Silly Disciple

Bux, seems to me like you are right. The recipe calls for one egg and some cheese after the leeks and the bechamel have been mixed. Silly.

I had lunch at Comerç 24 today. Some pictures and comments. Some of the dishes are the same Bruce had, others were different. I'll use Bruce's description when possible. what we got was pretty similar. from bottom left: the yucca chips with brie and i think peppers (I asked the maitre for a copy of the menu and he promised to send it via email... will report). delicious. then the potato chips with the olive foam. As Bruce says, this was the most interesting bit. Above the "garrapiñada" (peanut covered with caramelized sugar), to the right the big olive with the anchovy, and next to it we had what I think were rovello mushrooms. In the center the mashed potato with lemon and the tuna tartare on top. The potato had a cilantro sauce which was quite strong, and I made the mistake to have it first, thus most of the other flavors were shadowed by the cilantro... a pitty, and I wish the maitre would have told me about the sauce, which he didn't when describing the dish. we didn't get the octoups ceviche, instead, a Carpa (don't know the fish's name in english) was offered. I agree with Bruce again, the meat cuts were good and the foie was excellent. the base mushrooms were ceps, and the white ones on top were described as wild champignon. I found it good but the flavors were a bit... soft. The sepia was a tad below room temperature, which I found weird. I would have enjoyed it more if warmer. We had a Dorada suqet with potato, garlic and suqet puree. Same dessert. It was excellent. (Sorry, I was a bit typsy by then and snatched a spoonfull before taking the pictre ) we actually had one more dessert, a chocolate mousse with maldon salt and olive oil (reminded me of the olive oil dessert at Batali's Otto in NY), and a thin slice of crunchy bread. Unfortunately my battery died and I wasn't able to take one last picture. picture of the kitchen. Overall it was a good lunch, but given all the rave about Comerç 24 it fell a bit below my expectations. The service was excellent, and more than half of tables were busy. Silly

I had the chance to take a couple of pictures during class today. John, I got confused with the name of the dish, it wasn't Ganiche but rather Flamiche what we made. People setting up mise-en-place (seen from my station). I had some time here to take a picture after we finished cooking the ingredients for the flamige. the three pots in the foreground are the milk, roux and leeks. my brother finishing up the decoration. A partial group picture once we were done. Everyone looks pretty happy! Silly.

Escuela de Hosteleria Hofmann Argenteria, 74 - 78 08003 Barcelona Tel: +34 93.319.58.89 http://www.hofmann-bcn.com/ yes they do, although they are a bit expensive. have a look at their "monograficos": http://www.hofmann-bcn.com/mono_ficha.ysi The course I'm taking is in Spanish, but I've see what look like short courses or demonstration given to German tourists (in English, I think). Wellcome to Barcelona and eGullet!!!!!! I'm curious, what's a service apartment? Enjoy Cinc Sentits: I'm sure Jordi, Amelia and Roser will take excellent care of you! Silly.

I have to check my notes but I think the Quiche uses eggs where the Ganiche doesn't. Silly

Having lived in four cities so far (Buenos Aires, London, New York, Barcelona) I have to go hands down with New York for its breadth, its quality and its general appreciation of food. Barcelona has great quality and is now touted as one of the most creative, and the people here like to eat . However compared to NY it lacks the variety. I think there are very few places in the world (if more than one) were you can have outstanding quality of (just to name a few) Japanese, Korean, Chinese, American, French, Italian and a few others in a 10 mile radius like the NY Metro area does. Silly.

Ok, so on to pictures of me and my brother practicing the Leek Ganiche at home: Leeks emince. Rather spartan mise-en-place along with minced onions. Leeks cooking on slow fire with some butter. This is "rehogar" in spanish, but I'm not sure about the english name... anyone? we start on the pate brisee. This is my brother's station. second stage of the brisee. This time my station. the pate is now a ball. and now flattened. taking shape. i throw it in the oven and start on the roux. roux is done... this is some hard bechamel action on my brother's part. First try, 15 minutes in the oven. slightly browned where the weights were added. My brother's. bit better. The ganiche with the bechamel, leeks, etc and some cheese and sesame on top, ready for the oven. Ok, first ganiche to come out is mine... a bit brownish, but I'm sure the family will like it. And then comes my brother's, with a different finishing, a bit brown as well but works for the family. And that's round 1, where the Silly Brothers come out fairly ok Sorry if it's a bit long. I promise I'll work on my synthesis skills. Also these are my first few "food pictures"... hopefully will get better with time. Silly.

