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Bux: Galicia's only sophisticated cooking traditions are those developed since the Middle Ages in the many convents and monasteries in this isolated region. There are, from the 18th century, a few interesting chocolate-based savory dishes amid those recipes of Galician 'cocina monacal', including one that's spread thgroughout Spain as this country's signature chocolate dish: perdiz con chocolate (partridge with a chocolate sauce). Pedro identifies it with Toledo, but the Toledo traditional recipe is stewed partridge with vegetables.

Very little terroir in white pigs used for regular Serrano - they eat normal feed, no acorns or anything; they don't cavort in the mountains. But curing the meat is paramount. The pigs are sacrificed in November-December, and they are cured in open-windowed rooms in mountainous areas like Teruel with constant currents of the very cold, very dry (crucial, this!) Spanish winter winds. Can this be replicated? No doubt. I'd say the Atlas mountains of Morocco would be ideal. I'm not sure they would be enthused with 'khalufo', i.e. pigs, over there...

I'd say the triangle moves west somewhat: it would comprise Segovia, Avila and Arévalo, a small town northeast of Avila where suckling pig is a religion. Two very good places for it: El Tostón de Oro (what else?) and, particularly, La Pinilla. And while we're at it, we could complete the trilogy with the third great roast of Spain: milk-fed kid...

Yes, that's it. It doesn't matter, since 'white' pigs are basically identical. This year the first USDA-approved slaughterhouses will make it possible to sacrifice Iberian pigs and to start exporting the cured hams in 2005.

Similar level. Same raw materials, same roasting technique by a veteran 'maestro asador' who's been repeating the same ritual gestures for 30 years... I am pretty versed by now on the subject of places where 'lechazo' is good: while Terete is a great, wonderfully atmospheric place, it's still outside the 'lamb's triangle' which goes from Burgos to Sepúlveda to Segovia. What's best about Terete is that the menu is a diverse one, with the great Riojan vegetables among other things. Same with José María in Segovia or the Mesón de la Villa in Aranda, where they are also masters of another great Castilian technique: pickled, cold fish or meats ('escabeches'), while José María also makes a fearsome suckling pig. In the 'triangle', the asadores are much more basic: a few first courses, a mixed salad, roast lamb cut into quarters (and, sometimes, grilled milk-fed lamb's cutlets, 'chuletillas de lechazo'). The greatest Castilian-style roast lamb I've ever eaten has been (several times) in one of those very basic places: Asador Zute el Mayor, a.k.a. Tinín, in the small medieval town of Sepúlveda. A primitive treat in a 15th century building. I know people who drive 700 miles from Paris to eat there...

Magnolia: This is a Catalan recipe (with a Catalan name, 'estofat de conill'), not a Basque one. The Catalans and Galicians have a long tradition of cooking with chocolate, as of course the Mexicans do; the Basques like their chocolate sweet...

Except for imported New Zealand lamb, which I think is older, few lambs older than four months are marketed ('cordero recental'). But in some regions 'cordero pascual' up to 12 months old is still popular. The youngest lamb. 'cordero lechal', is easily the most prized one.

It's easy to find here; great ibérico is another thing. It's also illegal to ship it to the US. As reported last year, ibérico will be available in the US in 2005, when a long-standing ban on Spanish pork products due to the presence of African swine fever in Spain will finally be fully lifted. It was lifted a couple of years ago throughout Europe, after the fever was confirmed as having disappeared, but the USDA is always slower to respond. The ban's already been lifted, BTW, for some pork products, including ham from 'white' pigs (i.e., your regular international pig), called 'jamón serrano'.

Bob: As stated in my post above, 'churra' breed milk-fed lambs ('cordero lechal' or 'lechazo') are slaughtered at the tender age of six weeks and weigh about 18 lbs, while the older, 'manchega' or 'merino' breed lambs ('cordero recental', sometimes called 'pascual'), ideal for pot roasts and stews, are slaughtered at four months and weigh about 30 lbs. Frankly, the 120-lb animals you describe wouldn't qualify as 'lamb' in Europe - more like English mutton!

We forewarned. Small, cramped tables, high noise level, and the service tends to collapse on weekend nights when the place is packed. OTOH, Alberto Chicote is a pioneer of fusion cuisine - in his case, essentially Japanese-Andalusian - in Spain, and he cooks quite a few interesting things, like his red tuna tataki with 'ajo blanco' (garlic-and-almond gazpacho). But on a Saturday... watch out! The new Mosaiq (exceptionally fresh and fragrant Eastern Mediterranean-Arab cuisine in high-fashion surroundings) is an option if you're looking for something exotic. And if you don't mind the utterly minimalistic - i.e., penniless - decoration, a very funky and endearing place is Gumbo, where New Orleans-born Matthew Scott, his head covered with a pirate-style bandanna, makes the best fried green tomatoes in continental Europe. Plus the rest, of course - as Hank Williams used to sing, "jambalaya and a crawfish pie and filé gumbo"... (Mean cocktails to boot.)

