Macarons; will they ever stop being so hot right now?

Taking a look through the basement food courtia of one of the vast department stores we happened across these babies.



Truffle macarons. Awesome!!!

Crisp shell, slightly sweet, then a head full of truffle funk. More addictive than smack. We stopped by on the way back through Seoul and picked up a few more to bring home....half of them never made it out of the country.

Mid-day Moo Menu at the Omm, Barcelona Spain

Moo Restaurant in the Omm hotel, something a little bit fancy. This 1 Michelin star Gastronomic Restaurant offers a range of tasting menus, but the Mid-day Moo at 45€ is unbeatable! We are super eager, and arrive a little early. We are taken through to the Moovida lounge and offered a drink ... well, it's 11:40am, don't mind if we do. I have a Cava cocktail, & Kim a Hendricks tonic concoction. A little plate of crisps is placed on the table, and disappears in no time.



The mid-day menu menu starts with a progression of appetisers. The first amuse bouche include a mushroom cream, truffled cookie, cheese gougeres and nut bread.



Rabbit with orange & red shiso is the next thing to excite our palate. A little brick of tender, white rabbit meat, with an intense orange reduction, lightly blanched Spring vegetables and baby shiso leaf. There is also a fluff with all the same flavours.



Truffle rock ... arrives to the table and looks amazing. There's a flick of bronze paint, and a black 'rock' sitting on some shining little pebbles.



After we look at it in awe for a while, it is gently cracked open with a fork. It's a very light candy coating, painted with truffle, with a salty, decadent and unctuous cream contained inside. As pleasing on the palate as it was intriguing on the eye.



Foie = ♥. Foie with strawberries is all about textures... There is a smooth foie mousse on the bottom, but with a chunk of fresh foie on top. Strawberries come in the form of jelly, fresh & flakes of the dried fruit. Cracked pepper and a few borage flowers complete the dish.



The next bowl reminds me of a record .... no tunes to be spun, just our taste buds out of control again! Razor clam meat, pork, fresh green baby broad beans, fresh herbs & a bread crisp.



The plate of salt cod is possibly the finest example of this fish we tried in Spain (and we ate a fair bit of it!). The fish was so moist and silky, but still with the salty taste-of-the-sea. The smoked rice, oh wow. So .. much .. flavour! A simple sprinkling again of the little flowers, and a few chive batons finish this delightful fish dish off.



Ah, things served on a piece of slate are just so cool ... A piece of seared white fish with Spring greens. The Spring greens are so vibrant, and again all about the textures. There is a green pea flan, pieces of raw green apple, snow pea shoots and fresh peas and beans.



The food just keeps on coming, which we certainly aren't complaining about, especially when it's suckling pig. A slab of pig, with an earth-shattering crackle and some fresh green leaves.



The dessert is a beautiful ice bowl filled with deep, red fruits. There are some pieces of cake, and a goat's milk ice-cream and a red-berry perfume is poured at the table.



The mid-day Moo menu included mineral water, a glass of wine, and coffee which is accompanied by a little plate of petit fors.



.... and just when we think this amazing, 1 Michelin star lunch extravaganza is over, our server appears back at the table with a box of handmade chocolates. We pick 2 of each, of course;)

This lunch was amazing, if we had more time, or even 1 free night, for the rest of our stay, we would have loved to get back there for dinner.

Hotel Omm
Rosselló 265
08008 Barcelona, Spain
T: +34 93 445 40 00

Monday to Saturday 1:30-4pm and 8:30-11pm
Closed In August


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Whipping up breakfast in Barcelona

We were very lucky to have a little apartment in Barcelona with a well equiped kitchen, and even a teeny-tiny little balcony that opened up and looked out onto Las Ramblas. When we arrived, it was coming into Easter weekend ... We were fortunate enough to think that through, and ventured out on Saturday to stock the fridge. What we hauled home you'd think the easter holidays ran for a whole week, and that we were feeding 7 people, but that's beside the point.

We barely make it through the afternoon before we crack into the stash. Chickpeas that are in a rich tomato & herb liquid, pepperdews filled with cheese & some baby chorizos along with a slab of pure honeycomb and an artesian goat's cheese.

Sunday is for sleeping in, as well as big hearty home-cooked breakfasts! We fry a few eggs and place them on some toasted sliced bread, along with some trompet & morel mushrooms which we have simply sauteed in butter and some little fried pork sausages. Oh, what a surprise these were! Tiny little chipolata's that were specked with fresh black truffle. A very decadent breakfast indeed ...

