Vinagre

Fish and chips Media Ración style … feat. La Panesa

~ sharquillo ~ Leave a comment

The bar of Media Ración is a special place: top class food, wine, service, comfort and condiments – it really has everything. Including fish and chips. Not on the menu, admittedly, but if you simply take the soldaditos de pavia (deep fried cod “soldiers”) and request some chips, Robert is your father’s brother as they say.

Best of all, and as previously reported on this blog, you can splash the resulting plate with a liberal quantity of really top class, tasty vinegar, sprinkle on some salt and wash it down with an absolutely superb fino: la Panesa.

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Paez Morilla Reserva 25

~ sharquillo ~ Leave a comment

One of the unexpected benefits of my fascination with Jerez has been getting to know what proper vinagre tastes like. Sharp, intense, and rich, this beauty is in every dimension superior to the industrial version you may find in your supermarket.

It is produced by Paez Morilla, who have apparently been selling Vinagre de Jerez longer than anyone (since 1945 or thereabouts) and is produced in soleras fed with “vinos de jerez de palomino fino” (it says here). As a result it is a fairly hefty 8% proof but unlike some of the reserva vinagres I have tried it isn’t over the top.

Really cracking accompaniment to some nice fried hake today at Media Racion – all that was missing were the chips …

El Majuelo, Vinagre de Jerez, 10 años

~ sharquillo ~ 2 Comments

This here is as different from your “vinegar flavoured condiment” that it is possible to get. This here, is the real thing.

A generous gift from a friend (searching on line to find out more about it I discovered how generous) this is a limited, numbered edition 10 year old “gran reserva” vinegar, here being utterly wasted on a mixed salad by the ignoramus responsible for this blog. (Having said that, ever since I have been wracking my tiny brain for suggestions of what dish is good enough for such a vinegar, with no luck so far).

How to describe it? Well it is to your standard white wine vinegar what a VORS oloroso is to a mosto – incomparably more intense. Full bodied and dark in color, it has the most unbelievable aroma (I knew I had made a mistake right away) and is even more incisive taste wise. A really intense experience.

Really worth looking out for this stuff – a really eye opener.