TAPELLAS - Tapas, Paellas and More By Gaudi

Lunch this Friday was in Tapellas, the newly opened Tapas place of the Gaudi group in Greenbelt 5. I had asked N if he wanted to try it since it was newly opened since I was in the mood for Spanish food and wine. We were 4 in total: Noel, Jojo, Robert and myself.

We got there quite late due to traffic so as soon as we did, we popped open our starter wines: Martin Codax Alabariño and my favorite Rose wine: 2007 Domaine Tempier Bandol. I started out with the Bandol while waiting for the food we ordered. It was just as i remembered it to be, that pale salmon color, very refreshing and just perfect. I think this wine is perfect for starting out and even with some of the tapas we had.

For starter Tapas, we had: Croquetas de Salchichon, Flautas de Anchoas del Cantabrico(small baguette sandwiches with tomato, oil and anchovies), Gulas with shrimp, Black Calamares a la Romana and Pulpo a la Gallega. I enjoyed very much the anchovies and the Gulas (even if they were not the real deal) and was a good pairing with the Albariño...thou I have tried several Codax Albariños, this one seemed to have less acidity then the others I've tried, slightly on the sweeter side also. Never the less it was still good. We had a different kind of Calamares, called Calamares a la Romana El Bulli, which I tried last year here. They are deep fried Calamares in their own ink..interesting.

Jojo had already opened his bottle of wine for the main course to let it breathe: 1992 Chateau Montelena, a Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley now owned by Chateau Cos d'Estournel. I definitely enjoyed this full bodied Napa. We had also opened Robert's wine, a 1996 Irache Gran Reserva, from the Navarra region in Spain. This is almost 100% Tempranillo and was also a good match for the main course: Chuleton.

As mentioned, for main course we all shared a 950 gram slab of Chuleton, Gaudis most popular dish. At first we thought it would be too much but the 4 of us gladly wiped out the plate. Served just slightly grilled (Villagodio way), it is sliced and served with a hot plate with salt. Depending how rare or well done you want it, you can just cook it a bit more on the plate. With that, we also had a Paella Manchega (Paella with chicken and topped off with grated Manchego on top). Great combination. I was not able to photograph it but believe me it was good...

We then had a cheese platter and opened Noels bottle: 2001 Beronia Gran Reserva. Another Medium bodied Rioja wine, we have enjoyed several bottles of this wine during other Spanish dinners. We had 2 other bottles that were not opened: a 1996 Pontet Canet and my bottle, a 2002 Lo Piot Priorat , a winery owned by a family friend of ours in Catalunya.

We stayed on a bit longer over some coffee, dessert and more wine. They do not close the whole day, so this is a perfect place to hang around on a rainy afternoon with some wine and cheese, or coffee and dessert. Thank you Jojo, Noel and Robert for sharing the wine and for the great company.

Note: I forgot to mention that corkage is very reasonable: 300 pesos per bottle.