Txacoli

We are in Spain as usual this January, and my wife is dragging be West of Extebarri and Andra Mari for a change. Does anyone have any suggestions for the Cantabrian coast towards Santander and Santiago....coast and mountains? Many thanks!

Last January we felt lucky to get a last minute reservation at Zortziko in Bilbao, Spain. When we arrived, we were the only people. At first we thought we were in the American dining room, and the fun was elsewhere. Nope. We were their entire night....in a Michelin starred place in the middle of a big city. It was slightly creepy at first....but the food and the wine service were so good that my wife actually cried. I just now made reservations to go back this January. I really don't care if anyone else comes or not. The mark of a really good place is that the same attention to detail, and the same quality of ingredients are there for the guest no matter how many people show up. We have a place in the middle of nowhere, 28 miles from town in a valley on the far side of a mountain. After four years, we are reservations only at the first seating. If you cook it, they will come. Be patient and have faith.

Jeez, Culinista....that hurts! Akelarré as over reaching.... Now I must re-consider our tears at brunch this winter....service, food, hospitality, view, even politics...brought us to our knees. The Zubie Brothers, though. Our most recent meal, after Rafa, Inopia, Arzak, Akelarré, Cuchara San Telmo, Andra Mari....was kind of a clunker. The serving staff, trembling in fear....or whatever makes them so defensive.....is probably terminally off-putting for me. After all the culinary fireworks of our previous meals I was in high dudgeon, and did not enjoy my meal.....especially as I knew I was torpedoing what remained of my credit worthiness with MasterCard. The dishes seemed dark, brooding....ominous. I was grumpy when we left. Both Brothers Zubie met us in the bar. The wrung their hands in concern....the terrified, quailing staff had somehow transmitted our lack of joy at our meal. The Brothers, however, remembered us. They remembered my previous meals there.... remembered my son's meals there. They remembered my son's guest at his last meal there....and knew about his new posting in Australia. They were concerned about our appreciation of our meal. I felt like crap. Pity is not a great emotion to recommend a restaurant. Maybe humility is a better one. I mean, Andoni Aduriz started out here at Zuberoa as a commis. The Mugaritz kids live around the corner and the Zubie's take care of them, along with the Arzak kids from town......The Zubie's are here for the long haul. Upon nine month's reflection....the day at Zuberoa was one of our favorites: an extended, dangerous tour of the snow buried mountains beyond the restaurant. Overhead views of the Grand Rhune. Frozen sheep. Blinding white glorious light with views over an entire kingdom. Lunch in a worried dining room where the hosts wrung their hands at the thought that my meal was not up to scratch. The Zubies were cute. There food was bang on, for what they were doing. They were concerned. They remember all their people....even obscure California visiting chefs. They continue to do what they do, with all the same consummate skills they have always had. Perhaps, as a fifty-something professional chef, I identify with the Zubies. I just know that we are going back this winter. And I am going to sit my judgemental self outside in the snow....and enjoy their place and what they do. I just wish the waitresses would giggle once in a while....

Two birds with one stone: Axpe is so beautiful...why not lunch? It is not like the menu is different. The tasting menu at Victor's was in the 70eu range last winter. The wines were reasonable and good. Lunch for two ran something like 250eu out the door, with cava, wine, wine, etc. For a trifecta.....hospitality, food, wine, views, culture, architecture, kindness....I guess that is a septafecta.....stay at Garro in Munitibar after you eat at Victor's. Five hundred year old cherrywood beams in a house filled with modern sculpture, house made pastries, great coffee with local cream in giant bowls.....50 euros out the door. Meanwhile....why does no one ever mention Andra Mari? It is 15 minutes from Bilbao, open for lunch on inconvenient days......and right up there with the best food in Spain. And I speak as a working graduate of Mugaritz. Chalked potatoes were cool two years ago...but they still taste like.....starch and chalk. At Andra Mari: cereza saladas (cherry membrillo).....stays with you a year later. Ensalada de setas y moluscos en escabeche de sidra.....Rafa would not be unhappy. Smoked foie....the best foie we found in Spain. So why is Andra Mari uncool? Stodgy service? The Alpine views marred by the industrial park creep? Beats me. Victor is great....but if I had to choose at gunpoint....I would take Andra Mari. 48eu for the tasting menu....over night at Garro. Heaven. So shoot me.

