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My last -- and anyone's best -- shot at elBulli

Fat Guy

By Fat Guy
in Food Traditions & Culture

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

First Johnny Iuzzini quote of the trip:

"Don't sit near me with those pants." (Referring to my signature fish pants.)

Posted from my handheld using the Tapatalk app. Want to use eG Forums on your iPhone, Android or Blackberry? Get started at http://egullet.org/tapatalk

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

JBailey

JBailey

Posted
Posted

Sounds like your Delta seat selection takes care of that issue!

"A cloud o' dust! Could be most anything. Even a whirling dervish.

That, gentlemen, is the whirlingest dervish of them all." - The Professionals by Richard Brooks

Fat Guy

Fat Guy

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Sounds like your Delta seat selection takes care of that issue!

I just was able to swing an aisle seat. A testament to the power of the fish pants.

Johnny Iuzzini quote #2: "How can you have one of the most highly rated food blogs and you've never been to Spain?"

Posted from my handheld using the Tapatalk app. Want to use eG Forums on your iPhone, Android or Blackberry? Get started at http://egullet.org/tapatalk

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

weinoo

weinoo

Posted
Posted

Sounds like your Delta seat selection takes care of that issue!

I just was able to swing an aisle seat. A testament to the power of the fish pants.

Johnny Iuzzini quote #2: "How can you have one of the most highly rated food blogs and you've never been to Spain?"

Give Johnny a drink, will ya?

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

jsmeeker

jsmeeker

Posted
Posted

First Johnny Iuzzini quote of the trip:

"Don't sit near me with those pants." (Referring to my signature fish pants.)

Posted from my handheld using the Tapatalk app. Want to use eG Forums on your iPhone, Android or Blackberry? Get started at http://egullet.org/tapatalk

Wear some Crocs, too. :wink:

Jeff Meeker, aka "jsmeeker"

JBailey

JBailey

Posted
Posted

Show Johnny the P&L so he understands why you are not in Spain every year!

PS Is part of the dinner going to include merger discussions of eGullet into Intellectual Ventures?

"A cloud o' dust! Could be most anything. Even a whirling dervish.

That, gentlemen, is the whirlingest dervish of them all." - The Professionals by Richard Brooks

Fat Guy

Fat Guy

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Johnny has already been mobbed by adoring fans at the airport.

Curiously, nobody has recognized me.

Posted from my handheld using the Tapatalk app. Want to use eG Forums on your iPhone, Android or Blackberry? Get started at http://egullet.org/tapatalk

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

victornet

victornet

Posted
Posted

I'm jealous too. I'm still holding out on a long shot at a table at the end of May. As to what you might get Chef Adria to sign, how about a sardine? You'll never forget it but it will soon be just a beautiful memory. When Adria was in NYC last month I got him to sign the polaroid photo he took of pop artist Richard Hamilton (who's been a fixture at El Bulli since before Adria arrived - first invited to Cadaques by Marcel Duchamp) in Hamilton's book Polariod Portraits vol. 4. He loved it.

I vote for Pinotxo Bar in Barcelona. Just keep ordering, you can control yourself when back in NYC.

BarbaraY

BarbaraY

Posted
Posted

1. My envy knows no bounds.

2. It's been said by others in this thread, but you have the BEST. WIFE. EVER.

3. I wouldn't have them sign your computer. Murphy's Law says it will die as soon as you have them sign it.

Have fun!

Grace

I am so envious. And yes you do have a lovely wife to put off the long awaited move.

Have a wonderful, wonderful time.

We are all waiting in anticipation.

Fat Guy

Fat Guy

Posted
  • Topic Starter
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Quick diary of Delta flight 94 - JFK to BCN

6:23pm (NY time)

We've taken off and reached cruising altitude but at the moment the promised wifi does not appear to exist. We'll see if that situation evolves.

6:44pm (NY time)

Johnny has been relentless in his criticism of my fish pants, however several bystanders have stepped in to defend the fish pants.

