the other, can fabes "in barcelona" matt thought when he chose it, turned out to be quite an interesting adventure. i learned it wasn't 'in' BCN but about an hour outside. but this wasn't until after i had emailed the request for the chef's table for 2 at the earliest seating which was 8:30. then we decided to invite friends carey & george, and dianne & gary. ok chef's table only seats 4 so no chef's table. but in my email to them i let them know that if chef did want to do something extra beyond the tasting menu that would be fantastic, and by the way, what was the dress code? the response?
"We can make an exception, But it will be a little bit just, You decided,
Dress code is casual, only we don’t accept track suit or shorts in men, For the rest is only common sense,
Wear a tie is not an obligation"
so yay! a great tasting menu plus a little extra perhaps. fine with us! then we have to figure out how to get there. there's a train that takes about an hour and the st. celoni station is less than 1k from the restaurant. however we don't know when we will be done eating and the last train back is just before midnight. i looked into limo/car services and all were around 250-350euro. taxi - no idea. i put together a list of the cheapest 3, which included the service can fabes uses and sent it to matt. it was his responsibility to pick the car but i would book it if he lets me know which one. it was also his responsibility to make sure we would be back in BCN in time to shower and get to the restaurant, as the itinerary for the day had us going to montserrat and a winery.now mind you, this is the 1st either of the other 2 couples will know about all this. i con only imagine their thoughts. the next time matt was on the phone with bill i made sure he asked. here's what i hear of the conversation, slightly paraphrased.
Matt: "i notice the itinerary has us 'back in BCN by 6'. just how 'by 6' does that mean?
Matt: "so at the very latest, no matter what it'll be 6:30"
Matt: "yeah, there's a 3 star restaurant in BCN but it turns out it's not really in BCN but an hour outside of town so we need to make sure we're all back, showered and can get there in time"
Matt: "ok, great thanks!"here's something much closer to the actual conversation.
Matt: "i notice the itinerary has us 'back in BCN by 6'. just how 'by 6' does that mean?
Jan: "hang on - - BILL!!! matt wants to book a dinner reservation!"
Bill: "hi matt, you should have no problem"
Matt: "so at the very latest, no matter what it'll be 6:30"
Bill: "by the latest. we should be at the winery and through it within 2.5 hours, getting there around 2 so we really should be back before 6" [disclaimer i could be mis-remembering this bit slightly but this is the gist, no problemo, don't worry, plenty of time]
Matt: "yeah, there's a 3 star restaurant in BCN but it turns out it's not really in BCN but an hour outside of town so we need to make sure we're all back, showered and can get there in time"
Bill: "sounds great, you should have no trouble"
Matt: "ok, great thanks!"
Matt: "ok, great thanks!"
when matt hung up the phone he asked when i had told jan about our going to dinner. turns out i hadn't, she had intuited it. so that was a little funny. and ok, at least that's a little load off my mind. i still would've rather we gone elsewhere for the stress i knew was inevitable, but i also wanted to eat at can fabes, so i didn't 'put my foot down' on the matter.
skip ahead - matt talks with the hotel concierge and books a car for the 6 of us to can fabes. pick up time is 7:15. no problemo right? each couple can be ready in an hour if we're back by 6.
skip ahead - we get on our bikes at montserrat within 30 minutes of the actual departure time slated. not too bad for 75 tandems, 2 trucks, and 2 sag vans. after all, lunch isn't until 12 and we were all there sitting and waiting for them to open the doors. gary wasn't feeling too great so he and dianne backed out leaving the 4 of us. and then again, matt & i were in the front 1/2 to leave, but not in the 1st pack out at 1 or very soon after. turned out matt and i ended up being the 1st team at the winery - at 4:30. (anyone reading this feeling the stress that has started?)
while we were waiting for the bus matt was watching for george and carey - linda had offered to drive the 4 of us back ahead of the bus. but we still needed to call and postpone the car a little bit. matt said he booked the one associated with the restaurant. i find the email and call. they had no info about our booking. so ok, now they do and they'll send the driver. then i find out matt booked a taxi with the restuarant. he found it on their website ( i hadn't, just the car service) so he was right about using can fabes' car, but he was talking about something i didn't know about. so i find the # and 1 of our guides let me use their cell phone to call. when matt finds out i called someplace else he asked the guide to use the phone and called the restaurant. we now have 2 cars ready to pick us up. i guess that's better than no car.we were on the last bus back to BCN - at 6 or shortly after, with about an hour's ride ahead of us. anyone starting to bite their nails yet? i'm sitting up front so i don't get seasick while matt, carey and george are somewhere in the back. i asked bill if he'd get on the mic and ask matt to pass up the room key as he had both. this means i could run ahead into the room and be in the shower by the time he got to the room. pretty clever if you ask me. bill, in his wonderfully humorous way asks matt "will you please pass up a room key to your wife so she can start running a hot bath for you" or something like that. HAHAs all around. hey, whatever works. i get a tap on my shoulder and turn just enough to see the key. "thanks, babe" - turns out it was george handing it off as matt was pinned in. sorry carey, didnt' mean to come on to your guy :-). i tried to call and cancel the oops from earlier but i wans't able to get through. matt said not to worry about it, we'd deal with it. guess what, we're all in the lobby at 7:45 and a car is waiting.
