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Ill have to concur, Pedro - one of the best two or three new restaurants in Madrid this year.

What consultants? Micro-oxygenation was developed by Patrick Ducournau, a 100% red-blooded French winegrower in faraway, isolated Madiran, and the goal was certainly not to get higher Parker scores (Robert Parker has never tasted any Ducournau wines), but to soften the harsh tannins of the tannat grape.

What a preposterous generalization. "Anyone who orders pasta in New York gets what they deserve." Heck, where in New York? Babbo or Angelo's of Mulberry Street? Where do you order pasta in Spain? Have you heard of Ars Vivendi in Majadahonda, of Taverna Siciliana in Madrid, of Galileo in Pereiro de Aguiar? Not to mention that a number of pasta dishes (macarrones and canalones, particularly) are an integral part of traditional Catalan cookery, or that 'fideus rojos' and other assorted 'fideuàs' are terrific alternatives to paella on the Mediterranean coast. I always avoid making sweeping generalizations about the culinary situation in countries I don't know well. I wish this were more frequent... In general terms, foreign cuisines are better (and more widely) represented in Spain than in Italy, and at least as well as in France, albeit with possibly more variety in the case of Spain. For instance, the only 'serious' American restaurant I know in Europe is in Spain - Matthew Scott's Gumbo, in Madrid. Not to mention our Peruvian, Cuban, Filipino or Armenian restaurants.

All of these recipes are either North African or refer to historic al-Andalus recipes of the 12th and 13th century. There are no popular, regional, home-cookery alcuzcuz recipes in Andalusian homes today. http://www.kike.c.telefonica.net/endosan/alcuzcuz.htm

Welcome to the (quite numerous) club, Bux!

Very interesting report! Tough luck that the 'fish' part of the menu at Viridiana wasn't at the same level - he usually does better. By the way, the secret of his gazpacho is that it combines tomatoes with strawberries! Strawberry-based gazpachos are now invading Spain. Abraham, in this as in many other things, was a pioneer. After all, he opened his first Viridiana back in 1978 - Spain's culinary revolution slghtly predates Ferran!

Lots of places are open. The best Paris restaurant (IMHO), L'Arpège, will be open. So will another 'Relais Gourmand', the controversial Hélène Darroze (still, two Michelin stars) – it's open for dinner every Monday in summer. I am not the greatest fan of Pierre Gagnaire – but he will be open too! The Espadon at the Ritz will be open, as will Les Ambassadeurs at the Crillon. Likewise Goumard, the successor to the historic Prunier, with its top-notch seafood. Also, Il Cortile, the Italian restaurant run by Alain Ducasse in the Castille Hotel (they close August 2nd). Also open, Chamarré – one of the most interesting newer restaurants in Paris, with its Mauritius roots. Eric Fréchon's Bristol Hotel restaurant is open all year 'round.

(It's pas vrai in correct French... A defender of the true French supremacy shouldn't indulge in such typos...) Yeah, yeah. You seem so well versed on the Spanish scene... Oh! Ferran has toured the kitchens of his buddies Charlie Trotter and Heston Blumenthal extensively too. So, yes, he also has American and British influences. And Chinese. And Japanese. A true UN. Shameless copycats, I tell you. Indeed everyone on the international scene and in eGullet is agreed: El Bulli is a French restaurant-wannabe. The Spanish culinary revolution is really the 1970 Nouvelle Cuisine redux. Way to go! PS Ever heard of Ca Sento, Mugaritz, Las Rejas? You should see the well-worn copies of the Escoffier cook book they keep in their kitchens!

El Bulli. Ca Sento. Mugaritz. Las Rejas. Welcome to Spain, circa 2005! PS: Yes, that little faraway country - distance, zero kilometers from Hendaye...

Is this a serious statement or just a fond recollection of the world circa 1960? Or, to put it as you would prefer... "Est-ce là une affirmation sérieuse ou seulement un plaisant souvenir du monde tel qu'il était aux alentours de 1960?"

I have a better opinion than what I've read here about Italian cuisine in Paris (not elsewhere in France). Caffè Minotti, Paolo Petrini, Carpaccio are very good restaurants! Alain Ducasse's Il Cortile too, even if purists say it's only "Italian-inspired". Otherwise - North African, French Caribbean, Lebanese, Vietnamese, yes! Almost anything else - no! Spain is the only country in Europe with some decent Mexican cuisine. BTW, Spanish cuisine is dreadful, dreadful in France. You find "paëllas" all over the place, but they're a disgrace. Among the few exceptions: the food shop + simple restaurant Byzance, in Boulogne-Billancourt. It's the place in greater Paris for Ibérico ham...