Cuchara San Telmo is definitely a must. Inexpensive and great food. Zero atmosphere in the traditional sense. Who cares? Espaldita de conejo with prunes for 3 euros. Foie for 3 euros. Maigret de pato, 3 euros.....and better here than some places I fear to mention. I love Arzak and Akelarre....how can you not go?......but I get blasted on this site every time I say so. I was pleased to see the previous posters standing up for Juan Mari Arzak. Akelarre is breath-taking as well. You can take the bus to either one. Meanwhile, Alona Berri on Calle Bermingham in Gros is the bomb. Way more formal than Cuchara, but with a great host and beautiful, wonderful food. It is a bar, but the crowd is more ladies of a certain age in furs than the soccer guys at Cuchara. Alona Berri wins the best pintxo in Donostia award every time it is handed out. Go crazy, eat everything on the menu, have six glasses of tempranillo and spend 40 euros. Try not to cry. Meanwhile, for a great lunch for no money....Bodegon Alejandro is the second string Martin B joint on Kalea Fermin and you would never know it from the food. I just finished working at The Masters with a former Bodegon chef who is now running a great fun place in Mexico. The new chef there is also very, very good. Well worth the 13 euro lunch, or go crazy and get the 30 euro tasting menu. Also, no one ever mentions the sidrerias. Not cool enough, I guess. Still, it is as much fun as you can have with your clothes on: tortillas, bacalao, thick ox steaks cooked over charcoal, membrillo and local sheep cheese.....and mass quantities of cider squirted from giant steel tanks while rubbing elbows with the locals. We love Zelaia in Astigarraga, but there are a dozen. Even Andoni from Mugaritz mentions an Astigarraga place in his top picks in Spain restaurants somewhere on this site. You can take a taxi, or it is a 20 minute drive from downtown. If you want fotos or addresses or phone numbers send me a message.

I just returned with a whole jamon iberico in my suitcase.....cryovac-ed. I paid a premium for boneless iberico......just because. Who needs to smuggle bones? I did not declare it, nor did I mention the trip to the cheese farm, or the sheep cheese nestled next to the ham. Of course the vendors assured me that it is perfectly legal, and I can buy seriously expensive jamon serrano at jamon iberico prices anywhere in California so it must be legal....right? In restaurants we say: "It is better to ask forgiveness later than permission now." My theory is this: if I declare it, I get a low-level Customs guy who will confiscate it because he is dumb and doesn't want to take chances. If I get caught, I will get a supervisor with more info and more discretion.....and then I can play dumb. Regardless, be prepared to punt off your purchase. I would love to go to the Customs Christmas party! Customs tends not to check couples, so your chances are good if you have a date.....knock on wood!

Wow.....maybe someday I can be as smart as Victor! Perhaps the questioner understood my basic point: have a nice brunch on Sunday, like everyone else......especially with a child. It it possible to have two big meals in a day? If half a dozen of the best restaurants in Spain are within forty minutes, and open until five or so.....don't worry about Sunday night.

Extebarre in Axpe is open for Sunday lunch. When we were there last month it was overrun with children.....in a good way. It was a sweet, family feel along with among the best food in Spain. Andra Mari is the quintessential family restaurant (the same family for generations) and there have been well behaved Spanish kids there on each of our visits. It is across the street from the local high school. It is mostly a lunch place, though they are open at nights on Friday and Saturday. Why miss the view, though? (Both places have no smoking zones). I would post fotos if I were bright enough about this website. Andra Mari got our vote for overall best meal in Spain....Akelarre, Arzak, Mugaritz, Can Fabres notwithstanding. Kids or no kids, I would add that we found wine steward at Zortziko to be the all around best of our long visit: knowledgeable, caring, concerned......he actually loved the wines he served us and communicated his feelings. My wife actually cried after his presentation.... Our solution to the relative Sunday drought in Bilbao? Drive to Donostia: Akelarré is open for lunch,as are Arzak, Mugaritz and Bodegon Alejandro (Martin B's Triple-A franchise in Parte Vieja). Alona Berri is open, and all by itself is worth the 45 minute drive down a gorgeous highway through beautiful mountains......once you escape Bilbao, that is. And the paseo of all the grannies and grandpas pushing strollers through the pristine streets of Donostia on Sunday is priceless.

