Just as I’d been told, many of the landscapes in Iceland looked like they belonged on another planet. Our tour took us from the northern part of the country down the east coast and west to Reykjavik. Take a look at the varied images, and if you haven’t visited the country yet, I highly recommend it.
My friend and I were wandering around Lisbon one day and stumbled upon a beautiful Italian restaurant called La Mafia se Sienta a la Mesa. We couldn’t have made a better choice for lunch.
The decor was lovely, the service was stellar, and the menu was inventive. Imagine my shock to find out that La Mafia is a chain of restaurants in various parts of Europe. But this isn’t a chain like you’d expect to find in the U.S. It’s much better quality – not deserving of a Michelin star, but very enjoyable.
I started my meal with diverse rosso, a cocktail of red wine and lime soda topped with citrus foam. I have tried to duplicate this at home but with no luck. I’m not sure how they make it, but it’s light, delicious, and refreshing – perfect for lunch, especially if it’s hot outside.
I then had a pasta dish with a Bolognese sauce with mustard, orange, and arugula. This flavor combination was unexpected, and the pasta was cooked to perfection.
Other inventive dishes include:
Pork carpaccio with foie gras flakes, lemon juice, and olive oil
Melted provolone with pesto, tomatoes, and pistachios
Iberian pork with lime gremolata, spices, sweet potatoes, caramelized chives, and arugula pesto
Rotondi di cioccolato recheado com rabo de boi – Recheada beef tail and bochecha dough with ground meat toffee in sweet potato parmentier
Quadrati of scamorza, figo and nduja with arugula pesto – massa with Scamorza recheio (smoked queijo), figos e Nduja (spicy chouriço cream), Grana Padano DOP and molho arugula pesto with tomato in pó
The extensive menu also contains pizzas, seafood, meats, and desserts, including mascarpone gelato. But my friend and I opted to skip dessert, only to succumb a short walk from La Mafia when we stumbled upon another European chain, L’Eclair. My friend had discovered this pastry shop in other cities and was delighted to find out they have a location in Lisbon.
The eclairs are gorgeous, and the number of favors practically rivals Baskin Robbins. I had a passion fruit cream confection that melted in my mouth. Highly recommended!
Lisbon’s La Mafia is in a central location on Avenida Deque de Avila, and L’Eclair is just a short jaunt away on the same avenue.
At a recent major wine event in New York City promoting Barolo and Barbaresco wines and general tourism to Piedmont, Italy, I heard a rumor that one of the best and most influential Italian chefs, Davide Scabin, will be opening a new venue. His last renowned restaurant Combal.zero (pronounced Combal Dot Zero) closed in 2020 because of the pandemic, and the culinary world has been much poorer for its absence.
I first met Davide Scabin, owner and top toque of Combal.Zero in 2005, during a press visit to Torino (Turin) prior to the 2006 Olympics. In my mind, he still stands as a gigantic figure in the Italian gastronomic landscape. I consider him to be one of the most innovative Italian chefs and a pioneer who started a new chapter in the modern Italian culinary scene.
We then returned in 2010 and 2016, and his dishes never stopped amazing us.
Chef Scabin’s philosophy has been concept cuisine or the restaurant as theater.
After tasting his food, we thought he was an extremely talented chef, steeped in modern cooking without forgetting his own culinary roots. His kitchen became famous for merging traditional Piemontese flavors with highly eccentric cooking techniques.
He took apart ingredients to reassemble them in unusual ways, e.g. deconstructed pizzas, cybereggs, etc. He found his way into a kitchen in 1994, when he decided to embrace his passion for great food and opened his first trattoria in Almese, Turin. He called it Combal.
He has been focused on traditional trattoria dishes, always favoring regional and seasonal ingredients. His reinterpretation of regional classics started to attract the attention of gastronomes from all over Europe. As his trattoria space started to feel small for his increasing clientele, he opened a restaurant within the Castello di Rivoli in 2000, which he called Combal.Zero.
In this new kitchen, he felt free to experiment with different ingredients, food textures, and methods of cooking with spectacular results.
