Palacia de Orienta - Tune in olive oil

Purchased Feb 2010

Impressions:  Colour was nice - somewhat orange-yellow .   Meat was loosely packed - not in a solid hunk.   Texture and flavour seemed mildly better than typical North American canned tuna.  If anything, it may be more to do with what I suspect to be a better quality olive oil and probably better attention to salting and temperature control during the cooking process - than with just plain better tuna selection.   I’d buy it over North American brands, but I wouldn’t rave over it.

Clams in salt water

Purchased Feb 2010

White Tuna in Olive Oil - no salt added.

Purchased Feb 2010

Opened in mid March 2010.   Taste was ok,  nothing special.   Tuna meat was not dry.   Oil was light and clean tasting.

Northern Tuna in Olive Oil

Purchased in Feb 2010.

This was recommended from another food website.

Not opened yet.

Opened in mid March 2010 - I didn’t like this… it was much too dry.

On Sunday, a lot of the tourist sights close early and some shops are not open at all.   And Monday too, lots of businesses are not open.

The people are very nice.  Traffic is surprising civilized.  Not like Paris or Rome at all, drivers don’t honk their horns, they actually stop at pedestrian crossing areas but is not a traffic light area.  I don’t have to fear for my life crossing the street like in other parts of the world, like in Thailand or Beijing.  Drivers seem fairly competent compared to other cities.

It’s easy to get some cheap breakfast.  Just some coffee, espresso, pastries, and spanish ham sandwich (similar to prosciutto) are easy to get anywhere.

Went to the oldest restaurant in the world, the Sobrino de Botin .

Ordered the baby squid with squid ink see picture.  It looked totally nasty, but was incredibly delicious.   Restaurant is very touristy but  food was good.  Also had garlic soup with egg.  That was a little different.  Had some stereotypical people come in the restaurant like this asian guy who came in the restaurant and immediately took a video of the restaurant, a bunch of New York women arguing very loudly about some trivial issue, and the quietest group in the whole restaurant was my group - the quiet well mannered Canadians. 

Botin Restaurant, Madrid, Spain

Calle Cuchilleros, 17
Madrid
Tel. 913664217
Metro: La Latina

Price:  $15 cdn, around 10 Euros .

Purchased in Madrid, Spain , Feb 2010 .

In very light olive oil.   No additives according to the box.  Did not taste any strong salted flavour.  Light coloured tuna.  Clean looking strips of tuna, ie no roughly cut strips of tuna

Serving it on a tomato, red bell pepper, spanish olive salad.  Good match with salad.  Overall salad was a good way to serve the tuna.    The tuna was very light and had a delicate flavour.  The olive oil helps give the tuna a nice smooth moist texture.  Definitely better than your typical North American can of tuna but is it worth $15?  Only if you dress up a dish like the mentioned salad and make a really good presentation out of it.  This tuna is something you use to show off like smoked salmon or foie gras although the tuna lacks the flavour dominance of either.  The high quality tuna is more of a pleasant surprise because it’s not the dry tasteless tuna we’re used to eating.

Apparently, one of the things Spain is known for are their canned seafood.   The following are some brands and products that we’ve procured.   When we open it and taste them, we’ll give a review.

The first is Albo Calamari in squid ink sauce.

Opened in February 2010 - taste was good.  Squid ink is not as nasty as it sounds, it just tastes like a salty seafood flavoured sauce that’s coloured black.     Taste is very similar to asian styled canned squid that can be bought at any respectably sized North American chinese grocery store.   It’s probably a unique product in North American eyes, but the taste is not particularly unique to me.

So I’ve caught nearly my legal limit of perch fish…  awesome…   however perch fish is practically impossible to eat without constantly picking out the tiny bones, so how about a recipe that can make the bones edible without being a threat to one’s esophagus.    Here’s one possible use for perch…   pickled fish!   In theory,  the acidic vinegar will soften the bones and any scales you’ve missed.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Pickled-Fish-Make-It-Yourself&id=366314

The recipe below is copied from the site above.

A northern has a lot of y-bones and if they are removed, quite a lot of flesh is lost in the process. By pickling the smaller ones the bones are nothing to worry about. The vinegar softens all those tiny y-bones. To pickle northern first of all you have to catch the fish. I tell everyone that asks me, that is the first step. There is no need to scale them for pickling because the skin becomes rubbery. I fillet them, remove the back bone and cut them into 1-2-inch pieces.

