Jaleo vs. my grandma's southern fried chicken

Lily and I are in Atlanta now, cooking (and freezing) up a storm for my sister, who is just about ready to pop out my second niece. We haven't eaten anywhere special in Atlanta other than my own cooking, which is very very special...just kidding. We drove here from Washington D.C., with a stopover at my grandmother's house in Rockingham, NC.

In D.C. we had the pleasure of dining at Jaleo with our friend Allison. Jaleo is the flagship Spanish tapas restaurant owned by Jose Andres, who owns multiple restaurants in the D.C. area. I've been anticipating eating there for a while, after hearing about how authentically spot-on their food is compared to the food you would eat in Madrid. Lily and I went to Spain a couple years ago, where our night time activity usually involved tapas-bar hopping. We fell in love with the food there, and we've been craving some really excellent tapas ever since. So, Jaleo seemed the obvious place to get our fix.

My 92 year old grandmother's southern fried chicken was better.

Here's some highs and lows from what we chose at Jaleo:

Sangria - the best part of the meal. Theirs was on par with or better than most of what we drank in Madrid and Barcelona. It's pretty much the same as what you fin in most bars in Spain - wine, brandy, citrus, and a bit of sugar - except they add diced apples which I enjoyed to eat and crunch on.

Pan con tomate - toasted bread with pureed tomatos spread on top - the tomato spread was too wet and too plentiful, so the bread was soggy by the time you ate two bites. We ordered this in Spain a lot, and remember that most of the tapas bars were much more sparing with the tomato spread on top so the bread didn't get soggy.

Selection of all their cheeses - all the cheeses were very good, but curiously and annoyingly were served with breadsticks instead of bread. My favorite was the cana de cabra - a harder goat cheese washed in red wine. The preserved apricots accompanying the cheeses were nice.

Jamon Iberico - only in the past couple of years has this stuff been allowed on American soil by the USDA. I love this stuff, but the jamon they served us was from the lower, less fatty part of the leg, and it was sliced thicker than my liking. It was still good, but I really hoping for fatty jamon Iberico sliced thin so that the fat melts the second it hits your tongue.

Patatas bravas - in Spain this is chunks of fried potatos covered in aioli and spicy (hence bravas = brave) tomato sauce. For some reason Jaleo decided to do it differently and use thinly sliced fried potatoes (like potato chips) instead of whole chunks of potato. The aioli was nice, but the dish missed the mark. They advertised it on the menu as "a modern twist on a classic", but I'd prefer to call it "a classic done wrong".

Salt cod fritters with honey aioli for dipping - my favorite tapas of the night - salty, sweet, slightly fishy, and fried...perfect hangover food which I was left craving next morning.

Croquetas de pollo - these were uninspired - batter is mixed with not enough boiled chicken and then fried not enough - the inside was oozing with raw batter...not for me.

Don't get me wrong...Jaleo was okay, but not great. And I will give them the benefit of the doubt - we came on a Friday night during restaurant week and it was packed. But still, it's the little things that left me slightly disappointed...the annoying rendition of patatas bravas, the too-quiet server, the soggy pan con tomate, the not-fatty-enough jamon iberico.

My grandma taught me how to make her fried chicken, which is as simple as can be (like most tapas actually), and it is her attention to detail - the little things - that makes it great. It's all in the amount she seasons her chicken, the thickness of the egg-milk mixture she uses, the amount of flour she packs on, the gentle bubbling heat of the oil she fries it in, and the patting dry of excess grease when it's done. Her chicken is close to the P-word...(perfect...I dare say).

That's the story of how my 92 year old grandma cooks better than a kitchen full of celebrity-chef-trained cooks in a nationally well-known restaurant.

-Wax