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Queso de cabra is indeed simply goat cheese. Usually of the fresh, creamy type in Spain.

For people interested in Jerez and great unusual wines: try to visit the town during Vinoble, the only wine fair in the world that's entirely devoted to sweet and 'generoso' (fortified) wines: not only sherry, dry or sweet, but also port, Sauternes, Tokaji, Canadian ice wine, Côteaux-du-Layon, Austrian TBAs... what have you! In addition, it's held in the old Arab fort, the Alcázar. Very atmospheric. Unfortunately, next edition is only in June 2006, since it's held every two years.

Three new or newish bodegas with outstanding lines of old dry sherries (oloroso, amontillado, palo cortado), in part because they have acquired older soleras from older wineries that were disappearing or being merged with others, are El Maestro Sierra, Tradición and Rey Fernando de Castilla. I'm sure at least one of the three must have a Swiss importer. Tiny productions, though!

Cabritu con patatos, i.e. roast kid with potatoes, is not just a dish, it's a religion in Asturias' Laviana county - much like, say, suckling pig is in Portugal's Bairrada or paella with snails and rabbit in the Alicante high plateaus. That said, I've never been to Casa Pili, but (local color and fun aside, and that's often an important cultural consideration!) it's not, culinarily speaking, one of the most famous places in Laviana. A alternative, more renowned place would be the hotel-restaurant La Casona d'Entralgo.

You'll be traveling north of suckling pig country, so that's not a serious option this time. OTOH, Burgos is one of the great roast lamb towns in Spain, and solid standbys Casa Ojeda, Hostal Landa (stunning rebuilt medieval tower), Mesón del Cid and El Asador de Aranda offer very good versions of it. One of the nice secret addresses of northern Spain is the very modest Cofiño (formerly 'Bar Cofiño', before they spruced up the place a little bit), in the main square of the tiny mountain village of Caviedes in Cantabria (just a couple of miles from the Roiz exit of the A-8 motorway between Santander and Oviedo). The main objective here is a tureen-full of cocido montañés, the white kidney bean-based soup/stew that in Cantabria plays a similar role to that which fabada (and the less well-known pote asturiano) play in Asturias. Good wine selection, too. If you want to skip Santander altogether (a mistake IMHO, because it's a beautiful place in the middle of a stunning bay and because the Bar del Puerto is one of the most amazing seafood restaurants in all of Spain, with pristine stuff that is very simply cooked), the one place not to miss right now in Cantabria is the Cenador de Amós in Villaverde de Pontones (also near the A-8, in the vicinity of Santander). Bucolic village and Jesús Sánchez's ever-improving modern cuisine - yes, including much fish! Some of his seafood dishes: machote al horno con jugo de aceitunas verdes (oven-baked Cantabrian sea bream with green olive juice), lomo de mero con crema de yogur pasiego, tomate y hierbas (grouper fish filet with a cream of country yogurt, tomato and herbs), rodaballo con 'pil-pil' de hongos (turbot with a pil-pil-style wild mushroom sauce). For a sheer, no-frills seafood experience with a great view of the sea at San Vicente de la Barquera, there's the Miramar Hotel - terrific lobsters and spiny lobsters from their own salt water tanks. I think you'll find quite a few mentions of the Asturias cuisine explosion elsewhere in eGullet. L'Alezna in Caces, the great Casa Gerardo in Prendes, the wonderfully decadent Real Balneario in Salinas, and the Arriondas pair, Casa Marcial and El Corral del Indianu, are all amongst the Spanish restaurant elite. (I'm not that crazy about the chi-chi Paladares in Gijón.) There's a thread from last summer in which I mention some of the fine restaurants in Galicia (Casa Bóveda and Loliña in Carril, Pepe Vieira and Rotilio in Sanxenxo, Casa Solla in Pontevedra), some of them with a modern slant, some others decidedly traditional. And in Santiago proper you have two of the top-drawer places in Galicia, Toñi Vicente and the cutting-edge Casa Marcelo; not too far, the Fogón Retiro da Costiña in Santa Comba is a good countryside address. Like Cofiño in Cantabria, the little modest address in northern Galicia is La Casilla in Betanzos. Not so secret, of course: it's a tavern that's been famous for decades - its tortilla de patatas is one of the finest in Spain.

The expression is well-chosen, Pedro: his views often are pretty debatable...

Valedón cheese, with a smaller production than either Cabrales or Picón de Bejes-Tresviso, has not yet received the protection of an official appellation (denominación de origen). So such appellations as 'Picos de Europa' are just commercial ploys with no regulatory backing. It's very obvious, since the Picos de Europa are the same mountain range where Cabrales and Picón de Bejes-Tresviso are produced (plus such other cheeses as quesucos de Liébana), that the final appellation, when it's awarded, will be something else - probably Valdeón or Posada de Valdeón.

