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Víctor, thank you. I'm happy I've played a part, though small, in the delicious meal you had at Dantxari. It's been years the other way around (and I expect that this continues to be the case), so what can I say? I've already sampled perretxikos this year, but not morels. Being a mushroomholic, morels are one of my favourite species. Coming back to the becadas, there's a couple of questions I'd like to ask. What do you think of the hanging period? I guess that question is easily extended to game in general. Have you tried to pair game, specially the powerful types like becada with Oloroso or Amontillado? Every time I think about game, I think about Horcher, a classic restaurant in Madrid with Austrian roots. But somehow, being quite lazy when formal dress codes are required, I've never made my mind to visit them. I wonder if they are up to the reputation they hold regarding game...

I finally went to Fast Good. I had an advance of what they serve since Rogelio brought some sandwiches from Fast Good last Thursday. They were very good compared to similar offerings available (Mallorca, Rodilla). So, today, returning to the office, I drop by Fast Good. My surprise was that Adrià himself was there being interviewed by a TV station. I bought gazpacho, quite good but with slightly more vinegar than needed, a salad of vegetables, red fruits and parmesan (again, more parmesan than needed) and a couple of sandwiches: marinated tuna with romescu sauce, mozzarella with dried pepperoni and ruccola (I guess). The sandwiches were the best part of the meal, followed by the gazpacho. The bill, 9.85€. Not a bad deal.

Quoting Pla again: "To me, there's no question: the woodcock is undoubtedly the best edible winged bird in the country. Its meat is sublime, incomparable, of the highest category. This opinion is not restricted to our country: everywhere the same view is held." In another chapter, talking about game in general, Pla says about faisandage: "Yes. Game has to be faisandé [...] It's the only way of not getting exposed to eat it raw. I know very well that generally this things are not pleasant to people of this country: they prefer to eat the pieces raw that slightly rotten. I hope, nonetheless, that you'll forgive me if I say that raw game is something so insipid and of such evident prehistoric inanity, that if faced with the possibility is better not having it." Talking with chefs, many of them say 'no' to large periods of faisandage, preferring to serve the pieces fresher. Having tasted pieces in different stages, I prefer the ones I had at Arce and Zalacaín (where they make a point of explaining what you're about to have and making sure that you 'qualify' to have becada (in my case, stating that I've had certeta before) to avoid unwanted surprises). OTOH, my wife prefers less radical tastes and likes better the way they prepare the bird at Viridiana. I guess if taste weren't a matter of discussion, eG wouldn't exist. PS: Sorry for the poor translation of Pla's work.

Adam, unfortunately, I don't have a recipe. Nonetheless, Josep Pla, one of Spain's finest writer of the last century and knowledgeable gourmet, on his book "El que hem menjat (Lo que hemos comido)" ("What we've eaten"), a collection of his essays on food, includes a description of bécasse sur canapé: After extracting the offals, roast the whole bird in the oven. Put the offals over a toast, and over this, the roasted bird using the juice generated in the roasting process as sauce. What I believe is missing there, and everywhere I've had becada basically uses the former recipe, is that you cook the offals using some strong licquor, namely brandy, armagnac or calvados, and make a thick paté with that afterwards. You also soak the toast in the sauce resulting in the reduction of licquor and offals. I guess you could also google becada and bécasse, which I'm sure will get you more specific recipes. Bux, you're right, I was referring to bécasse. I don't know what others would think, but having them after 2-3 weeks of faisandage is something else.

Well, in order to have good recommendations one needs not only someone willing to speak to you, but also those "good places to eat" should exist. They are quite difficult to find around here, I'm afraid. Use the tapas, Luke.

