bmdaniel

Any comments on Barcelona options?

Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions - here's my tentative plan; comments/criticisms welcomed. Piedmont Tuesday Dinner - Cocinella (near the hotel, arriving later that evening) Wednesday Lunch - Da Renzo Wenesday Dinner - Piazza Duomo Thursday Lunch - Antine Thursday Dinner - La Luna Nel Pozzo Milan Friday Lunch - Latteria San Marco Friday Dinner - Cracco Too many great places, too little time! (Would love to fit in De Cesare, Boccondivino, Enoclub, so many others!)

Madrid? These sounds like Cataluña to me I'd have rafa's as an open option as it only opens according to the availability of seafood in the market and Monday's are not the best days. Check Cal Campaner too. ← Oops - that's what I get for reading the Madrid post right before writing! I'll only be staying in Roses monday and tuesday night, so maybe I'll try for Rafa's with Cal Campaner as a back-up plan?

Thanks to everybody for the help so far. Here's what I'm currently thinking for Madrid (critiques welcome). Monday Dinner: Rafa's Tuesday Lunch: Something low key around Roses Tuesday Dinner: El Bulli Wednesday Lunch: Something low key in Cadaques? Wednesday Dinner: Can Roca Thursday Lunch: Something from the Boqueria/Pintoxo Bar Thursday Dinner: Quimet y Quimet Friday Lunch: Hisop Friday Dinner: Fonda Gaig Saturday Lunch: Inopia Any suggestions? I'm thinking maybe it makes sense in terms of distributing the food load to switch Quimet y Quimet and Hisop, but I'm also trying to manage the geography of this whole thing and align with some sightseeing (it gets to be rather complicated!). I'd also really like to get Gresca in there, if possible.

So almost exactly 1 year ago, I proposed to my then girlfriend in Paris, with the help of some amazing eGulleters. (You can see the thread herehere) We are finally tying the knot in Napa on June 12th and then flying to Europe for the honeymoon. Thus, I come begging back to you guys for suggestions on the best places to celebrate our marriage. A little background on the trip; originally I was thinking we'd go to Asia because it'd be something completely different than what we'd ever done before. However, we were amazingly lucky enough to get a reservation at El Bulli for June 16th!!, and so ended up planning the trip (at least to some extent) around that. We'll be in Spain from the 15th to the 22nd, and then flying into Milan on the 23rd. The current plan is to head straight to the place we are staying in Piemonte (Castello di Sinio, in Sinio I guess), and explore down there for 3 days before heading back to Milan for one day. I've tried to put together a list of starter ideas I've gleaned from other posts for comments - we'll probably try to do one nice lunch and one nice dinner everyday (but not to overdo it with 2 overly heavy meals). Any help narrowing the list or adding places I've overlooked would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help! Piemonte Da Cesare Tratoria Della Posta Piazza Duomo Osteria Del'Arco Ciau al Tornavento Enoclub La Libera Borgo Antico Milan Cracco Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia Gelato suggestions? Coffee suggestions?

So almost exactly 1 year ago, I proposed to my then girlfriend in Paris, with the help of some amazing eGulleters. (You can see the thread here) We are finally tying the knot in Napa on June 12th and then flying to Europe for the honeymoon. Thus, I come begging back to you guys for suggestions on the best places to celebrate our marriage. A little background on the trip; originally I was thinking we'd go to Asia because it'd be something completely different than what we'd ever done before. However, we were amazingly lucky enough to get a reservation at El Bulli for June 16th!!, and so ended up planning the trip (at least to some extent) around that. So - we will be arriving in Barcelona on June 15th and probably more or less immediately driving up to Roses. Our flight gets into Barcelona at 14:45 and then we have to pick up the car and drive, so we'll probably be getting in around dinner time. I had thought about trying to hit Can Roca that night, but we'll probably be too tired/jet-lagged to really appreciate it. Any suggestions for something low-key in Roses would be greatly appreciated. The real meat of the request starts when we drive back into Barcelona on the 17th (after dining at El Bulli the night before). We'll have three nights there and then leave at 20:50 on the 20th. I'd love suggestions across a range of dining types while in Barcelona (High-end, catalonian, tapas, other). We'll be staying in the LeMeridien (thank you Starwood points) which says it's in the Las Ramblas area, although I have no idea what that means, but we are willing to travel for places that are worth it (we'll have a car). Our next stop is Palma De Mallorca for three nights - the main idea is to relax and enjoy the beach, but also any suggestions for dining would be greatly appreciated. We won't have a car here, so we are less mobile. We're staying at the Mardavall hotel (thank you Starwood points again) which looks like it's about 17 miles out of downtown Palma. After Mallorca we are headed to Piedmont, but I will leave that for the Italy board. I've tried to go through the threads and compile rough lists of places that jumped out from multiple threads - obviously, there's a lot more on Barcelona than Mallorca, but hopefully someone is knowledgeable down there as well. In terms of how much - we are happy in general to do a fancy lunch and a more low-key dinner, or vice versa, but two high-end places in one day is usually too much to be able to enjoy anything else. Obviously we will be splurging quite a bit at El Bulli, so probably no more than one or two more very high end meals across both places (300 euro+) Thank you so much in advance! Barcelona High End Can Roca Abac Cinc Sentits Comerc24 Hisop Moo Tapas Bar Mut Quimet i Quimet Tapac 24 Catalonian Fonda Gaig Other?? Other Dining Gresca Sauc Rais de Galica Other things to try Cacao Sampaka Streetfood?? Mallorca Restaurant Tristan Asador Tierra Aranda Bens D'avall (A bit of a trek to Soller) Es Raco des Taix (likewise)

