Dining In and Around Barcelona Part 2 - El Bulli

After a few days of eating what seemed like an endless parade of gambas, chiperones, espardenyes and the odd kilo of chulenton, I was in the mood for a bit of molecular magic. In fact I found myself imagining that I had walked into a restaurant and asked the waiter, “what flavor air are you serving today?" But I wouldn’t have to dream about it that much longer was only in my dreams. Soon my desire for the cuisine moderne would be sated by an evening at El Bulli.

I hadn’t been to El Bulli in a number of years. Three or four to be inexact. And to be honest about it, though I was interested in seeing how the cuisine had progressed over that period, the main motivator for my visit was my fried Toby’s desire to eat there. You see he had never been, and for the past few years he had been bugging me to get a reservation so he could go. I have to say it took my a while to get it but after a long series of correspondence I managed to snag a table for the two of us on a Thursday in November.

We arrived a little after 8:30 and we were squired into the kitchen for a quick audience and photo op with Ferran Adria. Albert Adria happened to be in the kitchen on that night so he joined the festivities. We were seated in the first group of tables on the right as you walk into the dining room, the same location I’ve been seated on each of my three visits to the restaurant, and the area that I now realize is reserved for people in the industry. How do I know this you ask? Well I was sitting at the third table in the line. Sitting at the very first table was Elena Arzak and her husband, and Takazawa Yoshiaki, the chef/owner of Arona de Takazawa in Tokyo and his wife were at table two. I have to say it was a privilege and honor to be included as part of that group.

Dinner was a forty course array of tastes, flavors and textures, up from twenty-six courses on my last two visits. With so many dishes to report on, I am only going to post the photos of what I thought were the important dishes. After a cactus leaf that was soaked with the flavor of a margarita and sugar cane that was drenched in a mixture of mojito and caiprinha, Then we were served what they call a handkerchief, a large, sweetened corn chip that was shaped like a napkin that had been folded and stood on its end. A dish called snow-fizz was followed by a shallow metal bowl filled with a mixture of grape tea and cassis that was both deeply flavored and amazingly viscose. Then a large round ball made of gorgonzola cheese was brought to the table and we were told to break it apart and eat it piece by piece. Amazingly creamy, it was like eating shards of gorgonzola ice cream. Next was a flower of crystalized Campari, delicious but maybe I’m biased because I’m a Campari drinker, followed by a serving of gambas from Palamos that were lightly steamed and served atop a bed of seaweed. Barely cooked, after a barrage of sweet tastes, their saltiness combined with the flavor or the sea were a welcome change. Our waiter presented a silver platter holding four faux peanuts. Sort of a riff on the Adria’s faux olive dish, we were instructed to handle them with care as the shell was super-delicate. Inside was a smooth, peanut flavored liquid that was sort of half peanut butter/half peanut cream. Delicious

.A crisp that was the flavor of Campari (I’m a Campari drinker so I loved it) was followed by what was described as a parmesan crystal, a lump of parmesan cream wrapped inside of an edible parmesan wrapper. Again, delicious. I guess I’m just a sucker for dishes that offer different textural takes on an ingredient. Then button shaped cookie made of two different types of sesame:, followed by something called flower nectar, a small flower whose stem was flavored with jasmine I believe. Then what they called a coconut sponge, which I will admit to being one of the my favorite dishes of the night. Think of a sno-ball, you know that overly sweet pastry they sell in the super market. Except the cake was replaced by an aerated coconut cream. Super light and super delicious, I wanted to buy a few dozen to go and stick them in my freezer. Then an intensely flavored raspberry cookie that had a dab of mustard on it, followed by an apple sandwich which was two slices of rice bread filled with various takes on apple, both superb.

