words by MAREK BARTEK
As Amsterdam’s days get shorter and the sky turns into its familiar shade of grey, we all start looking for warmth wherever we can find it. Dinner at ARCA, inside art’otel, offered exactly that. All it took was a few hours of Portuguese food and wine, and November suddenly felt a little less bleak.
all images courtesy of ARCA
The occasion was the restaurant’s fifth anniversary, with chef Henrique Sá Pessoa joining head chef Gonçalo Alpalhão to introduce the new winter menu. And although winter was the theme, the dishes had a freshness that evoked a balmy Lisbon evening, with temperatures in the mid-twenties and the promise of an after-dinner walk along the Atlantic.
The winter menu brings together Portuguese traditions and Asian influences, from cured yellowtail with wasabi escabeche, roasted beetroot and pickled Granny Smith to tuna tartare with kombu-noisette hollandaise and crispy rice. There’s also monkfish in a caldeirada sauce infused with lemongrass, served with sweet potato and pak choi. Across the menu, citrus, pickles and aromatic herbs offer a fresh counterpoint to richer elements, giving the colder season a distinctly coastal feel while keeping Portugal at the heart of things.
The Portuguese wine pairings were a highlight on their own, accompanied by explanations that brought our attention to each glass poured to us. One wine from the Azores was particularly memorable. Served with the first course, it was crisp, almost salty, with a fascinating story of volcanic soil and cool Atlantic winds behind it. Other glasses brought rounder flavours from different Portuguese regions, and a perfectly sweet port rounded off the evening.
For the anniversary week, three desserts returned to the menu: chocolate mousse, the traditional Portuguese pão de ló, and a cauliflower tart with green curry ice cream — an intriguing line-up, for sure, spanning five years of ARCA.
The open kitchen definitely added to the evening, with the team preparing dishes in full view of the table. Whether it was the company, the dishes, the wine, the anniversary or all of these combined, there was something warm and welcoming about that evening. It might’ve been a grey November in Amsterdam outside, but inside, at least for a few moments, Portugal felt pleasantly close.