On our last weekend in Caracas we went to lunch at Recoveco, a restaurant high up on the avila, the mountain range that divides Caracas from the sea. We’d heard about it from Luis because the chef is a friend of his. (After lunch we learned that he really just wanted to come because his friend has a slightly questionable culinary past and he was curious what he’d put on the table. Thanks man…)
Luckily José Nicolás came through with flying colors. We feasted on a Venezuelan interpretation of gazpacho, “pabellon” in form of an Oreo, veggies fresh from the garden at our feet, shrimps, scallops, grouper and rib-eyes. For dessert we could choose between three different kinds of ice-cream (basil, rosemary or ginger – all delicious) with some rather unfortunately wimpy chocolate crêpes. Each dish was paired with a Chilean or Argentinian wine and some very fine rum to round things off.
Even more exciting than the food though was the drive to the restaurant and the wonderful views with which you’re rewarded once you make it. There are no signs to Recoveco anywhere on the incredibly steep avila road since technically this is a national park and you’re not supposed to run a restaurant there. Of course, this is Venezuela and people could care less what they are and aren’t supposed to do. But still, there is no address given on the website and only on the day before did we receive a confirmation email with a hand drawn map and some vague directions to their actual where-abouts: “…take the first dirt road on the right marked by blue rocks and follow until the end.” There were a couple of forks in that road so ‘follow until the end’ was slightly vaguer than we would have liked for a description but we did find the place without a hitch in the end.
The only customers for lunch that day, except for a journalist from Ocean Drive magazine who left quickly after we arrived. Taking the pork dish with him, evil.
Exploring our lunch options
The kitchen, with possibly the best view in the world.
As is implied from the title of this post, we have since moved on from Venezuela and find ourselves in a somewhat new situation: we will be staying in the same place for 3 whole months! It’s almost too crazy to get your head around, isn’t it? We’ll be in New York City until the beginning of December so if you have any tips for food, sightseeing, drinks, shopping or other shenanigans, send us an email. (Maybe we should temporarily rename this blog to “Paws in the Big Apple”.)