José Pizarro

I recently had a fantastic lunch at José, 104 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3UB – the first English business I felt worthy of a post on COMPRA. It would seem that Bermondsey Street represents the antithesis of everything this blog has been set up to celebrate, but amid the gated communities, and businesses set up to cater for their needs, there is an island of genuine Spanish warmth. A tiny corner shop front houses José, a Tapas Bar owned by the Spanish Chef, José Pizarro. There are many things about José that lift it above the branded food tourism of so many London based Spanish restaurants. The first and most important is the food – authentic seasonal ingredients simply cooked ‘a la plancha’, and priced to reflect quality not exclusivity. On arrival we ordered a bottle of Albariño, as good as any I had in Galicia and a plate of Girolles, fried with shallots, on sour dough toast, topped with grated Manchego and mint. This was the first in a succession of dishes of simple perfection – the highlights of which were sweet succulent prawns with garlic and chilli and razor clams with chorizo. In an earlier post I talked about Rias Biaxas in Vigo being a place where all classes and professions were able to enjoy food of the highest quality and how in Spain restaurants like this are rarely exclusive or forbidding. Despite it’s up market location José has this same quality and as the afternoon progressed we became immersed in an environment that was as intoxicatingly convivial as any of bars I visited in Valencia, Coruna or Vigo. The size of José engenders this, as does the simplicity of its décor and a layout that forbids people from skulking away in corners. Another key factor is the staff, who seem to have an enthusiasm and a love for the restaurant that is born out of an investment beyond a weekly pay cheque. Our hostess Valentina managed to provide efficient, informative service, while always making us feel like she was enjoying the afternoon as much as we were. At the end of the meal we had a look through Jose Pizarro’s book on Seasonal Spanish Food and would have bought it, had we not blown most of our funds on Iberico ham and glasses Sherry to round off our meal. The first page of the book has a picture of José with his mum and dad, above the picture it says ‘para mis padres’ – this image seems to sum up the attitude of his business. (click images to enlarge)

Calle La Franje

In A Coruña, the place to eat seafood is on a buzzing little street called La Franja, more or less every restaurant here serves good seafood tapas. One Sunday afternoon I spent a very pleasant 3 hours in a bar called ‘Meson O Gallego’. Here is what I wrote in my notebook. ‘I ate in ‘Meson O Gallego’ because they had a menu you could point at. The waitresses looked like they had the hump, but the food looked great and it was rammed, so I waited for a table and sat down. As I suspected, service was very gruff, no niceties, point and pick, get your wine, get your bread and get on with it. I had scallops cooked with bacon, asparagus and prawns that were big, plump & sweet all of which was mopped up with some good rustic bread. After a couple of glasses of wine, I got talking to a young Spanish couple, who commented on me translating the menu with my phrase book and writing notes. They were from Salamanca, ‘the most attractive city in Spain’ apparently - could be a next trip (is their football team in LaLiga?) They took me through virtually the whole menu and recommended I round of my meal with some Orujo and after a couple of these I realized that the waitresses were not miserable after all and were actually very funny in a very dry, slightly scary, way'.