We are addicted to Spain in winter: the absence of crowds, the more laid back atmosphere you find most places. We tend to prowl the coast and mountains of Basque country, but this trip went for a cross-country charge to Barcelona. The Can’s….Comerc24….Hyssop…..San Pau…..Our friend Txema at Inopia….. After getting mauled at Comerc24.......and blessed at Bar Inopia…..we bailed on Barca headed up to Roses. Who goes to Roses in winter….except true geeks who want to take pictures of the El Bulli driveway? Well, we did…..to go to Rafa’s. Well….. and take pictures of the El Bulli driveway. Rafa’s sounded like my dream restaurant: fresh fish, simply and perfectly prepared; reservations iffy, depending on the catch. You make your reservations, then call in the morning to see if they will actually open or not, depending on the fish situation. As a chef who once smacked a diner with a still bleeding halibut carcass after the guy implied my fish was frozen…..I was intrigued. My kind of guy. And, every eGullet El Bulli diner has eaten there and loved it. The problem was FINDING Rafa’s. Nothing on the Google search but Brett Emerson’s review. Rafa is a Luddite, obviously. I prowled all over eGullet. Lots of mentions, lots of praise. No address and no phone number. Even the concierge at the high priced hotel the Inopia guys bought us after the debacle at Comerc24 could come up with…..nothing. All I had was “across the street from Snack-Mar” in Roses. And, of course…..Snack-Mar was closed for vacation. We drove up anyway and checked into a beachfront hotel…. for 50 euros a night for a room with a balcony (another reason to go in winter!). No one had heard of Rafa’s….somewhat worryingly. We looked up Snack-Mar and found it on C. San Sebastiá. No one was really sure where C. San Sebastiá was either, but we finally found it… it takes a couple of turns….. two hundred meters from the hotel. And…..as promised, right across from Snack-Mar on San Sebstiá was Rafa’s. Well, maybe. There was a small restaurant with elaborately carved hardwood around the door and a sign: “RHODEROSESRAFA” carved over the door. The place was all torn up, and there was a woman inside painting. I screwed up my courage and inquired. Yup. Rafa’s. Might be open tomorrow. Or maybe Wednesday. What to do? Wait around for a ‘maybe’? Well, on a Monday or a Tuesday in Spain in the winter the options are limited. We decided to wait. Had a bad hotel meal. Drove the back way to Caidaques…..past El Bulli….then on the dirt roads. The Dali House…..closed for the winter. The Museum in Figueres…..open. I am one of those restaurant guys who has trouble not working. Every few hours…bored, anxious, hungry….I would stroll past Rafa’s. Now, all the furniture was out in the street. The woman was still there, working like a dog. I screwed up my courage again, and offered to help. Non, gracias. Are you sure….I am just sitting around, I would rather clean than sit…..Non, gracias. I checked back a couple times, finally at ten at night. The Rafa lady was sitting on the curb, surrounded by furniture, eating shitty pizza from a styro to-go container. “Come on, I can at least cook you a meal!” Non, gracias. All night I had nightmares about storming the Roses Pizza Parlor and commandeering it to make the Rafa Lady a proper pizza……. Well, of course, Tuesday didn’t pan out, what with all the furniture on the street on Monday night and all. We found a one-star outside town that was open….unfortunately. The only good side of the meal was the hostess/waitress is best friends with the Rafa lady….they are both Rosas. As in Roses. Go figure. I did not commandeer the pizza parlor. Just. I did take pictures of the El Bulli driveway. And I stayed away, mostly. I did get reservations for Wednesday lunch at Rafa. Name? “El Americano Limpio”….the American who must clean.....even on holiday. Wednesday morning I was up at the crack. Prowled the town looking for flowers. By now, I was getting well deserved weird looks from the town folks. Oh, that Clean American…..He is waiting for Rafa to open…..I found a florist. No roses, of course…but I found some beautiful tulips next to the internet place. On the