Wilfrid

Well this has been a long day but always worth it. Seven hours of sleepless squirming on a plane, but look what it gets you. It gets you here.

More detail about food later but again, smacked in the face by the prices. This lovely bar, huge plates of potato chips and crackers, the best charcuterie and cheese, more charcuterie comped, two glasses of the most expensive cava, a reserve red, a shot of good cognac = $40. That's it, no gratuity. I just retreated to a cozy bar behind my hotel for a digestif which will cost pennies and I get a bread/tomato/tortilla snack with it. The two high end cocktails at Boadas did reach $27, kind of NYC happy hour, but as always no tip on top of that. If I eat and drink enough I will pay for my flight.

Yes indeed. Why I do not know. Find them on YouTube. Very smooth trip that I am now celebrating with a Hanky Panky in Boadas.

SadIy Bobby Van's is shutting down. It has been my last post before the BCN flight for a while. Devoted readers will remember me drinking with a Finnish metal band called Cliff Barnes on my last trip. I remember anyway. In other minor annoyances, after considering my packing for several days, I forgot a travel adapter. And I have a bunch. Post-martini schlep around the terminal until I found one in a remote kiosk. Boy, does Ana owe me.

I expect that's the set. They are still selling the new album of course. It will be different seeing them addressing the audience in Spanish. Bobby Van's at Terminal 8. Last stop before the late flight

Good news.

This week is hard work. My (second) oldest friend is meeting me in Barcelona to see Hinds with my godson (his son) who lives there. He just told me his mother passed away, aged 100. I knew her from my childhood. I remain confident that Hinds and Barcelona can cast a warm glow over all this.

I will happily order that elk again. But I am confused. I thought I found it on D'Artagnan and they liked my instagram post. But the order was fulfilled by Wild Fork Farms who say they get it from their partners, Fossil Farms. I will track it down. About $29 for three filets and the best red meat I can remember buying in a while.

I don't want any Beatles CDs.

Seeing Nellie McKay at LPR together and bobbing along to her cover of "Hungry Freaks, Daddy." Followed by dinner at noreetuh to get a bottle of white and a bottle of red from that insanely well-priced vintage list. The tasting menu shared at Aska and both of us looking quizzically at the raw sprouts on the branch. He took me to dinner at Le Coq Rico to discuss ideas for what eventually became GoOut! A blind beer tasting at my apartment where he found it hilarious that my daughter (aged about 7?) was serving the unnamed beers and calling out the numbers ("Beer No. 3!"). I just remembered the first time I met him in person at Jimmy's Corner. Of all his contributions here, the titanic "Today I Played" thread.

@Jesikka A bottle of white followed by a bottle of red. That was the routine. A bottle each in other words. Barry was kind enough to attend my small NYC 25th anniversary get together at Sardi's. We had never been to Sardi's together before, but we had each been going for years and worshipped the great bartender Jose. I have so many happy memories of times with him. Trying to focus on that.

Thinking about the old dancehall where Hinds are playing, I guess there has to be just one "l" in the Apolo part or it might be perceived as Chicken Coop.

I am sure he knew we loved him but maybe not how much.

I am a fool. I had one filet leftover from the holidays sitting in the freezer. I told myself it was venison. Duh, no it was elk like it was on Christmas Day. But this was delicious, well seasoned, medium-rare with a pan sauce of red wine, cream and crushed peppercorns. I would pay restaurant prices for this, but the garnish should be better than the leftover lentils. Followed by a plate of Cornish Yarg, this was a great meal. Well done me.

Again, I had no idea he was still here, but yeah.

Bumpy bus.

Speaking of temperature, the good thing about a cold starter is that you can more or less ignore it while finishing your cocktail.

"Hard Truths," a return by Mike Leigh to his small-scale domestic dramas. This is widely described as a comedy. Yes, you will laugh, but a comedy it certainly isn't. Marianne Jean-Baptiste delivers one of the best performances you will ever see, and with the camera so often tight on her face there is no escape for her. The rage and loneliness she exhibits is exhausting. Michelle Austin is great as her warm-hearted sister. Relief comes from her two laughing nieces who are just adorable. Look, all the performers are great. It's hard to say much more without a spoiler alert. Suffice to say, the ending isn't easy.

I ate here a few times when it first opened, but that was years ago. Decided to go last night because the showing of "Hard Truths" at Lincoln Center finished at dinner time. What a pleasant, welcoming space, like a vaulted cellar. I dimly recalled finding the charcuterie underseasoned, but the pate en croute was excellent; a mix of meats with some subtle sweet notes from cranberries. Boudin Blanc was fine, nothing remarkable. I know there are regulations about cheese temperature, but they are best ignored. The cheeses (aged Gouda, Belle Saison and Cayuga Blue) were straight from a cold refrigerator. Mainstream French wines (Madiran, Graves), nothing funky here. A generous pour of Armagnac with espresso. Plenty of empty seats; a cold Friday in January? One amusing thing - I had noticed a huge cake surrounded by candles on what might be called the bar. I was told it was Daniel's seventieth birthday and was offered a slice (I declined, I got it anyway). That's a coincidence, I thought, and checked my phone. His seventieth is this year, but in March. Is he doing the cake giveaway all year? In all his restaurants?

This has happened to me before but not for a long time. I am headed down Broadway around 64th Street and two people stop and ask me if there are any good restaurants around here. "Like burgers and fries?" Rendered speechless, of course. I pointed them downtown and assured them they would find something.

I can see that it was not her main calling. She was known for long-form journalism which is why I was puzzled that Goldfield gets to do that.

The odd thing about her New Yorker role is that Hannah Goldfield gets to contribute food features to the main part of the magazine while Helen is restricted to restaurant reviews in the Goings On section (which in the print edition are abridged versions of what appears online).

I agree and well done on the accents. ETA copied from your post, I can see the accents on my phone but can't seem to select them.

Going tomorrow. I expect it to be very funny and very moving. I haven't been to Bar Boulud in a century, so dinner there afterwards where I will weep over the pate en croute.

Certainly an unusual movie, Spanish and English. I am happy I saw it. Happy to see Zoë Saldaña in a role that stretched her.