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Everything posted by Wilfrid
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Relaxing at Zona D'Ombra, peaceful wine bar behind my hotel. A rosado and a tinto from Emporda and a fancy Ribera del Duero. Really delicious sobresada drizzled with honey. Moist duck and port pate very like dog food by look, smell and texture but of the best kind. Santa Maria cheese.
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Felt already home today at MOCO, Basquiat reflected in Haring. Also an artist new to me, Robbie Williams, who is certainly funny. ETA: I assumed it was not that Robbie Williams, but it is. Good for him.
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What a last night. Boadas, quiet all week, was packed. I was offered the last seat by the door, but how long was a crafted cocktail going to take? I retired to the bar at the Meriden where the drinks are well made. My only companion at the bar, a stunning young African woman keen to click glasses with me. We had really good conversation and when I got up to leave she offered to buy me a drink. Mm. Retreated to wine bar behind my hotel.
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DiPalo's believes firmly in slow shopping. When I worked in midtown I would take an early or late lunch, zip down there and find it almost empty. That was years ago.
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That's why this has been such a great trip. Everyone knows I love Barcelona anyway but this time it came with Hinds as the cherry on top. Sprinkled with Ana sugar.
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Dinner at Hisop, of course. In the almost 20 years I've been eating here, nothing has changed and nothing needs to change (except arguably the availability of wines BTG although there are pairings if you do the tasting menu). I ordered from the carte, but happily one of the dishes calling to me from the tasting menu showed up as the second amuse: artichokes with pig's feet and sea snails. The first amuse consisted of the tiniest tail of some fish, full of flavor, and a soup made from the same fish with trout eggs. Then "calçotada" de trufa; small leeks with truffles shaved at the table. That came with a terrific truffled romesco sauce. Porgy with beans and a kind of wild mint (poleo). The glorious pigeon which comes with a firm and intense pâté of innards. Cheeses. Dry sherry to star, a half-bottle of Embruix red, sweet sherry with cheese, cognac and coffee. Mignardises. 168 Euros for everything.
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I can't remember why it happened, but his personal phone number was once accidentally published. Whatever the context, it must have been something interesting so I called and he picked up. He was not happy; I was not the first. I ate at Lutece once I think.
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I looked back on my post from last September and yay, they switched to coupes at Ideal Cocktail Bar.
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Last night, La Sosenga, this gem in an alley near Els 4 Gats. My third time. You must reserve (or risk a solo walk-in for the one or two bar seats). You must be on time because she will come to the door and call out your name. The two women front-of-house are so charming (especially because I am remembered) but they run this place uncompromisingly tightly. Tasting menu only at the table. Eight courses, nine if you count the terrific bread course: country bread with butter whipped with white mushrooms; traditional Catalan coca flatbread with girolles, butifarra and tomato. Then croquette of roast beef with mint and leek. A vegetable millefeuille with pickled onion and onion juice. Black turnip with chickpea puree, local truffles optional. Basque-ish bacalao in pil pil sauce, olive and spinach, raisins too. Quail with potato, glazed shallots and sweet-sour sauce. Local cheeses. A choice of rather sweet and squidgy cheesecake or delicious flan flavored with mushrooms. Again, all the above for 32 euros, tax included, gratuity optional (we left one). Unless you are expert in local Catalunyan organic wines, leave it to your server. The prices are within a narrow range, 25 to 35 euros. She presented us with a funky, cool bottle of red (a Marselan from the nearby Garraf Massif mountains), then rich glasses of cloudy dessert wine. Meager remnant of bread course pictured and I guess the croquettes went fast. Also Casa Carot, cheese source near Placa Jaume, which I had not previously known.
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It was certainly the last.
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Ooh no, there's a history. Hinds encore with "Davy Crockett," a furious blast from a British all-woman band called Thee Headcoatees. That song quotes the Ramones' "Pinhead," which in turn quotes a scene from a 1930s movie "Freaks" which has so much contemporary relevance I could cry. @small h If you knew all that please remember it's late here...
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Oh that must be it. I don't know the Charli really. Guess what the second encore was, extra points for shouting Gabba Gabba Hey wherever you are now.
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Details to follow, but while I am enjoying a late digestif: I took two very old friends to La Sosenga, one of my favorites here. I was kept away from the check, but it looked like 140 euros. Right, the incredibly good eight course tasting menu is 32 euros per head. We must have run the check up to dizzying heights with the bottle of local organic red wine and after dinner drinks. Stupid.
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Was that the last song in the regular set? I certainly didn't know it. Some video on IG for anyone interested. By the way, Ana and I aren't singing above. She said we had to shout "Noo Yawk!"
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The show, in an old ballroom with a kind of red glow, was spectacular and the audience reaction the wildest I've yet seen. After the show, I got lucky. My friend and I went for refreshments to a craft beer bar nearby. We must have been there thirty or forty minutes and when we came out there was a gaggle of people outside a different bar. I just immediately saw drummer Maria's afro; which is quite distinctive. She was with bassist Paula so I went up and said hello, then I knew I had to say "Where is Ana? She knows me." And suddenly there she was and she did know who I was. Hugs, conversation, selfies. I said I wasn't very good at selfies, Ana said "I am" and grabbed my phone.
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Four hours to Hinds. Too early to start drinking but I think I've had enough cafe solos for one day.
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Maybe not quite as funny as My Fucking Restaurant or Good Shit Vegan Kebabs, but I took note of the Sinatra-themed My Way.
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After enjoying the ineffable peace of the upstairs galleries at Museu Frederic Mares, lunch at La Pineda. For once I ordered the half-size surtido des embutidos and I was glad I did because it was not burdened with stacks of chorizo. A glass of dark Catalan rose, Hereus. ETA: The colorful sausage in the middle row is Morcon, a fabulously bulbous sausage traditionally encased in a pig's bladder. I don't think I've had it here before.
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Green Chartreuse. I wondered if they'd have it but spied it on the bottom shelf.