Friday, July 27, 2007

What Is The Symbolism In Cutting The Wedding Cake

Senzone (Sevilla)

Leveraging our recent visit to Seville, staying at the Hotel Las Casas del Rey de Baeza, we decided to enjoy this wonderful patio that shown in the image, and stay for dinner at Senzone restaurant. Hospes chain belonging to the hotel is a pleasant haven of tranquility and good treatment, which however was marred on several occasions for failure almost from beginning.

But let's focus on the objective of this blog, which is not other than restaurants (already planned a new blog about hotels, but all in time ...). The truth is that the environment makes you sit at the table willing to let you overtake. Quiet, pleasant, delightful temperature. The young but friendly service and very polite. Serving with gloves (what little is now and how I like it), always attentive to customer needs.

The letter has many pleasant surprises. At least in sight. Idyllic creations on paper, however, as we shall see, the final round not know enough. The dinner begins with a tasting of different salts with 5 oil: the Himalayas, spicy, black, etc. Interesting, and a nice touch. We shared 4 plates, which were more or less.

First, a cherry gazpacho with marinated sardines. Excess vinegar, which prevailed over any other flavor. Sardines full scale, unpleasant eating. Still, almost was the best dinner. After a salmon tartar foam melon. Best, melon foam. The onion tartar just knew that this was excessive. Salmon tasteless and low in comparison to the amount of onion.

As entrees, a pasta and fish. Like pasta, ravioli of mushrooms and truffles. The pasta was missing half a minute of cooking, and came completely cold to the table. Pretty rich flavor, and (rare s) were very nose. However, cold pasta loses too. Fish, a San Pedro, past, very old. It was dry, tasteless, indefinable texture. A horror. Given the success

decided to save the dessert. Sorry for the environment, rather than nice, but next time will come cenados. A pity ... Practical information

:
SENZONE
(Hotel Las Casas del Rey de Baeza)
Santiago, 2. Plaza Jesus De La Redemption

41003 Sevilla Tel: 954 561 496

Average price: € 45
Wheelchair accessible (accessible from the parking elevator. From the street, there are 4 steps)

Ninas Follando Bideos

El Patio de Leo (Madrid )

are many comments, almost always good, they are read and hear about El Patio Alfonso Leo since it opened in 2004, so today I will try to add them all my view. Last night, family dinner in this house, located near Arturo Soria. By accessing the restaurant we found a small bar and reception. Also an area in which if necessary can reach to enable a small table. In front of the stairs coming down to dinner. Small, perhaps a bit cold.

We chose the small tasting menu (€ 42). There is another longer, but "Operation Bikini" requires ... As "amuse gueles" some plantain chips and cassava (delicious), a shot of creamed corn and squash (rather bland) and a stunning black pudding and spinach croquette, very smooth and creamy.

The menu started with a cherry Salmorejo tonic and ice cream parrochita marinade. I really was rich, different, refreshing in the summertime. My companions found it a bit cloying, too intense ... We still have a classic Alfonso, eggs poached in butter blush, potato and smoked bacon. A bomb! Tastes quite achieved, but too heavy and greasy, especially for dinner. Too much garlic predominates over any other flavor, which is not always is nice.

In the section on main dishes, a fish and a bird. Confit of tuna with seasoned crumbs, olive and anchovy foam. The tuna, cooked in oil, is soft, fluffy and juicy. Very rich. The additional crumbs olive and anchovy foam gives it a nice note and fun. A good dish resolved. Like a bird, painted supreme vanilla escabeche Bresse, celeriac puree and truffle salad. The point of the painting excellent. Very tasty and tender.

At dessert time, we ask a small change on the standard menu, we wanted to try the new dessert star Alfonso. And certainly worth it. It is a tower of sweet orange filled with mousse of coffee, wild strawberries and toffee honey orange and banana. A delicacy. This is one of the best desserts we've tested recently.

To highlight the service. Very helpful and professional. The presentation of the dishes spotless and all the different services and very showy. The wine list somewhat short in my opinion, and without adding many new features. We had bad luck. Our first two options did not have them available and just asking for a Petals 2005, Bierzo - Alvaro Palacios (€ 29). It has nothing to do with 2004. This is still undone.