way to Rafa’s we encountered a group of well dressed older people wandering around Roses’ tiny little streets, looking lost and confused. “Buscando C. San Sebastiá? Rafa’s? Sigame…..” I made them go in first…..Just in case Rosa had called the Guardia about The Clean American Stalker. Turns out Rafa and Rosa could not have been sweeter. I gave her the flowers as apology for my stalking, and in tribute to her hard work, and the crappy pizza. She was stunned. Note to self: always bring flowers to restaurant hostesses. Rafa turned out to be the short stocky guy I thought was the plumber two days before. His kitchen is right there in front, and tiny: one oven, a flat grill, a couple of burners and an expresso machine. He has a deli-style display case for the fish. That is it. I discreetly filmed Rafa working to show my super-star chef son. Brendan’s reaction? “The guy doesn’t move.” Rafa is so at home in his environment that it appears that nothing is being done. The fish arrives (deliveries take place all during service), the menu changes….Rafa growls. Rafa takes his giant knife and filets something. Rafa throws fish on the grill. Rosa deals with the people. The dishwasher is next door….the machine, not the guy….so Rosa busses out the front door, down the street, through another door and into another space. There also seems to be a basement that she climbs down into…..No way Rafa is getting into that space. Rafa goes to his window and has a cigarette while Rosa is charging like a greyhound. The food was magic. I watched Rafa’s every move…..and there weren’t many. Like Leon Spinks in the 80’s, he had two magic bottles of liquid. Olive oil and seawater, it turns out. That is it. Well, sea salt. Rosa turned people away right, left and center…..ruthlessly. We offered to share our table….don’t even think about it….. The meal? Jamon Iberico…from a friend. Some prawns….from the bay. Some baby razor clams…..the best thing I ever ate. From where? The fuckin’ bay, you idiot. What was the sauce? Olive oil and seawater, dummy. Oh, and sea salt. From where? The fuckin’ bay, dummy! A fish was delivered. Rafa wacked it up and cooked it for us. Another better fish was delivered…..he gave me the look: You want? Can’t do it….I will explode. A shrug and a growl. They don’t do dessert…. Me either!! Well, kind of….. Finally the wine hits and I have the nerve to move into his space to gossip. Now, Rosa growls….thank god for the flowers. Rafa claims that the whole thing with his food is the iron grill. His grill is solid iron…..everyone else is cooking on stainless. You have to watch the steam…..and listen to the fish. The steam starts out white, then goes gray…..and the fish stops talking. Then you pull it. Rafa remembers Txema, Brendan’s buddy from Inopia, from his Bulli days. A really good kid. Rafa knows all the cooks at Bulli, because they come to him on their day or half day off. I tell him about our horrible experience at Comerc24. He is not surprised. He gestures with a shoulder out the window. That guy Abellan opened a cooking school and restaurant across the street…..lasted three years. Rafa still keeps in touch with a couple of Mexican kids who came to the school from Puebla, Mexico, though…….Maybe I know them? Rafa’s favorite thing to do is have beach parties with the Bulli guys. They go out to the little coves around Bulli, build fires and cook up the local shellfish, fish fish they catch in nets on the beach, along with wild asparagus from the old Roman terraces surrounding the place and whatever mushrooms they can scrounge from the hills as well. His only bummer is the pans that they have available…..not iron, can’t retain heat. Rafa has heard that American cowboys cooked on iron pans over fires…..Can I get him one? And……Hey, we did this yesterday….where were you? Uh…stalking your wife….trying to help paint. Damn! Rafa’s deal is he is trying to make it seven more years….then retire and just do beach parties and relax with his friends. So, you El Bulli guys who are jockeying for your 2008 reservations…….don’t forget Rafa. Bring tulips….. Can’t hurt. Rafa’s C. San Sebastiá 56 (across from Snack-Mar) Roses 972 254 003

