Rieux

I'm looking for a tapas cooking class (a one-time deal) for me and 2 friends to take. It's one person's birthday, and we all lived in Spain together, so we thought this would be a fun gift. The class a the Academie de Cusine is booked Any suggestions?

Ate there last night, actually. I found it totally underwhelming. Among the four of us we had the pork loin (which I did not taste, but the two people who had it left more than 1/2 on their plates, so that is saying something), the goat stew (which the person eating said was tasty), and I had the lamb stew (which basically tasted like dry lamb cubes in chef boy-ar-dee sauce over orzo). The greek salads were good, and the phyllo stuffed with cheese was tasty, but nothing special. I think I've had the same quality from those pre-frozen appetizer packs they sell at Stew Leonard's in CT. Someone next to us ordered a whole fish baked in salt (deboned tableside) which looked as good as those that I have eaten in Brazil, so maybe fish is the way to go here. Service was s l o w. We got our appetizers quickly, but then waited about an hour for mains!

They've had good selections of Le Creuset in the store in my hometown of Ridgefield, CT now and again. May not be that much farther than Fairfield for you, and you can have a hot dog from the Chez Leonard cart on Main St.

I've lived in Brazil and adore Pao de Queijo and cannot wait to be able to buy it here so I no longer have to smuggle mixes back in my luggage! Sadly I'll be out of town so can't taste test, but from my experience, slightly larger is better (golf ball size) for breakfast, and, surprisingly, they are good with a drop of ketchup on them (which is the way many people in Southern Brazil eat them for breakfast).

I lived in Madrid for quite a while and learned how to make Gazpacho from my 80 year old next door neighbor. I usually wing it, but my recipe is similar to Jose Andres' with a few exceptions. To the 2 kg of tomatoes and one large cucumber I add about 1 bell pepper and maybe a 1/4 cup red wine vinegar. I also add 1/4th of an onion and 3 cloves of garlic. Also, the secret to a good, thick gazpacho is to take stale bread (like 4 inches of a 2-day old baguette), soak it in water for a few minutes, wring it out, and add it to the blender. I like to have smooth gazpacho, so I blend all of this together exuberantly. Then I add good olive oil and salt. I never do any of that fancy garnish stuff. I made this last night, and am looking forward to eating the leftovers today. Gazpacho is always better the 2nd day. ...Oh, and serve it with a plate on the side with traditional Spanish egg/potato tortilla and some mixed greens. Yum.