There's lots of couscous in Spain, Farid. But it's basically returned recently, after having been forgotten for many centuries (possibly since the final Christian reconquest of the Iberian peninsula in 1492 or at least since the total assimilation of the Morisco populations in the 16th/17th centuries). The vehicles for its return have been, of course, the numerous North African restaurants which now dot the country. It's quite obvious that the traditional Spanish spelling, 'alcuzcuz', had been largely forgotten, because now it's always the French 'couscous' that appears on menus and in most cookbooks. In turn many Spanish and European chefs working in Spain are making couscous dishes now. For instance, I recall the brilliant couscous 'of the sea' with red mullet filets made by Frédéric Fétiveau in Madrid's North African-inspired Medina restaurant. Abraham García at Viridiana also makes couscous frequently. Madrid is quite a couscous hot spot, since this city concentrates a large majority of Spain's Arab restaurants, one of which, Al-Mounia, is a truly great place with ethereally light couscous. According to food historians in Spain, when couscous arrived in this country in the 12th century, duiring the Muslim colonization of al-Andalus, one of the most frequent forms under which it was served was with a whole lamb, which was skinned and split down the belly. Once cleaned, it was stuffed with a mixture of couscous with butter, nutmeg, cinnamon and the fragrant oil of the nard flower. Then the belly was sewn tight, and the lamb was oven-roasted. It was served on a plate after being cut into pieces and sprinkled with more cinnamon. Another Medieval al-Andalus couscous recipe, much more similar to current ones, started with a juicy meat-and-vegetables stew, to which the semolina was added at the end. Once the couscous was drenched and thick with the stew's juices, it was all served on a plate with the couscous at the bottom, the cinnamon-sprinkled meats on top and the vegetables around it. The juice was kept in a separate recipient for each diner to add to his or her taste, as we do today.

Actually, no. Finally, Francis Paniego of Hostal Echaurren in Ezcaray will be running the restaurant at Riscal.

In Funchal, Celeiro remains "the" place for regional, no frills fare... As Eric was correctly saying last year, the Santo António, in Estreito de Cámara de Lobos, is a very basic place with very honest local food. The Swiss-owned La Perla, at the Quinta Splendida in Caniço, gets good reviews but I haven't been there. As you know, this is mostly a world of hotel dining rooms with the dreaded 'international' cuisine. There's the indispensable visit to Reid's, of course: the solemn Dining Room, the more modern Brisa do Mar for dinner, where they get into Asian fusion, and Cipriani – the best Italian restaurant on the island. At Estreito de Cámara de Lobos, the Bacchus in the Quinta do Estreito is a very charming restaurant with some decent modern/Madeiran cuisine. BTW, I see that Reid's has a single-room promotion (the 'great affordables', no less!) and there are rooms available from July 8 at 220 euros a night. A chance to stay at a legendary hotel for a reasonable price! It includes "daily buffet breakfast in the Garden Room or Continental breakfast in guest room, fruit basket in room upon arrival, one bottle of 5 years-old Madeira Wine, complimentary mini-bar set up of soft drinks and beer (replenished daily), one Traditional Afternoon Tea, one four course Dinner in The Dining Room (excluding beverages)." Who could say no?

Urban legends, Saborosa. Or bucolic legends, as it were.

Good choice. Very intelligent wine list, too. http://www.cbrava.com/restcap.es.htm

Small portions of this, 150 euros per person? Heck, that's the most expensive dinner at O'Pazo - ever!

The relative quality depends strictly on the individual producer. Valdeón, Cabrales and Picón de Bejes-Tresviso are just the local names in (respectively) Castilla y León, Asturias and Cantabria of the same type of blue cheese, aged in natural caves in the Picos de Europa mountain range where those three Spanish regions converge. It's interesting to search for different styles (creamier, drier, more or less pungent...) made by different shepherds in that spectacular area. Real Valdeón, Cabrales or Picón should be made artisanally, not industrially. JohnL., please note that these blue cheeses are all from mixed milks (or sometimes, depending on the time of the year, single-type milk), and that the name Cabrales, a village in Asturias, has no relation with 'cabra' (goat). If I remember rightly, Suspiro de Cabra is the brand name for a 'torta', i.e. a soft, fermented, almost liquid round cheese of the same style as France's and Switzerland's Vacherin Mont d'Or, Spain's Torta del Casar, Torta de Castuera, Torta de La Serena and other assorted Extremadura 'tortas', and Portugal's Queijo da Serra and similar ones. The originality of the Toledo 'tortas', one of which is this Suspiro (a name I haven't seen on Spanish shelves, and which seems reserved to the US market), is that they're the only ones of this type made with goat's milk - 'vacherin' is cow's milk, and the other Spanish and Portuguese 'tortas' and soft 'queijos' are sheep's milk. This cheese has no appellation yet, so it doesn't appear on a Spanish government map of goat cheeses, but it is mentioned in this text, which explains that there are zillions of goat's milk cheeses in this country: http://www.cheesefromspain.com/CFS/133Tipos_C_I.htm

