Spain 2013
Link to San Sebastian pictures
Thursday May 23, 2013 – Friday May 24, 2013
Mark used the last of his frequent flier miles to get us free business class for the trip. We had to fly Lufthansa, which was pretty nice, well, except for the food, which was mediocre, but not too terrible.
The flight to Dusseldorf was uneventful and we were actually able to get some sleep. At Dusseldorf airport, we were able to go pretty much straight through passport control and through to the Business class lounge, which was upstairs. The lounge was nothing fancy, but at least it had internet access to keep us occupied until our flight time.
The flight from Dusseldorf to Barcelona was pretty quick, less than 2 hours. “Business” class was just glorified economy, but at least we had an empty seat between us, but no real leg room. The good news is that no one sat in front of us so there was no fear of someone leaning back.
Finally landed in Barcelona and made the long walk to baggage claim. The weird thing was there was no passport control to go through. Once we got our luggage, we walked through Customs, which was a breeze since we had nothing to declare, it was basically just walking through a door. Then down and out to the taxi stand. We were able to get out taxi driver to take us to the correct Hilton on first try (there are 2 Hiltons in Barcelona and both are on Av. Diagonal).
When we arrived our room was not yet ready (we were a bit early), so they held our luggage and gave us a voucher for 2 free drinks at the pool bar. It was windy and a bit cool in the shade, but quite lovely in the sunshine. We had a few beers, then our room was ready and we headed up to 1015. We wonder if we didn’t get a slightly upgraded room as we had a sea view and the room seems to be fairly large (much larger than London’s Hyde Park Hilton). The room was well appointed and even the fridge has space for personal items, albeit a small space. Our only minor complaint is that even though the room is non-smoking, there is definitely a haunting cigarette odor. But all in all, for free, we can’t complain. Since it was our first day we didn’t want to stray too far from the hotel as we had not had much sleep, so we headed over to the mall across the street. There is a pintxo bar there called Sagardi, so we sat outside in the sun and had some tapas and wine. Turns out the pintxos were inside so we had some of those. They even have sweet pintxos – a bread covered in sweet creamy cheese topped with blueberry jam and mint; so far one of my favorite pintxos. After finishing off our food and wine, we stumbled back to the hotel and to bed.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
WOW – we slept over 12 hours! Not getting up until after noon! Being new to the city it took us a little while to orient ourselves to where everything is, but the hotel is a short walk to the metro station. You either go through the mall or around it, as it’s on the other side. We purchased the 4 day unlimited metro ticket which is also good for buses, trams and local renfe trains. Once we finally got going we decided to ramble down Las Ramblas. We took the metro to Urquinaona and headed towards Placa Catalunya. We were very hungry and ducked into a small bar for a few bites to eat to sustain our walk. We happened on Picadero Restaurant Brasserie. We ordered Iberian Ham, Cuttlefish and potatas bravas. It was all simple, but pretty good. The cuttlefish was deep fried and resembled squid in look, but texture was a bit different, less rubbery, more meaty.
Sated, we headed further on to the Placa Catalunya. It was very crowded, loads of people milling about. Not sure if it was because it was a Saturday or if it’s always like that, but we snapped a few pictures than continued on our ramble. Las Ramblas is good and bad. Good because it’s a nice leisurely walk with street vendors, great architecture and people watching. Bad because it’s crowded and has annoying street vendors. I don’t mind people who are selling things that someone might actually want to buy, like a souvenir, but the incessant chirping mouth whistles some of the folks were selling were just downright annoying. Yeah, I’m going to go all the way to Barcelona to buy an annoying mouth whistle thingy. I don’t think so…
But on we walked, included a side trip into La Boqueria. This was totally cool. I wish it weren’t so dang crowded though. It has everything and if we had a full kitchen it would have been fun to buy something to take home to cook.
We also took the side trip down one of the small side paths to see the Roman Necropolis. Basically a cemetery dating back to Roman times, hard to believe just how old this area is.
