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I bought several types of mushrooms last saturday at Gold Gourmet. Any trick for cleaning them or is it just a matter of patience?

Product quality (i.e. freshness), mastering of the grilling technique. Tougher than it seems, handling a grill. In Getaria, I've heard (read) reports of grilling products which aren't usually cooked with that technique with excellent results, like clams and oysters (not sure about the latter). I believe that Kaia was the place where this took place.

John, the tuna (probably albacore) and potato stew is known as marmitako, a fishermen dish. From my experience when eating in Orio, although the restaurants seem pretty much the same there're noticeable differences amongst them.

Others sure can confirm or deny this, but isn't this a quite traditional method for cooking red peppers? I would add a previous step to peel them consisting of literally briefly burn their skin on the fire.

Here goes Rogelio's digest for The Week of October the 4th, 2004 Fernando Point discovers http://www.elmundo.es/metropoli/2004/10/01...1096581650.html La casa de Itziar an unpretentious restauran serving the now almost mising traditional house food. Tapas section is dedicated to http://www.elmundo.es/metropoli/2004/10/01...1096581647.html Phidelio Coffee Restaurant, an ambitious bet that combines music and gastronomy and wants to become a chain. Top Metrópoli is for http://www.elmundo.es/metropoli/2004/10/01...1096581649.html Pochas, the seasonal beans typical from Navarra. Being the winners obviously navarrian influenced restaurants: 1. PRÍNCIPE DE VIANA. Manuel de Falla, 5. 2. ALMIREZ. Maldonado, 5. 3. EL BODEGÓN. Pinar, 15. 4. ALGARABÍA. Unión, 8. 5. CASA VILA. Santa Engracia, 87. 6. CASA TERE. Avda. del Generalísimo, 64 (Pozuelo de Alarcón). 7. BLANCA DE NAVARRA. Avda. de Brasil, 13. Is always interesting the weekly http://www.elmundo.es/encuentros/invitados...237/index.html# Abraham García’s Chat . The chef comes this week straight from Alba. After last week’s absence Rafael García Santos has been visiting http://canales.elcorreodigital.com/gastron...casafermin.html Casa Fermín in Oviedo (Asturias). Product based traditional food with new presentations with particular atention for fishes. 5 a Taula visits the traditional http://www.lavanguardia.es/web/20041001/51164775604.html Can Xarina in Collsuspina (Between Osona and Moianés). This was one of the few restaurants serving real food visited by the late Nestor Luján and still serves simple seasonal dishes like the tartufo canneloni, roasted artichokes... Erique Bellver in Malagan paper El Sur has discovered http://canales.diariosur.es/cocina/mesayma...a2octubre04.htm Tres Barriles a wine and fish bar with no more pretensions than serving the freshest fish and the best wines. Caius Apicius complains this week abut the http://revista.libertaddigital.com/articulo.php/1276229241 opening dates and now more often closing dates in spanish restaurants On Slow food we can read this Article http://www.slowfood.com/eng/sf_sloweb/sf_s...D=35473&-search about a dinner at Arzak by Carlo Petrini. If you want to comment on the diggest do it here

It's always a pleasure to see you around this forum, Russ. Does the contents mingling refer to a vegetable itself or rather among all the vegetables of a given dish? I'm asking this because the key to success for a good menestra, the traditional dish from Navarra where several vegetables are cooked with a light broth to bind them, is to cook them separately to make sure you can cook each type of vegetable to the exact degree of cooking it requires. That's why is so difficult to find a good menestra: it simply takes a lot of work and expertise.

If I remember well, Alameda has also a Michelin starred. I've eaten there once. The dishes were very good, but is the kind of place which makes you wonder what's wrong with Michelin in Spain: if Alameda deserves a star, so do some hundreds of restaurants in the country which haven't got any and serve a food matching or surpasing what you'll get at Alameda.

Unless this has changed in the last year, the Parador in Hondarribia (Fuenterrabía) is one of the few that doesn't have a restaurant. It has a bar where you can have a drink or a coffee, but that's it. Not much of a problem given the options available in Hondarribia.

In Tolosa you can find two of the best asadores of the country, Casa Julián and Casa Nicolás. I posted some info on the meal I had a year ago at Casa Nicolás in this thread. The other suggestion I have is to swap the places where you're going to lunch the days of Oct 22 and Oct 24. Since you're going to drive along the coast on your way to Bilbao on Sunday, I would suggest to leave the lunch in Getaria (Elkano or Kaia) for that day. Getaria is on your way to Bilbao if you drive along the coast. That will give you another spot to lunch (or dine) in San Sebastián. Why don't you give a try to Fagollaga which is usually overlooked?

Las Rejas - http://www.lasrejas.net Mugaritz - http://www.mugaritz.com/ Not the best restaurant sites I've seen, though.

I'd say that the relationship of media exposure with occupation in a restaurant is much more complex than what you suggest, Matthew. Your assumption is that people who are into food would probably be alienated by the focus in the novelty aspects of Heston Blumenthal's cuisine. But I'd say that the sense that something different is happening at The Fat Duck is a key component in deciding to visit it. Most of us, I believe, would qualify TFD as a place where new dishes and techniques are being developed and presented to the customers very frequently. Nonetheless, a closer look to TFD's thread will reveal very little variation in its menu since 2001. I'm not stating that there's anything wrong with it, I'm just pointing to what I believe is a mismatch between the image of TFD perceived through the media and what is actually in the menu.

