86. For Foodies Only - Mugaritz, San Sebastian

Mugaritz is No. 4 on the list of 50 Best Restaurants in the World.  It is in the low hills, about 25 km from San Sebastian in a serene setting, reminiscent of the japanese gardens in the Dandenongs.

Mugaritz opened in 1998 under Executive Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz. It was awarded it's first Michelin Star in 2000 and its second in 2005.  It has been on the Worlds Best Restaurants list since 2006 and is currently No. 4.

There are more Michelin starred restaurants in San Sebastian per square metre, than anywhere else in the world, including Japan.  I don't really understand the 'square metre' measurement but that's how it is stated.

Here is their website, choose English - Mugaritz

Recognise this man?  Paul agreed to wear a shirt and long pants with his thongs.

I couldn't believe we were invited into the kitchen.  Dan Hunter, lately of the Royal Mail, Dunkeld and about to be currently of Brea, Birragurra (George Biron's former Sunnybrea), spent time honing his skills in this kitchen as an intern.  

Correction 4 Oct 13: Paul tells me he spent two years here as head chef. Sorry, Dan!  

Chef Javi Vergara obviously keeps in touch with Dan Hunter as he knew the re-opening was to be in November and he made reference to the limitations Hunter experienced at Dunkeld where he did not own the business, as well as to being sworn to secrecy when Hunter bid to buy Sunnybrea.

The boss himself, Executive Chef Andoni Luiz Aduriz, who heads up a team of 40 people with an average age of 28 years.  There were more staff than guests the Saturday we went for lunch.

There are two of these spectacular glossy black boards in the kitchen, each listing the seasonal ingredients available in the locale from which they draw their provisions.  I think one board (the one in this photo) was for vegetables and fruit and the other for meat, seafood, poultry etc.  But I can't be sure because it was all written in Basque!  I might have had some hope in Spanish because there is some commonality with Italian, but Basque - no hope.

No ingredients remain in the kitchen longer than 24 hours.  I hate to think that the produce they don't use is wasted - I got the impression that it is 'moved on' to other establishments.

While touring the kitchen we were offered a freshly cooked leaf in tempura with cinnamon cream.  It's hard to oggle, take photos, speak to the staff who wanted to know about Australia and our trip along the Bay of Biscay - and eat a hot, crunchy tempura leaf - all at the same time!  

And no, I don't know what type of leaf it was, but I suspect it was growing outside the kitchen door less than 24 hours (probably 24 minutes) ago.

In February 2010 a fire gutted the kitchen and the restaurant was closed for 4 months for repairs.  The dining area is one very large space broken up with screens and lights.  The walls are all dark timber and the floor is polished concrete. The only decoration is an individual sculpture on each table made from two, white dinner plates.  The tables are not pre-set.

The terrace area is quite sizeable with various seating arrangements over multiple levels. I suspect it captures the winter sun.  It is used for both pre-dinner drinks and starters, or for desserts and coffee, depending on the time of day you are dining and, of course, the weather.

The champagne we chose for our aperitif was glorious.  

I don't know if every diner received a printed menu, but certainly the very interested people did.  So, given I had a menu, all I had to remember to do was to take a photo of each dish - not as easy as it sounds.  I have cross referenced my photos to my menu and the names of the dishes appear in italics.  

Each table was served different dishes based on the quantity of produce the kitchen had at its disposal. So each table would have received a different printed menu.

Our first dish in the finger food section was called Edible stones (above).  If you thought the stone was edible you removed it from its hot (edible) ashes and dipped it into the mayonnaise. It was a potato, but until you picked it up, you'd swear it was a stone. 

Small crustaceans in a pocket.  Real prawn crackers served on a hot stone. Intense.

Smoked trout and 100% lobster.  Those are three tiny onions on top of the trout and there were some tiny broad beans in there as well, served on a crisp of something. Very subtle.

This dish came on a warmed wooden board. It was Grilled toast of bone marrow with herbs and radish ash.  The radish ash was a glossy thick coating on a leaf.  This was absolute heaven - crisp, savoury, rich, delicious.

The only disappointing dish of the whole 28 we were served was the last of the finger foods.  This was Lamb tenderloin and dried onions.  We ate the leaf as well, which I think was some type of amaranth, and it swamped the delicate flavour of the lamb.  If we hadn't eaten the leaf, maybe the lamb by itself would have had more flavour.