Becada (woodcock, scolopax rusticola) is becoming a rarer and rarer dish. Its season is quite short, and there're few restaurants which are able to get some of these delicious birds. We also have to consider that becada, when properly prepared, presents a very strong smell and taste (not unlike the cerceta, teal bird), which challenges the mainstream mindsets of diners and cookers. IMHO, the best way to serve the becada, is following the traditional standards. A toast with paté made from its offal, a simple sauce of Brandy or Armagnac, and roasted. Of course, rarely cooked, and I prefer a good dose of faisandage. This year, I've sampled becada at Goizeko Wellington, Viridiana and Arce (twice). Zalacaín, where when I was visiting them didn't have becada available, served me an excellent example (my first one) some years ago. The best becada dish I've had this season, was yesterday's one at Arce, where they master how to cook game. In Goizeko and Viridiana are not supporters of long periods of faisandage, whereas Iñaki Camba in Arce usually has a handful of pieces at different faisandage stages. The dish, cooked as described above, presented a long, deep and mineral taste, contrasting with the light sweetness of the Armagnac based sauce. As Iñaki once taught me, you can also eat the bones of some game birds (teal bird, woodcock), and so I did this time. The only caveat is to chew them carefully to avoid injuries caused by the splinters. Naturally, you have to use your hands to extract all the taste the dish can offer. An excellent wine to pair with this dish, is the 51 1ª Amontillado, one of those undervalued sherries. The rest of the meal, was more than very good, including smoked octopuss with mashed potatoes, shrimp in its own gelée with tartar sauce and salt from its head, roasted sprint mushrooms, oyster and sea urchin, and the traditional alubias rojas (red beans), with its customary accompaniment of chorizo, morcilla, panceta y repollo. A great (absolutely) portuguese amantecado cheese, similar to our Torta del Casar with a red sweet wine, the famous Dolç de l'Obac (Priorat), was the precedent of the desserts, a selection of home made pastry. So long, becada. Eat you next year.

Jesús, you're very welcome in here! We're starting to have spaniards spread all over the country in this forum. As a common friend once said, though the statement could be heatedly debated, restaurants are a recent creature in the andalusian food scene, so your post focused on tapas is probably the best and safest way to go. A route hopping from bar to bar tasting the best specialties could be a gastronomic experience that would be very hard to get in other cities. Pairing the tapas with fino and manzanilla will make the whole thing more enjoyable and perhaps authentic.

Indeed it does! And though he's not sticking 100% to local tradition, I believe that it's very present in his cooking, something that I appreciate.

I've been wondering since Sunday where also I recently had some tripes with tomato in the sauce. Since I recently went to Mallorca, I thought it could have been there, because of the influence of Catalonian cuisine. But no, it wasn't in Mallorca! It was in El Bohío. Now I have to live with the doubt of whether in Toledo is customary the use of that ingredient with tripes or not. I must say that I'm surprised, since Toledo is quite close to Madrid, and El Bohío even closer.

Víctor, I knew the old Gaztelupe's wine list (Goizeko Kabi's wasn't much better either). What can I say, it's wonderful to see these improvements and how a sumiller grows in a restaurant you appreciate! It's easy to forgive the minor typos regarding wines of obscure regions... Salya, Salia, not easy to distinguish, right? PS: Anything to say about the use of tomatoes in tripes recipes in different spanish regions?

Many times we food lovers strive to get the most sophisticated meals in town, with the most challenging dishes. Well, after a few of these meals, there's time to go back to the roots. Gaztelupe, a basque restaurant in Madrid where I introduced myself to the fine art of dining out years ago (seems ages). Run by Jesús Santos, who also handles the Goizeko Wellington in the Hotel Wellington at Velazquez St, Goizeko Kabi just in front of Gaztelupe, a joint in San Sebastián de los Reyes (a suburb a few miles from Madrid), and the original Goizeko Kabi in Bilbao, that's been mentioned in some threads. Of all of them, Gaztelupe is the one which offers the most traditional dishes, not meaning with that the occasional wink to other type of dishes is not present. So, Sunday at 14:00, not much food in the fridge, and wanting something simple and straightforward. About an hour later, we started sharing a tuna carpaccio salad, excellent even though tuna season has not yet started, and guiso de callos y morros (tripe and snout). This dish uses tomato in the sauce, I believe, which is also used in Catalonia to cook tripe, whereas in Madrid I would almost swear that tomatoes are omitted. I think I prefer the Madrid version, since it hasn't the slightly sweet taste that the others have. Nevertheless, bread was heavily soaked in the sauce. You'll imagine the rest. Mar continued with changurro al horno, which is king crab meat in a tomato based sauce presented in its own shell. Always a sure bet. I opted for a churro milk-fed roasted lamb, with a luscious white meat, that you could get without using the knife. No wool taste at all, a flaw that unfortunately is not uncommon. Apple pie au Calvados, a very good teja, and that was it. The wine list has been very much improved by Gerardo, and it has a quite good selection of many winemaking regions from all over Spain. We had a Cariñena wine, Care, which would have been much more interesting if not for the excess of alcoholic notes. Simple pleasures. Why not?