The bill came to € 65 with wine, water, bread and VAT. Can you leave with the feeling that it is a little expensive, but worth it most. I think this is a promising restaurant that is worth knowing, but who undoubtedly still has a lot to say ... Practical information

:
THE PATIO LEO
c / Agastia, 122

28043 Madrid Tel: 91 519 67 40

Average price: € 60
not wheelchair accessible (there are plenty of stairs). However, it can enable a small table upstairs, which is accessed dodging "only" three steps at the entrance to the premises.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Materials Used To Build Zulu Bee Hive Hut

Pulcinella (Madrid)

started This blog is high restaurant bills. But let us not forget either of those houses that achieve outstanding results, while containing the account. Double merit. This is the case of Pulcinella, undoubtedly the most authentic Italian Madrid. Those who know me know a little bit further that I had an Italian, so I understand enough of this type of cuisine, and I hope to give you an accurate view of this Trattoria.

Pulcinella is Regueros street, a small, steep street that runs between Bethlehem and Fernando VI. The restaurant has three separate rooms, one at street level, and the other two up four steps. The walls are brick, decorated with photos related to Italy (Sophia Loren, Capri, Positano, etc..). The tables are close together, and may be also a bit noisy, but gets the food story, outweigh these inconveniences. Now have two small tables in the street, but do not seem as comfortable in the world. Among the bartenders, dominated by Italians. The place is always packed (do not even think to go without reservation!), So it can sometimes be a bit slow, but his friendliness and kindness so far supplement. An Italian (Alberto) and Jerez (JuanMa), take care of every detail, and always know how to get everyone out happy.

As I said, the kitchen, truly Italian. Esepcial noteworthy is the mozzarella that arrives fresh every Thursday (Wednesday is often no longer exists), is the richest you can take. I recommend taking it as it comes to the table, or at most with a little oil and pepper. Also like all the provolone baked with tomato sauce. I recommend to ask for a focaccia on the side. Vitello Tonato Rico, very good salad of arugula and parmesan, and eggplant with tomato and cheese.

make pizzas in a wood oven, and it shows. Very thin dough, tomato first, and the edge chubby and fluffy. I recommend especially the arugula, tomato and mozzarella. So simple, that you can see the real quality of the pizza. However, based as it is so good for mass, a pizzaiolo first, and spices for quality, the rest is a matter of taste. All pizzas are rich. Perhaps the worse the calzone, but I admit that I'm not a big fan of that type of pizza.

Among the pastas, enocntraremos fresh pasta, dried and refilled. For me it is always forced to ask some spaghetti with tomato. It is very simple, but they seem straight out of the pan of a Sicilian mamma. The secret? Asking them to leave some whole tomatoes. So are even richer. Nearly all the pastas are rich, but I recommend having a little careful with pasta (especially stuffed) together cheese sauce. Become too heavy and cloying, and as the sauce cools, that there is no one to eat it. If you like spicy, with a spicy oil blends well with the pizzas and pastas. Yes, pica pica.

meats, a couple of simple things like strips of steak, not the specialty of the house, and I almost better focus on pastas and pizzas, which is really what they do here as anywhere else in Madrid .

Among the desserts, rich tiramisu, homemade, and very creamy. The ice cream is nothing special. The wine list, very focused on Italian references, but also filled with English classics. The wines equal the food, very well priced.

far the best and most authentic Italian Madrid, both environment and in kitchen. Prices very content, and it is easy to eat for € 25. The worst? It is difficult to park.

Basic information:
PULCINELLA
c / Regueros, 7

Madrid Tel: 91 319 73 63

Average price: € 25
Wheelchair accessible (ask one of the tables that are in the entry. For the other two parlors have to climb 3 or 4 steps.)

Friday, July 6, 2007

Etiquette Gay Sauna Etiquette For Gay Cruising?

Finally (Madrid)

Interesting formula that has this restaurant tucked away in a corner General at the end of Orgaz. The first thing that attracts attention when you arrive is just that, the location, layout of the bar, and the environment "colegueo you smell as you walk through the kitchen." We get Pepe

Quenco (member of the family who threw that big house that was Quenco unfortunately very deteriorated in recent times). Friendly and smiling, his voice still suffering from yesterday without excessive celebrations by his beloved Sevilla FC, Pepe greets people by name, and accompany clients to a tiny but cozy dining room. Without doubt, the customer is fixed, is young.

The formula for this restaurant, as I said, is very interesting. Snacks, appetizers, dessert and wine, fixed. Large selection of seconds to choose. Price, also fixed. For a very reasonable € 35 (included) gives us dinner.

At the table, snacks and wine are waiting. A visual game, yet I think food has cost some of his qualities, especially now in summer. As appetizers, a coat shrimp (the batter a little rough), a foie mi-cuit (elegant, refined, but loses a bit of consistency to stay at the table waiting for the guests) and gazpacho (a little too thick, but rich .)

