Best experience this week?

[Saborosa]

Hi guys

This may be a guilty conscience after singularly failing to join in the cook-off activity in this forum a few months (years?!) ago, but I was thinking the forum seems a bit slow recently and was wondering what would be a way to kick off some more postings.

So, my brilliant idea after about, ooh, two seconds thought is:

A thread for regular (and irregular) posters to offer their best Spain and Portugal food (and drink?) "experience" of that week?

I'm thinking extremely generally: best meal cooked, snack snacked, restaurant visited, chef met, fact learned... anything.

If each week is too frequent it could be fortnight, month, whatever...

Do shout me down if this is rubbish. But it would be nice to get a few more posts going, and open the posts up a bit away from "recs for BCN". Maybe people feel disinclined to post unless they have something momentous to announce. Whereas I think it would be nice if the forum had more of a community feel where the small pleasures and discoveries are as important as the latest hot young chef.

Anyone agree?

To start things off:

My highlight so far has been a chocolate ice cream from Gelateria Caffetteria Italiana (Pl Revolució 2, Open 5pm-1.30am Weds-Sun). 80 per cent cocoa. Recipe invented by great grandfather (i think) for wife when pregnant with their 11th child. You have very high standards by your 11th child, so I'm told....

Over to you....

[butterfly]

With this weather, it's no wonder we're thinking about helado... Giangrossi has opened another branch in Madrid, on Cava Baja, dangerously close to where I live. They offer a five scoop sampler... I'm working my through their extensive list. My current favorites: sabayón, yogur con miel y nueces, dulce de leche casero...

As a regular contribution, I'd love to know what good things fellow foreros are finding at the market. But that probably belongs on a new thread...

[bergerka]

Oh my god, Giangrossi is addictive (I live really close to the one on Alberto Aguilera - oh um...by the way, I moved to Madrid).

I have to say, though, if Sunday counts as this week my best experience was a restaurant in Pendones with Eric_Malson and a friend, way to hell and gone up in the mountains, the name of which has flown out of my mind, driven by the heat in the city - where I had BLOODY INCREDIBLE sopa de pescado, fabada asturiana, cabrito (OH MY GOD) and picadillo.

I was nearly sick, I was so full, but ohhh it was worth it. :wuv:

PM me if you're in Madrid & wanna have lunch - I'm off to Italy for three weeks on Saturday to sing, but will be around before July 1 and after July 23.

K

[vserna]

Pendones

←

My goodness, what's a Pendones, or where's Pendones? In Spanish slang, 'unos pendones' means something like 'several women of loose morals', so the name is obviously interesting...

[tsquare]

I have to say, though, if Sunday counts as this week my best experience was a restaurant in Pendones with Eric_Malson and a friend, way to hell and gone up in the mountains, the name of which has flown out of my mind, driven by the heat in the city - where I had BLOODY INCREDIBLE sopa de pescado, fabada asturiana, cabrito (OH MY GOD) and picadillo.

←

Eric is back in Portugal and you got to go out with him? I drooled over his past reports...so jealous.

[Saborosa]

As it's Monday I thought I'd do another 'best of' posting.

I had a couple of cracking meals last week.

The first was at Irreductibles, the restaurant in Gratallops which has been mentioned before in these forums, eg here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=61367.

Great food and an interesting, fun space. Great service too - though there was just us two and a table of about 8 to deal with, so they had no excuse!

The food is light, playful, and mostly mediterranean, with artful presentation. We had an amazing salad of the most intense tomatoes in many different ways from sundried to sorbet, a tower of melting octopus tentacles with a camomile yoghurt and a pudding of various veg such as pea blancmange, spinach cream, fried beetroot, and some white chocolate to soothe the veg-phobics, plus pop rocks/space dust - those sweets that pop and fizz in the mouth, which I get a childish thrill from, although I did catch myself thinking - weren't these 'in' a few years ago?

They just do a set menu so there's no choice at all. It's not cheap at 35 euros for the menu of 5 'courses' and with wine, water and coffees and tax (I do wish people would include tax in their prices) it all came to about 106 euros for 2. I do think that's a bit steep, so it's not a place for people who like to feel they've wrung the value out of every centimo.

For those people, I'd like to mention Hostal Nou in a little place in Girona province called Llora. A cute roadside inn, it has friendly staff and a rather clinical but pleasant enough dining room (some character is added by a snarling wild boar head), where delicious and generous portions of mainly trad catalan food are served at great prices. A three course lunch for 4 came to 70 euros (though it should be noted we were drinking shandies and wine with soda). For that we got a huge plate of perfect steamed mussels, escalivada, esqueixada, and a lovely fresh cheese salad with crisp escarola, walnuts, melon, tomato, and great olives. Seconds were galtes (pork cheeks) and lamb chops. Both accompanied by the best chips (fries) I've had in years. Desserts were homemade flams (a kind of set custard dessert - I'm not a big fan), perfect cherries, and walnuts with lashings of proper fresh whipped cream - a rarity in these parts. Perhaps not a place to go too out of your way for, but the kind of place you dream of stumbling across during a roadtrip - simple home cooking done with real care and attention and a warm (at least for these parts!) welcome.

Anyone else have a 'best of' from the past week?

