Of Ash-covered Cheese & Wild Black Hens

Les Cols, Olot, Spain

Les Cols' original facade

I can easily sum up our dining experience at Les Cols as very authentic, very rustic yet with a good balance of la de da.   The air in Olot was very much back-to-basics, even the menu "screamed" it from descriptions like "the essentiality of primary food" to dishes like "charcoal tempura" and "volcanic gravel". Get the drift!? The setting, however, was surreal. Outside were wild hens clucking around. Inside, we were pretty much encased in metal, glass and stone. The furnishings, flooring, and walls were made out of metal, doors and windows were glass and what I adored most, was the natural light that bathed the interiors.

Cornbread &
White bean Caviar

Buckwheat crust

The meal was surprisingly copious! Simple food with the capacity to stuff. Not to mention, we had a delicious and complex bottle of white that literally tipped our scales. For a one-star michelin, they certainly pulled out all the stops to impress their diners. An excellent cava was served up right after they brought us on a tour of the premises. This was followed up with a buckwheat crust and some home-made dried sausage. The crust was most interesting, light, airy and smoky. We were also treated to some very fun finger sandwiches. I especially enjoyed their caviar of santa pau beans. It had the consistency of caviar but a really nice creamy legume flavour, almost earthy.

Charcoal Tempura

Beetroot dipping sauce

As it was our first time at les cols, we tried their tasting menu. It was a saturday and there were many other diners around but not many like us who were celebrating a very special birthday. The lunch kicked off with some very flavourful local spring onions done tempura style. These were awfully delicious. Awful in appearance but very delicious to our palates. To eat, we dipped them in a beetroot sauce and finished off the barbaric ritual by licking up the oily goodness from our fingers. Yum!

Foie gras stuffed artichoke

The next dish wasn't on the top of my list of favorites cos although great, it was a tad real for my taste buds. Artichoke stuffed with a decadent lump of foie gras. Highly commendable was how the liver came through in texture from the first few bites and after you were done, had the flavour of foie gras lingering in your mouth. Elegant.

Roast Egg

Next up was something all at once familiar,  inventive and real. Called roast egg, it was essentially that. An egg but flavored with mayonnaise and tuna. None of the latter was evident but the flavours were very tangible! My other fave back-to-basics dish was the green peas, lightly grilled, sugar-sweet green pearls dotted with bits of bacon and black sausage. Good wholesome grub!

Duck of all ducks

The inventive touch of Chef Puigdevall was most evident in the subsequent dishes. We got a taste of a textural dish of pumpkin, some rice flavored with sausage and squid in a black mince sauce and a divine oily smooth salt cod with grapes and hot pepper oil. The piece de resistance had to be the duck, melt in your mouth tender, married with flavours of pear and muscat. This was to-die-for and I decided that the French rendition of Duck a l'orange was a sad excuse for a national dish. The french can certainly learn not just a thing or two but a whole lot from the Spaniards.

Textural pumpkin

My cheese selection
with tomato jam

We were most excited to see the cheese platter after the treat we had with their breads in the first part of the meal. In addition to a modest selection of breads, they gave us a pick of some local olive oils to dip our breads in. The cheese trolley was decent and I was happy to find a gorgeous ash covered goat's cheese, complex and full. Les Cols also makes a mean tomato jam.

Ice cottage cheese with praline, walnuts,
yoghurt, honey & dried fruits

Volcanic gravel made up
of buckwheat, cocoa, pear,
orange & sugar charcoal

Desserts were a play of textures. I thoroughly enjoyed a dessert of especially smooth ice cottage cheese. This was light as air and smooth as silk.... it was subtly sweet, speckled with a few nuts and dried fruits for the occasional crunch and hit of honey sweetness. Impressive it was and just when we thought it was all over, they served up some sweet bread with a whole bar of home-made bittersweet chocolate. It had the artisanal wrapping in plain white kraft paper. We were instructed to eat the chocolate with the sweet bread but by then, I was out. Yet, we did take up their suggestion of pairing our desserts with a sweet liquor of the region, La Garrotxa, called Ratafia. Herbal and very pleasant on the palate and wonderful with the tangy sweetness of the desserts.

