vserna

It's not Steinberger, it's François Simon who was disappointed by Per Se, apparently.

I'm not sure this is entirely the case, John. It does address the overall culinary scene, i.e. away from le Bernardin. I'm not saying the conclusions are correct or incorrect, only that it does look at the problem of a 'national cuisine' from the bottom up. For instance: "In France, Italy, and Spain, food is a matter of cultural pride, connoisseurship is regarded as a virtue, and mealtime is seen as more than just a pit stop. Clearly, the same cannot be said of the US. "The vast majority of Americans have no relationship to food that is pleasurable, healthful, or responsible," says Alice Waters, the owner of Berkeley's legendary Chez Panisse and a woman who can justly be described as the doyenne of American Epicureanism." "Certainly, there are pockets of enlightened eating, but even these leave something to be desired. New York is unquestionably one of the world's finest food cities - in its own way, perhaps even the best. No city does more cuisines with greater aplomb than New York. On the other hand, New York is home to exactly one world-class cheese shop (Murray's, in Greenwich Village). A first-rate patisserie? Forget it. A decent bakery? Perhaps one or two. A noteworthy traiteur? There are a number of excellent Jewish and Italian delicatessens but as prepared foods go, New York is a wasteland when compared not only to Paris but to London and Rome as well."

We Europeans always engage in our own road movies when in the US. And there are many chunks of Route 66 that are easily found today! What remains to be seen is whateverf of gastronomic interest there ever was along Route 66... I guess Simon meant the towns: Chicago, St. Louis, Amarillo...

It's erizos de mar, or, in Asturias (the region where they're the most prized), oricios. Re O'Pazo vs. Combarro (the Ortega y Gasset branch is more attractive in its showy seafood palace style): don't get me wrong, these two are equally brilliant seafood restaurants, and the angulas are the real thing in either one!

(Re-edited to cut down the number of excerpts, for copyright reasons.) Below are excerpts from a long article, 'US leaves a bitter taste', by Michael Steinberger (the award-winning wine columnist for Slate) in the (London) Financial Times today. Here is the full text (subscription may be needed to read it in a couple of days.) .... "François Simon is the influential restaurant critic for Le Figaro and a writer perennially irritated by the complacency of the French culinary establishment. Recently Simon visited the US expecting to return home with a glowing report on the American dining scene. Instead, he flew back to Paris with a distinctly bitter taste in his mouth. He ate at New York's three most acclaimed restaurants, Le Bernardin, Daniel and Per Se, and all three meals fell substantially short of expectations," writes Steinberger. He quotes Simon: "There were some good things, but nothing that was really fantastic. There was something missing." Simon says traveling from Chicago on the famed Route 66 gave him an even ruder shock. Steinberger quotes Simon: "I'd wanted to be able to report that the US is getting better and better as food goes and to tell the French we're not always the best. It was so disappointing to not be able to say that." This opinion "is certainly at odds with the prevailing wisdom in the US, where a self-congratulatory tone permeates the discussion of high-end cooking nowadays," Steinberger says. "Many chefs, restaurateurs and critics say Americans are eating better than ever, US restaurants are better than ever, and the culinary centre of gravity is shifting inexorably in America's direction." He says it's true that for sheer diversity of fare, ethnic and regional, the US is the best place. "But can a country in which probably 95 per cent of the population eats merely to live and has no appreciation of food beyond its ability to satiate the appetite truly be considered a great-food nation?" According to the writer, in France, Italy, and Spain, "food is a matter of cultural pride," and that is not the case in the US. He quotes Alice Waters of Chez Panisse: "The vast majority of Americans have no relationship to food that is pleasurable, healthful, or responsible." Of the "pockets of enlightened eating", the author stresses the importance of New York, "one of the world's finest food cities - in its own way, perhaps even the best." But, he says, there's just one world-class cheese shop in NYC (Murray's, in Greenwich Village), no first-rate patisserie, "perhaps one or two" decent bakeries, no good place for prepared foods. The best thing is the improved, "never more vibrant" restaurant scene. But Steinberger believes the raucous hoopla, turning cooks into "rock stars", is skewing things. "Everywhere, it is the same seductive storyline: haute cuisine is dying in France, and along with the Spaniards, it is us, Americans, unburdened by tradition and always receptive to new ingredients and new ideas, who now have all the energy and creativity at the stove." But Waters believes the hype has got a bit ahead of reality: "We are still learning. We're out of kindergarten." The hype may be hurting the quality of restaurants, Steinberger says: "Recent visits to celebrated New York restaurants have been decidedly unmemorable. None of the meals were bad, but the kitchens all seemed to have been on autopilot. Perhaps the bosses were absent; rare is the top US chef these days who is not juggling multiple restaurants and side ventures. He singlesout Vongerichten, Palmer and DiSpirito as having spread themselves too far and wide, which he says is affecting the quality of their work, while Puck and Batali are among those who "have managed to build empires without sacrificing quality." But the US can still become a "gastronomic superpower" somewhere down the road, the author says.

