Silly Disciple

Thanks again to everyone for the support. To the locals, I will let you know as soon as we open so you can stop by and taste the pasta. The kitchen space was a bit of a challenge, as we didn't have a lot of room to setup shop. Basically, the stall is divided in two; the kitchen/production space in the back and the stall proper in the front. In the back we have a walk-in, a combi oven, two induction tops, a pasta cooker, a bain marie, two circulator baths, a vacuum machine and not much else. Since installing gas services in the market is a bit of a problem we went electric with all the equipment. In the front we have the pasta making machine in a small production area protected by a big see-through glass, so you'll see how the pasta is made as you walk by. We also have a high power freezer and a small fridge. Mar, thanks for the post. Oriol , who is also a blogger will setup a blog, in Spanish I think. I'll put the two of you in touch so you can figure something out for a Catalan version. We will open in the mornings through about 4pm for sure. Afternoons/evenings are a big question mark, as we are not sure yet if it is cost effective to stay open till dinner. Very few stalls do during the week. I think that we will probably open late Fridays and Saturdays. In any case I'm sure we can convince you to drop by on a Saturday, right? Later on today I have to meet the builder so we can decide on the colors for the stall. Will keep you posted.

I'm not sure how feasible it is to find a Vac-Star miniVac in the US, but it's worth at least doing a moderate search for this great brand and model. It's the smallest machine I've been able to find which has a proper chamber, which I think is key if you are serious about this. I was able to get it second hand for about 400 EUR. Before that I went through 2 Krups Vacupack Plus, they are pretty decent and cheap enough (I paid 30 EUR I think through e-bay) such that if you break one it's not a big deal to get a new one.

Thanks guys for all your comments and encouragement. We are located close to the back of the market, towards your left as you go in. As a reference, we are pretty close to Petras (the mushroom stall) and next to a small Korean stall. If all goes well we are hoping to open in about three weeks time, so mid to late June. Fingers crossed... Our initial offer will consist of approximately 8 types of seasonal stuffed pasta (which will rotate during the week), 5 types of extruded pasta (spagetti, tagliatelli, etc), cannelloni and an array of sauces to go with them. The stuffed pasta types are grouped in mainly four families: 1. seasonal vegetables, 2. red meat, 3. chicken and other birds, 4. cheese. I promise to post the initial menu once we finalize it. You will be able to buy the pasta raw so you can take it home and cook it, and you'll also be able to get a combo menu during lunch time, a pasta-in-a-bowl kind of thing, to take away and enjoy while you stroll through the market. We will also be selling our product to local restaurants and hotels. All the pasta will be made in-house with seasonal ingredients bought within the market, so the stuffings will change as the market offer changes. We've had enough headaches with this one, please give us some time to recover! As for selling the product in Madrid: Since one of the product's main features is it's freshness, we've been working on figuring out the best way to ship to other parts of Spain without loosing this important characteristic. Once production is in full motion and we feel the extra work justifies it, we will start shipping elsewhere. We also still need to figure out what the best distribution model is.

Meson David has recently changed owners and is not worth the visit.

you don't.

As a participant of that meal, I can tell you that we went to Bar Central, towards the back of the market.

yes. the degustation menu si around 100, de lunch menu around 60 if not mistaken. yes.

Gavin, you need to take the 11:25 Regional from Estacio de Sants, which you can also catch at Passeig de Gracia at 11:29 or at Clot/Arago at 11:32, it puts you in Girona at 12:56.

This google map seems to be right. The address is Provença 85, corner with Viladomat.

Jamonisimo in Barcelona cryovacs if you ask them. Also I've seen several stallks in the Boqueria market with vacuum machines, so that's another (cheaper) option.

Still located in the same place, and will stay there at least until the end of the Summer.

Indeed there's a very large Japanese community in Sao Paulo, mainly in the Liberdade Neighbourhood. There's a restaurant there called Kinoshita which is excellent, I've posted about it before. There's also a Japanese Immigration Museum in Sao Paulo, it might be a good source for further information.

Can Roca is informal, slacks and a shirt are fine. Taktika Berri, like many Basque bars, is mostly about standing close to the bar and grabbing pintxos as they are offered or brought from the kitchen. If you get there towards the end of service you'll find yourself with very little left.

Ditto. I can't think of any place in Barcelona proper which outdoes Can Roca. In fact I'm going there on Friday.

or just give it to someone local who can take advantage of them

StPol is not a university as far as I know. The Girona school is public. edited to add CETT in barcelona is a university, or affiliated to a university, or something like that.

Don't bother with Bell-Art, it's a very small school and not worth it at all. I asked my brother about the differences between Hoffman and Escola de Restauracio (since he took the one year cooking course at Hofmann with me). He says it depends a lot on the instructor you get, but generally speaking he would recommend Hoffman over Escola. He also thinks you should consider the school in Girona, since people like Roca teach there.

Correcto. I think that, given the amount of food you're planning on consuming in Barcelona, you can get one of each (there's no small order) and it will be fine for two people.

Bryan, I stopped by Jamonisimo today (I live about a block away so why not ?). The textures degustation is 27 euros, the regions degustation is 24. But: the lady said given we are in low season they only keep 2 ibericos "open" instead of 3, so you won't get to try them all. Also, they have a roasted Presa Iberica (not sure what the translation is, but basically a section of the neck next to the front legs, lots of marbling, mouth-watering), so you might want to consider it too.

This statement depends on your definition of "places like Rafa". Rafa is literally 600 meters away from one of the most important fish markets (not exactly market, rather the auction market right by the docks... lonja) of the region, and gets his product straight from it. If there's no catch then he won't open. If he runs out of fish during the evening service then he won't open for lunch the next day. He barely manipulates the product, and charges by weight, so I'm not sure you can find many places which combine good access, quality and freshness of ingredients, little (and proper) manipulation and a price point that is not exactly cheap but not expensive either. Off the top of my head I can think of only two (which I have visited, probably quite a few more exist): Etxebarri in Axpe (much more expensive) and El Campero in Barbate.

Vedat, indeed, these are two good options to get iberico (and if you get to Can Ravell and leave without trying their foie gras and eggs you deserve to be punished ). Can Ravell also has an interesting scotch (and other beverages) selection. I think their wine list is not bad either, but I'm not the right person to ask. However both are a bit more upscale than the usual. Casa Pepe has excellent Navajas and a very decent morcilla de Burgos also, which you can get either with eggs and cepes or raf tomato (my choice by far).

FWIW, I don't think you can get the quality of Jamonisimo at the market. But indeed you could go to Jamonisimo and get 150 grams or so to get an idea, so at least you get a benchmark point.

Last time I stopped by the kg went for 160 EUR or so. So each plate is in the ballpark of EUR 35 if memory serves.

Or you can take the train to Figueres and hire a car there. Avis, Hertz and Europcar have offices by the train station. It's a 15-25 minute drive from Figueres to Roses depending on local traffic.

For that kind of money you can even stay further away from Roses, say for instance Mas Pau outside of Figueres, have lunch at Mas Pau's one star restaurant, take a taxi back and forth and you'll still be save a few bucks.