Rogelio

The unfashionable but superb FM in Granada is a must that has been reviewed here. Not exactly in Almería, but in Roquetas de Mar, Alejandro serves great seafood with a modern approach. In Almería proper Casa Joaquín offers perfectly fried fishes and seafood. RE: Madrid has a lot of threads about all kind of restaurants, take a look at them and come back with your queries.

I'd add Combarro and O Pazo on the top of the seafood list. Same as Pelotari on the beef section. All the mentioned palces are about traditional or product focused restaurants, no creative or high end dinning? Why don't you take a look to Viridiana, Senzone, Arce, DiverXO, Sacha... Re Shoping: I don't know what you're looking for, but these two shops aren't among my favourites. I'd better go to Oriol Balaguer, Gold Gourmet or any market.

I certainly would have made that mistake if you hadn't said something, thanks. I've found a Jota 5 @ Alcala 423, is that what you're referring to? ← Yes, it is.

Don't mistake Cinco Jotas, the ham brand from jabugo (Huelva) or the taberna 5J from the same owner, with good ham but not that good cooking with Jota 5 the restaurant speciallized codfish and Joselito iberic porc products from Guijuelo (Salamanca). I rather go to the latter.

Sure I wouldn't bother, but instead go to El Bohio in Illescas. Not worth it, there are better options in Cuenca, Raff or la Ponderosa. Above mentioned El Bohio in Illescas, La Tasquita de Enfrente, castelló 9, las Cuatro Estaciones in Madrid or at the cheap El Cardeño. Yes there are, even from the same brand as every pig is different and the processes are different. Carrasco, Joselito, Lazo are among the best brands. Jota 5 in Madrid is my favourite spot for ham serving some of the best Joselito pieces.

Viridiana is indeed open on mondays as well as La terraza del casino. Other highlights could be Senzone, Diverxo (book one month in advance), Sergi Arola Gastro... Re tapas: In Cava Baja, I like casa Lucas, el Tempranillo and Txirimiri (not exactly in cava Baja) In santa Ana, I like the fried fish and vegetables at La Trucha and the ommelet and potatoes at las Bravas

I guess I'll be around too, at least in the afternoons.

Add Sanlúcar de Barrameda to your itinerary. There's plenty of information about all this places in the Forum.

Hi Brett, Sergi Colet from Cavas Colet is doing some very interesting cavas, though he is out of the DO doing to his using of non authorized varietals. Contact him and drop my name if you need it, he's a good friend.

Rias de Galicia or Pacomeralgo are your places.

According to the NYT:

Not much really, apart from a few tourist traps. Bodegas Rosell in 14 General Lacy St would be the best choice.

Good seafood in Madrid (and everywhere in Spain) is expensive and those above mentined are certainly good but , with the exception of Taberna del Puerto that I haven't visited on the expensive side. Why don't you give a try to Naveira do Mar. In Santa Juliana, 57 St Tel:91 459 45 32. In a hiden, but centric, neighbourhood which is worth the visit. Ansorena would be my choice, and Imanol the second. There is another branch of Txirimiri in Humilladero 6, close to El tempranillo, so you can try both at once. I'll add Casa Lucas in cava baja to the tapas tour. These are all very good options for very different reasons. El ventorrillo Murciano for paella rices (minimum two people) and La Daniela for cocido (traditional chick pea stew) are worth the visit for lunch only both.