Over the years, Combal.Zero gained international recognition, countless accolades and awards, and was ranked 18 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Davide was crowned by Time Magazine as “one of the ten chefs around the world that will change your life.”
Combal.Zero has also been awarded Gambero Rosso’s Three Forks, further proof of the passion Scabin exhibited in his cooking. The restaurant was awarded two Michelin stars but lost one in 2015, after which Italian food lovers posted their outrage on social media, considering this an insult to this very creative and popular chef.
Combal.Zero was located in the Piazza Mafalda di Savoia, inside the Rivoli building, which is now a contemporary art museum. You could select from three tasting menus: Creative, Classic, or Territorial, or you could order à la carte elements from each menu, or you could order the micropiatti of the lounge that were highlights of his most successful creations. The wine list was extensive with exceptional vintages from around the world.
There were nine of us at the table. One didn’t eat fish or veal, and another was allergic to garlic (what a tragedy in Italy!) But the efficiently attentive dining room staff took these limitations in stride. After a visit to the museum, we arrived fairly early to an almost empty restaurant. By the time we were halfway through the meal, the 50-table room was full and humming. Altogether, including the course substitutes for those who couldn’t eat fish, veal, or garlic, we saw and tasted 14 courses.
Here are some of the most interesting and/or impressive dishes:
Cybereggs with caviar.
His Deconstructed Spaghetti Margherita (an elegant composition of black and white noodle sheets, tomato sauce, anchovies, basil, fermented black garlic, and chili oil) was a culinary delight!
Foie Gras Ganache with Passionfruit Gelatin.
Fried Quail Egg on Potato Chips with a Light Peanut Sauce.
Tonno di Coniglio con Verdure e Salsa Brusca Astigiana.
The above were the highlights, but everything was exceptional!
The wines were selected to complement each course and were all Italian, except for champagne at the end.
We spent more than five hours at Combal.Zero, three tasting the menu and two talking with Chef Scabin who had an extremely interesting story to tell about his life and philosophy. I hope the rumors are true and that he opens a new restaurant because all that talent should not be allowed to disappear.
Sherry is one of the two spectacular fortified wines produced in the Iberian Peninsula, in the wine-growing maritime region of Jerez, mostly from white grapes. The other is Port, produced in Portugal at the country’s northwestern Atlantic seaboard, mostly from red grapes grown in vineyards along the Douro River.
The Jerez winemaking tradition goes back over 3,000 years. The region’s unique climatic conditions are ideal for cultivating the grape varieties used in creating sherry: Palomino, which is used to produce the drier types of sherry and Pedro Ximénez and Muscatel, which are used for the sweeter varieties.
There are three styles of Sherry wines: the dry sherry wine (Vino Generoso), the naturally sweet wine (vino Dulce Naturale), and the sweet sherry wine (vino Generoso de licor). They are all made in the Solera style of winemaking, where casks (called butts) are stacked one row on top of another row on top of a third row and even possibly a fourth.
Young wine is then poured into the butts of the top row, and the aged wine is drawn from the butts of the bottom row. The wine is transferred from top to bottom as it ages, and the liquid in the lowest butts is drawn for bottling.
Dry sherry wines are created when there is complete fermentation of the must (the freshly pressed grape juice that still contains the grape skins and stems), which creates minimal residual sugar from the grape juice. There are five styles of dry sherry: Fino, Manzanilla, Amontillado, Oloroso, and Palo Cortado.
Fino is a dry sherry that is aged entirely in the interior of American oak butts (casks or barrels), always protected by a film of yeast called the “veil of flor,” which prevents the wine from oxidizing. It is very pale straw yellow-colored, and its aromas and flavors are due mostly to these yeasts that constantly interact with the wine.
The Fino wines are fresh and crisp on the nose with almond notes that are very characteristic of the yeast. They have a very dry flavor and low acidity. Their alcohol content is usually low, about 15%.
Amontillado is a wine that initially follows the same production process as Fino, but continues to age without the veil of flor and is, therefore, exposed to oxidation. This gives it its nose and taste characteristics. Golden to mahogany in color and gentle on the nose with notes of hazelnut, it’s more structured than a Fino. It’s dry on the palate with notes of spice and wood and with great persistence. Its alcohol content is usually between 17% and 20%.
