A dinner at El Bulli -- Part I: introduction

This series of posts illustrates a meal that several of us had at El Bulli on August 18, 2009.

Six of us dined together.  Don't ask me how we got our reservations; that's a long, complex story that is someone else's to tell.  And you probably won't be able to get your reservations the same way -- in fact, probability is against anyone getting reservations!  Although being a local, or being a repeat guest, may increase your odds somewhat.

I've arranged these posts so that you can read them in chronological order, rather than the reverse order that would normally show up if I had simply added them in order.

Some other logistics:

• El Bulli is about 2 1/2 hours (perhaps more) from Barcelona by car.  We drove up, with a stop in nearby Figueres to visit the Dali Museum, and then checked into a hotel in the seaside resort of Roses.
  
• The last 10-15 minutes, from Roses to El Bulli is on a narrow, winding road with steep drop-offs.  You really don't want to drive on this road, especially late at night after a lot of wine.  Take a cab.
• Based on the timestamps on my photos, we spent about 5 1/4 hours between arrival and departure; not all of that time was spent at the table.  Fortunately, El Bulli does not follow the standard Spanish practice of opening for dinner at 9PM or later; I think we arrived around 7:30 and were eating before 8pm, and were on our way back to the hotel before 1am.
• Yes, it costs a lot of money.

Many other people have posted photo blogs about their own dinners at El Bulli, including several at

• http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=124701&st=0 

Some of these people seem to have better memories (or better note-taking discipline) than I do, and often better photographic skills.  It doesn't help that I'm finishing this description 3 weeks after the meal, with no notes to rely on. It appears that the menu varies in some details, so you will see a different variety of courses on those blogs.  (I think we were also told that repeat visitors get a different menu.)  And my sense is that sometimes diners get more detailed descriptions of the food as it is served; maybe our server (very helpful) wasn't as forthcoming as some others, or whether we had to ask, or whether I just wasn't paying enough attention, the details here are a bit sketchy.

(Actually, these guys did the best job I've seen, and they mostly had the same courses that we did:

• http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2009/08/dinner_at_el_bu.html

but clearly someone has better artistic and narrative skills than I do.)

A dinner at El Bulli -- Part II: a tour before dinner

Arriving at El Bulli:

Before dinner, we are offered a tour of the kitchen at El Bulli ....


This is the larger room in the kitchen:

This is the smaller room:

 In El Bulli's kitchen, liquid nitrogen plays a role:

Shelves holding some of the variety of dishes the food will be served on:

A dinner at El Bulli -- Part III: aperitifs on the terrace

Before being seated at the more formal dinner table, we started with a variety of aperitifs, served on the terrace.

Views of and from the terrace:

 

  

(the restaurant overlooks a small beach on the Costa Brava ... one way to arrive, I suppose, is to sail up in your yacht and take your dinghy to the beach.  It would certainly make for a safer trip than driving up on the narrow, windy road from Roses.) 

I will list the names of the courses (as shown on the printed menus that we were given at the end of the meal) in bold face -- these are exactly as they were printed on the menu, but sometimes we were given a slightly different name with the food.  In some cases, noted below, the printed menu does not exactly match what we got (as shown by the photos and/or our memories).

We started off with a bottle of Cava (I will list all of the wines, with full details, at the end of the meal ... after this point, I lost track of which bottle was opened when.)

cane: mojito - caipirinha

These were sticks of sugar cane, soaked in rum and mint.  We were told to suck on them, but not to eat the sugar cane.  (As far as we can remember, we did not get two different kinds; all we remember is the mojito version.)

handkerchief

 

This semi-transparent, rather crispy snack was made (apparently) from corn.  Some of the little nodules seemed a lot like corn nuts.   On the left side of the tray is a stack of thin pieces of paper, with which you could grab and break off pieces of the handkerchief without getting your fingers sticky.

coniferous

 

(on the left side of the photo): the small metal flower pot contains some real pine needles -- just for decor -- and some edible "pine needles" that were soft and not at all turpentiney.  I'm not sure whether these were constructed from other ingredients, or whether they were real pine needles that had been processed.

