JesusBarquin

The second source is (almost) right: carabinero is properly Plesiopenaeus edwardsianus and gamba roja is Aristeus antennatus, and those at the pictures look clearly the first, not like the latter, but: Looking closely to this picture: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...21entry757221 , I would not discard a third species: Aristaeomorpha foliacea (langostino moruno, called often carabinero too, in Andalusia at least).

I could not tell exactly. They are supposed to be produced more or less in the same way, but I guess 1972 is in fact older. The 1972 is over. The producer started to sell the 1975 three or four years ago, when there was little quantity of the 1972 left. Nowadays you can only get the latter by chance, coming across a couple of bottles in some hidden wine shop in Spain or abroad. As I say above, I've tasted the forthcoming release (1977, probably) and was quite positively impressed.

Hello to everybody: My first time in this side of eGullet! Do not think that 1975 is the Vintage Year in this wine from Toro Albalá. It's just a reference of the producer, maybe having in mind the beginning of the "solera" or something similar. But 1999, 2000, 2001 and so on are Vintage Years indeed. The latter are younger PXs, a different style from that of 1972 or 1975. BTW, to my mind PX Toro Albalá 1972 is quite more profound than 1975. And there is a new reference to be released, probably as 1977, also better than 1975. Concerning Domecq, Venerable is really great (decanting is highly recommended), but Viña 25 (the less expensive PX by this producer) is not. Notwithstanding, both the expensive and the not so expensive "cuvées" by González Byass and Osborne are very good, in absolute quality and in QPR. My favourite PXs? It depends highly on the price you are ready to afford and on the local availability. Some friends, Pedro among them, seem to think that I have some knowledge on this matter. They are wrong, but I do not want to disappoint them, so ask if you fancy and I`ll try to answer the best I can...

And, what else could I do...? I learned as a kid that it's a hard life and guess it gimmie strength in such difficult tasks, BTW, last saturday I ate at Cunini and everything we tasted was very good: quisquillas, cigalas, prawns' ensaladilla, jamón, assorted fried fish, local ice-cream (from Los Italianos) and cakes... I mean, quite better than simply OK, as I said not too accurately in my previous message.

At the moment, the first choice in Córdoba should be Bodegas Campos (Lineros, 32, phone: 957 49 75 00). Recently in Granada, I've eaten reasonably well twice at Restaurante Iris (C/ Martínez Campos, 8; phone: 958 53 68 47); not great, but I dare say outstanding, given the usual low level around here. Interesting, to my mind: Mariquilla (Lope de Vega 2, phone: 958 521 632) and Iberos (between Plaza del Carmen and Puerta Real). Oliver and Cunini are just OK if you look for product and fish. In the sorroundings (car needed), several restaurants with non-expensive traditional dishes. Tapas in Granada: plenty of them, I just tell my 2 or 3 favourite bars: Los Diamantes (calle Navas), Julio (besides Plaza Nueva) and FM (in the outskirts, near the Bus Station). But the offer is very wide...

Francesco, so it seems that we more or less have the same point of view from our own experience. I'll tell you a secret: if I were obliged (gun in the forehead) to decide to eat and drink the rest of my life only spanish or italian wine, products and cuisine, I would choose the latter: a whole world to improve my knowledge! But I would choose other than Spain only in the case of Italy, France and maybe Portugal and two or three countries in the far east (and perhaps a couple of american countries), because here in my country there is always much to be discovered...

Francesco, you insist on reading a disagreement with the opinion "Italian cuisine is so better than spanish cuisine that, in fact, there is nothing to discuss" as an statement on the superiority of spanish cuisine. We just say: "That way of thinking is wrong and it reveals scarce knowledge of spanish gastronomy". It seems that some of us (not only VS: that is why I did the remark, no lack of rispect intended) agree about more or less the following: "This kind of contest is so pointless that, in fact, there is nothing to discuss". As to me, I like them both and do not feel at all like choosing. And believe that your remark about pork was really shocking, as there is an incredible variety of products made from this animal (different races, with cerdo ibérico on top of them all) all over Spain, from the Canary Islands to Catalonia and from the Balearic I. to Galicia. Salute! Jesús