I seem to remember strange stories, such as that he'd retired to meditate in Nepal or something of that order. Indeed it is. Jesús, in the last few months, has given us some highly exciting news on the gastronomic rejuvenation of Granada. Then again, Jesús lives in Granada...

Well, I'll give you some input since I see Jesús hasn't responded yet. I'm sure he will have a lot more info than me - after all, he lives next door! Dani García has been a good chef, with talent, who at first simply built on the legacy of Sergio López - his predecessor, who earned Tragabuches its Michelin star before leaving three years ago. Little by little, Dani moved into ever more experimental, purely modern cuisine instead of the 'modern cookery with Andalusian roots' favored by Sergio. Last summer, Nick Lander (with his wife, wine writer Jancis Robinson), the Financial Times' restaurant critic, ate there and he wrote a scathing piece about an awful lunch. He criticized the Ferran Adriá wannabes who lack Ferran's genius. I don't know exactly what happened after that internationally loud condemnation, but we learned in November that Dani had accepted the Meliá Don Pepe's offer to launch a new ambitious restaurant there. Then, quite recently, Enrique Bellver, the restaurant critic for Sur, the big Málaga newspaper, ended an article on the future of Tragabuches (currently closed for redecoration) with this meaningful paragraph: "The restaurant's owners say they are sorry not to have been able to reach an understanding on re-directing the menu toward a creative cuisine that would be based on the traditional flavors of Ronda and Andalusia, without any loss of the avant-garde touch that always characterized Tragabuches' cuisine, but outside the sheer experimentation which reigned during Dani's last period there. However, they assert that the return to Tragabuches of Benito Gómez, a young cook who worked there in the past and who later was sous-chef at La Hacienda Benazuza, [the Ferran Adrià-managed restaurant] in Seville, and of Israel Ramos, who until a month ago was one of the outstanding cooks at this Seville establishment which recently received its second Michelin star, will open new perspectives to modern cuisine in Málaga province and in Andalusia. Tragabuches faces a new era, which promises to be much more attractive from a gastronomic viewpoint."

No: we used wooden forks, of course. Not for local color: only wooden forks will hold the little elvers; they would slide down any silver spoon, fork or any other silver utensil. I haven't been to Etxebarri in angula season, only in summer. Or does Arguinzoniz serve them year-round? I'd really like to taste them, even if I'm a bit wary of the concept of applying the heat from embers to angulas. But I guess he knows what he's doing - he's a talented grill chef! Rekondo is a good traditional place, and as Pedro mentions it has one of the most amazing wine lists in Spain (particularly for older Spanish and French vintages). But it's hard to surpass the Madrid quality for raw materials - after all, many top restaurants in Spain, including those in San Sebastián, buy significant amounts of the fish they offer from Pescaderías Coruñesas, the fish emporium and 'redistribution center' in Madrid. BTW, the other great place in Madrid for simply prepared, top-notch fish and shellfish is O'Pazo (same owners as Coruñesas). Best oven-baked wild turbot in the world, as Egon Ronay once emphatically told me. (Cooked with just a drop of vinegar and its own juices.) And the angulas are real (and fresh - no mixing with defrozen ones, a frequent scam these days.) Chez De la Serna will happily offer reservations - for Jan. 6, 2006!

Angulas... Baby eels or elvers. A blast from the past. In the good old times (say, 25 years ago), you'd go to a basic 'tasca' like De la Riva in Madrid and have your angulas in a copious salad - cold, with some olive oil, vinegar and minced garlic. A bit expensive but not at all prohibitive - something a young journalist could easily afford several times a year on those, then, frequent trips to the quirky, idiosyncratic restaurant in its old digs. Nowadays, Spaniards settle for 'gulas', an industrial product: angula-shaped surimi. The taste isn't bad, but the texture (which is 95% of the attraction of elvers) is obviously not there. The Japanese gave us surimi - thanks! - and we have given them most of the angulas, which they buy at impossible prices and ship back home, alive, to become fully grown eels. How impossible? The kilo of angulas has hit 700 euros this Christmastime in Madrid. That's almost $400 a pound. For many years now I only have had one, fixed, yearly rendez-vous with angulas: every January 6, at home. (Then if another occasion pops up, particularly if I'm not paying, I'll take it!) It's one of the gifts brought by the three Wise Men. So today, once again, we had them, just briefly heated (never fried or sautéed!) in individual earthenware 'terrines', with a bit of hot extra virgin olive oil (La Boella, from L'Arboç in southern Catalonia - a 100%varietal of arbosana olives), dried 'guindilla' peppers and minced garlic. Also, steamed blue European lobsters with some homemade mayonnaise and the indispensable Roscón de Reyes for dessert. We drank a 2002 albariño, Veigadares. ¡Salud!

