TheModoc

Hi Maribel, Jenn & eks - we took our trip out to Jabugo with our rental car from Seville. It's a little more than an hour's drive through very pretty countryside with few other drivers. The group was full (11 or 15, I forget which) and we had a nice guided tour followed by a great sit-down with white sherry wine and a 3x3 sampler of the amazing Iberico set apart by the cut. It was a great experience! It might have been nice to take the extended tour and see the actual pigs - they lead a pretty charmed life (well, right up to the end that is).

ekscrunchy

That sounds terrific. I always thought of Huelva/Jabugo as very far away from anyplace I might be staying...happy to hear it is so close to Sevilla. That tour sounds very interesting.

Maribel: 5Jotas is considered the "best" jamón Iberico? Are there others in the top rank? I do notice that when restaurants offer jamon, they often specify 5Jotas..
I had a hairdresser in NYC years ago who was from Madrid. She got caught at JFK with an entire leg in her suitcase!!! (Don't know if it was 5Jotas!). Can you really tell the difference in taste between that and other brands? When I go to the markets, there are so many types at the jamon stands....it's fascinating.

Maribel

JOSELITO GRAN RESERVA is often considered the king of jamón ibérico.
Not all top restaurants serve 5Jotas;
some serve JOSELITO from Guijuelo, Salamanca;
my favorite pintxos bar in Donostia, Casa Urola (where I'm headed tomorrow) serves CARRASCO, other top restaurants serve MONTE NEVADO, BLÁZQUEZ, ARTURO SÁNCHEZ (whose pigs do a "doble montanera").

When in Córdoba, you may find that restaurants serve COVAP, which is the D.O.P. pata negra from Pedroches, since restaurants there tend to be loyal to the local product.

BYW, ekscrunchy, I was in my local Sánchez Romero supermarket yesterday (a gourmet heaven) and they sell Sanchez Romero de Carvajal exclusively. They also are selling percebes at 300 euros/kilo!

natylou

OMG that puts into perspective what we thought was a high price for a seafood feast on the coast near Porto. Percebes and half a dozen other creatures we had never seen before were on that tower.

ekscrunchy

Two questions:

1. Does anyone here so love perceives that they are willing to pay high prices?

2. When I was in Galicia briefly, many years ago, they served wild, fresh anguillas. The ones that are served today in restaurants, are these wild or are they conservas? I've tasted both of these--the percebes and the anguillas--but so long ago I don't remember.

shelemm

Eels are served fresh mostly; I have never come across preserved eels (not that it doesn't exist). However, your question begs another: do you mean farm-raised? The normal dichotomy would be wild vs farm-raised. Eels are definitely a product of aquaculture, though of course they can be caught in the wild. Perhaps you meant cultivadas and not conservas.

Maribel

Did you mean anguilas or angulas (elvers)
There is a classic dish of Valencia prepared with anguila, all i pebre, typical of the Albufera.

We are now here in Donostia for Tamborrada and angulas up until this year were a classic dish served at the Sociedades Gastronómicos (txokos) for the dinner preceding the beginning of Tamborrada at midnight. But they are on the verge of extinction and many of the Michelin starred chefs here have declined to serve them this year on their menus. Will soon see if the txokos include them on their Tamborrada menus, but I can tell you that the price at the markets here today is 285 euros a kilo. I can’ t imagine the price at Rafa in Madrid!
BTW, carabineros here are priced at 160 a kilo.

About the price of percebes,
This market is the most expensive in Spain. We visit not to shop daily but to look, as they have a wonderful cheese selection that I don’t find at my Alcampo. And Sánchez Romero is only in Madrid and in the very exclusive barrios and suburbs (not mine!).

We noticed in the Algarve that the seafood prices, including perceves, were significantly lower than on the Cantabrian Sea.
We wanted to have perceves in Vila do Obispo, the “perceves capital” but they aren’t available after the perceves festival in October until the early spring. They are strictly controlled , each percebeiro being allowed so many kilos per day, and in winter the harvesting would be exceedingly more dangerous on the rocky cliffs of the Costa Vicentina.
Here ‘s an article about perceves harvesting in the Algarve.
https://www.secretplaces.es/blog/per...erous-delicacy

Maribel

And the price of carabineros (scarlet prawns) here is 160 euros a kilo.

ekscrunchy

Schellem, I meant conservas, canned tiny baby eels, which as Maribel clarifies, are "angels," like these:

https://productosdegalicia.com/conse...-de-oliva.html

I had assumed that these were wild, as were the ones I had many years ago in Galicia. Since Maribel speaks about the possibility of extinction, it appears that they ARE wild.
In the bowl they look like tiny gray vermicelli, but shorter in length. I wonder if the fact that they are endangered would also limit the supply of the tinned ones. (??).

