GASTROMONDIALE

IBAI: A STUNNING PRODUCT RESTAURANT IN DONOSTIA-SAN SEBASTIAN

RANKING:  5 STARS (Casual Category)

Date Visited: Nov. 20, 2009

Address:  C/Guetaria 15

Tel: 943 42 87 64

SUMMARY:  I admit that it is a bit bizarre to call a restaurant  “a product restaurant” , because all such establishments should utilize top notch products.  However, even in Spain, where one can find higher quality meat and fish/shellfish compared to any other country in the Western world, very few restaurants truly excel in product quality.  Those familiar with the Basque country and especially with Etxebarri should know that one eats very well in this part of the world.

Well, I would claim that, even Etxebarri, truly a great restaurant, is not in par with Ibai in terms of the sheer quality of products across the board.   I ate several times in Etxebarri  (see….) and twice in Ibai, and, IMO, Ibai is not only the best restaurant in the Basque country and in Spain, but it is one of the most consistent  and best places to eat ultra fresh vegetables and fish/shellfish anywhere in the world.  The chef-owner, (whose photo is  below, together with my friend Josep Vilella and I who made my second visit to this restaurant possible) of Ibai is a great artisan-cook and his timing and precision leaves one speechless.  Unfortunately the photos do not do justice to Ibai, since this is basically a rustic-country style restaurant and the emphasis is not placed on plating.

CAN ROCA

Ranking:  16/20

LAST VISIT:  NOV. 17, 2009

SUMMARY:   We had one very good and one great meal here in the summer of 2007.  Then, in 2008, our meal was disappointing at the time the Roca brothers were trying to find a new place for the restaurant. Now the restaurant moved to a new location in Girona, and they have recently been awarded a 3^rd Michelin star.  The new room is airy and tables are spaced, but some may call it “soulless” and too rectangular.   On the other hand, the service is attentive.  They have designed a  very nice wine cellar where, Josep Roca,  whose taste in wine is unquestionably remarkable, reigns.  The wine cellar is organized in terms of major wine regions, such as Bourgogne, Bordeaux, Priorat,  Tuscany…, and  they have created a different theme for each sub-section of the cellar to emphasize its unique terroir. I think a visit to the cellar is a must after your meal.  To my taste, the design of the restaurant makes it more appropriate for a business lunch than for a romantic dinner.

Roca’s cooking has always  technically very elaborate but also delicious.  He often subjects the same dish to multiple cooking techniques.  He is a master of sous vide, but he does not solely rely on it. He does not shy away from using rustic ingredients (offals), and he re-interprets tradition by adding one contrasting element to dishes made up of complementary ingredients.  On the most recent visit he seemed to underemphasize the delicious component of his creations in favor of aesthetics and to display technical skills.  Some dishes were not balanced or well conceived.  However, good dishes are really good.  One wishes that this hard working and talented chef moves away from trendy modern Spanish cooking and finds a better equilibrium without losing the Catalunian focus of his best dishes.

 

HISPANIA: A MUST VISIT IN CATALUNYA

Ranking:  5/5 STARS (Informal Category)

Last Visit:  Nov. 16, 2009

ADRESS:  Arenys de Mar

TELEPHONE: 937 910457

SUMMARY: This is not only a great Spanish/Catalonian restaurant but one of my favorite informal restaurants anywhere in the world.  Sisters Pequita and Lolita and son Raimun are all great cooks, and they are all passionate about ingredient quality.  I have dined there five to six times and would claim that the quality of the products in this restaurant rank well above the five Michelin three star restaurants in Spain.  Dishes may look simple but it is hard to think of any improvement on them without compromising their integrity.  Cooking is often precise but I have also noticed some overcooking of meat and vegetables on a couple of occasions.  But this is also a rare restaurant in the sense that they normally excel in fish, meat as well as vegetable preparations.  They also serve a crème catalane which should be the guidepost to compare against when ranking other crème catalanes.

CA L'ENRIC: WOODCOCK FEAST

Ranking :  18/20 (Formal Category)

Date Visited:  November 14, 2009

ADRESS:  2 kilometer east on C-26 from the small town of l’Hostalnou de Bianya

PHONE: 972 290 015

SUMMARY:  An all becada (woodcock) meal may not provide sufficient basis to evaluate a restaurant. However this is my second meal at Ca L’Enric and my ranking is the average of the two meals: 17/20 and 19/20, respectively.  This is one of the most under-rated restaurants by the Michelin guide which gives only one star.  The becada meal was outstanding, and together with the November meal at L’Ambroisie where Pacaud served his incomparable wild duck tourte with tartufi-pico magnatum (a quality not found in Alba town), I  would argue that this was one of the two most memorable meals of 2009. Please note that there is an interesting book in Spanish by Jaume Coll entitled “El Crepusculo De La Becada”. My understanding is that Joan and Isabelle Montois, brother sister team in the kitchen (photo below), relied on some of the historical recipes found in this book to prepare this meal. The eldest brother of the trio which owns the restaurant, Jordi Montois, is also the sommelier and his selections should not disappoint wine lovers. 

SIMPSON: FLAVOR EXPLOSION IN COSTA BRAVA

RANKING:  5 STARS (Informal Category)

Date Visited: 13 November, 2009

Address: Passeig de Cipsela No. 10.  Llafranca

Tel: 972 301157

SUMMARY:  This is an excellent restaurant  in its own category. It does not pretend to be an haute cuisine temple. It is rather a friendly, casual place, like a bistro or osteria. Mirabella works virtually alone in the kitchen and her husband Felix is in the living room. Mirabella has not been formally trained and she works by instinct and, not unlike the two sisters who own the great Hispania of Arenys del Mar, she concocts unique dishes with great character.  Her cooking is very light but flavorful. Both vegetables and the seafood is of outstanding quality. Indeed the restaurant receives several shipments of fresh shellfish each day from local fisherman. (SEE PHOTOS)  The langouste of this region is especially noteworthy in the sense that it is quite sweet and flavorful and not cottony.  I am impressed by the technique and ingredient quality of this place.

