vserna

What a boring, tired cliché this 'service in Spain' thing is becoming... Of course bad service is a present-day bane - but all over the place, France included, not just in Spain! And - can any complaints be made about the service at Diverxo, Senzone, Kabuki Wellington, Etxebarri, and so many other restaurants that should have a Michelin star (or more) if the same standards were applied to Spain as to, say, Tokyo or Las Vegas? Certainly not!

And they didn't rate Diverxo because they couldn't get a reservation... These people are amazingly unprofessional. Of course, within Spain their unfluence has waned. They only sell a very few thousand copies of the Spain-Portugal guide worldwide, but their influence remains notable amid foreign travelers - not among locals.

I am only suggesting that I'm writing from Spain, and old enough, so I have only to rely on my own memories. There are always quite a few lovely vegetable dishes in traditional restaurants on the island.

Warmer weather? Spain was still in the northern hemisphere, last time I checked. Oh! You mean Down Under? This is a good recipe for sardines, by the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database...nes_12175.shtml

a. You're going to the wrong restaurants. b. That's an original explanation, but untrue. There were far fewer vegetable dishes in Spanish restaurants in times of poverty (i.e., basically a half-century ago - too long ago for most people on this board to remember) than there are now.

OK with me, John - anything but clumsy contraptions like 'technoemotional'. It's not even a matter of culinary accuracy any longer. It's a matter of linguistic good taste. And I do care about language. I've made a living out of it - be it English, French or Spanish! I like it simple and pithy.

It's not so much what word I would use: it's that I wouldn't use this clumsy philological construction. An example: "So, you want to go for Chinese, or for pizza instead?" "Nah, tonight I feel like some technoemotional stuff." That's the kind of dialogue that'll never happen. Regular people don't take to that kind of neologisms. It's just so pompous and cumbersome that it makes me cringe. Sorry about that. One of my Catalan colleagues proposes, since the idea is to go beyond the now-old nouvelle cuisine, to simply call it 'neococina' or 'neocuisine'. I don't know - but at least it's shorter and sounds better. Heck, even 'molecular' is simpler. Verbiose complications should be shunned - in literature as well as in cookery. Or so I've always believed. OTOH, Arenòs' whole concept and most of his decalogue also seem flawed to me, for one basic reason: all of the great culinary movements in the West (and, I'm sure, in Asia as well) during the past 100 years have been both technical and emotional, from Escoffier to Fernand Point to Troisgros, Chapel and the whole 'nouvelle cuisine' gang. So the technique/emotion combination doesn't really set the Adrià school apart from others. It's not as simple as that. And I also believe that Arenòs' tenets are usually applicable to 'nouvelle' as well as to the current Adrià-inspired trends.

Yes, it's logical that Pau Arenòs would defend the word . He invented it! Feel free to like it. But do let others, with a different sensitivity to language and taste, be appalled by it and say so. It's called free speech.

Risks? Well, then Madrid must be in Catalonia now. Or at least an honorary Catalan city. Go to Diverxo, Senzone, Sudestada, Viridiana or Alboroque, and you'll see all sorts of risks...

Omigod. Ridiculous culinary newspeak has made it out of Spain. The end of the world is nigh.

Just ask those sushi places with three Michelin stars in Tokyo... You don't seem to understand - perhaps because of your national preferences - the greatness of simplicity (of DIFFICULT simplicity) in today's cuisine.

"A good piece of fresh fish is not a gastronomic dish." Are you ever wrong!

Willy Moya has moved to the new Poncio on Cartuja island in the Guadalquivir river. You can book a table directly through their web site: http://www.ponciorestaurantes.com/cartuja/home.html

There are certain parts of Spain where Michelin's proverbial stinginess with stars for this country's restaurants (just a few more than for Switzerland) transforms itself into generosity. The coastal, touristic areas in particular.

1) Please re-read mielimato's opening post - it certainly refers to the present state of affairs, not to culinary evolution: "Currently, Spain has arguably the best seafood and pork products in the Western world. Yet when it comes to how vegetables are treated, it is a sad state of affairs." 2) I first arrived in New York in mid-August, 1963. I just happen to be in New York right now - 45 years later. I can't tell you how much the culinary scene has changed since that day. But you already know that, don't you? So - what's so extraordinary about Spain's (or any other country's) culinary scene changing drastically over 30 years? There's more money, more health awareness, more product availability. Back in 1980, there was a Barcelona teenager named Ferran Adrià who hardly knew how to fry an egg. And back then, the Michelin guide was still warning tourists to be wary of that dreadful, olive-oil based Spanish cuisine...

You have to find better markets, mielimato. The Boquería, for instance. And there are no better green peas anywhere in the world than the Maresme's in early spring. Also, I'd say that you certainly have to meet friends who cook better at home than the dreadful stuff you are reporting! By the way: noweher in your first post did you mention you were talking about home cooking. (Generalizations are possible vis-'a-vis restaurants, but they are a lot riskier in the wildly varied world of real-life home cooking.) And nowhere in my first post did I mention or infer anything about your nationality, so I have strictly no idea where you're coming from on that score. When I say 'to you Americans', I mean the vast majority of eGullet participants, of course, who aren't used to broad beans or courgettes. For your information: Zorzal, Naveira do Mar, Prada a Tope, Can Punyetes, Támara-Casa Lorenzo, El Oso, El Cardeño, Platina Café, Sylkar, Samm and Aldaba are anything but "cutting edge restaurants". They're as down home and traditional as they come. One final point: I disagree with your notion that green vegetables must necessarily be undercooked to be tasty and attractive. That's a modern/Asian concept that's very widespread these days, but once you've tasted a great Basque menestra you will know that 'al dente' is not the only acceptable culinary proposition in the vegetable world.

