Rogelio

The week of October the 31st, 2005 Fernando Point has been busy this week visiting 19 Sushi Bar offering more than a typical japanese restaurant. And Lágrimas Negras, the new sensation in the madrileñian restaurant scene, placed in the ultra modern Puerta de América Hotel. Alvaro Lerena discovers the ultra modern Colette Café a tapas and disco bar. Top Metrópoli goes for the best restaurants serving Cochinita Pibil a mexican speciality. Jose Carlos Capel goes japanase visiting Janatomo a familiar restaurant in the centre of Madrid. 5 a taula pays a visit to the lonely star of Stany Clar in the Berguedà area in Catalonia. Rafael García Santos visites L'Excellence a wine restaurant located in Andorra. And writes about the new tendence of cooking with Lentilles. Caius Apicius writes about the Aviar Flu and it's interaction in the gastronomy. Nick lander from the Financial Times has been to Spain last summer Revisiting San Sebastián and discoveringa great restaurant in Spain's far north east - and not El Bulli and this two are in english!!

The Week of October the 24th, 2005 Fernando Point has been visiting the faraonic La Fontana with two new restaurants: La Naveta and Azabara. Álvaro Lerena discovers the best new opening tapas bar of the year: El Gorro Blanco Top Metrópoli goes for the best restaurants serving Iberic Pork Sirloin Jose Carlos Capel visits Kim Bum Bu an african restaurant in central Madrid. 5 a Taula pays a visit to the traditional Bonanova Caius Apicius writes about Biodinamic Wines

Vino+Gastronomia is my favourite gastronomic magazine nowadays. I heve been buying Sobremesa, Gourmets, Viandar, Sibaritas... And this is the one I keep buying now.

The week of October the 17th, 2005 Back with the digest after a short break, here’s a summary of what has been reviewed: Fernando Point at El Mundo’s Metropoli. Jota Cinco La Gorda, Sibara and Arola Viva Wok La Broche Lava El Fogón de Trifón Piu di Prima, Catalonian Restaurants in Madrid Alvaro Lerna keep us updated in Tapas: Indian tapas in Mey Khana, La Doble A and La Carta de Rast Jose Carlos Capel has reviewed: In Madrid: Las Tortas de Gabino, DL'S, Azabara and Lágrimas Negras Manairó in Barcelona, Arrop in Gandía and Calima at the Hotel Melia Don Pepe in Marbella. Rafael García Santos has been to: Tragallum in Alicante, Abac in Barcelona and Aizian in Bilbao. 5 a Taula pays a visit to the infamous Rafa'sin Roses. Caius Apicius has been writing about: Breakfast Espardeñas Fabada Health

My local informer tells me that La Vinoteca has moved to the 29 Pare Bartolomeu Pou St. For local mallorquian wines the shop is Malvasía Vins, on Joan Bauzà St.

Indeed, El Cantábrico is an old time favourite. If you happen to be on the area again try this little spot on the wall called La Tierruca in Calle Díaz Porlier where they serve probably the best boquerones adobados in Madrid.

La Vinoteca: Plaza Virgen de la Salud, 3-07002- Palma de Mallorca. Tel: 971 728 829 For pata negra and sobrasada sausages try Son Vivot, in the Pl. Porta Pintada, 1,

You seem to have visited all our favourites places. Glad that you liked them all.

It's said here that chef Pepe Rodriguez Rey from El Bohio in Spain was cooking at WD-50 at the end of August. Did any of you attended to this event? It says also that Ca Sento's Raul Alexandre will be soon cooking there. Just in case that you would like to attend to this valencian cooking night.

