Bar Inopia - Recommended

Intro
Bar Inopia - Recommended
C/ Tamarit 104
08015 Barcelona, Spain
Phone: +34 934 245 231

Bar Inopia is the restaurant of Albert Adria, pastry chef of the world renowned El Bulli restaurant which is the immediate reason I wanted to check it out. Although this restaurant is owned by the Brother's Adria, there is not a foam to be seen any where. Instead, this place has the best canned ingredients and does some solid tapas. Overall, I give the restaurant a 86/100.

Our Menu
1) Gilda - anchovy, peppers, olives **
2) Chicharricos de cerdo - pork cracklings *
3) Ensalada de tomate con cebolla tierna y ventresca de bonito Tuna, Tomato, and Scallion Salad ***
4) Patates Braves *
5) Croquettas **
6) Bomba de l’Eixample ***
7) Bikini de Pernil *
8) Piña con piel de lima y melaza de caña ***
9) Cireres al Perfum *
10) Poulpe a la Galicia

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) Gilda is the classic pintxo that you see in a lot of pintxo and tapas bars. Pintxo being the tiny bites held together by a toothpick. A really fun dish with salty meaty anchovies combined with crunchy and sour peppers with a great olive.
2) Basically, pork cracklings that were store bought. Nothing special here, but still fun.
3) This is the first stand out WTF dish. The canned tuna here was out of site - great tuna flavor, really rich, and turns from meaty to almost creamy. The combination of the tomato and scallions were such a revelation that they really perfectly matched. Definitely a dish I will try to recreate.
4) Supposedly, the best patatas braves according to Batali - basically fried potatoes with a creamy and spicy sauce. These were decent, but no where near the best - flavors of the potato and the sauce were a little underwhelming . Supriginsly, the best I've ever had were at Tia Pol in NYC when the place first opened up.
5) Insanely creamy croquettes. Slightly crispy on the outside and creamy and light on the inside. Flavors was decent, but the texture was dynamo.
6) Another WTF dish. Again, slightly crispy on the outside, a creamy thin layer of potato, and inside flavorful really moist ground beef (flavorings of cumin) and spicy sweet sauce. Delicious stuff. Nice play of textures and flavors for each of the well constructed layers.
7) A good ham and cheese sandwich. Nuff said.
8) A ridiculously wonderful dessert. Sweet, juicy pineapple topped with lime zest and molasses which added a nice citrusy and sweet kick. Completely wonderful on the palate.
9) We saw everyone eating these cherries and we had to have some. Cherries were steeping in a liquorice liquor and sprayed with some more of the liquor combo at the end. Very bright, pleasant combo which also made the cherries very juicy.
10) These ocotopi were incredibly tender, but had obsolutely zero flavor. Kinda bummer...the olive oil was incredibly rich though.

Overall Restaurant Experience (86/100)

• Food 8.6/10 – Expecting a phenomenal tapas bar, but ended up with a solid one instead. The canned tuna was out of this world, but everything else was mainly good with some being great. The fried dishes had some ridiculously good textures though.
• Service 8.5/10 – The servers were very nice and incredibly helpful. It was funny that they looked like NASCAR drivers wearing the bar inopia t-shirt with a ridiculous amount of sponsors.
  
• Atmosphere 7.5/10 – A narrow white room with only one table. Around the bar, their are stools but around the back you can eat, but it's standing room only. In the front of the bar, you see all the cooks preparing the food for you like most tapas restaurants. Crowds consisted mainly of young couples - there was one group of middle aged women. Big problem is there is no reservation (only for the big table) and the wait is absurd. About 45 minutes for a Tuesday night at 7pm.
  
• Price 7.5/10 – Not too pricey as the whole meal was 70 euro for the both of us. However, comparing to other tapas bars it is very very expensive - and most importantly not that much better.
  

Closing Comments
Barcelona Girl warned me that this place is great for the canned products, but everything else is pretty average. Too some extent she's probably right and I don't think I would go again based on the wait. Too many other great tapas joints to check out...

