Memorable Meals - Part 2 - Spain

After ten years of talking about it, my friends and I decided that it was time to attempt to do the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain. So, we made the arrangements a year before planning to arrive in Santiago on the feast day of St. James or Santiago. Since we would already be in the vicinity, we ambitioned to also have another significant event and be amongst the ten thousand people who eat in El Bulli Restaurant in Girona, Spain. So, in a carefully crafted email, not too gushing, not too effusive with praises yet very hopeful, we requested for a reservation. We sent our email in October and got an email reply in February of the following year. It was a YES!!!!

So, we hired a car and driver to take us from Barcelona to Girona. It was not necessary to do so but reading up on it, we decided to proceed with some caution since people who had been wrote horror stories of the bad roads. No such thing!!! Hey, we live in the Philippines. These roads were very good and safe.

We booked into a nearby hotel and ate a light lunch to prepare us for an evening of epicurean delights. El Bulli did not disappoint and here are some photos:

Some very interesting appetizers: Beetroot ribbons in vinegar dust on the leftmost; mock sea cucumber - sesame and yuzu in the center; eucalyptus and red currant transparent turnover in the topmost and Porex mushroom and coconut butter in the bottom. The Porex mushroom tasted like coconut macaroon.














Appetizers are served in an open air veranda. When you are done, you are brought to view the very clean and efficient kitchen. It looks like it is just a finishing kitchen. We were lucky because Ferran Adria was there that night and gladly posed for a photo with us.

After this short intermission, you are escorted to the main dining room and this is where the rest of the meal is served.


My personal favorite: Cheese Bread (foam) and muesli of fruits - this was presented in a styrofoam box!

















This dish is called Pea Egg and in the middle of the green jello like concoction is a real egg yolk.
















This is salicornia with razor clam, almond oil, rice and mint - strange but delicious. Salicornia is pickleweed. I learned something new.












Ajo Blanco - his dish for the year - basically a soup but in foam form!



















Macaroni Gruyere with Chicken Skin Crackling - the Gruyere must have been incorporated in the pasta dough before it was formed. Again, the sauce comes in the form of foam.
















And my favorite of the desserts: Coconut ravioli ---mouthwatering as it melts in your mouth and the muscovado sugar concoction inside just oozes out! Heavenly!!! I salivate at the memory of this dish.


















In total, we had 11 small bites of appetizers and 11 samplings of main dishes, 6 desserts. Despite the quantity, the meal did not leave you with heaviness and guilt!

El Bulli is a surreal experience. Adria tickles and teases your palate and you leave Bulli in a dream-like state. Every minute of our 5 hour dinner will be forever etched in our gustatory memories.

My friend and I have agreed to do it again if and when Ferran Adria reopens El Bulli.