Back to the Ramblas we continued all the way down until we got to the Columbus statue. We decided to go ahead and head over to the Rambla del mar. At this point we were getting hungry, so we stopped at a place called Tapa Tapa (because of our late start we were in between lunch and dinner and not many places were still open). This place was mediocre, but on par with what we were expecting. We had Patatas Bravas, mini chorizos, croquettes with cheese and ham and a mini veal hamburger with an egg on top. The mini hamburger was actually quite good. We also shared a crème catalan, which had good flavor, but weird texture. After that we walked over to Barceloneta, walked around briefly, saw the Roy Leichtenstein “Barcelona Head” then took the metro back to the hotel.
At the hotel we just relaxed for a little while to rest our feet and legs from all of our walking. For dinner we decided to go with the highly recommended, but very popular Tapas 24. We had about a 30 minute wait, but it wasn’t too bad. The only bad thing is that there really is no waiting area, so you’re snaked in single file against the wall (and in some cases outside the building). While there’s not much to do while waiting because it’s such a busy place, there was lots to observe including what other people were eating. When we were finally seated, we were placed in the middle of a 6-top with a couple from NY on one side & a couple from Argentina on the other. About halfway through the meal, we started talking to them and it made the evening a lot more fun. To eat we had: Tomato bread, Bikini Comerc 24, which was basically a grilled cheese made with buffalo mozzarella, ham and truffles, Potatoes with eggs and chorizo, McFoie burger and rabbit ribs. Everything was fantastic, Mark especially liked the Mc Foie Burger and Bikini. Sue especially liked the potatoes, with egg and chorizo. The rabbit ribs were tasty, but rabbits don’t really have meaty ribs. We ordered a bottle of L’heravi Crianza, which was also pretty good. It was then time to bid our new friends adieu and head back to the hotel.
As we got closer to the hotel, we decided that we should stop for a nightcap at one of the other restaurants in the mall, Canas Y Tapas. We ordered 3 of their tostas – Iberian ham, Duck liver pate with caramelized onions and goat cheese with balsamic and nuts. Sue’s favorite was the last one, but it still wouldn’t be worth going back for that. Definitely not worth it.
After such an underwhelming meal, we decided to stop off at the Hilton bar and have some cava. This turned into a cava extravaganza, where we ended up ordering 3 bottles. 2 we drank at the bar, and one we took back to our room and drank. We ended up talking to some Americans sitting next to us that were in Barcelona for a Mediterranean cruise that was taking off the next day. They were fun to talk too, but I preferred our vacation to theirs. J
We took our third bottle up to the room and enjoyed that while watching the first period of playoff hockey, before we finally crashed and burned around 3am.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
As you can imagine, we slept in a little bit today, then went out to do the Gothic quarter tour. The architecture and the narrow streets are really so charming. You could walk around for a while and just enjoying that. We were getting pretty hungry, so we popped into Tapa Fina (across from the metro station Jaume 1) to have a bite to eat to stave of hunger. There we ordered some pintxos, while nothing was bad, nothing really stood out either.
We then hopped on the metro and headed to La Gavina at the marina in Barceloneta for lunch, good but overpriced. And they bring bread and charge you for it whether you eat it or not! If we had known that I would have taken it with me! Mark ordered the seafood paella without shells. Sue ordered the Sword fish San Sebastian style. It was a nice sunny day, so we ordered a Rose to pair with the foods. Both meals were quite tasty, but not sure they were worth the money.
We decided to walk along the Barceloneta boardwalk. There were some street performers and some vendors. We decided to buy some homemade gourmet muffins as a dessert. We got Double Chocolate, Nutella & Dulce de Leche. All three were really good. Instead of heading back to the Metro, we decided to continue walking along the sea on the way back for a while, before cutting inland at the Olympic Village to the metro to head back to the hotel for a rest.
For dinner we decided to head over to the El Born area for a stroll of the passeig. This area is also quite charming, again filled with narrow streets and quaint shops. For dinner we hit Casa Delfin, which had been recommended by blogger “ViCARIous. We had a couple of tapas: Padron Peppers, Chorizo in red wine sauce and eggs, potato and jamon. All were really tasty.
