Anniversary dinner at Horváth Berlin!

Finally! We happily made it to Horváth! Long overdue write-up that was disrupted by illness and hospital stays and recovery from my major surgery. Still, a lovely evening before all the health madness is worth publishing and remembered on this journal.

The handsome-and-talented husband and I have two wedding dates: our Indonesian wedding on March 12 and the Dutch wedding on August 12. The Indonesian wedding was all about cultural rituals and family, the Dutch wedding was all about friends and dancing to great music. This is awesome because we get to celebrate our wedding anniversary twice a year!

When the anniversary date fell on a weekend, we’d go on a weekend getaway break to celebrate. Most often we celebrate by going out to dinner. Since we moved to Berlin, we’ve had a great pool of restaurants to choose from, like Reinstoff, Tim Raue, La Soupe Populaire, Eins44, etc. Reinstoff and Tim Raue were both amazing culinary experiences, but we preferred the more low-key and intimate ambience of La Soupe Populaire and Eins44. Since the handsome-and-talented husband organised our August 2015 anniversary dinner (at Katz Orange, with the friendliest sommelier ever), I get to organise this time, yay!

I’ve had my eye on Horváth for a while. Located on Paul-Lincke-Ufer in Kreuzberg, I often walk past it when I’m doing a project with IXDS, just a few doors down the street. I kept thinking “one day…”, but as you all know, food and travel lists tend to get longer even though you’re crossing things out.

Horváth state on their website that they do a creative interpretation of Austrian cuisine. In line with the food and identity theme of this blog, I’m always interested how chefs interpret the “traditional” cuisines of their personal backgrounds. This is something that I personally play with in the kitchen as well.

I wrote ahead to ask whether it was OK to take photos during the meal with a DSLR and the managing director, Jeannine Kessler, herself wrote me a really friendly email to confirm that yes, it’s completely OK to take food photos. Woo hoo! Table booked, and we’re ready to go.

Note: in the end, I didn’t take photos with the DSLR after all. The handsome-and-talented husband took most of it on his iPhone 6, we were too engrossed in conversation about the food and other things for me to be able to find the focus to take photos with the DSLR. Which is a good thing, I think : )

Horváth-style spork.

The start of the evening

We went for the 7-course menu; the handsome-and-talented one had his with the wine pairing. I’m all for drink pairing to discover new wines; so far no sommelier have rolled their eyes at me as I whip out my phone with the Vivino app active to take pictures and make notes. They’re often wine and craft beer pairings with food, or a mix of cocktails in the case of Singapore’s Tippling Club.

I used to order the wine a la carte since I couldn’t handle the complete pairing menu; yes, I’m a lightweight! A few years ago I had a lovely and refreshing tea pairing at Chef & Sommelier in Helsinki (their sommelier is a tea geek), an experience which convinced me that I don’t miss out on great drinks by skipping the wine. My head nearly exploded just reading the Horváth non-alcoholic pairing menu; they had stuff like tea + white chocolate + dill and parsley root milk + tarragon + salt.

Onwards with the food!

Pictures, pictures and more pictures : )

Bread selection: my favourite was the blood sausage muffin and his favourite was the Austrian “gnocco fritto” on the left. Served with a small pot of the most LUSCIOUS mashed potatoes: buttery, creamy, with the right amount of nutmeg.

Black salsify: braised black salsify, apple jam with blackcurrant “schnapps”, roasted linseed.

Lettuce, yellow beet and pumpkin seed oil. Paired with his Grauburgunder Spätlese from Weingut Schloss Proschwitz and my parsley root + tarragon + salt drink.

Green tomato, chicken skin, black chantarelle. Paired with my cress + elderberry oil drink, and his Furmint (Sipon grape varietal, from a Tokaj region?) from Conrad Fürst.

Brussels sprouts, almonds, champignon. Paired with my mixed tea + dill + white chocolate cream drink and his Tokaj from Gróf Degenfeld.

Salmon trout, Jerusalem artichoke, winter spinach. Paired with my roasted vegetable water + parsley root + vegetable oil drink and his Lores Chardonnay from Johanneshof Reinisch.

Veal liver, broccoli, anchovies. Paired with my caramelised onion + apple + almond oil drink and his glass of red Hannes Reeh “Unplugged” Zweigelt.

Sour cream, quince, duck fat. Paired with my soda + celery + fennel + rose geranium drink.

Chocolate, “Kletz’n”, elderflower. Paired with my kombucha + spruce needle syrup + peppermint.

Petit fours with a twist from the pastry chef: wrapped in thin rice paper, rich caramelly brown butter on top of cooked pigs blood, oh so yum!

Overall impression

We had a really great evening; I loved loved the non-alcoholic pairing! If you’re going to go with your partner or a friend, I’d recommend splitting a non-alcoholic and alcoholic pairing.

Generally we liked all the dishes that we were served. Usually we have different favourites but this time we matched up on our favourite dishes of the night! These three were: