COCOBELLA BALLERINA

Some of you that follow me on twitter and or facebook may have seen the anniversary band the Hubs surprised me with for our 4th anniversary! It's a petite pave diamond band! And it looks like a tiny wand of glitter ::SWOON:: hehehehe.

The Hubs actually surprised me with it in Barcelona right before our dinner @ Tickets.

Haha he told me during dinner that he was sweating bullets going through airport security because he was afraid it was going to set off the security alarms and ruin the surprise hahaha :p <3 <3 <3

Quickie OOTD - Jacket: UNIQUEEN, Top: H&M, Jean Leggings: HUE, Scarf: J. CREW, Necklace: ANN TAYLOR, Shoes: PRADA, Handbag: CHANEL

TICKETS

Best meal of my life!

That is a tall order and a mighty big claim.

We eat a lot.. and we eat everywhere!

Both The Hubs and I agreed that our #1 favorite restaurant in the world was 3 Michelin star Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas you can see our dining experience here.

After Tickets, Joel Robuchon has officially been bumped to #2!

Tickets is owned by the Adria brothers. Ferran & Albert Adria of the El Bulli fame. (I've included Wikipedia links if you're interested in reading up on them :)

But for those of you that don't know and are looking for the cliff notes version basically El Bulli has received basically every award and accolade possible for a restaurant to receive.

3 michelin stars. boom. It was voted the #1 restaurant in the world for an unprecedented 5 years before it was shut down in 2012 because it was operating at such a tremendous lose. The restaurant only operated for roughly 6 months out of a year and only served 8,000 diners even though they received on average 2 million reservation requests a year! The Adria brothers just refuse to charge money for their amazing food! Which is sort of a crazy concept in the high end dining world.

The restaurant shut down and all sorts of rumors were spawned.. first they were just taking a break.. then they were taking a break and turning it into a culinary creative think tank.. then they were closing permanently never to reopen. Then they were just taking a break and then re-opening as a restaurant again.. and now the website doesn't really have updated information on the current status of the restaurant. So it's total up in the air.

Sadly I may never be able to eat at El Bulli but have no fear there is Tickets!!

Tickets is currently being touted as one of the Top 11 Most Difficult Reservations in the WORLD!

You can read all about it here.

It tops the list at #4 (and interestingly enough Minibar by Jose Andres who just so happens to be one of of Ferran Adria's greatest protege comes in at #8 for all my MD/DC/VA peeps and French Laundry at #10 for all my Bay Area folks :)

You can't even call or e-mail them to get a reservation it MUST MUST be done online with their reservation service. And reservations can only be made 2 months in advance (the 11 most difficult reservations article says 3 months but it's since been changed to 2 months since the article was written) AND basically they are booked as soon as midnight rolls around.

So exactly 60 days in advance to the day we planned to go there we were sitting at home at 11:50 pm with two laptops, an iPad, and a desktop computer all logged onto the Tickets website waiting for midnight.

Yes I am a psycho nut job.. but when I've made up my mind about something I'm gonna make it happen.. or at least the Hubs will make it happen or else have to listen to me talk about it for the rest of eternity HAHAHAHAHA.

And what do you know.. my laptop got locked out.. the Ipad froze.. but the Hubs got in with his desktop computer WOOHOOOOOO!!!! Major brownie points for the Hubby :)!

And the journey to food mecca begins!!

WOOT!

The entrance to the restaurant is so fun and whimsical very much like going to the circus.

Couple shot because it's our anniversary dinner hehe :)

Checking us on the guest list!

The "Ringmaster"! :)

The whimsical menu!

Notice the unique eating utensils? We ate with prongs!!

The Olive-S

These deconstructed Olive's are by far one of Ferran Adria's most famous creation. It was a hit at El Bulli and they carried them over to Tickets!

It looks like a regular olive but they aren't! It's completely liquefied and it's being held by a really thin gelatinous layer and the inside is like liquid olive oil. So crazy cool!

Albert Adria!

I almost had a heart attack.. I was soo starstruck hahahahaha. I snapped like a dozen photos! Unfortunately Ferran Adria was no where in sight :( but it's my understanding they tend to not work on the same nights.

AHAHAHA I kept it at a minimum and only posted 3 :)

You're welcome hahahahahahahah.

Manchego Cheese Mini Air Bags

Omgosh these were soooooooooooooooo crazy delicious! And they were totally mind blowing.

They are made up of many different compartments obviously there's a slice of manchego cheese on top and I thought that was it. The mini air bags are light and crispy and wafer thin but when you bite into it's a pool of delicious melted manchego cheese!!!!!

I can't figure out how they do it while still keeping the air bag crispy and light. We had no idea there was melted cheese inside.

HAHAHA this is when I realized there was melted gooey manchego cheese inside! :p

Tomato Tar tare

I almost freaked because I had forgotten I had ordered the Tomato Tar tare and for a moment thought I had accidentally ordered beef tar tare hahahahah. I don't do raw beef! I just don't like it. Luckily it was tomato hehehe :)

Tuna tar tare cones w/ roe

Fresh and delicious!