Probably because that's what attracts media.

Take a look to Tryp Barcelona Aeropuerto

Viridiana's chef Abraham García just returned from Alba on Tuesday with some kilos of white truffles in his luggage. The best of them were selling at 3500€/kg. Exceptional quality, if you ask me. Yesterday I sampled them some gnocchi with cream and white truffles and risotto with seta de cardo (Pleurotus eryngii) and white truffles. Sold at 4€/gr. He also had some black truffles, which told me were neither túber aestivium or túber melanospórum. So, I'm wondering what they are...

And Tragabuches is open for lunch. In Seville, I ate once at Becerrita. Simple cooking, good product, moderate prices. Some relevant threads: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=40001 (this has some posts addressing Málaga and Costa del Sol) http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...39532&hl=málaga

I paid a visit to Iñaki last Saturday night. After these mushroom-centered threads, it was unavoidable that I asked Iñaki to include plenty of them in our menu. We started with a dish worthy of an emperor, amanita cesárea on thin slices (à la carpaccio) with some just ground black pepper, salt, extra virgin olive oil and some non-smoked Idiazábal cheese. The assortment of wild mushrooms simply made in the oven with oil and salt came after, to culminate with the sweetbreads with chantarelles. Sometimes Iñaki also makes desserts based on mushrooms, one of which is considered by my wife as the best dessert she's ever had. And that's a lot to say, I can assure you.

I believe I got this list from El Mundo's Metropoli, which I guess is already familiar to most of you: - Vázquez: C/ Ayala, 11 - Charito: Chamartín Market - Gold Gourmet: C/ Ortega y Gasset 85 - Alzagorri: I suppose this is the stand you mention. San Miguel Market. It's not uncommon to find at El Corte Inglés, both in their supermarket and in the gourmet section (Club del Gourmet), a small selection of three or four different types of mushrooms.

Impressive post, Víctor! As usual. My parents, who live in El Escorial, in good years are able to find some (allegedly) boletus edulis (the quintessential cépe, as you said) in the area. But the "area" includes part of the Sierra whichs belongs to Ávila.

Víctor, you're addressing something that I didn't suggest, or if I did, I did it by mistake. I was simply wondering whether cod would have been more present for longer time, if only in very specific dates, than olive oil. I don't consider this to be the case anymore. Regards,

I tend to agree with the position that there isn't a Spanish cuisine. However, as we could argue that some Spanish cuisine could be emerging at the very top, lead by Adrìà and his legion of followers, couldn't it be argued that such a trend exists and has existed for some time at the most basics echelons? I'd say that the immigration flows of last century's second half have result in a widely spread repertoire which include dishes from several regions: gazpacho, yes, but also bean dishes inspired by the fabada, legumes based dishes (lentils) and some others. If such a palette crystallizes, something that I see at risk due to the changes in our habits resulting in less and less cooking at home, couldn't it be considered as a sort of Spanish cuisine, in the sense of the cooking one would likely find in a big part of Spanish homes? On a side note: would cod perhaps be a more widespread product than olive oil? Probably due to religion reasons which made this salt preserved fish the ideal to reach areas far from the sea for its consume during Eastern, when the meat fasting was pretty much observed until 20 years ago or so.

Note from the host: Please let's do keep the discussion focused on cooking. I don't think butterfly's intention is to divert this to a political debate but just wanted to make very clear from the beginning what's the topic debated here.

Which sounds perfect to me. The only warning would be not to use too much lemon.

That Spain has a tremendous variety of regional cookings is undeniable: from Andalusia to Galizia, we find different traditional cuisines all over the country. In fact, sometimes I find them so different that makes me wonder (and this is a debate that is not new in Spain) if we can talk about a Spanish cuisine as a whole. Do you think that there's a Spanish cooking? If you do, which are the elements that characterize it? I can think of several products (i.e. pork, olive oil to name two of them) that are used in each and every region, but I guess something more than that is needed to define a cuisine. Ideas, please?

If price is not an issue, since it'll easily more than double the 30€ per person tag, Gaig is the place that comes to my mind when thinking of the top of Catalonian cooking. Several steps above Hispania in technique (Hispania is wonderful, I'm strictly speaking about technique here), his menu combines author dishes with traditional dishes (canonical canelons). I'd say it's as refined Catalonian cooking can get without ceasing to be Catalonian cooking. Ca l'Isidre, where I haven't been, is usually named as one of the restaurants which loves mushrooms. Take a look to: asola on Inexpensive Lunch menus in BCN. it wouldn't be totally out of question the possibility that you'd find traditional dishes scattered in some of the menus which those places offer.

Perretxicos are Calocybe gambosa or Tricholoma Georgii, also known as St. George's mushroom. It's a type of spring mushroom quite highly valued by many people, though personally I prefer morels. One of the most frequents presentations you could find is precisely with some scrambled eggs. Regarding the hunting areas, I was actually kidding: I have to confess that I'm not a mushroom hunter myself. If you're interested I suggest you to get in touch with Madrid Mycological Society (beware that the English page is not that updated). They organize day trips to the Sierra to find mushrooms. If you finally go and find some, I hope you'll invite us to sample them. PS: Yes, that Petrás's book is very good.