u m a m i

Gelida & El Cigro d'or

 

We're back from three weeks in Malaysia and Singapore. It was marvelous meeting up with all our friends and family. How time flew, the eating was fantastic, France eat your heart out. It is hard to beat the ready availability of SO MUCH GOOD FOOD every where, at any time of the day. A bit intense though, after all that indulging the body is probably grateful that we're back to simpler options around here.

Rewind back to the day after the big dinner at El Bulli. The sun was high and the sky was clear. We met in the hotel restaurant for breakfast before dispersing, us to the airport to drop Josh off while Sui Mai and her husband went on to Girona.

 

Lunch was in Gelida, a tiny village on a picturesque hill 30 minutes out of Barcelona. Annette of Abstoss World Gastronomy had kindly helped us to make reservations, she also told them we're her friends so we should have some nice treats waiting for us. Knowing her high standards we were rubbing our greedy stomachs expectantly. The drive was smooth, we arrived a little early for our 2.30 pm  (Spanish lunch hour) appointment so to kill time we explore the area a little. The few shops were about to close but not before we stumbled across a bakery claiming that they are the creators of these custardy pastries known as "gelidences". It looked good in the window, and husband bought one piece which after biting into he immediately said it was so good he told me he was not sharing his with me. 

Since he held all our Spanish money I had to wait for him to finish before he can go order another piece. It is basically a dry sponge holding very rich milky custard and topped with a crackly caramel crust. Name to note: La Confiança, carrer del Sol 5, Gelida. T: 937790435.

There was a convenience store with a side room selling nothing but rotisserie chicken, the smell of it was pulling in all the neighbourhood. I pressed on, inside I found these potato chips fried in olive oil. I bought two packets, one to eat on the spot and the other to eat on the plane the next day; together with take-away iberico ham sandwich it made a better meal than the measly packets of crackers that Air France gave out during their horrid flight.   

At our destination of the restaurant El Cigro d'Or (the gold chickpea) we were met with a smiling young man with dark curls on his head, under his smart black uniform he wears a Ronadino jersey. His name is Juan, and he makes a very good version of gin and tonic called Juan Tonic. He showed us to a very good table with an umimpeded view of the imposing formations of Montserrat. The airconditioner was already humming and the room was blessedly cool and tranquil.

Nibbles while waiting for the first course. We didn't get a menu, I only said to Annette that we eat everything but not too much licorice and cinammon. For this meal we decided to do what husband calls a "Josh" which is to a) let the chef decide the menu, b) eat everything places in front of us c) take a picture of every dish and d) take a picture of the chef at the end of the meal if possible.

Sweet smoky green peppers known as padrons. Served in the usual way of grill and salted. With a bottle of white Nun D.O Penèdes we were off to a brilliant start.

This is the reason for the restaurant's name. A tiny Staub casserole of tender chickpeas braised with mushroom and lean bacon. At other tables some diners were satisfied with this one dish which is served in a bigger pot. It's light and nutty with a delicious meaty broth. So unassuming yet brilliant, just like everything this place does.
 

Soup of green peas with ham. Again, an every day dish elevated with I don't know what, better ingredients, higher techniques, X factor, whatever, it was brilliant.

"Gazpacho" which wasn't quite what it looked. Salmon cubes with vanilla-scented plums gives a neat twist to this summer classic and this went down well on such a hot day.

Tuna salad with potato, garlic and basil. Gorgeous, the potato part was fun, it came as a translucent fried potato chip. The tuna, well it was doing Spain proud by being sweet and meaty and ocean-y all at the same time.

Octopus with yoghurt and olive. They emailed me the menu as requested which is how I can say the dishes' names with confidence but at the time it was quite funny because the only language we have in common with Juan was French and I worried I missed out some things. Like the yoghurt part. The olive sand was addictive. The leaves, it has a flavour like seafood, very interesting.

Crab, onion and mushroom with its own soup. Looking like a regular vol-au-vent before Juan poured a clear brown liquid around it. The onion confit and fresh crab meat with their sweet-on-sweet play was offset by those little orange nuggets of smoked fish roe, the whole underpinned by an earthy mushroom base.

Rice with squid. With foam. This dish  can be found all over Spain but this was exemplary, each grain packed with highly delicious inky squidliness.

Moving on to mackerel with aubergine and almonds. The white wine done with, now we were drinking a very good red- Sotlefriec D. O Penèdes. At this point I was already very full yet I finished the fish, like velvet it was, very smooth and finely fleshed unlike lesser versions, its robust flavour matched by the smokiness of the grilled aubergines. Lovely.

Piglet, mushrooms and chickpea puree. The pig was Iberico, terribly tasty and fatty, all crackly skin and meltyness. The mushrooms just reminds me of pigs wandering the forest happily eating acorns, or sniffing out truffles while at it.

Fruit salad. Like I said, they're very modest in describing their dishes. Mango in the background, grapefruit up front with citrus in the middle. We're full, we insist, yet we couldn't resist this.

Chocolate and rice. They didn't mention the dates and the raspberry jam and also that the chocolate has a spicy kick which just made us want to eat more and more of it. What a magnificient finish!

They gave us caneles with coffee too, and we ate that as well. That night we didn't have any dinner because we were so full, and also because to eat more would somehow diminish our lunch experience. Everything was perfect. The weather. The view. The impeccable service. The beautifully cooked food, every dish a hit. The bill? 163.98 euros for two including wines and taxes.

The chef, Oriol Llavina, had a peep at us from the kitchen when we were eating. He's a little shy but very cute no? And obviously very good at cooking. To complete the "Josh" I asked him and Juan for a photo. Would it surprise you that this place is not included in the Michelin guide? So now you know, the next time you go to Barcelona, make time to eat here. You won't regret it.

El Bulli, Spain.

         

Before the trip, people asked me how I felt about going to the top restaurant in the world. I told them I worried that I won't like the food which sounded too experimental and weird. Still, out of the 30 plus courses, surely the odds are in our favour, or is it not?

Initial impression, after disembarking from our maxicab ride up the dizzying drive up to the restaurant and taking quick photos in the rainy early evening, was that we stumbled into a laboratory. We, as in me and husband, Josh and Sui Mai and husband who had driven up to Roses from South of France the same afternoon, were in the kitchen where many white-coated men stood over metal tables poring over their creations. All was silent, the only sounds coming from our excited chatter and cameras clicking away, the men in white throwing occasional curious glances our way. There was no familiar kitchen smells of soups simmering away or sounds of chopping, only quiet concentration as they wield their pincers and methodically create their plates.

We had a lovely table in an ingled nook overlooking the sea and the scrubby hill slopes. The show started almost immediately, giving us little time to appreciate the courses that came at lightning speed amid exhortations of "It is very delicate, please eat immediately (like NOW!)."

Course 1: Yuzu sake cocktail. Delicious. Refreshing.

We also ordered drinks and fruit juices. When the foam floats to the top the waitstaff insisted on stirring the juice. I can appreciate the intention but it would have been so much better and more hygienic if they use different spoons in between glasses or let us do it ourselves.

Wines ordered for the meal: All Spanish. First was Brut Nature Gran Reserva 2004. Agusti Torello @ Cava-Penedes. Next up, Gran Veigadares 2002. Adegas Galegas @ Rias Baixas. Finally, a Clos Erasmus 2000. Daphne Glorian @ Priorat.

Course 2: nori-Trias. No recollection of what that was like.