Quickest way to peel a banana

TIM HORTONS HITS NYC HARD

I have only heard of Timmies, NOW its time to find out if it can beat out DD!!!! I heard the coffee is top notch too. I am going to make my way to their 42nd St location today!

http://www.timhortons.com/us/en/about/nyc.html

Churros Run

One of the main things I wanted to eat in Barcelona was churros dipped in chocolate. Churros is basically fried dough - kinda like a zeppole. Based on Barcelona Girl's recommendation, we checked out Xurreria for churros and La Granja for chocolate. As usual, she was spot on. The churros was perfect by itself - a weird combination of crisp on the outside, yielding to chewiness and airiness. But, dipped in the chocolate picante it was heaven. Chocolate picante is the way to go as it has the perfect amount of spice to wake up the churros. Spectacular place and La Granja let's you bring the churros over to dip into their chocolate - kinda like a hot chocolate but much thicker and less sweet. Both are very inexpensive as well - about 1 euro for 1 gram

Xurreria - Highly Recommended
8 stores north on the same side of the street as La Granja
Barcelona, Spain

La Granja - Highly Recommended
c/ Banys Nous 4, Gotico
Barcelona, Spain

Bar Boqueria - Review

Intro
Bar Boqueria - Highly Recommended
Carrer de La Boqueria
Barcelona, Spain
Phone: +34 933 182 584

Bar Boqueria was actually my second choice in the large Barcelona market, La Boqueria. The first place I originally wanted to check out, Bar Pinotxo, was closed, but there is no way it could have topped what I had at Bar Boqueria. Perfectly cooked, incredibly flavorful and fresh ingredients. Just a perfect experience. Overall, I give the restaurant a 92/100.

Our Menu
1) Mussels (mejillones) ***
2) Pig Cheek (galtas) ***
3) Tripe (callos) ***
4) Shrimp (gambas) ***
5) Eggplant Omelet (tortilla berenjena) *

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) Incredibly fresh mussels perfectly cooked. Juicy, meaty, tender, and fresh ocean flavor. Ridiculous and it tasted like they topped it with an olive oil, garlic, parsley mixture. Just sick - seriously...WTF!
2) Insanely flavorful sauce that was heavy on the chorizo flavor and combined with tomato and red pepper. Pig cheek was ridiculously tender and had great porky flavor. Another WTF dish. Another benefit was pulling some gelatin out from the pig jaw. It was like the best bone marrow, but with this incredible pork flavor.
3) I pointed to a dish and asked what it was (in my terrible Spanish). The grill dude mentioned it was tripe and I wouldn't like it. A little irritated, I swore to the dude I would definitely love it. He gave me a sample and it was another homerun WTF moment. Very tender and great tripe flavor accompanied by a wonderfully rich tomato / red pepper broth. Perfect tripe.
4) I really couldn't take this place anymore as it was just getting too much - every single dish was ridiculously perfect. It would be like sleeping with every single playboy playmate for a year...yes, I'm referring to Scott Baio. Any who, they saved the best for last. The shrimp was amazing...tied with Moo for the best shrimp or even lobster that I've ever had in my life. Moo was the best fancy shrimp/lobster, Bar Boqueria was the best rustic version. Juicy shrimp that was so tender and such huge sweet shrimp flavor. Top that off with the garlic, parsley, olive oil thing again and I was in complete heaven. What pushed this over the top was the shrimp brains that you suck that was spectacular - like the best tasting livers that had an oceany sweetness to it.
5) After so many WTFs, this was good but not great. The planets realigned and everything was right again. Basically a thick fluffy egg omelet with sweet eggplant inside. Still good, but the first non great dish.




Overall Restaurant Experience (92/100)

• Food 9.8/10 – First time I've had basically the whole menu as the WTF's. WTF!!!
  
• Service 8.5/10 – The barmen was nice to us, but complete arses too everyone else. When he saw we were going nuts over the food, he started telling us what else we should get. We ordered way too much food and he didn't stop us, but that was fine by me. It did take a while to get their attention though, since the guy that takes your order also cooks in front of you.
  
