[Sca-cooks] A meal in Spain. OT, Very long.

[Michael Gunter]

Selene sent me this letter from a friend of hers who is a
major foodie travelling through Europe. She kind of got
information overload halfway through but figured we would
like it. I got permission to post it here.

Gunthar

-----Original Message-----
From: David Reiley [mailto:reiley at eller.arizona.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 8:50 PM
To: stephanie.maynard at cox.net
Subject: Our meal at elBulli


Hi, Steph.

Here are the results of the serious note-taking I did after the
fabulous restaurant experience in Spain.

For more information about this restaurant (and the hot young chefs
of Spain), you might enjoy reading the following article from the NY
Times magazine on 10 August 2003.

http://press.elbulli.com/scripts/fitxa.php?id_article=1968

Best,
David



Sunday night I had the most incredible dining experience of my life.
Mary and I went to elBulli, a very adventurous, cutting-edge
restaurant.   I made my reservation a couple of months ago, but I
didn't know quite what to expect.

First of all, it was a two-hour drive to the restaurant from our
hotel.   Mary was dubious about this to begin with - how could any
restaurant possibly be worth a two-hour drive each way?  It was well
worth the drive to me, but I suspect no restaurant could be worth it
to her.   But she was gracious about going along, even though I could
tell she wasn't interested.  She even did all the driving.   The
Spanish countryside was quite lovely on the way to the restaurant for
our 8pm reservation, though we did have some trouble finding the
place.   It actually took us more like 2.5 hours, because the
restaurant was quite difficult to find, way out on a tiny little
windy road out on a mountainous peninsula.  We ended up being  late
for our 8pm reservation, but that was no problem for the restaurant.
(It still astonishes me how late people eat in Spain.   When we
arrived at 8:30, we were the first people to be seated.)   So, we
spent 2.5 hours driving there, then 3.5 hours eating, then 2 hours
driving home, which meant that we left at 6pm and didn't get home
until almost 2am!   Quite a night!

So, when we finally reached the restaurant, they seated us at a
lovely outdoor table on a stone patio with a view of the ocean.  I
enjoyed the ocean breeze as I ordered a glass of Cava (sparkling wine
from this region of Spain).  The captain described for us the basic
way the meal would proceed, as everyone eats the same tasting menu
rather than ordering a la carte.  He also gave us a card with brief
descriptions of each course in Catalan.   Since we couldn't really
read most of it, the meal was going to be one surprise after another.
He also asked if we had any dietary restrictions, and Mary explained
that she wouldn't eat mushrooms or truffles, and she couldn't eat a
whole lot of cream.   They said that was no problem, that they would
create a few special courses just for her.

Well, it turned out to be a twenty-course meal!  And each course had
something very exciting to it.   Let me describe them all to you,
before I begin to forget them.  (I'm using my souvenir menu card to
jog my memory, and asking Mary to help me make corrections and fill
in the gaps.)

1. Actually, even before they took a drink order, they whisked out
our first course, which was an orange rectangular block, about 4cm x
6cm x 1cm, wrapped in a bit of cellophane on three sides.  This
turned out to be an iced whisky sour aperitif.  Pretty tasty!   I
don't think I've ever had a real whisky sour, as I've never had much
interest in exploring hard alcohol, but I did like this one.

2. Next, they brought out an assortment of five more little "tastes."
First, a pizza stick, about 20cm long, two of them standing upright
in a little glass jar.  Second, little crispy treats (four of them)
resembling ravioli in shape, but the "pasta" part turned out to be a
crispy yogurt while the filling was a pistachio.  Third, a conical
crust filled with what turned out to be pureed popcorn (really!) -
the bits were about the size of sugar crystals, but incredibly soft,
and so light that they would blow away if you breathed too close
(which is why half of mine ended up in my lap!).  Fourth, a couple of
deep-fried chicken feet, very lightly battered and very crispy,
served hot - tasted a bit like pork rinds.  Fifth, a bite-sized snack
of Parmesan and lemon, in a form that looked like a ball of twine,
but again very crispy.