Course 3: shiso-soft candy. Like mini fruit-tips with its soft, jellylike bite, the shiso gives it an adult cred.

Course 4: Spherical olives. Pictures all over the internet, but chaxiubao's flickr set would be my favourite for image reference. Later I would hate all the spherification dishes that would come along but this version I liked. The horrid plasticky feeling that one gets upon breaking the sphere's membrane quickly gives way to a voluptuous custardy oily liquid that concentrates all the lovely fruity flavours of a good green preserved olive. I had seconds and thirds.

Course 5: Passion orchid. Very pretty edible 'flower', with crunchy waferlike petals and a pistil centre that oozed a surprise peanut-butter like cream. Delicious.

Course 6: Basil leaf: Why?

Course 7: "averantos": Like crispy crunch rice crispy snacks.

Course 8: tomato biscuit: wafer disc infused with fresh tomato flavours.

Course 9: pinenut and chocolate bon bons: Fancy cookie

Course 10: Pekin crepes: Two versions. The crab and soya version looked innocuous enough but inside it was wet and salty. A cucumber crispy dumpling was quite delicious.

Course 11: mint leaf with coconut. The coconut represented by a foamy lick on the plate. soapy. Hated it. Part 2 was macaroon-like, slightly better.

Course 12: "brazo de gitano": Two plays on beetroot and yoghurt, The first a micro spongeroll confection, the second a riff on turkish delight. Taste overshadowed by clever idea.

Course 13: Grilled strawberry: Somehow they injected an intense strawberry liquid inside the fruit. Yumm.

Course 14: Gorgonzola moshi: I liked it.

Course 15: LYO-cream. I forgot what it was like.

Course 16: Buffalo milk. A dessert soup like dish of tiny strawberries with basil leaves and matcha powder in buffalo milk. Fun.

Course 17: Razor clam/ Laurencia. Excellent. We can see where Chef Albert Raurich of Dos Pallilos got his inspiration for a similar dish at his restaurant. I preferred this, the clams perfectly cooked to showcase its fresh sweetness, the seaweed garnish and broth supporting admirably. Perhaps it is close to Chinese food, we all loved this very much.

         

Course 18: Mandarin flower. pumpkin oil with mandarine seeds (image above). Disparate components delicious on their own, not too interesting together.

         

Course 19: Savory / spun egg with eggyolk gnocchis. Eggy. Cold. Too much of shaped foods in plasticky membrane skin.Yucky. There was also a rendition of pasta carbonara in a spoon which was more egg yolk than anything else. Fine if eaten warm, but very unpleasant when left to cool.

Course 20: Veal tendon. Similar to Cantonese style braised tendon.

Course 21: Black garlic ravioli. Strange. Not garlicky but still strange.

Course 22: Mussel 2008. Mussel buried under more weird sauce. Texture above taste.

         

Course 23: Water lily. Beautiful presentation. Everything tasted good and novel. Delightful.

Course 24: Game meat canapé. Looks disgusting. Taste was not much better. Texture was beyond awful.

 

       

 

         

Course 25: Suckling pig tail. You can't not serve Iberico pig in Spain. Here the tail was delicious but still overwrought considering the beauty of the ingredient. The accompanying soup seemed a bit repetitive like preceding dishes. Can you tell we are all getting a little jaded at this point?

Course 26: Green walnuts and endive. I liked the green walnuts well enough, but not the rest of the dish.

         

Course 27: Gnocchi of polenta with coffee and safran yuba. When they presented this dish, I was excited. Are we getting some real food at last? My teeth were dying for a bit of action and I cannot stomach another spherical capsule of cleverness. Alas, as my dining companion informed me, for we have taken to tasting the new dishes in turn, it was yet another illusion dish, inside it was all liquid gnocchi and liquid polenta flavour, nothing to set the teeth on. I was so disappointed. With all the liquids that we ate and drank, I went to the restroom three times.

At this point we are more than two thirds through the meal and we haven't eaten more than little snacks and curiosities. Me and Josh were running out of words to describe the plates that are being passed round as food. It couldn't have been easier for Sui Mai who was not feeling too well to start off with.          

         

Course 28: Sea anemone 2008. But truly, nothing could have prepared me for this dish. It has slimy sea anemone and rabbit's brain, all raw I think. This made the first time that I wanted to retch upon tasting something. I couldn't eat more than a bite each of sea anemone and brain. Vile. Vomitous. Nightmare!

Course 29: Abalone. Good, they left the abalone alone thankfully. It was the fresh type, appropriately chewy and seafood-y. The trimmings though were nauseating.

Course 30: Castanets. Actually pork rib cartilage. Looked meaty, like a mini rack of ribs, but in the mouth it was all cartilage. For goodness sake, we were paying 250 euro per head at least, can't they give us something we can chew with our teeth instead of messing our minds and palate? We get all that textural explorations already. HUsband starting to feel hard done by.

Course 31: Flower canapé. Whe cares? Oh, maybe we should. This is the beginning of desserts already.

Course 32: "Trufitas". Truffle-like nuggets in realistic looking soil. It was chocolate with truffles. Very nice. I had another.

         

Course 33: Cacao. Quite ordinary compared to the rest which was a bit of a relief. The cocoa shell was made of sugar.

Course 34 and beyond: Morphings. I no longer cared. Just totally glad that the roller coaster dinner was over. In short I was not too impressed by the experience. We have no regrets about going but nothing can induce me to go back. Too clever, too edgy for my taste, which was all fine if only they could try harder to make more edible stuff instead of faffing around with gelatins and membranes and tasteless wafer discs. The good side of it all was that because we ate so little real food, I didn't feel like I overate or overindulged. And that was good, because the next day was a Sunday and we had lunch reservations at a very good restaurant awaiting.

         

         


         

Massana Restaurant, Girona

Saturday 12 July. Sun blazing away, we piled into the car to get to Girona, the men stopping by beforehand at Vila Viniteca to buy their last minute wine.

Umami Husband: Josh, that bottle of XYZ, it's no longer available.

Josh: Guess who bought it? Hahaha.

The two of them were still intent on finding that 'animal' wine FA112, and since the Barcelona Vila Viniteca as well as the Falset wineshop were out of this bottle, they thought to try their luck in Girona. Only it was not that easy to find a wineshop when we got there. I spent my time profitably buying canned tuna belly in olive oil. Only 2.50 euros a can! Then they decided to look for the tourist office so we found the city centre and parked illegally at one of the squares. I bought more stuff- ink stuffed with own squid, more tuna belly, some turrons, Marimekko the fabric stylist shop was having a good sale too- and waited for them to tell me the next step. They've given up idea of finding wine shop, and had made reservations for a one-star restaurant; the three and two stars were either closed or full.

Massana Restaurant is in the middle of a very dull, nondescript area of town, but is quite successful that one can choose to eat in either the smoking restaurant or the non-smoking restaurant (not a small space, or enclosed area, but with their own entrances, cashiers etc). Inside it was cool and quiet. The men ordered the desgustation menu with paired wines. I ordered more sparingly, mindful of our major dinner that evening. Boy were we glad we went to this restaurant. It surpassed our expectations of a one-star, in fact I would go so far as saying that in Paris it would be more of a two or three star without the attendant price increases.