[Not listed on the printed menu]

This is a drink which was not listed on the printed menu -- I think they said it contains gin, yogurt, and honey, but my memory could be wrong.

spherical olives

 

These look like olives ... and taste like olives ... and are made from olives, I guess ... but they are basically just liquid,  barely held together by some magic.  You pick up one of the little spoons and slurp the "olive" off of it.

mimetics peanuts

 

Sorry, I didn't get a close-up picture; these are the little peanut-shaped things on the metal dish in the upper left of the photo.  Somewhat like the "olives", these look somewhat like peanuts (in their shells), and taste a lot like peanuts, but are only barely solid.

sesame cracker

 

Not exactly "crackers" since they were soft and airy.

vanilla chips

cherry umeboshi

 

My memory is a bit weak with these two.  As I recall, they were supposed to be eaten together.  The vanilla chips are transparent and somewhat sweet.  The cherries (as I recall) were real cherries, processed somehow to make them even more cherry-tasting.

After we finished these courses, we were invited inside to take our seats at the dining table.

[Humorous story: during our stay on the terrace, a party of eight happy people ascended the steps from the beach to the terrace to claim their reservation at El Bulli for that evening ... only to be told that they were a day early.  Better than being a day late! and they trouped off, still happy.]

A dinner at El Bulli -- Part IV: the dinner begins

The six of us, before continuing our meal:

coconut sponge

 

Imagine an aerogel made of semi-liquid coconut.  A bit more substantial (and coarser-grained) than a "foam", and you could pick it up (gingerly) with your fingers, but it melted to almost nothing in your mouth, while tasting intensely of coconut.

flower nectar

 

Each of these small flowers was filled with a nectar, sort of a very dilute honey.  Don't eat the flowers, just suck out the nectar.

cornet of nori with raspberry and soya

 

Basically, a raspberry hand-roll.

black sesame sponge cake with miso

 

This was somewhat more substantial than the coconut sponge, but still rather airy.  Tasted intensely of sesame seed, but not oily or bitter.  One of us insisted on a second helping, later in the meal.

oyster leaf with dew of vinegar

 

Basically a leaf with little droplets of vinegar (which held their shape almost until you could eat them ... one of mine popped too soon).  The leaf (apparently, Mertensia maritima) really does taste like an oyster ... sort of.

ham and ginger canapé

 

Thin and slightly crispy strips of Spanish ham, with small chunks of preserved, soft ginger on top.  A nice combination of salty and sweet.

truffle surprise

 

Sorry, I don't remember a lot about this one.  I think the truffles had some sort of liquid center, but I don't recall the flavor as being particularly intense.  This was served with what I believe were dried (perhaps also cooked?) slices of fig.

chervil tea

 

The waiter prepared this table-side, starting with a paste of chervil, then whisking in a liquid (probably water), in each invidividual serving bowl:

Definitely it tasted of chervil, and it was definitely green ... but not something I would insist on being served a second helping of.

prawn two firings

 

Served with little spoons of (I guess) a sort of prawn essence, and then the prawn itself:

 What's interesting about the prawn is that the tail end is soft and perhaps poached, while the head and legs are deep-fried and nicely crispy. 