At Las Rejas in Las Pedroñeras, you'll find a half-dozen cutting-edge dishes incorporating manchego cheese under various guises. Allan: Cabrales, picón de Tresviso and Valdeón cheeses are practically identical blue cheeses (with the differences coming from each producer's style, not from geographic provenance), made in different Picos de Europa (a mountain range) villages respectively located in Asturias, Cantabria and León. You shouldn't be surprised that no one has mentioned Valdeón here. This thread is on pure cow's milk cheeses. Picos de Europa blue cheeses never are made with cow's milk only.

Well, Santi Santamaria for one considers Moo as his favorite restaurant in Barcelona (while he gets his own sibling ready, I guess...)

I first discovered it at one of the Mallorca shops; I've also seen it at El Corte Inglés' Club del Gourmet. But the best source (they have a couple of different cheeses from Tros de Sort) is the new, super-duper cheese shop, Poncelet.

Please note that I didn't write that one should dismiss Internet reports entirely - what I did write, and I'll re-state it, is that drawing conclusions from such reports is unfair and should be avoided.

Mahón (the artisanal, cured version), Tetilla, Arzúa-Ulloa, smoked San Simón, Afuega'l pitu, Casín, La Peral, Vidiago, Pido, Garmillas are great cow's milk cheeses - from the soft to the hard ones. For a look at top-notch, modern, artisanal cow's milk cheese in the Catalan Pyrenees, seek out the delicious Brie-like products made by Tros de Sort.

Latest report I've had from dinner at Arola was a glowing one, just last weekend. So, unless we speak from personal experience, drawing conclusions from what appears on the net seems like a somewhat dangerous (and unfair) exercise to me.

Remember - we didn't say anything, Bux!

A good report on a nice meal, Pedro! If rumors about another major La Mancha-inspired chef moving to the Spanish capital were proven to be more than rumors, then the discussions on which is "the most interesting, personal and talent-laden place in Madrid" may certainly become more intense in the near future.

Well, it seems that at least price-wise Can Fabes and Santceloni are exactly the same!

What they sell in Madrid are 'mâche nantaise' - indeed from Nantes. This is a nice but bland type of lamb's lettuce. OTOH, there is a much more pungent and interesting version of mâche in Switzerland, but there it's called 'rampons' - highly recommended!

Slight correction. Rafael García Santos is not Basque. He works out of the Basque Country. He's from Cantabria, a neighboring but non-Basque region.

Indeed, Angel León has gone to his native Andalusia for a brief sabbatical after the restaurant's owner decided not no continue. Angel says he has not yet decided what his next venture will be. We wish him the best.

Same as always. Sound, solid. A bit old-fashioned by now. Excellent home-prepared foie gras, as ever. But I'd go to Casa Marcelo myself.

Braga: if you don't mind an ugly industrial area, São Gião is the place. (Joaquim Magalhães is a fine traditional cook, specializing in the Minho cuisine.) Óbidos: I haven't been there in years (wonderful white, medieval town!), and back then I ate without great distinction at the pousada. Alcaide is no great shakes. Perhaps you should follow Michelin's advice and go to A Ilustre Casa de Ramiro. Hey, the name alone is worth the journey... Or go to nearby Peniche for some serious spiny lobster. Évora: Fialho is the famous place, but some say it's going downhill after so many years; O Antão is a solid restaurant for pleasant Alentejo cuisine. But the locals might choose Luar do Janeiro (Travessa Janeiro 13). A place to verify that Ibérico ham (here, porco preto) is not just a Spanish specialty! Pinhão: I would go a few miles outside of town and away from the famed Vintage House to sleep and eat (simply, in rustic style, with a Quinta do Infantado port) in the nearby village of Covas do Douro, at the wonderful manor (best views on the Port vineyards), Casa do Visconde de Chanceleiros. If you are interested in Portugal's wine regions and stop at Nelas in the heart of Dão, don't miss the wonderful Bem Haja. Outstanding regional food.

The hoof is useless for cooking. The ham bone, OTOH, is great.

I see that www.tienda.com has now pushed back the estimated date of legalization for the US market - they're accepting pre-orders for "2006-2007"... And what they offer is "boneless Ibérico", which sounds downright intolerable...

It's impossible to know at any given moment in which parador one can eat well and which one will be disappointing. Hotel managers and chefs in this state-run chain are actually like civil servants who get rather frequently shipped from one post in Granada to another in Alarcón, and it's hard to keep track of all of them. There are a number of good, dedicated cooks in the chain who will often pay attention to local produce and culinary traditions and offer something quite attractive - but how can one say if they'll be here this month and not gone the next?

Adolfo is the top place in town - on the pricey side. He has a very nice less formal subsidiary, La Perdiz. The most interesting modern restaurant in Toledo is Casa del Temple, one of the most surprising places in Spain for avant-garde seafood cuisine (unexpected in landlocked Toledo!) by young chef Angel León, one of the participants in Madrid Fusión 2005. And the little, unpretentious, up-to-date Hierbabuena, run by the cousins of Madrid's uncanny Abraham García of Viridiana fame, is a very good place too.