I loved my first starter of grilled asparagus with romesco sauce, but I loved the next dish even more. It was stated innocuously as potato and sobrassada millefeuille with poached egg and Torta de Carnarejal- what came was like potato gratin but with runny yolks and the amazing taste of the torta de carnarejal cheese. It was richer than I expected, and I did not think I would finish my portion but I did. Which made me a little too full to enjoy my wild turbot properly. All this not helped also by an ad-hoc order of what appears to be boudin noir on toast but so much tastier, liverish and bloodyish yet without being too stinky, it was the best boudin noir I've ever had, and I've eaten not few of these in France.

The guys. They did good. Starting with foie gras royal with mango and a glass of super sherry. Then a killer dish of finely sliced wild mushrooms marinated with I dunnowhat but just plain delicious and meaty and briny, enhanced with chopped summer truffles (no aroma, only a faint crunch) and tiny sweet shrimps. There had marinated sardines, fat scallops, tuna, streaky bacon cooked till tender and melting yet still gelatinous like the dongpo rou of China and about 3 desserts. They ate every scrap and drank every drop. A terrific lunch no matter how you look at it. Pictures at Josh's flickr set:

The Spaniards, they sure raise the culinary bar very high. We're about to find out how high, that will be in the next post, but please be patient a little longer until I can find some time to blog. It has been hectic and busy at home these days I only manage to check emails because I have the iPhone around the apartment but l'internet, we can forget about it, there's not even time to sit down and rest my old bones.

Umami Husband's Incredible Day Out to Alvaros Palacios & Irreductibles

         

I had decided, in the mind-bending condition created by the heat, that it would be nice to spend a day at a mall. Yeah, a shopping centre with air-conditioning, shops all in enticing rows, sales signs flashing double digit percentages, cafes with overhanging legs of hams all seem to be a better idea than sitting in the back of a rented car shielding my body from the rays of the sun in the long car ride to Priorat, walking in the open air vineyard with little possibility of drinking much because I figured such a famous producer like Alvaros Palacios would not be pouring generous glasses for sampling.

So I waved husband and Josh off early in the morning and went back to bed before getting up a bit later to visit the Internet cafe for 2 hours of lost-in-web fix. Followed by a stop at an unassuming  coffee shop- laminated counter tops, yellowing walls, bored middle-aged owner reading sportsnews, no logos, no uniforms or indeed any branding in sight- for two types of churros with chocolate on Carrer Princesa; don't know the name of the place, when we returned in the evening the shutters were down so I couldn't even identify it.

At L'Illa I shopped for a decent interval before giving in to lunch of iberico ham sandwich and a glass of cava at Andreu La Xarcuteria feeling rather satisfied with myself. Just then, my mobile rang; husband called to say he is in this fantastic restaurant. Good for you dear but my sandwich is great too! After lunch I shopped a bit more and then decided I had to eat fideua at Fishhh! again which I did, finishing my 'tea' just before 5 pm, again feeling smug because the fideua was yummy and this was to be the last savory meal before dinner at Espai Sucre later. Husband happened to call again, sounding even more excited than before and saying they're in a super wine shop and had a great time and are just about to start driving back to Barcelona.

      

(Image from Josh's flickr set of the dinner).

 

They finally made it back around 8 pm and we went for our Espai Sucre dinner at the fashionable hour of 9.30 pm. We tried their 3 dessert menus (Small for me, Chocolate for husband and Big for Josh). For an idea of their menu, click here. Most of the desserts featured were interesting, in terms of presentation, pairing of seemingly non-complementary ingredients, showcasing how far one can stretch the use of sugar to deliver different levels of sweetness, introducing other flavour and aroma dimensions like smokiness, finish etc etc but after tasting round the table a few times  the cleverness of everything kind of washed over us. If this was our first port of call I probably would have been more impressed, and it probably was revolutional when it opened some four or five years ago but now the excitement seemed to have dimmed. The dishes were mostly very agreeable, some fared better than others e.g. my 'Ginger Ale' and toffee cream, as was everything in the chocolate menu which were faultless and I loved the olive cake that Josh got in his menu. The food was mostly good except for a really horrid red wine baba, but there was nothing that wowed. The other glaring factor was their wine pairing for all of their menu, which didn't really work either to enhance or match the food; perhaps they did not have the benefit of four sommeliers and sweet/ sticky wines are hard to play with therefore in spite of all the Tokajis, moscatos, sherries, madeiras etc all over the place most of the pours were disappointingly one-dimensional with short finishes with one particular wine tasting so sugary it came across more like prune juice than wine.

What was more interesting was that during dinner husband kept mentioning bits and pieces about their day out in Priorat. "The smoked aubergines" at this restaurant called Irreductibles made a deep impression on him, he mentioned in not less than three times. Later on in the night, he refused to let me go to sleep until he finished recounting every wonderful detail of his trip. I begged him to stop, and instead to think about writing it all down so I can put it in this blog and so, voila, here is what he sent me two days after we returned from our holiday. I've only made minor editing changes. It's a bit long, so take the time to read it, and then visit Josh's flickr site for more pictures.

       

 

Visit to Alvaro Palacios Vineyard, Priorat, Spain

 

11 July 2008

 

The resourceful chaxiubao has secured an appointment to visit the Alvaro Palacios vineyard in Priorat on 11 July at noon.

 

“Dear, please drink moderately, drive carefully and have an enjoyable trip.” I gave Umami the assurance. In my mind, I thought, given the world renowned reputation of Alvaro Palacios, I don't expect much tasting.

 

Journey

 

We set out at nine in the morning from the apartment to pick up our car at Hertz at the Barcelona Sants railway station. I wanted to be a bit in advance of our appointment to be sure we would find Alvaro Palacios without difficulty. The Hertz office is located just outside the railway station, a short 5 mins walk. Their cars are however parked at another location, in a multi-storey car park opposite the office, which is an additional 5-10 mins walk. BUT, before all that, I needed my morning coffee shot, and found the café next to Hertz perfectly agreeable.

I ordered two cortado. “Anything else?” asked the counter tender, “No.” I replied. “It’s better not to have an empty stomach”, suggested Josh. Ok, I will have a croissant, seeing a tray in front of me. “Make it two. Hey, there are something else (pointing at the other corner of the counter). I will go check it out” he said. Josh would be unsatisfied to just have French croissant in the land of Catalonia! I thought. Not surprisingly  he came back with a large, sweet looking pastry and finished everything.

 

Not being able to find the exact street name in the navigator, I simply set the destination to Gratallops city centre, South-West of Barcelona, a roughly 140km- and 2hr- journey, and hoped to rely on the signage at the destination to guide us to Alvaro Palacios. We arrived at the destination, as indicated by the navigator, at about 11:30am. But, we found no sign post of Alvaro Palacios! It was a rather sleepy and rustic farmyard surrounding, with hardly any soul in sight. We looked around. There was a map post. “Let me check it out”, said Josh. Meanwhile, I had my pee break.

 

The “Chateau”

“Hey, I have asked a passing truck driver. It’s (Alvaro Palacios) just there, pointing to a clay roasted modern looking light orange edifice on a small high ground, about 100m away. We must have missed it!” he said. We back-tracked and drove up to the open car park. There is a well-paved and broad step way leading up to the modern one-storey edifice. On the door step, we looked across and opposite, there is the charming little mediaeval Gratallops village, beckoning our visit.

