Noma Kyoto October 17, 2024

With the closing of Noma forever slated for 2025, Karrie and I thought it was worth attempting to get tickets to the Noma pop up in Kyoto. So we woke up at 4:55, had a cup of coffee and started the countdown, fingers poised on the trackpad, ready to pounce on any reservation we could find in during the girls’ fall break. We landed on October 17th at lunch and plans for the Opie and CC’s first trip to Japan were set into motion.

We booked a table for two, the girls are not ready for this sort of culinary adventure yet. The restaurant let us know that we’d likely be paired with another couple at our table. We were seated with Neal Fellah and Nicole Adlman and we were relieved to find that Noma takes as much care in their table-mate pairing as they do with their cuisine. Or maybe we just got lucky.

Nicole is a multi-city manager for Eater and Neal is a documentary producer with a focus on food-related stories, although he’s now working on a Butthole Surfers documentary. Good conversation and an (of course) epic meal.

So let’s get into it.

Although the fall colors were JUST starting to poke out from the trees of Kyoto, fall leaves were a running theme through this meal, first starting with the steamed crab, buried under a pile of said fall leaves. Although many leaves were served as not-intended-to-eat garnish, we managed to only eat one forbidden leaf. More on that later.

After we uncovered the crab, it was rich, succulent and surgically prepared. You can see a fine knife cut on the detail below. And in the knuckles they tight-fit thick green onion root whose taste was steamed into the crab.

Served with the crab was a pine brush, used to lather the crab with a delicious, creamy sauce.

Next up was a second crab dish, jellied crab head. Aces for presentation, but fell more into the interesting category for me in terms of texture and taste, especially compared to the perfection of the first crab. The jellies and the “fruit roll ups” of Noma are cool, but never the stand-outs for me.

The next course was small but a destroyer. I’m partial to salmon roe generally, but of course, the Noma team infused their roe with delicate smoke and seasonings. It was extraordinary, and served in a rolled sugarcane leaf that let the shot of perfect salmon roe slide right into your mouth.

We were genuinely excited for the announcement of the next dish – gingko nuts. On our first trip to Tokyo some 20 years ago, we adventured into the unknowns of Tokyo, largely just pointing at things and ham-handedly asking the waiter to take care of us. The lone ingredient that we did not like on that trip was gingko nuts. It’s spectre has remained for over two decades. We’ve tried a few times subsequently and still held to our initial sentiment: we don’t like gingko nuts. I am happy to report that, while a vague remnant of the chalky texture we didn’t like remained, the rich buttery broth and infusion of seasonings and herbs made the impossible possible: these gingko nuts were delicious. Our visit to Noma in Copenhagen introduced us to the their fondness for pine tree accents, the delicious pickled pine tip olives were the second pine accent in the first four dishes, more forest was to come.

The sea snail was of course delicious, and the presentation mighty fine, but the smoky, grilled koji made it special. Koji is a classic japanese seasoning (fermented rice mold) we’ve had before, but never grilled!

This is about the time that the ample wine pairing starts to kick in and the description of what’s in the taco gets a bit fuzzy in my brain. I can say, however, that this little taco was delicious. The Wasabi leaf wrapper was very cool, it had a very mild wasabi flavor but not nearly as strong as the ground root.

Wine pairing list below. Karrie got the NA juice pairing which was also fabulous. As per the norm, we each sampled each other’s pairing flight.

The black “forbidden” rice was another highlight dish for us, an absolutely perfect texture and flavor, rich black rice with on top of a creamy walnut sauce. Allegedly in the olden days, black rice was once considered so rare and delicious that it was reserved exclusively for the Chinese emperor and the ruling classes. Ordinary people were forbidden from consuming it, thus the name “forbidden rice.”

The next dish was a bit of a palate cleanser, a delicious one: paper thin slices of myoga ginger with seaweed in a fermented rice sauce.