Next I place the pieces into a crock or large glass jar. I generously salt each single layer with pickling salt, making sure each piece is salted. Do not pack them tightly. When the jar is full pour vinegar to cover the fish. Place in the refrigerator for 1-week. Stir the fish every day. After 1-week empty the jar, discard the vinegar solution and rinse the fish in clean water and drain.

Measure 5-cups sugar and 5-cups vinegar into kettle and bring to a boil. Boil 5-minutes and let cool to room temperature. Next I slice onions and alternate them with the fish pieces in my jars. I add 1-2-tablespoons mixed pickling spice to each quart jar. Then I measure 2-cups of the vinegar solution and 1-cup of dry white wine together, making sure they are room temperature and pour that mixture over the fish and spices in the jars. Be sure to completely cover the fish.

Put the lids on the jars and refrigerate for 6-weeks to 2-months before eating. The longer they sit in the jars the better they are. Delicious.

———————————————————-

Loosely following the above recipe - the pictures below are samples of what I did.

Fish has soaked in vinegar brine for around 48 hours.   Note the pink colour is from a red colour vinegar I used.

Some of the best udon noodles I’ve ever had was in Paris, on a street just nearby from the Louvre . I don’t remember the price, as it was almost ten years ago, but the price I remember to be exceptionally good. Googling the area still brings up the restaurants. I think it was called Higuma, on 32, Rue Ste Anne . Map is attached below. Do a street view to get an idea of how it looks.

Update:  As of August 2009, the restaurant is still there and the quality is still great.   Try to get there before 6pm, as by 7pm, there’s a huge lineup.  The average price you’re looking at is around $10 cdn (probably $9 US) -  around 7 Euros.

http://www.vrbo.com/32127

http://www.vrbo.com/170848

http://www.vrbo.com/166213

http://www.vrbo.com/223494

http://www.vrbo.com/173594

http://www.vrbo.com/195244

http://www.vrbo.com/183076

http://www.vrbo.com/213938

http://www.vrbo.com/130948

http://www.vrbo.com/156073

http://www.vrbo.com/183891

- authentic tasting Pho noodles.   Taste is similar to the top vietnamese restaurants in Toronto.

- opens late daily, until 11:30 pm .  On the weekends, it’s open until 2:30am.

- staff looks tired and worn out.  Probably because we showed up at 10:45 pm.

- lots of seats available, but they seat based on number of waitresses available…  I still had to wait 5-10 mins before getting seated, even though there were plenty of empty tables.

- definitely recommended to those looking for a break from the buffets

- bowl of noodles - “Pho Chay”  $9.95

- the place automatically puts a 10% tip onto the bill

- not bad.   Nothing particularly special.   It’s a $20 cab ride to there from the Strip.   Has a lot of items that a regular grocery store wouldn’t have.   Specializes in “organic” and foreign foods.   Quite small.   Has an alcohol section.   Free coffee.   Open 9am to 9pm daily.

At $5.00 per ride, it doesn’t seem to be worth it.  

- the monorail system only goes to hotels on one side of the strip

- the stations are all the way in the back of the hotels, so in order to get to them, you have to walk through a maze of slot machines in order to get to them

- most people working there don’t seem to know of the monorails’ existence

- it takes a while for a train to arrive… between 7-10 mins.  and while waiting, the station is boiling hot

Pros - they recently dropped the price of the all day pass from $15 to $12.

- air conditioned

All car rentals at the Las Vegas airport are handled by a central facility which houses most of the major car rental brands, I.e. Hertz, enterprise, budget.  Access to the facility is by shuttlebus, and is around a 10-15 minute long ride.  The Enterprise rental facility was very professionally run, and knew their business well.   At the time, they had the cheapest rates.   If you’ve never been to Las Vegas, I’d recommend that you also rent the GPS unit (approx $10 per day) , or bring your own.   The car I had, a Mitsubishi Galante 2009 was running well, and was mostly clean except for the back seats which had some visible stains, most probably from spilled drinks.   Air conditioner in the Galante worked extremely well, especially for the August Las Vegas desert heat.
I didn’t have the opportunity to test out the “tiptronic”-like gear shift system…  Looked interesting though.One important note for Canadians in Las Vegas…  The gas station quick pay credit card system won’t work for Canadians.  Their systems ask for a US zip code, which doesn’t work with Canadian credit cards.   You’ll need to pay first with the attendent and then gas up, if you don’t use up your entire amount, it will automatically be refunded to you.