it took us about 45 minutes to get from our hotel in BCN to the restaurant. when we get there the maitre d' is a bit agitated. the 2nd car, the taxi is waiting at the hotel in BCN. before i could interject anything matt graciously declared "it was a chaotic day and it seems we double-booked a car. we'll take care of it" and of course we did. that calmed the maitre d' down a good bit of which i was glad. we all took a deep breath. these trips are never stress-free. as matt kept saying "it's an adventure".now, how about some food?!
we were given a little tour of the place on which we learned some of it's history. a photo of the original dining room is above.
we were escorted downstairs to the wine cellar at the end of the tour and is where we had our amuse bouche. (photo of wine cellar above).
amuse bouche: served with cava cuvee santamaria, finca fondo del frare brut nature '06 (apologies if i miss something, i'm trying to read someone else's handwriting for the wines.)
it wasn't bad. not sure i'd order it off a menu but i ate it. i left a little of the curd and i couldn't really taste the sea urchin.
iberian cured ham from extremadura on bread sticks
excellent of course
i started to write something down but didnt' finish. if i look at the server and listen i can't remember what to write. if i write i can't always hear what the server says. and i can't keep up. i need to try a recorder and see what happens.
marinated scallop with spice oil
this was pretty good.
amuse bouche #2: served upstairs at the chef's table. we were led through the kitchen (pics above) and shown the different stations as we were led through.
ok, not sure what this is. it's a crunchy wafer on the bottom, a fish on that, a green foam, and chive.
course 1: served with cin credo xarel-lo '09 penedel
our bread selection
puff surprise
rabbit in filo - this was yummy. a rabbit springroll
figs with foie
torrine of foie gras and wedge of fig. the foie i liked. fig not so much.
our chef at work
course 2:
autumn mushrooms from the montseny and the montnegre
cold, warm and hot
mushrooms, shrimp, truffle and a bit of pork neck. this was ok but i didn't like the mushrooms.
course 3:
chef waiting to put the finishing touches on our plates
assorted pumpkins and squashes
raw, boiled, roasted, grilled, fried
pumpkin creme with little squids
i liked the flavor of the soup, and i have to admit it is very pretty, but my squid was a little bit on the rubbery side. oh well. they're finicky little suckers.
course 4: served with taleia '08 caskell d'ency costers del segre
don laureano's clams
stewed with beetroot and its leaves
clams, yellow and red beets, beetroot, garlic, black trumpet mushrooms and bits of dried cod.
course 5:
fish fresh from the market
roasted with apples, brioche and croquants
red mullet, apple and brussels sprouts
the red mullet was good. i'm liking that fish more and more!
course 6: served with cuvee sentamaria fincz panta merlot '06 catalunya
mieral duck au sang
braised fennel and flavoursome honey sauce
the duck was fantastic! - here's a pic of it before plating
duck breast, duck sauce, fennel, and fig
duck leg/thigh, lemon gnocchi, white beet and lovage
above 2 views of the plated duck breast,
to left "seconds" - the duck leg
i had no room for 2nds
course 7: served with moscatel cuvee santamaria tarragona
gorgonzola cheese with pear
pear puree, pear cubes, earl gray tea, carmelized pinenuts, gorgonzola, and a slice of catalonian bread
pretty good and i don't care for either pear or gorgonzola
course 8:
chef working hard
autumn fruits
sweet pomegranates, quince with calvados, sweet potatoes a la creme
this is a passionfruit panna cotta with blackberry juice
hibiscus infusion with strawberries
they might look like maggots but they didn't taste like maggots
calvados ice cream and quince
this was not my favorite.
good but rich
shot of cream and toffee with tuille
wow
mignardise:
various macaroon, chocolate, merengue and berry bites
this was an excellent dinner; probably the best example of catalalunyan - catalonian? - food. the entire dinner adventure (at the restaurant) was extremely well orchestrated. chef and his sous chefs were a lot of fun to watch - chef did work, but did more delegating and over-seeing. before he left for the night he came over to the table and signed our menus.
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