Estelle opened a couple of years ago in St. Paul in whatever that neighbourhood right by Macalester is called. It got rave reviews from the local press and despite my suspicion of the local press—whose excitement often seems to me to have as much to do with the idea of a place as with the food itself—we’d planned to eat there in early 2020. But you know what happened next. I don’t know if they had a takeout pivot through the pandemic but with the exception of one occasion with Tenant our pandemic takeout meals skipped the high end. But we finally made the return to dining-in last month (yes, at Tenant) and Estelle was the next place we made reservations at. We were joined by friends we eat out with regularly—and with whom we ate a number of takeout meals in the last year and a half. This is how it went. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Spanish Cuisine
Gazpacho a la Menu del Dia
It has been a while since my last recipe post—the last one was this one for a cauliflower-corn soup. Five months later I have another soup but it’s tomato-based and is actually seasonally appropriate: gazpacho. The recipe is from Rohan Daft’s excellent book of traditional, hearty Spanish recipes, Menu del Dia. I’m about the opposite of an authority on Spanish cuisine and I have no strong opinions about how a gazpacho should be made but I can tell you that I prefer this gazpacho to the styles more commonly available in American restaurants. It is thickened with stale bread and it is pureed to a smooth consistency. In August in Minnesota we eat a lot of it in our house: it’s when the tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in my garden are coming ripe and our CSA has fresh garlic: it’s the very taste of summer. Continue reading