I always thought these people at the Posada de Javier were a bit eccentric, and if they serve merino instead of churro, then they are somewhat wacky, if you ask me. For these reasons: 1) there are very few merino sheep in Segovia, and they'll have to travel 300 miles, to Extremadura, to get them; 2) the small, lean churro lamb is ideal for the Castilian style of roasting extremely young (six weeks maximum), milk-fed lamb, while the larger merino is less tasty at that age but instead makes a fine, flavorful roast in the more familiar (to Britons, Frenchmen and other lamb eaters) format that we call 'recental' in Spain, i.e. up to four months of age. I like merino for that type of larger (30 pounds instead of 18) lamb that resembles fine French 'pré-salé' more than it does Castilian lamb, and can probably be successfully cooked in more diverse ways. But it's simply a different animal for a different cuisine that I associate with Extemadura, not with Castile. The merino (most famous, of course, for its wool, here and in Australia) has been successfully promoted as a gourmet breed by an important merino flock owner, Alberto Oliart - the only man in Spain, and perhaps the world, who is both a notable poet and a former secretary of Defense! The great torta del Casar cheese comes from merino sheep milk, of course. (This breed gives very little milk, so it's pretty precious.) While we're on the subject, there are a diversity of gastronomically interesting breeds of sheep in Spain. The other main ones (I'm no great specialist!) are the manchega breed in Castilla-La Mancha (giving us Manchego cheese and the roasts and pot-roasts of the older lamb, merino-style), the castellana breed throughout southern Castilla y León (also good milk for cheese - the Castellano and Zamorano hard cheeses, similar to Manchego), and the latxa breed in the Basque mountains - small, hardy, and the main provider of milk for the sensational Idiazabal cheese (extremely nutty and complex, both the usual smoked version and the superior unsmoked one.) See how some of these sheep (adult ones!) look here: http://4w.cajaduero.es/agro/public/Cap3ov2.htm And the other breed, the Basque latxa sheep, in their beautiful Pyreneees surroundings (now you know why Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming used to be full of Basque shepherds...): http://www.mendikoi.net/artzaieskola/resumen2.htm

Nope. Just one. The others are 'Asador de Aranda' - the fashionable ones. There's also a couple of of outlets of 'Asador Aranduero' - the semi-fashionable ones. Asador Tierra Aranda lives in utmost, glorious anonymity, which is just as well with us, its faithful customers...

For more than 15 years, when I've felt a craving for great Castilian-style roast lamb in Madrid my most frequent choice has been the utterly unfashionable Asador Tierra Aranda (calle Padilla 56, phone 914 013 826). Like other 'asadores', it's the local outlet of a restaurant group headquartered in Aranda de Duero, the heart of Castilian lamb country, on the Duero river 100 miles north of the capital. Rather dark, cramped, with uncomfortable wood-and-leather rustic Castilian chairs, some photos of Aranda and the Castilian plateau as the only 'decoration', a middle-class public with no taste for modernity. But a good semicircular baker's clay oven and total reliability of the produce, most of it sent down from Aranda, including the delicious shallow, round, crusty local bread, the 'torta arandina'. Today, we had the usual, reliable fare, as good as ever for a family lunch. The usual amuse-gueules: uncommonly tasty, deep-fried Burgos black sausage (studded with rice), a salad of roast red peppers, some just-fried small 'croquetas' filled with ham-studded béchamel, thinly sliced Ibérico ham, and the redoubtable 'picadillo', minced pork loin that's marinated in paprika and herbs, then fried in olive oil. Then the two quarters of small, milk-fed baby lamb of the 'churra' breed, which have been roasted/baked in the low-heat wood-fired baker's oven for hours, deftly doused with a little water every time it's needed, so it won't dry up. The texture resembles only that of some méchoui lambs in north Africa - so tender you almost don't need a knife, but intensely tasty. This is traditionally accompanied by a perfect (because it's lip-smackingly fresh, as is the norm here) Spanish salad of romaine lettuce, tomatoes and onions in an olive oil and red wine vinegar vinaigrette. The restaurant has a very conventional, truly boring wine list. That hasn't changed, either... Viña Pedrosa Reserva (DO Ribera del Duero) and Remelluri Crianza (DOC Rioja) are probably the best bets. Some traditional home-made desserts. The 'flan', caramel custard, is promisingly irregular in appearance, with holes and cracks: usually a good sign. And indeed it's way above average. Acceptable coffee. Price per person, with tax and tip: 35 euros. Spanish comfort food, this.