It is 20 minutes elapsed time to Zuni Café on Market Street from SFO. We often check in the required two hours early, dump the bags and drive or cab to Zuni.....or anywhere else in SF. Trust me...all the food at SFO is awful. I once destroyed the aura of a gastronomic trip to Spain with an ill-advised food court Asian food plate while waiting for the Airporter. Take a cab.....or do a little research on BART. One of the best food cities in the world is 20 minutes away......forget the micro-waved, deep-fried dreck at the airport. Same applies to Paris, by the way. On one three hour layover at CDG we had a bottle of champagne and a steak frites, climbed the Notre Dame, had a street crepe, had a Calvados and café au lait on the Left Bank, and listened to the ubiquitous Peruvian street musicians for a while. Get outa the airport!

I visited Irizar last week. It is small, but busy and competent. They have two shifts of 14 students, morning and afternoon. The students all work as well. One of the two Americans I met, Francisco from Pasadena, works at Alona Berri.....by far the best pintxos place in Donostia. Just call them up: 011-34-943-431-540. It is a family business, and the wife works in the office and speaks some English. Or ask for Francisco....he studies in the morning and works in the pm. The owner, Luis, is semi-retired but has a younger guy and his daughter running the instruction. They looked like they run a tight ship. They have excellent relations with all the local superstars: Juan Mari Arzak, Pedro, Andoni, Martin B, etc. If you need a good base instruction, why not? The cost is modest at 545 euros a month, eleven month program.....October to August. Donostia is my favorite city in the world: people, cuisine, ingredients, scenery, ambience. You could do worse. Compare that to $40k for CIA.....and how employable are you after all that dough? We fired all three of our CIA hires within days or weeks.....and love our Spanish guys. There ARE gnarly cooking schools in Spain. The chef at Mugaritz, Paco, is a grad of one in Sevilla....and it was only two hops from there to El Bulli for him. It was a hotel school, with two sides...front and back of house. So expand your search to hotel schools and maybe have more luck. Most young guys in Spain do stages, though. All the good places accept stages....it is how they can afford 30 chefs on duty in the winter for only a handful of covers at 100 euros a pop. Lengths of time vary with the place.....and it is brutal. Eighteen hour days, six days a week, living in a tiny dorm. Still, without basic skills you run the danger of scraping pots with a soup spoon.....competition is fierce. Hope this helps.

Last Saturday, EVERYONE was upstairs for lunch. Beautiful light, nice view of the kids in the band when they came.....no foreigners but us. I didn´t know enough to feel slighted, I guess.

Read my post. The food was great. You could tell the influence of Layda in the garden. In mid winter we got a magic warm vegetable salad that one of the Akelare forum posters would probably characterize as "hot water dumped on raw vegetables." The overall place was "soul-less". The maitre d´ clearly inflicts a kind of terror on his minions that even the wonderful knowlege and skill of the wine stewardess and kitchen cannot overcome. And the fact that Andoni is almost never there cannot be overlooked. There are other families than local Basque quadrilles......kitchens and dining rooms for instance. Yes, it takes years to be accepted.....and you get a free pass almost anywhere in the world. It is not condescending in the least to recognize a happy, creative highly skilled environment in front and in back of the house. There is mutual pleasure for both diner and staff in the recognition.

You can´t fake a warm, talented, caring staff just for one guy for a few minutes. Three hours and multiple courses will always tell out no matter how over the top you try to be for one guest. I watched all the other tables and saw the same food and the same interactions. The only tell tale that we got any special treatment was the twenty something Spanish chick with the older guy seated on the upper tier away from the windows who kept glaring at us at our premium window table. We went to Mugaritz a few nights later......I have worked with Andoni, my son did a stage there, we just hired an ex-Mugaritz guy, and we know half the kitchen. The service was just as stilted and scared acting for us as it was for the other Americans scattered around the dining room. The food was beautiful, but no soul. And sure enough, Andoni was not there. The difference between two stars there and three at Akelare and Arzak was vast. Different universe.