← Thanks for the quote Bux. As I said, I find this quite surprising.

Agreed, and as you say 4 or 5 years ago I had no clue who any of these "culinary stars" were. However, we are talking about people studying to be cooks, and you would think aspiring to some greatness, admiring at least certain food styles and the people who make them. It's like saying you are just a casual jazz listener and you don't know who Miles Davis is. That's fine, but if you like jazz, you are studying the trumpet, and you have no idea who he was, that's an entirely different thing, isn't it? Silly.

An interesting discussion from last week's class: The instructor (his name is Chesco or Xesco, for Francisco) had finished the demonstration, and we still had some time to kill. He decided to field questions from us, and since he had mentioned that roux (which he had made in class) is not used as a liaison anymore (except for bechamel and such), I asked whether he thought there were "contemporary" techniques that should be taught in school rather or complementing classic ones. His answer made a lot of sense: he basically put forward the idea that once you understand what a liaison is and how it works, it doesn't matter whether you go for roux or agar-agar, its mostly a question of practice and getting the recipes right. What ensued was I think the most interesting bit. Agar-agar led to a discussion of some of these "contemporary" techniques, and of course to the ever-present Ferran Adria. To my great surprise, none but 4 of the people knew who he was. Chesco went into some detail naming a few of the usual suspects (Santamaria, Roca, Ruscalleda, Abellan, Balaguer, etc), along with descriptions of their food, the concept of a tasting menu, small portions, etc. Again, the group seemed oblivious to the concepts, naming local neighborhood joints when asked what they thought "great barcelona restaurants" were. Individual preferences aside, I might be witnessing a statistical anomaly or just a small sample problem, but given that this course is taught at a well known (and expensive) cooking school in barcelona I found it really surprising. I talked about this with Chesco after class, who with a resigned smile said "you should see some of the questions or answers I get teaching here" Silly. edited for spelling.

John, it is indeed surprising. Apparently our group was added at the last minute since all the other groups were full (there's about 6-7 groups I think), and so they had to find available kitchen/instructor time slots. A note on my group. There's 14 of us. 4 currently work in kitchens, 1 works as a waiter, 2 study hostelling (including my brother), 1 owns a restaurant, 1 has a ready-for-microwave-food business, and the rest (including me) are amateurs. So while a week is a long time to remember everything you've seen in the demonstration, I would think most of us have at least a moment to practice/use the techniques seen. Silly.

A somewhat hectic couple of weeks work-wise plus a not-so-interesting class last week forced me to skip the second report on this thread, but I'm back and won't hopefully bore you much with a quick recap. The format of the course is Thursdays we have a 3-hour hands-on class in one of the school's kitchens, and on Friday a 3-hour theory/demonstration class. On Fridays our instructor will show several techniques, sometimes on their own and sometimes as part of a recipe, and the following Thursday we are supposed to mimic it in the kitchen. As I've said before, the first couple of weeks we went over herbs, spices and vegetables, and then on to knife skills/techniques. On week 3, our first Thursday in the kitchen we practiced the different cuts (Brunoise, Chiffonade, Ciseler, Emincer, Escalope, Jardiniere, Julienne, Macedonie, Mirepoix, Paysanne) with a bunch of vegetables, so nothing terribly interesting to report. We also peeled tomatoes , and so it seems we're never having tomato with skin again . There's not much to tell about this class, except for the fact that the instructor had several folks throw their cuts away for not being good enough. Practicing at home over tomatos and zuchinni. Friday's class was about eggs: Mollet, Poche, Boiled, Fried, Omelette. We also went over Tournees (A La Cuilliere, Bouquetiere, Chateau and Cocotte) as well as potato-specific cuts: Alumettes, Chips, Gaufrettes, Mignonettes, Paille, Pont-neuf). Chesco shows his tourneed artichoke. Chesco tourneeing a potato. Week 4 in the kitchen was of course our time to do eggs and Tournees. I wish I had taken pictures of it, but being the first time we were using the fires I didn't think it would be such a great idea. Overall the eggs were average, with a few exceptions (both good and bad). My poche was particularly bad , so we spent the next few days having poche for lunch and dinner Then on the demonstration class the instructor went over several techniques/preparations: Pate Brisee, Roux and Bechamel for a Leek Ganiche (I practiced this one at home with somewhat good results. post to follow) and also dark meat stock (this is my literal translation, not sure if it's right). So as I said I made the ganiche at home today, and on Thursday we'll have to make it at school.... we'll see how it goes. It should also be an interesting class, as I'll be having lunch at Comerç 24 beforehand That's all for now. Silly. edited to add pictures. to the forum "gurus", is it ok if I host the pictures on my server rather than ImageGullet?