May a passionate of Italy suggest that, given that you write such things, maybe you just know very little about Spain and its very rich variety of products and regional cuisines? ("What about other pork products?": Astounding indeed! ) And secondly: if you only want to speak with VS, why don't you send him a pm? Cheers, Jesús

Víctor, maybe I should have had in mind the average reader/writer in eGullet, but in fact I was thinking of so many people (the spaniards, the first, I'm afraid) who have a certain image of italian cuisine without knowing but the surface. How many of them pretend to taste the real tuscan cuisine and, when in front of a dish of trippa or faggioli, and a contorno di fiori di zucca, feel completely puzzled! One the repeated arguments in Squires' was: "most of the people I know think that they eat better in Italy than they do in Spain", and I just do not think that those 'most' go regularly to good italian restaurants at home. That's why I think that, though your (I mean butterfly's and yours) reflections are deep and (for sure) right, maybe the widespread state of mind concerning the excellent level of italian cuisine has more to do with a question of general historical sympathy than with real knowledge. Well, I see that this leads us again to inmigration and cultural penetration...

Interesting reflection, Butterfly, but -forgetting any worthless discussion about which country is the wicked and which the wondrous- just two points: - 21:00 is not a bad time to have dinner in almost any place of Spain nowadays. - Most of what you say could also be told of most people from the USA (or the UK, or...) travelling to Italy. I do not tend to believe that the idea they have in mind of cuccina toscana, latina, napolitana or even venetiana (such delightful fish dishes!) matches with the real thing. Well, unless we guess they actually do not look for (and therefore do not ussually find) that "real thing" at restaurants or wherever they eat in Italy.

I have recently eaten reasonably well at -by order of preference-: Di Vinum, Az-Zait and Salvador Rojo. All three deserve a visit, to my mind. But I agree with vserna that Oriza is still probably the best restaurant in the town. I cannot think of many restaurants in Spain of similar level concerning place, atmosphere and service. After having eaten in the last months at Las Rejas, Tragabuches, Viridiana, El Bulli, Can Roca and other well-known spanish restaurants, I am looking forward to visiting Egaña-Oriza again, in order to check if my memories regarding those wonderful dishes of roasted cantabric lobster or potatoes with caviar that we ate in our last visit are true or just the wishful recalling of an "exiliated" sevillian...

Back after holidays, I`m ready for war, Pedro, And when I finish to digest all that extremely plentiful dinner at El Bulli, I'll try to report about it and about the one at Can Roca. Just for the sake of war, : there was no need of reminding me anything, but ¿"very warm" in those places from october to april? Well, I would not say that...

Revallo, Granada is a great place to stay, but do not expect a warm winter at all, unless the farm is near the coast, i.e., no more than 20 miles away. In fact, I don´t think Pedro is very accurate when he says that "Weather in Spain during those months (october to april) varies from region to region from very warm to freezing". I would say "from nice (coasts and most places near the sea) to 5/10 degrees below freezing (december-february in wide areas of central Spain)". Sorry if I do not answer in a couple of weeks: travelling to the province of Girona; let us see if there is any restaurant there which is worth the visit...

Just a word to say that I agree with what Bux has said, and would only add an impression regarding Abraham García's cooking: balance and common sense. And a really great list of wines! I must say also that, to my mind, he is really a wonderful writer (in terms of 'being a writer', not just in those of 'being a cook').

Well, I like them both, with a preference for the one with almonds. I think anyway they are dishes different enough to deserve a different name. Although, certainly, they have in common garlic (ajo) and white (blanco) colour. Different origins? The one made with almonds as an evolution due to moorish influence of the original hispano-roman recipe? The one made with beans' flour as a cheap ajoblanco for poor people/regions? I have no idea.

