The Metropolitan threw a sit down dinner with ten Spanish Chefs concocting their take on new Spanish cuisine. As a novice in the game of highbrow events, blown away was this fresh-faced BK writer by the creativity and passion presented by the chefs in their food and demeanor. But don’t forget a novice can have a sharp tongue and a hard bite. Disappointed by the fact that good Spanish wine was not served at the start of this five-course meal, I was left asking, where is my wine? Spaniards will definitely raise their eyebrow at the fact that the only drink served at the start of the meal was sangria. Sangria is synonymous with Spain, but to their dismay. It is not a good drink, Sangria is a party punch, a quick way to get wasted, not a good grape to accompany a great meal. We were waiting for some good Spanish wine to come out, but by our second course, no wine showed up, so we were still sipping on our pretty weak sangria. By then we were miffed and so took matters into our own hands and ordered some nice Spanish red wine. How could they forget such a crucial ingredient to fine dining? Drinking red with the meal was a perfect combination. Satisfied with our drink and finally feeling like we are sitting down for a fine meal, we could focus on the creativity and interesting flavors of the new cuisine.

            The chefs are in town to broaden their knowledge of gastronomy by enrolling in the Suan Dusit University to learn about Thai cuisine, therefore this Spanish dinner was a diplomatic expedition of Thai meets Spain. The star of the appetizers was the jamon (Spanish ham), I further appreciated the meat after meeting the chef, a jamon slicer from the southThe first dish was aptly named the Thai taxi gazpacho. A line up of carrot, tomato, beet root and coriander. We had to start from left to right to savor the different flavors. This was truly high class dining, when there are set rules to consumption. Feeling like pretty woman in the snail scene, I was a little embarrassed in having to ask the waiter again, how to eat the gazpacho and what they actually were. But hey, there is nothing wrong in learning new things. Who knows when the next time I will have to show my cuisine prowess during the consumption of a Thai taxi gazpacho. The highlight of the meal was a creative composition of blood sausage and vanilla. The butifarra negra (catalan black sausage) cannelloni with vanilla oil and parmesan cream may sound gross to some and a heavy meal to many. But the meal was far from disgusting, bordering on amazing and surprisingly it wasn’t as heavy as one would think, the cannelloni wrap was light and the mixture of the sausage with vanilla cream was a great balance of sweet and salty, creamy smoothness and meaty texture. Being in a luxurious setting I forgot my manners and couldn’t stifle my pedestrian sounds of enjoyment.  The third course a marinated harpuka fried in ham oil with pisto and an “esqueixada” cloud was flavorful, but the fish could’ve been a little bit more tender. The freshness of the meat along with the toasted sweetness of the vegetables was a great combo. The presentation was baffling but interesting, with the “esqueixada” cloud, or in other words, foam. The fourth course, pork terrine with pineapple and apple chutney in a sweet and sour jus was gluttony at its highest point, it was so tender and glutinous, it was sinful. The dessert the chocolate and mint in a flowerpot was simple creativity, the taste—great homemade brownie. The Spanish concept of cuisine is that everything is edible on that plate, so everything in the flowerpot, including the Thai orchid was eaten. I never knew orchid was edible until the Spanish chef told me. Truly a cross-cultural experience.