I agree with you, Bux. After reading Rogelio's description, I thought I should give it a try. Nevertheless, I believe it'd be probably more interesting to someone with deep restaurants' operations knowledge, to assess how replicable the concept is in a much larger scale (which is the point of fast food businesses).

eG?

I've found Gourmetour to be the most inconsistent guide in Spain related to ratings. That only means that my opinion and theirs are quite different when evaluating restaurants.

I'll gladly translate the article, but I believe there're some copyright issues. Specifically, the sentence you're referring to explains that the olive oil used to fry is changed daily, and the fruit salad (Macedonia) is kept apart from the syrup until you get them, to preserve fruits' taste and flavour. The goal that Adrià pursues is to make the same dishes that you could get in any other chain (i.e. burgers, sandwiches, salads, ...) but "better, healthier and tastier". Nice work if he can get it.

It looks like the collaboration between Adrià and NH hotels is producing some results: Metropoli

Yes, it did. To the embarrassment of the inmense part of Catalonia population, which reject it. The only ceasefire acceptable from ETA is a total one.

Some of the replies above, imply that anisakis infections is not risky for the human being. According to two different persons I know that have been infected with this parasite, that's far from being exact. I know that medical information found in the web must be taken, at the very least, with lots of precaution. But just taking a look to one of the many sites you could find (and I guess this one comes from a reputated source): Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Anisakis infection makes me simply not wanting to take the risk.

I know, I know, slightly off topic. But since I've ran into this situation when we were about to cook a bacalao a la dorada, which is a portuguese recipe... Anyway, when I was working with the cod fish, I noticed the presence of strange things, similar to small brownish noodles of a couple of centimeters long. They were inside the meat of the fish, and were clearly visible. That made us put the fish into the garbage can, and after searching anisakis images on Google, I believe that the "things" were indeed anisakis (which I've just learnt are also called cod fish worms). Have you ever found any of these anisakis worms when cooking fish?

Oops, the thread title led me to confusion. Yes, Asturianos is in Madrid. Just guessing here, but in towns where some commercial fishing activity exist, looking for the local Cofradía de Pescadores could produce good results in that price range. At least, it does in northern Spain.

Víctor, don't you think that it's still possible to have some good daily menus at lunch between 15-20€? Not easy, but possible. For instance, in Asturianos you could do fairly well having some fabes to start with, followed by veal cheeks.

Miguel, it's been good to see you around again! I was wondering whether you finally went to Galicia and how everything went.

Víctor, that's more or less what I remembered about the differences in the oven. Regarding kid, I'll always remember a simply roasted kid presented by Santamaría at El Racò. Low expectations from the description (Cabrito asado) amidst the caviar + smashed potatoe + pork jowls and the like, impressive and touchy results. I know that perfect is an overused adjective speaking about dishes and meals, but in this case I think it's totally applicable. Don't know if it was due to the andalusians roots of my mother, but while I was living in Catalonia kid played a very important role in Christmas and familiar meals. I'd dare to say that it plays a non neglectable role in Catalonian cooking.

Víctor, please, my memory starts to betray me. The ovens to roast suckling pig and milk-fed lamb are different (or ideally, should be different), aren't they? Something to do with the source of heat, if I recall properly... PS: My father was born in a small town in Burgos, and they used to use the oven of the town's bakery to roast the lamb in special occasions. A common Castillian tradition some time ago. Which was the deal made with the baker, that I don't know.

Here we go, Paul! It was about time that we had a positive exchange rate. Sorry about you, guys, but now it's our turn. Well, at least for some months.