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It was not. It was an older, established restaurant in the Michelin guide that supposedly the King of Spain and other personages have visited. I believe we dined on the third floor. I don't think it was very far from Casas Patas, but I'm not sure.
Well, even though it might not be the dish you mentioned.. the tortilla which i just call 'spanish omelet' is worth a try. Rombix knows what i talk about ;)
I a agree on the olive oil thing by the way.. There could even be a whole discussion about which olive oil tastes best for it.. But it's more expensive as well
Most important thing for me is the detail in cooking/frying time.. Fried just till it's getting brown and the eggs mix just so that it's 'till about done'... I could eat a well done one so soon that every spaniard would disrespect it ;)
If you go to Madrid and arrive at the train station, there is a bar opposite the station entrance that is famous for fried Calamari (squid) sandwiches in french baguettes...with lots of mayo. Simply delicious!!!!
I love pana con tomate, both sliced and grated/pureed tomato forms, pa amb tomaquet the rubbed way is great too though somewhat less flamenco i'd think haha. Does Spain have good tomato's year round?
Its very difficult to find good tomatoes here. They look and taste like plastic.
The reason is that they started to grow the under plastic some 2 - 3 decades ago. What you see on the photo with this white silvery color is cheap plastic greenhouses. Its called el mar de plástico. Its in El Ejido, Almeria province. Here in Huelva they make strawberries the same way.
Sometimes, but its getting difficult, you can get local tomatoes from free air.
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I want to say it was called "papas revueltos", but that might be something that just came to mind in the intervening 9 years.
sounds like revueltos. I ate a lot of revueltos around Ronda, with baby broad beans, with asparagus, with chorizo, with morcilla, different combinations, and yes, with fried potatoes. I have an egg threshold, I don't like eggs on their own, but I love tortilla and revueltos.
a friend of mine spanish family but grew up in UK introduced me to the (dubious) delights of tortilla with (heinz) tomato ketchup....
Yikes! that's kinda surprising i thought Spain was a fairly tomato crazy country, sounds like the tomato's we get here in winter, but from past mid summer to late October here we have a bounty of awesomely delicious tomatos.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Anders Eliasson
Its very difficult to find good tomatoes here. They look and taste like plastic.
The reason is that they started to grow the under plastic some 2 - 3 decades ago. What you see on the photo with this white silvery color is cheap plastic greenhouses. Its called el mar de plástico. Its in El Ejido, Almeria province. Here in Huelva they make strawberries the same way.
Sometimes, but its getting difficult, you can get local tomatoes from free air.
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That's incredible! You can check it out on google maps and it gives you a perspective of just how big an area that is, it's like 50KM across. And you can go down to street view which is pretty crazy. I would not have expected something like that of those proportions in Spain.
There´s a lot of horrible mono cultivation on Spain. Lots of it illegal. Here in Huelva its a serious problem. They put up these plastic green houses in the middle of the big national park and make illegail water wells. And nothing happens. They throw away old used plastic and pesticides containers in the bush. etc. I know that most of you have this idyllic imagine of Spain, but the environmental problems here are very big. The minister of the Granada province once said that there were no illegal greenhouses on the Granada province coastline. They counted more than 100.000. (And Andalucia is like that in everything)
Simon your right, in the season, you can get very nice tomatoes locally, which I also wrote, but tburke asked if you can get good tomatoes all year round. And thats is getting more and more complicated. There´s very little money in it, so more and more people grow for their own consuming and thats it. I have to say though that the last year or so, more people are growing locally because they have no work and are out of money, so with vegetables, fruit etc. at least they can swap and get something to eat.
not somewhere i'd want to live near that's for sure.
Well, thats where Tomatito lives. (In Roquetas del Mar) If you watch the sea, you dont see all the plastic.
Haha makes me imagine Tomatito as some kind of feudal land baron with a plastic covered tomato producing domain, maybe there's more to the name Tomatito than previously thought
I'll probably get banned from the foro for this, but Greek Olive oil is (IMHO) the best and particularly the Olive oil on Rhodes (up in the hills, the local stuff)
Hey, Pim, were you associated with the Christina Heeren Fundacion back in '03 or so
That wasn't me. I dont think I even had a computer in 2003.
Lenador- $386 a pound ...you are kidding? Thats over $700 a kilo and its not even a bellota jamon...wanna start a business?
Greek oil is undeniably good but its not produced in anything like the quantity Spain produces. Spain now supplies a third of all the worlds olive oil and a great deal of "Italian" oil for export is blended with up to 40% Spanish oil. For me, the best olive oil I ever tasted was from Morrocco.
$186.oo per pound. Still outrageous, I can't remember how much I was buying it in Spain for what do you guys pay for it? Maybe I could cultivate a market for it with my restaurant friends and make a little cash..............
I can't remember how much I was buying it in Spain for what do you guys pay for it?
Well a cheap Jamon here is about 45 euros. A Jamon weighs about 8 KG (about the same as guitar and fibre glass case) but 1KG is bone and another half kilo is fat and salt that you throw out so thats 6.5 Kg usable meat. Thats around 13 pounds so we are looking at EUR 3.5 or around $5.00
A Jamon Iberica might be 90 Euros so thats $10.00 per pound
A really good acorn feed pata negra reserva could cost 3 times that much.
You have to factor shipping and border taxes....that's assuming the US will let you receive a Jamon in the mail. I suspect you would need an import licence for meat which is why its so expensive. Shipping wouldnt be more than say 60 euros per jamon.
A Jamon Iberica might be 90 Euros so thats $10.00 per pound
I'm gunna look into what it would take to legally import and distribute it, I'm willing to bet it wouldn't be less then $60 a pound after all the bureaucracy of importing raw meat for distribution.
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned paella. Some background information: The word most people use to describe the wide shallow pan in which it's cooked is "paellera," but it's one of those things that everyone says wrong, and if you try to use the right word ("paella" for the pan and the food) you'll just sound like a know-it-all. Might be a different story on the eastern coast, though, where paella comes from. The only thing you need to make a decent paella is short-grain rice. Lots of bars and restaurants in Spain will use the long-grain variety because it's cheaper. I'm not usually so picky about these things, but I think the long-grain variety has a mealy texture and, as far as I can tell, most households use short-grain rice. So I recommend taking the trouble to find it. The "paellera" is also important, but you can improvise. The important thing is to spread the rice over a broad cooking surface in a very thin layer (rather than heaping it into a pile). It's also important to know how much water to use in order for it to be completely absorbed by the rice. If the paella comes out soupy or you have to add water during cooking, adjust your measurement accordingly. I use three times as much water as rice, but results may vary with the kind of rice you use, the water in your area, etc.
Apparently, the authentic recipe doesn't include garlic, onion, chicken or seafood. Here's mine, which is very similar to most others:
Salt pieces of chicken, brown them in a pan (very important to get them good and brown, not just a little brown) and set them aside on a plate. Sautee onion and garlic in the same pan, add water (broth is better) and salt to taste. If you're going to add green beans and you want them to be tender, do it now and let them cook for a bit. Add the saffron (nearly everyone in Spain uses food dye), stir the liquid and add the rice, making sure it settles to the bottom of the pan. Add unshelled mussels if you like (scrape 'em clean), the browned chicken and anything else you like (squid rings are standard fare in Madrid, some people add peas). Make sure the rice is not sitting on top of other ingredients. Add shelled shrimp in the last few minutes of cooking time. Ideally, they should only change color, otherwise they'll be overcooked.
The key to this dish lies is the harmonious coordination of measurements and cooking time. It's a real delight when everything comes out tender and there's no extra liquid.
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There has been some classics over the years for sure
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