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El Raco de Can Fabes


docsconz

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1. 'Caballa en escabeche con foie, cebolla tierna y col' which was roasted  red mullet (skin salted and crisped), wrapped in bacon on white asparagus and foie gras with balsamic reduction.

Isn't Caballa = Spanish Mackerel?

SD

We''ve opened Pazzta 920, a fresh pasta stall in the Boqueria Market. follow the thread here.

My blog, the Adventures of A Silly Disciple.

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1. 'Caballa en escabeche con foie, cebolla tierna y col' which was roasted  red mullet (skin salted and crisped), wrapped in bacon on white asparagus and foie gras with balsamic reduction.

Isn't Caballa = Spanish Mackerel?

SD

I'm sure you are correct here. They mentioned at the time that one of the fish had been changed, so this must be a discrepency between the printed menu and what we actually had.

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- a macaroni dish as one of the courses has changed my view on pasta.

I like this restaurant.

Was this the same macaroni dish that I posted a photo of upthread? Given the time between now and then, I doubt it, but that was a phenomenal dish.

We too were here recently, so presume we had the same macaroni dish as SamanthaF. It wasn't the same as yours Doc, it was called 'macarrones salteados con jugo de trufas', which was baby octapus with large macaroni in a coral coloured, buttery sauce with parsley, served in the pan. I don't remember the macaroni being crispy in the way you described. But it was sublime.

This was the one! (Don't forget the bits of ham/bacon in the pan.) I'd go as far as saying that this is probably the best pasta dish I have ever had.

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Corrina, out of curiosity, did you consider your experience at Con Fabes to be 3*?

In my heart, I have to say yes, because the food was so good. All of the ingredients were eyewateringly fresh, and every course in its own right was not just technically perfect but really well balanced and so, so delicious. I am not terribly keen on the 2* / 3* differentiation because the added star can bring some baggage with it and it's not all to do with the food. Certainly the amuse and petits fours showed the extra distance, and the service, as I mentioned was textbook 3* and very, very cordial.

However, there is the question of how much you penalsie a chef for serving a menu that is not as balanced as it could have been (too many fish dishes), and erring on the side of generousity. For me, this would not be enough reason to say that the experience was not 3*.

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Thanks Corinna.

For me, I found Con Roca strides ahead of Con Fabes for service and food.

Saying that, the most stellar meal (food and service, not including wines) I've had Spain side was in Abac in Barcelona, and that's amazingly only 1*! :rolleyes:

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  • 1 year later...

Last May this year, toghether with my family and cousin, we went to Sant Celoni with the sole purpose to eat at the famous Can Fabes. The restaurant is not too far from train station, but it's not that easy to find since it required many turns as far as I'm concerned.

Can Fabes is located in the rural/suburb area. One would not expect to find a world-class restaurant around this location. It is very Catalan, from the food, wine and some of its decoration. Since it's not easy to reach, we did not think too much to directly order the grand menu of Santi Santamaria (he was not there unfortunately). The restaurant is quite flexible when we requested some changes in the menu since my parents did not fond of eating raw/half-cooked food. They started ok, but the dishes get much better towards the end (the main courses - fish, seafood and meat are all excellent). And it ended nicely with festival de chocolate dessert, recalling that I'm not a big fan of chocolate dessert, but it's different.

The wine list is pretty impressive. We decided to taste the local wine, even the one made by the restaurant. However, to be honest the quality is just fine, not as good as French wine in my opinion. The decoration is divided into the modern and old places. Both are nice with different feelings. The service is excellent, on par with any other 3* michelin I've been. The only bad part (not caused by the restaurant) is that we only had 3 hours there since my cousin needed to catch up her plane back to Barcelona. Hence, after the main courses, we rather hurriedly eating the cheese/desserts and some extra from the kitchen. Nevertheless, the restaurant kindly sent us to the station since the taxi's not willing to drop us (I guess the distance is somewhat too closed)

