this guy's food blog

After a beautiful day of touring museums and parks in the Jardins area of São Paulo, Rocky and I made our way back to Alex Atala’s D.O.M. for part two of our two-in-a-row(click here for part one). Still excited from a remarkable lunch and a night of unique cocktails the day before, we were beyond ready to see what was cooking for dinner.

We got the party started with bread service and some off-menu cocktails that our new friend Barman Jean Ponce worked up in anticipation of our return.

After some back and forth with our service guy we established a game plan for the meal. With the exception of a few dishes we requested to have again, they had a new menu lined up for us.

The same opener from the day before, though this time the texture of the grilled manioc was even better. Perfectly crisped with the starchy layers almost peeling apart. Great again with the cheese and port sauce. It was served with the same drink and I had just as much trouble with the pairing this time.

Salada de abobrinha caipira e lagostim. A zucchini salad with delicate, sweet langoustine and tender squid. Accompanied by Amazon herbs, flowers, and cashews with a tangy tangerine sauce. Playful, bright, light bites.

Vieira com leite de coco e castanha do Pará. This was the dish from lunch that Rocky and I both wanted to have more of. Chilled scallop, coconut milk, shaved Brazil nut, dried mango. Just superb. And an ideal pairing of local flavors with the bottle of Brazilian chardonnay we had.

Ostras empanadas com tapioca marinada. A grilled Santa Catarina Oyster with brioche breading served among salmon roe and tapioca. Texturally this was a ton of fun between shape and size similarities but tactile and taste contrasts of the roe and tapioca. The sweet brioche coating and the pepper spice in the sauce made a good dynamic with the oceanic salinity of the oyster and roe.

Arroz negro levemente tostado com legumes verdes e leite de castanha do Pará. Another repeated plate from  the previous day’s lunch. Toasted black rice with green vegetables(asparagus, green pepper, green onion, broccoli, leek, snow pea, celery) and Brazil nut milk. Just a great plate. The toasty crisp rice with the sweet of the milk and the vegetal snap. The leek this time was particularly superb.

Brandade de bacalhau com tutano. Cod brandade with marrow accompanied by port reduction, rich earthy oxtail sauce, and herbed olive oil. Nothing too crazy, but certainly great.

Abacaxi com formiga amazônica. The same insect serving as the day before: Amazonian ant, solo, then with pineapple. Same story as before. Same resounding cooling herbaceousness.

Camarão, couve e rúcula. Santa Catarina shrimp, kale cream, arugula, mushroom, potato, black pepper. Holy f*ck. The head of this shrimp was the best I had tasted in a long time. The intense, savory, lightly sweet, buttery flavor hit hard. Just licking the kale cream off the shell was incredible. My favorite dish of the trip.

Caracol Marinho e casca de limão rosa. Dense, meaty sea snail with bitter, acidic Brazilian lemon peel supported by nice layers of alliums. The little pearl onion petals were great.

Filet mignon de queixada com caramelo toffe e mandioca Brás. The ‘filet mignon’ from peccary, a type of wild boar, dressed with a reduction of red wine, meat, fish, and milk caramel. Accompanied by crispy manioc cooked with egg and onion. Bad ass.

Aligot. Again with the smooth, starchy potatoes whipped with Gruyere and Minas cheeses.

Mandioquinha glacê, chocolaté do Combu e chantilly de mel de abelha indígena. Fried arracacha root with chantilly cream made with local bee honey in a pool of the reduced cooking liquid of the root. The glazed root tasted close to a sweet potato, which I typically don’t care for, but I loved the sauce with the cream.

Abóbora, carvão vegetal e sorvete de tapioca. Pumpkin, cooked in sugar, then caramelized. With tapioca ice cream and coconut foam mixed with ‘vegetable coal’ or carbonized herb powder. The pumpkin was sweet and wonderfully juicy. The ‘coal’ in the foam gave the dish a nice campfire taste.

Some sweets with our tea.

Our new friend Pietro, who we chatted with a good deal the day before, presented us with a beautiful gift of Vale Verde 12 year Cachaça to finish our dinner. Smooth, lightly sweet, with balanced oak and acidity. A perfect finish to our meals at D.O.M.

Date of visit:  January 4, 2014

D.O.M. Rua Barão de Capanema, 549. São Paulo, Brazil  +55 11 3088 0761  domrestaurante.com.br

I first read about D.O.M. back in 2005. I had just earned a BFA in ballet and modern dance performance. I was living a jovial, sometimes raucous lifestyle with very few responsibilities. Each day I was getting more drawn into habitual eating and drinking out and about as well as cooking and entertaining at home. Reading more cookbooks and reading about what chefs and their teams were doing around the world. At that time I started to think it would be a neat idea to get a reservation at one of these amazing restaurants then plan a trip around the meal. Each time I mentioned to my friends the thought of traveling to another country for a meal they would tell me what a ridiculous idea it was. But I kept on looking for new places and another great bite. Now, nine years later, I find myself planning not only travel but most of my life around which wondrous restaurant to visit next.