Last weekend we visited Casa Gerardo, Asturias' top restaurant since 1882, to prove that it's better than ever. Well, I wasn't there a century ago, but... We went there with Ramón Coalla, good friend and local wine importer, who got us a reservation at the kitchen table and a 21 dishes tasting menu that blew our minds and left me so exhausted that I almost asked to stop bringing dishes. :ph43r: View from the table of the recently renewed kitchen. The setting, atmosphere and amount of dishes was so overwhelming that I failed to picture a lot of dishes, but this is what we had: - Apple cocktail (An apple study) In fact an asturian apple eau de vie with tonic and apple juice. Delicious and surprising starting cocktail. - Crunchy asturian cheese roll It was what it says, a piece of asturian cheese into two cracker biscuits. - Compango croquette Delicious is not enough to describe this bite, an squared shaped croquette made with the sausages (blood sausage, chorizo, bacon) used in the cooking of a fabada (asturian bean stew) - Seared Albacore tuna heart (sea offal) This was more interesting and challenging than delicious, great texture and strong flavour for this unusual piece. - Anchovy with dressing This was a superb and very sweet anchovy, it wasn't clear if it was Cantabric or Mediterranean, dressed with concentrated coffee shots, almonds and citric olive oil. Sardine with yeast Delicious marinated sardine over milk yeasts, it was strange over the paper but it really worked in the mouth. Oyster in pine nut oil Slightly marinated Girardeu oyster in escabeche with pine nut oil. Very good but it would have been better if the product were at its season peak - Razor clam with almond oil Another take of the mollusk and dried fruits oil, this time much better than the former. The razor was heated just enough to enhance its flavors and the almond oil added a great contrast building a great dish. - The liver in the sea Another take on the sea offal, this time it was red mullet liver, the dish was so powerful that they recommend to have it in two bites. This dish was stunning offally deep, seafoodlly tasty, and again, delicious. Roasted baby prawns (quisquillas), dried bread, roses and pistachios This is the first attempt to use quisquillas, a seafood that I love, in high end gastronomy,. This dish contained almost raw baby prawns that we were instructed to cover with the roasted heads and eat along with the bread and pistachios paste. again the dried fruits and seafood worked extremely well. And ended sucking the few remaining roasted heads. Superb. Albacore tuna wit tomato Marcos Moran spent a couple of weeks earlier this year in Japan and this is one of the dishes that comes from his Asiatic experiences. Using the top part of the tuna belly he marinates it with salt and serves slightly seared as if it was a tataki with a green tomato (coming from Kooper Crest) that was sweet and tasting almost like an apple. An amazing dish that we were told to be served for the first time. A winner. Spider crab, head and legs This was the juice of the heads of five spider crabs concentrated and cooked (60ºC) for several hours and served over the crab leg's meat. Powerful and delicious. We were told that the flavor was different each season and also depended on the gender of the crabs, being the females sweeter. This one was salty and left us with a nice iodized aftertaste - Lobster, cabbage and hazelnuts (Asturian mountain) I failed to picture this one which was good but IMHO not overwhelming. - Egg with eucalyptus and squid broth (Asturian Mountain) This was surprising, an slow cooked egg served with a broth smelling like eucaliptus, but tasting like squid. Really nice contrast. - Sea bream in its juice old apple and oyster leaf (Natural flavours) Slow cooked (60º) sea bream with it's cooking juice and served with a side dish of air dried and just peeled apples with oyster leaf (another Kooper Crest creation). A nice fish dish that keep the essences and subtle flavors of the bream. - Asparagus and argan (resin, orchard, terroir) Perfectly cooked asparagus with mushrooms and argan oil. Great product (even if out of the season) in an original combination. - Beef cheeks and bone marrow Good flavors and superbly cooked but not as great as the other dishes. - Fabada de Prendes I also failed to picture this one, an asturian signature dish, but served with fress beans and a light but keeping all the essences broth. So good that even if I was full I had two dishes of this. Superb. - Apple with perfume "alquitara del obispo" (Apple study) Also failed to picture this one which was a pre dessert consisting in apple with covered with an air of this apple eau de vie made but Alquitara del obispo brand. - Torrefacción By this stage of the meal I could not think in pictures, eating or anything. All I remember is that this was coffee based dessert. - Burned rice with milk cream Another signature asturian classic dish as it's best, with just collected milk and burned like a catalan cream. Yummy. Marcos Morán after the service. After all a four hour of superb product driven meal enhanced by great technique but always behind the product. This meal was among my two or three best meals that I have had so far this year. An absolutely must in the area.

good foodie friend has just come back and this is what he recomends: - Rte. Can Domingo (San José) : Good meats - Rte. EL Carmen (San José) : Fantabulous "Bullit de Peix con arroz a banda" steamed fish with seafood paella, and all kind of fish, specially red mullet and sirvia (local tuna). - Rte. La Plaza (Santa Gertrudis) : Lamb Carré de Cordero with summer truffle. - Rte Es Pins : For the local and hearty Sofrit de pagés. Very cheap.