[Eric_Malson]

I have to say, though, if Sunday counts as this week my best experience was a restaurant in Pendones with Eric_Malson and a friend, way to hell and gone up in the mountains, the name of which has flown out of my mind, driven by the heat in the city - where I had BLOODY INCREDIBLE sopa de pescado, fabada asturiana, cabrito (OH MY GOD) and picadillo.

←

Eric is back in Portugal and you got to go out with him? I drooled over his past reports...so jealous.

←

I was back for a short visit--a week in Lisbon and a week in Spain. I was glad to discover that most of my favorite haunts around Lisbon were relatively unchanged. I went to a place called A Mourisca (I'm sure I've posted about this one before) in the Graça neighborhood of Lisbon for Saturday lunch and had the chicken cabidela (a rice dish made with chicken, its giblets and blood)--it's probably my favorite Portuguese dish, and it was especially good that day... I was in heaven. Anyway, when I walked in and sat down, a man from the next table asked me (in English) where I was from. Turned out he and his wife were visiting from Phoenix and were directed to this place by a local on the street and couldn't figure out how I had found the place!

vserna: Pendones is the name of a village in the mountains in eastern Asturias. Rather an amazing name, isn't it? That place is probably my favorite restaurant in the world. bergeka was slightly off in one detail: it wasn't fabada asturiana (that day, anyway) but fabes con jabalí (the same huge white beans with wild boar). The lady of the kitchen makes what is probably the best flan I have ever tasted. But although everything was truly fantastic, what really sticks in my memory is that picadillo, made with venison: simple and stupendous.

Ya' know, tsquare, I'm going to be making a concerted effort to get back to the Iberian peninsula more often this year, so if you're seriously jealous, let me know when you're next trip is and, who knows? I just might be going... and I love to show my favorite places to new friends. Anyway, I'm so glad I'm able to inspire drool in some fashion these days!

[Christopher Haatuft]

I had my first michelin starred meal this week with a full degustation menu at Arzak on tuesday. Now Im broke but Im (if possible) more convinced that I want to be a top chef. My best restaurant meal ever.

[GeordieSteve]

After a wonderful meal this weekend I thought I'd try to resuscitate this thread.

We were out for a ride through the Alt Penedes region on the moptorbike and wanted to stop somewhere for lunch. Fortunately I'd though ahead and we decided to try Cal Xim (www.calxim.com) in Sant Pau D'ordal, near Vilafranca.

It is a very unspectacular restaurant in a very ordinary town square. I wondered at first if we'd found the right place, but my expectations changes when we got inside. The main dining room is dominated by a huge open range where they were roasting and grilling some delicious-looking pieces of meat. The menu reflected everything you could want in a country restaurant: solid, seasonal, local dishes, simply and expertly cooked. The prices were very reasonable, with main courses ranging from about 12-17 euros. I had duck breast with mushrooms, which was mouth-watering and my wife had the equally good lamb. We were entertained to watch, on the table next to us, a young girl of no more than 5 years old eat a huge, VERY rare fillet steak with a glee usually reserved by children for ice cream and the like, almost ignoring her fried potatoes! Get them started young!

The wine list is probably the reason most people visit Cal Xim. I am not expert enough to appreciate much of what was on offer but the list was hugely, even intimidatingly comprehensive. As I was riding the motorcycle, I was limited to a couple of glasses and I was grateful for the help of the excellent staff who recommended some very agreeable Albet i Noya.

Overall we were very impressed and, since the restaurant is less than an hour from Barcelona, we will definitely be back. Hopefully next time I won't be driving!

[The Viking]

La Granja Elena in Passeig de Zona Franca, close to the new congress centre.

Nicely prepared food , partly just sheer simplicity in a congenial atmosphere where we were made more than welcome, even on our first visit as foreigners.

Excellent foie gras, and the "brie farceis de trufas" was perfect. None of the brush off mentality described by some others in the forum. As a certain governor would have put it: "I'll be back!"

[Saborosa]

A couple of quick tips in Barcelona:

Caldeni, C/Valencia 452, 93 232 58 11, www.caldeni.com

Small, smart (if a bit characterless - typical 'business restaurant' decor of cream walls, dark wood furniture, splashes of red) dining room. Friendly, efficient service. Young team. Egs of dishes: smoked langoustine tail salad, sardine fillets marinated in a five-spice vinaigrette, roast corvina (meagre, a bit bass-like) with roast aubergine and seasonal mushrooms, duck breast with sauteed mango and greek yoghurt, a beautiful chocolate coulant. Simple but very stylishly presented decent modern catalan-med cooking. Great easy-drinking Costers del Segre red, Bru de Verdu, was the inspired server's suggestion. Starters between 8.50-12.50, mains 10.50-17.

Cardoner, C/Ample 46, 93 315 2260

Old school Catalan cooking in smartish surroundings. Businessmen and middle aged couples lunching. Snooty maitresse d' sneered when I asked to look at the menú del dia but warmed up considerably when we ordered Girona steaks - which were very good (and fab chips). V generous portions. Also had a good, if a bit soggy for me, fideua, and enormous plate of baby cuttlefish in their ink. Good for trad Cat cuisine which is getting harder to find in fusion-fashion-frenzied BCN. Mid-price.