There are many Gazpacho recipes, almost every cook has its own. And then you have the ingredients, likely every time you cook gazpacho it will taste a bit different. Here is my version
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Some good wine choices to buy at Madrid Airport - Reds (II)
When we talk about the red wine selection you can always play safe and spend your money in "classics" (but always amazing ones) as Rioja's Marques de Caceres and Marques de Murrieta or Ribera's Protos to name a few.
However maybe you want to try something different or you want to be spending a bit less, here you have some recommendations for 3 wines that I think could make you happier when you open them back home or you give them as a present:
Some good wine choices to buy at Madrid Airport - Whites (I)
One of the things that I really hate with the security rules after the famous Shoe Bomb incident is the ban on liquids (which BTW if you want my opinion is total BS and just a way to increase sales at the airport and manage the people's fear management) . So I used to buy 6-8 bottles and just curry them with me on my hand luggage. Now I am forced to buy some of them if I can / want to check in my bag or to buy them at the airport
The good news is that at least on Madrid airport at the Aldeasa shops the wine selection is not that bad (probably the biggest complaint is lacking some interesting wine regions as Bierzo, Madrid just to name a few). Let me give you some of my recommendations (Cuatro Rayas, MAr de Fredes and Santiago Ruiz) :
First tips on our new city: 5 restaurants I like in Vilnius (I)
We have been living for now over 3 months in Vilnius so we start having some OK knowledge on restaurant and places, although I am sure this will only improve with time :-)
Being a rather small city (500,000) and not being Eastern Europe among my culinary destinations of choice, I was a bit worried about the range of choices. I have been in the city for consulting or BD work several times, but my experience was reserved to 2 or 3 top restaurants, mostly French. But the city has exceeded my expectations, which is nothing but great.
I am not going to put all contact details (you can find most of them on http://www.balticsworldwide.com/tourist/lithuania/restaurants.htm or trip advisor) but my personal notes on them
Being a rather small city (500,000) and not being Eastern Europe among my culinary destinations of choice, I was a bit worried about the range of choices. I have been in the city for consulting or BD work several times, but my experience was reserved to 2 or 3 top restaurants, mostly French. But the city has exceeded my expectations, which is nothing but great.
I am not going to put all contact details (you can find most of them on http://www.balticsworldwide.com/tourist/lithuania/restaurants.htm or trip advisor) but my personal notes on them
Rather late but never too late: a great restaurant in Paris
I should have written this one almost on my first entry. However I never did. Today while organizing some business cards I found their BC and I could not resist any longer :-)
During 2006 and 2007 one of my best friends Juan Villalobos was the CFO of ING Direct in France. He did live in the St. Germain district (on the 6th). Juan is a Cosmopolitan guy but inside him he is a Cuenca (in La Mancha, 2 hours from Madrid and a magical city) born and raised and feels very proud of his origins. So obviously he did know about a Cuenca born chef who also happen to be 5 minutes from his house (the restaurant used to be at 10, rue Saint Julien and has sinced moved to 45 Quai des Grands Augustine, about 10m from its original location) and in my opinion one of the most creative and yes riskiest chefs (in terms of "Gastronomioe Espagnole") that I know. The restaurant name Fogon (formerly Fogon St. Julien)
Another great advantage of going there with Juan is that we did not even bother to order. The Chef Alberto Herráiz (extremely well known and with many different cooking books already published) will come out and suggest the tapas we should try that day. Then gave a choice of different rice dishes and then voila, the result was always amazing
So here the star plate is the Rice. But again this is a risky place :-) so don't come here expecting a normal paella or the ones serve to most of tourist. Alberto plays with many different ingredients (from french influenced by using foie to all types of seafood, Jamon Iberico (ham), meat or vegetables) and many different ways to cook the rice (caldoso, meloso, seco). So throw away your expectations and just get ready to discover new ways to flavor rice. He also follows a similar line with tapas (never too many on the menu, just a selection) and top of my mind is always his inventive gazpacho (Cold soups in different formats). Now I remember a lettuce gazpacho that was as special as different as delicious)
And by the way as a final note he always uses mineral water "Solan de Cabras", from Cuenca, with some old design bottle that it is just great (and this happened much earlier that the fashion industry has discovered this brand)
Fogon (formerly Fogon St. Julien
45 quai des Grands Augustins - 75006 Paris -
(+33) 01 43 54 31 33
fogon@fogon.fr
http://www.fogon.fr/en/index.html
During 2006 and 2007 one of my best friends Juan Villalobos was the CFO of ING Direct in France. He did live in the St. Germain district (on the 6th). Juan is a Cosmopolitan guy but inside him he is a Cuenca (in La Mancha, 2 hours from Madrid and a magical city) born and raised and feels very proud of his origins. So obviously he did know about a Cuenca born chef who also happen to be 5 minutes from his house (the restaurant used to be at 10, rue Saint Julien and has sinced moved to 45 Quai des Grands Augustine, about 10m from its original location) and in my opinion one of the most creative and yes riskiest chefs (in terms of "Gastronomioe Espagnole") that I know. The restaurant name Fogon (formerly Fogon St. Julien)
Another great advantage of going there with Juan is that we did not even bother to order. The Chef Alberto Herráiz (extremely well known and with many different cooking books already published) will come out and suggest the tapas we should try that day. Then gave a choice of different rice dishes and then voila, the result was always amazing
So here the star plate is the Rice. But again this is a risky place :-) so don't come here expecting a normal paella or the ones serve to most of tourist. Alberto plays with many different ingredients (from french influenced by using foie to all types of seafood, Jamon Iberico (ham), meat or vegetables) and many different ways to cook the rice (caldoso, meloso, seco). So throw away your expectations and just get ready to discover new ways to flavor rice. He also follows a similar line with tapas (never too many on the menu, just a selection) and top of my mind is always his inventive gazpacho (Cold soups in different formats). Now I remember a lettuce gazpacho that was as special as different as delicious)
And by the way as a final note he always uses mineral water "Solan de Cabras", from Cuenca, with some old design bottle that it is just great (and this happened much earlier that the fashion industry has discovered this brand)
Fogon (formerly Fogon St. Julien
45 quai des Grands Augustins - 75006 Paris -
(+33) 01 43 54 31 33
fogon@fogon.fr
http://www.fogon.fr/en/index.html
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