As per usual, the night isn’t done, just because we’re no longer in Barcelona proper, so we stopped in for our nightcap at Sagardi. While the weather was definitely a bit on the cool side, the patio area is actually sheltered from the breeze, so we asked if we could sit outside. The waiter, apparently thought we were nuts as he asked if we were from Norway. Of course, the bottle of red wine helped warm us up from the inside out.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Finished up the Gothic Quarter sights we wanted to see – Namely the Barcelona Cathedral and the Roman Towers. Sue was actually surprised at how small the Barcelona Cathedral was, she was really expecting it to be larger. We then headed to 4 Gats for lunch. This was a place that Sue wanted to try as it has great history, being a place where Picasso used to hang out. As per our usual, we ordered a bunch of different tapas for lunch: Galician prawns, while tasty, were hard to eat as we had to take the shells off. Andalusian squid, which was basically some of the best Calamari I’ve ever had, so fresh and not at all chewy. We had to get the Tomato bread, which was also quite good here, especially once adding a drizzle of fresh olive oil. Ravioli with cheese and apples was our next dish. Not something you’d normally think of for Spain, but still really tasty. We splurged today and got the chocolate dessert recommended by our waiter – it certainly did not disappoint. All in all, a really tasty lunch. The restaurant itself is full of old time charm. We were seated in the back upstairs. It’s a tight space, but very quaint and historic. The only problem is that there are low ceilings and poor Mark hit his head on the way down. And of course, because it was a head wound, he was bleeding pretty good, but the scrape was not serious. The only problem was that his hands were not full of blood. We noticed the tourist office, so we figured we’d stop in there to wash his hands, but they charge a Euro to use the bathroom. Ridiculous! Even for him to wash his hands, so we just figured we’d continue walking until we could find someplace more reasonable for him to wash his hands.
As we continued walking, we hit Plaza Catalunya, which had a water fountain, so Mark could at least rinse his hands off.
We continued our walk down Passeig de Gracia to see the block of discord and Casa Mila. It would have been interesting to speak with Gaudi to understand better what he his thought process was for his architecture. It’s definitely different.
We then decided to do a dry run to the train station for Tuesday morning to do timings, etc. While doing this we realized that Sagrada Familia was only one stop away, so we said, what the heck let’s do that as well. The metro drops you off literally right there. We walked around the church and saw some more of the crazy architecture, but didn’t go in. We figured it was then time to head back to the hotel.
For dinner we went to Bar Canete just off Las Ramblas. We had some difficulty here since the menu was only in Catalan, no English and no Spanish. We started off with the Pa amb Tomaquet, then had two croquettes, beef tartare and potatas, cockles, and chorizo, eggs & potatas. This was our 1st time having beef tartare and was better than expected. The cockles were in a delicious white wine broth with bacon. Everything else was good and the wine we orded, 2010 Clio, was fantastic. While the food was great, we were still hungry since they were all tapas. We headed back to Casa Delfin since when we there the previous night, we wanted more.
At Casa Delfin we started with what else, the Pa amb Tomaquet, then had fried baby squid, fried artichoke with a Romesco sauce, and Garbanzo beans with morcilla (blood sausage). We both like both the baby squid and the Garbanzo dish, with Sue liking the baby squid the best and Mark the Garbanzo. We were both underwhelmed with the fried artichokes. We paired everything with a bottle of Cava that after they poured our glasses they put it on ice with a cool apron that had a hole in it for the neck of the bottle. We finished with their house specialty dessert. Which was donuts flambéed at the table with anise liqueur. This could have been real good but anise was overpowering.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Our last full day in Barcelona - sigh. We had one more sightseeing thing to do today – Park Guell. So we headed out in that direction stopping at 3 Food, Music People, restaurant. This restaurant was recommended by Chef Ryan Poli, as his friend is the head chef. We decided to do their tasting menu, which they called Showtaping. This was a really good idea. Here is what they served us:
· Bread with a compound butter of nuts, sundried tomato and herb
· Housemade hummus
· Cheese with sundried tomato & olive oil
· White anchovy in olive oil
· Tomato bread (some of the best we had)
· Caprese Salad with heirloom tomatoes
· Poached Tuna in olive oil with roasted garlic
· Ham croquettes
· Chicken wings with a honey mustard sauce
· Flat bread with tomato puree and cheese
· After 8 mints inspired mouse with chocolate.