All of these dishes on the degustation menu are two-bite serves.

This is the first dish with cutlery.  I just loved this one.  It was a chilled dish called Blanched morning glory and dark seeds powder.  Oh, yes?  

Well, I just loved these tiny sweet carrots, in carrot cream with little white flowers on top, so much that I forgot to photograph the morning glory which was like a stem of green leaves, barely cooked and lightly dressed in olive oil with crunchy, flavoured powder on top.  A hit with both of us.

We had been drinking a fabulous cold climate white from the Galicia region near Santiago de Compostela with our finger food - a Trico 2008 (Albarino grapes).  To begin the fish courses the sommelier suggested this Redoma 2011, a blend of five different grape varieties from northern Portugal. These two wines were the best whites I have ever tasted.

Oh, best not forget the dish (above).  Almonds are in season and these were so delicate we couldn't tell if they had been cooked or just warmed a little.  The dish was called Fresh almonds with filipendula ulmaria  which is the flower, a herb called Queen of the Meadow.

I had to touch the plate to check that it was porcelain and not a serviette draped over something.

This was a stunner.  Cold peach and razor clams. The peach was pureed and frozen and the razor clams were tiny, sweet morsels of sea.

Threads of crab with vegetable mucilage, macadamias and pink peppercorns. Crab always leaves me underwhelmed and in this instance it was overpowered by the macadamias.

Everyone received a bonus dish, an extra which was not listed on the menu.  Just in case we were loosing interest, or bored we were each given a little hessian bag of knuckles and an instruction mat on how to play a game.  The winner was to get a surprise.

It turned out that we each got a tiny glass of rich, warmed chicken consommé (if it hadn't been warmed it would have been a thick jelly) and the winner of the knuckles game shared his prize with me - the best black caviar either of us have ever tasted, and a generous serving to boot.  This dish was another winner.

Egg yolk tucked in with an anenome blanket.  They served bread in a linen serviette pocket with this dish, but no spoon.  You needed the bread to mop up all the yummy egg yolk.

Called A salad in soup, these were tiny, tiny, cos lettuce hearts in a broth made from  crustaceans and lemon verbena.

Called Cantabrian sea Bonito (tuna) and dark Marmitako sauce.  Google tells me that Marmitako is a typical Basque peasant dish resembling a tuna and potato stew with Basque pimentos.  This interpretation was a firm layer of creamed potato, onion and spices topped with a slice of tuna and covered with a sticky reduction of what I can only assume is pimentos.  A few salted fresh almonds on top.  It should have been fabulous, but I found it ho-hum.

Turbot, pil-pil and roe.  I had to Google this one, too.  Pil-pil is a sauce of Basque origin, made from the oil the fish has been cooked in plus garlic and hot, chilli-like pimentos. Turbot is similar in shape to flounder.  Very, very nice.

Sweatbread of suckling lamb with seasonal mushrooms and garlic flowers.

Sometimes it doesn't pay to have so much detail. Once I saw how small the sweetbreads were I realised how young the lamb was.  Yes, I did eat it.  Yes, it was delicious.  But I did have concerns. 

The red we enjoyed with these heavier flavours was Altos de Losada 2008 (Mencia grapes) from the Castille y Leon region;  Leon was also part of our road trip.

This dish was challenging the bone marrow toast for piece-de-resistance.  Iberian pork tail with sour leaves and creme fraiche.   The small square pieces of meat had been flattened, the skin crisp and succulent, the meat gelatinous and tender.  Fabulous!

We took the last of our red wine outside and along came Smashed and dressed fruits with a little jug of melon juice.  The summer melons in Spain seem to be available everywhere - they are a bit like honeydew melons but more intense.

Paul is looking pretty pleased with the world.

This was Native cocoa and salted mexican pepper mint but it is gone. It was a large circle of mint leaf coated with chocolate on either side.  It was not dipped in chocolate; you could see the green mint leaf sandwiched between the chocolate layers.  The mint leaf was very peppery. There was a little extra pepper and salt flakes on top.  Native cocoa and salted mexican pepper mint - was very clever!

Frozen almond turran.  By the time I discovered that turran is like nougat, someone had demolished his slice.

This was so delicious.  Roasted peach with rock tea - one quarter of a hot, roasted peach, in its skin, with a little mouth popping, granulated powder on top - the type that I have seen Heston Blumenthal use in those celebrity TV shows of his.