It would be interesting to do an adjusted-dollar analysis that compares the earning power of a restaurant waiter relative to cost-of-living today and in 1958. I'd be willing to bet that standard of living based on an assumption of a 10% "standard tip" in 1958 would be about equal to a standard of living based on an assumption of a 20% "standard tip" today. Why? Not that long ago, I never paid more for my lunch than $5. Now it's easily $10 and up. So assuming that I had kept to the 10% standard, and the cost of my lunch has doubled, and even tripled, so would the size of my tip. Well... let's do some math. I looked in the historical menu archives and found a NY meny from 1957. A chicken salad sandwich cost one dollar. As chance would have it, I routinely buy a chicken salad sandwich for lunch at the price of five dollars. So, let's assume a "standard tip" on those sandwiches. For the 1957 sandwich, it's a ten cent tip at ten percent. For the 2007 sandwich, it's a $1.10 tip at twenty percent. Big difference! But there's more math to come. Let's go over to this handy online calculator where we can do a "consumer bundle" comparison (the comparison that is most relevant to the value of income relative to running a household). That ten cents in 1958 would have a consumer bundle value in 2007 of 98 cents. So... not quite as much as the $1.10 tip on that modern day chicken salad sandwich. It's more like getting an eleven cent tip back in 1957. Pretty close, though. ← Sam - your example is a bit strange. It hinges on the fact that the price of your sandwich (a consumer item) has only grown 5x during the time period (~4% per annum), while other consumer goods have grown almost 10x (~6% per annum). Since the tip is percentage based, if food were to grow at the consumer bundle level the relative income of the server would remain the same. It's possible that the prices of restaurant food as a whole have risen less than other consumer prices, but I'd need to see a lot more evidence to believe that. Jack - Any attempt to rationalize your boorish tipping behavior is completely undermined by the fact that you continue to attend restaurants that employ it. It's like if sweatshop crusaders did their protesting in Nike's.

i'm curious about the custom ice trays, where do you even go for something like that? is there a market for custom trays or cube, bar, and spherical ice? i found one place that sold spherical ice trays, but the spheres were only 2" or so. i would think that 2.5 or even 3 would be a better choice. ← I have used the spherical ice trays and the produce horrible ice. Apparently ice is not meant to freeze in a sphere. The best sphere i've seen comes from the japanese sphere maker that you can see on youtube and their web site. It costs too much for anything over 30mm though. One day.... ← I use the SFMOMA ice sphere molds - I think they work pretty well. Are these the ones you're talking about and why don't you like the ice?

It's not the same thing, but Manresa in Los Gatos does something fairly cool as well - at the beginning of the meal they start you with an amuse of petit fours that has a red pepper pate d'fruit and a black olive madeline; at the end of the meal, they bring the exact same petit fours, except its a strawberry pate d'fruit and a chocolate madeline. Nice touch.

Did you only just receive this confirmation, or did you get it a while ago? I received my rejection email log ago, but my partner has yet to receive any response, so I'm hoping they just haven't got round to sending the confirmation to her! Lee ← I got it this morning.

I Had a great meal in 2007, and told Luis how thankful we were. He spoke of a tedious process with little sleep (reservations). Ill keep requesting though. I do find it nice that a formal response is given considering the thousands of emails that must come mid October for 8000 or so seats. Nathan Conner I received this on 10/29. The demand that we have received at the first moment has again surpassed our limited possibilities for one season and we regret not to be able to full fill more reservation requests. We thank you sincerely for all your interest and we will be at your disposal if you wish to revise the situation during the season, near your available dates as we must confirm all the reservations 10 days in advance. Tel. +34 972 15 04 57 (during the season - after 3.00 p.m.) 2009 Season - Open from June 16th to December 20th Only dinner service 7.30 – 9.30 p.m. except on some Saturdays of September-October-November and December that we will be open for lunch (1.00 – 2.30 p.m.) and closed for dinner. NORMALLY MONDAY AND TUESDAY CLOSED SEE EXCEPTIONS OF OUR 2009 CALENDAR AT www.elbulli.com (see reservations) 2010 RESERVATIONS We do not have information about 2010 season at this moment but we never start the management until we have finished the season before. You will find information at www.elbulli.com see reservations) in December 2009. Sincerely yours, Luis Garcia ← Just received the good news that I'll be dining there June 16th! Anyone else heard!?

