Food: El Faro de El Puerto, El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain, 11th April 2007

A very nice restaurant across the bay from Cadiz. Jessie and I took a boat to the town of El Puerto de Santa Maria (which is a story in itself). It was a bit of a walk from the centre of town but well worth it.

Okay, I am still working out a format for this but I think I am going to go with the following: brief description of location etc, what we ate and drank, cost, longer description of food and thoughts… these entries could be quite long!

Amuse-Bouche

A soup of peas and other delicious stuff, completely cannot remember what was in it.
Shared Starters:

Artichokes, stuffed with mushrooms, foie gras (?the Spanish word on the menu was “foie” but I am not sure if this is the right translation) and with a quail’s egg (I picked this)

A terrine of octopus with a sauce that I can’t remember and potato puree (Jess)

Main Course

Grilled red tuna with aubergine and an orange mustard sauce (Jess)

Duck Breast with Duck leg confit in a cassis sauce (Me)

Dessert

Apple sorbet with a pineapple wafer (Me)

Food Cost: €72.25 (£45.64)

Wine

2004 Rioja Crianza (I wrote down the name but have lost it! A look at the bill reveals the name “Bilibio” but a cursory Internet search reveals little, will check Hugh Johnson later)

Wine Cost: €11.75 (£7.40)

Total Cost €98.33 (£62.12, includes cost of coffee, water and tax)

Wow, what to say about this meal. Firstly, the service was amazing. The waiter, whose name was Ignacio (it’s written on the bill!), told us when we arrived at 1.30 that we were too early by Spanish standards and that the restaurant had not finished setting up and so he invited us to have a glass of sherry. I chose my usual fino (very dry sherry, I was getting quite into it at this point) and ordered the same for Jess, at which point he very politely refused to serve her a fino and instead bought a cream (much sweeter) for her. He told us that this is the way they do it in Spain*, men have the fino and women the cream. He got it spot on! Jess much preferred her drink and I mine. After that we spent about an hour deciphering the menu and ordered at which point he told us that in Spain they tend to share the starters rather than having one each and that he would arrange it so we could do the same. So we had two “courses” of starters served to us separately, I guess they weren’t to know that we would have been happy sharing like everyone else! Furthermore, I was a little baffled by the wine list, knowing practically nothing about Spanish wine, and when we asked Ignacio to pick one for us the look of delight on his face was fantastic; he really seemed to be enjoying himself as much as we were!

Right, so that was the service (he patted me on the shoulder as we left, that is how friendly we were by the end) now to the food. The amuse bouche was delicious, a thick, grey green soup but I can’t for the life of me remember what was in it now!** Jess and I are still arguing over the starters: she doesn’t like fried egg and the quail’s egg was fried. In fact, the construction of both dishes was pretty amazing. The artichokes were about 5cm in diameter and hollowed out and inside was the foie gras/mushroom mix. The quail’s egg was then fried and set on top like a little lid. The octopus terrine was served as three perfectly square slices of just a few millimetres thickness, I am not sure what the octopus was set in to make the terrine but it looked fabulous: small cross-sections of octopus in this square of purple. Both starters tasted great but I preferred mine, the combination of the slightly sweet, sticky berry sauce and the creamy egg yolk was just fantastic. However, the sauce that came with Jessie’s was lovely as well, in fact a combination of two sauces, one creamy, the other slightly tangy and sharp; it combined excellently with the octopus!

In the main courses there was no contest. Ignacio had taken a liking to me and was well pleased when he thought that I had chosen the tuna, I should have told him that I had as it was delicious. Ignacio actually let us know that the Tuna season had just finished and that we may have to change dish. He went to ask the chef what he thought and came back to tell us that they had a better fish, similar to tuna but tastier (!) that was a typical Spanish fish that they would make the dish with. The whole thing was lovely, especially the curious orange mustard sauce: that combined with the mushy aubergines reminded me of Punjabi food, the tanginess of the sauce was almost like chutney. My duck dish was excellent but a little dull in comparison, the sauce was again the highlight (they must have a fantastic “sauciere- a specialist in sauces”(cf. Chef in Apocalypse Now, couldn’t resist)). I’ve been having real trouble with my sauces recently so it was good to taste some good ones!

I had a dessert but really pushed myself to fit it in: we had had three courses the previous evening as well as a hearty ration of tapas the previous lunch. The apple sorbet was refreshing and tart, maybe not quite the “appley-ist apple ever, even more appley than an apple” (as Jessie’ Mum remarked of her pud at the Waterside). The dessert menu did look fantastic though: I was particularly tempted by i) the four chocolate dessert: chocolate mousse, chocolate ice cream, chocolate ravioli and a fourth thing that I couldn’t translate! and ii) cheesecake soufflé and cheesecake ice-cream in strawberry sauce. The chocolate one has me thinking about my next big dinner, perhaps a dessert of chocolate soufflé, a chocolate, passion fruit and lime truffle and chocolate ice cream? We finished off a splendid meal with a pair of delicious café solos and some petit fours; two soft, fluffy cakes and a pistachio and marzipan concoction that seemed to have rice crispies in it!

To have such a great meal is one thing, to then pay £60 for it is amazing. I could not stop talking about this for a considerable time afterwards and the length of this post is testament to the fact that this was a great meal but at that price it is scandalous! I cannot imagine paying that much for a meal in London and having such an exquisite set of courses, such well thought out combinations or anything approaching that quality (having said that, three courses at Morgan M are £34, though that is not including wine! I cannot wait to try it there!).

Jess and I are starting to come around to the idea that Spain is our favourite European country; the cities, the sites, great art, friendly people and stunning food! Those who know me well know that I have a fondness for ranking, this meal goes into the top 5 but I can’t quite place it: maybe a topic for future thought!

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*I have to blog about restaurants and families, the Spanish seem to have a much better attitude toward whole family eating than we do.

**The problem was eating so many meals in such a short time, you get a bit meal-ed out!