At Galvin at Windows. Dinner was excellent but the evening was really not about the food.
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| Marian, Elan, Gill, Alice |
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| The Jones Boys |
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| Dilwyn, Stuart, Richard, Angharad, Alister, Mari, Sali |
Labels: Galvin at Windows, London
Smoked duck salad, fish pie, and white wine at the restaurant of the Royal Academy. We just went for lunch, didn't even look at the art. Philistines!
I guess we're into food these days. No thought for anything else. At this very moment, I'm feeling deeply remorseful, regretting the scones I just had.
Tomorrow I start a month-long fast. Should really be two months I think.
Labels: London, Royal Academy of Arts
An afternoon in the country. Lunch with Uncle John, Auntie Pat, and cousin Lindsey in Theydon Bois.
Then we took flowers to Mum at the Church of All Saints in Theydon Garnon.
A pretty bouquet of lilies, daisies, roses, statice, shamrock, and thistle.
We got lost going and our taxi stalled coming back!
But what a beautiful place to do all that on a lovely summer's day!
Labels: London, Theydon Garnon
Back in London, and lunch is at St. John Restaurant. Stuart said it wasn't as frightening as he thought it might be. Frightening in what way, I ask. Oh, like maybe seeing pig's heads and things!
The restaurant is London foodie guru Fergus Henderson's all white and stainless steel temple to nose-to-tail eating. Today's veal's head broth and roast suckling kid are natural follow-ons to last week's pintxos of pig's ears, pig's feet, cow's cheeks, and other such weird and wonderful delights.
Those were my choices of course. Stuart's were more tame, if not exactly traditional. Nothing exciting about grilled mackerel but at least his starter of gull's egg was more noteworthy. These eggs are collected only between April 1 and May 15, by specially licensed collectors who are fast becoming a dying breed (the collectors, not the eggs) as less and less licenses are now made available.
The verdict:
The soup was delicious, homey, wholesome, tasty.
The roasted kid was very good but had to be enjoyed quickly because the meat tended to dry up quickly as it got cold. (I'm a very slow eater.)
The gull's egg was just an egg. Its most interesting feature was its delicate, blue and cream spotted shell.
The mackerel was okay. (Stuart's word, not mine.) Significantly, (Stuart observed) it didn't come with its head or tail.
Coffee was delicious; so was the Pavlova.
Labels: London. St. John's Restaurant, nose- to-tail eating
Tsikiteo is the Basque term for the pintxos bar-hop. Pintxos is the Basque variant of the generic tapas. Tapas is the culinary tradition that has done for Spain what Philip II's armada failed to do: conquer the world.
Small plates are taking over the dining tables of the world. That for me is a really good thing. There are however, some forks in this great gastronomic march that I find myself taking with some trepidation.
I have to take issue with mindless dedication to newness. Okay, gazpacho served in a glass tumbler. This sort of makes sense since gazpacho is mostly liquid. And it's cold. Nevertheless, it brings to mind the not so cheerful picture of old people slurping soup from a cup.
But it was, after all, at the Café of "El Goog" a.k.a Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum, so okay, I'll take that as chic.
However, when even at a pintxos bar in San Sebastián, one is required to sip salad through a straw, that for me is a bridge too far. One which I'd really rather cross when I get there.
This is molecular gastronomy gone wild. And Ferran Adria and his El Bulli crowd have a lot to answer for.
Me, I prefer food I can bite into and chew on, thank you very much. As in, ... well I don't rightly know what they're called. (The x's and the k's in their names have got my tongue all in a twist.)
But therein lies the genius of these pintxos bars: I don't have to say anything. I just look and point. And enjoy!
Labels: Bilbao, Guggenheim, molecular gastronomy, Pintxos, San Sebastián
I think we may have gone down a slippery slope here. Pintxos, wine, and martinis at lunch!
Our drinking buddies. They gave me their martinis to try so Stuart bought them a round.
Well, nothing that a good cup of hot chocolate, a walk on the beach front, and a siesta can't fix!
Labels: San Sebastián
Back from our first pintxos bar hop. We tried only two places:
The first was a trendy one. A huge crowd filled the glossy interior and spilled out onto the street.
The other one was practically empty when we got there. Only one server behind the bar, only one other customer. Then people started trickling in. Families, with children, went straight through to the dining room in back. Soon the place was crowded too but with a different kind of clientele. These were obviously locals. They knew each other and chatted boisterously. Stuart and I seemed to be the only ones drinking wine. The locals drank cider.
This looked like the genuine article. Here, we felt the excitement of being guests in a newly discovered land, privileged to observe and take part in another country's traditions.
Tomorrow we'll seek out the local bars. And we'll drink cider.
Labels: cider, Pintxos, San Sebastián, Spain
Goodness me! OMG! And oh my oh my oh my! This must be the most beautiful place in the world! And this hotel! It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! Not to mention ever having stayed in!
I hate to gush but I have to! You know how they say they think they've died and gone to heaven? I really do hope I haven't had to do that to get here!
More later. Have to go for pintxos now!
Be still, my beating heart!
Labels: Hotel Maria Cristina, San Sebastián, Spain
I wish I could say "El Goog" was at least as interesting as the market.
This building failed to communicate to me any of the vibrancy, the flavor of the region it was meant to celebrate. When it spoke, all I heard was "Look at me, I'm Frank Gehry!"
The narrative of the design is all about the backstory of how Gehry had allowed his pen to freely create it, allowing the uninterrupted line to find its own way. Like automatic writing.
A building should be designed with people in mind. Those who would build it and those who would use it.
This building was excruciatingly difficult to build and it doesn't work. It doesn't flow naturally, moving around in it is not particularly intuitive.
It seems to be coming apart at the seams. It doesn't drain properly; the floors have unexpected pools of water inside and outside. Even the Ladies' Room is awkward and difficult.
As to the already much maligned contents, the very art works the building was designed to house, I find them to be not terribly fascinating. They are mostly just big. As in oversized, not spectacular, not engaging.
Surprisingly, (as I am not a fan), Yoko Ono may have provided the only humanizing experience for me in the entire meretricious extravaganza that is "El Goog".
The Wish Tree.
Wistful, whimsical, fanciful, and fun.
Labels: Bilbao, The Guggenheim Museum
The Hotel
The Hotel Carlton Bilbao is sleepy in the way that some European hotels manage to be without looking seedy.
Our newly renovated room has a welcoming clean spacious comfortable feel but I think I could've done a better renovating job, given the high ceiling and enormous window.
White walls, white leather sofa, white low round table. The only colors come from shards of rainbows strewn about by a pair of crystal hanging lamps hung very low in a corner. A 70's vibe. Or is it 60's?
The bathroom is open, as in, it has no door. A level of privacy is suggested playfully by a frosted glass wall with etched scribblings, like words scrawled by a fat finger on a misted window.
In the lobby, a lone mannequin gives me a peek into the week's design event.
The Market
La Ribera market, accessed by a lift and illuminated by stained glass windows, gives us a hint of the Basque Region's fabled culinary traditions.
Labels: Bilbao, Carlton Hotel, La Ribera Market