Here's one from a local newspaper in Madrid: http://www.elmundo.es/metropoli/2008/02/20...1203514615.html

I don't know what 'endemic restaurants' are (meaning the plague is permanent, perhaps?), but these are just some of the architecturally interesting restaurants in Madrid: Pandelujo, Horcher, Orixe, Alboroque, Santceloni, Asador de la Esquina, Sula, Wagaboo (chain), Barriga Llena, Tanino, Xaman Ek, Botín, La Terraza del Casino, Zorzal, La Tasquita de Enfrente, Astrid & Gastón, 99 Sushi Bar, No-Do, Pizzeria Huracanes, Peggy Sue's Diner, Rubaiyat (Baby Grill and Porto), La Hacienda Argentina, Teatro Real, Chilango, Tepic, Fish Club, Dassa Bassa, Le Garage, Ramses, Pink Sushiman, Teatriz.

I couldn't disagree more with the whole subject, and I've only been reviewing restaurants for national Spanish newspapers for the past 27 years. The main distinguishing feature of vegetables in Spain's cuisines is that they tend to be served separately, often as first courses, and not so much as garnishes to meat or fish dishes. And indeed we have this mean, mean tendency to add some cubes of Ibérico ham (rich in monounsaturated fat and therefore 'almost like a vegetable oil', for those who want to know about these things). But otherwise, the use of vegetables in Spanish restaurants, both of the traditional and the modern persuasions, has increased about tenfold since I first began covering the scene here, and vegetables have always been a major part of the Spanish heritage of home cookery. So in Spain we do, regularly and copiously, eat a huge array of vegetables, some quite uncommon: borage, Jerusalem artichokes, fresh regular artichokes (possibly the best in the world), twice-peeled broad beans (that's fava beans to you Americans), wild and cultivated green asparagus, tender monster-size white asparagus, fresh green and mangetout (that's snow peas to you Americans) peas, cardoons, bladder campions (the delicate wild green known as 'colleja' in Spanish), blinks (the mineral-tasting, tiny cousin of the watercress called 'corujas ' or 'pamplinas' in Spanish), chard stalks, fried aubergines (that's eggplant to you Americans), courgette crisps or stews (that's zucchini to you Americans), sautéed spinach with pine nuts and raisins, collard greens, cauliflower au gratin - not to mention Spain's unique trove of dried vegetables, or pulses if you will: kidney beans of all persuasions, green or brown lentils and chick peas (that's garbanzo beans to you Americans). Not to mention rice, rice and more rice! Some notable vegetable dishes I've reviewed in recent months in Madrid restaurants include the 'puerros acompotados con espinacas tiernas, piñones y sal de jamón' (compote of leeks with tender spinach, pine nuts and ham salt), at Senzone; the aubergine tempura, at La Musa de Espronceda; the 'pisto manchego' (La Mancha's ratatouille - one of many La Mancha vegetable dishes!) with poached free range eggs at Zorzal; the Spanish 'toltilla' (a dim sum of poached onion and potatoes, quail's egg and an emulsion of red chilies and pinto beans, acoompanied by tea aromatized with rum, coconut and chilies), at Diverxo; the dry-fried Padrón green peppers, at Naveira do Mar; the wide roast Bierzo peppers, at Prada a Tope; the 'calçotada' (fire-charred tender scallions, eaten with a spicy almond.-based 'romescu' dip), at Can Punyetes; the Palencia 'menestra' (fresh mixed vegetable stew), at Támara-Casa Lorenzo; the fresh sautéed Asturias 'arbeyos' (green peas), at El Oso; the León-style, courgette-based 'pisto', at El Cardeño; the spinach-filled 'croquetas' at Platina Café; the Russian salad, at Sylkar and at Samm; the white bean-and-mixed vegetables soup, at Aldaba...

It's a partnership of Gold Gourmet with a veteran fishmonger in the neighborhood who (I believe) had lost his lease and has excellent purveyors. So Gold Gourmet provided the shop and he provided the contacts: excellent solution all around. Some very good stuff.

If you like that style, then a visit to Diverxo in Madrid should be a must...

As a matter of fact, Mugaritz only garnered its second star in the 2006 edition of the Michelin guide.

I think you're right - the reviewer happened to taste the tapas when freshly made and they were decent. He returned after the review was published and did notice that they had become stale. Only then did he find out that they only cook tapas TWICE A DAY - then just reheat them! However, you should re-read Lerena's review and note that there's not a single plaudit in it - it's strictly descriptive. It's important not to interpret reviews beyond what they actually say. There's not always a fine restaurant or tapas bar to review every week. BTW, Paco, I find it slightly curious that after so many fine revelations which you say you have collected from Metrópoli, you only post about it on eGullet the day when you claim to have been 'disappointed'! How about a nice word or two when you do discover the next great restaurant in this magazine - just for the sake of balance?

Figón del Huécar is currently the top place in Cuenca - run by the daughter of Figón de Pedro's founder. http://www.figondelhuecar.com/english/rest.html Nelia is an excellent place. Another good choice in the Sierra: La Muralla at Cañete.

Sudestada, Diverxo, Oam Thong, La Gorda provide no-holds-barred spices and chilies for those who love them - certainly not any tamer than anything in New York, London or Hong Kong! Sudestada's opening olf the new, larger place at Calle Ponzano 85 (a block away from the new, interesting, Japanese-Peruvian 99 Sushi Bar) seems to have been delayed. They're still working on the premises.