INTRODUCING: ATOLE LATELY
Great Greek-Mediterranean at Nostos, pancakes without a recipe, salt-crusted potatoes, and more.
Hello there!
To my regular long essays, I just added this new, shorter, more intimate, and casual newsletter —for paid subscribers only— where, every other week, I will post what I cook, taste, read, learn, or see about food that I consider worth sharing, with no intended thematic or order, just everyday stuff that surprises me, or that I am already a fan of.
I should warn you, though, that I’m not much restaurant foodie as I used to be in my younger years. I’m into more random stuff these days. So, don’t expect to find here a list with the trendiest restaurants in the Polanco or the Roma-Condesa neighborhoods —although I may include a little of that every now and then (and even test-cook some restaurant favorites at home).
So, here we go…
A little from here and there…
#PRICEYBUTYUMMY
A couple of weeks ago, a dear old friend of mine from San Francisco, who has become a very successful doctor with an internationally awarded line of skin-care products that uses growth factor technology to reconstruct the skin (he treated me with one of his serums so I’ll let you know how it goes…), came to visit. He now lives between his hometown, Dubai, and Irving, CA —where he has his headquarters— but travels constantly to give conferences, and has a newfound love for Mexico City (can’t blame him, he has the coolest friends). He first came a couple of weeks ago for a conference, and then once more last week, just to dine again with us. We went to a few places in the Polanco-Lomas area, as he was staying at a hotel nearby. A neighborhood I am not that familiar with anymore, in terms of restaurants (its offer has multiplied in recent years, mostly fancy, on-the-expensive-side places, but a few with fairly good kitchens), so I just went with the flow of what my cousins (who do know the area pretty well) chose. I was just happy to see my friend, to get a chance to hang with part of our old San Francisco team, and reminiscence about good times, friends, and our worry-free college days bar and food hopping between Sol y Luna, Babylon, Albasha, North Beach Pizza, the after-hours at 1015 Folsom, and the 24-hour Deli & Bagel that was conveniently located on our way home. I was not really expecting to be impressed by the food, though I really enjoyed one of the places; a Greek-Mediterranean restaurant in the Monte Athos area called Estiatorio Nostos. It was indeed, a little over-priced (even for the area), but it had a comfy terrace, good attention, great olive oil, a small but nice selection of Greek rosés, amazing fish and seafood, very interesting pasta dishes that I didn’t get the chance to try this time, and a very agreeable list of desserts. Everything we had was perfectly cooked and seasoned. My favorites were the horiátiki salad (the tomatoes were notably ripe, juicy, and flavorful), the Mediterranean sashimi, the salt-crusted sea bass, the lemon potatoes, and the galaktoboureko. They sell their olive oil by the bottle, it is not cheap, but if you compare it to good wine, it is totally worth it (just save it for the good stuff)….
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