Best Restaurant in the World

The 2013 World's 50 Best Restaurants list came out today and the amazing Girona restaurant El Celler de Can Roca is now the best restaurant in the world! When we visited last May, they were #2 but as of today, they are #1!

We haven't gotten up to writing about El Celler de Can Roca in our Barcelona trip recaps (we did touch on certain dishes in our 2012 favorite dishes lists), but considering the recent news, I think we're going to skip ahead in the chronology and relive that meal sooner rather than later.  Congratulations to El Celler de Can Roca! They are incredible and they definitely deserve it.

A's Favorite Food Memories of 2012

2012 was a very interesting food year for M and me. This was an incredibly difficult choice to narrow my list down to 10 favorite memories, and there are so many great things that I had to leave off. With so many great food memories from this year, I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us. So in chronological order...

1) Alcachofas (Artichokes) from La Cova Fumada (Barcelona)

The thing about these artichokes was that they were so simply prepared. A drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper before being grilled/baked in the oven. This was the first time either M or I had ever had straight artichoke and not the preserved/pickled hearts you see most often here in the US. We never knew just how much we would love these wonderful little vegetables, and it spawned in me the drive to emulate this simple dish many times at home for us to enjoy.

2) Tickets Olives from Tickets (Barcelona)

I call these magic olives. This is the signature dish of the Adria brothers from back in their El Bulli days. Avant garde gastronomy at its finest. It's some sort of chemical reaction between olive juice, added chemicals, and an alginate bath. The end result is something that is the size and shape of an olive. You slurp the semi-solid oval into your mouth and let it burst. An intense olive burst is what you get, and it's an amazing and mind-blowing experience. Liquid olive that's actually solid too.

3) Fried Egg with Truffled Duck Fat and Potato Cream from Tickets (Barcelona)

This was not only a tasty dish, but it was another display of amazing melding of science and cooking. The dish claims to be a fried egg, but neither M or I remember a solid egg being present. It was more of a custard or pudding that was egg flavored. The duck fat didn't feel greasy or heavy, and the truffle added a nice decadence. The potato cream was much more of a foam than cream. Overall, it tasted like a really good Tortilla Española covered in black truffle.

4) Xipirons amb Mongetes (Baby squid with white beans) from Bar Pinotxo (Barcelona)

Xipirons are baby squid that are about an inch long or so. They are extremely tender, and most of the times we ordered them in Barcelona, they came fried. Juanito offers you these delectable squids sauteed with white beans and olive oil and then drizzled with a balsamic reduction. The result is one of my favorite dishes of all time. It's a dish I still think about today. If we ever make it back to Barcelona, I think M and I will need to make a beeline for La Boqueria to slide up to the counter.

5) Cigrons (Chickpeas) from Bar Pinotxo (Barcelona)

Oh hey, look, another dish from Bar Pinotxo. Along with the aforementioned xipirons, M and I also got a half order of his famous cigrons. They apparently come cooked with raisins, rock salt, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and parsley. Juanito also has a version that includes murcillo or butifarra, but we don't think we got that version. The chickpeas were perfectly cooked to be soft but still retain just a touch of bite. A wonderful, vegetarian option for a country full of meat.

6) A Whole King Prawn from El Celler de Can Roca (Girona)

One restaurant we knew we had to try and get a reservation for when we decided on Barcelona for our European excursion this year was El Celler de Can Roca. It is currently the #2 ranked restaurant in the world, and we were ecstatic when we got our reservation. The restaurant was started by the 3 Roca brothers who all learned cooking from their mother who has a restaurant just up the street from them called Can Roca. She certainly taught them well. This dish was a masterpiece of ingenuity, creativity, and full-on flavor. The menu describes the dish as "a charcoal-grilled king prawn, king prawn sand, ink rocks, fried legs, head juice, and king prawn essence". What they did with this one prawn was nothing short of magnificent. The "sand" tasted like concentrated prawn, the prawn itself was succulent and sweet, and the fried legs added a nice crunchy texture along with even more prawn flavor. They even chose a wavy plate to mimic the sea floor. A truly magnificent dish.