As starters, a classic land, sea and air (green asparagus, huevos rotos y gambas) muy conjuntado, y con tanto los huevos como los trigueros perfectos de punto (ambas cosas difíciles hoy en día). Seguimos con unas croquetas de centollo, acompañadas de una salsa de cava y naranja, que sin embargo Pepe nos desaconseja (curioso, ¿cómo acompaña el plato entonces?). Las croquetas muy bien de fritura, aunque puede que en exceso saladas. Pese a la recomendación de Pepe, sí las prueba con la salsa, que suaviza su sabor, y mejoran bastante. Como último entrante, un risotto con setas. Decepcionante. Fuera de punto (pasado), demasiado cremoso, el grano de arroz deshecho,... Curiosamente el conjunto aportaba en paladar un resultado aceptable, pero nada tiene que ver con un risotto.

In the section on main dishes, we tried a trap bluefin tuna with white rice and a fried hake in a sauce of cuttlefish. Tuna rich, but too fact (despite having specifically requested "almost raw"). Hake, looser than tuna, but at these prices you can not expect pintxo hake. Should work yes, a little baby squid sauce, too artificial.

For dessert, a fresh set of homemade sorbets (licorice, truffle, mandarin, etc.) With seasonal fruits. Like wine, Rioja Crianza 2001 proper, old-fashioned.

Pepe, who almost single-handedly takes care of the room, gives us, as it always does, with spirits, and we even put the glasses we asked.

In short, The End proves that you can eat right (even very good) for a very very tight. Return!


Basic information: FINALLY

Calle General Orgaz, Madrid 9
(Tetouan)
Tel: 91 571 81 70

Average price: € 35 (menu closed VAT and drinks included)
Wheelchair accessible
Closed Sunday and Monday.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

ματουρ

Ca Sento (Valencia)

second visit in less than a month at Ca Sento, and whenever we like. Raúl Aleixandre does a great job in front of this restaurant, but much of the credit has to share it with Jose, a sommelier who not only knows, but is also able to convey his love and passion for good wine.

This time we had developed a custom menu with two good friends who wanted to offer us. It was a feast, we enjoyed even beyond the three in the morning, and they joined in the cups Raul and Jose.

start with a date mussels in marinara sauce, so fresh that it still smelled of the Mediterranean. We with a codfish fritters garlic mayonnaise (fine, have always been a hallmark of this house), an anchovy with a light sauce of tomato and eggplant (how sad that they are running out of anchovies, because when you get to try an anchovy as Raul gave us, we feed you every day like anchovies) and two dates of the sea, this time raw. Perhaps this was the only one but at the dinner. Most of the guests found something tiresome to repeat dates, in a preparation also much more complicated because of its flavor too intense.

To continue the feast, red shrimp of Cadiz. You may think I exaggerate, but I think it was red shrimp tastiest I've eaten in my life. What taste! What color! What texture! What about cooking!

then mashed potatoes with caviar, served in martini glass. Light, subtle flavor lovesick. We were promised barnacles, but Raul did not consider that they have the appropriate quality, and replaced by a salt-crusted prawns, which earned much worth trying. The salt crust makes stew in their own juice, so they are tender and very tasty, with a texture almost a book. What point are you in this house to shellfish!

With the next dish came to us as with the barnacles. We were dreaming with tuna belly and on our last visit we were very pleasantly surprised. However, the genre received was not up to the house, and was replaced by a San Pedro with shrimp and red marrow with citrus sauce, iceberg and orange. I acknowledge that despite missing the belly, deserved much worth trying the San Pedro. Very interesting contrast of fish with the freshness of citrus.

Finally, without a doubt my favorite dish at Ca Sento, and a hymn to your geographical location: rice with grilled shrimp on the coast. The idea is simple, unfortunately not so much preparation. Prepare a rice pot, which is pretty sweet. Subsequently, on a plate very hot, spread a thin layer of the rice, forming a crust on the bottom layer. Quickly rolls, forming a cylinder, and presented. The result is a juicy rice with a layer of socarrat. Without doubt, the richest rice I have ever tasted.

dessert arrived, laughter and happy faces were evident in all of us, but not to tax we deserved tribute to dessert, chocolate ravioli with caramel ice cream and spices and vanilla air. Exquisite!