I was barely able to stand straight at the end of the meal. Frankly, it didn't seem like alot and for the life of me, I still have no idea why I felt so bloated at the end of the meal but the discomfort I felt was worth it. The dining experience at Les Cols has left me wondering what Chef Puigdevall has in store for us next.

View from our table

Finally, an occasion befitting Sant Pau!

Carme Ruscalleda's Sant Pau has graduated from my list of must-trys to my list of "To try again and again and again". She is woman! Hear her roar! I'd say if you died and never had the chance to dine at Sant Pau, that's a really big shame. Personally, I didn't want to simply dine at Sant Pau without making a big deal out of the whole affair. Yes, I was keeping it for a special occasion so naturally, when my wedding anniversary came along, I knew exactly where we were going to celebrate it!

The view from our table

Sant Pau. Carme Ruscalleda. We are simply not worthy! We had a gorgeous lunch of their tasting menu in December 2010. Of course, it's taken me a month to "pen" my thoughts about this dining experience but the memory of it is still very fresh in my mind....

The place.... tucked between narrow little streets, in a lazy fishing village. We were there in winter. All we saw were locals and old people. That added to the local flavour and when we drove up to the restaurant, we were so pleased to find it melded as one with the rest of the local housing. Very quaint, very charming and very blue. Yes, the predominant color around seemed to be the color of the sea.

Our table was like a front-row seat with a view of the restaurant's fenced garden and sea-view beyond. Indeed, it evoked an almost dream-like, pensive environment in which we were to dine in. Over the course of the meal, we were given lots of literature, menus, detailing everything we were eating.

This was really helpful cos there are times where the waiter mentions the many ingredients of the dish but by the time you're done ohh-ing and ahh-ing and plunge your fork in, you've forgotten what was said. It happens to me, perhaps because of my short-term memory and I end up cluelessly savouring the mouthful of "whatever". Sant Pau clearly did not want that happening here. Come to think of it,  it does seem like the practice these days in many restaurants to provide menus to be taken home and sometimes, even dated!

Cod brandada, colored
peppers & black olives

Carme Ruscalleda is an amazing and unbelieveably talented cook! Each dish awakened our senses, made us sigh with ecstasy and crave for more. Do not be mistaken. The portions were very adequate but like an orgasm, you did in fact wish it would just go on and on and on. We were especially impressed by the first dish of cod, so impressive in artistry and texture!

Pistachio, aubergine & blood sausage in dashi broth

Vegetable ravioli
& Joselito ham

The tasting menu was composed of melt-in-your-mouth seafood and deftly-baked vegetables. For the meat dish, I chose the deer loin with pear, apple and almonds in a demi-glace sauce. Divine! Worth mentioning in the seafoods, was the Gamba Tails, apparently a staple in their tasting menu. These were succulent prawns swimming in a creamy artichoke sauce with expertly baked and fried artichoke, and topped off with some crunchy artichoke chips.

Gamba Tails with artichokes of 

various textures

Our cheese serving was pretty avant garde. Instead of the customary cheese trolley which sometimes leave you wondering if you've made the right choice, lamenting that social graces dictate you should not ask for more than 4 or 5 different cheeses or that you should really ration yourself at this stage or you would not have space left for dessert, Sant Pau invents a cheese platter for their diner. We had a beautiful pairing of cheese and sweet accompaniments in the form of jams, cakes, jellies and fruit. There were 5 different spanish cheeses. Nothing extreme in taste and all very safe. My palate might have preferred somewhat more edgy flavours but I was more than happy with the inventive pairings with the sweets.

Desserts were a riot. We had roses and bilberries in various textures for one dish, chocolate ganache with savoury woody accents of mushroom and finally, a confectionery plate loaded with a dozen different spanish sweets, some classic, others quirky, but all very "ruscalleda". By this, I mean excellent!