Couldn´t possibly disagree more. We actually like it better than Arzak, though they both made us cry. I thought the food was beautifully presented.....sometimes super technical, sometimes playful, sometimes just simple and perfect. The end result showed me a lot of invention, a lot of care, and an insane amount of work and supervision. The staff was great as well......like a family, unafraid to actually communicate with the guests. We talked politics with the gorgeous Chilean mesera, and got a sweet tutorial on modern Spanish white wines from the wine steward. Like Arzak, they google their guest list......so the chef greeted us BEFORE the meal. We actually cried at one point.....EVERYTHING was perfect. "La diferencia entre ´llorando´ et ´orando´ es muy pequeña!" Eight abrazos on the way out from the manager....it felt like we were family after only three hours. We hated to leave and are trying not to go right back.... And, bye the bye.......Arzak was the bomb as well. I read disses in this forum before we came....."too old school....over the hill.....not worth three stars....." and was worried. We arrived an hour late and soaked in sweat for our lunch on St. Sebastian day.....couldn´t drive out of the city, and no taxis, so we had to run! No problem...they saved us a great table upstairs by the window. We all had a good laugh at our experience.......and a comped glass of cava to calm us down. The food was great....pop rocks, some explosions and fuming....the perfect egg. The staff was beyond perfect. The much maligned winesteward read my mind at one point. I stared at my foie, wishing I had a glass of sauternes (Amanda doesn´t drink white wine much). He appeared at my elbow with a Spanish muscat while the thoughts were forming in my head.....and a sweet red that were perfect. No charge. The trainee wine steward broke the cork of the ´81 red we ordered. No worries, no problems.....nicely decanted. And we all had a small laugh at his expense. Like family. In the middle of lunch, one of the bands that prowl the town on the feast day stopped traffic on the amazingly busy street out front and played a few songs in their chef uniforms. Everyone gathered around the windows and cheered and clapped. Arzak sent out beers and food for all the kids......who kept the traffic stopped while they ate and drank! Big smiles all around on every face, inside and out. I give Arzak all three stars and two tears as well. We took the bus back.....the 13 goes right to Guzpikoa Plaza. The 16 goes right out to Akelare as well......if you can get your head around riding the bus to a $400 lunch!

Can Fabres is the kind of place you take your mom or your grandma.....technically perfect, but...... The place itself is beautiful....a real stage. The staff is attentive to the point of almost creepy. I am not the guy who ostentatiously takes fotos of the food upon arrival. I try to sneak it in unobtrusively. Not possible at Can Fabres. Go to the servicios.....new crisp napkin. Drop your napkin, ditto. Sip your water, wine guy is right there. (Espanyol had just beaten Barca, and we got him to talk football a little....but he looked nervous to be acting human around the guests). The food was as beautiful as the place. Technically perfect, but a little old school for this "modern" chef. The apps were a nod to the young guys.....lots of invention and color, and beautifully presented. The portions on the entrees were BIG! We could not finish the txipuron course and the chef came out to see what the problem was.....Still stressed out from Comerc24, chef! So, beautiful, perfect, lots of food, lots of money.....but a little lacking in soul. Is that being snippy?

One last bit of gossip. At lunch at Rafa´s on his opening day we talked about all the chefs and the politics, and all the young ex-Bulli kids. Rafa is like the uncle of everybody. He was not surprised at our bad experience at 24. He pointed out his window and said, "He (Abellan) opened a place here, just over there. It lasted three years. I still visit some of his Mexican guys in Puebla......" Big shrug....back to work. Eloquent. After Inopia, Rafa, Arzak, Akelare, Andra Mari.......I am still mad that I fell for the 24 hype. Abellan is not in the same universe as everyone else. Enough of that. Caveat emptor.

She had morning sickness.....compounded by Barca traffic, compounded by lost luggage. She sat in the car while the guy tried to fulfill their reservation. The locals v tourists thing is no excuse. After four hours at Rafa´s I feel like he is my brother.....and Arzak welcomed us like lost friends when we had to walk all the way from downtown on San Sabby Day and arrived an hour late and dripping with sweat. Ditto Akelare, who had googled us, and the chef himself welcomed us to our table. Abellan was standing outside his little window when we paid our bill and said nothing. Oh, and that guy paid for both meals........even the one she didn´t eat.