• Atmosphere 7.5/10 – La Boqueria is a huge food market and towards the back stands Bar Boqueria. The place is basically a big u-shaped box where people sit around (kinda like a sushi stall). There are stools around the bar that you sit at and it is insanely cramped there, especially since we ordered too much food. Almost every single seat was taken at 3pm on a Wednesday and it seemed like 50% spanish speaker and 50% non-spanish speakers. I heard/spotted some Americans, Italians, Asians. It's pretty chaotic in the market and at the bar which I normally wouldn't mind, but it wasn't so great there for some reason.
  
• Price 8.5/10 – Everything was pretty inexpensive except the gambas which was 17 euro. I didn't care though, since that was spectacular.
  

Closing Comments
This is definitely my happy place zone in terms of food. It's amazing what fresh ingredients taste like...kinda reminded me of Italian food where they stress the freshest ingredients and simple cooking techniques. This place just popped though and was better than anything I had in Amalfi. Killer place. Afterwards, check out the juices in the area which you can buy for a Euro...the watermelon juice was out of control good.

Moo - Review

Intro
Moo - Highly Recommended
C/ Rosselló 265
08008 Barcelona, Spain
Phone: +34 934 454 000

Checked out this place based on Barcelona Girl's recommendation and she definitely led us in the right direction - all her other rec's were spot on as well. Moo is a beautiful restaurant and the plating matches the decor. And don't worry my friends, the food is delicious here. This was our only "fancy pants" restaurant in Barcelona since I was in love with the casual food scene, but this definitely makes me want to check out other high-end restaurants. Overall, I give the restaurant an 94/100.

Our Menu
1) Amuse - Chicharron, Red Pepper Chips *, Chocolate Cookie with Foie Gras **, Goat Cheese Pastry *, Ice Cream Cones filled with a mousse (?)
2) Endive Salad with Fish Skin *, Sardine, Sangria Sorbet ***
3) Octopus and Potato Cream **
4) Strawberry, Tomato and Basil's Soup with Cockles
5) Dublin Bay Prawns with Curry, Roses, and Liquorice ***
6) Apricot with foie gras and almonds **
7) Rice with seaweed and black sausage ***
8) Guineafowl with plums and dried peach
9) Wild turbot with tender garlic **
10) Parfait with almonds, hazelnuts, and orange ***
11) Petit Four - Chocolate covered strawberry sorbet **

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way


Dish Comments
1) Didn't know what to expect, but the amuse had nice and light flavors and was a great palate opener. I don't 100% remember what was in the ice cream cone and didn't make any notes on it, but the foie gras with the chocolate crisp was a phenomenal combo. Not punch you in the face flavor, but really fun.
2) The sangria sorbet was amazing - nice, sweet, and fruity which matched the really salty and meaty sardine. Definitely a nice WTF eye opener of what they're doing here - playing with big time flavors combining savory and sweet. Awesome stuff. The side endive salad with the fish skin was nice as well.
3) Another odd but delicious combo for me. One of the most tender octopus dishes I've ever had with a heavenly potato puree. I've bitched about NY's fascination with overly buttery potato purees, but this made sense here and matched perfectly with the octopus.
4) This was a case of sense memory making me dislike a dish. When I read strawberry soup, I thought a nice light and sweet soup that would match with the salty cockles. However, it was more like a gazpacho that was salty and sour which threw me off and it actually didn't taste good to me. The sweetness would have been perfect to play off the salty and tender cockles.
5) One of the biggest WTF moments ever on this humble blog for me. This was the best shrimp or lobster dish I've ever had. Ripert wishes he could have this dish at Le Bernardin. The prawn was a matter of perfection in texture and flavor. It had such a meaty initial texture that was ridiculously tender at the same time. The flavor of the prawns were times 10 and so incredibly sweet and succulent. Then add the perfect curry mayo that really enhanced the sweetness - don't worry were not talking authentic tandori spices, but just a really light curry that made the dish pop.
6) Great foie gras mousse that paired nicely with the peach that was either barely poached or even served raw. The peach could have used a teeny bit of cooking though. The white almonds were a great touch and really flavorful.
7) Perfect rice texture and ridiculous earthy flavors of seaweed. The fried oysters put this dish in to another spectrum for flavors. Add in the surprisingly perfect zucchinis (sweet and the perfect texture of a little crunch) and you had a phenomenally satisfying rice dish.
8) Guineafowl pate was good at first, but the flavors were too intense for me. Too much demi or something. I still finished it, but needed to be toned down.
9) Another seafood dish, another example of perfect execution. The turbot was perfectly cooked - so tender, so succulent, and so flavorful. Paired nicely with the spring onion, what looked like squid ink (salty), and a nice cream (may have been alioli, but not sure)
10) A homerun dessert for me - completely happy WTF moment. Almond ice cream was delicious and not too sweet. Combine that with the ridonkulous toffy (great crunch), perfect chocolate parfait, and orange gelee and that was bliss for me.
11) Perfect way to end the meal and again completely surprised. The strawberry sorbet was so intensely flavored and had the perfect texture with the chocolate wrapped around.