Organic Roses & Bilberries

Dark chocolate ganache,
mushroom preserve,
anise and dill perfume

The staff was generous with their hospitality. Knowing that we were celebrating our wedding anniversary that day, they even dressed up an extra dessert with candles to help us celebrate the occasion. It was a nice gesture. Chef Ruscalleda even came out to speak with some diners, including us and yes, I gushed and told her what a big fan I had become from this one meal alone. Certainly, not our last as we plan to dine at Sant Pau the moment their tasting menu changes for the next season!

A confectionery shop on a plate!

Blissful Death by Molecular Gastronomy

A spread of finger-lickin' amuse-bouche at El Bulli

It was only in 2006 that I decided that I had to secure a table at El Bulli. Why? Obviously because we were pretty sick and tired of reading glowing review after glowing review of this artist, this genius behind El Bulli, and not knowing what it was all about first hand! I remember reading a profile on Feran Adria on the plane. In total awe of the pictures and the promise of a life-changing dining experience, I knew I had to make a reservation the for the following year. I really had no idea it was that difficult to secure a table because I got a reservation the first time I wrote in. Just like that. It was also downright fantastic that we lived just a stone's throw away, across the spanish border in france. To think that so many others had to go through the trouble of taking leave from work, booking airfares, hotel rooms, car rentals etc... just to dine at El Bulli. All we had to do was get dressed and vroom!

And vroom we did....in the summer of 2007, in my sexy little roadster. We were about 45 minutes late! we were held back at the french border because of all days, I forgot to bring my proof of french residency and they had to pick me out of a long line of cars to do a standard check. The 'sweet' customs officer was nice enough to let me go with a warning after hearing that I had a rare dinner reservation at El Bulli and if I had to turn the car around, I would just die! Of course, that didn't influence his decision making.... I was simply in their database! One would think that all it would take would be a mere 5 minutes. Noooo. They took a good 15 good minutes to confer with the french authorities.

Scenic stop up the mountainous road

Now we're speeding as fast as we can to Roses and we get stuck in a traffic jam on entering the town! Ergh! We were so anxious that we'd lose our table and we really didn't have any idea how this people at El Bulli would take to late-comers.


I'll cut a long story short. When we did reach El Bulli, entering the rusted iron gates, pass gorgeous overgrown Barbary fig trees, we were relieved to see other people strolling in and most of them were simply hanging around in the gardens and chatting amongst themselves. It felt odd. Weren't we late? Anyway, we heard alot of spanish being spoken. We reckoned the locals knew what they were doing.



El Bulli is housed in a beautiful spanish hacienda. You enter into a modest walkway with a low ceiling, pass a small terrace that overlooks the beach. Books were laid out for sale. All on molecular gastronomy and Ferran's recipes. We were so surprised to be the first few tables to be seated. No one had really started dinner yet! Before sitting us, our waiter brought us to the kitchen/lab. It was packed....the kitchen staff were standing shoulder to shoulder, hovering around long inox tables like chemists in a laboratory. The man, Chef Adria, was there, just standing, staring into space with his arms stretch out, propping him up against a table. He looked in our direction for a few seconds and then resumed his former preoccupation. It seems as though his presence was enough to ensure that everything ran smoothly in the kitchens. Awesome!


We were offered an aperitif. And during this time, I got to dwelve into their extensive wine list.... oh how it humbled me. We picked out a tempranillo, Pagos Viejos '98 to start the evening. It was a recommendation by the sommelier when he heard that our fave vino espanol was Roda I, '01. 

Basil sherbet & parmesan drink

The aperitif was a hibiscus flower margarita. A little sweetish effervescence as I recall and certainly a creative representation of what was to come during the course of our meal. Our meal that night was composed of about 30 different shocking, creative and amazing dishes.


I'll make mention of the more memorable dishes like a spherical olive that was presented on a silver spoon, all wobbly and transluscent. It was an amazing burst of liquid olive magma in our mouths!! gorgeous! There were these little golden nuggets that looked like golden nuggets... tastiest i've had the pleasure of actually biting into!