7) Flower Bomb from El Celler de Can Roca (Girona)

This was one of the most beautiful desserts I had ever eaten in my life. Oh, it tasted really good too. "Rose cream, loquats and orange blossom, chamomile sorbet, calendula gelatine, violet cloud, and jasmine oil" is the description given. In essence, it's edible flowers, rose cream, and sorbet wrapped in a sugar spun "bubble" that you have to crack to get into. The violet cloud is cotton candy touched with lavender for a wonderful additional flavor. As much as it pained me to have to break open this beautiful dish, I was extremely happy to eat it.

8) Drunken Noodle with Fried Sea Bass from Lotus of Siam (Las Vegas)

Lotus of Siam is one of the supposed holy trinity of Thai restaurants here in the US. The other two are Jitlada in LA and Sripraphai  in NYC. Oddly enough, the only one we haven't been to is the one here in our backyard. It's hard to describe the flavor of drunken noodle, but if you have ever had some before, imagine the best drunken noodle you've ever had. Multiply that greatness by 10, and then add on perfectly fried pieces of sea bass, and this is what you're getting. The sea bass is very lightly battered and ultra crisp. The fish is perfectly flaky as well. Lotus of Siam was the only place we knew we had to go to in Las Vegas, and we'll certainly go back next time as well.

9) Adobada Taco with Pineapple from Tacos El Gordo (Las Vegas)

Tacos El Gordo is a taco chain started out of Tijuana. After M heard about this amazing taco joint, I knew we would be going at some point during our trip. She is, after all, taco crazy. As much as I loved all of the tacos we tried, the standout was the adobada taco with a slice of pineapple. Adobada is pork that's layered on a spit similar to shawarma. It's marinated, cooked, and sliced to order. It's piled on to a couple of corn tortillas, layed with onions and cilantro, and slathered with some green sauce that's just out of this world. The pineapple is optional, and you have to actually ask for it if you want. We actually tried it both ways, and the pineapple, while not 100% necessary, really made this taco sing. The sweet and sour mix from the pineapple paired itself extremely well to the flavors of the spices in the meat and also the sauce. The end result is a taco that, for all of $2, is the best bang for the buck on The Strip.

10) Thanksgiving Dinner at My Brother's Home (Chicago)

Sure, this is a bit of a cheat since it's not really one specific dish, but if you're talking about food memories, this is a great one. Ever since M and I moved out to NYC, we've never had a chance to spend a holiday with my family. This year, after my nephew was born, we knew we had to be with them. Now, this wasn't anything special with what we made, but it was the first Thanksgiving meal that we cooked without any help from any parents. My brother and I combined to cook a fantastic turkey, M and I made the stuffing and mashed potatoes, my brother made the cranberry-orange relish, and he took over for the green bean casserole while M and I were stuck still working on the stuffing. The only things we didn't make were a Brussels sprout side from Whole Foods that my brother bought in case we botched the turkey and the turkey gravy. It felt so satisfying to successfully cook this major holiday meal. And no, we didn't eat the little begging dog under the table.

2012 was such a great food year even if it wasn't great for most other things. Hopefully 2013 is even better overall.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2012

2012 may not have been the best year all-around but it was a fantastic year for food, which made choosing my top 10 food memories of the year really difficult.  When I "narrowed down" my options the first time, I ended up with 59 different dishes.  I could have made multiple top 10 lists just from our 10 days in Barcelona, so it's no surprise that it completely dominated this year's list.  Here's my top 10 (in no particular order, except to end with something sweet):

1.  Contessa de espárragos blancos con consomé de ibéricos (white asparagus contessa with Iberian consomme) from El Celler de Can Roca

We went to El Celler de Can Roca, currently the number 2 restaurant in the world, for a 5 hour lunch during our Barcelona trip in May.  One of the courses on our tasting menu was this amazing asparagus dish, with such vivid flavors that I can still taste it to this day.  It was a duo of hot and cold white asparagus bites - the hot consisted of tender white asparagus with black garlic that was so soft that it melted in your mouth, and the cold was an asparagus ice cream with black truffle that was buttery and salty and creamy all at once.  The hot asparagus alone probably would not have made it onto this list, but the asparagus ice cream was great, and together it was asparagus overload (in a good way). Good thing we love asparagus!

