Joe Ray

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Pork Me One More Time!!!

After finding pork and seafood variations on recent trips to Barcelona, Paris and Belle-Ile, clams and ham struck again during my first moments in Lisbon.

“We eat our words,” says my friend Pedro who’s shared a lifelong favorite place to eat, O Cacho Dourado, while explaining why the ‘o’s are often lopped off of either end of ‘obrigado’ when some Portuguese say thank you. We also eat carne de porco à alentejana with my lesson in local Portuguese 101.

As opposed to Cal Pep’s take on things, where the flavor the pork fat lends to the dish steals the show, here, it lends subtle depth of flavor, almost like tucking an anchovy or three into a slow-cooked meat dish.

Or, as Pedro puts it, “It keeps it from being boring.”

O Cacho Dourado - MAP
Rua Eca de Queirós, 5
Lisbon
+351.213.543.671

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Friday, October 17, 2008

The Three-Star Challenge

It is a sublime pleasure to realize that you’re in the middle of one the best moments of your life.

Last week over lunch at the Pinotxo food kiosk at Barcelona’s Boqueria market, I smiled so much that I hit a point where I couldn’t speak.

It happened like this…A very good friend and I sat at a pair of Pinotxo’s stools with three years of catching up to do. Beer and Cava are ordered. I recall the time where I spent a day shooting pictures for a story, wedged behind the bar in the galley kitchen and of the incredible meals I’ve eaten here.

Mushrooms appear, wading in an elixir of olive oil, vinegar, garlic and goodness, dusted with big flakes of salt. Did we order those? Is that important? I take a bite and my right leg starts jiggling.
Razor clams show up next, cooked a la plancha (think: screaming hot greaseless griddle), garnished with nothing and drizzled with olive oil that mingles with their liquor, followed by a plate of clams that are cousins of those at Cal Pep.

A roaring crowd mills through the market, and we talk about life, love, family, tragedy and happiness: the floodgates of three years of busy lives in different places burst out onto the bar. The axis of the world shifts to the center point between our stools and our plates.

My favorite Pinotxo dish arrives – baby squid known as xipirones sautéed with tiny white beans. Along with the drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of salt, there’s a swirl of a balsamic glaze that sharpens flavors and adds subtle sweetness. My left leg starts jiggling, independent of its neighbor.

More Cava, more connecting. I can’t stop smiling. If food can bring you to a higher place, I don’t know what that is.

Take all the three-star restaurants and elaborate presentations you want, this is purity in many forms - the center of the universe.

Pinotxo – Mercat San Josep – “La Boqueria” – La Rambla 91 – Barcelona, SPAIN
MAP

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Monday, October 13, 2008

Pork Me

I’m being stalked by pork and shellfish.

Following cockles in meat sauce on the French island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer, fortune smiled on me again by mixing meat and bivalves, this time in Catalonia.

A few days ago at the Barcelona landmark restaurant, Cal Pep, I had tiny clams in white wine, parsley, garlic and … what was it???

Too thick to be olive oil, I asked chef, owner and landmark in his own right Pep Manubens if it was butter (an unlikely candidate in these parts) that gave the sauce such a wonderful texture.

He bristled, recovered, placed a hand on my shoulder and whispered his raspy voice into my half-deaf ear.

“It’s the ham.”

I smirked with pleasure as a larger understanding fluttered down; the little bits of the famous jamon iberico were indeed tasty, but what really contributed the flavor and texture that made me chortle with pleasure was the fat that surrounded the little bits of meat. Giving up the ghost on remaining a solid, the fat surrendered itself to heat and higher purpose, rendering a sauce custom-made to be mopped up with pa amb tomaquet – “tomato bread” rubbed with garlic and coated with olive oil.

Yow. Yow. Yow.

Cal Pep – Placa de les Olles, 8 Barcelona - +34.93.3107961
Map

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