from Bath to Barcelona… and more

beyond the pale ale: craft beer from the far north

 

To the very best of my knowledge, this was the first beer of any description that I've tried from Iceland. You can almost taste those volcanic minerals…

 

 

A very acceptable pale ale, though it was served way too chilled...

 

But that was OK: the setting was pretty chilled too.

 

Oskar's Bar, in the basement under Dabbous in Fitzrovia.

41 Degrees — the Barça bar where the snacks are as cool as the clientele

Following up on my vids from last week... a few more images from 41°

A green olive, the perfect accompaniment to a potent and very well shaken martini. These are olives from El Bulli, though, which means they have been de- and re-constructed.

So good we ordered another half dozen...

Our barman was from Argentina, and he has his craft down perfectly. We asked for a cocktail, one of the house specials...

It was great, far better than you'd expect from a concoction called Creep Show that included green tea on the list of ingredients.

Here are few more images of the bar snacks: some (like the "olives") were brilliant. Others were just very good.

Parmesan cheese ice cream in crispy wafers...

"Airbags" — crisp balloons toped with ikura roe...

Galletas de gamba — crunchy crispy crackers with a deep shrimp aroma...

And for dessert, wonderful creamy redcurrant "profiteroles"...