3. The third course consisted of local wild mushrooms (ceps), served
on a tray made of bundled, narrow bamboo.  Three mushroom-shaped
crisps stood straight up off the bamboo, accompanied by a vial of two
shades of amber fluid.  The crisps tasted like pure mushroom, perhaps
slightly sweet.  I was instructed to suck on the vial in between
bites of the crisps - it turned out to contain gelatin flavored with
mushroom essence.   (For Mary, who can't stand mushrooms, they
substituted a golden quail egg.   It was very lightly poached, and
somehow they also managed to cook a crispy layer of gold leaf and
caramelized sugar on top.   Unfortunately, Mary doesn't like eggs
either, so I ate it for her.  :-) )

4. The next course was barnacles.  I've never eaten barnacle meat
before, though I've seen "goose barnacles" on menus a few times in
the past.  I always wondered how anyone could get meat out of a
barnacle, since the barnacles I knew on the beach as a kid were
always very small - maybe half a centimeter in diameter.   Well, for
this course each barnacle was about 1.5 centimeters in diameter, and
about 5 centimeters long.  They served each of us three barnacles on
a little plastic skewer, with a liquid-filled bulb on one end, and
the whole thing sat in a little dish covered in some kind of white
foam, like that from a cappuccino machine.  They instructed me to
take a barnacle in my mouth, then squeeze the bulb of briny barnacle
water to inject some of that flavor into my mouth at the same time.
Barnacle meat is kind of chewy, a little like escargot, and the meat
was mottled grey and pink.   Very tasty, especially in  small
quantities like this.  I wouldn't want to eat a whole plate of it,
though.

5. The next course was called "countries" ("paises," in Catalan).  We
received a chilled plate with three tablespoons on it, each one
representing a different country.  (Actually, the plate was pretty
much room temperature, not icy, but it was served with a blue ice
pack - customized with the label "elBulli Snack" - between the plate
and the spoons.)  The first spoon, "Thailand," included several
discrete flavors: a dollop of coconut milk, some curry, some ginger,
a drop of dark brown tamarind syrup, and topped with a basil leaf.
The second spoon, "Japan," included dark miso broth, pink pickled
ginger puree, and wasabi... each flavor more intense than the last.
The final spoon, "Mexico," was a smooth yellow cream topped with a
cilantro leaf.  In fact, it turned out to be the smoothest creamed
corn I'd ever tasted... no kernels or lumps, just a very smooth puree.

6. Our final taste from the first section of the menu, labeled
"snacks," was an ice-cream sandwich, about the same size as the
whisky sour ice had been.   But this ice-cream sandwich was savory
rather than sweet: it was made of Parmesan cheese!   A bar of
Parmesan ice cream, very smooth and quite salty, sandwiched between
Parmesan crisps (about the thickness and texture of potato chips, but
much tastier, and perfectly rectangular).

7. Now, on to the second section of the menu, labeled "tapas."  (It
wasn't clear to me, however, what was the main difference between
"snacks" and "tapas."   I suppose perhaps the portions got a little
larger, but not much.   Everything was in a small tasting portion,
just the perfect size, in my opinion.)  The next course was "paella"
accompanied by shrimp.   But the paella was not what you might
expect.   We got a  demitasse cup filled with thick, red, seasoned
broth, along with a skinny plastic bag, propped upright, full of
seasoned Rice Krispies, which served as the rice in the "paella."
(In fact, the menu said "Kellogg's" as part of the description, but
we had no idea until we actually saw the dish what "Kellogg's" could
possibly mean here.)  We poured the Rice Krispies into the thick,
fishy broth - the seasonings and textures were quite delicious
together.  Alongside the paella was served shrimp - two pieces, on
the same kind of plastic, bulb-tipped skewer that the barnacles had
been on.  One piece was raw shrimp, and the other a crispy sweetened
shrimp in the shell, legs and all.  We got to squeeze out the broth
from the plastic bulb as we put the shrimp into our mouths.
(Unfortunately, by this time Mary was starting to feel queasy, as she
doesn't much care for shellfish, so the combination of barnacles,
strong fishy "paella," and raw shrimp was starting to get to her.)

8. For the next course, the servers brought each of us a porcelain
bowl with one side piled high with some kind of light beige powder
(actually more like pellets of quinoa or orzo than like powder, but
very dry nevertheless ), and the other side decorated with thin
stripes of dark brown syrup.    Then they poured some lovely dark
consomme into the center of the bowl, so that the soup was touching
the pile of powder on one side and the stripes of syrup on the other
side.  The powder turned out to be cold powdered foie gras (don't ask
me how on Earth the chef made this), while the syrup was tamarind.
Both were delicious complements to the beef consomme.... you could
take spoonfuls of broth, spoonfuls of dry foie gras, or let the
powder fall into the soup and taste both at the same time.

9. The next course was a fried egg, a very small one, sunny side up,
but buried under more cappuccino foam.   The yolk, though completely
runny yellow underneath, was encrusted with something hard, sweet,
and pink, giving it a bright orange cast from above.  Also buried
under the foam were little cubes of bacon (jamon).  Very light and
tasty.

