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Picazzo inspires with Spanish food

Friday July 22 2016
Food

Churros served at Picazzo Restaurant at The Hub in Karen, Nairobi. PHOTO | COURTESY

Picazzo Restaurant is the second Spanish restaurant in Nairobi. And it is all about the Spanish culture of gathering together over shared plates of food.

“Looking at the Nairobi restaurant scene, we saw a gap in the Spanish cuisine segment. We like Spanish food,” said director Nyawira Kariuki.

Located upstairs at The Hub in Karen, Nairobi, a mall in the city’s western suburbs, Picazzo overlooks a garden and miniature lake.

The restaurant has clean, trendy decor over slate-grey floor tiles. The seating is a mix of regular tables, an upholstered booth along one wall, bench bar seating, and tall cocktail tables near a discreetly mounted TV screen.

The restaurant is a marriage of three different dining styles: Tapas bar, tapas restaurant, and fine dining.

“To offer all three dining experiences in one space was a central part of the concept,” said Nyawira.

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Pablo Picasso, the celebrated 20th century Spanish artist, is the inspiration behind the restaurant name. However, local artwork, and not Picasso’s pieces, adorns the walls of the restaurant.

Spanish cuisine is one of the most developed in the world, said co-director Gabriel Gonzalez.

“The variety is wide: Fabada (bean stew) and meat from the northeast, paella (a rice dish) from the east, jamon (ham) and pork from the west, seafood from the northwest, and a blend of almost everything from the south, without forgetting the cocidos (chickpea stew) from the Madrid area.”

A prominent feature of Picazzo is twin, ceiling-high windows with views into the kitchen where Chef Hector Boo Sanchez and his team prepare the dishes. The common denominator, said chef Sanchez, is eating together from communal plates, a practice typical of Spanish homes and restaurants.

Picazzo’s tapas selection inspires unhurried, shared meals. Tapas are savoury snacks originally created as bar food that have since evolved into a cuisine of their own.

The appetiser tapas are all about potatoes.

“Spain was the connection between South America and the rest of the world for potatoes,” said Gonzalez.

Picazzo offers a Spanish potato salad with tuna, a potato omelette, and patatas bravas (roasted potatoes in a tomato sauce.) Being an egg-lover, I liked the huevos rotos (eggs broken over potato and Morcilla blood sausage.)

For vegetable options there are fresh tomatoes prepared tartar style and a béchamel sauce with bits of black truffle poured over grilled baby leeks. From the northwest Catalonia region comes escalivada, a dish of slow-cooked vegetables accompanied by a cheese sauce.

The round, bread-crumbed croquetas are a must try. Unlike the English potato croquettes, the Spanish version favours eggs and a smooth béchamel sauce as standard ingredients. The perfect croquet is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Picazzo serves chicken, seafood and spinach croqueta with a range of sauces. I tasted the dark, seafood Croquetas de Calamari, blackened with real squid ink. They were crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside.

The choice of carnes (meat) includes a prime beef cut of the day, skewered chicken with a Canarian Mojos sauce, and thick portions of crispy pork belly, that are delicious with a sweet-spicy sauce.

The fish of the day comes with a green Vizcaina sauce from the Basque area. The deep fried squid rings were tasty, if a bit greasy. The steamed octopus came with (of course) potatoes, and was enlivened with smoked paprika.

Multiple small portions of food are incredibly filling, but there’s always room for desert. The Crema Catalana is a chilled custard pudding similar to crème brulee but with lemon and cinnamon flavours, plus a helping of fresh cherries and blueberries.

The simple but highly addictive churros are a Spanish version of the doughnut, sprinkled with powdered sugar served with a hot chocolate sauce.

Naturally, the wine list is predominantly Spanish and the restaurant has partnered with a mixologist from Spain for some fun cocktails.

In the works is a set menu at an attractive price that should appeal to the weekday crowd. Also planned is a fine dining concept, which, Gonzalez says will be “a menu of 10-12 plates.”

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