165 degrees is much too low for pulled pork; you should be shooting for 190-200.

I went by last Thursday and was equally impressed (tried the barbacoa, al pastor, and mole tacos). I think I'm gonna swing by again tonight.

Was this after the renovation of the restaurant? ← Two weeks ago.

I went Tuesday and it was excellent. I tried their house shrimp tempura (which was green tea dusted), hot rock duck, scallop carpaccio, and house soba salad. The shrimp were perfectly done (not greasy), and the green tea added a subtle but interesting flavor. It was served with a yuzu-mayo dipping sauce which was also quite nice. The hot rock duck was what it sounds like, but very well done. Didn't come across as gimmicky at all, but really brought out the excellent flavor of the duck. The scallop carpaccio was probably the highlight; scallops were fresh and sweet, and served with basil, which was a surprising but delicious pairing. I hadn't tried soba before, but the cold soba salad I had was excellent. Excited to get back and try other dipping sauces and also some of the hot soba preparations. Highly recommend trying it - they are having a sake tasting dinner the 18th which I signed up for (I think they only had 1 or 2 spots left as of Tuesday, so call soon if interested).

This worries me. Has anyone had a classic cocktail there? ← If you want good classic cocktails, drive to Houston. I split my time between both cities, and have not been able to find anything close to what the Bobby and Kevin do (did?) at Beaver's in Houston (and soon at their new place Anvil). The most decent bar experience I've had in Dallas was at Abacus, with decent riffs on classic cocktails.

Craft doesn't have a bar - the W hotel's living room bar is a decent option adjacent to Craft though.

Last year, I received my No, end of November. Good Luck... ← What a party pooper (hoping to make El Bulli part of honeymoon in June and haven't heard anything yet).

I thought commercial peanut oils didn't have allergen issues?

I think this whole topic is hilarious. There are plenty of F-bombs in the regular workforce , even at the high end (don't believe me? ask an I-Banker or trader). Why would a testosterone charged kitchen be any different?

Big Mamou is on Studewood pretty near white oak - I think it's supposed to be primarily cajun. It's been opening soon for months now without any real action, so I don't know what the deal is.

Thanks so much for everyones help! The concerns about overdoing it definitely resonate with me - it's always hard to balance the fact that we don't exactly make it to Paris everyday with not overloading our magical week. I think I will definitely drop one of the meals on Wednesday - any thoughts on which? That would make pretty much only one "major" meal per day which seems more manageable. I've seen L'Assiette come up and have been very intrigued - with the Tuesday closure, though, though not sure how to work it in without overdoing it. Maybe save it for our anniversary return trip a'la Piglit . Also great point about the picnics - a real bummer since those were some of the highlights of our last trip. Any thoughts on a good way to enjoy some wine, cheese, and charcuterie romantically when it's blustery out?

Girlfriend of 3 years and I are headed to Paris the first week of March - I've just finished procuring a ring, and plan to propose on the trip! Of course, I'm hoping everything will be magical - especially the food (we are both foodies and very excited about the trip). After a lot of research on here (seriously, I am likely to be fired soon if I don't stop doing eGullet at work), I've come up with a tentative plan and would love feedback. We will be there between March 2-8 and are staying on Rue Lepic in the 18th. We don't speak any French, so keep that in mind as well. Saturday Lunch: Something casual in Monmartre (our overnight flight arrives at 9am so nothing too intense here.) Dinner: Wally La Saharien Sunday Lunch: Brasserie? Need recommendation (Maybe bofinger?) Dinner: Les Relaise de Venise Monday This is the planned big day - plan is to catch the train to Reims, have a picnic, tour taittinger, and stay/dine at Les Crayeres. Any thoughts (especially from someone knowledgable about Reims with possible proposal ideas?) would be GREATLY appreciated. Tuesday Lunch: Something in Reims - Haven't had a lot of luck figuring this out yet. Dinner: Chez L'Ami Jean Wednesday Lunch: Les Elysees Dinner: Chez Denise Thursday Lunch: Guy Savoy 100 Euro Lunch Dinner: Something casual? Friday Lunch: Picnic at Parc Andre Citroen Dinner: L'Ambrosie That's all folks! My goal is to have a nice balance of different things (we've been to Paris together once before, but didn't have a great culinary sampling - just L'Table de Joel Robuchon) and of course to have an amazing engagment week. I've also tried not to overload any particular day with food, but let me know if I'm being crazy. In addition to menu critiques (be harsh!), suggestions for other more spontaneous things not to miss would be greatly appreciated (I've already got Laduree and Pierre Hermes in mind; she's also mad about crepes, but reviews here about crepes in Paris haven't been that encouraging...) The community here at the Paris board is amazing - very excited to see if anyone can help me give her the best week of our lives together!

This is very good with a chive or green onion in the middle. Edit: Oops, read the whole thread moron.

Ice cream shops are a good source for Dry Ice - I've bought it from Baskin Robbins I believe. Also some party shops sell it around Halloween for just this purpose.