10. Next was a truffle ravioli, completely round and about 10cm in
diameter, in the "carbonara" style.  I wasn't quite sure what
"carbonara" meant, as many Italian food terms have escaped me in the
past.  Anyway, this very thin pasta had visible bits of black
truffle, and at the center was another runny but delicious quail egg.
(Fortunately, Mary didn't get this dish, because of her request for
no truffles, so she instead got cooked shrimp along with triangles of
thin red beet wrapped around strawberry coulis.  The shrimp were kind
of fishy, and therefore a bit much for her at this point, but she did
like the beet-and-strawberry concoction.)

11. Next came three slices of mandarin orange, each covered in
pumpkin puree and then dusted with some kind of reddish-brown spice
(cinnamon, perhaps), served cold.  On the left, a frothy yogurt
garnish with green pumpkin seeds buried inside.  On the right, a
garnish of cold, powdered almonds.   I don't know how the chef
manages to create these chilled powders; I've never seen anything
like it .   In addition, we each received a folded white rectangle of
blotter paper, which contained aromatic accompaniments to the dish.
Orange essence on the left side of the fold, and orange flower
essence on the right side.   We sniffed our perfumes a few times
during the course of eating the orange and pumpkin.

12. The final "tapas" course came on a rectangular plate, again with
two foci of attention.  On the left, a dark green rectangular gelatin
mould with some kind of shredded meat underneath, and on the right, a
mound of tiny yellow kernels.    The left item turned out to be a
gelee of spider-crab meat (I still don't know what gave it the green
color), and the right one had a very intense flavor of corn.  The
right-hand mound turned out not to be simple corn, but I think rather
just the tiny "grit" part of the corn - that is, the part from which
Southerners make "grits."  If I'm right, then my plate must have
contained the grits from at least two cobs of corn.. but they were
not mushy at all.  They were served "al dente," and piping hot.

13. Next we moved to the "platos," or "main course," part of the
menu.  Each of us received a rectangular plate with about ten raw
clams carefully arranged along the edge.  Each clam was flavored with
a few drops of passion-fruit nectar, and in the center of the plate
was a pool of sweet, white lychee syrup.  The sweet, tropical fruit
tastes complemented the raw clams very nicely.   The dish was quite
yummy, but would have been better in a smaller portion.   I managed
to eat about seven of the clams before I started to get a bit queasy,
and decided to start pacing myself for the rest of the meal.   Poor
Mary didn't even touch  her plate, because she knew she liked neither
raw clams nor tropical fruit nectar, and she was no longer feeling
brave and adventurous.

At this point, the staff asked us if we would like to move to an
indoor table, since the night was getting rather cool and breezy.
We accepted their invitation.  The decor indoors amused us, with lots
of fanciful representations of bulldogs (apparently what elBulli, the
restaurant name, means).  They lit a candle at our table, and allowed
us to settle in, before bringing the next course...

14. Finally, something Mary wanted to eat.  It was an isosceles
triangle, about 10cm x 5cm, of fish, called "salmonetes Gaudi."   It
looked more like red snapper than salmon to me, but I admit that I'm
not a salmon expert.  Anyway, Mary figured that the "Gaudi" part of
the name referred to the mosaic tiling that was put on the fish... I
failed to identify the ingredients, but the fish was covered in tiny
bits of red, bright green, and light green "tile."   Very nice, but I
was only able to finish about half of mine because I was feeling so
full by this point (mostly of raw clam).  :-)   As the meal went on,
I became more and more amazed at the chef's ability to present such a
diversity of different textures, temperatures, tastes, smells, and
visual appeals.

15. Next came a little confit of rabbit, seasoned with some kind of
spice - my guess is nutmeg or maybe Chinese five-spice.   Underneath
was a delicious, light sauce of liver (I think it was foie gras,
rather than rabbit liver, but couldn't be sure).  The rabbit was
served shredded or julienned, in a little circular mound.
Accompanying the rabbit were two cubes of intense apple gelatin,
served warm.   There were also sprinkles of dark brown sugar crystals
and of cocoa across the plate, providing both flavor and visual
appeal.

16. The next plate again showed off two completely different tastes.
On the left, a delicious slice of baked apple, covered in some kind
of dark red jelly - I think it might have been red currant.   On the
right, a little mound of incredibly smooth potato puree, once again
hidden in some kind of flavored froth from a cappuccino machine.  I
found both delicious, even though I was definitely slowing down by
this point.  :-)  And, since Mary by this point had had three good
dishes in a row, I was able to stop worrying that she would go
hungry.  Actually, she wouldn't have gone hungry in any case.  During
the whole meal, she enjoyed the perfect rolls that the staff kept
putting on our bread plates.   The rolls were very crusty, ovoid in
the middle, with long, thin spikes on either end... shaped like one
of those fancy antique glass Christmas ornaments.)

