EPUR - Food with creativity, flair and care

As I mentioned in our last post, we hadn't realised today was Portugal's national day, it partially explains why many of the restaurants we had looked at were closed this evening. But there was one which wasn't, the fantastic Epur, which we had had the pleasure of visiting once before, three years ago.

Epur well deserves a revisit, we loved it last time, and it seemed even better this time. With flavours we will remember for a long time.

It has also continued to win awards, including a Michelin speciality coffee award I'd not seen elsewhere.

The restaurant prides itself on being on the site of the National Academy of Fine Arts, Epur is in its old building and the current location is visible across the road from the restaurant. The restaurant prides itself in its art, this is one of the many pieces on display.

But the truth of the story is that the real art here is the work of Chef Vincent Farges - the chef, born in France worked in french gastronomy in his early career, before travelling and cooking in Greece and Morocco, hints of which you'll see in the food which follows. He then went on to work in the three star, Le Buerehiesel in Strasburg, before moving to Portugal and establishing this restaurant of his own in the heart of Lisbon. 

The meal begins with hot towels. 

and two appetisers, the first Nori with beef tartare, kaffir lime leaves, lemony coriander and trout roe. A crisp mouthful that blossomed in flavour in the mouth - a surprise tang. Drew wants my brother in law to note that he especially enjoyed the trout roe, who ever might have thought he'd be saying that!!

the second was Beetroot macaroons with a rich cream of smoked fish. The smoked fish was the prominent flavour, the beetroot acted almost as a condiment of sweetness to the fish. The texture was intriguing with a softness to the macaroom that had the texture of a prawn cracker.

These were followed by an amuse bouche which also had two dishes a pea dish which were spring peas under spring onion with onion powder on top. The peas were the star of this show, delicate but still with a bite, they were enhanced rather than overpowered by the light flavour of onions. 

This came with cornbread soldiers for dipping. This wasn't the thick cornbread of the southern states of America but a crisp, salty delight that seasoned the pea dish. 

the second part of the amuse was gambas covered in jalapeno foam and paprika. This had a heat through it both from the paprika and the chilli, but was not overpowering, the little lightly torched prawns were able to carry the flavour. If we'd been scoring we would have given high marks to this dish.

The next dish was sardine with toasted brioche with a layer of milked sardine bones, onions and red peppers. The traditional way to serve sardines on St. Anthony's day in Portugal is by barbecuing them. This dish is designed to provoke memories of that, but has been thoroughly modernised. The sardine was lightly smoked and the seasoning was amazing. Three bites and it was finished, though I reckon we could easily have managed five or six more, as they were so moreish. 

The waiter, a French man of Portuguese origin, was very proud of being able to balance the knife on its edge. So, I had to take a photo of his achievement.

The next dish was called Hamashi Cedrat with Nasturtium, I'd had this Japanese fish before (in Japan of all places) it was served here with a red pepper sauce beneath and coriander flowers, cashew nuts with lemon. The top is spiky in flavour with the red pepper sauce below calming, the opposite of what the colours might lead you to expect.

Here is a close up of the dish

Next we had a visit from Vincent himself. This was to present his foie gras, oyster and meyer lemon dish which is informed by his experience of cooking in Morocco. The three items above are all in gelatinous spheres. He explained the dish and then poured the chicken broth that accompanied it over the dish. This is why you have an action shot of him doing so.

The foie gras sphere went off like a bomb on the palette, an astounding flavour and it made Drew happy by not having the texture of foie gras, which puts him off, even though he likes the flavour. The oyster was lightly poached and served alongside the spheres with a special lemon called Mayer, more like a tangerine in flavour.  

Meeting the chef meant I was to overawed to take a photo, so you have him leaving our table rather than arriving. 

The next dish was a red prawn, cockscomb and fava bean combination. It had a rich intensity of sauce carried by the sweet shrimp. The confit tomato flowers gave an astounding extra dimension to the flavour. The sauce had an almost soy depth of flavour, absolutely delicious. [Co-pilot's note: On first appearance, dear readers, my initial thought was that he hasn't cooked his prawns proper! I then started to eat them and realised that this wasn't a mistake but a choice, so my position become 'Ooh, these are nice!]

Next came the bread course, strange to say my dominant memory of our last visit was how amazing the bread was here and how good the chef was at celebrating quite humble ingredients. This though was reaffirmed tonight. When a wheat sourdough was presented.

