Rogelio

Never heard about it when cooking octopus, but my grandma always places a cork when cooking meat stews so that the meat gets more tender. And if you write in english everyone will understand it better.

Yes, this dish is quite similar to Sepia al nero (cuttlefish with it's ink), in fact the main difference is changing the squid for the cuttlefish.

None of them, the andalusians in South Spain are the ones who deep frie more.

You've done good asking because some of the info is out of date. Girasol closed it's doors a couple of years ago and Mas Pau is far away from Alicante, in fact it's almost in France. Maybe you should add to your list this names: La Sirena in Petrer, Monastrell and Piripi in central Alicante and Casa Pepa in Ondara.

The popular legend in Galicia says that there are very few spicy ones in June, by August half of them are spicy and in September almost all are like fire.

Just one note. Cod tripe is not exactly the cod's tripe but the cod's natatory bladder.

Hola JR Regarding your vision and your work. Which are your signature dishes? Do you think that any of them will survive in the future? Or is there a technique developed by you that will go through the boundaries of alta cocina to the popular cooking? Gracias por compartir tu tiempo con nosotros.

I've used Open Table in my trips to USA and have found it quite convenient. But frankly, I don't see the point to use it in Spain as it is not that difficult to get a table on any spanish restaurant but El Bulli. And from my experience spanish restaurants doesn't look much to on-line reservations.

This is an El Bulli classic. And this are chanquetes (Aphya minuta), almost forbiden baby little fishes that are delicious deep fried.

Two weeks ago I made the pilgrimage to the amazing and bucolic Achondo valley in the heart of El Duranguesado to see what was all the fuzz about and I became a converted. I guess that it was at the same time than Andy Fenn so most of the dishes are the same. The Basque Country has been always a land of great asadores, from the amazing roasted tourbot and fishes in Guetaria to the flinstonian rumpsteaks in Tolosa. But what Víctor Arguinzoniz in Axpe is much more than that, he is a gifted and serious cook who also dominates the grill in all it's forms. The restaurant is quite normal, located in a rebuilt country house with a typically basque female service. Taking a look at the menu makes you want to try everything but in the end we opted for asking the chef to prepare for us a roasted seafood tasting menu being the famous chorizo the only exception, and this is what we had: - Home made chorizo from iberic pork using dried pepers meat instead of pimentón making the best chorizo that I ever had. This chorizo is served over a roasted toast and I can assure that this is the best chorizo that I've ever had. - Roasted albacore over a home growed tomato with bay leaves and soy sauce. Really good tomato straight from the vine with a perfectly roasted albacore steak. A nice salad for a good starting. - Roasted sea cucuber with pochas (fresh beans). This was the weakest dish, the espardeña was good but somehow lacking a bit of taste and the pochas were tasteles due to the lack of salt. - Grilled Palamós Prawns. Superb mediterranean prawns taking the body a new dimension with the smoked flavours and the head plenty of savoury sea esences. - Herring roasted over vine branches with roasted zuchini. Amazing dish where the vine branches adds complex and spicy flavours to the fatty herring. I'm still dreaming about this dish. - Salted cod over roasted red peppers and pil pil sauce. Really good aproach to the Club Ranero recipe. - And ended with a Cantabric Red Mullet with a refreshing citric skin sauce that enhanced the sea flavours. As a dessert we had an original roasted peach with icecream. The pictures doesn't speak about the amazingly amount of different tastes in the dishes and the surprising flavours comming fromevery single kind of wood used in every dish making a multidimensional meal. This is probably the best meal that I have had so far this year, so good that I was in the verge of comming back the following day something that I should have done.

Let me quote myself from three posts above.

Click on the ""reply square on the right bottom of the post.

The usual suspects are Pazo de Señorans (selección de añada), Lusco, Fillaboa, Santiago Ruiz, Fefiñanes... depending on the vintage high variability. And all of them are worth waiting a year or two to be drunk, as they develop more complex flavours.

Don't trust the D.O. ratings, surprisingly you'll never find a bad vintage acording to them. I'm afraid that for whta I have tasted the 2005 vintage has been rather normal due to the extremely hot year that it was.

