What Holt and Barbara Had for Dinner

Tuna Steaks with salsa

2009-07-04T17:34:00.001-05:00

Friday July 3

Pan fried tuna steaks until opaque on each side but still lovely and rare in the middle. Then a cool fresh salsa with tiny cubes of Amish tomato, red pepper, scallion, cilantro, and just a little half of the home-pickled jalapeños.

Ants Climbing the Lion's Head

2009-07-04T17:29:00.004-05:00

Thursday July 2

Sort of a combo of two classic Chinese dishes: Lion's Head Salad and Ants Climbing Trees.
Marinate 1 pound ground pork in a tablespoon soy and a tablespoon yu xiang wine. Chop up 1 tbsp ginger and 2 cloves garlic. Wash and halve two baby bok choys. Have chicken broth, sesame oil and oyster sauce standing by.
Heat vegetable oil in wok to high, stir fry garlic and ginger, then pork until no longer pink. Melt a quarter cup of chicken broth over it, then nestle bok choy into mess, cut sides down, drizzle with a little sesame oil, turn down heat, and cover to simmer. Keep cooking and shifting until bok choy is limp and tender. Stir in 1 tbsp or more oyster sauce. Serve by draping bok choy on platter, heaping pork over it.

Salmon and Asparagus in Cream over Penne

2009-07-04T17:29:00.001-05:00

Wednesday July 1

Or things to do with asparagus, cream and pasta that aren't a Saffi, though done very much in that manner. This was the last day of our poached fresh salmon, and it broke down very nicely to thicken the sauce. A whisper of lemon juice to brighten it.

Cherry Soup and Salmon Cakes

2009-07-04T17:20:00.003-05:00

Tuesday June 30

A hot day calls for cold soup. So we boiled up a couple of pounds of cherries in a rather overly-sweet Riesling with just a touch of cinnamon and cloves. They're so much easier to pit that way. Grinded it all up and served it with a lattice of cream.
Then left-over salmon for salmon cakes dipped in panko, which really does make for a crunchier crust.

Cold salmon with quick sorrel-cream sauce from the Herbfarm cookbook; boiled garden green peas.

2009-07-04T17:19:00.003-05:00

Sunday June 28

Chop up a shallot or scallion and briefly sauté in 1 Tbsp butter until wilted (if scallion, white parts first). Destem and rough-chop a loose salad-spinnerful of sorrel leaves. Throw half in on top of the scallion and stir until wilted, 1 min; throw in rest and stir until wilted, 1 min; add enough cream to make a nice sauce, and heat through until bubbly. Pour over cold fish.

German Potato Salad with Kielbasa

2009-07-04T17:19:00.002-05:00

Monday June 29

Okay, no cracks about invading Poland. This time we made New Joy's German potato salad, we substituted a nice stick of smoked homemade Kielbasa from Findlay Market for the bacon; and added the chopped dill pickles that New Joy suggests. Our opinion: keep leaving out the dill pickles.

Steak & garlic mashed Potatoes with fried onions

2009-07-04T17:18:00.000-05:00

Saturday June 27

I think no more need be said.

Whole Poached Salmon with vegetables in cream

2009-07-04T17:17:00.002-05:00

Friday June 26

The Julia Child special, but now we have plenty of tarragon.

Napa Sausages with Bok Choy from the garden

2009-07-04T17:15:00.001-05:00

Thursday June 25

Pretty much the way we did it last time. And what could be more American than bok choy?:

Chili's, Atlanta Airport

2009-06-28T12:45:00.001-05:00

Wednesday June 24

Yes, the contrast was ludicrous, but what could we do? They had Bass Ale on tap. We got the least obnoxious thing on the menu, a couple of hamburgers (Holt's with bacon) with french fries.

