Bux

I'm quite sure we passed an Asador de Aranda, but I can only vaguely remember it was to the north of the pl. de Catalunya. I'm not even sure if North is the right direction. The Guia Campsa divides Barcelona into two maps, labeled east and west section, but the north arrow on each map would indicate these are north and south sections. Standing with your back to the harbor, the restaurant would be a few blocks right of the plaça.

My educated guess is that and my education came here on eGullet. After referring to a dish that was flavored with chorizo or chorizo fat, I was told the dish was actually flavored with the pepper used to flavor chorizos. Agreed, a good manzanilla doesn't taste as if it has 15% alcohol. Then again, I think most people take a certain kind of roughness as a sign of alcohol. My wife will refer to one wine as being more alcoholic tasting than another with full knowledge that the percent is about the same in each. She isn't trying to say one has more alcohol, it's just that one tastes like alcohol, or maybe it doesn't taste like alcohol, but offers a sensation we associate with the taste of raw alcohol. Raw is probably the operative word here. There's a decidedly finished quality to the wine. I was so surprised at the taste of salt the first time I had a manzanilla. On and off we've tried drinking them in NY. It's not the same. I wonder if it's place or more simply that the success of the wine depends on freshness after it's bottled.

I believe the actual meal cost is 155 €. Wine is additional, as is mineral water and coffee. A couple can get out for perhaps 200 € a head if you don't drink much. There are plenty of wines for under 30 €. Silly Disciple negleted to mention that plenty of people sent in a reservation request the same day the reservations were opened, yet didn't get a reservation. If you have to ask when to book at elBulli, you're not going to get a reservation. By milk fed lamb, I believe you're more accurately speaking about suckling lamb, which I believe is cordero lechal (Expect Pedro to arrive with the correct spelling any minute. I will continue to let him embarrass me by exposing my illiteracy in Spanish. Hell, I'll let him correct my English as well as long as he continues to introduce me to Madrid's less known, but exceptional worthy restaurants.) Milk fed lamb might suggest older lamb that's been fed a milk diet. These are exceptionally young lambs that are still suckling. Think of veal or suckling piglets. Barcelona is not particularly a place known for such a dish, though I suspect it may be available at one of the asadors, restaurants that specialize in roast meats. Silly Disciple give lie to his name with his good suggestions. Much of the information you want is already in the forum. Members are more likely to post information that is fresh in their mind than to rehash what they've already posted. You can eat espensively or inexpensively in Barcelona and you can eat poorly or well all along the range. Tapas are inexpensive, but dining on tapas can be deceptively expensive if your appetite is large. I think guides such as those of Michelin and Campsa are often more useful at the low end than at the high end. It often seems as if everyone knows the great restaurants. It's the local neighborhood restaurant recommendations that are often most useful from Michelin and Campsa. A good guide for the tourist is to avoid most places that are in the areas you're likely to be in. They are often tourist traps, and the best restaurants in these parts of town are those that cater to the well heeled gastronome. Restaurants generally (always by law?) post a menu outside of the restaurant. If you speak Catalan, look for a restaurant that doesn't post menus for tourists. Barring that, if you speak Spanish, look for a restaurant that offers a Spanish menu for tourist use. A restaurant with an English menu is more likely to be catering to tourists at the low end. At the high end, it's a different story as the very best multistarred restaurants all cater to international gastrotourism and will have menus in English and waiters who speak English. English is the lingua franca of both business and gastronomy in Europe. The Germans and Japanese order in English along with the Americans and British.

I don't see the potential conflict. I don't see an ethical lapse. As for your two potential versions, the first should be seen as a conflict of interest and the second is far more condescending to the restaurant at hand. Robuchon was pretty well acknowledged as the best chef in the world at his peak of influence. Her relationship to him is incidental in the way she mentions his name. Robuchon was so far above the fray of "who's the best chef" that being second to him at his peak is far less of a second best situation than your number two version where it seems a mere mortal might serve better razor clams. I agree with Russ that there's no comparison to the way Hesser mentioned Jean-Georges in the review of Asiate in the NY Times. I am less inclined to find the name dropping objectionable. It's unnecessary, but given Wells' connection to Robuchon and his legendary status, I can understand the implication in her mind. I also happen to believe that most people who read the article in the NY Times or the IHT are going to know and understand both the nature of her relationship to Robuchon and his place in the pantheon of chefs and read the reference to mean only god could serve better razor clams. Those people who don't know or understand that relationship aren't really serious about food, or need to do some reading. To object on the basis that not everyone can be expected to know that at one point in her already established career, she tied herself to Robuchon, would be to call for a dumbing down of all criticism and reporting. There are limits to the need for disclosure.