Yes, there is no fixed rule, but between 5-10% is the common thing depending on your opinion about the service and food.

Rogelio, thank you, but what is sparkled paprika? Is that the same as smoked pimenton? ← Sorry, I meant sprinkled. But anyway, it is pimentón ahumado.

The traditional recipe for octopus is the pulpo a feira meaning feira Fiesta, because it is the popular dish served on every single local fiesta by the pulpeiras, the women who cook and sell it from town to town. The octopus needs to be slaped and then boiled in water with potatoes for about 45 minutes, if it is tender it is removed from the water and leave it resting for 15 minutes and then serve it with sparkled paprika, ground sea salt and olive oil.

try Here and Here for some tips from other members. In Sevilla the best thing to do is going out for tapas becouse the restaurant scene is not that interesting. You can give a try to Poncio a very interesting place for modern Andalusian cooking with traditional roots. Sadly, Casablanca, the best tapas bar has closed, but Kiki, his last manager has founded Bodeguita Casablanca. in front of the Archivo de Indias in Adolfo Rodríguez Jurado, 12, Ph 954 224 114. closed Saturdays, Sundays and august. For deep fried fish (pescaito frito) the best place is Barbiana (Albarada,11); for the delicious tortillitas de camarones, pijotas and langostinos (king prawns). Also interesting the seafood at both Espigón, I y II (Bogotá, 1 y Felipe II, 28) great choice for all that extraordinary seafood without having to drive to the seaside. For local fish stews the place is Yebra (Fernández de Guadalupe, 8) And for comfort food Manolo León (Juan Pablos, 8) is compulsory to sample ham and chicken croquetas, potatoe and courguet scrabled eggs and bany lamb trotters as well as jabugo ham. But if ham is what you're looking for take a trip to "LA FLOR DEL TORANZO"aka Trifón on the corner of Gamazo and Barcelona, for the thinly hand sliced ham and the delicious montaditos de picante con lomo and de lomo de orza al jerez con manzana.

Hello Brian, wellcome to eGullet. I've been to some of this gastronomic fiestas, but have never heard about the tortillas in Laro. I've always heard about the famous Betanzos ommelettes in La Coruña. Are they following the same style with lots of eggs and few and crunchy potatoes?

FYI: Horchata

After my last year's great impression I was looking forward to visit CR again this year, the expectations were high and the coments of people attending this year haven't been too positive so I didn't know what to expect. We told Pitu to serve whatever he wanted and this is what we had: After the compulsory and nice amuse geule we started with the aperitives: Marinated anchoive with apple, olive oil icecream (?) and chartreuse(¡) sauce. Fake fideua with crayfish and leek veloute. Pigeon parfait with Bristol cream Jelly. All of them creative and delicious. Some where small portions of other year`s classics like the pigeon parfait and the fake fideuá but worth repeating. Oyster with earth destilated. This was a weird dish that I loved but I undrestand that some people can hate it, the earth taste is so deep thet brings you back memories... Apple soup with tomato frappe, anchoives and modena aceto icecream. A really refreshing dish with lots of different touches that were stimulating the taste with every sip. The only issue is that the suop poured over the dish was very cold and it was difficult to match the different tastes. Fig with foie grass, truffles and PX gelly. A classic combination for a succesfully foie gras dish. Delicious. Vegetables panache with a riesling sauce. The idea was interesting as they are using xantana like Adrià to settle the stocks as souces without adding extra ingredients, but the alcohol of the wine was overpowering the dish making it hard to enjoy. Smoked aubergine mousse with anchoive and gelly. This is probably the best aubergine dish that I've ever had (I love aubergines), amazing texture, taste and combination. At this moment the seven people eating at our table were shut and all you could hear was ummm, ummmm.... Prawns smoked with Jawa pepper and musseline of it's heads. Good but somehow lacking of deeper flavour and taste. Horse mackerel belly in a roasted peppers destilated. Really good and tasty, almost raw (probably cooked sous vide) and finalized on the plancha. Foie Grass over a seaweed stock and amontillado sherry with salmon roe. Good, but I'm a bit tired of foie grass dishes and I had had a good one at the begining of the meal, so it was bit of repetition. Baby goat with melon, mustard and mint. Delicious is short for such an amazing dish. Again cooked sous vide but melting in your mouth. First dessert was called the wine on the plate and it was a deconstruction of a Peter Jakob Khün TBA, same thing that they are doing with the perfumes but with a wine. And the resoult was failed because of the alcohol again overpowering the dish. Carolina by Carolina Herrera. Orange cromatography. Desserts are interesting but more intelectual than delicious, I had asked for the Trip to La Habana that they failed to serve because of Jordi arriving from a holiday trip in London and wasn't at his best form. Petit Fours Special mention for the Wine lists and the superb bread tray. Overall impression was good but lacking the greatness of last year's when I left claiming for the third star, this time I left with the impression that it is a well deserved two stars, nothuing more but nothing less. Maybe it's because of the premises changing or because you can not keep the same creativity and pulse every year.