Madrid-Barcelona, Barcelona, again

2009-06-28T12:44:00.004-05:00

Tuesday June 23

After a late start and an odd lunch (tapas at el Quim de Boqueria, in the big market, where we ordered by look and ended up eating okay octopus and what turned out to be ensalada cap-i-pota, "head and leg" of pork, i.e. headcheese salad), we spent some time by the pool, as our legs (and heads) were exhausted. Around five, we went up to the Parc Guell for an evening stroll around the crazy mosaics, a peek at the Casa Gaudí, and a beer under the palm trees with the green parrots. But we had no dinner ideas, so we gave up and headed back to Madrid-Barcelona.

After ordering a bottle of Martivillí Rueda, we started off with another thing we'd seen at that other table the previous night, "Festival de closca/feast of shellfish," a bounteous dish of steamed mussels, clams, vongole-style clams, and shrimp, with a whisk of parsley oil. There was also a nice plate of xipirons fregits, fried squidlets as good as those at La Trucha. Our mains were Llobaro (sea bass) a la brutesca, and tonyna amb tomàquet confitat i crema de rulo/thick tuna steak with "crystallized" tomato. The tuna was not red in the middle, as ours would be, but was still tender and juicy.
We ended up with a little dessert, a semifred de torró amb xocolata calenta - just sound it out and you'll figure it out. It was luscious.
Looking back at our two and a half weeks here, we seem to have had fish or seafood every day, and just about everything was fresh, tasty, and carefully, even elegantly, prepared. We were also lucky in that the euro had slid down to $1.40, which meant that a 15-euro set menu - which contains not just tourist food, but things the Spaniards eat themselves - came to around $21. In fact, some of our best meals - at La Fabrica, Cuca Fera, La Cuineta, Degusta, Madrid-Barcelona, or La Trucha - didn't go over $90 for both of us, with wine and everything included.
So thanks, ASMOSIA! We loved Spain, and we hope to go back again.

Madrid-Barcelona, Barcelona

2009-06-28T12:42:00.002-05:00

Monday June 22

On to Barcelona.
We had had the nice desk guys at our hotel call for reservations at some chi-chi place that only had an answering machine, and when we walked a few miles to get there, we found them not open. So we hiked back to our alternative (always have an alternative!), Madrid-Barcelona, and were glad we did.
We don't know why the "Madrid," because the restaurant is resolutely Catalan, and like another place we saw, adheres closely to the linguistic regulations. So we had to start with cava, a dry Anna Codorníu, as we admired the warm terracotta-colored walls set off with black and white. Our starters were caneló de tonyina, creamy-sauced tuna canneloni, and mongetes amb marisc, which confusingly translated as tender beans with seafood - we thought we'd get white beans (Tuscan style), but they turned out to be green beans with some shrimp and mussels. We meant to then share only one dish, as we'd had a late (unremarkable) lunch, but while we were eating our octopus (pop) with romesco sauce, the waiter whisked by with a paper cone, which he emptied onto a plate at a nearby table with such a waft of good smells that we had to use our best "we'll have what they're having" gestures. It turned out to be "paperina de verduras," a paper cone of quick-fried piping-hot battered vegetables, and it was the quintessence of yum.

Taverna Mam i Teca, Barcelona

2009-06-28T12:39:00.000-05:00

Sunday June 21

It was our first night in the city, which is very different from Madrid. We found this restaurant on Chowhound.com, and though it wasn't far from our four-star (yay for overbooking and upgrades!) hotel near Plaza Catalunya, it is in a very sketchy neighborhood, with mainly an immigrant population. Lots of Filipino shops, halal butchers, and luckily a Havanan bar, because Mam i Teca doesn't open until 8:30, and we needed a few mojitos to help pass the time.
This is sort of a hippy place, only a few tables, a vast range of single malts (!), and shows slow food's red snail. We started with a celebratory copa di cava, and then the house shiraz, Edra xtra syrah 2005, "a big ol' grape stomp in your mouth."
Espárres girgoles amb padró (grilled mushrooms, asparagus, and green Padron peppers); tender red piquillo peppers, like cardinals' copes, in juicy oil. Confit duck leg (pato, anec) with empurpled shallots, and a crispy Llenguardo fish.