Overall Restaurant Experience (94/100)

• Food 9.4/10 – This place reminded me of Ko challenging your conceptions of food - rocking the sweet with the savory. Playing around texturally with food. But, I feel the technique here is much better. Some of the proteins here were sublime like on a level of Le Bernardin and in some cases surpassing it. The dishes started strong and ended strong which is quite rare...
  
• Service 9.0/10 – Waiter's were great - very attentive and food came out actually slightly too quick. Towards the end they paced the meal better.
• Atmosphere 9.3/10 – Gorgeous place - kinda like eating at MOMA or something. Good spacing between tables and loads of light in the restaurant. By the window, there are large bamboo trees which are really nice to look at. Place was empty at 1:30 on a Tuesday and due to the size (seats 50-70), it really felt completely empty. Another couple arrived though at 2:30, but that was about it. The other couple was Spanish speakers and in there 40's or 50's. Oddly enough, although the place looks like it should be in a museum, it was really not stuffy at all - felt very relaxed and casual. Had reservations and were seated immediately even though we didn't need it.
  
• Price 9.3/10 – Phenomenal deal here for lunch - 45 Euro per person for all that food and wine. The only thing I supplemented was the prawns which were to die for.
  

Closing Comments
If I went back to Barcelona for one day only, one of the stops would be Moo for that prawn dish. Granted, I would eat 10 times that day, but that prawn dish would be at the top of the list for me :)

Don't Try This at Home Dept.

German blows hands off trying 'molecular gastronomy'

It's fun to get creative at home, but some things are better left to the professionals.

Quimet & Quimet - Review

Intro
Quimet & Quimet - Highly Recommended
C/ Poeta Cabanyes 25
08004 Barcelona, Spain
Phone: +34 934 423 142

My first night in Barcelona and we hit one out of the park by going to Quimet & Quimet. This place was so ridiculous and I guarantee you will not experience this anywhere outside of Spain. Premise of the joint is that it's a tapas bar, but a lot of the stuff you get is basically canned seafood. This may not sound great, but trust me - this is no chicken of the sea your getting here. Basically, incredibly fresh seafood cooked and sealed in high quality extra virgin oil - when it ages the flavors get intense and the texture is perfect. That is only half the battle though - you have the expert tapa barman creating these masterpieces in front of you. Kinda like a sushi chef having the same ingredients in front of him, but creating something completely different each time. Overall, I give the restaurant an 93/100.

Our Menu
1) Seafood Platter - baby clams, razor clams, mussels, squid ***
2) Duck and Foie Gras Pate, Caramelized Onions, Balsamic Glaze ***
3) Smoked Salmon, Truffle Honey, Creme Fraiche ***
4) Pickles, Tomato, Sardines
5) Pickles, Anchovies, Olive Stuffed Anchovy, Red Peper ***
6) Second Random Plate - Foie Gras, Mushrooms, Dried Tuna, Dried Beef **