So you're going this year, aren't you? Wine service very friendly and knowledgable. We started with a champagne Gosset Grand Millessime 99 and then: - Dagenau Pur Sang 2000 - Chablis Dauvissat 99 - Chassagne Montrachet Bernard Moreau et Fils 01 - Idig Christman 2002 I think that this is a meal to enjoy with white wines or your beloved sherries. You can take a look at the wine list on their website.

It was real caviar.

The only previous year dish that we had was the spheric olives that I failed to picture at the beggining of the meal and the golden egg that I had instead of the won-ton campestre due to my cheese fobia. As they have records for every thing that anyone have had in the past they try to avoid repeating dishes unless you ask specially for it. I know someone who asks for the ajoblanco everyutime he visites El Bulli. Highlights of the meal were the lyo-garrapiñado of banana and sesame, pinen nuts cake, goose barnacles with caviar (I could have had two dozen of that), liquid croquette and deep fried crab/anemone.

El Bulli's Kitchen Witchcraft Gin and tonic with cucumber mango leaf nut marshmallow Hibiscus paper with cassis and eucaliptus Seaweed waffles and white sesame Lyo-garrapiñado of Banana, sesame and nutmeg Animals Nitro-strowberries with parmigiano Pineaple Cat's tongue with badiana (starred annissum) Clementine essence Olive oil cotton with gold leaf Pinenuts cake Goose barnacles with caviar. This was folluwed by a shot containig the barnacle's water being the glass the cover of the barnacle. Thai Brioche Deep fried crab anenone Liquid croquete 2006 Golden egg Mille flowers and foie grass Anchoive with PX and Moscatel sphero grapes Sphero mussels with bacon and potato soup Oil raviolis with pumpkin seeds Bread soup with laurencia and spheric yolks Migas de argana "Fez" Pumpkin seeds rissotto with curry and peanut oil capsul Horse mackerel belly with olive oil kalix and egg yolk El Mar Crab marrakesh Lamb brains with it's juice The sheep, the cheese and it's wool Mango sandwich Strawberry ice cream whith hierbaluisa and chocolat Grapefruit, pistaccio, yuzu and tea. Overall the food wasn't that good comparing with previous years but this is probably the funniest meal that I've ever had, not the best but the most joyful. Comparing this year's menu with other year's you can appreciate that Adrià plays on another league completely different from the other chefs, the product has almost desapeared and his dishes are like prototypes, some of them better than others but all of them relly interesting and this doesn't mean delicious. Something that has completely disepeared are the bread and the knifes, everythin is eaten with the hands or with fork and spoon. Talking with Adrià himself after the meal and trying to understand what he's looking for you can see that the revolution this year is not so shocking like other years but more subtle, the fireworks are less obvious but deeper, like the use of xantana, a polysacarid (also used by Joan Roca) that helps to settle the stocks turning them into sauces without the addition of anything else but the proper juice. The microencapsulation to obtain microspheres containing oils... Another world.