Travel : Or worse still, ear wax !

MK : Surely you jest. I think Elle's point was that she's wondering the same thing too.

I'll never be enough of a sophisticate to appreciate this type of meal:

http://www.thisistravel.co.uk/travel...ticle_id=38888

This is taking us on a tangent, but the link Will provides refers to Ferran Adria's El Bulli.

I didn't have the real thing, but tried the Adria-influenced (I think that's what it was) cuisine at Terraza del Casino in Madrid.

It's actually very interesting. I thought that it was hype, but I actually enjoyed it.

For more details, search for an article called "Laboratory of Taste" first published in the Times magazine. You can also click on my name to find my old post on Terraza.

There's little doubt that my Casino meal is the most interesting I've had in my life so far.

I only quickly skimmed this whole thread, so maybe this was already discussed, but from your original post, I can't tell if each of you got a shot glass of the stuff or just one for the table. If just one, then I would definitely assume it to be tapenade-type thing; otherwise, some kind of amuse-bouche.

Hi 111,

>There's little doubt that my Casino meal is the most interesting I've had in my life so far.<

Would you do it again?

Maybe. If someone else paid for it, definitely!

We tried to save. I forget what the bill came up to exactly -- it was a little under $300 for the two of us (me and my mom). They did a rather sneaky thing, which I won't elaborate, and I misread the menu. But I think that they wanted us to spend around that much. This was back in Oct. 2004.

Anyway, if I didn't deserve it, she deserved it. She preferred Rojo's restaurant in Seville though -- less strange. Rojo also trained with Adria, I think. Rojo is also much cheaper -- around $120 for the two of us?

My lunch at Le Cinq was for roughly the same price -- just slightly more expensive, but it's much less interesting.

Anyway, expensive doesn't mean good, but it could mean interesting, and it's a unique experience eating at Terraza. Also the people seemed very professional and unsnooty, which made me very comfortable, as I'm never very comfortable in these sorts of restaurants.

I meant to say that lunch at Le Cinq was more than Terraza, but we had more to drink at Le Cinq (I was with a friend).

Also Le Cinq has three Michelin stars; Terraza has one. I guess the stars are very important.

Response to m_kingdom2 and Elle:

Actually salmon are often milked. Here in Canada, it is certainly a common-enough practice with Pacific salmon (oncorhyncus), perhaps also with Atlantic salmon (salmo salmo). Live salmon are milked both for eggs and for sperm. The sperm and eggs are used for artificial propagation.

Eggs are also used for bait in trout-fishing but I suspect these are residue of dead salmon.

(I'm a 20 year veteran of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans)