in praise of sardines

Feeling lucky?

Then don't hesitate! Drop whatever else you were doing. Fire off an email RIGHT NOW to El Bulli (bulli@elbulli.com) to request a reservation for the 2008 season, which runs roughly from April to early October. Read Louisa Chu's post on Movable Feast for details.

I enjoyed my meal there last August, but once was enough for me. Good luck!

A celebratory trip!

Yes, it happened! At lonnnnnnnng last. After months years of searching, I have found the perfect little spot to open my restaurant (Wow! I can't believe I can use those 2 words - my and restaurant - together. I'm still in shock).

While this is not news to the close friends and local bloggers I've already told (I've known for a couple of months), the reasons I haven't shared my news on my blog sooner are numerous. I am hoping my motivations to keep mum will become apparent when I get a chance to share the entire saga in future Wild Ride postings. Even now, I feel it is best to not reveal my restaurant's exact location, as the current tenants won't be moving until the end of the month. What I will tell you is my as yet to be named restaurant will be located in a lovely San Francisco neighborhood, and the restaurant most likely won't be ready to open until the end of the year at the earliest. Believe me, you'll hear all about it soon enough, so please be patient.

The exciting news in the Sardine Tin doesn't stop with me. N has just as much to celebrate. She finished up her graduate coursework a couple of weeks ago. On top of that, she has now begun her new job as the Lower School Head of the school where she had been the Second Grade teacher for many years. Go N!

To celebrate our good fortune, we went on what may be our last vacation for quite a while (to Spain, natch). Contrary to the impression I've given to you IPOS readers, my life is not usually filled with so much jet-setting. This past year has certainly been the exception. In fact, up until our first trip to Spain 2 summers ago, N and I hadn't taken a vacation together in nearly a decade.

So, knowing the next few months years are going to be, to put it mildly, insanely busy for both of us (have I mentioned that we're moving as well?), we decided to make the most of this opportunity to thoroughly enjoy each other's company undisturbed and relatively unfettered by responsibility.

Our week and a half started with a bang: a dinner at the justly famous El Bulli. We bookended our visit to Ferran Adrià's dining fun-house with not one, but two meals at the tiny restaurant that, to our tastes at least, stood as the gastronomic highlight of this year's trip: Rafa's. We then continued to toast glasses of Cava at the Michelin 2-star restaurant El Celler de Can Roca in Girona and, further down the coast of Catalonia, at Joan Gatell, a mecca for pristine seafood in Cambrils. We switched to toasting Txakoli when we took an impromptu day trip to the Basque region (domestic flights are ridiculously cheap in Europe). There, we ate grilled turbot (rodaballo) at Elkano (see Pim's description of this seafood restaurant on the Bay of Bizcay in Getaria, a town you may recall I also visited last year).

The real highlight of this year's Spanish trip, though, was not the food. It was the company. I could gush on and on ad infinitum until you're gagging on your morning toast or afternoon chili dog, but I'll spare y'all and leave it at this: Thank you, N, for joining me on a fabulous journey and for continually reminding me that the best is yet to come!

Speaking of which, in the next few weeks, in between meetings with architects and contractors, I will attempt to squeeze in time to post more details about our trip (as well as progress on the restaurant front). To whet your appetite, I've added links in the right hand column to new FlickR photo albums of our meals at Rafa's, El Bulli, and El Celler de Can Roca. Buen provecho!

Food|and Drink|Restaurant|Opening Restaurant|San Francisco|Spain|Catalonia

The quickest way to reacquiant oneself with Spain

As soon as N and I got off the plane in Barcelona yesterday, we picked up our car and made tracks to Restaurant Hispania in the seaside town of Arenys de Mar, Catalonia.

In case I'd forgotten why I love Spain so much, one taste of Hispania's sweet, briny langostines (escamarlans in Catalan) and prawns (gambes)- plucked hours before we ate them out of local waters of the Mediterranean Sea, just across the road - brought it all back. I love it here!

Click the picture above to see a few more pictures of our locally raised, fantastically fresh lunch.

Food|and Drink|Spain|Catalonia|Seafood|Fish

Eating at Rafa's (Spain) vicariously through eGullet

Photo by John Sconzo (from his post on eGullet)

I saw something on my favorite foodie web forum, eGullet, that I have to share with you all!