I am out of luck three out of three. The first one the day after Louisa posted here, and then more or less once a week since... Silly.

Thanks for the report Bruce. Did you have any wine with your meal? How much was it? Silly.

Simon, After your post about the meal with your parents I'm dying to try Can Fabes! Thanks for the description. Regarding espardenyes a la plancha, an obvious destination would be Rafa in Roses, although since he serves the day's catch you are not guaranteed to find them. It might be best to call ahead. And if you do go, don't miss the San Pedro a la plancha if he has it. Silly.

I'm lucky enough to have some time to spare, and since food is probably my top "non-professional occupation" I decided it was time to leave aside my kitchen hacks and get some proper training. After looking around a bit I enrolled in Mey Hofmann's School near the Borne neighbourhood, and for about 3 weeks now I've been attending the twice-a-week sessions that make the 1-year professional cook course (as opposed to the more complete 3-year hostelling/chef one). The course is aimed mostly at amateur cooks and people working in the industry wanting to learn basic skills. Hofmann seems to be a well respected school here in Barcelona and is well known for its restaurant as well. The course is pretty standard (I don't have any experience with other courses, it just seems so), and for now we've gone over vegetables, herbs and spices and just this week we started with knife skills and some cooking techniques. Next Thursday is our first day in the kitchen! (pretty excited about it). I am enjoying it inmensely and getting more into it as time goes by, and so I wanted to share my experience with fellow eGulleters. If there's interest in the forum I'll keep adding weekly comments on how the whole affair develops. Silly.

Hi, I'll be visiting some friends in Perpignan and Fitou (I live in Barcelona), and although I like them a lot, I won't stay inside for four full days . So I'm asking you, fellow egulleters, for any food suggestions and/or recommendations in the area that are worth considering, from restaurants to little shops, anything and everything. I did a quick search on the forum but it seems like the area in not particularly interesting? Thanks in advance. Silly.

Even if you stay at the Trypp you will have to take a taxi to get there (Looking at the map on their website, it doesn't seem to be a walkable distance) and back to the airport Monday morning. Why not just take the same taxi into the city (a 15/20 minute ride)? Silly.

One way to solve it... let's try the same restaurant at the same time!!! Silly.

Today we found a hidden gem, a no-frills rice restaurant in the Eixample. We were looking for a Sunday afternoon restaurant, and stumbled upon it while strolling towards the Francesc Macià area. Actually just crossing over to the Les Corts neighbourhood, Arrosseria Xativa has an impressive menu of mostly Valencian rice dishes along with a few local ones. The appetizers where ok, and the rices where excellent. After my previous dissapointment at Can Majó I am happy to find a rice heaven, particularly close to my place. I can definitely recommend the Paella Parellada Amb Gambes i Rap and the Arros amb Bolets, while the Arros Caldos de Senyoret was just ok. We paid just over 30 EUR for the meal, having ordered more than one appetizer per person, a rice main course, dessert and coffee, so not terribly expensive but not terribly cheap either. L'Arrosseria Xàtiva Carrer Bordeus, 35 Les Corts 93.322.65.31 http://www.arrosseriaxativa.com/

