Three Nights of José Andrés - Night 2: Jaleo Las Vegas, again

Mrs. A and I returned to Jaleo the following evening for dinner.  We sat at the same booth, looked at the same menu and wine list, and felt just as excited as before.  We employed the same strategy of ordering two items at a time to avoid having too many dishes arriving at our table simultaneously.

We started with Jamon Iberico Fermin with pan con tomate and Aceitunas rellenas y aceitunas ‘Ferran Adria’.   We never got tired of Iberico ham.  The pitted green olives were stuffed with anchovy and red sweet piquillo pepper.  The five dark balls were ‘Ferran Adria’ liquid olives.  I picked one up with a spoon and put it in my mouth.  It burst on my tongue, and there was nothing but a small amount of liquid with an intense favor of a salted olive.  Both tapas went well with the cava - Huguet Gran Reserva 2007 – that we were drinking.                       

Jamon Iberico

Olives stuffed with anchovy and piquillo, and ‘Ferran Adria’ liquid olives

What came next were Esparragos blancos con limon y tomillo and Ostra ‘Gin & Tonic’.  Californian white asparagus were presented in a ‘tin can’.  The tips leaned out at one end of the can and the bottom of the stalks were cut and arranged vertically at the other end.  They were dressed with lemon, thyme, and topped with shaved idiazabal, a smoked nutty flavored sheep’s milk cheese from Basque, and lemon zest.  White asparagus could be tough, but these were tender and refreshing.         

White asparagus with lemon, thyme and Idiazabal chees

I gathered that Chef Jose Andres loves gin and tonic as it pops up here and there on the menu of his restaurants.  The shellfish in Ostra ‘Gin & Tonic’ looked like Kumamoto to me.  Each oyster had a few drops of gin and another few drops of tonic water on it, and topped with slivers of lemon zest.  The taste was very different from oysters in their natural jus or with mignonette sauce.

Oysters with lemon and Gin & Tonic

I ordered Huevo frito con caviar again.  This time I stopped the food runner from cutting up the egg for me.  It was so much more fun to break the egg myself, watched the yolk slowly oozed out, and mixed the ingredients gently so I could spoon a glob of caviar together with a lot of yolk, large pieces of egg white and some of the onion confit into my mouth.  Eating the egg that way was more satisfying to me than eating it thoroughly mixed the night before.  I loved this dish.

Huevo frito con caviar

The shrimp dish, Gambas al Ajillo, was very good too.  Half a dozen of shrimps, peeled except at the tail, were served in a small copper pan with a rich tomato sauce seasoned with garlic and red pepper.  The delicious sauce reminded us of something similar in ‘Chinese style western cooking’ of earlier period.  Our waiter suggested an order of bread, pan con nada, to mop up the sauce.        

Shrimps sautéed with garlic

Mrs. A’s Sopa de ajo was sent to the wrong table, and a new one was made for her.  The soup bowl arrived with two pieces of thin toast curl standing over a slow cooked egg (the 63 degree egg) in it, and black and regular garlic puree painted on its side.  The food runner poured the soup into the bowl tableside.  Unfortunately she poured the liquid directly onto the toast, which immediately collapsed and ruined the presentation.  That course was the only hiccup for the evening.  Unknown to us, the restaurant took it off our bill.  That was a graceful gesture.  

Garlic soup with black garlic and 63°C egg

Our last savory dish for the night was Pulpo a Feira Maestro Alfonso - boiled octopus with pee wee potatoes, pimento and olive oil.  The incredibly tender octopus required almost no chewing; so were the potatoes.

Boiled octopus with pee wee potatoes, pimento and olive oil

There were more items on the menu that we liked to try, but we had to save room for dessert.  However, we did not get to order.  Our waiter said Chef Carlos was making for us the classic Spanish flan “al Estilo tradicional de Mama Marisa” with espuma of Crema Catalana and candied orange peels, orange sections and sorbet.  The flan was rich in flavor, very creamy but a little grainy in texture, which I liked.  It was simply the best flan we have ever had.

Classic Spanish flan with ‘espuma’ of Catalan cream and oranges

During dinner I noticed that the roast pit was put into action.  A chef was roasting a suckling pig over fire.  The pig was special ordered by a large party that evening.  The manager told us that Jaleo serves cochinillo asado – roasted suckling pig - every Sunday night.  That alone is a reason for us to return in the future.  

Suckling pig (front) and Paella over fire (left in the back)