Realise that these were all little amuse-bouches. I was especially taken by a pretty little goat cheese pouch topped with a tiny little orange flower. On the platter was also a crunchy olive, beetroot and yoghurt meringue, black salty truffles, savoury chocolate tablets of casis, yoghurt and pistachio. You'll see in this image a snapshot of some of the little items i've described.


So many of these amuse-bouches seemed like little desserts. It was lovely, popping all these explosions of flavours and textures in the mouth. Totally fun! 


I did not take a picture of a dish I found rather crude upon arriving at our table. They looked like dirty sponges but actually were totally delectable. When I did realise they were gems, it was too late cos we had eaten them all up.  Sponges they were, the edible kind, like sponge cakes. One was a pistachio cake with acid milk mousse and the other, black sesame brioche with miso. Both extremely fragile in the hands. Oh yes, we ate with our hands. In fact, we used our hands to pick up a lot of our food. It was delectable barbarianism! It was also essential at times because some bits were served on ice and brought out on trays that were carried by the serving staff, like a tiger nut milk flower. It was like an ice cream in the shape of a flower but had a creamy distinct flavour of tiger nut.

Apple Waldorf El Bulli style

By this point of the evening, the unusual started coming forth. For instance, watermelon with blackberry caviar, oyster yoghurt with ox tempura, haricot bean with Joselito's Iberian pork fat (mmmm..), fig soup in it's own fat (a red colored soup with green leaves of fig fat), anchovy and ham with yoghurt skin and my ulimate fave, a gorgonzola dome encasing a stuffing of walnuts, celery and apple cubes (like a deconstructed waldorf salad).


By now, I was ready to explode! I tried very very hard not to show it. The table next to us agreed that they were having a little difficulty too but seemed to be shovelling the food in nevertheless. They were a young spanish couple, both starry-eyed foodies and very enthusiastic about their experience like us. Yet, I was feeling a little uncomfortable and wished I had at some point in my teenage years, mastered the art of regurgitation, just so I could make more room in my pathetically small stomach! It didn't help that the portions were getting more substantial so I rationed myself as we went along to be able to sample everything .

Razor clams washed ashore ... on my plate!

Despite a terribly bloated condition, I especially enjoyed a basil sherbet accompanied by a parmesan drink. There were the razor clams, fresh and juicy, with a myraid of crunchy seaweed, a gnochi of polenta flavoured with coffee and safran, eel custard apple (caramalised foie gras with grilled eel), hare juice and shimensi mushrooms with clams.


Desserts. There was a chocolate based dessert that consisted of a cacao sorbet dotted with cacao bits, a foam of truffle and a banana themed dish with banana sorbet, fantastically realised in true banana form.


We were a lucky few to adjourn to the open terrace for some fresh air and coffee. Coffee it was at 2am in the morning and coffee indeed if we were to make our way back home down the windy mountain road ... alive!


I was, without doubt, bursting at the seams. Mind you, the servings were far from copious but they were plentiful and indulgently flavourful yet light. We couldn't quite understand why we were so full but we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the bottle of Pagos Viejos '98. On hindsight, we wished we had the capacity to order more wine because it certainly called for a more varied accompaniment with all those varied flavours coming forth from those dishes.



We left El Bulli with a definitive first-hand experience of deft molecular gastronomy and a reminder of some rare gifts of mother nature like the oyster leaves we were presented at some point in our meal. For the uninitiated (like the table next to us), they were ohh-ing and ahh-ing at the creation of a leaf that tasted like an oyster when it wasn't a creation by El Bulli, but by mother nature. Hell, there's a first time for everyone.


We also left El Bulli with a printed menu of what we had that evening, with scribbles and notes of the ktichen staff, all in. What a souvenir. Service was impeccable and authentic. Everyone was spanish and spoke english with such a lovely accent. It's october 2010 and I'm makgin a point to call El Bulli each week see if there are any last minute cancellations so that me and my soul-mate can partake in yet another gastronomical adventure before El Bulli is no more.... for the next 4 years.