Manzanilla is a distinctive form of Fino – an exclusively specific DOC sherry “Manzanilla de Sanlúcar de Barrameda.” It’s a dry white sherry made from palomino grapes and is also aged under the layer of flor. Usually, a level of oxidation is allowed for the Manzanilla that produces greater complexity in the wine.
It’s very bright but pale straw-colored with a sharp, lightly briny, delicate bouquet and predominantly floral aromas of chamomile, almonds, and dough. Dry and fresh on the palate, it’s smooth in spite of the dry finish. The light acidity produces a pleasant sensation of freshness but a slightly astringent and saline aftertaste. Its coastal origin gives it distinctive qualities that differentiate it from other Finos.
Oloroso is an opulent, oxidized wine made in Andalucia. It has nutty and caramelized characteristics on the nose and palate. It’s fermented to approximately 11% alcohol and is then fortified with a mix of grape spirit and old wine. Grapes for Oloroso tend to occupy the less-premium soils, as there is less need for finesse in the base wine.
Oloroso has around 17% to 20% alcohol, which is too high to encourage the growth of flor, the yeast that is essential to the production of other kinds of sherry. The Oloroso has a dried fruit and wood character. Although the wine has been made for hundreds of years, it’s currently enjoying a boom in popularity.
Lustau’s East India Solera is a dark mahogany-colored sherry, which is a blend of 80% Oloroso and 20% Pedro Ximénez butts that have been aged separately for about 12 years. The name refers to the East India Company, a trading company that transported silk, spices, tea, decorated porcelains, and other “luxury” commodities from the East Indies and Cathay to England. (The featured photo above is of Lustau’s Bodegas Soleras, courtesy of Lustau’s.)
As a fortified wine (which lasts very long), sherry was taken along to serve the ship’s crew on its transatlantic and transpacific journeys.
Lustau is one of the few bodegas honoring the East India Company with its Solera, one of the better known sherry products. This producer has a long history since 1896 when José Ruiz-Berdejo started cultivating the vines of the family’s estate.
His daughter, María Ruiz-Berdejo Alberti, acquired a small winery closer to the center of Jerez de la Frontera in 1931 and moved all the preexisting soleras there. In the 1940s, Maria’s husband, Emilio Lustau Ortega, moved the winery to the old Santiago district.
In buildings that were part of the historic Moorish walls of the city, he slowly began to expand the business. In 1990, Lustau’s merged with Luis Caballero, a Spanish-owned company prominent within the wine and spirits business. This meant important financial support and the possibility of further expansion.
The East India Solera is available in the U.S. in the better wine stores and is one of my favorite sipping sherries.
Tapas are the fare associated with the dry sherries, which are an exceptional aperitif accompanying small but delicious finger foods – even small cooked dishes like Albondigas (small meatballs in sauce) or Pulpo a la Gallega or Tortilla Española and much much more.
If you are in Spain, you go “tapear,” that is walk from taska to taska, tasting the best tapas they offer, washed down with a Fino or an Amontillado, and you can have a great meal for relatively little money. Actually, the Sherry Producers Association awards plaques of distinction to the taskas that offer the best tapas.
In addition to the dry sherries, there are also exceptional sweet sherries based on the Pedro Ximénez and Moscato or Muscatel grapes. PX as the Pedro Ximénez sherries are called, is usually a luscious after-dinner sip or to accompany acidic fruits and deserts. We’ll talk about the sweet Sherries in a future article.
The town of Voss is within striking distance of Norway’s most prominent fjords, the Hardangerfjord and the Sognefjord. Traveling from Bergen by train to Voss takes about an hour and takes in some distinct local scenery.
I chose wintertime with fewer crowds and abundant snow covering the slopes at the Voss Ski Resort. The town and surrounding area also provide a variety of other compelling attractions available at the same time of year. (Top photo courtesy of Voss Resort.)
Voss is an ideal winter destination for families and recreational skiers. I enjoyed the well-maintained, forgiving snow-covered slopes, yet always had the option of more challenging terrain.