This one lost me a bit but Paul thought it showed what mastery they have of their creative ability and skills - Edible paper of leaves and flowers.  I would have liked it a bit more if it was either sweet or sour or salty, but it was a bit nothing.

We ordered our coffee thinking we had finished because we had consumed everything on the menu plus the two extra dishes served, when along comes this huge wooden tower.  I thought it was another game, but no, we were advised 'It is the seven deadly sins - look on the back of your menu.'

Sure enough, there they are on the back of the menu - Pride, Envy, Wrath, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Sloth.  

And this for a woman who has just completed reading Dan Brown's Inferno - referenced to Danté's 'Inferno' and condemning personkind to the torments of hell according to their sins of pride, envy, wrath, gluttony, greed, lust and sloth. I think either Mr. Dante or Mr. Brown had the order a little different, but never mind .....

In our wooden Japanese tower, Pride was two hollow golden eggs.  Clever!

Envy was large and small chocolate coins buried in edible soil of bitter chocolate chips.

Wrath was these tangy cubes of jellied something with a green, raw, zingy but sweet taste.

Gluttony was ten chocolate balls (between two) that dissolved to nothing in the mouth.

The layer for Greed was empty.

Lust was molten strawberry chocolate to be eaten (or is that, to be fed to each other) with little paddles.

And finally, Sloth was the ultimate - a reconstructed pear, poached in liquer until it was saturated, but still firm.  One wonderful mouthful!

Black toilet paper. I tried to use the minimum amount.  Not on ... really Senor Aduriz ... not on!

The picture of a happy man. 

And as if you haven't had enough, you might like to have a look at this 2011 menu review:

Gourmet Traveller - Mugaritz 2011

85. A Road Trip - Northern Spain - Final

This is Santander in the region of Cantabria, our last port of call in the Bay of Biscay before we drive through Bilbao and arrive at San Sebastian.  

It was a bit of a non-event really.  More of a large city than a seaside town and Rick's restaurant recommendations for quality bread and excellent seafood paella were in another section of the city. 

Santander has a wide sandy beach and the tidal coverage must only cover about half at this time of year because the back half of the sand was very dry.

Almost all beaches in Europe have restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, toilets, showers and plenty of opportunities for seating, shade or wind protection, right on the beach.  I like that!  

The rock formations further along the beach are interesting because they lie at right angles to the shoreline, rather than across it.

I wonder how long it has taken the wind and water to create this little masterpiece.

There was a small zoo type of arrangement made up of three, very large enclosures carved out of the natural rock, fed by the tide, where there were penguins, seals and sea lions, all reasonably native to these Atlantic waters.  

I hate to see caged animals under any circumstances, even if their arrangements were as good as these.  But I had to admit that these guys were so cute and that, other than on film, I would never be able to see them up close if not for enclosures like this.  

But after watching these seals for an hour, I suspected they were going stir-crazy and I would have been glad to open the gate if there had been one.

On to San Sebastian.

We were able to get an apartment overlooking the water, in the old town, for three nights, with a washing machine.  Fabulous!  Our apartment is the two left hand windows on the first floor.

Our building is the third one along, on the left hand side, next to the white building. This is a tidal river and the sea raises and lowers the level for a very long way inland .

We went for tapas on our first night because - well, who'd come to San Sebastian and not have tapas.  

We went to three tapas bars.  This (above) was the first.  Very traditional: one of probabaly one hundred in the old town that we could have chosen from.    You are given a plate and you walk along the bar and help yourself from the buffet selection.  Then you hand your plate to the bar tender so he can work out the price and you order your drink.  Each tapa is about 2€ or $2.90 AUD and a glass of wine is about 3€ or $4.40 each.

This plate with two glasses of Rioja cost 18€ - $26.20 AUD.  We had a second plate, without drinks for 12€ - $17.40 AUD.

In the next bar we had another plate with two drinks and again it cost 18€ or $26.20 AUD.  

In the third bar, which was Rick Stein's recommendation for the best cheesecake in the whole world, we shared one serve of cheesecake and had a coffee each - cost 4€ for  the cheesecake and 2€ each for the espresso - total 8€ or $11.60 AUD.

I forgot to take a photo of the cheesecake, mainly because it was so incredibly good I couldn't stop eating long enough to pull out the camera.   And secondly, because it was so crowded (all the best places are crowded - that's how you choose one above another) that I daren't put my spoon down to get the camera out or someone else would have eaten my cheesecake.