Reaching Can Roca is not easy, once you get there discovers that Can Roca is the former fammily restaurant still runned by the mother and that El Celler de Can Roca, the is the anexed modern restaurant runned by the three Roca brothers. Both restaurants share the kitchen reminding the brothers where they come from. The dinning room has two separated areas divided by the cellar. The kitchen can be seen from one them. Two different tasting menus features on the menu: The 9 courses surprise menu and the 7 courses proper menu as well as a selection of previous years’ greatest hits and a la carte. After thinking for a while we chose the 7 courses tasting menu and didn’t regret because at the end of the meal our stomachs were completely full. While we were chosing the snacks arrived, anchoives with raspberries, chanquete’s bread and cot tripe crunch. And were followed by three more tapas: Mi cuit foie grass with wine reduction, marinated sardine with sangría icecream and veloute of anissed herbs with sea water gelee. Both, the snacks and tapas were good bt the lowest part of the meal, the best part was still to come. First dish was a fig gelee with safron in a foie grass soup, tha was both, delicious and reconforting and showed how the dishes were going to be composed, a main ingredient with an enhancing companion and a contrasting touch conforming a balanced whole. Following course was a comté cheese soup but due to my cheese fobia I had a squid parmentier with the squid cooked two different ways and a paprika souce that contrasted the potato and the squids. Nexte came on of the highlights of the meal, an smoked (literally the smoke was in the dish) tuna belly with ginger and peach, amazing the tuna beelly was plenty of fat strips looking like marble, the peach added some juice to the tuna and the ginger contrasted with both ingredients and all was enhanced by the subtle smoked tast of the whole dish. When the next course arrived we were still stunned by the previous dish but the next was almost as good as the former, red mullets with their own livers cous-cous with orange and salicornia. Mediterranean red mullet is une of my favourites fishes and were cooked sous-vide with the skins roasted on the plancha giving two different textures and a seafood flavour enhanced by the salicornia and the cous-cous and again contrasted by the orange. Terriffic. The last main course was an smoked pidgeon cooked to perfection with a crunchy skin and raw meat with arice made with the pidgeon’s livers and a sauce made with orange, oloroso wine, hazelnuts and juniper. Outstanding. Every sigle dish is conceptually perfect and the whole menu is a whole by itself, each dish takes you naturally into the next course without disruption. Many has been said about that there was no wow factor but a this is really serious cooking, made with pristine ingredients where there’s nothing missed and nothing is superfluous. In other restaurants once you have discovered the wow the trick is done you don’t want to repeat, but when I left Can Roca I was on the verge of booking for the following day to taste all the dishes that I had left on the menu. Something that had never happened to me. Desserts and wine are something else that perfectly complete the whole dinning experience. Two desserts where on the menu, two perfume interpretation, one by Donna Karan and Hipnotic Poison by Dior. Refreshing the first and aromatic the second. I’m not into perfumes at all but may wife was having a lot of fun with this interpretations. The wine list is outstanding with three complete volumes. Knowing about the interest of Josep (Pitu) Roca, the charming maitre de’ and sommelier, for the german wines we left him to chose a riesling Im Sonneschein Rebholz 99 from palz that was growing during the whole meal being a perfect companion even with the pidgeon. The perfect pairing for a perfect meal. Don’t know if the restaurant deserves a third star, maybe not because of the premises but the food is trully three star experience in the way of Berasategui and Santamaría. And IMHO this is probably the most consistent restaurant in Spain nowadays.

Girona is a beatuful city with an impresive historical centre and San Celony is an industrial village with no tourist interest (but Can Fabes). You choose .

For Sunday, Paco Meralgo on C/ Muntaner 171. Is a great tapas place which is always open.

El Pescador (Casa Angelina) in Les Cases d'Alcanar, is a charming seafood restaurant where the seafood is happily not overcooked. And don't miss their suquets (fish and potatoes stews) and calderetas ( a kind of bouillabaisse). In Peñíscola the place to go is Casa Jaime not only for their superb rices, the Calabuig one is a must, but for again their suquets de peix. I've heard about El Faro de Vinaros in Vinaroz, where they not only serve seafood but modern cooking, but haven't been there.

The last Adrià popular creation are the Núvols de tendresa ( clouds of tender) a coconut marshmallow with a pineaple aroma that are being sold at La Boquería and a few collect tables at the price of 5€ the 25 pieces pack. The benefits are for the alzheimer ills association. Mor information here

Both are terrific, but I like Mannix better.

Celler Can Amer is not a tapas bar at all, but a wonderful and traditional restaurants in an old cellar in the town of Inca. For fish and seafood try Celler Sa Sinia (Pescadores, s/n. 971824323) in Puerto Colón, 12 kms from Felanitx.

How often do you go to McDonalds?

Have found this article where Rafael García Santos explains the changes on this year's menu, saying that Adrià has moved from excentricity revolutionary technicals to plurality and reflexion, and ends saying that not even 1% of the dinners will understand the whole menu and I agree with that, I didn't understood some of the dishes that I had.

If I remeber well I think that last year after my second visit I wrote here something like that I was not as shocked as I was on my first visit and that the surprise factor is very important, that's why I didn't wanted to know anything on this year's menu before dinning there. Last year the progression was in crescendo from low to the top and this year was the other way round so at the end of the meal the sensation was we were flat down. And in last year menu there were a few otstanding dishes like espardeñes with ham, oysters with habugo fat and oyster sauce, ñoquies with potato juice... that could be placed in any three star restaurant. This year thare was a lack of this 10 out of 10 dishes. And there were a few dishes so chalenging on this year's menu that I didn't understood like the Papillote de tomates al mastic, estragon y sorbete de kumquat or the Terroso. And others like the Espuma de zanahoria/lyo-Marrakesh, espumaire de avellana or the Sufle/coulant de maiz al maiz that I didn't found to be up to other year's standards. On the other hand, the Ensalada Folie and ventresca de caballa as well as the nécora were stunning dishes. It could be my fault but at the end of the meal I was very tired of all those contrasts, bitter/sourness and marshmallows with peta zetas. This are just a few dissapointments for a great meal that I found to be not as good as previous years.