Standing at the top of the run, I felt excitement and anticipation. The abundant expanse of snow stretched before me, the crisp mountain air filling my lungs as I took in the surrounding environment. Tall Norwegian evergreen pines flanked my descending journey down the long, winding slope.
I pushed off from the verge and began the descent. My ski edges gripped the snow as I made sharp, wide turns. With each turn, I felt a sense of freedom and exhilaration. The sheer thrill of gliding effortlessly over the snow filled me with pure joy. My mind quickly cleared of mundane distractions, as I became completely immersed in the very essence of the moment.
Later, after such exhilarating runs, I enjoyed the comfortable resort facilities that provided a welcome respite from the cold winter air. The warm lodge offered a cozy place to relax and recharge after a morning on the slopes.
The restaurant served a delicious lunch featuring local Norwegian favorites, such as hearty soups and salmon sandwiches. The friendly, attentive staff enhanced the feeling of well-being, adding to the resort’s overall warmth and hospitality.
The next day, I walked into the Park Hotel Vossevangen and was immediately struck by its elegance and sophistication. The hotel’s extensive wine cellars, which house one of the largest collections of wines in Northern Europe, are a testament to the hotel’s commitment to providing a world-class selection of rare and vintage bottles.
As a wine lover, I had the good fortune to peruse the impressive collection. The cellar has something for every taste from rare Bordeaux blends to crisp Chardonnays from the New World. I saw more than 15,000 bottles of champagne alone neatly stored in the cool basement. The sommelier’s expertise and passion was evident as he guided me through the collection and recommended the perfect bottle to complement my meal.
I selected a bottle of aged Pinot Noir from Burgundy. Its delicate notes of cherry and earth perfectly complemented the rich flavors of my main course. As I savored each sip, I couldn’t help but marvel at the expertise and passion that went into curating such an impressive collection.
The restaurant’s menu is a gastronomic journey through the flavors of Norway, with dishes expertly crafted using locally sourced ingredients. I savored every bite from the fresh seafood from the fjords to the tender reindeer from the surrounding countryside.
The elegant dining room is perfect for a romantic dinner or that special occasion, with glowing candlelight creating a warm and intimate atmosphere.
The town of Voss has many facets and is also known for adrenaline-fueled experiences, sky diving, and whitewater rafting, to name a few. I fully participated in one activity at the Voss Vind Indoor Skydiving facility: the exhilarating sensation of ski diving within the confines of a wind tunnel.
Entering the wind tunnel, I immediately felt a rush of air surrounding me. With the help of a skilled instructor, I suited up in a jumpsuit and helmet, ready to take flight. Stepping to the tunnel’s edge, I felt a surge of adrenaline as I prepared to launch myself into the airflow.
As I soared upwards, weightless and free, time seemed to stand still. With each twist and turn, I reveled in the sensation of flight, my heart pounding excitedly. The wind tunnel provided the perfect environment for simulating the exhilaration of skydiving and the thrill of freefall in a safe and controlled setting.
After several exhilarating minutes of flight, I reluctantly returned to solid ground, my heart still racing from the thrill of the experience.
During my winter stay in Voss, I had a great experience at the Scandic Hotel. Its location proved perfect, just a few feet from the mountain gondola, the train station, and a short walk to the town center.
I slept well in a warm and comfortable standard accommodation. The breakfast buffet was also exceptional. After a long day of outdoor activities, returning to this Scandic provided a much-needed opportunity to stay refreshed and ready for another enjoyable day near Voss township.
As far as this travel, food, and wine writer is concerned, Spain has surpassed most traditional European countries lauded by gastronomes for food and wine excellence.
Whether your food preferences go toward classic dishes or innovative modern cuisine, Spain has many eating establishments from lowly tascas to its 15 establishments (as of 2024) with three Michelin stars that will titillate your palate with their culinary expertise and the treasures of their wine cellars.
What I find extremely interesting is the strip along the southern foothills of the Pyrenees from Barcelona to San Sebastian. I have eaten in many towns and villages along that strip and found many eateries offering exceptional dishes, both in quality and variety.