Melimato, I understand your point and partially agree with you, but there are some places, specially in Navarra where they know how to cook their vegetables, I'm thinking about El 33 in Tudela or Maher in Citruénigo.

O Galito is a nice and familiar restaurant serving comfort food and traditional dishes from the Alentejo, but I wouldn't think about it as a memorable and delicious experience for an special celebration. Maybe Fortaleza do Guincho, in Cascais could fit for an special occasion.

Mine was printed.

Diverxo and Senzone are the two best new openings. Both are worth a visit if you're lucky enough to get a table.

The first months of every season El Bulli tends to repeat dishes from the previous year and it is not until june that they start serving completely new menus, so probably most of the dishes that I got came from last year's menu. You're probably right, there was so many dishes that I can mistake that one.

Thanks to Chris Amirault I managed to get a table at El Bulli this year. And after this year’s meal my impressions is that Ferrán is as good as always or even better, trying to prove that he knows how to cook and not only a gimmick dishes builder. The dishes were great, and some of them were perfect, the menu was very well balanced, the compositions showed the main ingredient enhanced by the technique and not as a mere instrument for showing this season’s new trends but in order to serve good food. There wer some conducting ingredients, there were deconstructions, innovations, foams, fake caviars, liofilizations, microespherifications… But over all there was good food. I don’t know if he’s betraying himself or not, but I had to go back to 2004 to had such a great menu like this year’s at El Bulli. So this is what I had: Lulo cocktail with lulo juice, gin and martini. Nori trias Nori seaweed crackers with sesame seeds. Beetroot meringue With yogurt LYO Fruits Pinenuts and chocolate bonbons Mango leaf Shiso caramel Tomato cookie and basil with mozzarella cookie, a new version of the classic capresse salad Pekin creps Mint leaf and coconut Beetroot coral I failed to picture this snack that tasted like a potato chip Black sesame cake with miso Flower paper LYO-Cream Golden egg Asparragus with miso and tagete flower Razor clam / Laurencia Deep fried tuna marrow with caviar Giant kidney beans with Joselito bacon and blackened garlics Clementine flower / pumpkin oil and Clementine seeds Gelée almonds with almond cocktail “umeboshi” Nenufars This was a flower sou, more like a tea with strong tanins and aropatic flavours, that I failed to picture. Turnip cous-cous with sea urchins And oyster leaf The Soup 2008 Like the children letter soupo but all enclosed in exploding letter forms Peas 2008 Authentic twice peeled peas with iberc ham and fake spheric peas filled with ham stock, proving that the imitation is even better than the original. Sea Anemone 2008 With oysters Polenta gnoquis with cofee and yuba and saffron Negrito (local rock fish) Abalone With iberic bacon fat, seaweeds and mushrooms Game on toast Partridge and foie grass paté Hare juice with apple gelé-cru with cassis Hare civet with truffles and apple Tartuffe Filled with gorgonzola cream Cypress honey with peach shots and sweet almond marzipan Autumn landscape After eight Yoghurt Ambar Digestive Infusion In the end this was a five hours meal that ended with a gin and tonic in the terrace discussing with Luis García about the impossibility of getting a table there and how frustrated they feel with this problem.

Ca Sento is still the best option in Valencia. Riff is also a good choice as well as Askua, an Etxebarri wannabe in the mediterranean version. Fudd is a nice and very affordable option, but there is no other choice but the daily changing menu.

It looks like Miguel Sánchez Romera has closed L'Esguard and is moving to start a new venture in NYC. Does anybody have more info?

Indeed, the big opening in Madrid was last Wednesday April the 9th. I forgot to mention it here.

Can Roca in Gerona and Abac in Brcelona should be on your list.