If you could make something so splendid from ingredients so ordinary, so unlikely, cooking must be full of many more unearthed secrets.
Considering the splendid service, high-quality ingredients and integrity of preparation, dining here is a delicious bargain.
When you take this slightly hot, quite sweet, sour and extremely juicy sauce and pair it with fish (chicken, yes; pork or beef, sure; but primarily fish), something really magical happens: a bunch of rather ordinary ingredients becomes quite splendid.
Sainsbury's alone stock 34 varieties of real vinegar (they sent me their sherry one, which was very nice), a fact that highlights the splendid variety of this redoubtable ingredient.
The high quality of seasonal ingredients, an innovative culinary approach and the splendid ambience make dining here not only a pleasure but also a bargain.
Other choices are so wildly exotic as to suggest the influence of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, a purveyor in Columbus, Ohio, known for its unorthodox mélange of ingredients.
This dish is a splendid example: You take a few duck legs and a handful of other ingredients, combine them in a covered skillet or casserole and pretty much walk away.
La Española also stocks most of the ingredients you'll need to make paella, or, indeed, an entire Spanish feast, including splendid house-made chorizos, imported Iberico bellota hams, special Spanish seafood conservas and imported cheeses.
On a recent Sunday there the A team turned out two or three splendid starters and three very fine entrees while a smooth, sophisticated waiter who knew the menu and its ingredients provided excellent service.
But as artisan ice-cream makers seek local ingredients that push the envelope, craft beers offer new dimensions, said Jeni Britton Bauer, the founder of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus, Ohio.