John "Doc" Sconzo, aka "docsconz," just posted the eye-poppingly gorgeous photos of his meal at Can Rafa, a humble restaurant-and-bar in Roses, a town just across the French border in Catalonia, about 3 hours north of Barcelona. I highly recommend that you follow this link to view the photos of the rest of his meal. The grilled calamari pictured above are just an appeteaser, an amuse bouche for the eyes, of what you'll see there.

Can Rafa is a restaurant that I had hoped to visit on my trip to Spain in July, but in the end opted not to traverse the treacherously winding roads of the Costa Brava in a rental car by myself (you're welcome, N).

While most saner diners scramble to snag one of the highly coveted reservations at the other restaurant in town, I dream of going to Can Rafa (and other restaurants like it) that serve the pristine ingredients of Spain intact and unadorned. From what I read, the chef/proprietor, who bears the name of the restaurant, simply cooks the seafood with a little olive oil and salt, usually a la plancha, and serves it naked of any embellishment or sauce. Not even a sprig of parsley or a wedge of lemon.

To me, as I've previously mentioned in the description of my amazing meal at Valencia's Ca Sento*  and elsewhere, the beauty of Spanish cuisine is how the best cooks there respect the purity of their ingredients. And I find that, especially when it comes to seafood and ham, no country in Europe can rival the quality of ingredients found in Spain. Only  Japan is Spain's equal when it comes to respecting the pristine nature of raw products.

So, until you can make it to Rafa's yourself, head on over to eGullet and enjoy the vicarious feast for the eyes of Doc Sconzo's pictures. And if you're still not convinced about how great the seafood of Spain is, read two other mouthwatering descriptions of meals there.

* My meal at Ca Sento stands as the best meal of my life up to now. My friends and I are, however, going to Manresa next weekend....

Valencia - Part 3 (La Matandeta)

As I mentioned in my first post on Valencia, my original reason for visiting the city was to sample authentic paella. Through eGullet posts and Spanish restaurant critic Rafael García Santos, I had learned that the most authentic paella outside of people's homes was to be found at a restaurant in the countryside about an hour's drive from Valencia in Alicante called Paco Gandía. Paco Gandía cooks the paella over a fire and its ingredients are the traditional rabbit, snails, two kinds of shell beans and two kinds of green beans. You'll notice that there is no seafood in this original paella, which is a dish of the countryside, traditionally cooked by men over an open fire and only eaten at lunch.

Regrettably, I didn't arrange to rent a car in advance and the prices were too high, so I opted for Plan B. Based on Colman Andrew's recommendation in last month's edition of Saveur, I took a long taxi through the rice fields of the Albufera to La Matandeta (Carretera Alfafar-El Saler, technically in the town of Alfafar, but actually closer to El Saler, tel. 34-962-11-21-84), a farmhouse that has been converted into a restaurant. I grew nervous as the car drove on and on past abandoned stone buildings and the driver confessed he had no idea where the restaurant could be.

Valencia - Part 2 (Ca' Sento)

If you read my last post, you know that, for me, visiting the seafood section of Valencia's Mercado Central was akin to an art lover visiting the Louvre. Mindblowing. That same night I tasted the best the market had to offer at the city's best restaurant, Ca' Sento, which has received 2 stars (actually only 1 star, believe it or not--silly French guide) from the French Guide Michelin (although, aside from a location in a somewhat dicey neighborhood, it deserves to be upgraded to 3) and 3 solés from the more reliable Spanish equivalent, the Guia Campsa.

Within Spain, the chef of Ca' Sento, Raúl Alexandre, is renowned for procuring the best products, so I knew his restuarant would be my kind of a restaurant. As a devoted member of the Slow Food movement and a follower of Alice Waters, I am more interested in restaurants that value the intrinsic taste and characteristics of the raw product than in those that serve as a stage for a particular chef's creative whims. I want my food to express the unique taste of a particular place (local) and time (seasonal). While I admittedly do find some of the creative food amusing, in my opinion it appeals more to the intellect than the senses and the heart. I'll leave it to others to clamor to get a table at El Bulli or the French Laundry (although if you're planning to cancel those reservations, I'd be happy to help you out, for the sake of research).