Avocado Cannelloni with crab and romesco sauce

OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG THIS WAS AMAZEBALLS GOOD

Basically the BEST freaking california roll you will eat in the entire life.. but made with fresh crab and I mean STUFFED with so much crab in the smoothest creamiest texture ever. With super fresh avocado. This dish was so good I didn't even miss the rice hahahaha. And I LOVE RICE. muhahahahahahah

BTW it was so good we ordered a 2nd one.

UH-HUH it.was.that.good.

hahahahahahaha.

Air Baguettes w/ Jambon

This was very similar to the Manchego air bags. It tasted like a baguette but it was hollow!!! It was like a crispy wafer thin baguette with delicious fatty Jambon seared around the baguette bread.

Razer Clams in escabeche sauce, saffron pearls, and soy sauce shards

Fresh Razor clams ceviche style!

Raw Oyster w/ its" pearl"

Hahaha this was funny because The Hubs thought the "pearl" was real!

It was actually another one of Ferran Adria's ingenious deconstructed gelatinous creations. The inside of the "pearl" is bursting with raw oyster flavor.

"Molette" with double chin

I honestly still am not sure what this was but it was FREAKIN' DELICIOUS!

It was some kind of freshly made puffy flat bread with I think seared pork belly that was and some kind of melted cheese. Heaven!

(SO good that I ordered another one -___- I know.. I know hahaha)

Gelatin Figs with Raspberry Sorbet, White Chocolate and Gingerbread

This was sooooooooooooooooooooo good!

I love love love Figs and this seriously did not disappoint. And the gingerbread was soft and pillowy and such a unique pairing but it was delicious together!

"The Egg"

This was actually a dessert! In a real egg shell! The top was a mango sorbet as the "yolk"

The "white" part of the egg was a liquid meringue.

I forgot to photograph the bottom part but the very bottom of the egg shell was a crunchy gingerbread which was suppose to be like the "bread" in which you spread the "soft boiled egg" on! So cute!

The best part of the evening was that we were seated right next to the dessert station so we could watch them create all of their crazy mad scientist desserts hehehe.

I specially ordered something that wasn't on the menu that I had read about online and here they are making it!!

Now I know why they don't have it on the menu it's SUPER labour intensive!

See the naked tree branches?? :)

Pouring the sugar

Cotton candy!

But that's not all because come on what fancy restaurant doesn't do cotton candy these days.. I mean hello remember Taylor on RHBH hahahahaha.

If you watch Bravo then you TOTES know what I'm referring to (and don't lie you know you TOES watch those shows. bahahahahaha)

Can you guess what it is?? :p

Here they are sprinkling different colored sugars on top of the cotton candy balls. Each of the different colored sugars were different fruit flavors!!

TA-DA!!!

Cotton Candy Tree!!!!

Hehehehehehehe :)

We were the only ones that had ordered it that night.. so everyone was turning around to look at it and they even took pictures of it hahaha the "tree" caused quite a commotion hahaha.

I'm so giddy and excited hahahahahahahahaha

The "dirt" the "tree" is planted in is actually real chocolate cocoa and chocolate shavings!

Hehehe even the guy at the next table is super excited bahahahaha!

Each of the trees are sprinkled with a different fruit flavoring and there's tiny flower petals and real fruits in each of the "trees" hehehe.

While I was frantically snapping pictures some of the flower petals and fruits starting falling out of the cotton candy balls like it would out of a real tree hahah and the Hubs kept yelling to eat the falling fruit!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Why am I such a dork -___-

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3!

"Picking fruit" out of the "Trees" :p

Too busy to be bothered to take a photo haha.

Since the cotton candy tree was not on the menu we kept joking about what the price was. The Hubs guessed it was like $50 bucks.. so every time a piece of flower or fruit dropped out of the tree he would go "That's a dollar you better eat that" HAHAHAHA

Some of the other amazing dessert creations!

Look at the giant gummy bear!

I just about died over the mini Croquembouche (literally translate to Cream Puff Cake) with the little bees!

I wanted to reach into the case and just pick off a cream puff to eat hahaha.

GIANT HAMBURGER CAKE!!

Hubs was SHOCKED at the bill. He didn't actually look at the menu when we sat down because I had done so much extensive research on the restaurant prior to us even reaching Barcelona that he knew I was just going to order whatever I wanted.

On top of that I also ordered a number of things that weren't even ON the menu AND halfway through the meal I just started ordering things from OTHER people's table that I thought looked good.. and not to mention the several time I RE-ORDERED something because it just tasted so good the first time around.

To be totally honest by the end of the meal I had absolutely no idea what our bill would be like.. so before the bill came the Hubs and I were throwing out guesses and Hubs guessed that it would be $400 Euro's which is equivalent to roughly $500 USD. I guessed $200 Euro's.

The bill?

A whopping 132 Euro's!!!

And the Cotton Candy Tree a whopping $8 Euro's!

We were both stunned.

I MEAN STUNNED.

Based on the price, presentation, the staff, the fun environment, the caliber of the food and the pure genius that is the Adria brothers this meal has officially surpassed what originally held my #1 spot Joel Robuchon.

So if you are ever planning a trip to Barcelona.. promise promise me that you will go to Tickets! It is a truly unbelievable experience unlike any other!