Jerry_A
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Posts posted by Jerry_A
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Hello, new member here although I have been a long time browser.
I managed to get a reservation at El Bulli thanks in part to advice that I gained from these pages so firstly I would like to say thank you to everyone.
The big day finally came on Wednesday of last week, I, my wife and four good friends had a wonderful meal (the reservation coincided with my birthday).
As a newbie I would like to seek some advice from some of the old hands here regarding forum etiquette, should I tell more about my visit or would that be spoiling the surprise for those that have a reservation? If so should I do it here in this thread? As a newcomer I didn't want to jump in and start a brand new thread.
Hi smoz!
My recommendation would be to create something along the lines of this thread: El Bulli 2006 Reports
I have not seen a 2007 reports thread yet, so I think you could start one and everyone can post their reports there.
Please do post as much information as you are comfortable with (with pictures if possible). I doubt I am the only one that loves to read/see the the reports of all our worldly and passionate diners!
I looking forward to seeing your report!
Cheers,
Len
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Amazingly I just received an offer from Luis Garcia for a reservation that falls right in my specifiied time period! I thought all hope was lost when I had to cancel my July reservation.
Words can not accurately express how excited I am that this worked out!
Now back to finding somewhere to stay...
Cheers,
Len
Congrats! We'll be dining there in precisely 11 days and are very excited. I'll post some thoughts on the meal when we're back. By the way, we've booked into the Hotel Port Salins, a 4-star in Empuriabrava for 85 Euros for their highest room catrgory. Taxi to El Bulli is 30 euros each way, arranged through the hotel. I'll also post here with our thoughts on the accomodations as I don't think I've seen the Port Salins mentioned on egullet ...
Thank you, and please do post on Hotel Port Salins as we are currently considering it for our stay in Roses.
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Amazingly I just received an offer from Luis Garcia for a reservation that falls right in my specifiied time period! I thought all hope was lost when I had to cancel my July reservation.
Words can not accurately express how excited I am that this worked out!
Now back to finding somewhere to stay...
Cheers,
Len
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We stayed at the Hotel Rauthaus for the first leg of our trip. Great place, highly recomended.
For the second half we stayed at Le Meridien which was also very good, though quite pricey.
I would pick Hotel Rathaus over Le Meridien as it was a little more quaint and actually felt more 'Austrian' (whatever that means). Le Meridien was good and the location was spectacular, but it had that 'big hotel' feel to it.
You are right about location though, you really can not go too far wrong. We only took the train once and that was to go to Palace Schonbrunn (aside from our ill-fated excursion to Bratislava). Everything else was easily accesible by walking
Cheers,
Len
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Wow - thanks so much for sharing your pictures. Vienna and Prague have been on my list for a Christmas-time visit; perhaps this year!
I could not imagine a better Christmas setting than Vienna. The whole city was alive with lights and festivities.
I do recommend going a little earlier in the month and staying over Christmas, as the majority of tourists started to show up just before Christmas eve, which made things a little busier everywhere. Tourists were fewer and farther between until about the 23rd, which was kind of nice.
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Great report Jerry....knew I was living in Europe for a reason...checking out the flights as we speak.............
ps. you and your wife have beautiful hands
pps. very European outfits you have there
Thanks and LOL at the 'ps', we try to keep our hands clean since we always seem to have food in them
Amazingly I actually lost weight on this trip 
We actually stuck out like sore thumbs in our jackets. I guess I should have asked for fashion advice in addition to the food advice...oh well, live and learn
oh, Jerry, I wasn't being sarcastic, beautiful jacket, elegant scarf and yr wife's lace frock is lovely...I'm sure you blended right in as Germans/Austrians are very classy dressers....you know, when son and I went on a (very decadent, hide $$$ from the husb) michelin crawl in Spain and France we also LOST weight??
No problem insomniac, I always assume sarcasm since it runs so thickly in my family
Thank you for the kind words.
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Great report Jerry....knew I was living in Europe for a reason...checking out the flights as we speak.............
ps. you and your wife have beautiful hands
pps. very European outfits you have there
Thanks and LOL at the 'ps', we try to keep our hands clean since we always seem to have food in them
Amazingly I actually lost weight on this trip We actually stuck out like sore thumbs in our jackets. I guess I should have asked for fashion advice in addition to the food advice...oh well, live and learn
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I actually ended up coming home with about 7 of his bars (I have one left which contains greaves, just waiting for a special occasion) though looking at that site again I may be ordering more soon!
The last one you listed sounds divine!I think the thing I miss about Vienna the most is all of the wonderful sandwiches. There are so many good places to get them there, while here the good stuff is a little more difficult to find.
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I have created a new thread for my report here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=100172
I did not want to muddle this thread up with all of my pictures.
Thanks again all!
Len
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Below is a pictorial summary of my trip to Vienna this past Christmas. I have only posted a selection of my pictures so as not to totally bore you, but additional photos (without descriptions) can be found here: Vienna Pictures
I should also apologize in advance for the lack of detail in some of the descriptions as I have forgotten a lot of details after so long. The wine or punsch consumed at the time probably did not help my memory either. If anybody has additional descriptions or information on any of these items, let me know and I will edit for clarity.
