Tasting

I ate this, and it was so good that I nearly wept. It was our wedding anniversary today, and since number 30 doesn't come along every year, we had lunch at the Club Allard. I have always been sceptical about El Bulli and Fat Duck-style cuisine (never having eaten at either), but now I get it. It's evanescent, edible art.

There's no choice except for deciding how many dishes you are going to have and mentioning any allergies. Then you get served whatever the chef wants to offer you. Each tiny dish was barely two mouthfuls, and we lost count after the first half dozen. Every one left you longing for just a tiny bit more to prolong the experience. I simply can't describe most of them, but this little fishbowl dessert was my favourite. Believe it or not, the green crinkly seaweed tasted exactly of deep-fried churros. How do you even have the imagination to think of that? My other favourite was a dish with a base of dehydrated powdered white truffle, and foie gras disguised as ... a truffle. The waiter lifted the dish up as he brought it to the table and a plume of scented smoke wafted out, which sounds gimmicky -- OK, is gimmicky -- but it did complement the flavours.

Lunch lasted quite a few hours, and after it was over we were just capable of tottering out of the restaurant and hailing a cab (hence the backblip). But the day wasn't entirely frittered away, as we'd spent the morning at the Thyssen Bornemisza. We'd decided to visit no more than two galleries on this trip, and at the last minute we plumped for this instead of the Reina Sofia. It was a good choice: like a tasting menu it has a wide range of art from the 15th to the 20th century, but generally only a couple of works by each artist.

We spent a long time on the top floor admiring some wonderful 15th and 16th century religious art, and a beautiful collection of portraits, including Holbein's famous Henry VIII. After a pause for coffee, we headed for the impressionists on the first floor, followed by a quick whiz round the cubists on the ground floor, which was a bit of a culture shock. I think a better plan would be to do the top floor in the morning, have a lunch break, and then come back in the afternoon for the rest. I'm almost tempted to say that if you only have time for one museum in Madrid, you should make it this one.