Tapaç24, Barcelona

On our first visit to Tapaç24 (yes, there will be more posts to come) it was our first realization that Easter weekend in Barcelona means not to many places will be open ... We headed over the the L'Example district with our maps marked of coffee shops, providores and lunch spots. It was early, but upon wandering around it looked as though the whole town had closed up shop for the entire weekend ... After about half a dozen failed attempts at finding anything, we decide to try our luck over by Paseo de Gracia. As we turned the corner, the big glass doors plastered in the words "TAPAS 24" were open, and lights were beaming through onto the street.



It's here my walk turned more into a skip, the excitement to much for me to handle ... I know we were probably only wandering around for an hour and a half, but the prospect of not finding somewhere to eat, let alone have a coffee was frightening. We run in and perch at the counter and order 2 cafe solo before you can even say Beunas.



It's not even lunch time yet, so this is just a mere mid-morning snack. I pick a flauta with chorizo from the counter.



and we also order the Bikini24. This is perhaps one of the finest examples of a toasted ham & cheese sandwich. Spanish jamon, cheese & a hint of truffle sandwiched in slices of crustless white bread that has been lathered with butter - cut in little bikini triangles. Yum!



We're still going on our cafe solo's, which have to be a whopping 60-70ml, so choose a pastry from the counter as well. Not to sure what it was, but am certain it was delicious. Crispy sweet pastry with a custard cream in the centre doused in icing sugar.



At least if nothing else opens over the Easter Weekend we know we can come back here ...

TapaÇ24
Open 8am-Midnight
Diputacio 269, Barcelona 08007
(near Paseo de Gracia)
Tel: +34 934 880 977

Indulging in cheese with truffle honey

Wandering past a little local food shop, we pop our heads in for a look. Something that caught my attention immediately was a slab of full-cream buffalo milk cheese. It was a large log of cheese, encased in a camembert like rind, with the creamy, gooey innards barely able to contain themselves within the cheese, just wanting to ooze out all over the place. We thought it was only right to take the whole piece, as we couldn't bear seeing it be cut .... so, armed with about half a kilo of buffalo milk cheese, after looking around the shop, we found a jar of white truffle infused honey, the perfect accompaniment !!



And 4 of us polishing this off in one session, indeed indulgent and gluttonous, but oh so damn delicious.

Frienze; A tale of four breakfasts: part 2

Well, happy with our little art cafe find we continued our wandering towards the central markets, then another side street and another glimpse of a possible something. Two old men and a puppet sitting either side of a doorway enjoying not-coffee at this early hour but a glass of wine.



We walked past and looked in a few more old men standing at the bar drinking, well we had heard that the traditional breakfast for the Fiorentini gentleman was the legendary tripe sandwich, so we decided to see if these Fiorentini knew where we could get one. In we went and in our best smashed Italian asked for the lampredotto, the guy behind the counter said something (that's the problem of only knowing a few words of a foreign language, people tend answer back with more than you know of the same language) and disappeared around the corner a few moments later he was back and some more was said, we were kinda like uuhh ok when a voice from behind us said "He says it won't be ready till 12 o'clock, where are you from?" Surprised we turned to address the elderly dude sitting in the corner.



His name was Max, we talked about Aus and living in Japan, he had been to both, he told us the traditional breakfast was and espresso, we said we'd already had one "so let me buy you a wine then" was the response. Sure why not a glass was produced and since we were here we had a little browse of the extensive crostini cabinet and selected a Nduja and butter crostini and a little bun with slices of fresh truffle and butter (YUM!!) as we were looking came Max's voice over our shoulder "let me be reminding you I'll buy you a wine but that is all" Heh heh yeah no worries Max.



We sat and talked for a while, enjoyed tasty snacks and good wine, soon we had to move on in search of the Lampredotto we said our goodbyes and made to pay, but a few words from Max and the barman said it was all taken care of. Really? Thanks Max!

Breakfast number 2 and yet another promotion for walking down strange alleys.
And later on that day when we stopped back in to a wee five oclock snacky we had the opportunity to do the supprising, a young Japanese guy looking for chicken liver crostini was super suprised to being spoken to in Japanese in a little out of the way osteria in Florence.

The truffle madness begins.

On our first night in Tuscany we began our ridiculious attempt to scent ourselves from the inside out with truffles. Crostini of Lardo with truffled honey, and crostini of taleggio with fresh truffle was a great way to start.



How could we be in a new place for all of five minutes and already feel content??