Special thanks go to cmling for all of his help, particularly on the Coburg recommendation; hervorragend!
Anyway, onto the pictures:
I’ll start with a couple of pictures from my favourite big chain Vienna eatery, Anker:
A peach pastry, with custard and a cup of hot chocolate…great breakfast!
A schnitzel sandwich, which was just schnitzel on a cheesy bun with mayo and lettuce. A perfect afternoon snack!
Here are some pictures of the aforementioned punsch. One of the greatest concepts ever; you spend your 5 Euros for a drink, which includes a 2 Euro deposit for the mug. Then you can take that mug around to the different punsch-stands in the particular Christmas market and spend around 3 Euros or so to refill it with whatever flavour of punsch you desire! Fantastic!
Maroni (chestnut) punsch
Orange Punsch with flaming sugar cube, courtesy the MQ!
Here is some Christmas market food:
Wild Boar sandwich with mustard and cheese; had a few of these during the trip…whoa boy!
Forget the name of these. Doughballs filled with chocolate and rolled in nuts, then doused in icing sugar. To be honest they sound way better than they tasted, but still good.
Chocolate-covered mandarin oranges. Not very good, but they look really cool.
Fried doughnut-type thing with jam in the middle and dusted with icing sugar, cooked fresh right in front of you. This was very good; there was also a sauerkraut and bacon version, sans icing sugar of course.
I have no idea what this thing was, but it was absolutely delicious and to call it unhealthy would be a gross understatement. I think it was potato and sausage (maybe?) deep-fried in this massive vat of oil, then you brush it with garlic butter…sinful may be appropriate?
Sandwich-shops & cafes
Trzesniewski sandwiches. They have been discussed here before; little pieces of rye bread with various flavours on top all mashed up and decoratively adorning the bread. The second picture also shows a spinach pastry we got at Trzesniewski buffet.
Duran sandwiches. We actually enjoyed these more than Trzesniewski’s, mainly due to the variety and the use of different breads. Highly recommend this place!
Meinl am Graben Nice little finger sandwiches, one egg, one cheese. Very delicious and the store itself was quite amazing. Also notable because this is one of only two places I could find the more unusual flavours of Zotter chocolates (coffee, plum, & bacon…yum)
Demel One of the most well-knows pastry shop/cafes in Vienna. We visited three times.
Sacher Torte Pretty good, definitely not one of my favourites, but I figured I should try it.
Meringue & flaky pastry squares with chocolate hazelnut buttercream in the middle. These were absolutely amazing; hence the three separate trips to Demel
Restaurants
Kristian Monastery
Recommended by the gentleman at our hotel, it is located in an old monastery. He got this one right, but definitely got ‘a day in Bratislava’ wrong. Everything here was quite good. My dining companion did not enjoy her appetizer so much and I know she would probably not admit that she was envious of my dessert over her cheese. Great meal overall and would definitely recommend this place.
2 soups: Chestnut & Celery.
Foie Gras with various accoutrements
Pumpkin pate
Langoustines with risotto
Salmon-trout with gnocchi
Beef 2 ways
Cheese course
Chocolate 4 ways
Do & Co
Great location on the 7th floor of Haas Haus right next to St. Stephans Cathedral. Atmosphere was all business, as there was a very large contingent of business people um, ‘doing lunch’. Food was pretty good if not way overpriced. We would most likely not go back here, but enjoyed it nonetheless (that soup was fantastic!).
Sushi…yeah you read that right.
White tomato soup (amazing!)
Wiener Schnitzel with various accompaniments
A different type of schnitzel. Round balls of meat, not breaded. I actually enjoyed this more than the ‘regular’ schnitzel.
Restaurant Coburg at Palais Coburg
Definitely the best meal I have had in quite a while. The food was fantastic and the service was amazing in a way only European countries can do it. Everything was delicious, but the highlight actually came quite early in the form of a terrine; one of the best I have ever had and I try, if possible, to have a terrine at every decent restaurant I visit as I find it a good measure of a chef’s salt (maybe I’m crazy). Descriptions are extremely hazy here (a little more than a tad too much wine).
The aforementioned terrine (salmon and Jerusalem artichoke)
Salmon tartare terrine
Venison on Israeli couscous
I forget (ravioli, carrot I believe)
John Dory with beet sauce (the only close to sub-par dish we had that night)
Scallop with chestnut (?) foam
Oxtail ravioli
Linguini (?) with white truffle
Venison done 2 ways with purple cabbage and quenelles (loved this one a lot)
Fish (duh) of some sort with pea foam (very well done)
Dessert ( I remember the ice cream being brilliant)
Coffee accompaniment (love that candied orange peel!).
Mignardises (I swear, they were there at some point)
Finally, here are a few other random shots:
Warm cake thing with custard (amazing!)
Taupenapfel (spelling?) which came with a side of warm vanilla sauce, almost like vanilla soup…wow!
Breakfast buffet at our first hotel.
So in summary, I would have to say Vienna is an amazing city and even more than that it is an amazing food city. Anyone who loves food should visit there, I promise you will not be disappointed.
