It has been almost a year since Mediteca launched its porky items in their menu. A year of testing the market and their customers’ preference… it’s time to revamp the menu. And revamp they did… throwing out less popular dishes and adding on new exciting ones. After lots of brainstorming (and kitchen storming too), Chef Riccardo and his team have come up with some winning new dishes.
We started off our meal with glasses of chilled prosecco and freshly baked foccacia bread… a nice prelude to the tapas that came right after. The Pan Con Tomate Y Serrano came on a piece of parchment paper. It’s essentially a big piece of toasted bread topped with chopped tomatoes and luscious Serrano ham. The ensemble was made even prettier by pieces of bright orange dehydrated tomato skin. I love Serrano and this was just right up my alley!
Next came the Arancini and Croquettes. Very much a southern Italian snack, the Arancini were deep-fried risotto rice balls mixed with mozzarella, ham and green peas.
Together with the Mediterranean-style croquettes which had a rich filling of gorgonzola cheese, potatoes and spinach, these are quick tummy fillers! Try to go easy on these.
We had a lovely Crostone and that’s almost a mistake. A thick slice of crispy bruschetta decked with mushroom ragout, shitake porcini, tender porchetta and melting cheese can be very hard to resist. It’s pure comfort food.
I was so glad when the Beetroot Salad was served. Besides its appealing form, I needed a salad to balance out the carbs and meats served thus far. Baked beetroot, baby spinach, tomatoes, leek and sausage tossed in a lovely tangy raspberry vinaigrette. Just divine. I was never a beetroot fan but these cubes of deep magenta beet were superb. The beetroot had been slow-baked for 45 minutes, covered with salt. The slow baking had dispelled the natural tartness of the beet rendering them sweet and very palatable. Love the pine nuts topping the salad, too!
We tried 2 of the new pastas: Orecchiette and Maccheroni. I prefer the cute Orecchiette which had some fire in the luganega sausage tossed with breadcrumbs, white wine and chilli. The Maccheroni was very cheesy as it had 4 types of cheese in it! Who can argue with taleggio, gorgonzola, fontal and parmesan cheeses, combined in a gooey web of breadcrumbs, walnuts and parsley? Go dive in, if you are a cheese fan.
The Salmon platter came with seared prawns, scallop wrapped in bacon and vegetable kebabs served with hummus. Light bites of fresh seafood with some smokey porcine flavours from the bacon – this is definitely a good choice if you are not keen on a heavy dish. The flavours were further enhanced with garlic, parsley and lemon rind.
A more robust mains was the Seared Beef Entrecote with crushed pumpkin and goat cheese. We had Australian Angus Beef Rump perfectly seared with nice pink insides, complemented with a sweetish pumpkin mash. I liked how the chef has included bits of the pumpkin skin in the mash as this gave a nice bite to the mash.
For desserts, there were the Rice Milk Amaretto and Vanilla Stick and the more rustic Apple Sable and Cinnamon. I’m not very partial to sweet rice “porridge” and this was precisely what the rice milk amaretto was like. There’s crushed almonds, honey, sugar and cream in the concoction too, so it was a bit overwhelming for me.
The apple sable was more manageable for me although it was also a tad too sweet for my palate. The vanilla sauce smelled divine though.
Mediteca
Lot 163, Fraser Place
Jalan Perak
50450 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2181-2426
Fax: 03-2161-1106
Open Mondays-Saturdays @ 11.30am till late night
Closed on Sundays until further notice
Website: www.meditecawinetapas.com
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