Tag: seafood

Tribeca & Cañabota Team Up

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I came back a day early from my Málaga Getaway because I had been invited to a gastronomy event that I simply couldn’t miss, featuring the dream team of Tribeca and Cañabota cooking together. It was to be one of the most unforgettable meals of my life … but I am getting ahead of myself. I’ve known Cañabota since its inception two years ago, when Juanlu Fernández joined forces with brothers Pablo Giménez and Eduardo Guardiola from Tribeca. The latter I finally got to know in person when friends invited me to join them there for dinner earlier this year. So I was very keen to see – and taste – what they would come up with together.

The event was held at Tribeca and when I arrived with the other lucky guests, we were taken downstairs to see the various fish and seafood that were to become our lunch, and were given a lecture on the sustainability of fishing by Eduardo. Then it was back upstairs to be given a masterclass in the breaking down of a fish, in this case a 15.2 kilo grouper, showing how every piece is used and nothing is wasted. And then it was time to eat!

The menu was a bit like a “showdown” with both teams creating different dishes using the same main ingredient (prawns, sea anemone, squid, grouper, skate…) along with a couple of joint efforts. Each dish was paired with well-chosen wines, including two manzanilla sherries to start off with, then two white wines (Albariño & Priorat), and moving on to two reds, dry (Mallorca) and sweet (Alicante).

The food was spectacular, and my only complaint was that there was just too much of it to comfortably finish all the dishes (luckily a friend sitting next to me was happy to help out). And while I appreciated the more clever and complex dishes, my personal favourites were the ones that were the most simply prepared, either lightly steamed or chargrilled. But it was all wonderful. Of course the service was impeccable and the overall experience was one I will fondly remember.

Many thanks to Fernando Huidrobo for the invitation, and to the fabulous Tribeca and Cañabota teams.

Tribeca
Chaves Nogales 3
Tel 954 42 60 00

Cañabota
Orfila 3
Tel 954 870 298 / 690 876 523

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Dinosaur Toes (aka Percebes)

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They really do look like dinosaur toes, don’t they? They are actually goose barnacles, called percebes in Spanish, and I have been dying to try them ever since I first heard about them. Why? Well, why the hell not? Recently I heard that one of my favourite seafood tapas bars – La Moneda – has been serving percebes and I asked them if they could let me know the next time they got some in. Turned out that was today! Not the best timing as Peter and I had just stopped off for a couple of tapitas with my familia at Bodeguita Romero – celebrating my shiny new laptop purchase (more on that later!) – and after our second tapa I got a Twitter message from Isidro that the percebes had landed.

So we high-tailed it out of the Bodeguita and headed over to La Moneda, with new laptop slung over shoulder – luckily it was only about a five-minute walk away – and upon arrival a plate of steaming percebes were placed in front of us. My first reaction was “eep! now what?” but Isidro quickly instructed us on how to eat them. You grab them at each end and then give them a sharp twist and a yank, after which the “claw” of the toe pulls away with a delectible morsel of deliciousness dangling off the end of it. What Isidro failed to mention was how squirty they are! At the first twist water shot out everywhere (usually all over me!) and I never did manage to get as clean a severing between claw and toe as Isidro did. But man! These guys are very tasty – not to mention prohibitively expensive! – but Isidro gave me a deal since it was my first time.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?