We pushed the darkly tinted glass door and immediately welcomed by an expansive modern open foyer, with beautiful wood parquet finish all round. There is a long white sofa and an ultra-modern orange arm chair sitting in the centre of the foyer. A large floor silver metallic astrological star, with the North prominently marked, lay in the middle of the foyer. Passing the foyer, further in, slightly to the centre left, was an open office, again in wood finish, including the ceiling height and wall book shelve. With the office entrance wide open, we could see a big bureau and a man, in white, working behind it. Slightly to the centre right of the foyer is a large bright glass-panel enclosed reception office, with about 3-5 workstations, leading further into another more obscured working area. There is a white spacious see-through meeting room on the immediate left of the main entrance. The meeting room looks out to the opposite medieval village. We saw wine glasses and empty decanters already neatly set on table. The building is well lit by the warm natural lights pouring in from the atrium. The whole place gives the feeling of harmony and tranquility.

 

The young lady at the reception greeted us with a smile and asked if we were from Hong Kong, and they were expecting us and someone would attend to us shortly.

 

Then, the man in white got up from his bureau and walked towards us. “Hey, the man himself!” whispered Josh softly. The man extended his arms to us and warmly shook our hands. He introduced himself “I’m Alvaro. Welcome and thank you for visiting us”. Alvaro is handsome, tanned and sporty, looking in his early forties. We thanked him for receiving us, introduced ourselves and the country we were from.

 

He then told us the programme he had planned for us, which would start with a short visit to the vineyard, followed by a wine tasting. He apologized that the tasting would be slightly late and hoped that we would not mind. Of course not!

 

“Let’s go” said Alvaro. At the door step, he turned back and joked that he had forgotten his sunglasses, a very important protecting gear for this hot and sunny weather. Then he poured  everyone a large glass of water. “You must be feeling hot. Water will be good for us” said Alvaro. “Now, we are ready to go!”

 

Vineyard

 

We walked to his white well-beaten 4-wheel drive vehicle. Alvaro jumped into the driver seat. I took the front passenger seat and Josh took up position at the back, ready to shoot pictures. “I will show you first the younger vines which we use for Finca Dofi. Then, I will show you the 75 year old vines on the other side of the hill which are for l’Ermita”.

 

We ride on the narrow, winding, steep, undulating and dusty hilly paths. Noticing our wariness he assured us, “Don’t worry, the car is solid”. I took at a peek at the steering wheel to check the mark of the vehicle, it’s the reliable Toyota! “Are you in the wine trade?” asked Alvaro. “No, we are wine enthusiasts!” I replied.

 

We got off at the first stop, at a height of about 250m. Terraces of neatly lined vines appeared in front of us, what a splendid sight! We negotiated our way down the steep slopes. Walking in between rows of tidily and flatly tied vertical head trimmed vines. The vines are garnacha (or Grenache) and on average about 15 to 25 years old. This produces on average between 15,000 to 18,000 bottles of Finca Dofi each year. “All my vines are North-East facing. This is very important. All other facings will be too hot, with the crunching sun, and no good for the vines. The Mediterranean Sea is on the East, the Mountain is in the North. These are ideal conditions for vine growing, to fully benefit from the constant warm sea breeze, feeling and hugging the sea breeze himself with his arms, isn’t it nice?” said Alvaro passionately. “But, it should not be too humid or fungus will start to grow on the buddy green grapes” holding a bunch of it and pointing to an example. “We use and spray mainly sulfur on the vines, the leaves and grapes, to prevent fungus and other pests” he said.

 

Alvaro saw some wild weeds lying in between the vines. He bent down without any hesitation to uproot them. “These have to be removed. I have 20 workers working and giving tender care to the vines. All manual works. Look at the vines, aren’t they beautiful? Look how green and glossy the leaves are. Look at the tiny luscious grapes budding, jade green. Very good! A lot of manual hard work has gone into it. No shortcuts” he exclaimed.

 

“The vines have to be manually tied in this manner in order for the mules (we saw two, and two workers taking break under the shade. Alvaro waved and greeted them.) to pass through, to cultivate the soils and not to damage the vines. A lot of manual works” continued Alvaro. Along the way, Alvaro also flipped the leaves, inspecting them, and removing and throwing, casually, some bunches of grapes. “But, they looked perfectly good to me. Why did you do that?” I asked. “The vines need to compete. This way, the wines will automatically be richer with more depth. You know, a lot of knowledge and experience go into making good wine. No compromise” said Alvaro philosophically.  I later learnt from Josh that Alvaro had studied wine making under the tutelage of some of the world great chai masters, including Petrus.

 

Our next stop was l’Ermita vineyard, located on an altitude of about 500m. On the way, Alvaro pointed to us some plots of budded young vines, all no more than 1-ft tall. “I have planted them some 1 to 2 years ago with the seeds of the 75-year old l’Ermita vines. I’m lucky to be able to purchase some additional plots of land for this work. Look at them. Aren’t they growing beautifully. They will grow up fine and good, for future generations of Palacios wine makers!” said Alvaro contemplatively.

 

“What’s the meaning of l’Ermita?” asked Josh. “It’s after the name of a chapel. There it is, pointing to the small chapel atop the hill. It’s right next to l’Ermita vineyard. You know, there’s a nun living in it” said Alvaro. “A nun, wow! Do you visit her?!” asked Josh. “Yes, sometime” said Alvaro. “I need to take pictures of the chapel.” Josh said. Alvaro: “Sure. We will go there afterwards”. 

“What’s your view of this year’s vintage?”  I asked. “Don’t know yet. There were quite a bit of rains in May. It’s drier now. I hope it will stay this way. The next few months will be very important” said Alvaro. He saw a distant mule working on the soil. Pointing to it, “See, the soil is being worked on and loosened. This way, it helps the moisture in the soil from the rain water to evaporate, which is good for the vines” added Alvaro.

Bending down and scooping up the soil with his palm to show to us, “Look at the soil, the schist. They are special and unique here. See how loose they are. They contain these slates” said Alvaro, bending down to pick up a piece of slate. “The slate stores the heat radiated by the sun, besides reflecting its light. Here, the slates are a bit greener and different from those at the Finca Dofi vineyards which are browner. This is because they contain more iron and therefore are naturally cooler. This gives rise to different characters to the wines. The soil is loose and drains water well. The water can be stored very deep in the soil, as deep as 10m. The roots of these 75-year old vines will grow to this depth and spread.” Also pointing to some large pieces of hard rocks, “the roots of the vines have to negotiate through these rocks. Can you imagine it? Well, all these conditions stress the vines. It is good for the vines and wine. This is what makes l’Ermita special” explained Alvaro. What an enological education, given by a wine master to us.

 

“You know, l’Ermita vines and the grapes have reached the level of consistency that since 2006, there’s no longer any need to add anymore cabernet sauvignon, previously about 5%.It will be 100% garnacha” Alvaro told us. “How big is l’Ermita vineyard?” I asked. “2.5ha and gives about 6,000 bottles a year. Some years less, e.g. 2005” said Alvaro. I told Josh later that that's why 2005 vintage was priced higher than the earlier 2000 and 2001 vintages in a Barcelona wine shop.

 

“Do you spend most of your time here in Priorat?” I asked. “50-50. I also spend some time in Rioja. Do you know, my family, many generations, has been working on Rioja wines, the Remondo. I also work with my cousin Ricardo on a bit of other biodynamic wines” said Alvaro. “How big is your Rioja wine?” I asked innocently. “1.8 million bottles!”

 

The visit lasted almost 1 hour. “We will go back now and taste some wines” said Alvaro. On the returned journey, Alvaro told us that he liked to write, about wine making. He’s currently working on a book on the history and different wine regions in Spain. He has published some articles in the press. However, he was humble and said that his writing was no good and needed a newspaper columnist classmate to help correct his writing. It’s this classmate who was bringing the group to come taste the wine.