La Trucha, again

2009-06-28T12:37:00.002-05:00

Saturday June 20

As we were footsore from wandering around the Buen Retiro gardens, stopped for lunch at the only place on our way that was open, el Rincón de Sanabria, where our guesswork Spanish worked only halfway. We were safe with the entremeses Español - various types of ham and chorizo, plus a little manchego cheese - and the Libral fish. But when Barbara ordered "caracoles" expecting snails, what she got was snail-shaped pasta, the Spanish equivalent of mac n' cheese; and the waiter seemed to say that "magret" was fish, but it turned out to be pork stew with fries.

Back to La Trucha for dinner, as the other two places we'd gotten off the Fodor's website didn't look good. Our nice waiter found us a cava, which turned out to be Friexenet Carta Nevada (just like home), and started us off with a lovely hot platter of thin-sliced fried eggplant (berenjena), and another of grilled asparagus. Our mains were chopitos, fried baby squid, which is a specialty of La Trucha's, and as we had to have at least one trout dish, an escabeche with garlic, bay leaves, and pepper. After all that we couldn't manage dessert, but our nice waiter gave us each a shot of the Basque liqueur pacharan, on the house.

La Trucha, Madrid

2009-06-28T12:36:00.000-05:00

Friday June 19

Lunch outdoors at Café Gigon, just outside the Biblioteca Nacional, where we'd been manuscripting. The set menu was not memorable (don't EVER order pasta in Spain - it's usually overboiled), but the setting and service were elegant, and they had those wonderful fans that blow cold mist over the diners.

In the evening, went out to La Trucha, a traditional-looking place with wicker chairs and tiled walls. Service was friendly and quick, and the food was excellent. We started with mixed appetizers, or Verbena de Canapés - little toasts with anchovies, tuna, smoked salmon and bacalao, and even caviar. Trucha a la Truchada (and how can you not?) was butterflied fried trout, with a stuffing of bacon/ham in the middle. Emperador a la plancha: swordfish scattered with garlic and herbs, with casseroled potatoes, mayonnaise and lemon. And a vin blanco (Rueda) di Madrid: Solar de la Vega.

Lhardy, Madrid

2009-06-28T11:49:00.002-05:00

Thursday June 18

This was one of two options from the guidebook for tonight's dinner. We passed it by because it looked too expensive, but when we got to the other (Casa Labra) they announced that it was closed - though there were people in there eating, and it was only 10 PM. What is this, Cincinnati? And it started raining, so back to Lhardy, which boasts of being one of Madrid's oldest restaurants (oh, come on, 1839 - there are places in this town where Goya was a busboy).
It is certainly a genteel period room, with ornate ormolu, dark wood, and pieces of elaborate silver scattered about. The maitre d' was shatteringly polite, and the tuxedoed staff almost too attentive, but we are past the age of being affected by that. The olive oil came in little bottles with the restaurant's name (Mom would have loved them), but the bread was hard, not fresh.

We only ordered main plates, as we were still stuffed from a decent late lunch of tapas-style cold fish and salads at the Prado. One main was very good - Milojas Solomillo, a stack of lovely rare slices of steak with tender asparagus stems between each one, topped with a cream sauce and pink peppercorns. The wine, Tagonius 2004 (which we're told is local) went beautifully with it. Unfortunately, the other main, "Presa Iberica," or pork leg with chestnuts and aroma of truffles, was in fact several slices of fatty - and let's be honest, fatty and tough - meat in an uninteresting, untruffled sweet brown sauce, with a few hard chestnut balls alongside; when you tried to cut them, you were afraid that they would skitter off your plate and smack a waiter in the eye.
Frankly, one of the worse meals we've had here, and at three times the price of the best.