And I am of the opinion that the bureaucrats in Strasbourg have already affected the nature and quality of the cheese in France as well as the chocolate. Of course technology and other larger changes are likely to have an even greater affect in the future.

I concur with the recommendation to buy Forge de Laguiole brand implements. It is also their factory that is designed by Philippe Starck and worth visiting as suggested by Robert. It's worth noting that they also have a nice showroom in downtown Laguiole, as much as Laguiole could be said to have a downtown. If I recall correctly, the showroom in town is also designed by Starck. The factory also had knives with slight imperfections that were being sold as seconds, although the downtown showroom offered some special prices as well. I really can't remember if either location had a generally bigger selection of knives or not when we were there. As for them being the real ones, I believe they are the only ones completely fabricated in Laguiole from start to finish, but there are a number of companies making knives and all of them entitled to stamp their products as "Lagioule." I don't know if there's a variation in price between buying Forge de Laguiole knives in Laguiole and other parts of France, but there's a difference in price between brands. Conques is probably the major nearby site to visit in terms of sightseeing. South of Laguiole is the town of Beaucastel with the lovely Vieux Pont hotel and restaurant. It's not quite on a par with Michel Bras, but it's remained a favorite of ours over the years. Edit: Yes Grace, le Vieux Pont is in Belcastel. I'm still suffering jet lag I suppose from my return from Madrid.

I think this is good advice in certainly many, probably most and maybe all of the new creative restaurants in Spain. Of course it involves a willingness to eat many different foods and could be a problem for those with allergies or other intolerences.

. . . . Manzanilla is one of the most delicious and food perfect wines in the world. . . . . ←

As you may have noticed, we've been there since I first posted. I knew of Les Cols from it's web site and from a post here on this site. It, and a few other choices near Olot and Ripoll would have been excellent choices for choices for us, but we wanted to get a bit off the beaten path, so the fact that Xesc was out of the way was part of its appeal to us. I can imagine that in November it might not have had the charm we found at the end of May, but the dining room has a nice fireplace. There were not a lot of diners when we were there. There was a table of two and a table of six, but the table of six were quite "festive." In fact, they made me think of how Americans are usually singled out for being loud. In fact, that usually happens in France. It's the French who are quiet. Then again, in a bar in Madrid, the owner was telling someone at our table about a party of Spaniards who were complaining about a table of Frenchmen who were making too much noise. We all thought that was much like hearing about a man biting a dog. Aside from a comfortable bed and a good shower, the rooms upstairs at Xesc are rather spartan, but we enjoyed that too. I'm sure our choice was a very subjective one. The more objective choices would have been Les Cols, Ca L'Enric or maybe even one of Rogelio's suggestions. I suspect all them would have been the right choices.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Palafrugell is in Catalunya north of Barcelona on the coast. As an English language web site, we have a great many readers who are not all that familiar with Spain, its geography and language. By pasas I believe you mean raisins, which is what we call dried grapes in English. I also assume you mean grape and not grapefruit. Grapes are uva in Castilian, but I don't know what they call them in Catalan. I think grapefruits are aranja in Catalan and pomelo in Castilian, although we call another fruit "pomelo" in English. Throw in the fact that my wife's Spanish is from Latin America and you can understand why we are sometimes surprised at what we get when we order. Jamon is pernil in Catalunya, but pernil is fresh leg of pork in Puerto Rico as well as in shops in latino markets in NYC. The butifarra dulce sounds interesting, though I'm not sure it would be to my taste. In Madrid, we had some morcilla that was heavily flavored with cinnamon. It was interesting, but I found the cinnamon overpowering. Requeson is a fresh cheese. Probably very good with the berries. Is that your intention?

