Good Stuff If You Can Get It - AWS
culture || FOOD & DRINK
DON’T WORRY, EAT CURRY Mother India’s dosa with chutney
NAAN-NATIVE
How a Scottish city became India North WHEN ONE GOES on a journey to taste great Indian food, one thinks of the greats: Delhi, Kerala, Mumbai … Glasgow? Yet it’s true, the misty Sco!ish city is one of the be!er places on Earth to eat Indian food. It all started in the late 1940s, when, a"er India and Pakistan gained independence from Britain, many subcontinentals emigrated to the U.K. With Scotland’s chilly weather and natural larder of lamb and fish, it wasn’t long before heavy, spicy Indian stews ruled the restaurant scene there. Since then, Glasgow has won the title Curry Capital of Britain more times than any other place in the U.K. In 2009, the government even backed an application for Protected Designation of Origin for chicken tikka masala, which supporters argued was created in Glasgow in the ’70s (the request was tabled a"er a counterargument from India). These days, “over 50 percent of Glasgow’s population eats a curry at least once a week,” Lord Provost Councillor of Glasgow Sadie Docherty has said. One of the stalwarts in the perennial competition for the best Indian food in Glasgow is the restaurant Mother India, which opened in 1996 and spun off a branch in Edinburgh in 2008. The restaurant offers a tapas-style menu full of treats so delectable that a recent visitor was compelled to proclaim that he would “probably murder someone for their bu!er chicken.” In addition to that dish, which includes tender chopped chicken in a rich tomatoand butter-based sauce with whole almonds, cinnamon, cumin, cardamom and chili, locals have become enamored of a dish closer to their own history: a foilwrapped haddock, baked with tomatoes and punjabi spices. —SUE LAWRENCE
Good Stuff If You Can Get It
When they can’t import it, bartenders resort to making their own amer WITH PUNCHES AND complex cocktails enjoying worldwide
popularity and ads for Fernet-Branca popping up in magazines, you could be forgiven for thinking we’re living in a nouveau belle epoque. The stars of this new age of drinking are bitter liqueurs—the Camparis and Aperols, the Italian digestifs known as amaros—but there is one that few outside of France have ever tasted: the elusive amer. Developed as a digestif in the 1830s, amer can come in many flavors but is usually a delicate, bittersweet cordial with a light orange flavor. After Prohibition drove it near to extinction stateside, however, it has become next to impossible to find, which has made it a sort of holy grail for American mixologists. There are alternatives, but for most, the only way to approximate the taste is to make it themselves. Rene Hidalgo, head mixologist at Lantern’s Keep, a French salon–style bar in New York City’s Iroquois Hotel, is one such ambitious bartender. Last year, he undertook the task of recreating the spirit from scratch, adding earthy plants such
38
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09/04/2014 17:01
SOMETIMES THE OLD WAYS ARE BEST Bartender Rene Hidalgo at Lantern’s Keep; below: the Stonecutter Highball
The Ultimate Steak Experience! Gene & Georgetti geneandgeorgetti.com
CHICAGO, IL 312.527.3718
PROPRIETORS: Tony & Marion Durpetti
III Forks DALLAS, TX 972.267.1776
NEW YORK, NY 212.297.9177
PROPRIETOR: Benjamin Prelvukaj CHEF: Arturo McLeod
mckendricks.com
EXECUTIVE CHEF: Chris Vogeli
PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL 561.630.3660 EXECUTIVE CHEF: Tommy Nevill
St. Elmo Steak House
GETTY IMAGES (DOSA); JEFF QUINN (HIDALGO AND STONECUTTER HIGHBALL)
benjaminsteakhouse.com
McKendrick’s Steak House
iiiforks.com
as gentian root, cinchona bark and a medley of herbs to a base of sweet oranges and a neutral grain spirit. To ensure that his version measured up to the amer he’d read about in cocktail history books, Hidalgo performed a side-by-side sampling with a French amer provided by a similarly cocktailsobsessed friend. By the end of the year, the elusive spirit began to make appearances at Lantern’s Keep, in cocktails like the Stonecutter Highball, a gin and tonic with amer and muddled cucumber. “It’s the number one drink on the menu,” says Hidalgo. “Everyone loves it.” —CHADNER NAVARRO
Benjamin Steak House
stelmos.com
ATLANTA, GA 770.512.8888
PROPRIETORS: Claudia & Doug McKendrick CHEF: Tom Minchella
Malone’s
malonesrestaurant.com
LEXINGTON, KY 859.335.6500
INDIANAPOLIS, IN 317.635.0636
PROPRIETORS: Steve Huse & Craig Huse
PROPRIETORS: Brian McCarty & Bruce Drake
Metropolitan Grill
Manny’s
themetropolitangrill.com
mannyssteakhouse.com
MINNEAPOLIS, MN 612.339.9900
PROPRIETORS: Phil Roberts, Peter Mihajlov
SEATTLE, WA 206.624.3287 PROPRIETOR: Ron Cohn
& Kevin Kuester
RingSide Steakhouse
Grill 225 grill225.com
CHARLESTON, SC 843.266.4222
RingSideSteakhouse.com
PROPRIETOR: Nick Palassis EXECUTIVE CHEF: Demetre Castanas
PORTLAND, OR 503.223.1513
PROPRIETORS: Jan, Scott & Craig Peterson
INDEPENDENTLY OWNED & OPERATED
www.GreatSteakofNA.com
MAY 2014 • HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