A dinner at El Bulli -- Part V: the dinner continues

mimetic almond

The things here that look like almonds are ... except that they are various reconstructions of almonds.  Some are transparent almond ice, some are a sort of soft paste, and there are a few real almonds just for variety.   On the left is some sort of fruit (I thought maybe apricot, but another blog says tangerine); on the right is a sort of tomato ice.

cockles with yuzu

Cockles are little shellfish (raw here, I think); yuzu is a tart Japanese citrus; there's some fennel in the middle.

mushroom-CRU with hazelnut

The three large chunks are some sort of mushroom (not quite sure how they were prepared -- they seemed nearly raw, which one would expect from "CRU", except that the all-capitals spelling suggests that something trickier is going on).   The foam is hazelnut and I think the green leaves are cactus.

roses/artichokes

Just very thin artichoke leaves, painstakingly arranged in a rose shape (we saw them doing these during our kitchen tour -- it seemed very tedious).   I can't remember what the sauce was -- maybe miso again?

pumpkin and almond sandwich

This looks just like a bocadillo (a little sandwich sold in Spain as a snack).  However, the "bread" is made of a pumpkin sponge cake, and the filling is almond paste and shaved white truffles.

sea anemone with te

Three little sea anemones, each topped differently (I think).   One definitely has caviar on top; the other two are topped with foam (one is tea, I think).  The other three things are little gelatin "ravioli".

pinenut shabu-shabu

Three little transparent packets (gelatin?) filled with various forms of pinenuts.   One has solid pinenuts in some sort of broth; the other two have different preparations.  Apparently, you're supposed to dip these in the water bowl briefly before eating, but I guess our server wasn't as specific as they come, as some other bloggers were told to dip "for exactly two seconds".


Fresh walnuts

Very young walnuts in a creamy sauce, with some poached(?) endives.

abalone

This was abalone, but with extras.  Some strips of abalone alternate with pork fat (lardo?), on top of a bed of mushrooms, and I think the little black "legs" are actually seaweed.  The whole thing is arranged to look a little like an abalone.

natural scampi

This was split open in its shell and served on a deep bed of rock salt (somewhat of a problem, because if even one grain of salt sticks to the food, it gets very salty!)   The head is replaced by another miso-based cream (if I'm remembering right) and the tail is just perfectly cooked.

parmesan ravioli

 

Ravioli made of gelatin bags, with a parmesan cheese filling.  Served with a little gold pellet, but I've forgotten what's in the pellet.












suckling pig tail

On the left, three little bites of crispy pig skin (very yummy).  On the right, I can't remember much about the broth, but I think it had little cubes of tofu and fruit gelatins.

pond

This dish (which might have been a dessert, although I'm not sure whether there is meant to be a sharp transition -- sort of a palate cleanser) was more remarkable for its preparation than its taste.  The bowl is shallow but made of very thick glass.  I think they must place it upside down in a few millimeters of water, then they freeze the thing solid.  So, when served, it's a sheet of thin ice covering an empty space.   At the table, they then sprinkle green tea powder and raw sugar on the top, and you crack the ice with your spoon and eat the flavored ice shards.

A dinner at El Bulli -- Part VI: desserts

cherry with kirsch

"Cherries" made out of chocolate shells with liquid cherry filling.
 
 

You dip them in the kirsch foam.








coco

 

Arriving at the table, looks like a huge white egg. 

 

The server then cracks it open -- it's hollow inside.

 

The shell is made of coconut, but now instead of the almost weightless foam of the first indoor course, it's firm but still very light -- frozen coconut cream.   You just break off pieces and eat them.  I think the shaker had a curry powder to sprinkle on top.

puff pastry of pineapple

Thin, crispy transparent "pastry" (not really that puffy) with preserved pineapple inside.

roots

I guess this really does look like a plant's roots, from the bottom, with cocoa "dirt" around them.   The yellowish color is fruit, but I can't remember what.

shellfish

At first it looks like we've gotten a plate full of clams, mussels, and lemons on ice.  These really are clam and mussel shells, but they are filled with butter creams, and the lemons are candied. 

And that's the end of the meal, except for:

Morphings ...

 

 

A three-story translucent box that opens up to reveal all sorts of sweets, mostly chocolates with "themes taken from nature."  Even though we were quite full by now, we kept nibbling on these for a while ... I tried a lot of them, but really had to leave a bunch untested.