Lhardy, Madrid

2009-06-28T11:49:00.000-05:00

Txoko Taberna, Madrid

2009-06-28T11:46:00.002-05:00

Wednesday June 17

Who wouldn't love a restaurant run in one of the world's most isolated languages? This taberna, in the basement of the Madrid Basque club, has basic appointments and fascinating orthography.
Wine: Txapoli (Roke-ren Berezia Vinebask), a half-sparkling white which the waitress poured from two feet above the glass.
Pimentos rellenos, filled with cheese and meat, dipped in batter, swimming in a warm (not hot) red sauce.
Cibollas relleños, one big onion stuffed with cheese in white sauce.
Little squid stuffed with meat and more squid (each neatly sealed with a toothpick) in a smooth sauce of their own ink.
The nice waitress offered us a sweet, mild liqueur called Pacharan as a lovely parting gift.
¡Unique!

Terra Mundi, Madrid

2009-06-28T11:45:00.001-05:00

Tuesday June 16

We had no excuse for a big dinner. We'd had a big lunch (and a welcome sit-down) at the Sidreria Kupela, just behind the Thyssen-Bornemiscza, as a break from what Holt called the Bataan Death March of Art. Three types of bacalao: in herby yellow sauce, green sauce, and red (but not spicy) sauce. A spice-rubbed duck breast, grilled, with some sweet dipping sauces of apple and orange squash. And a great red wine, whose name I hope we'll find in our notes.
But when 10 PM rolled around, we felt ourselves called to consume industrial quantities yet again, and strolled out to Terra Mundi (which is right up Lope de Vega from la Fabrica - we felt like dropping in and saying hello). This place is all about good local produce, especially meats, so we had 'em: solomillo de buey Gallego (slices of beef al vin de Mencía, with cubed fried potatoes and little pimentons de Padrón) and delicious zorza, little cubes of spicy pork over the same type of potatoes and pimentons. The wine was a Campillo rioja crianza 2005, and very good.

La Fabrica, again

2009-06-28T11:43:00.002-05:00

Monday June 15

We spent the day at the Reina Sofia Museum, seeing a lot of art (contemporary, political, surrealist, meaningless, breathtaking, and of course Guernica). We ate lunch at the cafe, where an "ensalado di pollo" meant the usual bowl of greens with some croutons and a few flecks of chicken, but the "baby hakes" platter turned out to be two small fish "en colère," biting their own tails.

Everything else was closed on Monday night, so we were FORCED to return and eat La Fabrica's really good food. Wine: Alberiño Fillaboa 2007, quite good but not as great as yesterday's. Zamburinas, smoked queen scallops (with their roe) in a red sauce, were good but much like smoked mussels; Ventresca (tuna belly) with pisto, a sort of puttanesca without pasta, or ratatouille with fish; and a sublime platter of pulpo a la Gallego, slices of meltingly tender octopus in oil and dusted with pimenton de la Vera, the best we've had since Fino in London.

La Fabrica, Madrid

2009-06-28T11:42:00.002-05:00

Sunday June 14

Our work in Tarragona done, we rode off into the sunset for Madrid.

First, tapas and a jug of Sangria at Lateral, which is apparently the chicest spot in Madrid these days. We had to sit indoors, but that turned out to be a good thing, as it was hot and noisy out there in Plaza Santa Ana. And amazingly, the place had really good food: excellent albondigas ternera, tender little meatballs in sauce; and a good standard tortilla Espanola, with potatoes.

Then dinner at La Fabrica, a hole-in-the-wall recommended by the guidebook. We walked in past a lively crowd of neighbors watching the soccer game in the front bar, and were served by a friendly waiter in the cool, tiled back room. He confided to us that Spaniards "consumed indústrial quantities" of food, so in the spirit of the country, we had an enormous cold salad (which the waiter wrote down as Salpicón) of every kind of fresh seafood - absolutely espectacular. Then little toasts topped with white cheese and slices of home-smoked salmon and bonito.
Wine: the bill said "Real Castelo," the waiter's copy said "C. Rueda," but it may have been vino blanco "Tramoya." Absolutely delicious, very much like a Sauvignon Blanc.