6:58pm (NY time)

It's too easy to make fun of airline food, but I just couldn't resist taking a photo of my dinner. The pasta was inedible, as was the refrigerator-temperature roll and "buttery spread." The gummy salad dressing represented a complete misunderstanding of modernist thickening techniques, and the tomatoes in the salad were reminiscent of the worst supermarket tomatoes of the 1970s. There was, buried among the other items, a 3/4-ounce piece of Tillamook cheese. Not quite enough to sustain life, but I guess I can withstand a few days of subsisting on my own body fat. Still, at the moment I'm really regretting that I didn't accept the two granola bars my mother offered along with those 70 Euros. I foolishly took only the cash. Usually I'm a little better prepared, food-wise, for airline flights. But this was all so last-minute and rushed I just couldn't find the time to attend to matters culinary.

8:10pm (NY time)

We have ascertained with certainty that there is no wifi on this flight.

8:33pm (NY time)

Johnny and I compared notes and discovered that we were both last-minute additions to the group after other people had to drop out. Nonetheless, we believe ourselves to be the two finest human beings on the trip. Tim Ryan, who was a genuine original invitee, is also on this flight.

8:50pm (NY time)

Just before I left I got a request from a newspaper editor for a short opinion piece. I'm going to take a crack at writing it, but without internet connectivity the most I can really do is create a framework. The piece is too fact- and news-dependent to write totally from within my mind.

9:14pm (NY time)

Got some thoughts down "on paper." Used the power of the fish pants to score two extra pieces of cheese from a winsome flight attendant. Going to take some heavy medication and try to catch a few hours of sleep.

6:01am (BCN time, just under 3 hours have elapsed)

My shoulder is killing me. it's not clear to me that I slept at all. I think I just sat in an in-between state for three hours while the person in two seats behind me coughed for three hours and the baby two seats in front of me cried for three hours. This is the moment when I think elBulli better be worth it. The outside air temperature, according to the flight status update channel, is -58C. That's cold. Although, the weather in Barcelona is supposed to be very nice the whole weekend.

6:20am (BCN time)

Breakfast! The less said about this the better. I confess the coffee is not bad.

7:06am

Time to shut off electronic devices, though I can't imagine there's actually a good reason for this rule. I hope to be able to connect and post when we reach the hotel.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Fat Guy

Fat Guy

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

I thought for sure the plan would be to go to the hotel, get showered, rest up and then, maybe around noon, go for a stroll and a light snack. But somehow by about 8:30am Johnny Iuzzini had us death-marching toward La Boqueria, where we (Johnny, Dr. Ryan, and I) ate a disgustingly huge dinner (at 9am) at Pinotxo.

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Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Fat Guy

Fat Guy

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

More info needed, please, on Pinotxo. Did you get the baby clams?

Posted from my handheld using the Tapatalk app. Want to use eG Forums on your iPhone, Android or Blackberry? Get started at http://egullet.org/tapatalk

The images may not be coming through on your handheld. First two photos are baby clams and razor clams, respectively.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

LindaK

LindaK

Posted
Posted

Steven, those market photos are incredible. Thanks for including a pic of the stall selling salt cod! Based on the price signs, I count at least 13 varieties, wow.


JBailey

JBailey

Posted
Posted (edited)

Thank you for the posts of your first adventures. The European markets have so much color and variety. Your photos remind me of the Central Market Hall in Budapest. I can't imagine having access to all that on a daily basis! Were you able to avoid buying anything for snacking? I couldn't if I were there.

Pay one of the staff at the hotel to knock loudly on your room door when you need to meet the others so if you nap you don't miss the next set of journeys!

Edited by JBailey (log)

"A cloud o' dust! Could be most anything. Even a whirling dervish.

That, gentlemen, is the whirlingest dervish of them all." - The Professionals by Richard Brooks

KennethT

KennethT

Posted
Posted

Please tell me that you picked up a couple of de Bellota chorizo from the jamon guy by the entrance to the Bocqueria! They're inexpensive, vacuum packed (safe for customs - especially when buried in teh luggage) and amazing. They'll keep unrefrigerated for about a year if unopened...

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