At this point the meal shifted gears into savory dishes. I have to say that while there were some stupendous dishes, I didn’t enjoy the segment as much as the amuse portion. We were off to a terrific start with a canape of Joselita ham and ginger that was a good combination of sweet and salty which was followed by a green tea cookie that was topped with bits of a citrus fruit from South Africa that I had never heard of before. Well this dish brought new meaning to the word bitter. But while it was difficult to eat, I have to say that there was something unique about it and I would like to taste it again. The next dish was introduced as lentils from Montjol but it turned out to be small balls of sesame in a broth. Reminiscent of Adria’s melon caviar, it was like eating a delicious sesame soup. Beef marrow tartar was served with an oyster leaf and we were instructed to eat the two together followed by prawns prepared in two different styles, though both of them came in a rice wrapper. Then a very intense consomme of wood pigeon that was spiked with Armagnac, followed by and then tender pistachios which was amazing. Pistachio gels, pistachio cream, pistachio syrup and blanched and roasted pistachios served with a mound of white truffle ice cream. The dish reminded me of a more complex version of Karen Urie’s “Truffle" dish at Town House. Superb and a contender for the dish of the night. A dish of cockles with yuzu was interesting, and a role model for chefs who are looking to create a minimalist cuisine based on molecular technique.

Soya milk with soya might have been the most attractive dish I was served this year. Everything on the plate was made out of soy. I guess this is what Pierre Gagnaire’s cuisine would be like if he was a molecular chef and the yuba of soy acted as a terrific backdrop for all of the other variations on a soybean. A pile of coarsely chopped black sesame with a raspberry was followed by artichoke petals formed into the shape of a rose and then flavored with rose essence.. Pine nut shabu shabu was next followed by mushrooms that were cooked in a plastic bag which were amazingly juicy and bursting with flavor and moisture. Then what was easily my least favorite part of the meal: hare brains followed by a hare chop. At the beginning of the meal they gave us the option of opting out of the course and that’s what we should have done. But things were back on track with a passion fruit that had been injected with curry before being cooked, which was followed by a crispy chicken skin canape which was kind of in the fried pork rind family. A dish called “Fall Hunt", which was pigeon in a rich gravy accompanied by a tangerine sauce, followed by our waiter appearing at our table with a box holding white truffles, whereby he began shaving some of the highest quality white truffles I have had the pleasure of enjoying into a brandy snifter while leaving us with the instructions to keep smelling the glass over the next two courses.

Parmesan “raviolis" were delicious, with the skins being made of parmesan as well. They were followed by my dish of the night: sweet potato ‘gnocchis" which were topped with the white truffle shaving from our brandy snifters. Totally amazing and a contender for the best dish I had in 2009. Onto desserts. Something they call pond which is sort of looks like a lake that has been froizen over. You break through the pond and you eat it piece at a time. The a sort of pineapple sandwich. My menu says puff pastry but the reality is it was “puff pastry." Chocolate marshmallows were followed by an expression of roses which was followed by shellfish and fruit. But the best dessert by far was the last which was a three tiered box of chocolates and petit fours. It was so good, and we ate so much of it, that we commented that it would be worth ordering by itself it for dinner while drinking a bottle of vintage Champagne. Speaking of wine, we drank a 1973 Vina Tondonia Blanca Gran Reserva and then a 1975 Gran Reserva 904 from La Rioja Alta. Both wonderful.

I have to say that this was my favorite of my three meals at El Bulli. The phase where there were excessive dishes that featured flavored air or foam seems to be over, and instead the focus seems to be on using molecular techniques to create dishes that feature multiple expressions of ingredients. And the style is enhanced by the fact that the same ingredients kept popping up in different dishes as the evening progressed giving the entire meal a greater sense of purpose and continuity than my meals in the past. And the increase in the number of dishes they served meant that we left full, a change from my other visits which included Mrs. P inquiring about pizza after we finished our meal. Finally, and this was true of my other visits as well, the front of the house team at the restaurant is phenomenal and doesn’t get enough credit for offering a superb haute cuisine dining experience. Service is seamless, not an easy trick to accomplish given the number of courses they have to serve, and explain to each customer. All in all an amazing experience - the best meal I had in 2009 - and one which left me with a strong desire to return next year.

12/01/2009 | Comments (3)