Starting in the Catalan/Tarragona region, the culinary pinnacle would now be the three-Michelin-starred El Celler de Can Roca in Girona. It’s the domain of the third generation restaurateurs Roca brothers about an hour north of Barcelona at the outskirts of the city of Girona.
In the past, Ferran Adria’s El Bulli in the same region was the undisputed “Kingdom of Gastronomy.” But now, the El Celler de Can Roca has been called “the Best Restaurant in the World” twice, in 2013 and 2015, and the second best restaurant in the world many more times.
Juan Roca is top toque in charge of the kitchen, Josep Roca is the sommelier and front-of-the-house manager, and Jordi Roca is the pâtissier. All three excel at what they do!
Eating at El Celler de Can Roca is serious business. Please note that it only has about 40 seats, so reservations are imperative and should be made well in advance.
Tasting-menu-wise, there are two options when dining there. You can try the Classic tasting menu, or you can do the Feast tasting menu. I have tasted both at different times and can confirm that you can’t go wrong with either one. Most of the dishes are based on seasonal ingredients, so you won’t have the exact same dish repeated in successive visits even though different dishes might appear on the menu under quite similar names.
Juan Roca cooks many classic regional, national, and international dishes, many of which were initially offered by his parents before the brothers took over and innovated the menu with creative twists.
Drinking is also serious business there. Josep has accumulated an exceptional collection of both Spanish and international libations. Long verticals of the best wines from around the world and certainly Catalonia and Tarragona are found both at the in-restaurant cellar and stashed at a temperature and humidity-controlled warehouse near the restaurant.
Most of the times I ate there, since the Wines of Catalonia were our host, a table was set up in the restaurant’s wine storage space, and our hosts brought wines from their winery libraries. Josep also brought gems he selected from the restaurant’s library to wash down our meals.
Once we asked to see the wine list, and a piece of furniture holding a huge tome was rolled over where we found every exceptional wine possible.
But Can Roca is not the only striking restaurant with spectacular dishes in the area.
Disfrutar in Barcelona by the Ninot Market just received their third Michelin star. They have been starred for many years, and it has also been named “Best Restaurant in the World” at least once.
A meal at Disfrutar is like a performance: there’s fire, ice, smoke, and lots and lots of flavor. Oriol Castro, one of the three exceptional chefs helming the kitchen, is an affable young man I met a number of times at the annual Gastronomika conference in San Sebastian. All the chefs at Disfrutar had their early culinary experiences at El Bulli’s kitchens. That training has been the springboard of this clearly avant-garde Mediterranean kitchen, where the dishes stand out for their exceptional character.
However, having Michelin stars doesn’t mean that starred establishments are the only restaurants at the apex of Spanish culinary excellence and worth trying.
I have eaten in numerous other restaurants in or near Barcelona that I would consider as good as any starred eatery. It’s often the unassuming tascas, local eateries and secluded tavernas that serve dishes rivaling Michelin’s finest, without the formal recognition and ensuing high prices. Many great Spanish chefs have not accepted Michelin-honors or other such laudatory designations as they feel they do not need the pressure and their usual customers would not pay the resulting high prices.
Southeast of Barcelona, nestled atop Triassic limestone cliffs overlooking a river, is Siurana, a charming medieval mountain town perched high on the mountain top.
With just 32 permanent residents, its crown jewel is La Siuranella — an intimate eight-room boutique hotel, complemented by the breathtaking Els Tallers restaurant, a culinary haven. It offers a genuine taste of Tarragona’s culinary arts and a well-curated cellar of Priorat and Monsanto wines with food that has a modern flair at tempting prices. See my more in-depth review of Els Tallers.
Bar Cañete has a great reputation as a local Barcelona joint. If you come early, you may be surrounded by tourists, but by around 10 pm, the majority of your fellow diners will definitely be speaking Catalan. Tapas are what to order here and wash them down with a local bottle from the large wine list or a cold beer.