A couple weeks ago Rocky and I made our first trip to the Southern Hemisphere and I finally got to taste what Chef Alex Atala is cooking at D.O.M. in São Paulo. As long as I was making the trek from NYC to Brazil, I thought I should make it a two-a-day, but Rocky is starting to protest that practice, so I went with a two-in-a-row. So this is a post from Friday lunch. Click here for Saturday dinner.

After a couple sunny days of sightseeing, eating excessive açaí, and playing on the beach in Rio de Janeiro, we hopped on a plane to São Paulo, stopped by our hotel for a few minutes then made our way to lunch at D.O.M. We started up with a bottle of bubbles(kick-ass 1995 Fleury) and got the party started.

They hit us first with bread service. Traditional sourdough, whole wheat sourdough, and addictive little pão de queijo(cheese & tapioca buns) accompanied with Brazilian butter, roasted garlic and potato spread, and what we understood to be sour cream with olive oil.

Before starting into the menu, a serving of grilled manioc with smooth, rich, whipped cheese and port reduction. The texture of the root was great. Crisp outside with starchy striations. A good few bites to start. Although it was served with a cocktail of curaçao and sparkling wine that tasted of cough syrup and perrier.

Ceviche de berinjela e algas. A ‘ceviche’ of juicy, acidic eggplant with seaweed, cilantro, and sesame. Not sure what all was in the powder that was dusted over, but it started off with an immediate spice that faded right into a pleasant oceanic seaweed taste.

Vieira com leite de coco e castanha do Pará. Scallops with coconut milk, Brazil nut, dried mango, cilantro, and pepper. Superb tropical balance. Straight from Rocky’s mouth: ‘This is super f*cking delicious.’ Different types of sweetness subtly sang together and harmonized beautifully.

Arroz negro levemente tostado com legumes verdes e leite de castanha do Pará. Lightly toasted black rice with broccoli, asparagus, snow pea, celery, leek, green pepper, and green onion dressed with Brazil nut milk. A wonderful plate of well-executed grains and vegetables.

Olho de cão com mini arroz e alga marinha. Local red snapper with mini-rice and seaweed. Really well balanced. Nothing mind blowing, but delicious.

Brandade de palmito com anchova e telha de tapioca. A brandade of roasted heart of palm with anchovy and a meat-fish-red wine reduction. The brandade itself showed just enough of the astringency and acidity of the palm to balance into the richness. When combined with a little of the super salty anchovy, it was pretty bad ass.

Abacaxi com formiga amazônica. Northern Amazonic ants. Served both plain and with pineapple. We were instructed to have the plain ant first. It had a strong lemongrass-ginger taste and a resonating menthol-ish finish. When combined with the pineapple it was kind of like a cough drop in flavor, with the sweetness of the fruit alongside the herbaceous insect.

Mini arroz tostado com cogumelos e agrião. A toasted mini rice ‘cake’ with mushrooms, kale cream, watercress, flowers, and a cream of curdled milk with brown butter solids. Effing bangin’. The rice was wonderfully textured. The dense, earthy mushrooms with the sweet, vegetal kale and the tangy, sour cream were fantastic.

Fettuccine de palmito à Carbonara. Heart of palm ‘fettuccine’ prepared as a classic carbonara. I wasn’t too excited going into this one. I thought it sounded gimmicky/tacky in Atala’s recent cookbook, but I was way wrong. This plate was dynamite. The al dente snap of the palm and the balance of the inherent acidity within the rich preparation were spectacular.

Costelinha ao Malbec com mandioca Brás. Baby pork ribs, fall-off tender with a nice thick glaze, plated up with Malbec foam and manioc prepared like crispy crunchy little french fries dressed with egg and onion. Not necessarily highly elevated cuisine, but it was super f*cking tasty.

Aligot. An amazing Aligot. Loaded up with Gruyère and Minas cheese. With a perfect density. Almost like potato flavored chewing gum.

Priprioca – Ravióli de limão e banana ouro. Lime gel ‘ravioli’ stuffed with banana with priprioca. The sweet, lightly acidic lime made the banana taste rich which created a light fruity balanced first dessert.

Torta de castanha do Pará com sorvete de whiskey, curry, chocolate, sal, rúcula e pimenta. A Brazil nut tart with whiskey ice cream, curry, chocolate spice sauce, arugula, salt and pepper. With all the elements combined, a superb dessert.

A few sweet bites to accompany our coffee(which was made from Nespresso capsules, which we saw everywhere).

After dinner we got to chatting with one of the service staff and got onto the subject of Cachaça and cocktails and he started to tell us of Jean Ponce, D.O.M.’s barman, and some of his creations. So we decided we needed to visit for drinks in-between our two meals. Here’s a glimpse of what went down that night:

It was absolutely a great first day in São Paulo, to see what we had for dinner the next day, click here.

Date of visit(s):  January 3, 2014

D.O.M. Rua Barão de Capanema, 549. São Paulo, Brazil  +55 11 3088 0761  domrestaurante.com.br