tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26942275307354991822011-08-29T04:17:46.027-07:00Being the tremendouf ftory of a fitful ekfploration of the capitalf of the Bafque-landf.Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.comBlogger201100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-19985612780750652832009-11-04T18:37:00.000-08:002011-07-25T15:18:50.549-07:00

September 4th, 2009. 12PM. This is it. The Best Ham In the World. I do feel like it changed my life, albeit slightly. Conversations about ham will never be the same again, because other people will praise the merits of Parma, or Iberico, or San Daniele, but I'll know that I had The Best. Of course, I don't have a lot of conversations about ham, so it won't be much of a problem. I should also

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-34779299369291990752009-10-19T20:22:00.000-07:002009-10-22T16:56:50.813-07:00

September 3rd, 2009. 9 PM. Almost a week in Spain and no tapas crawl? I honestly wasn't that broken up about it. If I understand correctly, the point of tapas is to eat small plates of fresh, simple, tasty food while drinking in a convivial setting. In Japan that's available in a thousand places every night of the week. Still, it's inexcusable not to take in that local color, so we headed to El

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-60810116433254151332009-10-19T02:43:00.000-07:002009-10-19T02:43:01.141-07:00

September 3rd, 2009. 1:30 PM Girona has a lot going for it - the medieval walled section aside, there are plenty of interesting-looking restaurants and shops! I decided this made sense after I learned one critical fact: Girona is actually the 'budget' airport of Barcelona, meaning if you take a RyanAir flight from London to Barcelona, you could well end up in Girona. There must be plenty of

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-66970369453542221632009-10-15T23:28:00.000-07:002009-10-15T23:28:13.621-07:00

September 3rd, 2009. 10 AM. On our morning in Girona, we had a few more hours to walk around and feel medieval. The old areas are really nice - cleaner than those in Barcelona and targeting a more sedate tourist (no Irish bars, for example). Breakfast in Europe is a challenge to me, and usually comes down to bread and maybe a coffee... As it did on this day, but fortunately from this

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-61431933592263314532009-10-14T19:40:00.000-07:002009-10-14T19:45:08.905-07:00

September 2, 2009. 11:30 PM Seriously, I wasn't sure what to expect from desserts at Can Roca. They're known for having cute twists that are more conceptual and could be described as precious, and I wasn't sure how I'd feel about them in practice. But I was hooked immediately, and looking back feel like there's a great overarching intelligence to them, plus some excellent execution hidden in the

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-55669284753773362192009-10-06T01:46:00.000-07:002009-10-06T01:46:58.252-07:00

September 2nd, 2009. 9:30 PM El Celler de Can Roca is The 5th Best Restaurant In the World. If you averaged this dinner with last night's, I ate at the 3rd-best restaurant in the world two nights in a row. Can Roca is often mentioned as a place that deserves three stars but is stuck at 2, and the food is creative but tasty, weird but recognizable. Honestly, I was looking forward to this dinner

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-2088511842008547472009-10-06T01:08:00.000-07:002009-10-06T01:08:00.313-07:00

September 2nd, 2009. 1 PM. On the way between Cadaques (base for El Bulli dinner) and Girona (dinner at Can Roca, #5 on the World's Best Restaurants list), we stopped by the medium-sized town of Figueres. This was mainly to visit the Dali museum, which we found disappointingly mobbed. As a result of the 1-hour-looking line to get in, we gave it a miss and just enjoyed walking around the town a

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-43845768116763903872009-10-05T01:58:00.000-07:002009-10-05T01:58:19.756-07:00

The switch to sweets is unclear at El Bulli (as is the nature of the whole dinner and many of the courses). Our meal had already been underway for hours at this point. You would be flagging too, I promise. I keep thinking about this, and even if I look at the pictures and think critically, I can't understand the thematic development. It's hard for me to believe that they serve you 30+ things with

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-18190684370736436142009-10-01T19:26:00.000-07:002009-10-01T19:30:12.253-07:00

At some point in the past, some wag must have offered the opinion that Ferran Adria has a persecution complex. That hypothetical (or apocryphal) person would have had a field day with the decor near where we were sitting - not only this sculpture high up in a niche in the wall, but also various art pieces that looked to have been donated by friends of El Bulli. These feature the restaurant logo,

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-8847984489718996962009-09-25T19:20:00.000-07:002009-09-25T19:20:27.938-07:00

September 1st, 2009. 8 PM. It's hard to anticipate something for 10 months. It's even harder when it's The Best Restaurant In the World. You know I mean that ironically, right?  But it wasn't too long after Luis Garcia 'found a solution' in December 2008 for my friend Andre that El Bulli was voted into that title again for the 4th consecutive year and the 5th in total (2002). Every year the Top

