Search the Community

I'm tired of paying $1 crisp for something that probably costs 5 cents! Can someone tell me how to make these? Thanks.

I am planning on moving to Spain soon, and am trying to decide on a place. I can live pretty much anywhere but there are a few things that I am particular about. Briefly about myself, I have a daughter with some health issues who is recovering nicely and the most significant intervention up until now has been food. My hope is that I would be able to improve this even further in Spain. I am looking for a place that is environmentally clean, away from industrial releases with good, clean air and water. Equally important is the availability of completely grassfed meat and dairy and produce grown without chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Extremadura looks ideal on google, but is it really so? Is the kind of food I am looking for easily available there? I am also very keen on cooking freshwater fish which seems to be in abundance there. The waters in Extremadura sound marvelous. Also, very taken with the availability of wild game. Oh, I could live in other parts of Europe but my heart is set on Spain The only reason to go elsewhere would be better resources for food. I have been reading on this forum and realize that some of you are very knowledgeable, looking forward to hearing your opinions and any advice. Aargi

I recently moved to Barcelona, and have scoured around searching for shop selling artisan oils and vinegars in the city, only to find very little. Is there specialty store in the city for this kind of thing, or perhaps it's at a dry-foods store at one of the markets? Also, artisan dairy products, do they exist in town? Fresh local butters and milks? I've found eggs at the market, so that's getting close, but I'm missing my dairy. Thanks for your help.

L’Angle/ October 19, 2008 Last year, I discovered Chef Jordi Cruz’s incredible culinary talent. My review of L’estany clar can be found here. After some delays, his new place L’Angle finally opened. The restaurant is part of HERE, a beautiful complex that includes the romànic monastery, the moderniste house, Alícia (Ferran Adrià’s food and science institute), a very sleek hotel, several restaurants and Chef Cruz’s L’Angle. I highly recommend spending a whole morning/afternoon to visit the installations, mainly the impeccably restored monastery. A cab ride from the Manresa train station will set you back around €15, a cab to/from Barcelona around €80-90. I want to apologize for the quality of the pics. They do not do justice to Chef Cruz talent. The restaurant has been appointed very elegantly, clean lines, a torrent of light, wood and black stone. Everything merges seamlessly with the setting. It is a contemporary space that feels very inviting and warm with a beautiful view of the monastery. The gardens that surround the hotel/restaurants are an olfactory delight thanks to the many herbs that grow there and that Chef Cruz uses in his creations. We had the tasting menu with the wine pairing. However, we asked for a limited number of wines (we had plans that required a somewhat clear mind). 1) Gin tonic subtil. Gin tonic foam, apple, lemmon ice cream. A very refreshing start. 2) Esqueixada de bacallà infusionada. Cod esqueixada. A staple of Cruz. The little “spheres” are romesco and black olives. A highly fragrant Arbequina olive oil finishes the dish. An excellent dish. 3)A very delicate “focaccia” with foie and not your usual roasted beef. 4)Ostra amb destil.lat de poma verda. Another Cruz classic but with a twist. The leaf tastes, itself, like an oyster and the delicate bitterness of the green apple beautifully contrasts with the oyster 5)Fals nyoqui de tomàquet. 6)Truita de riu amb pinya (River trout with pineapple) 7)Rogers tractats com una amanida 8)Foie rostit amb pera al cardamom (Roasted Foie with pear and cardammon) 9) Arrosset gorgonzola amb escamarlans de costa, gelea veneré I rúcola. Another classic from Chef Cruz large cannon. 10) Turbot salvatge rostit amb infusió de bolets 11) Garrí ibèric pur amb poma 12) Criofiltrat de maduixeta 13) Masses de xocolatata a les espècies. 14) Sopa fresca de meló amb kefirs. (A very delectable and refreshing dessert) And a week later, I had to go back to try the other “tasting menu.” I am only including different creations that were not part of the other tasting menu. 1) Mojito. The same technique as in the gin-tonic and still very refreshing. 2) Guisat de cloïsses amb fals nyoqui de carxofa. An outstanding dish. The false artichoke gnocchi and the “cloïsses” (“clam” does not accurately convey a cloïssa or almeja) were absolutely sublime, the whole dish came together wonderfully. 3) Calamar de potera amb aigua de calamar I allioli de citronella. The allioli was in the tube, but the “calamar water” was strongly infused with that, surprisingly, did not overwhelm the calamar: tender and lightly accentuated with black rice spaghetti. 4) Vieira saltejada amb textures d’oli d’arbequina, crema bretona, api-nap, soja en estats I clorofil.la. (Scallop sautéed with arbequina oil textures, bretonne crème, parnsnip…) This is another classic from Chef Cruz. Superb ingredients and a wide arrangement of flavors. 5) Pop gallec amb gelea de pebrots, aromatitzat amb fum de faig. A technique that I have seen before (Celler, for example) but it worked wonderfully here. Not for the weak of palate, the peppers gelea was strong complementing the delicate “pulpo” superbly. 6) Arrosset de llagostí I foie. 7) Llom de rap I gamba de costat amb guisat de pells I coralls, nyoqui tradicional de safrà I taronja amb oli Donostiarra. Another explosion of flavors and top quality ingredients. 8) Espatlleta de cabrit amb bolets A perfectly executed traditional dishes with some gustatory twists that shows how perfectly Chef Cruz combines traditional catalan cooking and modern techniques without compromising any and accentuating both. This is a trademark that is evidently in all his creations. 9) Brioix rostit al fron amb gelat de mel I cruixent d’anís. All the desserts were incredible, but this one was devastating in its simplicity. The moist cake mixed with the honey and rosemary ice cream was a perfect way to end my reencounter with Chef Cruz. If someone needs more info. on the dishes and would like a more detailed explanation or some pictures (I cannot upload them on egullet for some strange reason) email me and I will do so. I think he is a very talented chef and the new setting is incredible, a great compliment to his dazzling talent. Lenski