Another highlight dish for us, smoky grilled abalone mushrooms were served “dipping noodle” style, with a black truffle and egg dipping sauce. I snapped a picture of the serving dish, the truffles were placed atop a giant wedge of black fungus. Not much left of that egg truffle dipping sauce you will note.

This had the texture of a fruit roll up. You were supposed to peel off the leaf from the actual leaf. Our table ate the whole damned thing. It was tasty although maybe the real leaf was a bit on the fibrous side. Our server was a little shocked. It was paired with the amazing broth below.

Mushrooms and foraged herbs and whatever umami alchemy the Noma team has up their sleeves formed an amazing rich broth. We were instruced to breath in deep with each sip and drink it through the foraged fall leaves. We had a mossy version of this idea at the Copenhagen winter meal a few years ago that was also quite wonderful.

The entre course has arrive: more incredible mushrooms, wild deer, lotus root and a rich mushroom sauce for dipping.

The sweet oyster was an incredibly scuplted confection, a work of art. A candy shell, probably white chocolate based covered an oyster ice cream center, rich, creamy and slightly briny like the sea. Superb.

So besides gingko nuts, the other ingredient I just don’t care for on the planet is chestnuts. I’ve wanted to like them. I’ve roasted them on an open fire, I’ve sampled fine confectioners versions of them, but yet until October 17th, I hadn’t had one that I liked. As if sensing my least favorite two ingredients on the planet, René Redzepi followed up his amazing gingko transformation and also made the chestnut shine for me. Topping the tasty morsels with caviar was icing on the delicious chestnut cake.

The final of the three desserts was my favorite. Creamy balanced with crunchy, sweet mixed with salty peanut and bitter dark chocolate. And, like the oyster before, the peanut was a whimsical piece of art as well.

And that’s it!

How do I rank 2024 Kyoto pop up vs the 2017 Tulum pop up vs. the Copenhagen permanent restaurant? I’d say Tulum 1, Copenhagen 2, and Kyoto 3. But these are almost certainly the three best meals I’ve had in my entire life, so third place ain’t bad.

We are so happy we made the commitment to come out to this particular iteration of the Noma magic. We are going to try to book one more time at the Copenhagen mothership before they close for good in 2025. The world will be just a bit less tasty when that sad day comes. But of course, those who trained under René Redzepi over the years will continue the journey. Who knows, maybe one of those will become my new number one down the pike.

Minibar Septeber 28, 2024

After a 10 year anniversary screening of A GIIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT, I took Ana Lily Amirpour and her boyfriend Yvon to Minibar in downtown Washington DC. This was my first time to this legendary spot and it did not disappoint. The staff was amazing: warm, thoughtful, and consciencous and of course they all were top shelf in terms of delivering a perfect experience.

Mango Mule – slightly effervescent, little mango tapioca pearls

Funyun. Perfect. Whimsical, delicious and filled with an incredibly rich melted cheese

Beet Blini. Melt in your mouth beet crisp topped with cream and caviar. Incredible

Soy Chicharron & Uni. Coming in hot, another showstopper out of the gate

Without a doubt, best croquette of my life. So light, crisp and flavorful

Aonori Taco – sea lettuce taco shell and tuna

Shawarma – filled with chicken skin, light, fluffy yogurt sauce for dippin’

Cauliflower & Caviar, the caviar was frozen, but creamy in the middle. Another delightful surprise

Scallop & Miso, a perfect scallop in a deep rich miso sauce

Pumpkin Tart: served directly onto the tongue after some precise pipette and tweezer preparations

Squab & Huckleberry: the hits keep coming

Frozen Salad, a refreshing pallete cleanser as we move from savory to sweet.

I THINK this was a tea before the dessert assortment, but the wine’s starting to make things fuzzy

Final dessert flurry: Orange Dreamsicle, Honeycomb, Rhubarb Binchotan, Pan de Chocolate

Chocolate & Whiskey. One final bite and we stumbled out the door, fat and happy.

