Cooking Cataluna / Catalana

[Rogelio]

Also, Valencia will be another culinary destination. Vinaros is famous for their prawns. An excellent seafood spot that is in Vinaros, or nearby such as Benicarlo or Peniscola? Any commentary before October 20, 2005 will be very welcome!

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El Pescador (Casa Angelina) in Les Cases d'Alcanar, is a charming seafood restaurant where the seafood is happily not overcooked. And don't miss their suquets (fish and potatoes stews) and calderetas ( a kind of bouillabaisse).

In Peñíscola the place to go is Casa Jaime not only for their superb rices, the Calabuig one is a must, but for again their suquets de peix.

I've heard about El Faro de Vinaros in Vinaroz, where they not only serve seafood but modern cooking, but haven't been there.

[Bux]

I think there's been a great consensus in these forums that in the past few years Can Roca has gone from being one of the more important places in Catalunya, to one of the great restaurants in the world. Vedat Milor's comment, "Catalunya has still some of the best cooking anywhere but the flag seems to have passed on to the 3 Roca brothers: the eldest Juan who is the chef, the middle Josep who is the equal of any top French sommelier and simply the best in Spain and the very talented 25 years Jordi whose desserts are sublime," was unfortunately stated as a closing to a review on elBulli, but it's an interesting observation that mirror comments by others.

As for Valencia, we spent two nights there. A lunch at Ca'Sento was sublime. It's a simple but chic enough place with a restrained decor that's well designed to be minimal in a modernist sense. The location is a bit remote, but it's easily reached from the center of town by taxi or bus, and not that far a walk from some the Calatrava museum complex. For some reason we hit it off with Sento, the owner and father of the chef (the mother may be in the kitchen as well, if I'm not mistaken) and after rejecting the tasting menu of the day, which we rarely do, but wanting more variety than if we ordered a la carte, we managed with his help, which included making at least one trip to the kitchen to confer with the chef, to construct a long menu of courses, half courses and split course to make a menu that left us believing this was a prime destination restaurant. I would return to Valencia just to go there, but the city itself deserves a visit. If there are indeed better restaurants, I must return to Valencia very soon.

[vserna]

Not a good year for mushrooms in Spain. Worst drought in 60 years. Yes, there are porcini and the like, but look at the labels: they come Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Moldova...

[vmilor]

Bux, would you please give some details of your meal in Ca Sento.

Somebody whose palette I respect very much (Rogelio) also thinks that it is a very special place. It certainly is on my radar screeen.

[Bux]

Vedat, let me try to offer you something about Ca'Sento, and yes, I agree about Rogelio's taste in food. On the basis of the small sampling we have of diners in Spain, I will say that gastronomy in Spain is thriving not simply because there are talented chefs, but because, if our sampling is at all representative, there are those who really appreciate food. At any rate, I have considered myself fortunate to have their advice and I don't discount a particular Spanish gastronome approaching my age either.

I'm off to Italy on Monday and preoccupied with that. I also regret to say that we have no real notes on our meal at Ca'Sento, simply a list of the dishes we had. We left the restaurant on a real high, although the meal got off on a bad footing as we arrived too early, before they opened and they didn't have a cava by the glass. Often that's enough to ruin a meal. That with the food came an abrupt turn around is very much to their credit. The problem in relating details is that feeling so good, we decided to walk to the Calatrava museum complex on a hot day with no shade to be found along the path. We proceeded to spent a long time in the surrounding park taking photographs of the buildings and were exhausted by the time we got back to our hotel. Hence we didn't do anything about expanding our brief notes or posting about the meal while it was fresh in our minds.

I distinctly recall wanting to take the tasting menu, but finding it missing some dish we wanted. At that point, taking advantage of Mrs. B's fluency in Spanish, we sort of negotiated a menu of courses, half courses and split courses. This became yet another lesson of how to get the most out of a good restaurant, if you're lucky. If Sento (Vicente) seemed annoyed at our early arrival and disappointment at not being able to have a glass of cava, his manner turned increasingly sympathetic as we asked for favors and pestered him about which shellfish to order, asked if could we split this dish or that dish and said we couldn't eat in Valencia without a rice dish. His suggestions came flying back, often in the form of you must have this with never an argument from us, just a bit of negotiating. That at least once he disappeared into the kitchen to return and tell us the chef, his son, (it's a familiy affair, mom is also in the kitchen) said our menu was a bit unbalanced, increased our admiration. You will probably appreciate that that the only miscommunication was that we thought the chef was changing a dish, whereas he was adding one. No harm there and no argument after we had eaten both dishes. We were glad to have given our assent. All of this set the mood for our appreciation.

