Los Gatos - October News

Three months after returning from our holiday which started us off on our blog we realise that it is the perfect place to make our regular customer news letters available to the wider world. If you find us through the blog and want to be on our mailing list, just contact us at info@losgatos.co.uk



Return of the Oysters!
Finally the Cornish oysters are back in season and featuring fresh on the specials board every Friday and Saturday for the foreseeable. (Friday lunchtime availability subject to delivery.) We apologise for the delay in starting the oyster season this year. During September the only oysters available to us were from Colchester. In view of the bad publicity surrounding this source, (used by a certain well-known Michelin *** establishment,) we felt it best to wait. Having tested this year's offering from Cornwall, we can assure you personally they were well worth waiting for! Available singly or by the half dozen or dozen. If you're planning to come in for an oyster fest please give us a call the day before and we'll try to get in extra stocks. We get deliveries on Friday and Saturday.

If you are an oyster virgin (and there are many around) please make yourself known to Shareen or Phil and we will happily talk you into and through one of the most interesting new food experiences of your life. There are few places where you can try one at a time so don't be afraid...

We've had Cornish mussels and Brittany palourdes clams for a couple of weeks now and they're selling like hot shellfish...

See below re fresh "whitebait".

New Menu

Yes it's ready finally and launching this week, as soon as we can get the menus printed and re-program the till. You'll find some new dishes and some old favourites making a reappearance. As usual we've tried not to take too much away, but we have to keep the menu at a sensible level because everything is freshly cooked in our tiny kitchen and there's a space limitation!

To make up for this we aim to offer you a wider range of "specials" and we are most pleased about getting hold of some fresh Cerdo Iberico. Our suppliers are going to be the first ones to bring it to UK, so we are quite excited.This Iberian pork, from the native Spanish black pig, is acorn fed, has a high portion of polyunsaturated fat acids, so the composition of the fat is more similar to extra virgin olive oil than to animal fat. The animals are free range. The other difference, in terms of flavour, with most British pork is that the males are castrated, and hence the taste is much more delicate. Look out for some very interesting special dishes made with this wonderful meat.

From time to time we'll also be trying out some savoury churros and the bacalao ahumado smoked cod we enjoyed so much on our research trip to Spain this year.

New regular items on the menu are a couple of tapas featuring bacalao - salt cod - in traditional Spanish style of course. We know some customers will welcome the return of Pollo PX (free range chicken cooked on the bone with Pedro Ximinez sweet sherry, pine nuts and raisins) and Garbanzos con Espinacas (creamy Spanish chick peas with fresh spinach and moorish spices. Very moreish too.) We've also been inspired to make a few changes to the way we serve some things, just to keep you awake. We've added a saffron rice dish and an interesting seasonal modern tapa with beetroot and pistachios.

We've been serving up fried little white fish most days for the last couple of weeks. These are a seasonal fresh fish - our supply is caught off Normandy on the winter and spring tides, sometimes described as "fresh whitebait" but more properly called "smelt" or "cucumber fish" (they smell like cucumbers when raw.) They are almost translucent and have a delicate and sweet flavour. In Spain fish of this size are known as "chanquetes" and that's how you'll find them in the fish section of our menu from next week.

Personal Sherry Tastings

A new service from Los Gatos.... Why not find out more about this wonderful wine and broaden your palate at the same time? For £16.50 per head (1 to 4 people) Shareen or Phil will talk you through all 9 sherries on our list and give you a taste (35ml) of each. Allow about 30-40 minutes and don’t plan to drive home! Available by appointment only - we are more likely to be able to accommodate you in the early evening or lunchtime (or midafternoon, for that matter!.) Vouchers available if you would like to give this as a gift experience.

Who's Who at Los Gatos

Regulars will notice some new staff around so maybe it's time for a quick run down of who's who at Los Gatos:

Janua - the Brazilian tornado who manages the bar and the customers with aplomb and charm like nobody else... speaks Portuguese, Spanish and Italian (and even a little English) and can be found in the bar most nights.
Myrelle - another Brazilian beauty looks after things in the bar most days - keeps everything tidy and well dusted in the quiet moments.
Daniela - Myrelle's equally charming sister, most often seen working with Janua in the evenings.
Luciana - on holiday at the moment but back soon to make up the bar team.
Lauren (Saturday days) and Lydia (Tuesday evenings) - two new recruits in the bar who are at college - although they'll probably learn more about life at Los Gatos!
Jose - the longest standing member of the kitchen team, who found his way to us from Peru via Spain (and Paddington) and whose excellent chefing skills have enabled us to have some nights off and the occasional escape. Jose has recently been joined at the hot plate by:
Kim - our new chef who, despite his Danish origins, has taken to Spanish cooking like a duck to water! Like many Scandinavians he not only speaks perfect English but also Swedish, Norwegian and, less obviously but great for us, pretty good Spanish!
And finally, Esther, Tom, and Jander, recently joined by students Ben and Stuart, make the wash-up team - without whom the whole operation would grind to a sticky halt. Although they are rarely seen, we appreciate their hard, unglamorous labour very much.

On the subject of appreciation, we'd like to mention that Los Gatos is a signatory to the Fair Tips Charter, and that ALL tips (cash or card) have always gone directly to the staff who share them between them. Tips do not make any part of their wages, and never have.

Sunday Lunches - Paella and more...

Our November 1st Paella lunch is already fully booked, so due to popular demand we will be fitting in a couple of extra Paella Sunday Lunches on November 15th and December 20th, in addition to December 6th but they are filling up quickly. Booking for paella is essential so book now to avoid disappointment. Phone us 01793 488450 or just send us an email.

We are also working on a special roast suckling pig lunch or dinner some time in November or December, dependent on availability of the pig! If you'd be interested in this, please let us know - no dates fixed yet, but given some encouragement, we'll sort it out.

The lost blogs......

Back from Spain for almost 3 months and we haven't found time to update the blog with our last few days there. Excuses , excuses.... Busiest summer since we opened, staff holidays, cook on maternity leave etc. etc.....

We did have a great end to our holiday with the last night in Oviedo where we found a great restaurant thanks to the help of a chap we found on the net with a great wine blog who happened to live in Oviedo.

The restaurant, run by 2 brothers Vicente and Iván, served us some of the best food we had in Spain. Well worth a visit if you are in Oviedo, which is a really interesting city that we will try to spend more time in.
Check out their website http://www.ca-suso.com/

Will try to make more effort with the blog and at least post our customer news letters, but also try to add more...........................