Craft Omakase 1/19/24

4 former Uchiko staffers joined forces for a 12 seat omakase restaurant 2 blocks north of their old home. 22 courses with many fish being dry-aged up to 2 weeks. An extraordinary meal!

Octopus with finger lime. This was sliced off of a VERY large octopus arm with the suckers removed.

Craft’s version of aquachile – pink shrimp, leche de tigre, japanese sweet potato

An extraordinary piece. bluefin tuna dry aged for two weeks. Very rich, amazing.

Scallop with lemon zest, ponzu and akakosho peppers

Snapper with ponzu, shiso and ume (like an apricot)

This piece was really unique as well, ocean trout with a heavy shaking of crispy crunchy furiaki, soy and wasabi

This piece was WILD. One of the best vegetarian sushi bites I’ve ever had. Daikon, shitake, genmaicha (brown rice green tea)

Mackerel with fish sauce and black pepper

Alchemist – September 15, 2023

I was invited to speak at a Scandinavian cinema conference the week before Fantastic Fest. That timing couldn’t be worse. So I said “No … BUT if you can get me a reservation at Alchemist, I’ll come”. Lo and behold they did the impossible, and so, terrible timing be damned, Karrie and I flew out with the kiddos to Copenhagen for a culinary adventure. The table was just for two, so we sent Opie and CC out into Tivoli Gardens for their first big solo adventure while we had our 5 hour epic meal.

The night started with the dramatic opening of some mighty carved wooden doors. Once inside we were told that the first “impression” was behind the thick grey curtain behind us. Impression is their word for the (mostly food) experiences.

Impression #1 (and #2): Act I
The night started out in an awesome awkward way, a bedazzled dancer in full body tights pranced about us, encouraged us to dance together, and offered us our first bite. I was too uncomfortable to video or shoot photos of the dancer, a fear for which I was ridiculed during Impression #2. Or is it #3? I think I’m calling dancing and paper-thin chocolate wafers two impressions. From there we were guided into the lounge for Impressions 3 and beyond.

wafer-thin chocolates post wonderfully awkward dancing (ours not hers)

We were seated next to the first of two open kitchens where an army of chefs with tweezers and heat guns were finishing and plating the impressions to come. This kitchen space was a stunning art piece in and of itself. The jars on the back wall are inspiration and occasional ingredients. This space is the lab kitchen when dinner isn’t being served. When hired, each staff member brings a flavor from their past or their home country to share with the team. And. for the pairing, unsurprisingly, we chose the experimental flight with not just wine but a variety of interesting beverage directions.

Next up, we ordered cocktails and the drink pairing for the rest of the night. There was a pretty rad medieval-diagram-looking dial on a tablet for choosing and explaining options, both for their drink pairings and the 10,000 bottle 3 story wine cellar (see below). We opted for two cocktails, the Hunt and the Gooseberry Breeze. I couldn’t pass up the Hunt, as one of the ingredients was distilled rabbit ears. It did have a gamey, meaty taste in a pleasant way.

Distilled rabbit ears. The ears in the distilate or more for show. They are truly distilled, not just infused.

Impression #3: Daisy
A delightful cocktail, drank like a creamy, airy shot, bright lemon verbena with some sort of membrane to create surface tension. Once consumed, the flower cups nest in a very attractive vase. Delicious and beautiful!

Impression #4: Smokey Ball
Delicate gluten pastry ball filled with smoke and topped with cream and Osetra caviar. Delicious! Maybe my favorite caviar dish of all time?

Impression #5 Dumpling
This one was one of Karrie’s early favorites. The dumpling wrapper was was crafted out of spun fibers, something akin to cotton candy but not that sweet, only slightly sweet. That sweetness was counterbalanced with bok choy and Thai chili sauce.