As it's been the case in my three visits to elBulli, I had a lot of fun and received many interesting dishes coming out of the kitchen. I had the unexpected pleasure of dining in the kitchen table, which added a whole new dimension to the dining. That said, if I compare my dinner in late July 2004 with the one I had this year in early June, I'd say that the former offered a weak start of the meal (weak by elBulli standards (elBulli and standards in the same sentence read quite weird)) where several of the snacks were more about the game than about the food, but once you got to the middle of the menu there were a series of dishes that would rank 10/10 on any scale. This year, the snacks were much better conceived (or so I think): the now famous olive, the ibérico arlette, the pumpkin oil caramel. But the 10 out of 10 dishes weren't there in the second part of the menu. Don't get me wrong, there were very good dishes, some excellent (oyster and pearl, noisette), but I believe that those were an inch behind those we had last year. That and some comments from people I trust make me wonder if elBulli gains 'momentum' as the season moves on. I'm really curious to hear from Rogelio who will be dining there in a couple of weeks. Have just arrived from El Bulli and my impressions are similars to Pedro's. This was the third time that I was visiting El Bulli and to me the poorest, I left with the feeling that this year the menu was more a rollercoaster than ever with a very good starting and then a fall down to recover at the end of the meal. Adrià seems to be creting a haute couture parade of dishes with prototypes that will be developed in future dishes and that we will be tasting in other restaurants the following years. This year was the year of the spices and herbs: coriander, safron, morrochian spices, sechuan pepper and leaves, galangal... where part of the dishes trying to build a whole thing with the repetition of ingredients like olives, melon, hazelnuts, mató cheese on different dishes. The starting was great and funnier than ever but after the snacks and aperitives the dishes started to lack something. They where technicalli perfect but something was missed only to recover at the end of the main courses when we were tired of chalenging pairings, textures and flavours. It could have been me, but I foud some of the flavour parings so chalenging that sometimes ended being odd. In the end there were 12 to 15 dishes worth the trip but the overall impression is that previous years the experience was better. The menu: Margarita 2005 Aceitunas sfericas Marshmallow de piñones Avellana Merengada Oreo de oliva negra con crema doble Disco de mango-lyo y aceitunas negra Melon cru/melon-lyo con hierbas frescas y almendras tiernas a la pimienta Caramelo de aceite de calabaza Ninfa thai de algodón Melon con jamon 2005 Salicornia rebozada al azafran con emulsion de ostra Brioche al vapor Deshielo 2005 Ensala “folie” Espuma de zanahoria/lyo-Marrakesh, espumaire de avellana Quinoa germinada con sopa de tucupí, kaffir y callos de pollo Sufle/coulant de maiz al maiz Caracoles con necoras en escabeche y amaranto al hinojo Papillote de tomates al mastic, estragon y sorbete de kumquat Terroso Ventresca de caballa en escabecche de pollo con cebolla Bogavante al natural alitas de pollo tandori con emulsión de ostra y mató aereo Marshmallow de fruta de la passion con menta fresca Liquid de melocoton Puzle de mango Morphings: Teppan nitro, merengue, polo de fresa y chocolate.

I'm far to be a BBQ connoiseur but Memphies Minnies in SF's Haight Street is the closest that I have been to the real thing. Would like to hear your opinions about this place, but IMHO the ribs and brisquet were outstanding.

The Week of August the 29th, 2005 Fernando Point discovers Brasilerinho, a new brasileñian restaurant in Madrid. Top Metrópoli goes for the best restaurants serving Pizza Calzone in Madrid. Jose Carlos Capel travels to the northern sierra of Madrid to visit El Palacio de Miraflores where El Chaflan's chef Juan Pablo Felipe has stablished a new restaurant with all his classics. 5 a Taula comes back from holidays to visit the new Gamvic a market oriented restaurant in the Eixample area. Caius Apicius writes about the magical gastronomic writing of Alvaro Cunqueiro. And our forum host Pedro has published an article about Eating and drinking in the Fat Duck

The best shape restaurant in Cordoba nowadays with innovative dishes based on andalusian tradition seems to be Bodegas Campos. Other good place is El Churrasco, with good meats and the traditional salmorejo (a thick gazpacho) For low budget eating La Taberna de Juan Peña (957200702), a typical andalusian bar, is a good option, go for the salmorejo and fried aubergines. As well as Taberna La Lechuga (Tomás Conde, 12). where apart from salmorejo they have wonderful lamb's trotters.

In the Lavapiés area you will find lots of moroquian food shops. Go to the underground station and ask anybody looking moroquian and they will show you.

The week of August the 22nd, 2004 Fernando Point discovers Adler the secret restaurant at the eponymous Adler Hotel. Top Metrópoli goes for the best restaurants serving Boquerones en vinagre the vinegar marinated anchoives. Jose Carlos Capel travels to Orense to find Galileo an italian restaurant using galician products. 5 a Taula visites El Celler de L'Aspic in the Priorat wine region. Caius Apicius writes about the canned delicacy of the Sardines in olive oil