Girona by Jens Hoffmann
For me a perfect hot spot for food and golf.
Girona is on the world map because the Roca brothers restaurant “El Celler” is the world best restaurant.
We travelled to lovely Girona, just next to Barcelona and declared the city because of it`s architecture and food to one of our new favourites.
For El Celler, it all means things have moved up a gear in terms of media attention, demand for tables and indded pressure to perform. The brothers are at pains to emphasis the importance of the the city and the catalan region as a whole in their success.
If you are on a world travel and want to see everything of Spain, watch a match of Barcelona or Real Madrid. And do not miss “my” resto in Girona (near Barcelona) and try to get a table at Celler de Can Roca.
The back on the top -world restaurant #1- is run by the three Roca brothers: eldest brother Joan Roca is head chef, Josep Roca is sommelier and Jordi Roca is the patissier. The restaurant is situated in the pleasant town of Girona, which has a well-preserved medieval old town and is about 60 miles north of Barcelona. The restaurant opened in 1986 but moved to a purpose built new building in 2007, with large kitchens giving plenty of room for its 30 chefs to work. There is also a large temperature-controlled wine storage area at ground floor level to accommodate the vast wine cellar, of which more anon.
The dining room is laid out in a triangular shape around an atrium with several poplar trees behind a glass partition. There is a wooden floor but each table rests on its own patch of brown carpet. The tables are well spaced and carefully lit.
There are wooden slats with back lighting forming one wall, a drop window facing the garden another side and a bar area making up the third side.
The tables are set with crisp white linen and Rosenthal china. There are tasting menus around 150 €, as well as a la carte dishes. The restaurant is noted for its large wine selection, and the two huge wine lists, one for white and one for red, are mounted on their own trolley and wheeled to the table. While you consider the wine lists a little bush arrives at the table, on which hang caramelised olives which you pick.
Although this is an original presentation idea I found the sweet taste from the caramel a bit special.
There are no less than 2,800 separate wines available, with 60,000 bottles stored in the cellar area.
A little Bellini cocktail appeared in a chocolate sphere; this was lovely, the peach taste coming through very well. This came alongside a little blob of rich chicken mousse sandwiched in-between two very delicate slivers of fried potato.A further nibble was deep fried anchovy bone with rice tempura, which was tasty and was made with very delicate batter, followed by an appetiser of mushroom brioche with hot meat consommé. The brioche had an incredibly light texture, a really remarkable piece of baking that practically melted in the mouth.
The breads were made from scratch in the kitchen here and were impressive. The tray had a selection of white bread, ciabatta, multi-grain, brioche of olive oil and tomato and also brioche of black olive. The breads had lovely texture, and the flavours came through really well. European lobster was very tender and had excellent flavour, served on a bed of absolutely superb mash with truffle, with a rich black trumpet mushroom sauce. We had smoked langoustines, which were beautifully cooked, served with a lovely sauce made from the head juices, onion and Comte cheese, which had a fairly subdued flavour, which in this case was just what was needed as it allowed the delicate flavour of the superb langoustines to really shine. My main course was a veal steak tartare, using veal from Girona. This was served as a rectangular slab, on which were dots of mustard ice cream, mustard leaves, spicy tomato ketchup, caper compote, Sichuan pepper, a little lemon compote to provide acidity, praline cream and dried of Olorosso sherry, with a garnish of little fried potatoes and smoked paprika; this was finally offered with a little pool of meat béarnaise sauce.
I had an excellent apple dessert, with apple in a series of styles and textures, with little leaves of crisp apple surrounding apple ice cream, the Creme Catalan, which is essentially a Spanish creme brûlée, served with caramelised strawberries. This was creamy with a perfectly caramelised top, topped with wild strawberries, dried strawberries and strawberry syrup; this was simply magnificent. Followed by very good coffee and a selection of petit fours. Yummy.
Overall we had a superb meal, with terrific ingredients, high levels of technical skill on display, well judged flavour combinations and attractive presentation.
If its to expensive for you, you still have the option to eat at Mama Roca in the center of Girona. Perfect food. Go for it…
Me gusta, House & Hotel Magazine was happy.
It will bring in more foodie tourists, but we enjoyed very much to play golf.
We checked in @ Meliá Golf Vichy Catalán, Girona. Just fantastic.
The perfect hotel to play the PGA Catalyunya. Just 100 meters a short stroll away from one of the best golf courses worldwide.
In my opinion the PGA Catalunya in Spain is the best (but I am not a pro).
The Meliá hotel building was the winner of a architectual contest.
The design of a single curved building, located to the back of the land, descending from the pine woods and adjusting to the lie of the land. The building was designed by the architects Berta Barrio Uría, Sergi Godia i Fran, Ignacio López Alonso and Jon Montero Madariaga.
An imposing, modern hotel integrated with its environment, in short, a unique hotel for the region. The hotel had to blend in perfectly with its surroundings: two magnificent golf courses. The architects made the building curve to reflect the passage of time and to provide different faces to visitors as they get nearer and nearer its doors.
The simple trick of pairing the windows and galleries made the hotel appear smaller, even though the façade facing the sun measure more than 150 metres, longer than a full-sized football pitch!
The lobby is the authentic heart of the building, occupying a part of each floor and connecting them in a single quadruple space looking outwards onto nature. Each floor has a viewing area of both the outdoor scenery and the indoor design. The stairs that rise up through the lobby area connect the interior journey with the exterior environment. The natural light penetrating corridors and diagonal openings also helps connect the inside of the building with its environment and was one of the obsessions of the architects throughout the building process.
The building uses materials to achieve a traditional Mediterranean style at the height of modernity.
The white and wavy building is a backdrop to the scenery, while the black stone at its base makes it appear to be floating on air. Strategically placed large wooden structures appeal to the touch, while ample glass windows allow maximum visibility of the countryside and golf course.
The materials stand out against a raw concrete canvas, highlighting the contrast with the superior quality building materials.
A huge garden measuring over 25,000 m2.
Back to Girona, the fastest way for a city to capture our heart is with architecture — and Girona’s unmistakable riverfront is just great, red and yellow buildings nicely pairing with the Catalan flags that adorn the region.
Girona, in short, is a place where we could easily settle down for a short time or even a long time.
It is bright and relaxed. While tourists will do just fine on their own, the city doesn’t make tourists the center of the universe.
At night, Girona lights up spectacularly, the city catches we recommend walking along the river at night.
We enjoyed our trip, me gusta Melia.
Spain & Almodovar, me gusta.
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