So, in total, dinner cost us 56€ or $81 AUD.  And it is ONLY SNACKS!  Let me tell you what we had ...

This plate is a good example.  There are seven tapa here.  In total we bought eighteen pieces over 90 minutes, nine tapa each.  The glass at the rear left of the plate is gazpacho, made with capsicums and with a tiny shrimp on top.  Middle rear is a deep fried ball of minced pork and vegetables.  

Hiding behind the pork ball (and hard to see) is a skewer with three pieces of delectable, marinated raw octopus.  On the right is a slice of bread roll topped with a piece of deep fried, battered fish with a shred of capsicum.

Left middle is a sandwich of something, topped with cheese, pickle and ham.  In the very middle is a skewer of three small green chillies wrapped in an anchovy.  And finally, in front is a chunk of tuna wedged between two sour gherkins with an olive.

An expensive way to eat.  No wonder the economy of San Sebastian is looking so good.

Tonight we are eating at home!

84. A Road Trip - Northern Spain 6

Despite two days of claustrophobia in a tiny hotel room in Gijon in the Asturias region, we had two excellent meals at the sideria and two good breakfasts at the hotel.

Next stop on our road trip was Llanes, also in Asturias.  This drive was the first section of road where we could catch glimpses of the coast.  In the most part, the excellent coastal road ran a couple of kilometers inland from the rugged coast and even the local roads were protected from the sea by foothills.  While we were enjoying superb autumn weather, I kept reminding myself that this coast is usually wind blown and wet.

Llanes resembles nothing we have ever seen before.  Rugged limestone cliffs. Traditional fishing town. Built with its back to the sea. Outdoor furniture only useable a few weeks a year. Needs a lighthouse. Huge gates on the waterway leading to the marina. A cubby house (corral) for the fishing trawlers.  You get the idea!

At some point in the not too distant past, the wisest men (and women) of Llanes decided to pay an artist a vast sum of money to paint the new cubes of concrete on the breakwater. They have had to live with that decision ever since.

This great statue of the waiting woman is on the opposite side of the breakwater.

Much better than the painted cubes, don't you think?

The cubby house:corral for the fishing trawlers.

The slipway indicating the tide levels.

The wall behind the marina ramps shows the huge tidal changes here.  There are huge gates on this waterway where it faces the ocean.

On the far side of the breakwater headland they have a beach which was very well supported despite a couple of landslides.

But does Llanes have a restaurant where Rick Stein says we should be able to find Merluza a la cidre - white fish in cider?  Sadly no!  

But I did finally get to taste Fabada the chunky stew of white beans, chorizo, pork belly and black pudding.  While the chunky version was very acceptable, Paul's mum, Bianca makes a much more refined example as a bean soup from Austria.  Small world, isn't it?

Breakfast at the hotel consisted of two choices - sugar or wheat or a combination of the two!  I eat very little of either so the only item I could have had (without sugar or wheat) was a thin slice of cheese and a slice of ham. I opted for black coffee (there is often sugar in the milk).

It is my food preferences that are causing the problems I am having with Spanish food.

While I may eat a piece (or two) of bread with an entree or a main meal to sop up sauces or juices, I don't want an entree or a main meal to consist of bread or something on toast. I don't want every dish on the menu to be fried, nor do I want cheese on top of meat or ham with fish.   I don't want cakes, pastries and biscuits for breakfast.  I don't want sweetened yoghurt, sweetened fruit juice or sweetened milk.  

I want a salad to include more than iceberg lettuce and a tomato smothered in mayonnaise.  I want cooked vegetables to consist of more than boiled potato or French fries.  I love eggs, but I don't want them laced with oily potatoes, oily cheese, greasy bacon or something out of a jar.  And I like my protein in a good sized chunk, pan fried or grilled, with vegetables and not on toast.

So now you see the problem.  

In Australia I am spoilt - I have a local restaurant where the food is fresh and the Italian chef can really cook.  I can shop at Victoria Market for meat, fish, eggs and poultry that is as good as anywhere in the world and I am old enough to know how to cook it myself.

And best of all I can grow my own vegetables and enjoy them snappy fresh from the garden, as often as I like.  

In my down moments I wonder why I'm here, doing this.

Next stop - Santander.