I'd go to La Alcaría de Ramos (on the road to San Pedro de Alcántara, right in the outskirts of Estepona), which serves dinner from 7.30 PM on - very early for Spain! José Ramos used to be the chef at Horcher's old Marbella branch, and he has all those traditional central European recipes down pat, now with a modern and Andalusian twist. Very pleasant place in an old farm house, very nice food. Gazpacho, 'escabeche' fowl salad, St. Peter's fish with creamed spinach, 'zarzuela' stew with fish and shellfish, roast duck with red cabbage, apple compote and 'rösti' potatoes... that kind of a culinary mix. Upscale comfort food in a good way.

I can now report that Pedro and I have agreed to settle our differences over this one at high noon of a day during this month of January, in a shootout at Coque Corral, forks drawn and gunning away. The survivor will report back.

Kabuki, to me, is a Japanese-inspired modern restaurant rather than a Japanese restaurant. It's run by Spaniards. It's a great place, though! Particularly the sushi bar and all the cold foods; the kitchen is more uneven. Asia Gallery has some scrumptious traditional Pekingese and Cantonese dishes, plus great service and a killer setting. They're two very different places. Then again, perhaps Ars Vivendi is No. 1? And... you're wrong about Coque, if you'll allow me to say so. To me it is definitely, after a number of meals (with and without prix fixe menus), the most interesting, personal and talent-laden place in Madrid. I think Bux will concur with me on that one.

Coque is the best restaurant in greater Madrid right now, IMHO. La Broche/Santceloni follow, both with the same peccadillo: a certain lack of consistency. Then it's El Bohío. Among traditional restaurants, my ranking would be Casa d'a Troya, Dantxari, Támara-Lorenzo, Casa Julián, De la Riva. The top international restaurant right now might be Asia Gallery.

Yeah, right, fine idea, and fine day for it. You go first, Pedro...

I'll strongly rebut that these horrid things can be tied into our fine Christmas traditions, Pedro! To me, dusty, gaggingly mouth-drying polvorones are an absolute abomination, really the pits of the pits of Spanish confectionery, and I absolutely refuse to eat them!

The translation as 'nougat' always makes me smile. It's just one little tiny example of the French ethno-centric syndrome that afflicts the gastronomic and culinary language worldwide. French production of 'nougat', a local delicacy from the southeastern part of the country, never was but a tiny fraction of the 'turrón' production in Spain, and for good reason: the Arab tradition of almond-based confections is overwhelming here, while in France it's a bit marginal next to other confectionery traditions, which include the use of butter, whipped cream and other, more northerly delights. Almonds (particularly marcona almonds) are crucial to a good classic turrón or to most north African and Middle Eastern sweets. That said, all the halvas, nougats and turrones in the world have (or had - more on that later) some basic points in common. The American Heritage Dictionary definition of nougat is simple and clear: "A confection made from a sugar or honey paste into which nuts are mixed." The Real Academia Española gives a somewhat more prolix definition - but not drastically different, when you analyze ir: "Dulce, por lo general en forma de tableta, hecho de almendras, piñones, avellanas o nueces, tostado todo y mezclado con miel y azúcar." Translation: "A confection, usually in the form of a tablet, made of almonds, pine nuts, hazelnuts or walnuts, all of it toasted and mixed with honey and sugar." Turrón originated in southeastern Spain, and the classic forms are the 'soft turrón' from Jijona and the 'hard turrón' from Alicante. The ingredients are the same: almonds, honey and egg whites. But in Jijona they soften the almonds with water, then the mixture is ground while undergoing the cooking process, which gives it its golden color: it's a semi-hard, homogeneous paste. In Alicante, the whole almonds are mixed with the honey-and-egg-yolk nixture, which is then cooked dry and hard. It's brittle and the taste and texture turn out to be entirely different from Jijona. At the same time, in medieval Spain, Toledo was a stronghold of Arab and Jewish culinary traditions, but it seems that it was in a convent of Catholic nuns that 'mazapanes', these small morsels of ground almonds and sugar were developed. In more modern times many varieties have been developed; particularly delightful are 'mazapanes' that are filled with 'cabello de ángel' (strands of candied pumpkin). Likewise, the variety of turrones has grown exponentially. Some, like the great 'turrón de yema tostada' (caramelized egg yolk and ground almond turrón), are now considered as quite traditional. In the past decade, chocolate has made big inroads: this is not really turrón, but a tablet the shape and size of turrón, usually with a hard chocolate cover and softer chocolate inside, plus some filling of nuts or fruit. The top Swiss chocolate makers are now producing some very good stuff called 'turrón'; as I mentioned, the chocolate-and-pine nuts 'turrón' made by Neguri in Madrid is very good. Otherwise, look for coconut turrón, hazelnut turrón, coffee turrón, strawberry turrón, pine nut turrón, and of course the classic 'guirlache' - similar to Alicante turrón, but made with caramelized, very dark sugar, and whole almonds, and usually cut thinner than regular turrón. Not to mention the immense collection of mantecados, mantecadas, suspiros, marquesas, yemas and the zillion other sweets (eggs and/or almonds being frequent ingredients) eaten by Spaniards at Christmas/Epiphany time...