 

When we pulled into the car park, Alvaro saw his classmate standing on the steps waiting for him. “Here he is. They have arrived. Let me introduce you to him” exploded Alvaro with joy waving his arms to his friend. The group, about 12, consisted of senior citizens from the villages in Priorat. We shook hands and introduced ourselves.

Before proceeding to the wine tasting, Alvaro asked one of his co-worker Juan to show us around his modern and state-of-the art wine making facilities, located in the same ‘chateau”, but underground. Juan explained the process, from de-stemming, crushing, pressing to fermentation. There are rows of large oak, French, we were told, and stainless steel wine tankers. The place is very clean. Juan pointed the wall embedded horizontally elongated cement wine tankers and told us that these would be increasingly preferred to the steel ones for their ability to better maintain constant temperature, better for high quality wine making. We also toured the wine cave, another ½ level lower ground, where hundreds of neatly stacked French oak barrels containing all three Alvaro Palacios’ labels, i.e. Les Terrasses, Finca Dolfi and l’Ermita, are aged.

      

Tasting

 

We heard Alvaro calling, in Spanish, at Juan from upstairs. He’s calling us to go join in the wine tasting in the meeting room. On the table, there were three filled decanters, labeled. There were also plates of Italian long biscotti to accompany the tasting. We would be tasting Les Terrasses, Finca Dofi and l’Ermita, all 2006 vintage, in this order. All wines are still in the oak barrels and will not be bottled until October 2008. A member of the group whispered to us that l’Ermita was the best wine label of Alvaro Palacios and very expensive, at 500Euros a bottle in the wine shop. We smiled.

 

Alvaro went round pouring the wine. Then he spoke expressively, injected by frequent large arms gestures, in Spanish, about the wine we were about to taste. He later came to us to give us a brief description, in English, of the composition and expected aroma and taste of the wines.

 

To me, all three wines had a deep, brilliant and clear purple colour. One lady suggested that she could smell cherries from Les Terrasses, another lady suggested plum from the Finca Dolfi. I thought I could smell chocolate from l’Ermita.

 

“Ganbei!” one young Spanish lady smiled, raised and toasted her glass to us. We gladly returned the toast in Mandarin. We later learnt that she was the wife of the young newspaper columnist. She has spent 4 years working in Beijing and spoke fluent mandarin.

 

All three wines tasted fresh which were unsurprising given their young age. They all had sweet flavour. To me, Les Terrasses had a slight tint of acidity and lightly tannic. Finca Dolfi was much rounder and with very agreeable tannin. As for l’Ermita, it was well balanced, delicious and long finish. Very satisfying!

 

More pictures. “Can I take a picture of the magnum bottle of l’Ermita sitting on the top shelf in your office?” requested Josh. “Sure. Let me take you” said Alvaro sportingly. Meanwhile, Alvaro’s pretty wife has come to bid good-bye to all the guests. She’s waiting for Alvaro to go attend a wedding in Girona. “We’ve just visited Singapore early this year - the world gourmet summit. We also visited Bali. We have visited Sentosa. I like them” she told me. “Have you visited Phuket, Thailand?” I asked. “No. But, Alvaro has been there” she said. “This is the nature of my business. I travel a lot and she gets to travel with me” Alvaro has returned and injected.The visit ended at about 2pm.

    

 

Lunch at The Irreductibles Restaurant

 

“Where do you plan to have lunch?” asked Alvaro. “In Tarragona, on our way back to Barcelona” Josh replied. “Oh, no. It’s too far and will be too late by the time you reach there. All will be closed. Nothing to eat! I recommend you a restaurant which is just opposite in the village across the road. Can you see the tree lining road, and the building with arches? There it is. The chef is a half Japanese and half brazilian. Try it. Very good” suggested Alvaro. “Is it japanese food? Emm… we would prefer non asian food” said Josh. “No, it’s Spanish, very Spanish, even Catalonian. It’s very good. You should try it. The restaurant is called Irreductibles” insisted Alvaro. “Irreductibles?! I have heard of it. It’s famous. Oh, it’s just here? Ok, we will go try it. Thanks for the recommendation” replied Josh excitedly.

 

We drove up the narrow path. Josh said, “Hey, the restaurant is just on our left”. I almost missed it. The restaurant is just about 50m from the entrance of the narrow path. There’s a little open space just in front the restaurant, and we were lucky to have a lot directly under a tree to park our car.

 

First impression - the restaurant name and logo are painted on the entrance wall, crookedly and somewhat faded manner. The restaurant reminded me of the lonely rustic buliding in the middle of some Mexican deserted town. It is painted in pastel pink, orange, green and blue. It’s sleepy. We were not sure if it’s open at all. Walking past the small open-air terrace and peeking in through the glass window panels to check. There seemed to be no one inside. I pushed the door. It opened. The restaurant is spacious, relaxed, and decorated with simple old rustic wood, metal furniture and wares. The dining tables are lined with white table cloth.

 

Then appeared a young man dressed in t-shirt, smiling, visibly from the kitchen. “Do you still serve and can we have lunch?” I asked. “Yes. Please come in and where would you like to sit?” pointing to and suggesting a table in a bright corner near the large window panel. We chose instead to sit in a cooler corner further inward and surrounded by maroon painted walls and shoulder-height book case.

 

“We have a menu. Is it ok with you?” asked the man. “Menu? Yes, it will be perfect with us” said Josh. The waiter disappeared into the kitchen and reappeared some time later. “We propose a three-course menu. The starter will be a sardine, the main course will be a beef tartare, and will end with desert. Is this ok with you?” Visibly looked unsatisfied, Josh asked “Do you have a degustation menu?”  Looking perplexed, “Longer menu, more dishes?”. “No. Sorry” answered rather apologetically the young man. “OK, nevermind, we will go along with your proposal." said Josh. Ï requested an alternative to tartare and after checking with the kitchen he proposed a pork dish which I was happy to accept. Hmm, our expectation wasn’t very high or to be more precise no expectation to start off with.

 

The young man came back with a carafe of water and asked if we cared to have wine and handed us the wine list. We settled by requesting the restaurant to propose wine pairing for the dishes. The young man was visibly pleased and eager to do so.

 

Besides the 3-course meal, we were served two appetizers (a sorbet and a prawn cappracio with melon) and a few additional chef special deserts. The basket of freshly home made bread was replaced at EVERY course. There was fresh aromatic dense and flavourful olive oil to go with the bread. New wine glasses were served with every new pour. Josh's wine for the main course was even served from a decanter. He was impressed. Every dish was beautifully executed and presented. The ingredients were of tip-top freshness. The flavour and texture of each dish were well balanced and layered!

 

One particularly memorable dish to me was my pork, which came in three well grilled sized pieces. The first look gave the impression that they were fillet mignon. Beneath the well grilled brown surface, was pink and moist fresh. It was one of, if not, the most flavourful, juicy and tender pork I have ever tasted. It was accompanied by de-skinned, mashed grilled eggplant, infused with very intense smoked flavour. Exquisite!