Just some random thoughts. When the genius and perfectionism of Ferran are not around, all this paraphernalia can become irritating and overbearing. Ferran runs from a distance two Michelin-starred restaurants in Spain - the El Bulli-bis at Hacienza Benazuza near Seville and La Terraza del Casino in Madrid. A few Spanish and German foodies had dinner at the latter on Friday, including eGulleters Luis Gutiérrez and myself, and overall it was a frustrating experience for me - and it was not the first time at this, otherwise, wonderfully pleasant rooftop restaurant under a June night sky. (Possibly Luis can chime in with his own impressions.) First of all, in Madrid and Seville the dishes are always at least one year old - no 2005 stuff. A bit like movie reruns. But that's not the real problem - Castilian roast lamb has been cooked in the same fashion for at least eight centuries and it's still fine with me. The problem is the 'So what?' reaction one has toward the most technologically-oriented dishes. The Madrid version of the teppannitro provided some green morsels (I can't even remember the vegetable...) that were too cold and had an unappetising texture. The melon caviar 'sféricos' were slowly and boringly produced at tableside from a battery of enormous syringes - but the Galia melons used were obviously past their prime, flat and dull, and the sféricos reflected this. (Technology can never replace the pristine quality of ingredients.) Bahh... Then we had the vermicelli made with parmigiano 'serum', but with the coarse feeling of the cheese fat, and there was no obvious tasting advantage in aspiring them in rather ludicrous fashion, without fork or spoon. A mozzarella 'air' tasted like the real thing, but certainly was far less interesting texture-wise than a real, non-deconstructed, farmhouse mozzarella di búfala... What was the point of deconstructing it? Etcetera. In the end, when those things are done mechanically, just as if to 'épater le bourgeois' (as the French say), the short distance between the sublime and the ridiculous is quickly covered. And, once again, the same conclusion: if you want to enjoy, not endure, Ferran Adrià's creations, go to El Bulli. Any place else, even places run by him from a distance, can become a sheer caricature.

I still think Can Majó is the best restaurant in the Barceloneta. If you want to go someplace only locals (well, mostly locals) go to, why not Can Costa? It has some really nice fish and rice dishes. My Barcelona-born friends always rely on it.

A bit late, but I've been away. The two most impressive new restaurants in Madrid over the past few months have been (to my taste, of course), El Patio de Leo and Antojo. Good stuff, modern with roots, no excessive display of technology... More (addresses and such) here: http://www.elmundo.es/metropoli/restaurant...o_criticas.html

But it's in Spain, so it only gets... two stars. As the Romans would say, "quod erat demonstrandum"...

Actually, in Spain the influence had nothing to do with trade, but with centuries of Muslim domination of the country - from 711 to the 1212 Navas de Tolosa battle won by the kings of Castile, Aragón and Navarre against the Moorish chieftain Mohammed al-Nasir. Yet the Moors stayed in Spain for almost three more centuries - until 1492. So it was seven centuries together, and the influence was deep and lasting. Andalusian cuisine, despite its powerful Christian roots (use of pork and pork products) is deeply infused with Arab and Berber influences from al-Andalus. (The Berbers were much more numerous, yes - but the leadership was Arabian and dictated much of the cuisine made in the different royal courts.) This is quite visible today in Córdoba in such dishes as lamb with honey. The use of almonds and/or honey in sweets is basically North African in origin, and the escabeche (from the Arabic 'sakbay', pickled meat stew) is a basic dish and also a basic cooking technique throughout Spain. And no, in Andalusia the arrival of French techniques did not dent the Moorish heritage.

I have to disagree, Jesús. It's the sobao pasiego that includes no cheese. Quesada contains, specifically, queso pasiego - a Burgos-like fresh cow's milk cheese. Ricotta doesn't seem to be the best replacement IMHO. But I can't really fathom what could be.

My God! I'm crosseyed!! ← And I'm flabbergasted, Luis... To see comments of this caliber on a board such as eGullet, where we've covered these subjects in depth, is a bit disheartening... Almass, please do a little search about jamón ibérico, right here on this board (just click on the search engine!), and then come back and explain this "poor brother" theory to us. Thanks in advance!