Our list of courses are in Spanglish, or course, and I present them as such with misspellings and partial translations. Mrs. B was good enough to enter them into the computer. I will be interested in hearing your comments on the freshness and quality of the raw materials should you choose Ca'Sento.

Valencia 30 April 2004 Ca'Sento

• 
  Egg yolk (partridge) in caramel, Foie gras between caramel sheets (amuses)
  There was an attempt to discuss that egg yolk, but I appeared to touch on sensitive grounds and gave it up. At any rate, this version was superbly crafted. Perhaps more delicately formed than the other.
  We don't seem to have a photograph of the elusive
  Espardeynes, a la plancha with olive oil and garlic (minced garlic, mildly flavoring the dish)
  
  Ostras envueltas en acelga y manita de cerdo con garbanzos
  Poached oyster wrapped in Swiss chard. Pig's foot was mainly for texture.
  
  Ventresca de atun (con gazpacho?) soy sauce and minced green and red peppers, etc.
  
  Cigala cooked under a crust of salt and egg white
  
  Lubina (crisp skin) with clam, chipperones and pasta.
  
  Arroz a la plancha con gambita de playa
  
  Close up of the rice which is finished on a plancha where it froms a crust that is scraped off in a curl with the rice nicely inside it's own shell. What can I say? I am a sucker for base foods. I like starch. I like it when a professional chef turns his hand to home cooking, cuisine grandmère or the like. Rice wasn't much a part of my background, but Mrs. B tells me her family fought for the pegao (pegado) or the rice that stuck to the bottom of the pan. Raúl Aleixandre, the chef, does a nice riff by intentionally forming a skin. The rice inside of course was special as well.
  
  Pre-dessert mint gelee with orange ice cream
  
  Pear pastry with poire williams sorbet
  
  Pineapple slices (sheets), pineapple gelee, coconut ice cream.
  

[Judith Gebhart]

Vedat, let me try to offer you something about Ca'Sento, and yes, I agree about Rogelio's taste in food. On the basis of the small sampling we have of diners in Spain, I will say that gastronomy in Spain is thriving not simply because there are talented chefs, but because, if our sampling is at all representative, there are those who really appreciate food. At any rate, I have considered myself fortunate to have their advice and I don't discount a particular Spanish gastronome approaching my age either.

I'm off to Italy on Monday and preoccupied with that. I also regret to say that we have no real notes on our meal at Ca'Sento, simply a list of the dishes we had. We left the restaurant on a real high, although the meal got off on a bad footing as we arrived too early, before they opened and they didn't have a cava by the glass. Often that's enough to ruin a meal. That with the food came an abrupt turn around is very much to their credit. The problem in relating details is that feeling so good, we decided to walk to the Calatrava museum complex on a hot day with no shade to be found along the path. We proceeded to spent a long time in the surrounding park taking photographs of the buildings and were exhausted by the time we got back to our hotel. Hence we didn't do anything about expanding our brief notes or posting about the meal while it was fresh in our minds.

I distinctly recall wanting to take the tasting menu, but finding it missing some dish we wanted. At that point, taking advantage of Mrs. B's fluency in Spanish, we sort of negotiated a menu of courses, half courses and split courses. This became yet another lesson of how to get the most out of a good restaurant, if you're lucky. If Sento (Vicente) seemed annoyed at our early arrival and disappointment at not being able to have a glass of cava, his manner turned increasingly sympathetic as we asked for favors and pestered him about which shellfish to order, asked if could we split this dish or that dish and said we couldn't eat in Valencia without a rice dish. His suggestions came flying back, often in the form of you must have this with never an argument from us, just a bit of negotiating. That at least once he disappeared into the kitchen to return and tell us the chef, his son, (it's a familiy affair, mom is also in the kitchen) said our menu was a bit unbalanced, increased our admiration. You will probably appreciate that that the only miscommunication was that we thought the chef was changing a dish, whereas he was adding one. No harm there and no argument after we had eaten both dishes. We were glad to have given our assent. All of this set the mood for our appreciation.