Does anyone have a good fish escabeche link or recipe to share? Thanks

I'll be bringing along some of my Russian,Ukrainian and Israeli friends to enjoy some of our foods Next Sat and Sunday cheers! Cya there

The Program for Madrid Fusión 2009 is out and looks spectacular. This year a focus is on Mexico, including presenters such as Ricardo Muñoz, Patricia Quintana and Enrique Olvera amongst others. There will be a strong presence of US based chefs and culinarians including Grant Achatz, David Chang, Harold McGee, Sotohiro Kosugi and Jose Andres amongst others as well as the usual assortment of European heavy hitters. The dates are January 19-22nd.

Through a link on a blog I stumbled upon a while back, I found some website that was like a spanish youtube for modern cooking. I've looked everywhere and i really can find the link again. Can anyone help out with this.

This is a question for all the Spanish wine experts out there... I have a chance to swap a bottle of 2001 Bodegas Luberri Rioja Finca Los Merinos for a bottle of 2005 Alvaro Palacios Les Terrasses Priorat. I know that I can drink the Rioja now (and even if I trade it, I'll get to enjoy a glass!) but am wondering if the Priorat will be a better treat in a few years' time. Should I go for it?

The title says more or less all: being a true nerd, also when it comes to grilling, bakingand roasting, particularly Spanish style, I've come across this range of traditional/innovative ovens that I might fit in my new house. www.josper.es Apparently they weigh in at a hefty price and also weightwise, so I'd love to hear from anyone that har had a first hand experience, either privately or professionally.

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. What breaks my heart is that walking through the markets in Spain one is confronted by some of the best produce in the world. But what gives you wonder at the market bears little resemblance to what is served at the table—bland, textureless vegetables that have been so overcooked that might as well have come from the freezer. Salads are lackluster—some lettuce, tomatoes, a few olives and onions. No interesting lettuce variety or inventive dressing. Peas and favas are almost always stewed with sausages to the point where the vegetable retains none of it delicate flavor. The most common way of cooking spinach, swiss chard, broad beans or cabbage is to boil for 20 plus minutes until it is mushy an textureless. Then it is often sautéed in pork fat as if the goal is to extract out the flavor of the vegetable so that you can cover it up with the taste of meat. I can understand how vegetables like eggplant, peppers and artichokes may benefit from being cooked in this slow-simmered approach but why would you do this to green vegetables? Am I missing something? My experience is mainly with Cataluña and Andalusia. Maybe vegetables are treated differently in the north. Are things different in the Basque country, Galicia, Asturias, or Cantabria? How can a cuisine reach such amazing heights in terms of its treatment of seafood and meat and simultaneously be so behind the times in its treatment of vegetables?