Sorry, but I wouldn't say that these phrases are exact: the town of Córdoba (not only moorish, btw: for instance, its most impressive quarter is jewish) is too narrow a provenance for a dish like this, widely spread in its origin at the central part of Andalusia (south half of Córdoba's province, north of Malaga's, east of Seville's). Besides, it does contain green peppers, at least in the way most people I know prepare it. And ham and egg are optional; although quite common, that's true. Víctor, though sometimes I prepare the ajoblanco in the way you suggest, it is usually made at home with dry beans' flour (harina de habas) instead of almonds and bread: Jaén/Granada tradition... And diced melon and raisins are our favourite fruits to add.

Pedro, they do get completely red if you let them ripe enough. I agree with the recipe, but think that it's life itself that calls for simple pleasures,

Well, I am not an expert on tomatoes and guess we have the problem that probably the raff tomatoes (and the other types of tomatoes) you can find in your markets, but I'll try to say something: 1. They are first completely and then partly green, as every tomato, but at the end are absolutely red. I suppose that those hollander red tomatoes cannot be eaten before they are completely red and that they get the color before the whole ripeness, so it's useless to sell them green. But the raff tomatoes, as many other varieties that can be bought in Spain (not as many nowadays, that's sadly true), can be eaten in salads and other dishes when they are partly green. 2. Raff tomatoes are widely produced in Almeria (Andalusia, Spain), where the salinity of water is supposed to be very suitable for them, and they are between the most expensive ones that are sold in this country: even at 6 €/kg, depending on the season. Normally they double or multiply even by 4 the price of other tomatoes (regular price of most tomatoes at the market: less than 1 €/kg in summer, between 1 and 3 €/kg in other seasons). 3. They have little water and seeds, lots of "meat" and are quite sweet and not too acid. My thinking about them is that it is a pity that one has to look for and pay an extra for the same kind of stuff I ate when I was a child as the most popular and cheap tomatoes: those wonderful ones from Chipiona (Cádiz)! 4. Regarding the different classes (I don't know the name of a lot of them) of tomatoes available at home, my favourite is one that people call "diente de león": big, meaty, flavourful, balanced tomatoes which are very suitable for every purpose. But the other day the greengrocer offered me those raff tomatoes at a very good price because they were starting to get too ripe and I thought it was a good chance to taste a gazpacho, salmorejo or pipirrana made with raff tomatoes. 5. Try them and tell us, Cheers. Jesús

I dined three months ago at Restaurant OT and enjoyed it. But I would not discard driving less than one hour to Girona and eating at El Celler de Can Roca (lots of references in eGullet and in Google).

Well, I live in Granada and -under the usual name of "Remojón granaíno"- in restaurants here you can find different versions of the basic recipe described by Víctor. To my mind, not a dream of a dish... My preferences go for any kind of fresh salad and some of the above mentioned dishes: gazpacho (which we made without bread neither onion), pickled stuff, papas aliñás, but let me say a word about salmorejo (known at home as ardorias -Osuna influence here-, also called porra in the area of Antequera) and about pipirrana, the delicious tomato salad from Jaén. Pipirrana: peeled ripe tomatoes, 1 green pepper, half a cucumber, a clove of garlic, extra virgin olive oil (in fact, not any other kind of olive deserves that name), salt, one boiled egg. Just cut into irregular slices the tomatoes after having peeled them, as well as half the pepper and the cucumber (with or without peel, as you like it and depending on its freshness) in a more regular way. Crush in a mortero the other half of the pepper with the salt and the garlic and, in case that the tomatoes have not given out enough water, add some cold, almost frozen, water to the majao (crushed stuff). Mix everything and cover with slices of boiled egg. Very refreshing and -if you are careful with the olive oil- even a diet meal. The problem is that there is a strong temptation to eat it with lots of bread... I love pipirrana paired with a flamenquín. Ardorias: Peeled or unpeeled (as you like it) ripe tomates, half a green pepper, one clove of garlic, a slice of thick, dense bread soaked in water, extra virgin olive oil, salt. (Important: no water added, no onion, no cucumber: that's the way my andalusian grandmother and my mother -and me- prepare it). At home we make it in a Turmix-mixer: first, put everything except the tomatoes. When the other ingredients are absolutely well mixed, add the tomatoes and mix everything thoroughly. It can be eaten -using a fork- with a boiled egg that has been crushed with the same fork (the traditional way at home and the one I prefer), but it is a good base to add cured ham, fried fish, uncooked codfish, etc... I know people from Estepa (where it is called salmorejo) who eat it with fried potatoes, tuna fish and a chorreón of olive oil. Vinegar can be added (as the last step in ardorias, just before the egg in pipirrana), but it depends on the kind and quality of tomatoes used. This week, we made both of them at home with 1 1/2 kilos of raff tomatoes, which were very sweet and not acid enough, so that we decided to add some drops of sherry vinegar to the ardorias and to the pipirranas. But we wouldn't add it with many other kinds of tomatoes. Sorry for mistreating english and regards.