 

As for the wine, there’s a particular one which striked us – a 2000 Mas Igneur FA112. This wine was proposed for my pork. To me, the aroma smelled like fermented black bean, Chinese soya sauce, which shocked me. The colour was a faint brown. For a 2000 vintage, still relatively young, it appeared unusual to me. I asked Josh for double opinion. I could see that he was reflecting hard. “Yu-loh or fish sauce” he defined. Was it corked? It must be the same question we asked in our heart. I asked Josh to have a first sip. “It tastes ok, actually quite good. Not spoilt” he claimed. I tried and confirmed it. To me, it tasted in fact very much like aged Cote du Rhone. Later, I checked with the young man. He was clearly very pleased that we had particularly noticed this wine. To him, it had the aroma of “animal!” He singled out that the wine was actually called FA112 – a tiny blue circle on the wine label. He told us that we could get the wine in a wine shop in Falset, a nearby town.

 

When we told him that we had just visited Alvaro Palacios and it was he who recommended us to come eat here, the young man smiled and told us that Alvaro came eat here very often and pointed to an empty displayed Salon Champagne bottle and said “this is his favoured champagne.” “He makes very good wine, l’Ermita. But very expensive. You should try Clos Erasmus. Much cheaper. But also a very good wine. Parker has given it once 100 points. You know. Probably less than 100Euros” he suggested enthusiastically. We later did checked out the wine shop in Falset to look for the 2000 FA112. But they were sold out. We were not sure and did not get their 1999 FA112, which was priced at about 30Euros.

Josh requested to meet and take pictures of the chef. The young man said that he’s busy preparing us a special desert and would bring it out to meet us. Finally, the chef, Ricardo Siginore, a thirty-something year old man with a pony tail appeared carrying a beautifully presented tray of desert assortment. Josh was busy taking photos of the deserts. “You have to try this creamy desert quickly or it will topple in no time” the chef told us anxiously. One of them did topple. The chef then insisted to go back in the kitchen to do and bring us another one and he did. The desserts were very playful, especially a "fried egg" that was actually caramelised carrot and goat cheese!

Later, he told us that he was from Sao Paulo and had been in Gratallops for 6 years now, and would be returning to Sao Paulo in a month’s time for good to do other new things there. (He has a blog La Vanguardia Gastronomica).

At the end of the meal we asked the young waiter if there would be another replacement chef. He was not sure and said that it might not be the same as everyone came here just for the chef’s food!

 

We left the restaurant at 5pm, after an extremely satisfying meal and wines, feeling very fortunate to have stopped by at Irreductibles. In our Barcelona itinerary, we have tried other much more reputable restaurants but Josh and I both sort of came to the same verdict that Irreductibles was probably the best and most memorable one. It’s a shame that Umami has missed this adventure.

Feng shui tuna anyone?

Day 3. The sun rose high and bright, prodding us out of bed in search of coffee and breakfast. The locals don't seem to go for anything other than sandwiches for breakfast, I had in mind churros and chocolate but in the neighbourhood behind the Cathedral leading to carrer Avinyo we didn't come across any so we settled for some milky coffee. The shopping was good, the sales were still going on and we had a profitable haul.

       

By noontime I was seriously hungry, so we randomly chose Cafe Ferran on the street of the same name. The tuna salad was a good call, the mayonnaise lightened up with vegetables and judicious addition of chopped green olives. Miam mian before we knew it the plate was scraped clean. Tortillas & paella were not so good, the tortilla burnt on one side and the paella a sad case of frozen ingredients and oversalting. By the time we finished our lunch it was nearly 2 p.m. and all the shops started to close for siesta so the only thing left to do was to go back to the apartment for some airconditioned respite.

         

When I woke up from my nap I was hungry, the tummy reminding me that it only digested some tuna salad and pan con tomate, so we made our way down to El Caf9 which is owned by the people who run the service apartment we were staying in. It was quiet, and as soon as we studied the menu we understood why. Prices are at least twice or thrice as expensive as other tapas bars in the city. Still, it was blazing hot outside and we had a voucher for 30% discount so we decided to stay for some drinks and simple tapas. Pan con tomate was excellent, patatas bravas was just about OK but croquettes and tortillas were misguidedly modernised. From our perch on the narrow chest-high tables we could look out onto Plaza Antonio Lopez and await the arrival of the Very Famous Food Blogger i.e. Josh Tse of Chaxiubao.

Yes my friends it was chaxiubao who managed to get a table at El Bulli and he had kindly asked us and our mutual dimsum blogger friend Sui Mai to come along for the ride. Flashback to October 2007. Josh and I were sitting side by side at the counter of L' Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Paris for lunch. It was the beginning of the crucial two-week reservations window for El Bulli, Josh's blackberry was busy with anxious messages on how to maximise their chances of getting a table. Me, I was not really bothered because I am not really the type to scale mountains and swim across shark-infested rivers to eat somewhere famous. Still, when he casually asked when would be a good time for us, I told him 'anytime', no point narrowing our options right?

Just then a most unbelievable thing happened, it was true and yet so hyper-surreal. Who walked in and sat two seats away from us? Who had the restaurant staff going up to him respectfully and shaking his hand and posing for photographs? No other than the man himself, Chef Adrian Ferria, with his wife of course but she looked used to the attention showered on her famous husband. Josh wasted no time pressing our case, and he must have made an impression because voila, here we meet in Barcelona, three days before our Very Important Dinner.

         

From the moment he arrived, we all synced into Eating mode. Josh had made an Excel spreadsheet of all the foodshops, markets, patisseries and restaurants that we would cover together, something along the lines of visit 3 gourmet shops within first hour of arrival. Don't worry, in reality we paced ourselves and managed to visit quite a few places without busting our guts.

First stop: Dos Pallilos. We were late, partly because Josh's plane was late and partly because I was already in Spanish time and was moving about really slowly from the heat and stupor. We were told that we had less than an hour to eat our dinner and it was true, just after the last savoury course we were hustled out to the bar counter to finish our desserts under the ugly fluorescent lights. Which would have been forgivable if the food was fabulous. Unfortunately it was not, hardly so.

Josh chose Dos Palillos because the eGulleters loved it. The chef, Albert Raurich, worked in El Bulli for 11 years. His wife is Japanese and he himself had also spent time in Japan to learn about its cuisine. The restaurant-bar is housed in hip hotel Casa Camper; upon entering through sliding doors with slogan "I heart Fengshui" we found ourselves in the too-bright, no frills fluorescent bar which serves as a kind of reception area and of course doubles up as a depository for wayward late diners who exceed their welcome. Honoured guests are ushered into the other dimension of the main dining area which is a three sided long counter wrapped around an open kitchen. Flurorescent gives way to darkness, on the counters are scattered small study lamps and the seated diners face the fluorescent kitchen, its suction hood covered with the a giant version of a red fringed curtain that divides the dining zone from the bar. The lighting was not conducive to photography and I was happy to let Josh take pictures using his serious camera; please visit his flickr set for the pictures.

We all chose the long degustation menu. The chef himself presented many of the courses. We ate appetisers of candied walnuts and Japanese pickles, then fried wontons, marinated sardines with shiso leaves, grilled peppers topped with bonito flakes, summer rolls, ankimo, razorclams, tempura-ed cherry tomatoes, steamed dumplings, jiaozi, stir-fried vegetables, yaki chicken skewer, onsen tamago (above), anise flavoured fruit salad, mango pudding and mock mochi with gelatin skin and red bean filling within. Only the grilled peppers, summer rolls, ankimo, cherry tomatoes and razor clams stood out for me, the other half of the menu was like a bad joke to all of us especially the so-called mango pudding and worse of all, the cha xiu bao which was as flat as a fried egg with a filling that included pinenuts. Josh is a person who talks animatedly when he is enjoying his food, here he spent most of the time with a puzzled expression on his face and saying very little. All of us were thinking, we came all the way here to eat mangled Asian food?