It was served with three accompaniments. The first, and perhaps the most surprising, was poultry gravy in a peri peri sauce - I managed to drain this by the end of the loaf.

then there was fermented butter with salt crystals, this was Drew's favourite and while it reminded me of cheese, he thought is was simply salty goodness. He managed three quarters of this, I think I was lucky I managed to get the other quarter. 

the third accompaniment was Portuguese olive oil from the north east of portugal with almond and olive trees growing together, making this a very floral oil. Drew noted it had an almost citrusy taste.

this was followed by a dish of sea bass with baby clams in a white wine and elderflower sauce/foam. This was served with a decorated sea urchin mousse on top. The sea urchin looked pretty, but it was the sea bass which was the star of this dish. Plus, of course, the bonus that Drew reacts badly to clams, so I was forced to eat both plates of it. It was a pleasant kind of force. The elderflower provided a robust tang to match the earthness of the bass. [Co-pilot's note: I like clams, I really like them, but unfortunately they don't like me.]

After the fish course, the excitement builds for the main meat course. The knife balancing is achieved again, but this time it is a sharp, sharp knife.

The meat course is black pork with cannelloni of cabbage and pak choi with a pork juice and sage jus. This is accompanied by black pork crackling. The new chef judge on Masterchef, Anna Haugh, would probably not have liked this. She likes her pork well done, and this was rarer than she would have liked, but was a perfect taste of pleasure as the light cooking allowed the subtle flavour of the pig to run through. The sage in the jus brought out the best flavour of the pork.

The pre-dessert was called cherry tomato, strawberry and basil. It had a strawberry tuile on top and bottom with a basil cream between and delicious confit cherry tomato slices through the basil. There are times when you think - is the chef a genius or a mad man and this is one of those - who would put tomatoes into a strawberry dish - well, guess what, he knew better than me and the flavour is truly that of a genius. 

The dessert was a combination of chocolate various ways and buckwheat miso ice-cream

The choclate sauce was poured by the waiter as part of the delivery of the dish.

There was chocolate shaped as a leaf, chocolate crumb, a white chocolate cream and dark chocolate ganache, the chocolate sauce and the buckwheat ice-cream, lightly flavoured (perhaps salted) with miso. [Co-pilot's note: This was delightful dear readers, every texture had a subtly different taste to it, the umaminess of the miso brought the whole dish together. It was a gentle white miso which didn't overpower the other lovely flavours. It was a truly delightful dish, though I would have rathered it be a bit sweeter, so that I would have ended up with both, rather than just the one - after all we all know, dear readers, the sacrifices I go through when it comes to double desserts.]

We then had an option of coffee or tea and as Ethiopian coffee is one of the specialities here we had an espresso with it.

This was served with an orange foam, this could have been a pre-dessert in its own right, a light foam on top and then the zingy, fruitfulness of the marinated orange pieces underneath. supurb. 

At least one of the dishes was too sweet for me, so at least Drew had the two sticks of Moroccan almond with honey. He'd have happily taken a bag of these home with him. I just nippled on the almonds, which are a favourite nut of mine anyway. 

The Journey to and from Epur

While this post has largely been about the important part of last evening - the delicious food. I'll note the process of getting to and from the restaurant, just to complete the story.

We walked the ten minutes to Almeda Station, one of the great things about the location of our hotel is that we are six minutes from one of the Red Line (Linha Vermelha) stations and ten minutes from a Green Line (Linha Verde) station, tonight it was the Green Line we wanted. 

We left the hotel room at 6.40pm and stopped along the way to take phtoos of each other. It is rare on holiday that we dress up, but we will make an effort for michelin starred restaurants. Today we both made the effort. We even packed formal shoes for the holiday, rather than walking shoes, just for these occassions. 

We arrive at Almeda Station at 6.55pm and the train arrives immediately we arrive at Baixo-Chiado station at 7.05pm, the train being much quieter than usual on this Public Holiday. 

We walk around the area for a while including this lovely shop with its animations in the upper windows 

and the famous Elevador de Santa Justa.

On arriving at Epur we also took benefit of its location to take some photos. 

This was before we went into the restaurant and looks from the perspective of the car park beside the restaurant

As does this one (which needed more editing to remove cars and buildings)

The table we were sat at also provided an amazing view through the window. This was the first sign of the sun going down at sunset when the smoke from bushfires further up country roll down the hills. 

This a little later when the cloud/smoke obscures the other side of the Rio Tajo.

Our final photo, just before leaving is of Lisbon Cathedral, in the centre, lit up for the evening.

We leave Epur at 9.30pm and walk back to Baixo-Chiado and again as we hit the platform the metro arrives. It is 9.40pm now.

 

We arrive at Almeda at 9.50pm and are back at the hotel at 10am. We do our evening ablutions and check a few emails before heading to bed at 11pm after a lovely day with a superb evening meal to finish it.