Eric_Malson

I do, too. For me, Spain is the most exciting place for food I've ever been. Perhaps a bit unfortunately, my greatest passion and expertise is limited to an area most tourists don't go, namely northwest and north central Spain. It's not much fun waxing rhapsodic about things no one is interested in! Then, of course, there's Portugal.....also pretty interesting in the food department....

Personally, I would not let the Michelin Guide decide for me whether I expect to eat well in Spain or not. To my mind, Michelin misses the point of Spanish food. Now, how to try to clarify my point of view....hmmm.... First, of all, I checked their recommendations against a place I know VERY well, namely, Asturias. Listed was one lone restaurant that merited any stars at all, Casa Gerardo (rated one star). That's it. Now, one eats very well at Casa Gerardo, and I consider it well worth a significant detour to eat there, but the experience of eating there is no more special, unique, or satisfying than that of dozens of other restarurants in Asturias. What it does offer is more polish, feeling of luxury, and approach to cooking that is more haute (for lack of a better way to put it) than most restaurants in Asturias. Which I think is not the point of Spanish food in the first place (although I would hate to have never tasted his chuletón de buey or his stupendous take on arroz con leche). Spanish food is much more driven by quality and freshness of locally-produced ingredients, relative simplicity of preparation, and retaining the integrity of these ingredients. With this in mind, se puede comer bien in many more places in Spain than the Michelin Guide would lead you to believe. The description of meals at a place like El Racó de Can Fabes sound wonderful indeed (and I certainly hope to eat there one day), but are hardly recognizable, with the exception of some of the ingredients, as Spanish food. But if you apply the standards of French haute cuisine, it fares quite well, obviously. I've never been to Sevilla, so I have no specific recommendations. But I do have some thoughts: If there are restaurants anywhere around with even one Michelin star, you will eat very well there. Penelope Casas knows food, and her book Discovering Spain can be considered reliable , although she's a bit heavy on the "luxury" end of the spectrum for my taste (or as a Spanish friend of mine said when I showed it to him, "Es una guía para millonarios!"). Establishments tend to stay around longer in Spain than some other places (especially a place like New York!), so having a really updated edition isn't strictly necessary.... something from the last 5 years should be fine. For anyone travelling in Spain with an interest in food, I would strongly recommend trying to get a hold of a copy of the Guía Azul (publ. Ediciones Gaesa) for the region(s) you intend to travel. It's published in Spain (and therefore written in Spanish, but it's an easy enough read with a rudimentary working knowledge of Spanish). Written by Spaniards that know where to go to eat, a glowing recommendation here can be considered utterly reliable. Andalucía is a large enough area to warrant two volumes, so if you order, check to see which includes the area you want.

In my IU (Bloomington) days, one of the cheapest things at the liquor store in town was a locally-made mead that I ended up drinking fairly frequently (for young 'uns not used to alcohol, it's flavor was pretty non-threatening, if awfully sweet). Years later I ended up trying it again, and basically had to run and spit it out....WAY too sweet and without much body to be drinking like...well, like wine. Ah, youth....

I absolutely love a good Hefeweizen, and there's just something about watching those yeast globules dissolve and effervesce in a tall weizenbier glass.... I spent a couple of months in Munich a few years ago where I got to indulge my obsession daily. One day, a friend and I were walking around the Viktualienmarkt and were approached by someone who asked if we wanted to participate in a taste-test of Hefeweizens. We, of course, did....it turned out to be a marketing ploy for Löwenbräu's Hefeweizen, which was, surprisingly, quite good. (I think you probably can't even buy this in the U.S., since Löwenbräu licensed their name to Anheuser-Busch for the U.S., and what they produce under that moniker is, of course not worth mentioning....) Erdingerweiss, which has a much greater popular reputation, at least in Germany, fared much less well. I like Franziskaner and Paulaner hefeweizens (the Kristallweizen never did much for me). Me REAL fave, by miles, is Unertl, but as far as I know, that is not imported to the U.S. (if anyone happens to know otherwise, I would LOVE to know where I can get some!). (I also never tried a dark hefeweizen....I don't even remember ever seeing one in Germany, and it would be considered more of an anomaly than something one normally drank, I think. Anyhow, the thought never appealed to me.)

Horlick's is the best. Here in NYC, I've had the best luck finding it at, believe it or not, Indian groceries.

Re a much earlier request, thought I'd pass on some of my favorite dishes at GSI (51st and 9th location). Beef Tendon with Hot and Pepper Sauce--my new favorite cold plate on the menu. Someone, somewhere on the Internet descrbed the tendon as being somewhat akin to pastrami trimmings, and it's a good description. Firm, springy, and streaked with hints of meat, they are the perfect foil for the hot pepper oil dressing. Preserved turhip, Sichuan style (another cold plate)--a big mound of what often gets called "Szechuan preserved vegetable", sprinkled with chopped peanut. I also loved the (cold) diced rabbit meat with spicy and peppery sauce, but it is a lot work eating around those little bones and bone fragments. Braised whole fish with hot bean sauce--delicious, complex sauce, and not particularly hot, so the faint of heart need not worry. Smoked tea duck--this dish can be hit or miss, but when it's good, it's very good indeed. Eat it quickly, because when it sits around, the duck meat can toughen up a bit. Sauteed and dry string beans--with bits of minced pork and Szechwan preserved vegetable clinging to the beans. Best version of this dish I've ever tried. I've enjoyed everything I've tried from the section of the menu called "Mao's Home Cooking", particularly sour string beans with minced pork, spicy and sour squid, and cured pork with garlic shoots (this dish has a wonderful, comfort-food sweetness to it). I would second the other recommendations on this thread, too, particularly the ma po to fu (best I've ever had), au zhou (freshly-killed) chicken (the dish I probably order most frequently here), the ox tongue and tripe with hot and pepper sauce, and those Sichuan wontons with red oil.

Hello, all.....new to the board here! I'm a bit surprised no one has mentioned my favorite French cookbook, Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking, which is, I believe, still pusblished by Penguin. Her focus is not so much "haute cuisine", but food as it has been cooked in French homes for centuries. And while not a manual of technique, she does tell you everything you need to know to execute the dish. She was not star chef, but the wife of a diplomat (I think) who lived (and cooked!) in a wide variety of places. I suppose she would most accurately be termed a "food writer"--her recipes are more like conversational pieces of prose, but they are the real thing. She's a great read in AND out of the kitchen!