2.  Chicago Style Char Dog from Gold Coast Dogs

Despite living in Chicago for a few years, the only Chicago style hot dogs I had eaten prior to this fall were from Portillo's (and even then, had only had 1) and Shake Shack (here in NYC).  (This was in part due to the fact that I didn't eat red meat for much of the time I lived in Chicago and only started my "ballpark exception" for hot dogs near the end of my stay, but let's not talk about that now.)  In September, A and I decided to explore some of Chicago's best hot dogs, and made our own mini Chicago style hot dog crawl.  I love Chicago style hot dogs because they have so many vegetables, making them rather healthy! If you've never had one, it is a hot dog (in this case, charred) on a poppy seed bun topped with mustard, onions, tomatoes, pickles, (neon green) relish, sport peppers and celery salt. My favorite from our crawl was this classic char dog from Gold Coast Dogs.

3.  Alcachofas (artichokes) from La Cova Fumada

La Cova Fumada wasn't the first place I had ever eaten an artichoke in my life, but it is the place that made me realize I liked artichokes.  La Cova Fumada is a tiny hole in the wall place in the Barceloneta neighborhood of Barcelona, filled with mostly locals and without any signage whatsoever. They don't really have a menu, but just make suggestions based on what you like and what's good that day. When the server suggested alcachofas (artichokes), we said yes, despite not having any idea what kind of artichokes would be coming.  I think I was still picturing slices of artichokes like the ones in the jars, which I think were the only ones I had before.

When the artichokes arrived, we were perplexed. How do you eat those? Luckily I had an international data plan so I googled it.  After peeling away and eating all of the outer layers, we discovered the soft, meaty artichoke hearts that had been soaked in olive oil and it was a revelation.  I had never had an artichoke that tasted this good.  These artichokes would make this list on their own but they also get a place on this list because they completely changed my mind about artichokes.

We went on to order artichokes at many other places but they often came as alcachofas fritas (fried artichokes).  We loved those too, like these perfectly fried, delicious, hearty artichokes from Sant Joan, another place where we were the only non-locals having lunch and where they were really nice and served us really delicious food.  (These artichokes were on the short list but ultimately didn't make this top 10.)

4.  Nam kao tod from Lotus of Siam

When we went off on our Las Vegas mini-break in December, there was only one restaurant that we knew for sure we had to visit - Lotus of Siam, considered by many to be the best Thai restaurant in the United States.  One of the dishes they are famous for is nam kao tod - a salad of crispy rice mixed with minced sour sausage, green onion, fresh chili, ginger, peanuts, and lime juice.  When I hear rice salad, all I think about is khao yam from Jitlada. This isn't the same and khao yam is still my favorite, but this was quite good.  The combination of flavors, the sourness and spice, was so nuanced and different from the Thai food we eat on a regular basis.  I love Thai salads and this one was one of the best.

5.  Pan con Tomate from Paco Meralgo

Paco Meralgo, one of our favorite restaurants in Barcelona, is also one of the few Barcelona spots (and the only one on this list) that we've gotten around to blogging about (post here).  Pan con tomate, literally translated to bread with tomato, is a Catalonian specialty and our favorite was here at Paco Meralgo.  The perfect crispiness, fresh and intense tomato flavor, just the right amount of drizzled olive oil - I dream about this dish to this day and hope to someday eat this again.

6.  Cigrons from Pinotxo

Another place we loved in Barcelona was Pinotxo, a tiny corner bar right at the entrance to La Boqueria, the famous marketplace on Las Ramblas. Pinotxo is famous for having good food but also for Juanito, the charming guy behind the bar who knows exactly what you should order.  He suggested that we get these chickpeas (cigrons in Catalan) which were incredible (and somehow only a half-order, so inexpensive).  The cigrons dish varies based on season and what's available in the market, and on the day we went, we tasted raisins, rock salt, parsley, olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixed in with the chickpeas.  A simple recipe but an incredible dish.  I love chickpeas and could eat this on a regular basis (if only it were here!).

