9/2/2018 Colourful cuisine on the Costa Brava | How To Spend It

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Colourful cuisine on the Costa Brava

Fresh fish and kitchen garden goodies shine at Pera Batlla

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June 30 2016 / Sue Style

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Where to find

Pera Batlla, Paratge Camp del Molis/n, 17472 Armentera, Girona, Spain (+34872-980 103; www.perabatlla.com).

Fine food in Spain is so much a part of the furniture nowadays that few can recall the incinerated meat and limp vegetables swimming in oil that were once standard
fare. One of the regions that has travelled farthest in terms of thrilling eating is Catalonia, which boasts more than its fair share of ambitious and talented local chefs.
There are Ferran Adrià and the Roca brothers, for starters, but also many less-known names such as Antonia Quiñones, whose restaurant Pera Batlla lies just inland
from L’Escala on the northern Costa Brava. Housed in an 18th-century water mill, it has a capacious terrace looking out over the mill stream (first picture) for long
summer evenings; and a cosy, rough-cast, stone-walled dining room with a wood-burning corner stove in winter.

Chef-owner Quiñones uses words like “simple”, “real” and “honest” to describe her cooking, which fuses influences from her native Andalucia and adoptive
Catalonia, interspersed with splashes of colour and flavour from Morocco (she recently did “a month’s total immersion in Middle Eastern cuisine” there) and Asia
(where she fell in love with Shanghai street food and “couldn’t wait to experiment with dim sum back home”). Bounty from the beloved kitchen garden (third
picture), which turns out an unending supply of vegetables, herbs and fruit, is writ large on the menu, as is fish from the inshore boats of nearby L’Escala and Roses.
Rarely far from the menu are L’Escala’s celebrated anchovies (€9.90), criss-crossed on slices of crusty bread rubbed with ripe red tomatoes, and you can count on
cephalopods in various guises – this spring brought cuttlefish croquetas with a lime alioli (€7.50); and squid rings in tempura batter with a sweet-sour soy sauce and
bite-sized chipirones Andalucian-style with artichokes and black sausage (€14.50).

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Sea bass is sashimi-ed and served with wok-fried pak choi (€16.50); and tiny red mullet fillets crown a soupy risotto packed with baby carrots, mangetout and beans
(€19.50). For simple beauty, fresh flavours and a riot of colours and textures, the chef’s tabbouleh of broad beans with quinoa, mint leaves and flakes of fresh
mackerel (€12.50, second picture) takes some beating. And carnivores, meanwhile, have their work cut out deciding between locally raised Ibéricopork with rice
(€18.30) from the Empordà rice fields; and a rich, gelatinous, boneless pig’s trotter with prawns (€16.90) – the chef’s take on the classic mar y muntanya (surf ’n’
turf) combo so beloved of Catalans.

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9/2/2018 Colourful cuisine on the Costa Brava | How To Spend It

The one problem at Pera Batlla is that by the time you’ve flashed forks at the tapas, feasted on fish or meat and given proper attention to the house vegetables, you
may not have room for dessert. Big mistake. Leave a corner, at least, for the frozen mascarpone tart (€5), scattered with edible flowers. And the wine list deserves a
look-in, too, as it’s devoted in large part to exciting wines from the rising Empordà appellation – bottles with bags of character and a strong sense of place. Just like
the chef.

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Destinations

Barcelona’s new waterfront hotel with heritage

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A high-altitude cycling challenge in Catalonia

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Every dog has its day at Daphne’s

Limited-edition Lulu Guinness dog bowl celebrates dogs’ entry to the restaurant

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June 29 2016 / Beatrice Aidin

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Where to find

Daphne’s, 112 Draycott Avenue, London SW3 (020-7589 4257; www.daphnes-restaurant.co.uk). Lulu Guinness, 5 East Piazza, Royal Opera House Arcade, London
WC2 (020-7240 2537; www.luluguinness.com).

The dogs of Chelsea have little missing in their lives. But restaurants where they can accompany their owners inside? Not so many. So both dog lovers and their
pooches will be pleased to know that from July 1 they will both be welcome in the conservatory of Daphne’s, the iconic restaurant tucked just behind Brompton
Cross, between 12pm and 6pm.

To celebrate this dog-tervention, hounds will be able to drink out of a Lulu Guinness-designed dog bowl (£60, first picture). Just 50 are available to buy, for delivery
from August 1.

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It is no coincidence that Guinness was asked to design the bowl, as not only is she a longstanding regular of the restaurant, but her little westie is named Daphne. The
Daphne’s Dog Bowl features a cameo of Guinness’s pup on a backdrop of the signature teal colours of the restaurant (second picture). Each is handpainted, hand-
fired and has the signature Lulu Guinness lips on the base.

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Be alert, though, before you pitch up with a pooch: there’s a Daphne’s Doggy Code of Conduct. Only dogs the size of a springer spaniel will be allowed entry, and
they must sit under the table and not try to eat off it. If dogs get too excited, they will be asked to be escorted off the premises by their owner, whether or not said
owner is halfway through a plate of Veal Cotoletta alla Milanese.

As for good dogs, they get a specially designed Doggie Biscotti – at Daphne’s, every well-behaved dog will have its day.

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