Kind regards,
Len
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Indeed, it went very well! I have been so overwhelmed with work (new job) and planning for a Spain trip this Summer I completely neglected my duties as an Egulleter
I will definitely post up some pictures and (brief) words about the trip this weekend.
Good luck in your planning!
-Len
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Well thank you for the responses, even the tongue-in-cheek self-serving ones.
I have sent an e-mail asking for help; I will definitely post here to let you know what happens.
Cheers,
Len
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So I have a major problem now...I'm not sure I will be able to make my July reservation
I recently started a new job and they are being very inflexible about letting me have time off in the first few weeks of July (reporting deadlines and all that stuff).
So now I am wondering if there is any precedent for switching a reservation once it has been made? I should be able to go in August, or even September, but July seems to be out.
Does anyone have any advice on how to approach El Bulli with this or any other useful tidbits? Maybe I am just completely screwed (hope not).
This is very, very sad, as I was starting to really get excited for the trip.
-Len
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Well apparently I am doing something wrong. I do not even see Almadraba come up through the Venere website
The cheapest I can get it down to now is 255 Euros/night, which comes to around $390 Cdn. (not quite so bad I guess). I'm going to call my travel agent tonight to see if she can find anything better and hopefully she can help us figure out how exactly to get to Roses
Thanks for all the help!
Len
Seriously, just call the hotel. They speak English. Ask them about bed and breakfast only. That's what I did last year.
To get to Roses your best bet is probably to hire a car. It's a fairly painless drive from BCN.
Si
Thanks Simon, I will definitely give them a call. Was a litle worried about the language barrier, but it sounds as if it will not be a problem.
Cheers,
Len
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Well apparently I am doing something wrong. I do not even see Almadraba come up through the Venere website
The cheapest I can get it down to now is 255 Euros/night, which comes to around $390 Cdn. (not quite so bad I guess). I'm going to call my travel agent tonight to see if she can find anything better and hopefully she can help us figure out how exactly to get to Roses
Thanks for all the help!
Len
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butterfly: Thanks for that link, very interesting. I have already seen lower prices on there for some of the hotels I had been looking at.
docsconz: That is a very good point about the meals. I noticed I was defaulting to 'Full Board' which I assume means all of my meals included. I was only able to lower it to 'Half Board' (not sure what that entails exactly) but it did happen to get the overall price down to around $1,300. Maybe a direct e-mail to the hotel is in order.
Cheers,
Len
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Sounds great Insomniac! If you remember the name of the place, please let me know.
I guess my next question is: is Almadraba really worth paying $1,500 for 3 nights?
I don't mind paying that if it will enhance the overall experience and I feel I am getting my money's worth, otherwise I would like to find something a little more reasonable.
Sorry for hijacking the thread, but thanks for all the help!
Len
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Thanks for the information guys.
Looks as if Alamadraba is the best bet. I was a little worried about the taxi rides as I had heard they charge you 30-40 Euros each way (which seemed like a rip-off) but I guess there are not really any alternatives.
Thanks again!
Len
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Hey all, sorry to bump this up, but I have a quick question on accomodation (did not want to start a new thread for that).
Is "Camping Ciutat de Vacances Cala Montjoi Roses" the only 'hotel' in walking distance of El Bulli? If so is the next closest hotel Alamadraba Park? We want to stay as close as possible to the restaurant (walking would be ideal), but the camping place is not an option as it sounds a little too rustic for our tastes.
We are having a diffcult time trying to figure out exactly what is situated near El Bulli.
Thanks for the help.
Oh and my condolences fauxtarga
Cheers,
Len
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I am extremely excited to say I just received a 'yes' for July 12th. I had asked for anything after April 30th and was delighted to receive something in July as it actually works a lot better for my schedule.
Time to get out the 2007 calendar and start the countdown!!!
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This is exciting news, congratulations jimk!
I can only hope that I will be as fortunate as you.
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This is kind of nerve-wracking, I feel like I am waiting for a university acceptance letter.
I would assume some of the 'yes' replies will start coming soon.
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but it would be great to have a dinner option available for the other.
Maybe you want to visit this helpful webpage and check for restaurants with two ore more stars (Gaumenspiel is two star rated, for example) in Wien or Niederösterreich. There must be 50 adresses and phone numbers and if you're not afraid of asking all of them, there's a good chance to find at least one opened on christmas. If not, I fear there's nothing left than accepting your fate.
Good luck and merry christmas, anyway
Wow, great site, thanks Boris! Navigating through the German may be difficult, but I think I'll be able to manage.
I have no fear, so many calls are about to be made and e-mails sent.
I'll let you know what I come up with.
Thanks again,
Len
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Alas, Gaumenspiel is closed on the 24th and 25th, so I am still looking for suggestions if anyone has some.
I'm sure we will just end up staying in the hotel for one of those nights, but it would be great to have a dinner option available for the other.
Thanks very much!
Len
El Bulli 2007 reports
in Spain & Portugal: Dining
Posted
Thanks for the report, it sounds fantastic!
I can't believe I still have to wait 4 months for my dinner!
Look forward to seeing the pictures.
Regards,
Len