This is a long, blow-by-blow description of my meal that I don't expect everyone will want to read. The important point is that I think what Raúl Alexandre is doing at Ca' Sento is what all chefs and restaurants should aspire to. It is what all fine dining should be about. The dinner, which I consider the best in my life up to now, highlighted the most pristine seasonal products available locally. I could not expect to eat this meal anywhere else and could never recreate it. My meal had what the French call terroir, a sense of place, and unfolded like a story or a painting of Valencia. The lesson, for me, is the importance of cooking with whatever ingredients are best where you are, of showcasing your region's finest jewels.  (Click here for a slide show of the dishes).

Valencia - Part 1 (Mercado Central)

When I started to plan this trip a couple of months ago, I decided to include a couple of days in Valencia, mainly because I wanted to taste authentic paella at its source. But I frankly didn't know much about the city, except that it is the third largest in Spain. I was excited, then, when last month's Saveur included an article on Valencia by Colman Andrews calling it one of the most exciting gastronomic destinations in the country. After two short days there, I regret that I didn't allot more more time in this beautiful city.

I will not mince words here: if you are a food lover, particularly a lover of fresh fish and seafood, then you must come to Valencia. This is a command, not a suggestion. A visit to the Mercado Central is alone worth the cost of the trip. Built in the first three decades of the twentieth century, this enclosed marketplace is vast, more than 8,000 square meters (if my math is correct, approximately 80,000 square feet). Demonstrating the value Valencianos place on the importance of food, a glance at a map shows that the market takes up more square footage than the city's cathedral. The central dome atop of the cavernous marketplace rises ten stories, also comparable to a cathedral.

Tarragona, home of romesco sauce

People come to Tarragona, about an hour south of Barcelona, for two reasons.  First, they come to visit the city´s many Roman ruins which are scattered throughout and around the city.  In particular, I enjoyed the Roman ampitheater situated right on the beach.

The second reason, however, is the one which drew me to this Mediterranean city:  romesco sauce.  I am in Spain to taste the authentic flavors of the country's best products at their source.  According to David Solé i Torné, author of a book (in Catalan) on romesco and the chef/owner of Restaurant Barquet (C/Gasòmetre, 16, tel. 34-977-24-00-23), romesco is a sauce made in the mortar and pestle whose principal ingredients include locally grown dried romesco peppers (or ñora peppers from the north), local bitxo peppers or cayenne, almonds, hazelnuts, tomato, garlic, bread, olive oil, vinegar, and wine.

Priorat - Part 7 (return of the appetite, Catalonian surf and turf)

My appetite returned today.  After a morning visit to a local lead sulfate mine, which was the main industry in the Priorat for the 100 years prior to 1970, we visited our final winery of the trip.  Finca Mas d'en Gil, located in Bellmunt del Priorat, produces a white, Coma Blanca, and two reds, Coma Vella and their higher end Clos Fontà.  Like the other wineries we have visited, these wines, which are part of the Priorat denominación de origen, have received high scores from Robert Parker.  I enjoyed the tour of this operation, which compared to the other properties we've visited, seemed relatively slick and well-capitalized.  Mind you, we're not talking Napa Valley here.  We toured the vines sitting in the back of a pickup truck!  Of the wines, I preferred the Clos Fontà, with its darker fruit and notes of blueberry and minerals.

Priorat - Part 6 (stomach goes on strike)

Apparently my stomach has decided to assert itself over my taste buds, as it has protested my attempts at adding any more food or wine to my gullet.  No vacancy.  This is a novel sensation for me, as rarely have I lost my appetite.  Oddly, there is no food poisoning or gastronomic discomfort.  I just cannot eat.

In fairness to Catalonian cuisine, our diet this week at Catacurian has not been typical.  With the goal of presenting to us the broadest spectrum of traditional food, our host Alicia has been feeding us the equivalent, In America, of a Thanksgiving dinner every night.  If you have been following my blog recently, you´ll know that just two short weeks ago I survived on a strict low-fat, high-fiber vegetarian diet for a week at a Zen Buddhist monastery in California.  The sharp contrast in the two weeks must have confused the poor old digestive system.