Impression #6: Omelette
OK, this one was really insane. The egg is blown out, and the egg membrane is peeled away from the shell and treated in some mysterious way to make it more flexible and durable. A really decadent, fluffy truffle, black pepper, and egg cream is tempered and four different temperatures before being injected back into the membrane. This little sucker is perfectly warm, gooey, and, holy smokes, damned tasty. And you could safely pick up the little oval and pop it into your mouth without it breaking.

Impression #7: Sunburnt Bikini
A variation on a typical Spanish tapa with cheese and ham. This one was a mochi exterior with warm gruyere and premium jamon serrano. The hits keep coming.

Impression #8: Sea Buckthorn Tonic
A frozen gin and tonic served at -30 Celsius. A fun little palate cleanser before heading to the next room for the big show.

This was the last dish in the bar. We were escorted first into the truly impressive three-story wine cellar and then seated in the main dining room, the famous audio-visual show stopper.

Impression #9: Double Trouble
In many dishes, Alchemist focuses on ways to eat invasive species as well as sustainably use traditionally discarded portions of ingredients. For this dish, slices of raw invasive moon jellyfish and combined with rosa rugosa oil made from the non-native plant currently taking over the Danish coastline. Topped with fish sauce, green chilies, gyokuro tea, and beach herbs. And by the way, Alchemist’s plateware game is on point. As you can see over chef Munk’s shoulder, we’ve entered the main eating arena, a huge room with a star of tables at the edge. The ceiling is a 360-degree massive dome filled with a rotation of video projections that mirror the food in front of you. The video below is the first transition, from fish scales to jellyfish. We were also served a really beautifully presented matcha tea to gently start things off before the eating frenzy truly began.

Owner and chef Rasmus Munk explaining Double Trouble

The little light I move away is used to keep the room dim to not wash out video but your food lit.

Impression 10: 1984
Plateware going to 11 on this one, inspired by George Orwell’s book and our current political environment. This is the moment where ol’ Rasmus started to wear his politics on his heavy-handed sleeve. But it’s fun and tasty, so we were in. The stone eyeball bowl had a deep cup cut in for the pupil, filled with white asparagus juice, pistachios, and raw hamachi, it is topped with caviar and a fish eye gel. We were told to dig deep and get a bit of each. We did.

Impression #12: Space Bread
The Alchemist food lab partners with various scientific and government organizations. For this dish, they partnered with NASA to study gastronomy in space. This dish features a bread that does not need to be baked. Vegetable leftovers & milk proteins are aerated and then infused with an aroma of sourdough bread and freeze-dried. To make it super tasty, it was topped with a heaping portion of caviar. It did serve as the perfect caviar receptacle!

Impression #13: Lobster Claw
#13 is Alchemist’s version of a lobster roll. Danish lobster coated in a crispy cornstarch batter (the roll) with a smoked butter and horseradish dipping sauce. Around this time we had a truly extraordinary sake. I need to try to track this one down…

Impression #14 Marine Invaders
A crispy shell made from a caramelized boullion of invasive Danish beach crabs covering a creamy layer of pureed invasive Faroe Islands sea urchin mixed with whole sea urchin. Very, very, very, very tasty.

Impression #15 Plastic Fantastic
Chef Munk’s direct political statements are on proud (and tasty) display with #15. A cod jaw is topped with a dehydrated bouillon of cod skin, “fish plastic” and delivered to the table with the message that 60% of ocean fish have microplastics stuck in their digestive system. But this plastic was mighty tasty, maybe because it was brushed with smoked bone marrow. We also learned at around this time that the restaurant buys whole fish, takes the jawbone or whatever morsel they are using for the paying customers’ menus, and then uses the rest of the fish for the meal that they serve to the homeless. They do this with a wide variety of the menu items that they are serving.

Empty cod cheekbone with the goodness sucked off it.

Impression #16: King Crab
A king crab body was presented to showcase the huge body of the crab that is currently thrown away after harvesting crabs. The Alchemist crab “loaf” had an exterior that mimicked the look of crab shell with an interior made with the meat from the nooks and crannies of the body. This came with a smoked butter and Asian citrus dipping sauce.