Hi, I'm an architect researching spaces and buildings related to food consumption and production, and am currently in Barcelona and later Madrid, for a week each. Can anyone reccomend a range of high and low endemic restaurants types in and around these two cities you think are worth visitng for their architecture/design as well as traditional cuisine/practices?

Hi, I am writing an article about hi-tech interactive wine lists for a Chilean magazine. Recently, I read an article in the Periodico de Catalunya,in Spanish, kindly posted by Lenski on the Celler Can Roca forum, that said that the new wine list at El Celler de Can Roca is incredibly modern, a full sensorial experience. Josep, the sommelier, is quoted as saying "ours is a sensorial cellar. There is nothing like it in the world. When the client enters, 2 plasma screens show images and words about the wine he's thinking of ordering." Apparently, they go even further, getting clients to dip hands in a tub of steel mini-spheres to evoke the sensation of the bubbles in champagne, for example. When I ate there, the 3 brothers were still at the old address, but now they've moved to this swanky new space where they've got this wine cellar set-up. I'm sure e-gulleters have been there, so... Has anyone experienced this in person? I'd love to know more. Also, it seems Ferran has an interactive wine list too. Is anyone able to describe it? thanks so much!

I just found some bags of Bomba rice with a sell by date of 2005. Other rices improve with age. I wondered if this applies to Spanish varieties.

Just to let you know, I was passing by Gold Gourmet on Ortega y Gasset the other day, and noticed that they now have a fishmongers about 4 doors down from the fruit etc. shop. I didn't have the time to go in, but I got the impression that it was quite new. They looked like they had a good selection, and if the other shops are anything to go by, it should be good quality (if not a little pricey!). Has anybody tried it?

I have a recipe for making romesco sauce and roasted chicken breasts. In the directions, it says the sauce can be made ahead and chilled for up to two days before serving. However, the directions don't specifically state the sauce should be reheated before serving with the roasted chicken. Soooo, is this type of sauce traditionally served cold, hot, room temperature or it just doesn't matter?

I live in Louisiana, and crawfish (you might call them crayfish, but you'd be wrong ) is a big deal. I've been hearing that restaurants have been recently, over the last few years, buying Spanish crawfish. As an import it's supposed to be superior to the Chinese product and closer to the Louisiana product. How big is the Spanish crawfish industry? They're able to undercut the Louisiana product on price. And that I can't quite figure out. Between the weakness in the dollar and, I'm assuming, regulation on a minimum wage, where do they get the labor to hand peel crawfish?

I would like to express my uneven experience when trying restaurants after reading a review. I admit I am a great fan of "Metropoli", the entertainment magazine from "El Mundo". I have been following their recomendations for a very long time, and have discovered great restaurants that I would probably never would have tried otherwise. But, sometimes I have been dissapointed, which doesn´t mean I will stop buying the magazine or trying their feautured restaurants. This Friday I tried one of the tapas bars featured, Puerto Viejo de Algorta on Reina Mercedes 25. All of the hot pintxos were already cooked and on display, so if you ordered the campeon (chistorra with egg and fries, that apparently won a prize for its creator, Martin Berasategui) they will put it on the microwave. The same occured when other people ordered hake with praws breaded. The hake looked and tasted frozen and was quite dry. I was quite surprised to see they used the microwave to re-heat the pintxos. The quality therefore for me and my friends was just average. I believe this is not uncommon, but it did surprise me it got a good review... Any thoughts?

