detlef Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 (edited) To answer my own question, the champagne they serve in first class Delta is fine enough but not really worth seeking out. It's called Delahaie, it's your basic 3-grape NV and I'm sure they got a good deal on it. I mean, fine enough stuff mind you if they're just refilling your glass over and over. The food on the plane was actually pretty good and the importance of both the full digital library of movies available to each passenger or the fact that your seat reclined all the way back to a bed can't be overstated. In general, I really don't think Spain has anything on us in terms of food. Mind you, I had some insanely good food over there, but a lot of crap as well. San Sebastien, specifically, is an amazing food town. From 3-star Michelin dining, to unreal tapas everywhere. It's also a beautiful city that loves to party. Madrid, on the other hand, was basically lame. Just a big dirty city with some cool museums and neat Palaces and churches to look at. From a food standpoint, you either go silly high end, take your chances with crappy versions of basic Spanish food, or eat nothing but cheap middle eastern (which is basically what we ended up doing because we'd pretty much spent way too much by the time we got there). Another thing. Spain is not cheap at all. At least eating out isn't. Every time we turned around, we were dropping a minimum of $30 US for what amounted to a little snack. When we actually sat down to eat a proper meal, $60 per person at least and upwards of, well let's just say a whole lot more than that (like 3x). If I had it to do over again, I would have rented an apartment rather than stay in a hotel/pension. Especially in Barcelona. The food in the markets was amazing and actually quite cheap. I would have been happy to head down there in the morning, grab a snack and a coffee and load up on goodies for several of our meals. I mean, the best food we had out was nothing more than seafood cooked with garlic and olive oil. You can bust that out pretty quick and easy in the early evening sharing a bottle of wine. Especially when you consider that absolutely nothing is open between 4-8pm (that's another story entirely). Then we could have just splurged on a few stellar meals out rather than rolling the dice with marginal lunch spots. In San Sebastien, where your batting average on getting amazing food out was much higher, this wouldn't be so important but I would still gladly trade having someone come in to make my bed for the ability to make myself a little snack or a proper breakfast (pretty much the only thing you can find to eat before 1pm in most places is a small pastry). Two things we certainly do better than them: Sandwiches, and paper napkins. Their idea of a ham sandwich is 2-3 very thin slices of cured ham (think prociutto) on a sliced baguette. That's it. Even if the ham is great, you can't get past the fact that the dish as a whole lacks any moisture what-so-ever. I can't imagine that they could complain over the addition of some mayo, onions, tomatoes, maybe some roasted peppers? olive spread? Freaking anything? I had a hard time understanding this. Every bar has these paper napkins that are about the size and thickness of a sheet of toilet paper and feel like they're made of wax paper. You might as well try to wipe your face and hands with saran wrap for all the good these things do. The irony is that almost every thing is finger food. So, if you ever actually needed a decent napkin, it is then. So, the short list: Barcelona: Passidis del Pep- 8 course meal of immaculately prepared shellfish with a nice bottle of Cava. Everything was great, but the baby squids and rice braised in squid ink and the crawfish cooked with onions stand out. La Boqueria- This is the central market and there's a few little bars in there that we usually hit for breakfast. One thing that was interesting, the number of old dudes having their first wine, beer, or even brandy of the day at about 8am. Highlights there were razer clams cooked with garlic, garbanzos cooked with blood sausage, baby squids cooked with white beans, and these insanely good custard filled frosted donuts. Also, great coffee. San Sebastien: Arzak- 3 star Michelin place (full report with photos to follow). In short, a kitchen of 30 cooks making food for a dining room filled with 25 patrons (that was almost capacity BTW and was only short of capacity because some 4 tops only had 2 people at them). Perhaps the most insane food I've ever had. La Cuchara de San Telmo- This is a little tapas bar in the old section of town. Unlike most, that put everything out on the bar and just charge you for what you take, these guys make everything to order. A short list of what they did: Tempura Cod with Tomato confit and parsley oil, Seared foie gras (a huge chunk BTW) with pureed apple, Creamy risotto with cabrales cheese, Seared sweetbreads with morrocan spices... you get the idea. Really innovative stuff, all pristine, and relatively cheap. Each of the above cost about $5 US and the portions of the proteins would anchor a dish costing at least double that at my restaurant. I went back 4 times in two days until I had eaten everything on the menu. Bar Senra- More traditional in terms of lay-out with almost all the dishes being served on top of a slice of baguette at room temp. Highlights, Serrano ham, foie gras, and mango puree; serrano ham and gravlax; foie gras and ham stuffed croquette (this was pretty cool because the foie melts inside, so you have this rich ham-studded molten inside held in by a crispy outer layer. I need to figure out how they do that). Valles- The best marinated octopus we found out there. Everything else was nice enough but only the octopus was note worthy. Texpatxa- These guys specialize in white anchovies. Had crostinis where they were paired with trout eggs, spider crab, salmon ceviche, and uni. Gandara- This place is known for mushrooms. They've got this huge pile of wild shrooms on the bar and serve them simply prepared with garlic, and olive oil. Pretty tough to beat. Dishes that I had all over and really dug- Gambas Plancha , which is basically prawns grilled whole in their shell (and should be eaten thusly). Also they fried up these small mild peppers with a bunch of salt. I could eat a freaking mountain of either. Non-food highlights: The Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. Completely insane, really. The entire city of San Sebastien including the mountains and beaches. I can't say enough about how much I dug that town. The architecture in general. I really dug the combination of really old buildings right next to super modern ones. That'll do for now. Edited September 18, 2007 by detlef Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McNasty Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 Sounds like a good trip. Looking forward to the pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MojoMan Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 You didn't make it to El Buli? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted September 18, 2007 Author Share Posted September 18, 2007 You didn't make it to El Buli? Nope. Too hard to get in and I only budgeted one crazy high dollar meal for the trip. Arzak seemed more up my alley. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulzale Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 I have seriously enjoyed the food in Madrid after spending many weeks there over the past 6 months, but I am traveling for work on an expense budget! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
policyvote Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Wonderful write-up! I'm on tenterhooks for this, though: Arzak- 3 star Michelin place (full report with photos to follow). In short, a kitchen of 30 cooks making food for a dining room filled with 25 patrons (that was almost capacity BTW and was only short of capacity because some 4 tops only had 2 people at them). Perhaps the most insane food I've ever had. Peace policy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bier Meister Posted September 21, 2007 Share Posted September 21, 2007 sounds like a fantastic trip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spain Posted September 21, 2007 Share Posted September 21, 2007 Dude! I want you to see you criticize Spain to his face... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil_gop_liars Posted September 21, 2007 Share Posted September 21, 2007 Dude! I want you to see you criticize Spain to his face... Ok! You smell like the French.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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