Raflab

Keller's red wine marinade has the alcohol cooked off, so alcohol tenderizing the meat has nothing to do with it. I'm pretty sure it's all about flavor.... ← On the subject of how much is "too much liquid", I don't think that exists. Daniel Boulud's recipe, mentioned earlier, calls for three bottles of red wine, with the alcohol flamed off and reduced by half, as part of the cooking liquid, along with three quarts of beef stock. After a loooong braise (bone-in short ribs add additional flavor in the braising liquid), all this now rib-flavored wine and stock is skimmed of fat and further reduced to 1 quart as a sauce (for just 8 servings). Made it many times, blows me away every time. Cooking off the alcohol before reducing all that wine delivers intense flavor that is nevertheless integrated beautifully. It's so profound in flavor that even at a large dinner party, it always produces a long silence of several minutes of folks eating with total concentration, forgetting for a moment that there are people around them.

Bump. Also heading off to Santiago, looking for a great place to have dinner on a Sunday night. Something traditional would be welcome, seafood focus, hopefully not too touristy.

There's a glowing (and informative) profile of Victor and Etxebarri in the forthcoming issue of Food&Wine, written by Anya von Bremzen: Victor Arguinzoniz: The Grilling Genius of Spain The article explores Victor's evolution as a self-taught chef with some interesting info on his techniques and his biography (that he was a forester, for example-good background for someone who makes his own charcoal out of different woods!). This is by far the most conspicuous appearance by Etxebarri in the U.S. mainstream food press that I have seen. I'm happy that Victor is receiving the acclaim he so rightly deserves (much as he clearly loathes the attention), but (selfishly) I am a little nervous that Etxebarri could become a trendy "it" destination and it will be impossible to get a table!

Planning a trip to Galicia in June 2008, as part of a week in northern Spain along with the Basque country. Any favorite places that are worth a special trip to get to, to structure a few days in the region? Of course we want to try as many local specialties as possible, shellfish especially, and not particular if it's a simple tapas environment or a formal setting so long as it's good. Searching with Galicia as a keyword, many of the postings in this forum refer to Galician-style restaurants in other parts of Spain, particularly Madrid

Had a terrific lunch at Etxebarri last Saturday, and developed some ideas about the "perfect" Etxebarri experience (for me anyway): Go for lunch. The surroundings and vistas of Axpe are rural and really beautiful; I can't imagine it'd be as striking at night. I'd say about half the room was having a tasting menu, with a good helping of tourists. The half that was ordering a la carte appeared to be all Spaniards. On those tables I noticed a preponderance of shellfish (chipirones, gambas, cigalas) and chuleta. If you want to go for the tasting menu, be aware that -They will happily recite all the dishes proposed for the tasting menu of the day. They are fine with deleting or adding to the list. -The caviar can be taken off and significantly brings down the price (something like -25/head, may have been even more) -Everything is cooked on the grill (even milk for the ice cream!). It has a very particular smokiness which started to become a little "same-y" by the 4th or 5th dish, especially in the delicate ingredients like the oysters with seaweed, the mussels in beet broth, the ceps with aubergines, etc. At times it seemed like only the textures were changing dish to dish. As has been mentioned many times ingredient quality is out of this world. To me, though, it's not really a tasting-menu kind of place. The chef isn't trying to create new or complex flavor combinations- he is trying to respect the essence of each ingredient with minimal adornment. In that setting, I'd rather enjoy regular portions of two or three contrasting things- like superfresh gambas and some steak- than numerous proteins and vegetables all infused with the same, distinctive, smokey flavor. To me, these limits would put the world-class grilling and ingredients in their best light and avoid fatigue. The meal was great, but when I return I'm going to order only a few items including the most promising-looking shellfish of the day and the chuleta, and skip the tasting menu. This will also result in a meal costing half as much!