El Bulli experience - part two

Well, I have had some time to edit more pictures and to recall all the appetizers we had, but before we start, just another anecdote. Just as I was finishing my sherry, I started sweating uncontrollably. I was probably so nervous/stressed/happy to be there that I couldn’t stop sweating. I had to request for the staff to crank up the air conditioning and I stood up to go to the rest room. The rest room had a huge window facing the sea, so the breeze was exactly what I needed. That regulated my body temperature and after a couple of minutes, I was fine.

As soon as I got back to the table, they immediately served us the appetizers. The first one was called “Pepitas de oro”. I would translate this as “Golden nuggets”. They were gold colored curry crunchies (like a mini Ferrero Rocher) and we were asked to eat this immediately as it would probably melt. I was not able to take any picture of this dish.

Next was the “Aceitunas verdes esfericas” or spherical olives. These olives look exactly like a regular green olive but in fact they are gelatin balls filled with a very intense flavor of olive oil. As I ate the first one, the olive burst in my mouth releasing the entire flavor that was inside. I wanted to ask for more, but decided to wait since this was the first few of many dishes we were going to have that night. My mom, who had already tried this in her last visit, offered hers to me so I gladly ate her share.


After the Olives, they served us 6 small dishes all at once. They told us to eat them in any order we wanted:

“Fritas de Frutas” or Pineapple French fries. These pineapple "fries" tasted better than the best pineapple I’ve tried. If I’m not mistaken its cut and freeze dried, giving it a hard texture.


“Catanias Saladas” or Salty catanias. Catania is a popular Catalan chocolate almond candy, but these ones were salty. Very interesting with a little bitter taste at the end.


“Teja de maiz y platano” or Corn/banana tile. A very thin ‘tile’ made of grilled corn with a hint of banana taste.


“Airbags de Parmesano” or Parmesan Airbags. They were small fried pillows. As soon as you bite them it releases a burst of Parmesan powder in your mouth.


“Merengue/profiteroles de remolacha y yogur” or Yoghurt/Beetroot meringue profiterols. Light and airy. The combination of the beetroot and the yoghurt were perfect.


“Chocolate salado de cassis, yogur y pistacho” or Salty chocolate in 3 flavors: cassis, yoghurt and pistachio. None of these chocolates were actually sweet. The most interesting one was the cassis, which is a European type of black currant.


After all the dishes were removed from the table, it was the time for more food. They asked us what wine we would like to drink. I asked the sommelier to recommend a good white wine since I was the only one drinking (my mom cannot drink any alcohol). He asked me how I liked my wine so I told him I liked Albarino type (this is a type of grape from Galicia) so he recommended a bottle of Veigadura 2000. They immediately served the wine.

We had been in the restaurant for almost one hour since we arrived. The service was impeccable. The staff was very courteous and the service was superb. There were many waiters moving around very gracefully around the room. I will elaborate more on the service later on the part 4 of this blog.

More dishes were served to us shortly after they served us the wine:

“Bizcocho de pistachio con mousse de leche acida” or Pistachio Sponge cake with cream, and “Bizcocho de sesame y miso” or Black sesame cake with Miso. We were instructed to eat the sponge cake in 2 bites, with the cream. Then we were told to immediately eat the black sesame sponge cake with miso/The sponge cake was my preferred of the two.


“Flores de Horchata” or Horchata flowers. Horchata is a popular drink in Spain (originally from Valencia) which is sold/consumed during summer time. It’s a very refreshing drink made from chufa which is a kind of nut. This was served frozen in the form of a flower…very refreshing.


“Bombones de mandarina, cacahuete y curry” or Peanut and curry and Mandarin bombons. These were very flavorful. The curried peanut tasted like peanut butter and the bombon was very refreshing and a bit tangy.


“Fondant de frambuesas con wasabi y vinagre de frambuesa” or Raspberry fondant with wasabi and raspberry vinegar. For me this was one of the highlights of the night and one of my favorites. The staff suggested us to take one bite of the raspberry, then take the spoon of vinegar, then eat the other half. The combination of the Raspberry and the wasabi was just awesome, plus the vinegar which made the whole dish perfect.


The fondant was a good cleanser and was the last dish of the appetizers..in the part 3 of the blog I will write about the main dishes and the dessert…till then, I hope you enjoyed reading this.