p035-038_HEM0514_F&D.indd 39
08/04/2014 14:12
DON’T WORRY, EAT CURRY Mother India’s dosa with chutney
NAAN-NATIVE
How a Scottish city became India North WHEN ONE GOES on a journey to taste great Indian food, one thinks of the greats: Delhi, Kerala, Mumbai … Glasgow? Yet it’s true, the misty Sco!ish city is one of the be!er places on Earth to eat Indian food. It all started in the late 1940s, when, a"er India and Pakistan gained independence from Britain, many subcontinentals emigrated to the U.K. With Scotland’s chilly weather and natural larder of lamb and fish, it wasn’t long before heavy, spicy Indian stews ruled the restaurant scene there. Since then, Glasgow has won the title Curry Capital of Britain more times than any other place in the U.K. In 2009, the government even backed an application for Protected Designation of Origin for chicken tikka masala, which supporters argued was created in Glasgow in the ’70s (the request was tabled a"er a counterargument from India). These days, “over 50 percent of Glasgow’s population eats a curry at least once a week,” Lord Provost Councillor of Glasgow Sadie Docherty has said. One of the stalwarts in the perennial competition for the best Indian food in Glasgow is the restaurant Mother India, which opened in 1996 and spun off a branch in Edinburgh in 2008. The restaurant offers a tapas-style menu full of treats so delectable that a recent visitor was compelled to proclaim that he would “probably murder someone for their bu!er chicken.” In addition to that dish, which includes tender chopped chicken in a rich tomatoand butter-based sauce with whole almonds, cinnamon, cumin, cardamom and chili, locals have become enamored of a dish closer to their own history: a foilwrapped haddock, baked with tomatoes and punjabi spices. —SUE LAWRENCE
Good Stuff If You Can Get It
When they can’t import it, bartenders resort to making their own amer WITH PUNCHES AND complex cocktails enjoying worldwide
popularity and ads for Fernet-Branca popping up in magazines, you could be forgiven for thinking we’re living in a nouveau belle epoque. The stars of this new age of drinking are bitter liqueurs—the Camparis and Aperols, the Italian digestifs known as amaros—but there is one that few outside of France have ever tasted: the elusive amer. Developed as a digestif in the 1830s, amer can come in many flavors but is usually a delicate, bittersweet cordial with a light orange flavor. After Prohibition drove it near to extinction stateside, however, it has become next to impossible to find, which has made it a sort of holy grail for American mixologists. There are alternatives, but for most, the only way to approximate the taste is to make it themselves. Rene Hidalgo, head mixologist at Lantern’s Keep, a French salon–style bar in New York City’s Iroquois Hotel, is one such ambitious bartender. Last year, he undertook the task of recreating the spirit from scratch, adding earthy plants such
38
R2_p035-038_HEM0514_F&D.indd 38
09/04/2014 17:01
SOMETIMES THE OLD WAYS ARE BEST Bartender Rene Hidalgo at Lantern’s Keep; below: the Stonecutter Highball
The Ultimate Steak Experience! Gene & Georgetti geneandgeorgetti.com
CHICAGO, IL 312.527.3718
PROPRIETORS: Tony & Marion Durpetti
III Forks DALLAS, TX 972.267.1776
NEW YORK, NY 212.297.9177
PROPRIETOR: Benjamin Prelvukaj CHEF: Arturo McLeod
mckendricks.com
EXECUTIVE CHEF: Chris Vogeli
PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL 561.630.3660 EXECUTIVE CHEF: Tommy Nevill
St. Elmo Steak House
GETTY IMAGES (DOSA); JEFF QUINN (HIDALGO AND STONECUTTER HIGHBALL)
benjaminsteakhouse.com
McKendrick’s Steak House
iiiforks.com
as gentian root, cinchona bark and a medley of herbs to a base of sweet oranges and a neutral grain spirit. To ensure that his version measured up to the amer he’d read about in cocktail history books, Hidalgo performed a side-by-side sampling with a French amer provided by a similarly cocktailsobsessed friend. By the end of the year, the elusive spirit began to make appearances at Lantern’s Keep, in cocktails like the Stonecutter Highball, a gin and tonic with amer and muddled cucumber. “It’s the number one drink on the menu,” says Hidalgo. “Everyone loves it.” —CHADNER NAVARRO
Benjamin Steak House
stelmos.com
ATLANTA, GA 770.512.8888
PROPRIETORS: Claudia & Doug McKendrick CHEF: Tom Minchella
Malone’s
malonesrestaurant.com
LEXINGTON, KY 859.335.6500
INDIANAPOLIS, IN 317.635.0636
PROPRIETORS: Steve Huse & Craig Huse
PROPRIETORS: Brian McCarty & Bruce Drake
Metropolitan Grill
Manny’s
themetropolitangrill.com
mannyssteakhouse.com
MINNEAPOLIS, MN 612.339.9900
PROPRIETORS: Phil Roberts, Peter Mihajlov
SEATTLE, WA 206.624.3287 PROPRIETOR: Ron Cohn
& Kevin Kuester
RingSide Steakhouse
Grill 225 grill225.com
CHARLESTON, SC 843.266.4222
RingSideSteakhouse.com
PROPRIETOR: Nick Palassis EXECUTIVE CHEF: Demetre Castanas
PORTLAND, OR 503.223.1513
PROPRIETORS: Jan, Scott & Craig Peterson
INDEPENDENTLY OWNED & OPERATED
www.GreatSteakofNA.com
MAY 2014 • HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
p035-038_HEM0514_F&D.indd 39
08/04/2014 14:12