It costs a lot more than $30 to produce a bottle of Château d'Yquem, what with the huge cost of its labor-intensive viticulture yielding a glass of wine per vine, and that after five or six 'tries' or separate pickings. Ditto for the greatest Trockenbeerenauslesen or Eisweine. Otherwise, there is a thing called 'the market', and if there is demand of some wines at some price points, the market rules. It doesn't cost more to build a Mercedes than an Audi, but for equally sized cars the Mercedes will always be more expensive: the market!

A couple more names, Paco: In Las Palmas, Cho Zacarías (modern Canary Islands cuisine: chicken 'brik' with cinnamon, albacore filet somethered in onions). In Arucas, the town renowned for its rum distillery, Mesón de la Montaña (traditional Canary cuisine: cherne al ajillo con langostinos, which is jewfish sautéed in garlic with striped shrimp; depending on season, either baby lamb, suckling pig or kid, which wew call cabrito on the Spanish mainland and Canarians call ‘baifo’). And down south in beachland, at San Agustín beach, there's a peculiar Austrian doing what he calls 'adventure cuisine' in a restaurant called Bamira: http://www.bamira.com/ Work on your German: as you can seee, it's pretty useful!

Just one really expensive item at Casa d'a Troya these days: the lobster 'salpicón' (salad) at 40 euros per portion - due to the fact that the price of European lobster (Homarus vulgaris, the blue one) has shot up so much in comparison with the widely available Canadian or Maine lobster (H. americanus, the greenish one, when it's uncooked). And Pilar Vila only uses indigenous fish and shellfish...

Everything very good; a few things (chanterelle toast, string bean soup, sardines, turbot, pork 'papada', rice pudding) oustanding.

Couple of nifty Japanese places in Barcelona, though. It's true that overall the international scene in Madrid is superior. Speaking of Mexicans, we have our (vast) share of rather inauthentic Tex-Mex taco joints, but also a few serious ethnic places, including the best two Mexicans I've ever been to in Europe: Taquería del Alamillo (don't let the touristy look deceive you - Jalisco's young Rita Sánchez cooks up a storm, and has been to the Madrid restaurant scene what Zarela Martínez meant to the NYC scene years ago!) and Entre Suspiro y Suspiro. Las Mañanitas is not too far behind, with rather unusual dishes like birria de cordero (lamb stew).

No taste deficiency in the terrific dish of braised pork jowl ('papada de cerdo' - an unusual cut outside of Spain) Sergi is serving starting next week, and which he served us as a preview (pretaste?) for lunch a couple of days ago. He made us taste some of his current stuff, and it was excellent in conception and taste definition, I thought. The menu: sea urchin with 'pa amb tomàquet' (toast with tomato, of course); a fun 'sushisashimi', chanterelle toast with blue cheese and spinach; string bean soup with cockles and potato custard; roast sardines with crunchy fried egg; mock tapioca of pike, smoked eel and beetroot ice cream; home-made potato, sweet potato and black olive gnocchi; braised turbot with rooster crests; duck's liver 'crémant' with roast black pudding; rice pudding with mangoes; almond gubblos (?) with saffron and chocolate.

Heston Blumenthal had a spectacular demonstration Tuesday evening, which I couldn't follow because I had less pleasant deadline pressures, but Nicholas Lander of the Financial Times attended and told me Heston was brilliant. So whoever told you he wasn't on the program must have been smoking funny cigarettes. Then again, the event was entirely sold out and they weren't letting anyone in.

You mean more knowledge mars your enjoyment?

Yes, of course. Is Sonoma different from Napa? Very few, almost none, pedro ximénez vineyards in Jerez; no palomino vineyards at all in Montilla-Morieles: everything is pedro ximénez here. Finos from Montilla are not fortified; those from Jerez are.

Being a regular (meaning: non-food) journalist and an increasingly involved winemaker makes it impossible for me to find the time. But there's always eGullet...

Quite a few in English and French, but also spread through lots of magazine and newspaper archives... Sorry. Then again, restaurant reviews have a limited shelf life.

Just a small point: Toro Albalá is not sherry. It's Montilla-Moriles. (Another appellation, a couple of hundred miles inland from Jerez.)