Impression #17: Hunger
Cured fillet of rabbit with harissa sauce and Nordic herbs. Although this certainly was a grade A presentation, it was not our favorite dish. The dish was presented with the message that 25,000 children are dying of hunger every day. Rabbits could be a part of the solution – they can exist worldwide and of course, reproduce like rabbits. With this course, we were also served a dry hopped orchid kombucha.

Impression #18: Don’t Waste Your Breath
Another sustainability message from Chef Munk. Thin slices of pig windpipe pressure-cooked with chili sauce and wasabi flowers. We both really dug this, similar in look and feel to calamari.

Impression #19: Burnout Chicken
You begin by freeing the chicken from the cage to show that you understand the cruelty associated with the commercial poultry industry. But on to the food… The dish is served on an actual chicken foot (that you don’t eat). The end is coated in poached chicken and shrimp, glazed with tamarind and that is coated in crispy potato bits. This was another really yummy one.

Impression #20: Soup on a Sausage Peg
Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s 1858 short story “Soup on a Sausage Peg.” In the story, mice are enjoying a feast of moldy bread and contemplating the phrase “make soup from a sausage peg” they’ve heard humans say. The mouse king challenges his subjects to figure out the recipe of how to make something out of nothing. Anyhow, the dish features cultivated moldy bread inspired by Mugaritz’s Andoni Luis Aduriz’s Moldy Apple (the inspiration for this blog!). The Hans Christian Anderson Silhouette is made of herbs. A broth of beef and jamon serrano is poured over the silhouette to create a deep, rich, delicous soup.

Impression 21: Airy Bread
A little flower of jamon serrano on the most delicate slice of bread. Popped in the mouth all in one bite. Delicious. Served with a barrel-aged Belgian red ale.

Impression #22: Tongue Kiss
An incredible bit of cutlery topped with a delicious mix of yuzu, finger lime, wasabi flower toasted sourdough, and shizu. So tasty, we sucked the tongue clean. A woman to our right had to steel herself to put this in her mouth.

Impression #23: Lithophane
3D printed savory Jerusalem artichoke dip with delicate crackers. If they can’t find your face online, they give you Frieda Kahlo or something like that. They could have chosen a much stranger photo for me. Thankfully they played it straight. This version of me was tasty.

Impression #24: Food For Thought
Best serviceware of the night! Since the mad cow disease outbreak in the 80s (note humans can’t get mad cow disease), brains are illegal to serve in England and other European countries. Chef’s message: bring back brains! These steamed lamb brains over brioche were quite tasty indeed. Food for thought was also served with an extraordinary 1973 Madeira, aged in barrels for a LONG time (decades) before bottling.

Impression #25: Cheers
We were not allowed to take a photo of the cheers moment, but the lights went out and all of our drinks were bioluminescent, powered by jellyfish!

Impression #26: Reflection
The first of the many, many (seven precisely) desserts was some sort of musing on identity and technology, the ceiling was full of tech, recent news with some monitors featuring live feeds from the restaurant. The treat was a super-thin blackcurrant sheet with ice cream and a thin sort of graham cracker. Some people were receiving 1984 in the dining room while. we received Reflection, the ceiling worked for both.

Impression #27: Andy Warhol
#27 was a super yummy dish. It was one of the originals since they first opened in their former 15-seat tiny restaurant. Bursting with flavor, Andy Warhol was a chocolate shell filled with an intense banana cream.

Impression #28: Lifeline
I appreciated the beauty of this one, but like Hunger, it turns out pig blood ice cream on pig blood ganache is not my absolute favorite. Created to raise awareness about the importance of blood donations, Lifeline is a blood drop of ice cream where pig’s blood replaces eggs and acts as an emulsifier. It is filled with blueberry jam and a “ganache” made of pig’s blood, deer blood garum, and juniper oil. It’s all served on a plate with a QR code leading to the official page to sign up as a blood donor in Denmark. Fun, but taste-wise…. challenging. That said, it was served with. a delicious pine nut liqueur, so that helped.