I took some friends to Jordi's last week, for my third time there. Let me say the Artals are just getting better and better at it. We had the omakase tasting menu along with the wine pairing. Both the food and the service Jordi and his family offer are superb. here's a list of what we had along with the wine provided by Amelia in a neatly printed sheet (so all errors are mine). She even gave me the spanish version, and my american friends the english one. Then my wife asked for the calatan version, and she got that as well : snacks: - shot of maple syrup, cream, cava sabayon and maldon rock salt - foie gras torchon, crushed carquinyoli (described as Catalan biscotti) and violet marmalade. -asparagus velouté with sea water gelée, berberecho, lemon peel marmalade, martini bianco. wine: noilly prat (marseillan,france) -langoustine with chilled ajoblanco soup, cubed melon and silvered marcona almonds. schmitges erdeneer treppchen riesling spatlese 03 (vdp mosel, germany) -soft poached egg with salmon confit, trout caviar and hollandaise sauce. This one is my wife's favourite. oro de castilla sauvignon blanc (do rueda, spain) -monkfish filet with orzo risotto, langoustine reduction with mascarpone. cervoles 03 (do costers del segre, spain) -artesanal foie gras, mango granité, vanilla oil. (this one is actually a cheat on our part. the dish isn't part of the tasting menu, but knowing that Jordi has access to amazing quality foie we specially asked for it). chateau megyer tokaji aszu 95 (hungary) -pan seared beef tenderloin, sauteed asparagus spears, demi-glaçe care 01(do cariñena, spain) my argentine taste called for a stronger wine here, but that's just me. -tomato granité, extra virgin olive oil, cabernet-sauvignon vinegar syrup desserts: -mascarpone mousse with cherry compote, crushed carquinyoli cookies, papantla vanilla ice cream. moscatel mr (do magala, spain) -kalamansi glaçe with white chocolate espuma, marcona almond brioche, citrus "shake". vino naranja par (do condado de huelva, spain) orange flavored wine, quite interesting. -petit fours. The following day we went to Hisop. I will post my report soon on it, but let me say that Cinq Sentits' almost obsessive (in a good way ) care for detail, atmosphere and presentation, along with its super food beat Hisop easily. I'm going again in a few weeks to try Jordi's autumn menu. I wouldn't miss it for the world. Silly.

butterfly, for a great book on setas in Catalunya and Spain in general you should try to get Llorenç Petras' book "Cocinar con Setas, recetas y consejos", by Editorial Peninsula. It has a good introduction with most of the mushrooms found here with pictures, descriptions and their names in several languages, and a good deal of recipes from all around Spain. Petras is the owner of the famous booth in the Boqueria which specialices in mushrooms. you will find him mentioned in other threads in this forum. Silly. edited for spelling.

Yet one more question: I need to find a decently priced restaurant in the Girona city area to take the full family (father, brother, wife and 2y.o.) on Sunday night. Any suggestions? Thanks again, you're making this trip a delight to organize! Silly.

I'm finishing up the last details for my trip to Girona, and I have a few questions about Can Roca: How much should I expect to spend? How much is the tasting menu? what about wine pairings? I have found a few reviews on the web which point to anywhere from 75 to 175 EUR. The other thing is, my wife isn't the greatest fan of creative cuisine, so before I drag her out there, can anyone point to a sample menu? I will go anyway with my brother, but she might decide to stay in the hotel . Thanks, Silly

I don't understand why is it that people think that if you are in Spain every restaurant, in any region, makes a good paella. If I am correct, Can Majo's specialty is "arroz caldoso" and if you looked around at the locals having lunch I bet not one was having paella. Actually we specifically went to Can Majo to eat arroz, as that had been the general recommendation. Our mistake was not to know that their specialty was caldoso and not paella. We didn't have the chance to look at other tables since we were seated in a mostly empty separate space they have 1/2 a block down the street, called diecinueve I think (19), since both their main space and the terraza were full. I agree with asola on this. Paella seems rather widespread in Barcelona, not just in the more touristy areas, but in restaurants that offer the rather common "lunch menu" as wll. Silly.