brittle crèpe topped with fried wontons filled with decadent chocolate nut cream aside vanilla ice cream. Our bill was under 25,000 C. The service was impeccable. Milena and Ali designed the tasteful diningroom and upstairs bar in cream, black, brown and grey shades. Glorious modern art is spot-lighted on the two-story walls. They created the cubic dramatic light fixtures of metal and gauze that carry shoji lanterns to the next level. Ali seems destined to join the likes of Camille Ratton and Richard Neet in the select group of Costa Rica’s finest chefs. Closed Sundays. 2288-0569.
A charming couple sat next to me at a birthday party at Doris Metropolitan. They met when he was working and living in her native Japan decades ago. From a previous Wine Club dinner, I gained a world of respect for her opinions about food and restaurants. When she mentioned Bambu, her favorite sushi restaurant, I took notice and we went there for lunch the very next day. It is an unadorned hole-in-the-wall around the corner from Beso, off the main road along Sabana South (a block west of the Contraloria, turn at AM/PM and go about twenty meters). It’s on the right side two doors down from Dr. Brown’s Gourmet Hamburgers. Three tables were occupied by Japanese customers who were exchanging friendly banter with the husband and wife sushi makers and the waitress. What makes a trip to a Japanese restaurant/sushi bar memorable for me are impeccably fresh fish; a variety of species; contrasting colors, textures and tastes; authentic décor and artistic presentation of ingredients carved with the knife skills of a master artisan. Sadly, all were lacking. The attraction may be the charm of the hosts and family feel of a gathering place for ex-pat Japanese who possess a better knowledge than mine of what are the best choices for a given day. Or perhaps we came on the wrong day – a Saturday, when all three of the raw fish in my chirashi sushi – salmon, red tuna and white tuna – lacked the firm texture, sheen and flavor of fresh catch. The white tuna in particular was soggy, soft and flavorless. When I have had albacore (white tuna) in the past, the chef seared the outside slightly to firm up the raw center. Even the avocado had brown age spots. My wife’s salmon teriyaki and California roll were OK. Bambu clearly has a draw for some sophisticated diners that escapes me. For those of you who have had a different experience there, pass it on to educate me and I will share it. 2290-1156.
Aya Sofia, one of antiquity’s great edifices, is in Istanbul. Previously it was a Christian Temple adorned with spectacular religious murals and mosaics, plastered over when it became a holy mosque, then restored when it turned into a museum. Its namesake restaurant in Barrio Escalante, 150 meters up the street north from Bagelman’s, may not be a UNESCO site, but the food is monumental. Mehmet Onurlap, the charming host and co-owner bubbles with justified pride in the Mediterranean cuisine that is true to Turkish standards and encompasses dishes reflecting Greek and Italian expertise in the kitchen as well (yes, the pasta is fresh).. I even saw an authentic dessert covered with stands of filo, kadayif, that I loved in Syria. You can see their basic menu on the website www.sofiamediterraneo.com, but there is an entire chalkboard of additional daily specials that virtually doubles the options. The air is filled with scents of rosemary, roasted lamb and cumin. The lamb is young and tender. Mehmet buys lambs from the Monge farm in Guanacaste, never larger than eleven kilos, perhaps the best lamb in Costa Rica. He and his chefs are passionate about their food. On a recent lunchtime visit, three of us were seated at the last available table next to old friends, gourmands Susan and David, who love the place and have eaten there about twice a month for two years. On their recommendation I tried the lamb and bulgar wheat grilled meatballs served with rosemary roasted potatoes and baby green beans cooked with sesame and soy. If it were closer to my home I, too, would be a happy regular. 2224-5050.
Norma Lenkowski, my favorite nonagenarian and the former grande dame of the Women’s Club of Costa Rica “out to lunch bunch” is at CIMA with a bleeding ulcer. Please, all you O Negative donors under 60, give her a pint. Speedy recovery, Darling.
I used to have Monday night dinner at Rock ‘n Roll Pollo with a group of Canadian and American ex-pats. The food improved greatly when the most amiable Elkin Flores became chef. When the management self-destructed the first time, Flores moved to Old West and the group happily followed. George Bradbury told me over Thanksgiving turkey at a friend’s home that Elkin is now the chef and manager of Brad’s in Momentum. For dessert, Kay’s pumpkin pie had a flakier crust than the one my wife made, but hers was quite good too. Kay’s husband, Tom Costello, is cooking up meals at Kay’s Kitchen in Atenas. He is as youthful and sweet an eighty-year-old as you may ever meet. He had a steakhouse in Rapid City, South Dakota decades ago.
May your Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa and New Year be happy.
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Thank you so much for your review Lenny. I'm humbled, inspired and challenge by it and will do my absolute best to live up to it!! Buen Provecho!
Chef Ali
Posted by: Chef Ali | November 30, 2010 at 11:04 AM