Speaker, introducing a Spanish chef:
“He’s been named an honorary member of the Anchovy Association.”
Crash cake
“It’s both a dessert and a main dish,” said Oriol Balaguer.
If I said this to you, you would flee, and you’d be right to do so. But Oriol Balaguer, of Barcelona, is a world-class pastry chef, and I am not. He’s talking about his Concept Cake, which I had the pleasure of eating last night. There are many elements to it, only some of which I actually noted, but the premise, from the bottom up, is:
* crunchy crust
* baked apples
* caramelized sugar crust
* cream cheese
* arugula
* white chocolate shards
This sounds like an especially fiery train wreck, but it was so delicious I went back for a second one. Balaguer also makes some unusual chocolates which I can’t describe yet because I’m bringing some back for Laurie and Iris as a surprise.
Pop art
One of the coolest thing I’ve eaten so far here at Worlds of Flav was made by chef Dani GarcÃa of Calima restaurant in Marbella. That’s in Spain. He made an emulsion of olive oil and tomato water and ladled it into a bowl of liquid nitrogen. Before this, he made a guy from the audience come up and put his hand in the liquid nitrogen. I am not volunteering for anything other than ham-tasting.
The tomato-oil mixture freezes immediately, of course, and the chef then pulls it out and breaks it into bite-sized chunks which look exactly like popcorn and taste like, well, olive oil and tomatoes. I highly recommend trying this if you have some liquid nitrogen handy. It’s not just for space-lasers anymore.
Last night we saw a video about calçots, which are a Catalonian delicacy where you take a bundle of leeks (they’re not exactly leeks, but they’re using leeks here as a substitute) and set them over flaming grapevines. The outer layer of the calçot burns, at which point you wrap it in newspaper and let it sit for a while. Then you peel off the outer layer, dip the limp heart in romesco sauce, and eat.
Today we got to eat the calçots. They tasted exactly like burned leeks, plus I kept choking on them. If you are one of my Catalan readers, I’m sure this is the fault of the Californian leeks, and is not intended as anti-calçotism.
Worlds of Flav
If [Ruhlman](http://blog.ruhlman.com/) can do it, I can too. I’m coming to you live from the [Worlds of Flavor](http://www.prochef.com/WOF2006/) conference in the Napa Valley at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, which I always call “Greystoke” and suggest that you do too.
The conference this year is about Spanish food. Right now a guy is on stage making pig’s trotters stuffed with veal. The previous presenter roasted a suckling pig and then, in an allegedly traditional flourish, carved it with the edge of a dinner plate to demonstrate its tenderness. If yesterday is any guide, we will eat these things later.
The CIA is housed in the former Christian Brothers winery, a 19th century stone pile that, everyone has noted, looks exactly like Hogwarts, complete with staircases that probably don’t actually move, but feel to me like they do because I’m afraid of heights.
Here’s how it feels to be at this conference, which consists of basically every food writer I’ve ever heard of and all of Spain’s top chefs (when I first got here, I sat down next to two familiar-looking guys having a conversation; they turned out to be Colman Andrews and Ferran Adrià ), along with hundreds of industry goons looking to enjoy a few days in Napa on the company tab and see what they can turn into products. Not that I’m against this, it’s just that this horde has come between me and the food writers and editors I want to network with. I’m sorry I just said “network.” It’s like being at a rock star convention, but to get to the rock stars you have to plow through a tangle of lawyers and A&R people.
Wow, that trotter is starting to look really good.
Here’s what Iris is up to while I’m gone, according to Laurie:
> This morning she got up at 7:50 and appeared
> behind me as I was catching up on blogs. She saw the photo onscreen and
> said, “Those are chanterelles! Does Dada love chanterelles? You should
> leave it up for Dada.”
Later I will tell you about some of the things I ate. Right now it’s break time and I want to go peer at where they are roasting the leeks over an open fire.
Chocolate chip II
I think I’ve invented the successor to the chocolate chip cookie.
Maybe not. But it’s a great variation. Start with a tub of Trader Joe’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups, as featured recently on Candyblog. I liked them more than she did, and I quickly saw the potential of substituting them for chocolate chips.
My plan went awry, however, because I kept opening the tub, saying, “I should really try making these into cookies,” and then eating a handful. Soon I had no peanut butter cups and no cookies. So I got a new tub, and the results were awesome, by which I mean that I made the cookies and still have a bunch of candy left for snacking.
When you bake the cookies, the peanut butter cups ooze a little and, as Laurie put it, look like they’ve been run over by a truck. But the taste is great. It’s the shortest road to a chocolate peanut butter cookie.
Any other candies I should try? Is there some small chocolate mint candy?