Maribel, thank you for the article about percebes. I remember that back when we did that one-week (!!) drive from Santiago de C to Santander (only had limited time cause partner was still working, we veered off the main road near Cedeira because I had read an article about a tiny village that (or so the article said) that as THE center for collecting the barnacles. Of course, we did not see any hint of this (from the car!!) but I did become interested in perches way back then..... I tried them for the first (and maybe the only) time, in Cudillero on that same trip, when we stayed in that village overnight. Unfortunately, that was before I made the acquaintance with Maribel that has truly changed my life as far as food and travel!

I will surely sample them again in O'Grove, where we (hopefully) will have the lunch at D'Berto that I am already dreaming about! I do wish we could find a few additional people to join us there, so I could try a good selection of seafood. As you know, Maribel, the dining partner will not be much help here; as you surmise, he will be ordering steak!!

Maribel

I left you a note about Percebes and angulas on your Cuenca thread.
Angulas are the babies of anguilas. For San Sebastian Day Eve they’ve be customarily on the menus of the Sociedades Gastronónicas (txokos), but this year many decided not to serve them. They were available in the pescaderías of the Mercado de la Bretxa for 850 a kilo but in Madrid Pescaderías Coruñesas is selling them online for 1,250 a kilo. The price varies according to the market.

ekscrunchy

Thanks, Maribel!!! That's what I meant, angulas. Do you think anyone would pay that price? Thinking about it, they must be so lightweight...
Do they sell them in any fish markets? That time I had them, Ii was put off cause they looked a little like worms but I was young and silly back then. Maybe still a little silly but no longer a young "angula!!"

shelemm

Yes, the baby eels are angulas, so tremendously expensive. In a restaurant, if it is not pricey, could be made from surimi.

Revulgo

The genuine baby eels are "angulas", the shaped eel surimi is "gulas".

Maribel

Yes, about the angulas situation in Donostia/San Sebastián......This Tamborrada festival. on Jan. 19, the eve of the festival, the Sociedad Gastronónimca Gaztelubide, one of the most prestigious, for their Tamborrada eve menu, did serve angulas, the other Sociedades (txokos) did not, following the lead of the Michelin starred chefs who refused to put them on their menus due to the scarcity.

In the La Brexta market at the fish mongers (pescaderías) they were priced at 850 a kilo, while at the Restaurante Narru, we saw a couple next to us who ordered a box (don't know how many gramos) and paid 1,050 euros for these at the last minute since the markets were closed.
I don't know whether they were already cooked or not.
The recipe is very simple---sautée garlic and oil in a pan, and when hot, add the angulas and stir for about a minute. That's it.

On line, at Pescaderías Coruñesas, the premier suppliers to high end restaurants, they are priced today at 1,250 a kilo.

SusanP

This is all interesting. I had gulas in Madrid, accidentally ordered them. When the waiter brought them, it was clear to me that it wasn't what I had meant to order! The waiter said they were tiny snakes. I have had eels in Rome (traditional on Christmas Eve) and they were delicious. I'm a fairly adventurous eater, but I couldn't finish the gulas, not because I was told they were snakes, but because of the texture. Just kind of yucky!😁

ekscrunchy

From what Revulgo wrote, you had surimi shaped to look like tiny eels. Unless they were crazy expensive, that's probably likely. From what you write, not too appetizing!

SusanP

Yes, ek, I think they must have been the surimi. They were not expensive. Just not appetizing, and as I said, I do like eels.

Maribel

Yes, you had surimi, "gulas". In my supermarket here they carry several brands, La Gula, Anguriñas, Antojos, etc. They're all very inexpensive.
https://www.compraonline.alcampo.es/search?q=Gulas.

shelemm

I had the surimi version of the 'baby eels' at a Spanish restaurant/market in Miami, Las Delicias de Espana. Served as a cazuela with olive oil and garlic. It was a superb dish. So I think it's not intrinsically offensive.

At the same market I bought a bag of gofio, a kind of toasted wheat from the Canary Islands. Made some gofio from a recipe book my sister-in-law brought back from the islands. What a great and unique flavor!

Maribel

Gofio is indeed a staple of the Canarias. The matriarch of our family is from there.
There is a Madrid Canaries cuisine restaurant of the same name, Gofio by Cícero, in the Barrio de las Letas (just lost its Michelin star and is moving to a new location in the spring).