Impression #29: Guilty Pleasure
A little chocolate bar shaped like a coffin that reminds you that most of the mass-produced chocolate we eat is produced by slaves with attrocious working conditions.

Guilty Pleasure was the last impression in the dining theater. We were escorted into a bright white stark room and asked to take off our shoes and jump into the room next door. I dove. We were fully embracing the request to play around in this strange room when, after a couple of minutes solo…

Impression #30: Ball Pit
Impression 30 came to life. There was a staff member hiding beneath the surface of the balls who came out to play with us. This is a rather singular career, but she was really good at playing in a ball pit, so worthy of the challenge. I’m very glad my dive didn’t land me right on top of her!

After the ball pit adventure, we were then toured through the kitchen to see their elaborate kitchen automation and nerve center for the main service.

Diagram in the kitchen of the table layout and the assigned service staff.

Color-coded tracker of all dishes of the night.

In front, 4 brains waiting to be stuffed.

After the tour, we were escorted. to the bar overlooking the backside of the dining AV dome. This space truly embodied the Danish Hygge sensibility, dim and cozy, a place we could hang out and chat for a long time. We loved it up there. Karrie had one of the finest tea services of her life while I had a wonderfully rich (and NOT over-roasted – they were emphatic about that) coffee, followed by 3 more desserts. and one more parting cocktail.

Impression #31: Amber
Bit out of focus, sorry. Must be the drink pairing. Chef Rasmus used to collect amber on the coasts of Jutland as a child. To see if it was amber and not glass or stone, he had to bite it to see if his teeth made a mark. Red wood ants are trapped in this honey ginger version of amber.

Impression #32: Cubic Margarita
Alchemist has a serious frozen cocktail game. A bright little moment, perfect margarita balance but in a frozen block that your teeth just slid through.

Impression #33 In a Nutshell
striated caramelized milk and cocoa crisp draped over hazelnut ice cream. As you might expect, delicious.

Impression #34: Tarte Tartin
A rather delicious caramel apple tart built to evoke the wonderful lamps that were illuminating the room.

The lights that inspired the tarte tartine

Impression #35: Exit
Whoops, failed to take a photo of the last impression. This was a black room with 100s of words that people have used to describe Alchemist over the years online, in reviews and conversations overheard by tthe chef. From pretentious and overpriced to magical and transcendent, you were asked to read and reflect on what resonated with the last five hours of your life.

For us, well worth the price and a magical journey we will never forget.

The Lazy Bear San Francisco – November 16, 2022

The Lazy Bear was truly an extraordinary experience. Everyone on the service team was wonderful, made us feel welcome and relaxed, and delivered one of the best culinary experiences I’ve had in recent memory. From the moment we entered the space and even with every online interaction before we arrived, I felt calm, warm, and relaxed. But In coul also sense the skill and craftsmanship in everyone we encountered. The kitchen was open and we were seated adjacent to the action. There was a calm precision to the fifteen or so chefs working each station.

The culinary experience started off with a very unique locally-foraged tea, from cypress tips to a variety of unique herbs, the steeped broth was woodsy, crisp, refreshing and totally unique. I’ve never had anything similar and have a hard time putting the taste into words.

Wow, these were incredible eggs. Warm whipped eggs infused with bacon, chopped chives on the top, and on the bottom, they layered a not-too-sweet maple crunch that really tied it all together. Spectacular!

Next up was their interpretation of a seafood tower. A solid tuna tartar in an earthy cup, a big, salty oyster with a lemon creme foam, and an incredibly rich plate of scallops.

The following course was a standout for me. A beautifully seasoned beef tartar that was served with warm, thin buns to create wickedly rich tartar tacos.