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. But I'll try to do my best. Anyway, that's why I find Los Collados de la Sagra so remarkable... Of course I recommend it for the food, not just for the outstanding landscape. And, just for the record of future travellers: It is settled also in a historic (and even prehistoric) area! Have a nice trip!

Thanks for the comments, Roger (I think I'll give myself a new opportunity with Dani García's restaurant), and thanks to all of you, friends, for your welcome. Regarding El Kiosko de las Flores, I have nothing to say, because it is one of the bars I meant when I refered to some of my suggestions as possibly out of date. I have not been there in the last seven years or so. Nevertheless, it's a place that belongs to my very personal little history, so I think I'll come back and check it by myself. One can always order coquinas there! Well, I hope so...

Robert, I think that quite an interesting restaurant to stop for a meal (or even to stop for a night) in your way from Málaga to Alicante is Los Collados de la Sagra, near Puebla de Don Fadrique. It is in an alternative way from Granada to Murcia through Huéscar, Caravaca de la Cruz and Bullas. You would drive more or less the same distance as in the motorway through Vélez Rubio / Lorca and the roads are very good. This way, you can also visit an extremely unknown area of Andalucia (btw, the poorest one) which looks beautifully green and white (because of the snow) these days. My family and me have stayed at this Hotel-Restaurant the last week and we were very nicely surprised. We didn't expect such an impressive place. The people working at Los Collados de la Sagra are very friendly, the cellar is wide and complete and the food has a good level (specially, pulpo a feira -oh, yes, I swear it! -, lamb, deer, partridge and desserts). Sorry for my english in this quickly written message and, please, feel free to contact me for more references in Granada.

Hello, Roger, and hello to everybody. This is my first time writing here, though I've been a reader since my friend Rogelio told me about eGullet one year or so ago. In fact, there are other some friends around, so I don't feel so much a stranger, I live in Granada and every year go several times to Sevilla. Just a word to confirm what you say about eating in these (I could say "my") two cities. I would add in Sevilla the following bares de tapas: La Casa del Pintor (C/Murillo, besides Pza. de la Magdalena), El Tremendo II (C/Previsión), El Rinconcillo (Sta. Catalina: traditional tapeo), El Giraldillo (Sta. Catalina), La Alicantina (Pza. El Salvador: ensaladilla and mejillones tigres), Bar Manolo (La Alfalfa: traditional tapeo), La Albariza and the Kiosko de las Flores (besides the Puente de Triana), Bar Giralda y Las Columnas (Mateos Gago). But I have not visited some of them in the last years and a bunch of interesting places are still out of the listing. My two favorite places of tapeo in Granada: Los Diamantes (C/ Navas) and Bar Julio (besides Pza. Nueva). Interesting: Casa Manolo (Pza. Bib-Rambla) and a new place in Pza. Las Pasiegas in front of the Cathedral. And one question to Roger, please: howe did you like Tragabuches this time? I understand you ate there the 7th of april. I went the 3rd of april, just the first day of the new "Carta" (and of the new prices, ) and it was a bit disappointing, for me and for the other people who came with me. All of them had felt quite more pleased after their previous meals at Tragabuches. Cheers and special thanks to Mr. Buxbaum.