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-7818998211874377092009-09-23T20:31:00.000-07:002009-09-23T20:31:24.817-07:00

September 1st, 2009. 1 PM. Attempting to learn our lesson from the previous day, when the massive lunch had provoked several hours of nap and a relative lack of interest in dinner, we swore to keep things light before The Best Restaurant In the World. As usual, there were some minor problems with the ordering. Guilty as charged, Your Honor. But you almost don't need to eat, do you, when this

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-12241808981189205282009-09-23T20:27:00.000-07:002009-09-23T20:27:24.919-07:00

August 31, 2009. 9 PM. Massive fooding fail. That was all I kept thinking as we walked back to town for dinner after having a short walk and a long sleep to work off the colossal pasta lunch. Pictures don't do justice to how much we ate at Els Pescadors...but still, there were things to do. Walks to be walked. Dinners to be dined. Practice to stay in shape for the next night's extravaganza at

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-27571953000558243442009-09-16T17:39:00.000-07:002009-09-16T17:40:07.830-07:00

August 31st, 2009. 2 PM Thanks to providence, we survived a day of tourism and eating in Barcelona. That afternoon may even have included a visit to Sagrada Familia, but my memories are hazy. Something that was also hazy was the sky the next morning. We suffered through a mediocre breakfast of bread and coffee at a cafe (when in Europe...) on the edge of the Barri Gothic near the water where the

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-50533981929433375692009-09-15T01:05:00.000-07:002009-09-15T01:06:33.541-07:00

August 30th, 2009. 9 PM. If you're following, you'll see that it's still Sunday of this trip, day 2 of 7. This could take a while... Really, we did some touristy things too. Here's the other famous Gaudi apartment building, Casa Batllo. We just stood outside and looked at it, which I think yielded most of the value (considering that we had already been to Casa Mila and seen the interior detail

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-2896453767642488122009-09-14T01:37:00.000-07:002009-09-14T01:37:23.008-07:00

Events of August 30th, 2009. 3 PM. Barcelona has lots of attractions for between-times when you're not eating (as I get older I like more and more to use those times for sleeping, but your mileage may vary). This post's gratuitous shot is of the roof decorations at Le Perdrera, one of the two Gaudi apartment buildings that make up what I came to think of as the Holy Quaternary (including Sagrada

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-12762556259931245432009-09-10T17:58:00.000-07:002009-09-10T18:00:45.946-07:00

After Saturday I had the feeling that I might never eat again...but Sunday came up clear and humid, and after a good 10 hours in bed hunger set in. Jet lag and a windowless apartment made it hard to venture out, so Dre had already scoped the neighborhood and found this place by the time we dared exit our cave. Good job spotting it too, as the Barri Gotic isn't great on breakfast options - it's

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-56890171960068331582009-09-09T21:13:00.000-07:002009-09-09T21:14:09.010-07:00

Events of August 29, 2009. 11 PM After the all-too-brief stop in Paris, we were off to Barcelona. At the airport we met up with Dre, the lucky holder of the actual El Bulli reservation that spawned this whole trip, and Bee, and our foursome was set for the week. We arrived in Barcelona around 7:30, made it in one piece to our apartment in the historic Barri Gothic, passed out until 10, and

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-78495805242469544352009-09-08T17:12:00.000-07:002009-09-08T17:15:08.700-07:00

Events of Saturday, August 29, 2009. 12:30 PM. Roughly. This plan to squeeze in a lunch in Paris on the way to a week in Barcelona was a pretty silly plan. Leave Tokyo at night, arrive in Paris under cover of dark (4 AM!), sleep for a few hours, stroll, chocolate...extravagant lunch. And all under the pretext that we had to fly to Barcelona through Paris anyway, so why not make the most of it?

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-8626456381374056162009-09-07T21:59:00.000-07:002009-09-07T21:59:15.353-07:00

Events of Saturday, August 29, 2009. 12:00 PM. I came to Denise Acabo's famous chocolate shop through a circuitous path. It started a few weeks ago when I was looking for something to do on a quiet Tokyo weekend. In past months, I've been enjoying the pleasant habit of visiting a new neighborhood for a day and exploring it as a means of recreation (and I'd like to say 'and exercise', but such

Jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16634199045147895899noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2694227530735499182.post-38468851166771590162009-09-07T18:34:00.000-07:002009-09-07T23:19:52.334-07:00

To get things off on the right foot, it might help to explain the flow of the trip. Day 1: Flew overnight, arriving in Paris at 4 AM. Booked a hotel for that morning, thus slept for a few hours, had a stroll, bought chocolates at l'Etoile d'Or, then had lunch at Le Cinq in the Four Seasons George Cinq Hotel. Flew to Barcelona and had dinner at a Basque place. Day 2: Strolling around Barcelona,

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