Beautiful California caviar with sliced radishes.

One of my favorite ingredients, and this was an incredible expression of said ingredient, Santa Barbara uni atop a rich mushroom farro.

The uni was paired with a cup of mushroom and herb broth that I wanted to last forever. It was so rich and had so much umami punch that I almost wanted to cry because I wasn’t going to be able to drink it every day for the rest of my life.

A delightful, perfect sourdough and butter came next.

And the bread was just what we needed to sop up the squash puree with seared red pepper.

The final savory dish was a perfectly cooked pork chop center along with a rich, buttery potato pie.

A showstopper dessert, a decadent blend of ice cream, foam, persimmon, and pecan crumble.

The final sweet was a macaron with a light meringue top. The desserts were paired with three different expressions of Chateau d’Yquem Sauterne, arguably the greatest sauterne house on the planet. We had small glasses of a recent vintage, one with 10 years of aging, and another with 20. Each was very different, and of course each was tasty.

As a parting gift, we both received a to-go bottle of cold brew for the morning along with a piece of banana bread.

Noah also received a card signed by every member of the 25 person team, congratulating him on the premiere of Blood Relatives.

Everything about this night was wonderful. I can’t wait to bring Karrie on our next SF adventure!

Beckon, Denver – November 19, 2022

I hit the road with filmmaker Noah Segan in November to host screenings of his film BLOOD RELATIVES at various Alamo Drafthouse locations across the country. This allowed me to visit several theaters I hadn’t visited since before COVID and promote both Fantastic Fest and Noah’s film. But the trip also gave me the chance to eat beautiful things with Noah at a handful of top-tier restaurants. In Denver, we headed to Beckon for the first time, a compact chef’s counter tasting-menu experience with an open kitchen. Their seasonal winter menu featured some of my favorite things: caviar, white truffles, and scallops. Perhaps not quite up to the epic experience we had at Lazy Bear in San Francisco, but all in all a lovely experience. I’d happily return!

The night started with a plate of snacks: a pomegranate, green tea and ginger spritzer, a delicious bite of Futsu squash and honey, a canape with chickpeas and garden herbs, and a small delicate pastry cup with wagyu, horseradish and Pea tendrils.

Next up were thin slices of yellowtail in tomato water with New Zealand spinach.

Thin slices of turnip, bronze fennel, and caviar.

An extraordinary course was next, perfectly seared diver scallop, winter radish, and farro.

Quail breast and leg with kale and sunflower seeds.

I tried to distract the server to maximize my portion of white truffles sliced over the top of the rich polenta. This was an add-on to the standard tasting experience. Apparently, particularly flavorful truffles had arrived that morning.

Venison with a crispy, buttery square of Yukon Gold potatoes and razor-thin slices of Matsutake Mushrooms.

I broke my low-carb lifestyle to devour delicate rolls with house-made whipped butter and sop up every drop of the sauces of the three savory mains and the bonus polenta.

After the the final savory venison, they brought out a perfect palette cleanser, not-too-sweet white chocolate ice cream with a refreshing apple granita.

Pear mouse with a buckwheat wafer crumble and celeriac ice cream. Again, not too sweet, this was a perfect dessert with beautiful, unique flavors and a nice mix of textures.

The final dessert was a trio of baby cream puffs, house-made gummy candies and a decadent dark chocolate covered honeycomb. I paired it with an amaro/coffee cocktail and we bundled up and briskly walked the 3/4 milie back to the Hotel Catbird.

Hisop Barcelona – August 12, 2022

On our last night of the trip, we took OP and CC out to another fancy spot, Chef Oriol Ivern tiny 1 Michelin star Catalan restaurant. Once again, the chef emailed us back to let us know that they can accommodate kiddos, they do a simplified version of any of their fish and meat courses served with rice. The girls ate and loved the grilled lamb and roasted poularde chicken (a young bird that is fattened with a rich diet) and sampled quite a few of our tasting menu dishes. Another fancy meal with the girls. This is a fabulous new step for us as a family. We love sharing these experiences with them and look forward to many more!