When the chef and his staff asked us if we were happy, we nodded yes, dumbly; from start to finish there were so many wrong turns where do we we begin to tell him why we were disappointed? The other diners were not in the least bothered, our neighbour told us that this place has only been open a few weeks and it is very trendy, and him and his friends absolutely enjoyed their experience. Barcelona folks find his food very exotic and they love it. Until recently they had not ventured far beyond their already famous cuisine. Still, other restaurateurs are expressing their disbelief at the the silly money sunk in to pay for the decor, the logo of a chopstick (erm, hello stock photography?), the dumpling folding machine and goodness knows what else. Then again, after 11 years of El Bulli, where does one go on to?

         

Day 4: we woke up early to go look for breakfast. Tapaç 24. We thought it was open 24 hours. It does not. It runs from 8:00-24:00. What it does is serve 24 types of pasta, I think, but don't quote me on this. The fact was, at 8.30 a.m it does not serve tapas, only typical breakfast items like sandwiches. No thanks. We moved on to Mercato Santa Catarina, a covered marketplace in my favourite neighbourhood of El Born. Tapas, yay!

Then we walked around the neighbourhood. Many fantastic bakeries, as well as famous cheeseshops and charcuteries, not to mention where an outlet of Vila Viniteca is located (where I got some ham only two days previously), one example of wine shop which husband and Josh couldn't be pried out of. What is it with men and wine shops, they walk the aisles, study the labels, check the prices and count the bottles, and then they walk out without buying anything. How satisfying does that get? Me, I was trying to buy eyemake-up base but none of the pharmacies understood what I wanted, they helpfully offer me mascara, foundation, even contact lens cleaners but no base. I also found time to buy a dulce de leche gelato at Tomo II and spent time at the internet cafe while the men studied the wine scene. Then it was time to go for lunch. But before that, one important destination which was, ta da, another wine shop, this time it is called Lavinia. Lavinia is huge and they also have many, I'm told, lustworthy bottles.

         

Finally the lunch hour arrived. We walk along Avinguda Diagonal to the shopping centre L'Illa. Josh says we have been invited for lunch at this very good restaurant. He leads us into a food court! I was starting to doubt his food cred but decided to give him benefit of doubt which was good because we ended up at Fishhh! The host of the lunch is Annette Abstoss of Abstoss World Gastronomy, a food consultant with all the important connections to the local food scene. Her boyfriend Lluis Genaro heads the kitchen of this place, a bright and very white space serving properly cooked premium quality seafood. With philosophy of seasonal eating and no salt added in the cooking process; Maldon sea salt is available at every table for diners, they mean serious business. Again, for more pictures, see Josh's flickr set. Everything we ate were yummy. Canapes of barbequed seafood, an intriuing spring roll with crunchy pliable skin and my favourite, little plates of fideua which is a pasta version of seafood paella which reminded me very much of seafood beehoon. They served seconds and thirds of this and I whacked them all. When I was already full from the starters, the real food came. Mussels with foamy aioili (we're in Barcelona, no getting away from foams), little Venus clams, grilled sardines at its best since it is peak season for this fish now, pasta with crab, fried cod, grilled peppers and two desserts, also not forgetting a wonderful seared tuna which husband, full as he was, seriously considered eating a second portion of.

         

(image taken from Chaxiubao's flickr set). The tuna. It was perfection.

While we ate, various food personalities walked in and out of the restaurant. Annette and her colleague Laura, both originally from outside USA & Colombia respectively, have settled here and loved their lifestyle. There was a chef hailing from Sicily, another chef whose family owns a famous cheese shop in the 17th arr of Paris and other happy transplants who came and fell in love with this city. A representative from Joselito came bearing a leg of "the best ham in the world". We shared food talk, food news, gossip, lots of wines and basically had a rocking good time. Right past teatime and nearly into dinner service when we remembered we also have another appointment so back to the apartment for showers and dressing up.

         

Cooked in Barcelona. There's an outlet of this cute food-inspired clothing shop in L'Illa.

         

(Image from Josh's flickr set)

Dinner was at Moo restaurant, in Hotel Omm. It has one Michelin star and is hyper-chic but that's not why Josh chose it, no the real reason is that one of its four (seriously, it has FOUR sommeliers how OTT is that?) sommeliers is Roger Viusa Barbara. Roger is very dashing with melting eyes and a killer smile, he also happened to be the Best European Sommelier WSA 2008 all of which just makes him like, God of Sommelier. He is also very nice and gracious when I informed him that husband and Josh are his Fans, also patiently going through the menu and giving wonderful nuggets of information about the food. By the end of the evening I too became his secret fan.

         

(Image from Josh's flickr set)

The food. It is served in smaller than usual portions, the idea is that diners choose 3-4 courses to get a sense of the cuisine. We did just that, with their recommended wine pairing. 

This is what we ate for first course:

Me: I'll start with the Bobal salad

Josh: Hah, call yourself a food blogger, just a salad?

Me: Yah, how do you think I can fit into my (Tara Jarmon) dress if I continue to eat and eat?

Bobal salad: Violet lettuce, turnip, blackberries, pork scratchings, violet potato, liquorice, truffle.Wine: La Casilla 06. Bodegas y Vinedoes Ponce/T/ Manchuela/bobal. A bit too fussy and way too much liquorice.

For husband, a beautifully plated Mackerel with vegetables and oranges, a perfect marriage of flavours. Wine: Insolite 06. Dom Roches Neuves /B/ Saumur chenin blanc. The wine was insolite alright, very nice.

Josh ordered Dublin bay prawns with curry, roses and liquorice. Wine: Furtentum 03 V.V. Paul Blank /B/ Alsace Grand Cru/ gewurztraminer

Second course:

I had Prawns with Pig Trotters. They studded fresh succulent prawns with the skin, jelly and fat of pig trotters. It was fun and very tasty. Wine: Bassots 06/white/ Conca de Barbera/ chenin blanc.

Husband enjoyed his Salmon with fennel smoke and brown bread. It was paired well with Uhlen "L"04. Heymann Lowenstein/white/ Mosel-Saar-Ruwer/ riesling.

As for Josh, he had Rice with pig trotters and sea cucumbers. I had a taste, it reminded me of claypot rice, in a good way. Of course wine matching of Ctonia 06. Massia Serra/white/ Emporda/ garnatxa blanca was perfect.

Now we're onto Course 3:

"Secreto de Fées "06 is pork done two ways. Iberian pig. It wouldn't be a Catalonian meal without it no? Wine was Vons de Pays des Cotes Catalanes/garnacha blanca y gris.

Husband had Veal fillet with hazelnuts, rosemary and thyme. Paired with Artigas 05. Mas Alta/T/Priorat/ Garbatxa i carinena

Josh ate Red Mullet with "samfaina" and green pepper. Don't know what samfaina is but he enjoyed his dish. At this meal he was a lot more vocal than the previous night. The Cote de Mer 05. Dom de la Rectone/red/Colliure/ garnacha may have helped too.

Finally, desserts. Josh ordered and we picked at his dishes, not before teasing my lack of endurance. He can really eat this man.