Tocinillo is, I think, a custard dessert, fairly similar to a flan. And just like flan, there's a thousand variations. Not sure if there's any particular characteristic to it, but hopefully other people in the forum (pedro? victor?) will be able to tell us more. ← I believe Tocino is fat back or uncured bacon. I assume Tocinillo, the custard dessert, more often described as tocinillo de cielo, gets it's name from its heavenly richness. I can't recall how it differs from other custards such as flan.

Hoffman seems to have a classroom on the ground floor. We passed by several times, I think it was on our route to La Vinya del Sinyor, but never managed to catch a demonstration in session. Do you get gawkers on the street? Can one actually see anything from the street? We did catch groups of students hanging out in the street on a break, but never spotted a familiar face.

Peu de porc, espardenyes i botifarra negra. Apparently, this is not all that untraditional a dish. We were told that the only creative aspect for which the chef takes credit is combining both pig's feet and blood sausage.

Fresh milk (raw unpasteurized milk) is virtually illegal not to mention very difficult to find in the US.

We didn't ask for the recipe, but I suspected there were tomatoes as well as strawberries in the soup.

A large portion of pig's feet, blood pudding and sea cucumber proved to be quite the dish, after a day of much sun while sightseeing and through the windshield while driving west from Roses. We did make it to La Fonda Xesc in Gombrèn and were rather charmed. My eyes were bigger than my stomach but it was a meal I enjoyed. The restaurant has rooms above and in spite of the fact that noise from the corridors and adjoining rooms carried about as well as in a Japanese Ryokan with paper walls, we enjoyed a good sleep. The bed was good, as were the towels and the water was hot, but it's the food that's worth noting. We started with a very successful and refreshing strawberry gaspacho. Unless I hear from one of our Spanish members, I'll assume this was a creative adaptation. Of course, I run the risk of having Victor or Pedro remind me that I still know nothing about Spanish food. Whether it was that the berries were not ripe, or that the chef achieved a perfect balance with the vinegar, the soup was not at all sweet and a good dollop of cucumber and garlic set it all off very nicely. The rice with squid, artichoke and black trumpet mushrooms was certainly one of the best, if not the best rice dish I'd ever had. Later our waiter was to tell us that Santi Santamaria has said that this dish at Xesc was the best rice dish in all of Catalunya. In principle I can't support such hyperbole, but I certainly can't argue the point after having had the dish. Unfortunately courses in Spain can be enormous and I was unable to stop eating this rich unctuous rice. I was quite sated by the time my main course arrived. Needless to say this one was way off the charts in terms of richness and unctuousness. Had it also not been intriguing and delicious, or had I had the option of ordering it again in a week or a month, I think I might have just gone for a walk in the fresh air right then. Under the circumstances however, I could only finish about half, which by itself seemed a reasonably sized course of such food. I could only offer my apologies to the chef and go to bed without dessert, but pleased to have had a chance to taste all that I had that evening. It was a perfect fit in our gastronomic experiences.

I have to admit that the tasting menu was very tempting, but the last time we were there we felt we short changed ourselves by not having enough, so we ordered the surprise menu which had more courses than the seasonal menu or the tasting menu. Had the pigeon not been so exceptional, I would have said the meal should have ended with the roast pork. On a personal note, I have to say that overload didn't kick in until several days later, after elBulli, when after eating my way through what may have been a huge plate of the best rice I've ever had, I delved into a dish of pig's feet, black sausage and espardeynes. I don't think I got more than halfway through that before I realized I had probably also had too much sun that day. More about that meal later, on another thead, but I have no sympathy for Luis, who on any given day is likely to be thousands of miles closer to Can Roca as well as a number of other coveted tables.

Nine pours - 52 € per person. We didn't set any price range, only that they be Spanish. Edit: There was also a cava poured as we sat and enjoyed with the amuses, or what they call "snacks" and "tapas." That wasn't listed on our printout and I believe it was complimentry.