Olive oil and bread gets pretty high-end in Spain. The green was from Cordoba, need to ask Javi about it!

Second amuse, sardine sausage fennel and wasabi

Scorpionfish “a la presse” with potatoes

Catalan cheeses. CC ate and enjoyed all but the bleu!

A rather extraordinary funky Catalan dessert wine. Already checked, can’t get it shipped to the states, alas.

Hotel Casa Cacao Girona – August 10, 2022

We surprised the girls with a stay at the Casa Cacao, the chocolate-themed hotel by the legendary Roca brothers, the culinary force of Girona and founders of the famed Michellin two-star El Celler de Can Roca restaurant. A night’s stay comes with a chocolate-heavy tasting brunch, which was quite spectacular, but a decidedly heavy way to start the day. Photos below!

And a cup of creamy, thick cold chocolate.

Les Cols with the girls – August 6, 2022

Les Cols is a Michelin Two-Star restaurant built on the ground floor of the 15th-century Masia (ancient Catalan country farmhouse) in which chef Fina Puigdevall grew up. The restaurant is surrounded by vegetable gardens and a chicken coop that provides ingredients for the extremely local meal she offers.

We started with champagne and a series of canapes in the garden.

We moved into the kitchen to meet the chefs and continued with more canapes. Here are warm buckwheat and corn profiteroles.

And the second kitchen canape, corn sorbet on corn crackers

While in the kitchen, we had more sparkling wine, while the girls were treated to raisin juice.

We also got a tour of the rest of the facility, including this wonderful wine cellar with a revolving glass door.

Back to the private room for more small dishes, zucchini flower atop cucumber “cake.”

Potatoes served two ways in a deep, rich beef broth. One of the girls’ faves.

Cucumber jelly topped with fresh cucumber

Rich vegetable broth heated tableside with hot volcanic rocks. The girls both enjoyed this course too.

With the soup came a bit of cured eel that the girls enjoyed, tasted very similar to perfect bacon. The girls liked this dish too.

The salad course – herbs and salad greens with three explosive and distinctly different olive dips.

White beans, pig trotter and hot pepper oil

Crayfish salad with eel with salmon roe and basil sorbet

Tomato juice bloody mary, a delicate crisp shell with an explosion of tomato juice on the inside

Tomatoes from the garden, the olives were spheres of intense olive liquid, olive oil at the base, and a nearly-liquid creamy cheese.

Lamb’s liver and sweetbread, sheeps milk, wool thyme

when the lamb jus was drizzled overtop the cotton candy “wool” dissolved.

Served with a rich sheep’s milk/cheese sauce for dipping.

Cod three ways, fillet, brandade, kokotxa (cod cheeks in garlic and parsley)

Duroc pork rib with peach, mint, hot pepper, and acorn

The next course transitioned into dessert. We went hard with the selection of Catalan cheeses.

And mine. CC tried and liked ALL SIX of these cheeses. Even the strongest of all the cheeses available (5th on this plate from the left).

The desserts leaned vegetal. This is Carrot prepared several ways, with carrot ice cream being the star.

Apricot, candied apricot “pit,” elderflower and vanilla ice cream

Iced cake with cream, pine nuts and cava slush

Logs were placed on the table, laden with vegetable marshmallows, macarons, and candies.

And last but not least a delicious chocolate bar with a note from the chef inside. Unsurprisingly, chocoholic Opie loved this finale!

All in all, a wonderful experience. The best aspect by far was how warm and accommodating the team was towards the girls. They allowed them to try anything from the tasting menu and augmented their meal with steak, fries, and pasta with tomato sauce. Even for dessert, they brought out additional desserts for the girls. CC had fresh strawberry ice cream (below). All 7 of us left very full and very happy.