Barcelona is beginning to leave behind the creative cuisine fever that a few years ago pushed even the smallest and humblest of our restaurants to want to be a forcibly cheap and clumsy copy of El Bulli. When Can Ferran Adrià was at its peak, the great lineages of restaurateurs in the country were falling over themselves to send their heirs to Cala Montjoi to learn how to perform the miracle of the loaves and fishes. The owners of most of the city's inns and other popular establishments wanted to do the same ---perhaps because they thought that, if they didn't embrace the new religion, they would look tacky--- and the result was dramatic.
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Certainly, among the chefs who have passed through El Bulli there are some of the current great names in our cuisine, but there are also many others who, believing themselves alchemists and wanting to reproduce in their family businesses the revolutionary ideas they had learned, have failed spectacularly. They wanted to be sophisticated and modern and that's why they stopped making the traditional fricandó with mushrooms to start preparing an insipid beef carpaccio with boletus slices as thin as rolling paper. Or they removed soups and stews from the menu ---because they seemed corny and poor to them--- and replaced them with lukewarm creams served in coffee cups at a golden price or, even worse, with foams and spherifications!
Everything has been returning to its place over the years, but at the moment of maximum splendor of this type of cuisine, in certain restaurants, you didn't know if you were having dinner or watching a show by Mago Pop. Nor if they were serving you a tasting menu or putting on a variety show for you, not even in El Molino, with so much colored light, smoke, sequins, and glitter. Of course, there was little meat because what mattered least was the food.
At the moment of maximum splendor of this type of cuisine, in certain restaurants, you didn't know if you were having dinner or watching a show by Mago PopLet me say, before tackling the second part of this article, that I have nothing against avant-garde cuisine and that I have enjoyed as much as anyone some of the most innovative proposals from the Roca brothers or Carme Ruscalleda. What I mean is that, with the will to be modern ---also with the will to satisfy an increasingly international clientele, but I'll save that for another day---, at a certain point many popular restaurants in Barcelona renounced the tradition of the "chup-chup" to embrace a pompous and at the same time arriviste cuisine that, at best, has ended up being mediocre and, at worst, deceitful.
Luckily, there are a handful of traditional restaurants that did not let themselves be seduced by these siren songs. They have continued to make honest and unpretentious cuisine at a very good price and, precisely because of this, they have a loyal clientele. I'm talking about establishments like Restaurante Portolés (Diputació-Roger de Flor), where I've been dining regularly for more than ten years.
The most important element of the Portolés dining room is the blackboard where the daily specials are written with the price next to them. The Portolés blackboard is like a manifesto of a certain way of understanding cuisine and perhaps life. In fact, there are three blackboards. One for starters, the other for main courses, and a small one for desserts. To me, they remind me of the panels in airport terminals with flight information that everyone stares at in awe. One of the worst things that can happen to you when you're waiting to board is for the dreaded DELAYED or, even worse, CANCELLED to appear next to your flight number. You feel the same anger when, at Portolés, you've already decided on some grilled lamb chops and, when you're about to order, one of the waiters goes to the blackboard and erases its price: dish sold out.
The Portolés blackboard is like a manifesto of a certain way of understanding cuisine and perhaps lifeFor a starter, especially if it's cold, I opt for the mixed soup, although I also don't say no to a good plate of Swiss chard. For the main course, I love quail in vinaigrette or, if I want something lighter, grilled sole with garlic and parsley. I have friends who like to snack on fried brains or who, from time to time, treat themselves to a good plate of tripe. For dessert, the house specialty is flans, obviously homemade, of coffee, coconut, and chocolate.
The last day I went to dinner at Portolés, I heard a voice that sounded familiar and, when I discreetly turned around, I saw that it was the actor Brays Efe dining with a group of friends. I remember that Portolés suited Paquita Salas ---addicted to torreznos and Larios--- very well, and I imagined her having a little glass of Aromas de Montserrat from that bottle they must have had behind the counter for decades.
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