Cuca Fera, Tarragona

2009-06-27T18:11:00.000-05:00

Saturday June 13

An exhausting day, spent with the enthusiastic Asmosians, crawling over a hot - and frankly rather uninteresting - quarry, and then tracing the stone it produced (broccatello) all over the city of Tortosa. After the usual welcome by the mayor (a young, hip politician who can really talk to the geologists) and the pleasing tradition of a "copa di cava," a pleasant, but uninspiring, midday meal of various paellas at Paiolet, and more stone-crawling until we were about ready to drop. Which we did, eventually, at our hotel.
We'd wanted to eat at Cuca Fera - named for a sort of dragon-headed tortoise, a folk-creature in these parts - since it's a sister restaurant of Pulvinar, so chose it for our last night in Tarragona. It proved to be ultra-fashionable but still friendly, in the way we've seen here: lots of well-dressed couples eating immense chateaubriands, lots of smoking, and a table of transsexuals that made us feel like we were in an Almodovar film.
Wine: a rosato, Llompart with the grat motto "ex vite vita."
Sardines "de Tarragona" on "Armenian bread." What precisely made it Armenian we never did find out.
Beefsteak of tuna - yes, a triangle of good fresh tuna grilled briefly so the inside was red, and sliced to look like many little beefsteaks - with red pepper and eggplant.
Salmon marinated in lime and butter with spices.

Pigal, Tarragona

2009-06-27T18:10:00.000-05:00

Friday June 12

We went out with Rob tonight, celebrating a successful end to the conference. Tried to get into La Cuineta - what would it be like for dinner? - but it always seems to be closed in the evening, so maybe it's only a lunch place. Instead, went to Pigal, which was welcoming, and had comfy chairs and a smiling, super-efficient waitress.
Started by sharing a platter of every type of carpaccio - beef, cod, and salmon, and delicious agnolotti in cream sauce. Then fish - espatilla xai, and rap (monkfish) - less creative, but still good. Washed down, and saluted, with lashings of cava. Unfortunately they were out of the gin and tonic sorbet, but we had mojito instead.

Les Voltes, Tarragona

2009-06-27T18:09:00.001-05:00

Thursday June 11

We couldn't resist - went back to Txantxangorri for lunch, and had the tuna and bacalao salad again, plus a big roast vegetable platter with beef slices and goat cheese, and a shrimp remoulade.

Dinner was the big ASMOSIA banquet, at Les Voltes, whose great attraction is that its downstairs banquet room is in fact one of the barrel-vaulted supports of the ancient Roman circus. The only way to handle these huge events is just what they did: put the wine (both red and white) on the table, send around big plates of appetizers (chorizos, cheeses, peppers, etc.), and give everyone one of two main plates, which allows Barbara and Holt to share. In this case, it was fish and duck, and both were pretty good.

La Cuineta, Tarragona

2009-06-27T18:08:00.001-05:00

Wednesday June 10

This was just a 15-euro set-menu lunch, but one of the most tasty and adventurous meals we had anywhere. La Cuineta (which I gather means the Kitchen in Catalan) was decorated in tableware - collages of forks, ladles, etc. Spotless tablecloths, several couples with child, and a keen-eyed waitress doing everything. Started with "Ensalada pensimentos de primavera," an absolutely fresh and delicious salad spiked with asparagus and edible flowers, with every leaf sparkling; and an "Empadrado," a cylinder of white bean, egg and tuna salad, topped with a layer of caviar, and a raspberry in the center - like a salty little chocolate cake.

Then the main courses: little bacony slices of cabrito - kid - on tender potatoes, and the amazing rabbit in chocolate - not mole, but real chocolate sauce - with fresh figs. The plates were exquisite. We should have had dessert, as I could see a raspberry tart like a Chardin painting on the sideboard, but we just couldn't.
Then Barbara got whisked off to a nearby quarry until dinnertime, at which point she called Holt and he came to meet her, her old X-Aphrodisias buddy, John, and his grad student, at El Llagut again. We cannot for the life of us remember what we had, and the copy of the bill is too faint to be read, but it may have been just mains, of fried calamari and Llobaro (sea bass); we photographed the latter in a mosaic at the local archaeological museum the very next day.