Welcome to the Spain & Portugal Cooking forum, where we discuss all cooking and sourcing related topics specific to Spain & Portugal for the benefit of both residents and visitors to the region. In this forum, you'll find topics about recipes, preparations, local markets, sourcing, farming and regional ingredients found in this region. Not a Society member? You’re welcome to read the eG Forums to your heart’s content, but you will have to join the Society in order to post. You can apply to join the eGullet Society here. If you are new or need some refreshers, here is a quick start list of things you should know: You'll see blue text in many posts such as this: Some great reading material. These are links that take you to new pages when you click on them with your mouse. Indeed, most blue words in eG Forums have links connected to them. Move your mouse around this page to find out! If you want to talk to someone well versed concerning technical issues, visit our Technical Support forum. We ask all members to read the Membership Agreement carefully. You agree to it every time you log onto eGullet.org, and your volunteer staff look to it when making decisions. All topics in eG Forums are dedicated to the discussion of food and food only, which keeps things focused and interesting. All off-topic posts, those that do not discuss food, are subject to removal. So that you can better understand the other guidelines that keep discussions on track and the quality high, please read our eGullet Society Policies, Guidelines and Documents forum for guidance in understanding how we handle Copyright issues, external links, Member Organized Events, among other things. In the lower left hand corner of each post, you will see this button: If you see anything in a post that does not comply with the Membership Agreement, or spot something that appears to be a duplicate topic, or appears to be in the wrong eG Forum, click on the "!Report" button to send a message to the forum hosts; we'll take it from there. Please do not post on these matters in the topic you are reporting. Our members’ questions and comments make this forum interesting, exciting and useful – we look forward to your contributions. We urge you to Search before you post, for your question may have already been answered or a topic discussed before. It looks like this in the upper right hand side of your screen: Click on this link to go to an overview of searching options, including an Advanced Search Engine here. You can add a new post to the end of the topics you find, and if they aren't quite right, feel free to start a new topic. The eGullet Forums and other programs are made possible by contributions from society donors and sponsors. If you are not yet a donor, here are Ten Things You Can Do to Help the eGullet Society. In addition to the eG Forums that we all enjoy, we also have a Scholarship Program, publish a literary journal called The Daily Gullet, conduct classes in our culinary academy The eGullet Culinary Institute, and feature then archive exciting conversations with professionals in the Culinary Arts like this eGullet Spotlight Conversation with Dorie Greenspan. If you have any questions, click on the PM button on the bottom left side of any post by a volunteer in that forum. We'd love to hear from you! Remember, the eGullet Society is staffed by volunteers, who will get back to you as soon as they can. If you would like to post photos, they must be uploaded into ImageGullet. Click here for an in-depth tutorial on using ImageGullet. If you have an original recipe you’d like to post, we ask that you enter it into RecipeGullet rather than posting it in the forums. Remember that you can always link from the appropriate topic to the recipe in RecipeGullet (and from the recipe to the topic). All recipes should comply with the RecipeGullet copyright and use policy. Finally, relax and have fun! eG Forums has become the home away from home for many members, and we hope you will find your experience here enriching and gratifying!

So I've reached the conclusion that my life will be meaningless without playing around with some food chemicals over the next couple of months. Which means I'll need to buy some. I've seen the reverse spherification kit for sale at €116, but I already have lecithin and agar agar, so I'm wondering if anybody knows an outlet in Barcelona that is selling the products individually? Or, if not, maybe an outlet that can beat that price? Simple questions really...

These are EL MUNDO´s Metropoli recently released culinary awards for 2007: Restaurant of the year KABUKI WELLINGTON Finalists: DIVERXO, ZARANDA Top newcomer restaurants of the year DIVERXO, SENZONE (tied) Top traditional restaurant HORCHER Finalists: JOTA CINCO, ZORZAL Top out of town restaurant VILLENA (Segovia) Finalists: LA PARTIDA (Villanueva de la Cañada), R DEL CALLE (Aranjuez) Top foreign cuisine restaurant LAVINIA ESPACIO GASTRONOMICO Finalists: DON GIOVANNI, SAKE DINING HIMAWARI, ASTRID & GASTON, TRASMONTANO Top more than a restaurant RAMSES Finalists: ALBOROQUE, SULA Top up and coming chef FERNANDO DEL CERRO (Casa Jose, Aranjuez) Finalists: CESAR MARTIN (Balzac), DIEGO GUERRERO (Club Allard) Top sommelier RUT COTRONEO (Senzone) Finalists: OSCAR LOPEZ (Alboroque), DAVID ROBLEDO (Santceloni) Top maitre d' JOSE LUIS PEREIRA (Aldaba) Finalists: ISAAC GARCIA MESONERO (Gaztelupe), RAFAEL LOMAS (Lagrimas Negras) Top tapas or wine bar TABERNEROS Finalists: ESCAURI, MUSEO DE LA PATATA Top decoration LE GARAGE Finalists: LA TERRAZA DEL CASINO, FISH CLUB Top gourmet shop MANTEQUERIAS BRAVO, VIUDA DE CUENLLAS (tied) Finalists: LIVING IN LONDON, PLAISIR GOURMET Honorary awards Madrid: CUSTODIO ZAMARRA (Zalacain´s sommelier) Spain: LOLITA Y PAQUITA REXACH (Hispania) Worldwide: JACQUES MAXIMIN (Ex chef Table d'Ámis)