A foodie favorite for years, Mont Bar has slowly been making its name as a standout gastro-tapas bar in Barcelona. The Michelin people have finally awarded it the star it has long deserved. During many of my earlier visits, this space was rowdy and a bit cramped. The tables are more spaced out these days, and the clientele is more buttoned up.
It’s still a very good tapas bar, just a more elegant version. With the Michelin star came a tasting menu, in this case consisting of 15 dishes. But Mont Bar still offers à la carte options with fairly inexpensive bites!
Zaragoza, in Aragon, further west than Barcelona has another Spanish culinary treasure. Zaragoza was noted for its “Leaning Tower,” a clock tower built in the 16th century. It was taller than the Leaning Tower of Pizza but was dismantled by the end of the 19th century because of fears that if it fell, it could demolish other buildings around it and injure or kill local inhabitants.
It was notable because it was built by masters who belonged to three different religions – Muslim, Christian, and Jewish. There is still a sculpture of a boy sitting on the paved plaza looking up at the tower as if it still existed.
Since 1919, La Despensa De Montal has been a historic restaurant and gourmet shop in downtown Zaragoza across the square from where the “Leaning Tower” was. It provides traditional Spanish food that includes tasty seasonal menus based on local ingredients served in what was an ornate, centuries-old palace.
You can get a menu in Spanish, English, or French. We ate there one evening during a visit to the Cariñena winery about 3/4 of an hour from Zaragoza. Montal serves high quality Spanish charcuterie, cheeses, and croquettes, as well as many classic Spanish main dishes. These include lovely pork chops, migas de pastor a la casa (breadcrumbs softened in water and wine and then sautéed in meat drippings with paprika, garlic, and grapes), giant beans with clams, Iberian pork cheeks in Port, and a number of spectacular rice dishes.
There is also a tasty table-d’hôte menu. It is a bit pricey, but the restaurant is elegant and very picturesque. In the building’s basement, there is a very well-stocked wine and delicacies store.
Another interesting find was Cervecería Marpy, a delightful tapas emporium. I loved their Pulpo a la Brasa, Pimientos de Padrón, Chipirones a la Plancha, and some of their barely seared tuna tapas.
Madrid, the capital at the country’s center, has a number of iconic restaurants that have fed Madrileños and visitors for ages. There are many dedicated to classic, time-tested Spanish recipes, as well as ones specializing in modern dishes using international ingredients.
My personal preferences are the old fashioned classics like Sobrino de Botín, Cervecería Alemana, Café de Oriente, Chocolatería San Ginés, and a number of other places of the same caliber.
But if you wish to eat really well in an exceptionally plush environment, there is one restaurant to make a reservation in this city, the garden restaurant of the Mandarin Oriental Ritz Madrid, in the summertime. Since way before Mandarin Oriental took over this legendary hotel’s management, the kitchens of the Ritz have served spectacular and sophisticated food to locals and guests. It now sports 2 Michelin stars, but it has always been one of the places where the upper crust of the Spanish capital has gone for spectacular meals.
And then, there is San Sebastian, the Basque city on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. This city and the area around it are famous for the quality and number of exceptional eating establishments. Most of the restaurants in Spain with 3 Michelin stars are situated in this region. From luxury hotel dining rooms to hole-in-the-wall tapas bars, I have not eaten better in Spain. Read more about San Sebastian’s renowned chefs and restaurants.
They are perhaps the reason one of the most influential European food conferences is annually held in this city. The Gastronomika Conference attracts top chefs, food journalists, and food lovers from around the world. It takes place every October, and for a food aficionado, it is heaven as receptions, chef demonstrations, sampling booths, and visits to spectacular area kitchens are part of the proceedings.
If you are curious about the chefs attending, their presentations of new dishes, or the concurring food expo, anyone can buy tickets through the conference’s website or approved outlets. You can attend a wide range of events and activities, including master classes and workshops, live cooking demonstrations, tastings, and exploring the meals that local restaurants sponsor.
You can choose between full-access passes for the entire duration or a single-day pass. Either way, I’m sure you will not be disappointed. (The photo at the top of this article is of tuna tartare and Beluga caviar at Gastronomika taken by by Manos Angelakis.)