7.  Thanksgiving stuffing

This may seem like an odd entry in a list of favorite food memories since Thanksgiving comes every year, but there is a reason.  This year was the first time I spent Thanksgiving with A's family, and we, along with his brother, made the entire Thanksgiving dinner ourselves.  What I was happiest about was the stuffing (my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal!).  It's my mom's recipe - herb stuffing with sausage, mushroom, onion and cilantro - and I've made it before at home, but have never done the whole process (ingredient purchasing, all the prep and all the cooking) completely on my own.  It was bittersweet since it was the first Thanksgiving ever that I haven't seen my family, but there was also a sense of accomplishment and pride that I could carry on my family's stuffing tradition.

8.  Olives (and other things that burst) from Tickets

Other than El Celler de Can Roca, the only other reservation we made before leaving for Barcelona was for Tickets Bar, the tapas bar that was opened by the Adrias (formerly of the impossible to get into El Bulli).  Tickets was an entertaining and whimsical place and there were so many options that we picked the "let your server choose your food for you" option.  The only thing we knew we wanted to get were las Olivas del Tickets (the Tickets olives), which were a signature dish and the same ones they had at El Bulli.  These little green bubbles were relatively solid on the spoon (although you did have to be careful), but they liquified instantly when they hit your mouth, bursting open to reveal tons of olive flavor.  It was like eating an olive in liquid form.  The whole experience was so much fun that I think it left me giddy.

We also had some other dishes at Tickets with things that "burst" in your mouth.  The miniairbags rellenos de queso manchego (manchego cheese mini airbags) looked like puff pastries but were crispy shells topped with manchego cheese and caviar which, when you bit into them, exploded with cool liquid cheese.  The ravioli liquido de queso Payoyo (liquid Payoyo cheese ravioli) looked like big opaque white bubbles with crackers on top, but exploded with cheese once you ate them.

While none of these dishes alone probably would have made this list based solely on their flavors (not that they were bad, but there was some tough competition this year), the enjoyable experience of eating the olives (and the other bursting foods) let us know we were in for a really fun dining experience at Tickets, one we will never forget.

9.  Xipirons

To me, one of the greatest food experiences one can have is the discovery of a new food to love.  It was like that with the artichokes, and it was like that with xipirons (Catalan)/chipirones (Spanish), which are a tiny squid that I have never seen anywhere except for Spain.  They're small (only a few centimeters long), really tender, and so much fun to eat.

One of the greatest dishes we had with xipirons (and we searched for them on menus once we realized we loved them) was xipirons amb mongetes (baby squid with white beans) from Pinotxo.  Suggested by Juanito (of course), the dish that arrived was filled with tiny squid, lots of white beans, and lots of balsamic vinegar.  It was delicious.

One of more popular ways to make chipirones was to fry them.

These fried chipirones from La Paradeta (a casual chain of places where you point to the seafood you want, which is all fresh out of the harbor that day, and then they make it) were like popcorn. I could just imagine eating these as a snack while walking around the city. Also delicious.

10.  Flower bomb from El Celler de Can Roca

After trying the flower bomb dessert at El Celler de Can Roca, I knew immediately that this would be on this year's favorite food memories list.  Jordi Roca is a genius.  This dessert - full of edible flowers - just tasted like spring, if spring had a flavor.  According to the menu, there was rose cream, loquats and orange blossom, chamomile sorbet, calendula gelatin, violet cloud and jasmine oil.  It arrived with most of those ingredients, including the flowers, inside a delicate clear sugar shell, sitting on a bed of what looked like violet cotton candy.  It was sweet, it was floral, it was fruity, and most of all, it was perfect for May and springtime.  I've never had any dessert like it - which made me feel so present in the time and space in which we were living - so I knew this would definitely be one of the best things I would eat all year.

Hoping 2013 brings great food memories (and hopefully something in NYC will make the list)!