The food wasn’t cheap, but it wasn’t expensive. We sat on a raised terrace under plane trees hung with lanterns. Conversations ambled. The place was empty, but that was okay. The restaurant has its loyalists and will survive.

We have restaurants like this in the US, though they often seem to somehow ring false. This is, I think, because for most Americans interested in this kind of cooking (myself included), it is an acquired aesthetic, mindset, and body of knowledge, rather than a birthright the way it can be in Europe (not that it always is). How the hell are we supposed to get it right?

Interestingly, in Europe, these kinds of ways of growing and cooking things are, though still more prevalent than in the US, on a general decline, as people become more acquainted with the benefits (and there are plenty) of one-stop shopping, heat-and-eat food, or cheap food from far away. Americans, on the other hand, are far more ready to embrace the principles of handmade food wholeheartedly because we’re sick of having lacked them for so long.

So it was lovely to see a normal restaurant, not located in any kind of particularly foodie place or getting much foodie attention, preparing this kind of food: traditional and simple but of very high-quality and intensively prepared. Although the intricate preparation of the dishes would have impressed any highfalutin chef, they were true to the restaurant and the people cooking the food. The meal was both old-school and modern, and equally successful at both.

It was a real delight, finding a place like this in Europe, where hybrids of that kind are rare, even if birds of this beautiful color are even harder to find in the US. Fluency is on the rise, though, and the learning process is part of the fun.