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way



















Dish Comments
1) A big time WTF moment - all canned seafood, all spectacular. Like I said before, this is not your normal chicken of the sea tuna. The seafood had such a great flavor - sometimes sweet, sometimes rich. I was experiencing a Yasuda zen moment - where each piece of seafood tasted spectacular in it's own different way. Like what I've seen in England, the vinegar added the perfect pop to the plate.
2) A really great fun dish to eat and my first montadito which is basically bread with small ingredients on it. Sweet onions, rich pate, and sweet balsamic reduction make for a wtf moment of flavors. This combo makes sense and it was hella delicious.
3) My favorite dish of the night. Smoky fatty salmon, topped with sweet and earthy truffle honey, and light creme fraiche. A ridiculous explosion of textures and flavors but more importantly I had the most ridiculous smile on my face after eating this. Definitely going to recreate this very soon.
4) A nice dish, but the sardines totally caught me off guard as they were crazy fishy. An OK dish and I generally like sardines, but these were hella strong.
5) Another dish, another WTF moment. More of the same with combinations of the salty meaty anchovy, sour crunchy pickles, and sweet peppers. Huge flavors and a perfect combo.
6) The final random plate the tapa maestro laid down for us - mushrooms, more of the pate, and this time slices of foie gras which caught the attention of others as it wasn't displayed on the bar. Foie was decent, but not great; the mushrooms were solid but the killer item here were the cured tuna and beef. Again, huge flavors and the only thing I can compare them too was a jamon iberico although less intense. Perfect texture, a little chew before melting away and the curing made it so much more intese.
















Overall Restaurant Experience (93/100)

• Food 9.3/10 – An amazing combination of textures and flavors. Everything was so bright and vibrant. Writing this review is pretty tough, since I want to eat all of those dishes right now!
• Service 9.5/10 – I didn't see any menus, so I basically rocked the "que me recomienda" and the tapa man got everything for us - he spoke some English though. Really cool dude and he knew exactly when to come over with new random plates. Again, very cool how he asked us what we liked and would make up new dishes in front of us based on our answer...so awesome.
  
• Atmosphere 9.5/10 – Total sushi zen moment as you see all the ingredients laid out in front of you like a sushi bar and there are two people behind the bar ready to take your order. Ingredients available to purchase are displayed all along the walls of the tiny 200 sq foot room (no seats and no tables). People eat a tad later in Spain, so I was surprised to see it crazy packed at 7pm on a Thursday. Place was packed about 80% Spanish speakers and 20% Americans/Brits/Aussies. Everyone was very friendly and just having a great time there.
  
• Price 10.0/10 – Ok this was the best part. This whole meal was under 30 euro...a big time WTF moment for the amount that we ate. This included many a cava - the sparkling wine in that area. Btw - cava everywhere in Barcelona was 1-2 euro...
  

Closing Comments
What a fun place and such a great food experience. Granted, there's probably better tapas in Barcelona, but for the service, atmosphere, and price it'll be hard to eat.

BBQ Birthday Bash for Jon and Rob

Stopped by Jon and Rob's place for their excellent BBQ Birthday Bash...bub. Great times and the food was delicious. This year's theme were meats around the world and they kicked some massive ars. My faves were the tender and delicious lamb meatballs (rockin the chorizo type spices) and the ridiculous homemade hot dogs - flavorful and the best snap to em. Any who, happy birthday fellas - good times and spectacular food.

Menu

• UK Crisps
• Asian Marinated Ribs - tasted like hoisin but much flavorful and more fun (no hoisin in the marinade)
• Jerk Marinated Pork Belly
• Lamb Meatballs (tasted like Chorizo, but could have been Moroccan spices)
• Homemade Hot Dogs
• Homemade Ice Cream - Creamsicle and Vanilla Bean

Bah-Bye

I'll admit I was happy when I heard Kobe Club was closed for business. But when I walked passed it this afternoon and saw the wooden planks on the front doors hammered shut, I was overjoyed.
Although I'm not a fan of Bruni, I'm happy he got to see this before stepping down in a few days as the NY Times food critic. Chodorow's Kobe Club was a disgrace to the city's long history of steakhouses and will not be missed by any serious carnivores for sure.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

London Wrap Up

London was great time seeing some old and new friends. Overall, I enjoyed the food I had, but wasn't 100% blown away by anything except the produce and cheese. I also enjoyed the fascination with the vinegary flavors and the ever so interesting brown sauce - kinda like A1, but a tad more vinegar.

