… and the marking of the turning of a quarter century

No… Not THIS el bulli! (Although maybe ONE day when I take a trip to Spain…)

But both being spanish restaurants and top notch “gems” in busy cities, you’d think the confusion would be common. However, the fact that they are at opposite sides of the world and in different hemispheres, this is what splits both apart.

Tonight, my family and I have come to el-bulli to celebrate the dawn of a new milestone. When new siblings come into this world, in your eyes, they are always the little one. Little ones aren’t meant to grow up, but then suddenly they somehow grow taller than you, ask you about grown up things and the biggest *horror*… STARTS DATING! Nono… little brother’s aren’t meant to DATE! Anyways… after overcoming the “growing up” shock and horror, it was time to celebrate my brother’s 21st birthday… (even though in my mind, he’s still 5…)

My brother decided he wanted to try a spanish cuisine to celebrate his quarter century milestone, so off I went to scourer for a place to dine. A friend jokingly tricked me into believing he went to el bulli, and I was SO jealous for those few jokingly minutes, therefore, in rememberance of this moment, I booked a table at el-Bulli.

Arriving a few minutes early on a friday night for a 8pm booking, the place was BUZZING with diners, a few on dates (I think!), various birthday celebrations, AND we were left waiting in the cold watching others munch on tapas, sip on sangrias, etc… My mouth was watering! After a few minutes wait, we were shown to our table at the back of the restaurant, more suited for the larger groups of diners.

The interior had a nice rustic, contemporary feel. I felt like I was eating in a lit up dungeon room on long wooden tables and benches. It was awesome!

We order a large jug of sangria as I browsed through the wooden covered menu. There’s quite a lot of food on offer, ranging from tapas plates, to skewers of meat, to paella mains and “healthy” salads. With the different ranges, I recommend this place for large groups, parties, celebrations, etc. It suits the all different tastes and diets (oh maybe not for those on a “diet” diet… tehehe!)

The food arrives rather fast, and luckily it does too as I am STARVING! I think most of the tapas are pre-made, which probably makes them even tastier as the taste soaks into the foods.

First is the complementary bread. The butter was creamy, garlic-y and was dug into in a flash! Too bad there wasn’t enough bread for the hungry mouths…

Traditional spanish meatballs seasoned with paprika, served in tomato salsa. – $14.50

Me being the vegequarian, I was told the meatballs were very flavoursome and the balls themselves were nice and soft.

Chargrilled baby octopus dressed with Chimichurri – $14.50

The octopus was a hit! Luckily there was enough for one each or else there would have been fights! It was nicely chargrilled, with a light touch of a chilli flavour. (According to wikipedia, Chimichurri is made from a mix of parsley, minced garlic, vinegar, red pepper flakes and oil.)

Salt and pepper deefried whitebait, served with fresh lemon – $11.50

The whitebait leaned a little to the salty side, which I found quite nice. They tasted like these tasty asian fishy snacks, that come in little packets with nuts. I snack on these when I crave for salt! a touch of lemon with the whitebait added an extra freshness to them.

Stuffed grilled mushrooms filled with pancetta, parsley and manchego cheese – $13.50

When these first arrived, I thought “damn! ordered the wrong mushrooms!”. This dish wasn’t too bad, as they were quickly snapped up! I was then ordered to order the right mushrooms quickly!

Panfried prawns in a tomato based garlic, chilli and olive oil salsa – $19.50

Although a little $$$ for the sizing and a little oily (what do you expect when it says served with chilli and olive oil!), the prawns were had a nice garlicy taste. (If only we had more bread to soak up the sauce!!)

Mixed green leaves, egg, olives, serrano ham, baby sardines, grilled peppers, served with gazpacho dressing – $15.50

Finally, something to balance out the flavours! With all the tapas being so flavoursome, we needed this balance of greens to calm the tastebuds. The salad was blended well with a good mix of dressing and ingredients.

Assortment of chargrilled roast baby peppers, artichoke hearts, marinated eggplant, spanish onion and zucchini – $13.50

We saw the table next to us have this and my mum tells me she wants it! (Also, the sangria was hitting her a little) Luckily for her, our stomachs were still a little empty from what I thought would be a substantial amount of tapas. Everyone dug into this dish along with the paella. It was a great side to the carbs and protein!

Traditional rice dish containing seafood, chicken and traces of chorizo – $28.50 per person

We ordered 3 servings of paella. At first glance, it didn’t look like much but once we started, the flavours and ingredients in this paella filled each empty space in our stomachs. It was a lot more saucier than the one we made for our spanish cookup, which was probably the thing that made this paella so tasty! The paella had a mix of seafood, including blue swimmer crab (!!), prawns, mussels, clams, as well as a load of chorizo. The seafood was very fresh and went SO well with the rice.

Crispy panfried chorizo and spanish onion in a cider glaze – $14.50

The chorizo was slightly salty, but luckily it came with the paella.

Finally, the mushrooms came!

Sauteed mushrooms in garlic, parsley, white wine and olive oil – $11.50
The mushrooms were a HUGE hit! It had a strong garlicy flavour (not good for those hoping for a smooch afterwards). The serving was plentiful as each person had a smile, mushroom after mushroom. It was like we all had an extra stomach for the mushrooms.

Another jug of sangria was on the cards for the end of the meal, but my mum was strangely getting a little too raudy so we rushed to get the cake!!

Being asian, of course my parents got an asian cake. Personally I’m not a fan of asian cakes, due to the fact that people only get the same THREE types:

- durian

- taro

- or something really creamy.

Tonight on order was… *bing* some creamy cake! But it does look good doesn’t it?!

El-Bulli is a great place for larger groups so you can share more plates of tapas as well as have a jolly night with jugs of sangria! And don’t forget to book as this place gets very busy!

El-Bulli

501 Elizabeth St,

Surry Hills NSW

Ph: +61 2 9319 5199

Fax: +61 2 9398 1927

Web: http://www.elbulli.com.au

Open 7 days from 5pm and lunches Tuesday to Friday 12 noon to 3pm.

There’s also a 2nd restaurant in Randwick.