Last we had the suprise menu and asked them if they could pair Spanish wines for each course, which they did very well. Of particular note were the sweet wines for foie gras, dessert and another course along the way. The dinner, by the way, was simply exceptional. It is clearly a destination restaurant of the first order. About halfway through dinner I asked Mrs. B to name her three best restaurants in Spain, just off the top of her head and without much thought. Can Roca was among them. Interestingly enough her other two choices matched mine as well. Only one of them has three stars from Michelin. They may all be top rated by Campsa however. Of course we all have short memories and Can Roca, being at hand, had an advantage perhaps. I'd only note that some of the best courses had yet to come including what, in some ways, may have been the best roast pig we've ever had. I was sure the next meat course would pale by comparison, but we also may have had some of the tastiest pigeon we've ever had. The rice accompaning the slices of red breast meat had more pigeon flavor than some pigeons I've had in New York. More later and likely I'll want to say more about dining in Spain at the top and in the middle in general, but we're off for Roses and most likely off the net for the next few days. I just needed to pay hommage to last night's dinner. Both the food and service are as good as one could hope to find anywhere.

It's not often that I read about anything that makes me look forward to returning home from Europe for gastronomic reasons, but this was good news when read in the International Herald Trib. I assume this means the state must treat all wine commerce equally. I suppose they could ban all direct shipments to consumers from wineries or ban or deliveries from retailers, but shouldn't it treat all national retailers as it treats local retailers in terms of shipping and delivery?

I've seen them handle some very restrictive allegies, diets, and personal choices, very well and without advance notice. However, I always suggest anyone wanting to take a tasting menu at any restaurant call ahead and mention any diet restrictions every and anywhere in the world. Don't worry much about wanting to avoid either fish or meat at Blue Hill however. The do both well enough to forget the other and do vegetables equally well enough to avoid fish and meat.

We didn't exactly stumble on it last night, but we found it was one of the few restaurants of any interest that was open last night. Monday is usually a bad night in Madrid, but last night was Pentecost Monday and we struck out left and right and left the decision for the last moment. A simple dinner there really hit the spot for two jet lagged diners. I noticed more than a few main courses below ten euros including my very nicely done lamb kidneys. Of course you can also have espardenyas for 36€, but after two days of no wholesale fish markets, that probably wouldn't have been our choice anyway. The biggest problem here was too extensive a menu to negotiate and too many choices. In addition to the very broad menu of mostly traditional Catalan dishes (I was sorely tempted by the rice dishes, but having had one last time and liking it, I wanted something different.) there was a large selection of seasonal dishes beginning with a number of salads of seasonal vegetables.

Pim, you've expressed that well. I've not heard anyone use the term terroir to describe a country inn before, but -- at least as far we we've come to use the word these days -- it's a very apt descriptive use of "terroir." I once heard a sommelier describe a wine from the Languedoc as "technical." By that he meant that it was well made, but lacked a regional flavor or characteristic. It's difficult to incorporate a regional characteristic if you want to make excellent wine in an area with no tradition for that. In any event, I think the food of most metropolitan regions is technical rather than terrior based. Parisian restaurants may achieve a certain kind of technical superiority perhaps, but I have found the country inns to offer the more rewarding experience at the two and three star level. Rewards are often very personal, of course. On a limited budget, I'd eat in the provinces any day. Unfortunately, one needs a car to visit some of these places -- Bras comes to mind immediately -- and many of them are part of an inn whose room rates are not in the budget range, but I remember first exploring the great country restaurants while staying nearby in less luxurious places. After our first taste of top country cooking, we found it very easy to return to France and avoid Paris altogether for a number of years. Today, I am once more addicted to Paris, but to know Paris and not the provinces is to not know France.

At one of the butcher shops I frequent in Chinatown, I've noticed some noodlelike seafood product. It appeared freshly made, rather than packaged. I think there's been something in this thread or another about Wylie's noodles bearing some resemblance to surimi, the Japanese process that brings us "sea legs" and other ersatz crab. There's a whole range of traditional Japanese and Chinese fish and seafood products and to some extent they share a family resemblance to to fish pates and gefulte fish. Anyway, I had and enjoyed that dish at WD-50 but was mildly disappointed in the fact that the "noodles" didn't act very noodly. That is to say, the didn't slither on the plate, but were rather stiff and stuck together. They formed a mass rather than acting like strands that could be twirled on a fork.

Take the train. You'll find directions on the Stone Barns web site. It's the Hudson line to Tarrytown from Grand Central. From the Tarrytown station you should be able to get a cab to the restaurant. Metro North schedule here.