Still great times though and next time I need to check out:

• Curry - I've heard it's the best you can get outside of India
  
• Marco Pierre White's restaurants - classic British fare including loads of game meats
• Lord Fluffernutter mentioned there's a great Irish pub that serves solid Thai food
  
• St John's for the whole roast pig
• More research into the best fish and chips - I do dig it
  
• A proper english breakfast - I had brunch there, but wasn't necessarily worth mentioning

Next week off to Spain and reviewing my favorite restaurant experience ever...

The Gun - Review

Intro
The Gun - Highly Recommended
27 Coldharbour Ln
London, SE5, United Kingdom
Phone: 020 7515 5222

Met up some friends in London and they wanted to take us to the Gun - an old timey pub that serves some very solid food. Surprisingly, the desserts were phenomenal - I felt like Gromit after the cheese plate. Great times with some friends - thanks again Mark and Elina! Overall, I give the restaurant an 85/100.

Our Menu
1) Pig's trotter terrine, pork crackling and apple sauce **
2) Foie gras poached in red wine, balsamic strawberries *
3) Roast Halibut, Peas, Blueberries, and Garlic Mashed Potatoes *
4) Diver caught scallops, crispy roe, ox tongue and parsley purée *
5) Summer berry trifle, Champagne jelly ***
6) Cheese Plate ***

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way


Dish Comments
1) The terrine had a great pork flavor and nice texture with the gelatin surrounding it. Like a lot of English dishes, this had a perfect touch of vinegar as well to balance out the fat - the side salad of chicory also helped. Crackling unfortunately was way too hard.
2) Foie Gras was nice, but as I've said before it's hard to be wowed by it after eating so much. I don't believe I've had strawberries with FG before, so that was nice.
3) Halibut was nicely cooked (tender and flaky) and filled with the appropriate spring/summer accompaniments. Funny though that the Halibut was brushed with butter, but it totally worked. Peas and blueberries were an interesting combo - second fruit appearing on a savory dish. These added great texture and sweetness to the dish.
4) Scallops were sweet and nicely cooked. The ox was overly salty, but combining it together with the scallop and chicory salad made a nice combo - balance of salt, bitter, and sweet.
5) A big time WTF moment. I've had cheeses all over Europe before, but I don't remember getting my ass kicked this much before. Spectacular f'n cheeses, but unfortunately I was so blissed out I didn't write down what cheeses we had that night - I think we had a brie, goat, blue, and two others. In general, all the cheeses were extremely runny, pungent, and earthy. 4 out of 5 cheeses were out of this world, but my favorite was one with a pink rind.
6) Another WTF moment. I've had trifle before, but this was out of control good. Creamy and chocolaty with the chocolate chips on top, but the kicker was the excellent champagne jelly and the great berries inside. A perfect combo and great seasonal dessert.

Overall Restaurant Experience (85/100)

• Food 8.6/10 – Great food for an upscale pub, but what really caught me were the phenomenal desserts. Still sad I can't have cheese plates like that in the States.
• Service 8.6/10 – Waiter was attentive and food came out at a good pace.
• Atmosphere 8.6/10 – Interesting place as it's basically a pub, but there's a seating area with white table cloths and fine china all setup. Place was pretty busy for a Monday night and it consisted of some couples and a very large group. At the bar, there were a bunch of men sitting around drinking - seemed like my type of place. The place was decorated with guns and paintings of maritime war. Outside, you get to check out the O2 which was such a spectacular view. Got there at 7:30 and were seated promptly - we had reservations which seemed like a smart idea.
• Price 8.0/10 – Place seemed reasonable (from a US point of view) for pricing. All entrees were under 20 pounds and the starters were under 10 pounds. Well worth it in my opinion.

Closing Comments
Great times and solid food. If I lived in London, I could see myself hanging out for drinks and getting that cheese plate quite often.