My husband and I are staying in BCN for 2 months halfway between Boqueria and Santa Catarina markets - we're having a great time shopping and cooking but after 3 weeks we have decided we need to dive deeper into the markets and ingredients but lack the language facility to do so. Any recommended guides? Or any egullet/foodie BCN residents who could help (for a generous lunch??!!) Thanks

I know you do not need to refrigerate the full bone but I have a quarter pound of slices and it feels weird to leave it out. Is it ok to keep it in the fridge? Thanks.

Before the spring of 2003, I was a food and wine enthusiast like many others with a passion for travel, dining and fine wine. It was at that time due to an inopportune respiratory illness before a planned trip to SARS-filled China, that I discovered and became involved in eGullet, an episode of serendipity that changed my life and proved that the internet is indeed a land of opportunity. Over time, as a result of my involvement with this organization and the connections I have made through it, I have had the good fortune to develop a deep interest in culinaria into a true avocation. The result is that I have been conferred with press credentials for such culinary events as The Starchefs International Chefs Congress, The NY Fancy Foods Show and now the 2008 Madrid Fusión, something I would never have dreamed of five years ago. Though I am no more than a competent home cook, events like the Starchefs Congresses, the CIA's World of Flavors programs and Madrid Fusión, intrigue me because of the confluence of incredible creativity, especially in an area that appeals to me perhaps more than any other creative endeavor - the culinary arts. I relish the creative give and take that these programs foster as well as the opportunity to improve my personal understanding of what these creative icons are accomplishing. It doesn't hurt, either that these events often afford an opportunity to nourish the gustatory senses as well as the intellect and the soul! I arrived in Madrid on Sunday morning, taking the day to recover and re-orient myself to a city that I had not seen in person since 1974. Helping me do that was none other than eGullet Society member, Rogelio, who took me on a walking tour through old Madrid with stops for tapas before culminating in a fabulous lunch at Asturianos, however, that is material for another discussion. The rest of the day, I spent acclimating to the time change. The following morning I spent walking around Madrid taking in Picasso's Guernica at the Reina Sofia Museum and walking through the Retiro Park before taking the efficient and clean Metro to the Palacio Municipal de Congresos in northeastern Madrid where the conference would be held. Madrid Fusión is a large conference with a lot of coordination involved. Over 4100 people were involved with the event as either guests, speakers, journalists or staff. Speakers, mostly chefs, numbered 54. There were 140 members of the international press and over 500 from Spain, who provided daily newspaper and television coverage of the event. Given the complexity of the event and my relative inexperience as a first time participant, check-in to obtain my credentials prior to the 3:30 PM start time proved hectic and somewhat chaotic, although I did manage to complete the process and obtain a simultaneous translation transmitter/headphone set prior to the delayed start of the program. This year's Conference was billed as Gastronomy, Internet and New Technologies. Indeed there was a focus on these elements, where in years past according to what experienced Fusion goers told me, there had been none. Indeed, one would think that this would be a natural topic for this conference that celebrates all that is new and inventive in the world of food. Unfortunately, these elements when presented conflicted with other presentations and demonstrations and my involvement with these was minimal. Hopefully, others who were involved can relay their experiences here. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will do my best to convey a sense of what transpired at the conference as well as the flavor of the event.

˙In this article from Men's Vogue, Jeffrey Steingarten says the best steak he has ever eaten was in Spain. His quest started during a trip to the basque region when he first had grilled buey or ox ( a castrated male greater than 4 years of age). His quest was later aided by two member of the eGullet Society, Pedro and Rogelio. Speaking of his meal at El Capricho: Those strong words certainly had me salivating, though I have never experienced what they had. Is there corroboration from others here? What kind of experience do people here have eating ox meat either in Spain or elsewhere? Does anyone have any particular recommendations on restaurants other than El Capricho where one can find steak this good? Any thoughts on El Capricho?