Then A Trip to Havana: Rum sponge cake, lime soup, peppermint granite ice and cane sugar served with a Frozen Partagas Serie D No 4 Cigar with spice ash. There was also, later, Chocolate & Chenin blanc, almonds and apricots served with Ch de la Roulerie 96-97/ Coteaux du Layon/chenin blanc but all we will probably remember best is the Frozen cigar. The 'cigar' is a chocolate log with white cream inside, it sat on an 'ashtray' which has some ashy bits at the bottom of the dish. Eaten together it has a rich smoky cigar-like taste and aroma. We all thought the cigar flavour came from the spicy ash, but no, the ash was only burnt sugar. Roger explained how the chef put the white creamlike stuff in a bag and then they pump real cigar smoke into the whole contraption to infuse.First hand smoke inhalation. So desu ne. We could only nod in marvel.

Finally, some house-made chocolates which they offered with coffee, one type had popcorn inside which was a delightful surprise. The meal had proceeded very well. The restaurant is vast, and tables are spaced far apart so it felt very luxe. Service was attentive, music very cool, lighting was flattering but terrible for photography and the clientele was very hip. It lived up to all its hype, and for a place that I know not the chef's name it delivered very good food too. The wine pairings showed intelligence as well as a sense of humour. All in, a terrific night out and a perfect cap to a marvelous day of eating.

         


         


         

Barcelona Days 1 & 2

         

 

The first thing we did after obtaining the keys of our totally fantastic service apartment, which is conveniently located, clean, smartly renovated & empowered with working airconditioner as promised in their website, was to go straight to Mercato Boqueria. Since it was a Monday many stalls were closed. Pinotxo bar was open but at 2.30 p.m. it had run out of many items, and being a Monday meant many seafood items were not available. Still,  the wait for a counter place was long, 30 minutes to be precise, time in which to deduce how to order the dishes that looked good and to munch on fresh peaches, pears and cherries bought from neighbouring stalls.

         

Everything we ate were delicious: sauteed chickpeas, grilled peppers, croquettes of creamy cheese and ham, roasted cod with mushroom & shallot marmalade, tiny lamb chops and gazpacho. Fellow diners mostly tourists but there were some locals too.

         

Chickpeas close up: a humble bean sauteed with bits of garlic, shallots and I'm not sure what else, delicious and meaty tasting.

         

Passageways between buildings are shadowed and cool, to catch scenes of everyday life and tourist wanderings.

Then off to the shops along Passeig de Gracia for visiting some Gaudi landmarks and the wonderful shops along and alongside this beautiful avenue. In between a glass of pure orange juice, as in oranges go in one end of the machine and juice comes out the other end, and a small apple cupcake for tea and out again to do more shopping. Diesel, Loewe, Adolfo Dominguez etc etc. The shops closes at 8.30 pm which was when we headed to a tapas bar for some fresh potato tortilla and iberico jambon. Costa Gallega at 71 Passeig de Gracia was not really that good but it was convenient and I was tired. Walked all the way back to Placa Antonio Lopez, showered and watched telly. Spain is doing well in sports this year, first the Euro Cup, then Wimbledon.

         

Woke up early. Made tea with the water from the tap as husband says the water is potable but was not sure, the tea was very salty. Stopped by Bar Salvador at Canvis Nous 8 for some excellent coffee. Here I understand what wine on tap means.

         

Shopping along El Born is fantastic. All things chic and stylish but not as expensive as Passeig de Gracia. Many eateries in this neighbourhood. Bubo for fancy chocolates. Sagardi has a tapas bar featuring beautifully made sandwiches. They operate on an honour system: the waiter will ask for the toothpick at the end of the meal to count the tab. At 11.30 am the food looked pristine and tempting so we made a breakfast of a good selection. Surprise hits included an open faced one topped with a snowy pile of fake crab dressed in garlicky mayonaisse, as well as one topped with seafoody cream stuffed peppers. Ham sandwiches were not so good, Bellota Bellota in Paris has so spoiled us. 

         

My favourite item was this simple tuna dressed in olive oil and scatterings of chopped onions. The Spanish just have such a way with canned fish don't they?

         

More shopping before we give in to more eating. Taller de Tapas is considered an upmarket tapas restaurant but it wasn't so bad, prices were relatively kind considering what we put up with in Paris and the food was faultless. I steered clear of expensive dishes (foie gras, lobsters etc) and stuck with the basics. We polished off everything.

         

The asparagus was sitting on the counter, we saw them trimming and cooking our dish from beginning to end. Spanish food really is WYSIWYG, no sauces, no trimmings, no fanfare.But they use too much salt. Later we bought bottled water to drink because the tap water is so salty it made my fingers swollen.

         

Creme caramel. There was a time when I visited Madrid, it was 1992. I ate churros in the morning, paella and creme caramel in the afternoon, tortillas and sangria for tea and garlic chicken alternating with green salad for dinners. Those were the days before internet and the redundancy of guide books.

Completely satiated, but with enough energy to explore all of the area. There is a lovely internet cafe in one of its winding passages to catch up on emails and twitterings, then more shopping and a dulce de leche gelato from Tomo II before ducking into a hairdresser's to escape the unrelenting heat and to have the hair washed and curled. As soon as I emerged into the heat, the curls deflated. Oh well.

         

On the way home we stopped at Vila Viniteca to get some fresh fruits but the selection looked sad. Inside though, they have an amazing selection of charcuterie and even more amazing one of cheeses. We bought some ham, and foraged among the neighbourhood grocers for some flat peaches, scoring also some freshly made potato samosas which were cheap and delicious. After a much needed shower we settled ourselves on the sofa and watched telly in airconditioned comfort while the sun beat in through the windows warming our DIY tapas.

At 7.30 p.m. it was safe to venture out again, to Port Vell with its many boats bobbing in the water and the smell of seafood cooking and salty breezes gently blowing. Doesn't the light look Turner-ish?

         

At Barceloneta beach a nude cyclist whizzed past me and we saw a tilting sculpture by Rebecca Horn.

         

We were not really hungry but still wanted to eat some seafood. Settled randomly for Barceloneta because it looked like a place where the locals entertain their visitors. It was huge but still, we had no reservations and the gatekeeper tried to fob us off with a table at a secluded end next to the toilet. We decided to wait and after 20 minutes we were shown to a balcony table, much better. Husband ordered a sparkling rosé to drink, the colour was like sparkling jewels and it was very easy to drink. Starter of fried calamari was excellent, but not so were main dishes of arroz negro (salty, and I don't mean the saltiness you'd expect from seafood) and shrimps sauteed with peppers (overcooked).

         

For dessert we tried Creme Catalane which is similar to but not exactly like creme brulée. For one, it is more runny. Two it is more eggy and three is is so much richer. Four, it was served cold. Not an altogether bad way to end our second day in Barcelona.

In next post, we are joined by a very famous food blogger. The pace intensifies and we experience more highs and some lows of the local gastronomic scene.

Back from Catalonia

            

Just a quick note to say we're back in Paris. My dinky compact camera vomited 330 + pictures for me to process, so please pardon the wait for the first post. It'll be worth it I promise. Video segments are up though, please head over to Vox if you have the private password.

Food in Catalonia was sensational, it blew our socks off and made this the most memorable eating holiday ever. Husband in particular can not stop yabbering about his landmark visit to Alvaro Palacios Vineyard and an even more unforgettable lunch at this totally amazing restaurant next door, too bad I was not with him that day merde. Oh and of course there's the dinner at the #1 restaurant in the world which was the main reason we made a trip over in the first place....