The clientele is primarily well off Catalonian families who have summer residences in CostaBrava.

 

 

An Exceptional Restaurant in Sevilla: Jaylu

10 years ago I was enthusiastic about the high end dining scene in Spain.  Juan Mari Arzak was still cooking  great dishes;  Zuberoa was in top shape; Berasategui had not forgotten his Basque roots; and,  Feran Adria was cooking some real food and tasty dishes at El Bulli.  One could then even eat well at Akelare.

Now it is a much changed landscape. Most of the high end dining in Spain is dominated by a synthetic, artificial cuisine based on generic ingredients.  It is no wonder then that these multi starred Michelin chefs are usually devoid of a domestic client base. With the exception of a small clique in Spain organized around “Lo Mejor de la Gastronomia” and R. Garcia Santos, very few Spaniards seem to be lured by the avant-garde cooking and/or the so called “creations” of young chefs who learn about fancy plating and a panoply of experimental lab equipments and various chemical stabilizers before they can tell the difference between a rock bass and a farmed one.  Unfortunately these chefs don’t even know how to properly quarter a whole hog or cow, and they are at the behest of  those who vacuum pack teeny-tiny cuts of fish and meat to be sous-vided in the restaurant and then artistically plated.

The irony is that Spain is still a great destination for dining, but for a different reason. The reason is that Spain has arguably the best seafood and ham in the world, and, some of the worst, overoaked, over the top, international style wines in the world….

A Trip to Valencia and Barcelona: Ca' Sento, Can Fabes, Can Roca, and Others

Is the hype about Spanish cuisine justified?

Following another 10 day trip to the South of Spain last month in March 2007, I have an unequivocal answer: Yes and No.

It is no, if we equate Spanish cuisine with the “in” places favored by international gastronomic traveler and glossy publications whose business is to create hype. At the high end, with the exception of Con Fabes, the top of the Spanish scene does not equal France in terms of the rigor and precision of the celebrated chefs.

It is yes, by all means, if we are searching for great ingredients or singular dishes cooked expertly, rooted in gastronomic traditions.  Spanish cuisine is especially interesting because certain kinds of seafood (from Galicia and also the Mediterranean) and certain products are either unique to Spain, or nearly so.

Hispania: Beginning of a Love Story

I am not exaggerating.

If I choose one restaurant that I will eat at once a week in the foreseeable future I will not have a second thought: It will be Hispania, located in Arenys de Mar, about a 40 min. drive from Barcelona.

This is actually what Josep Viella, gourmet extraordinaire, does, who has also been my generous host in Barcelona last month.  He is certainly lucky to have access to this gem of a place in his backyard.

El Bulli vs. Can Roca -- A Lesson Learned

Having consecutive meals at the celebrated EL BULLI and the rising star CAN ROCA teach one a lesson against lumping together widely dissimilar restaurants under the same rubric of “creativity”. Indeed if this term denotes experimentation with new techniques and textures and a knack for unusual taste combinations, then both restaurants should score very high at that level. But in the case of El Bulli, Adria’s creations are mostly endless and tiring variations on some basic idea (freezing alginates with liquid nitrogen to obtain frozen surfaces with liquid or soft fillings), and despite Adria’s recent interest in Japanese cooking methods and ingredients, his cooking belies the very notion of “umami”, in the sense that, for the most part, it is neither unctuous or savory. On the contrary, most dishes that the four of us tasted on June 23 struck us as being quite artificial, repetitive and, unsubtle. This is a style of cooking which is perhaps a clever response to the declining quality and availability of our meats, seafood and vegetables in the modern age. Instead of seeking out the best available seasonal ingredients and enhancing their intrinsic qualities, Adria is on the lookout for a novel approach to cuisine which is not dependent on the availability and quality of ingredients. Ultimately, in a world where one can no longer find a good tomato or potato or wild turbot or Antep pistachios or fresh buffalo mozzarella, we may be grateful to Adria for having shown us the possibility of a third way between unadulterated and natural tastes and frozen supermarket food.

In Search of Great Ingredients: A Trip to Madrid and Segovia

I was quite angry at myself that I had chosen the wrong week to go to Spain as we had planned our trip during the Semana Santa or Easter, and most Michelin star restaurants that I had wanted to try in Madrid and Donosia turned out to be closed for the occasion. I had actually a reservation at Mugarritz near Donostia, and then I received a polite email, canceling it. Apparently they had decided to close the restaurant, but had taken my reservation request the previous November. Disappointed, we started to think about strategies to turn a difficult situation into a new culinary adventure. Unfortunately most restaurants I had liked very much in Madrid in the past were also closed. So we decided to re-route, cancel the Donostia part of the trip, and spend some days in Segovia as a base to discover the Castilian asadors.  Similarly we wanted to design our eating strategy in and around Madrid to hunt for some products which cannot be found elsewhere, or, are simply the best in Spain. Our strategy turned out to be quite successful, and when I reevaluate it retrospectively I find it more informative to structure this article around single dishes than around individual restaurants. I will complement this by giving an overall judgment of the restaurant based on the totality of the meal without further details.