Valor has at least one Barcelona outlet that I know of, at Rambla de Catalunya, 46. You can't get much more 'downtown' than that...

Well, in addition to Sampaka and the local Valor outlet, Barcelona is really the capital of Spanish chocolate, so... Xocoa. Shop plus chocolate-intensive restaurant! Carrer d'en Bot, 4. Oriol Balaguer's Estudio de Chocolate y Pastelería, Morales, 21. Oriol is probably Spain's No. 1 chocolate artist right now. For hot chocolate and home-made croissants: Granja Catalana, Muntaner, 409.

Indeed elitist, Bux. Sampaka is fine for fashion victims, no doubt. I'm more of a traditionalist - in chocolate at least, and I've always liked the Valor 70% dark chocolate with orange. Spain has been drinking dark, thick (no milk or cream) chocolate since the mid-16th century. About the 1780 date, I'm skeptical. It's either too new (chocolate was here two centuries earlier) or too old: solid chocolate, the chocolate tablet, was a sensational development, but it only happened in the 19th century, and not in Barcelona, but in Switzerland! OK, I'll give in to your elitist preferences with a couple of addresses of small confectionery or pastry shops where they make their own quality chocolate: La Oriental. Campomanes, 5. La Pajarita. Villanueva, 14. Santa. Serrano, 56. Bon Art. Infanta Mercedes, 31, one flight of stairs up. But, I insist - check out the Valor bonbones!

Let's face it, Butterfly: the Swiss (Lindt, Cailler), the Dutch (Droste), the Belgians (Godiva), the Italians (Perugina), the French (Valrhona) have a stronger tradition than Spain, chocolate-wise. There is however one interesting, artisanal chocolate brand in Spain: Chocolates Valor, founded in 1881, with the factory at Villajoyosa near Alicante. They have several outlets in Madrid, particularly at Fuencarral 128. For a thick hot Spanish-style chocolate with sensational churros, the place of course is Chocolatería de San Ginés, plaza de San Ginés 5.

OK, I'll admit it - Brezhnev was a sybarite himself, while the USSR's people ate cabbage. The big difference of course was that Arzak didn't cook for Franco - he cooked for the general public in a restaurant open to any and all who could afford it. BTW, I am skeptical about the resemblance between those kitchens where they prepared Brezhnev's feasts in porno-gastronomy and Adrià's 'taller'. I think those doctors and technicians were used basically as food tasters were in the Medici court - to make sure that the Secretary General wasn't poisoned...

I dunno, BigboyDan - I sort of have the nagging suspicion that I knew Spain better than you pre-1975, and that I know it better than you post-1975. I don't think you're going to get much mileage out of those "as isolated as any country behind the Iron Curtain" theories. Least of all culinarily. Do you know who got the National Gastronomy Award in 1974 (yes, 1974) as the top chef in Spain? A guy named Juan Mari Arzak. Not exactly a cabbage-and-pork cook in Brezhnev's Kremlin.

In Catalan, this is called 'tonyina', and Ferran didn't invent it - it's been for centuries one of the highlights of that great Spanish trasure trove, particularly from the Alicante and Cádiz coasts, 'salazones' (salt-dried fish). Hugely popular with modern chefs - there's much to exploit in 'tonyina', in 'hueva' (dried roe, often tuna, sometimes more exotic stuff like maruca hake or grey mullet) and in the other classic dried-fish specialties. (See how Santi Santamaria of Can Fabes uses dried tuna guts in stews!)

And your 'backwater' comment with a bunch of laughing emoticons was addressed to me. At any rate, anything that is not a private e-mail is addressed to every eGullet member who is reading this thread, so please don't use that alibi. You've posted every view on Spain now - that it's terrible and that it's great. You have me baffled. Possibly you are somewhat confused yourself. What happened in 1975? Franco died? And that's when Spaniards began eating hot food? Strange, strange...

Mmmm... Backwater? And you visit often? And you survive on tapas and hams? I humbly bow to your superior gastronomic knowledge, sir. PS Do say hello to Alain for me, Victor de la Serna. But, please... Do remind me of my comments on "the possible obsolescence of his gastronomie". I can't seem to find any such comments in my prior posts.