17. The last of the "platos" actually seemed more like a "postre"
(dessert) to both of us, but we weren't complaining.   I think it was
perhaps a palate-cleanser before the dessert courses began.  This was
an ice-cold, crispy, wafer-thin anise ravioli with a center of
toffee.   We were instructed to hold them in our hands and eat them
in two bites (before they melted), but I stretched mine to three.
:-)  It was absolutely delicious, and once again I was experiencing a
combination of textures and flavors I never dreamed I'd experience
together.   The anise ravioli had a bright green tint to it, but I
haven't the slightest idea what caused the color.

18. The first official dessert was a Thai-inspired dessert, not
entirely unlike the savory Thai spoon we had been served much
earlier.   However, this dish was much sweeter and much more
elaborate.  At the bottom was a layer of pink goo, very refreshing -
I think it was probably pink grapefruit, perhaps with a little
ginger.   Above that were several other fluffy, creamy substances:
the light green one was a sweet curry, the dark green one was green
tea, one of the white ones was coconut, and I never was able to
identify the second white substance.  Atop all these fluffy delights
was mounted a paper-thin disk of sugar candy, with several cilantro
leaves embedded in it.  The whole thing was about 7cm in diameter.
Incredibly delicious.

19. The next dessert was my least favorite (because I don't like
coffee flavor), but it still had quite a bit to recommend it.   This
was another rectangular plate with two regions of focus.   On the
left I found a  delicious, light, white chocolate mousse arranged in
a circular mound about 5cm in diameter, and a tiny melon-ball-sized
scoop of coffee ice cream lying in the center.   Placed on top of
this was a thin, rectangular piece of coffee-flavored ice, about the
same shape and color as a Hershey bar, but a bit smaller and
considerably more translucent.   On the right I found a pool of
thick, dark green, pumpkin-seed syrup.   Yummy.  Scattered around the
plate were several chocolate-covered pistachios (or maybe they were
puffed pumpkin seeds - we couldn't decide).

20. The final course was a large tray of assorted treats for the
table.   I suppose they might call them "amusements" at a French
restaurant, but these were pretty far-out compared with standard
French cuisine.  :-)   Each of the different treats came in its own
silver serving dish - some of them would more accurately be called
"mounts" than "dishes," because they were a variety of
three-dimensional shapes, often designed to make the edible treat
stand straight up off the tray.  (Each piece of silver was stamped
with a little elBulli signature bulldog.)

The waitress instructed us to eat the first few treats in a certain
order, before they melted.   First, we each had a little paper cone
filled with pea-sized spheres of watermelon ice flavored with basil.
Next, we had a thin, crispy, cold yogurt pastry filled with something
sweet, but I can't remember what the filling was anymore.   Third, we
ate a large, flat piece of cool, hardened chocolate drizzle, which
also contained a 3cm square of dried pineapple and some fresh herbs
(dill, mint) in different places.  The other items could be eaten in
any order after that.   There were a couple of strawberry halves,
filled with orange zest and perhaps some kind of liqueur.  A little
silver dish bearing two types of very small chocolates, the first
filled with cool chocolate yogurt, and the second filled with a
delicious chocolate-lime truffle.   A bit of fresh pineapple on a
little wooden stick, encased in a strawberry-caramel meringue.  A
bowl of white lumps of what looked like sugar, but much more crumbly
and less crystalline than sugar would normally be, with a delicious
lime flavor.  Two small stone-fruit-shaped pieces (apricots,
perhaps?) of flat, hard, dark chocolate, brushed with some kind of
fruit jelly and decorated with a real herb leaf at the top.  And two
square lollipops of pumpkin-seed candy, standing straight up, their
"sticks" made completely of edible dark chocolate.


We left the restaurant shortly before midnight.   Since traffic was
no longer so heavy, we got home in under two hours, even after
getting lost in our resort town (streets were seldom marked, so our
street map was little help).   The hardest part was staying awake for
the entire drive... Mary did an admirable job driving, while I
navigated.

Now we're in the Spanish Pyrenees, in a tiny farming village.
Tonight for dinner, we sat a field with some provisions we bought at
the grocery store on our daytrip to Andorra this afternoon.
Baguette, sausage, two kinds of delicious Spanish cheeses, olives,
and giant raisins.   A lovely picnic, as the mountains to one side
began to turn golden in the sunset.

Tomorrow, it's on to Barcelona, and then on Monday to London.

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