As you see, I dajado for the final paragraph of drinks, but not so I would minimize the importance it deserves. As Raúl us prepared a feast in the kitchen, Jose did not stay behind with his cellar, and drank at a level easy to match. For starters, all wines were Descorchados from seven in the evening and the glasses ENVIN.

started with a Jacques Selosse Brut Champagne, blanc de blancs, as the bottle reads "a avize pur vin, selon vintages assembles the pratique of the floor." That is, it is an aged Champagne Jerez boot. A delight for the palate, unfortunately almost impossible to achieve. We still have a Donnhoff
, Hermannshöhle riesling, 2005, trocken - very fruity white, exquisto, a perfect match perfectly with the seafood cuisine row of them. For fish and rice, a Clarendon Hills Romas amazing, 100% Grenache from Romas Vineyard - Australia. Tremendous nose, with nuances that change every minute. A treat for all senses.

For dessert, a Tokaji, Chateau Dereszla, 2000, 5 puttonyos - a superb climax to this dinner.

We can not forget the finishing touch. On the one hand, Cuba Havana cigars Cuaba lancer. What pure delicacy! Jose prepares as few know, and come to the table perfect. To accompany the famous gin and tonics Jose, prepared ginegra Millers, two mixed tonic (Schweppes and fever tree), limes from Brazil (very honest as Jose), and 80% ice osmosis with very little grain.

Every day is best eaten at Ca Sento, increasingly more refined preparation, and quality of raw materials, as always, the best from Spain. Therefore, from this week, Ca Sento further rises in my personal ranking. Can not wait to return! Practical information

:
CA SENTO
c / Menéndez Nuñez, 27 46024 Valencia

Tel: 963301775

Average price: € 120
Wheelchair accessible

A Husband Is Brestfeed By His Wife

Dominus (Madrid) in Cuenllas

The other day I organized a working lunch at Dominus, eager to know this "restaurant - wine bar" Carlos Maribona (famous food critic ABC) recently moved to their favorite restaurants in Madrid. Increasingly, I begin to think about the existence of some kind of hidden interests behind the chronic and opinions of professional critics, and my visit to Dominus reassured me about it. Precisely this has been one of the reasons for launching this blog. You can agree or disagree with my opinions, but at least you is the peace of mind I make my living with it, and therefore I guarantee my honesty and good faith. Anyway, the list of favorite Maribona Caros commenting, will be commented shortly on my part. I can agree with him on some positions, but the emergence of La Broche as No. 2 and Europe 3 Deco in the squeak while in itself invalidate the credibility of this classification.

I do not want to miss with these issues, so he shifted to Dominus, which is what concerns us today. The restaurant, managed by some "ex - Cuenllas", is in a small side street of Guzmán el Bueno, almost to the height of Alberto. We sat at a small private, pleasant enough, though the walls do not reach the ceiling and the noise in the room (too) easily penetrates.
At the suggestion of the maitre we chose tasting menu. The service is superb, even irritating, showing a bit forced and natural kindness, which comes to be unpleasant. Also we advise us in the wine. We served a Ribera del Duero, Maria Alonso del Yerro, which despite having obtained 98 points from Parker, was clearly not in the optimum point of consumption: too much acid, without, excessive tannins ...

started with a gazpacho, neither good nor bad, they just left us indifferent. We continued with a goat cheese salad with artichokes and roasted red peppers. Good presentation, and generally well balanced meal, but left feeling a little heavy at the end. We

with a golden squid grilled with truffle sauce over mashed potatoes and foie mi-cuit. A bomb! Bold flavors and mixtures dispersed. The squid pulling taffy, and all "swim" in various sauces. Even in the section on fish, a trap bluefin tuna, cream of onion, mashed sweet potatoes and peppers with vinaigrette Modena. Overdone tuna, and once again abusing sauces that add nothing to the dish but quite the opposite.

eat meat, an Iberian pork cheek scent of chamomile and served with beans, the latter hard, leathery and inedible. How could it be otherwise, all swimming back into sauce. The cheek itself was rich, but the rest of the dish was to return it. Still, all agree that had been the most decent food so far.

In closing, a hot soup of strawberries with reduced ice cream and olive oil. Rich ice cream, but without surprise. Strawberry soup would probably be better cooler, because temperature does not just fall right in the mouth. With coffee a mignardises, which were undoubtedly the best food. Very disappointing

this encounter with the work of Chef Antonio's Alamo. It will cost us give you a second chance. To make matters worse, the three guests were the next day indigestion.

Basic information:
DOMINUS
Francisco de Ricci, 15 28015 Madrid

Tel: 91 540 September 10

Average price: € 60
Wheelchair accessible