Our list of courses are in Spanglish, or course, and I present them as such with misspellings and partial translations. Mrs. B was good enough to enter them into the computer. I will be interested in hearing your comments on the freshness and quality of the raw materials should you choose Ca'Sento.

Valencia 30 April 2004  Ca'Sento

• 
  Egg yolk (partridge) in caramel, Foie gras between caramel sheets  (amuses)
  There was an attempt to discuss that egg yolk, but I appeared to touch on sensitive grounds and gave it up. At any rate, this  version was superbly crafted. Perhaps more delicately formed than the other.
  We don't seem to have a photograph of the elusive
  Espardeynes, a la plancha with olive oil and garlic (minced garlic, mildly flavoring the dish)
  
  Ostras envueltas en acelga y manita de cerdo con garbanzos
  Poached oyster wrapped in Swiss chard. Pig's foot was mainly for texture.
  
  Ventresca de atun (con gazpacho?) soy sauce and minced green and red peppers, etc.
  
  Cigala cooked under a crust of salt and egg white
  
  Lubina (crisp skin) with clam, chipperones and pasta.
  
  Arroz pancha con gambita de playa
  
  Close up of the rice which is finished on a plancha where it froms a crust that is scraped off in a curl with the rice nicely inside it's own shell. What can I say? I am a sucker for base foods. I like starch. I like it when a professional chef turns his hand to home cooking, cuisine grandmère or the like. Rice wasn't much a part of my background, but Mrs. B tells me her family fought for the pegao (pegado) or the rice that stuck to the bottom of the pan. Raúl Aleixandre, the chef, does a nice riff by intentionally forming a skin. The rice inside of course was special as well.
  
  Pre-dessert mint gelee with orange ice cream
  
  Pear pastry with poire williams sorbet
  
  Pineapple slices (sheets), pineapple gelee, coconut ice cream.
  

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Bux: I should have reported that our October journey will include our second visit to Ca Sento. We both were entralled with the magic that we experienced dining at this finest Valencia fish/seafood restaurant. I had hoped you recalled our Valencia experience which was dashed by our roadside robbery earlier this year. Our 2005 Fall visit will finally allow us to visit El Poblet and other restaurants in the vicinity. The robbery took all our photos and notes for that visit which we will always regret and miss. I am sorry that my response to Vedat was less than stellar. Vedat, please forgive my remarks that sullied your response to this thread. I have great respect for your informed responses to many eGullet issues and your viewpoint is most welcome and appreciated. My gratitude, Judith Gebhart

[Bux]

El Poblet was stellar as well. A young and inexperienced staff tried too hard to be what they weren't and it provided a smile or two to us. The servers are charming. They try too hard and two self consciously to provide a level of service that is beyond their own experience, but it doesn't detract from the meal. We had lunch that day and I regret we didn't have the appetite to try more courses at El Poblet. What we had would induce me to return, though Denia itself didn't have much to offer us beyond some wonderful Gambas Rojas and Quique Dacosta's cooking. It's pretty much a beach town and I suspect best visited just out of season if you're going for the food.

[vserna]

Spain's leading restaurant guide will have just one addition to its list of top-rated (three stars) restaurants for 2006 - Ca' Sento. Great place. That said, I feel it's such a neck-and-neck competition with El Poblet for regional supremacy in the Valencia area that IMHO it's too close to call! They're different and they're both great. (And I think the El Poblet service is a bit more polished by now, Bux!) I don't know too many chefs with a greater culinary culture than young Quique Dacosta, and this wisdom percolates down into what he's concocting.

The general oomph of culinary activity and creativity between Valencia and Alicante is one of the great stories in Spain these days... (I wish this would extend north to Castellón, where I usually go in the summer, but not too much seems to go on there - sort of a semi-desert, culinarily speaking, between the great hubs of Valencia to the south and Tarragona to the north!)