We had the festival menu. Trust me, it was awful. I have been doing this for thirty years, and if any of my staff had acted so badly....or produced such murky glop, no one would ever find their bodies.... Talk about locals: we went to Inopia for lunch next day to seek out our benefactor from the night before. Turns out the owner of the Hotel (Prestige on Gracia) is a regular and was there when I called with my report. He was so appalled at the story that he comped us a suite to save his city´s honor. The owner of Inopia is an Adria, and the chef is an ex Mugaritz guy I have worked with (he started at El Bulli) so they knew that if I said it was bad.....it was BAD. Sorry guys. Inopia was everything one would want in hospitality, grace, and quality. It looks like a cross between a sushi bar and a Baskin Robbins, and jumps with locals. Everyone treated us as locals. We sat for the entire service, ate 15 dishes.....a bottle of Cava, some peach booze they make, plus plus. Simple, local fare, perfectly prepared. Adria himself came for lunch. If you responders to my post remotely could stand Comerc24.....you must check out Andra Mari in Bilbao. Completely great, and gracious. And the wine guy at Zortziko made my wife cry with his beautiful presentation of a simple local wine. Sorry, guys.......Carles has lost it. Can Fabres for lunch today.

Wow......Last night we finally ate at Comerc24. We drove all day from Bilbao and were very excited.....The two hour traffic jam on the autoroute, no problem, the awful hotel, no problem. In my kitchen we have been aping several of Carles´ dishes for years and we were pumped. Too bad: it absolutely sucked from beginning to end. Upon arrival we were instantly treated like dumb Americans and dumped at the worst table in the house, in the back by the waiter´s station and baños. There we sat for 20 minutes. A brusque mesera finally came over and took a drink order: two copas de cava. This she unceremoniously dumped into the glasses and over the tablecloth and my arm. Ditto the water. She also didn´t like the way I moved my silverware and put it back her way. Twice. OK......She brought bread, salt and poured olive oil into a bowl, onto the table and on my other sleeve. A theme was emerging. We finally got to order food and wine. I had to ask for Spanish menus, and ask each person to explain the dish in Spanish, not badly fractured English. I mean, we COOK in Spanish......we also EAT in Spanish. The cava had been awful, so I opted for Billecart to wash it away, and asked the wine guy to pick a nice local red. When the champagne came it took another struggle with the waitress to just put the damn bottle on the table and let us pour our own.....she insisted on an ice bucket in the tiny gap between us and other Americans next to us. The first course, exactly as pictured in the earlier post was OK......the olive spuma was nice, as were the crisps. The olives were just olives. Fried macadamia nuts? Things went downhill fast. There was a greasy mushroom ravioli with instructions from the mistress to use our hands to dip it in an utterly tasteless sepia coulis. Then came a cloudy broth with a crusted over (not on purpose, just sitting on the line too long) quail yolk with a little cracker stuck in it. Awful, and it went well with the sommelier´s red wine: thin, acid and annoying. Finally, came sort of truffled glop on some white glop. It looked like brisket, and was stone cold. I pushed it away and asked for coffee. The coffee came.....also stone cold. I am not a hard guy.....I love food. I have worked alongside Andoni and David Kinch. We had two one-star meals the day before in Bilbao (Zortziko and the wonderful Andra Mari) that each featured at least a couple of glorious dishes.....and no dingers....with really nice, sweet, accomodating service. I have survived the restaurant wars in NYC, so I have ancestral memories of snotty, condescending and bad service of crappy, pretensious, overpriced food. Who knew I would have to drive all across Spain to find it at Comerc24? The good news.....I was so upset with the meal, I called my friend Txema who is working at Inopia. He told me to calm down.....and sent us to a beautiful hotel. When we arrived, the room was bumped to a suite on the roof, the whole thing comped by.........who knows? Someone in Barcelona with pride.....and not Carles Abellan.

We have a restaurant buried in the hills in Central California. We have been trying to learn the joys of farro, now that winter is here and the farmer's markets are all about the roots and kale. We managed to purchase the proper species (triticum dicoccum), but wound up with semi-pearled farro. I assumed this means that the grains are lightly polished....some bran removed. Research tells us that we are supposed to soak the stuff for eight hours.....then long cooking times with a good soak in the cooking liquid afterwards. This is probably for the original, unpolished version. We are looking for a nice, al dente finish.....but hopefully fully digestible! Any help, tips, experience? Source for unpolished farro? Thanks in advance..... Txacoli and crew