Overally, I'm very satisfied eating here, . The cuisine reflected the dynamic and progressive culture of Catalonia. Very different style to El Bulli, according to the waiter who used to work for Ferran Adria in Roses. Here the dish is served like our daily food, almost no fancy laboratory science at all. My overall score is 95/100, slightly above Le Bristol - Paris (93/100), but still below L'Arpege and ADPA. Here are some of the pictures of the dishes we had. Enjoy! (Thanks to Pedro Espinosa from this forum for helping me translate the dishes' name)

http://andichahyadihermawan.blogs.friendst...can_fabes_summ/

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Which local wines did you have and what French wines are you comparing them to? How did you select the wines?

While they do not partake very much of the hypermodern arsenal, they do use sous vide quite liberally and to great effect.

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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We had 2 bottles of wine

2004 Belondrade y Lurton

2003 Cuvee Santamaria Finca Panta

I just compare them with French wines in general

To name a few I had before (I might be being unfair if one is much more expensive than the other - don't really remember the price)

1997 Leroy - Les Fremieres, from Chambolle-Musigny

1999 Marcel Deiss - Engelgarten, from Alsace

Coteaux du Languedoc "Aurel" 2001 - Domaine Les Aurelles

Usually for top restaurants, I let the sommelier choose the wines for me. I think that's the fun part. First of all, I don't really know whether the dishes there have strong or light taste. Secondly, just to see if they could pick the right one for me (I know this could be very subjective)

How did you pick yours? Perhaps I could learn for the future. In general, for the white wine, I prefer rather light, dry, and not sweet. Whereas, for the red one, I like a rather strong one, quite sweet but not to the extend to take over/dominate the food's taste. But again it depends on the food's taste.

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We had 2 bottles of wine

2004 Belondrade y Lurton

2003 Cuvee Santamaria Finca Panta

I just compare them with French wines in general

To name a few I had before (I might be being unfair if one is much more expensive than the other - don't really remember the price)

1997 Leroy - Les Fremieres, from Chambolle-Musigny

1999 Marcel Deiss - Engelgarten, from Alsace

Coteaux du Languedoc "Aurel" 2001 - Domaine Les Aurelles

Usually for top restaurants, I let the sommelier choose the wines for me. I think that's the fun part. First of all, I don't really know whether the dishes there have strong or light taste. Secondly, just to see if they could pick the right one for me (I know this could be very subjective)

How did you pick yours? Perhaps I could learn for the future. In general, for the white wine, I prefer rather light, dry, and not sweet. Whereas, for the red one, I like a rather strong one, quite sweet but not to the extend to take over/dominate the food's taste. But again it depends on the food's taste.

The Belondrade y Lurton is a very nice food wine that I happen to like a lot. You had nothing to compare in price or quality to the Leroy. The Deiss is a nice wine with good acid and somewhat sweet. It is a good food wine, though I prefer the Rueda. I was curious as to how the wines were chosen because that can make a big difference. I agree in a situation like that to have guidance from the sommalier. While your ultimate conclusion regarding France and Spain is debatable depending on the criteria used and even if it is the same as what you ultimately came up with, I would say that is a rather small sample size of Spanish wines to base it on and maybe even French. In both cases one can find stellar wines and one can find plonk. On the whole, for relative value I think I prefer Spanish wines. That is not to say that means that I think the greatest Spanish wines are necessarily better than the greatest French wines, though.

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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  • 4 years later...

Sad news... Santi Santamaria has died in Singapore, aged 53. He was a truly wonderful chef and I still remember the fantastic meal I had at Can Fabes quite a few years ago, and my chat with him afterwards when he came out to talk to us in the dining room. He was a genius at sauces and the way he cooked fish was sublime.

A few details here

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Indeed, I just learned from a friend in BCN that he passed away. Very sad news! Always when I went to BCN I passed by one of my favourite restaurants in Europe. He was a great chef, and a very nice man; as Corinna, always when by him I had a nice, friendly and interesting talk with him.

All the best for his family, friends and his restaurant colleagues!

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