Wow, was that good!
Now completely stuffed we attempted to make our way over to Park Guell for the required stop. Park Guell is not the easiest place to get to by public transit, meaning nothing drops you off right there, except bus 116. We decided we could handle a short walk (less than a mile), unfortunately, we didn’t realize that much of that mile was uphill. Thankfully for the steep parts, they actually had escalators.
By dumb luck, we made it to the park’s side entrance and made our way through the park. It was not as glorious as we were expecting, but two things may have contributed to that attitude – 1.) it was an overcast day and 2.) there were a TON of people. The park is large and it’s free, but boy oh boy are there a lot of people. Not all of which are tourists. And of course, there were the street vendors, hawking their wares. We then made the trek back home, thankful that the way back was downhill.
For dinner, we decided to head to Avalon, a Bib Gourmand restaurant. We didn’t have a reservation, but they were still able to take us and seat us at a table in their bar area. The maître de was very friendly and helpful – very attentive, constantly scanning the restaurant to make sure the diners were all happy. For dinner we mixed up a few starters and a main course to share. We had Tomato and sausage bread. Croquettes, sausage with bacon which was served with frites and 3 dipping sauces, and creamy rice with asparagus. The dishes were indeed tasty.
After our dinner(s) we tried to find a wine bar we had seen a couple of nights earlier in El Born. Well, that was Mark’s thought, Sue thought he meant a different restaurant that was known for Cava. After 10 minutes or so of walking, Sue realized Mark wanted to go to a different place, in the opposite direction. We got turned around too many times that we finally gave up and decided to head back to the Hilton bar for their Cava.
At the Hilton bar we sat next to a guy from Manchester who was amazed at how many British TV shows we knew. David the bartender, originally from Cannes, had a contest the next day to show off a drink he made. He practiced the drink and his presentation of the 3 of us. It was a gin and tonic with ginger and cardamom infused gin that was in a shot glass submerged upside down in the gin and tonic. As you drank the gin and tonic, the ginger and cardamom infused gin would slowly mix in with the rest of the gin and tonic. As you drank more you would get more of the ginger and cardamom changing the overall flavor of the drink. Per our suggestion, David added a slice of grapefruit rind to the drink. While it didn’t change the taste of the drink, it added tremendously to the aroma of the drink, and therefore, to the drink as a whole.
After having two bottles of Cava, and our Manchester friend had left, we decided to sit down with some other Brits and talk some more. This might be seen as a bad decision since we left the bar around 3 AM and we had to get up at 5:30 AM for our train to San Sebastian.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Well, we actually got to the train on time, with time to spare, but we were really, really tired. We’re too old for only 2.5 hours of sleep. We were in the first car, seats 14 b&c. The seats were relatively comfortable, nicer than domestic 1st class on airplanes, although admittedly we slept most of the first 2 hours. At which time Mark sent Sue to find some food - some bacon and cheese sandwiches and some water and lemonade, which made both of us feel much better. The trip had pretty nice scenery throughout with some mountain, farm and vineyard views. Overall, the trip was uneventful, until we were about 45 minutes outside of San Sebastian, when our train hit a person. We don’t know if the person jumped in front of the train, or fell, or even if they survived, but we assumed not. There were 2 Spaniards around us that were nice enough to make sure we understood the announcement, although we had actually understood the gist before they confirmed what we thought we heard. This delayed us about 30 minutes, but we still figured there was someone out there having a worse day than us.
When we arrived in San Sebastian, it was raining pretty good. We were able to find a pay phone to call the apartment guy and let him know we were on our way. The apartment was about a 10 minute walk from the train station and even in the rain wasn’t too bad. Alexander met us right outside the door and led us up. Technically we were early, but they let us have the keys and leave our luggage, even though the maids were still here cleaning. We got a quick tour and then left to explore the village.
Since it was after 2 PM and we only had a small sandwich on the train, we decided the best way to pass the time was Pintxos and wine. Our 1st ever Pintxo bar in San Sebastian was Txepetxa where Alexander told us had the best anchovies (his brother probably ran the place). We barhopped around a little including: Txepetxa, La Cepa, Atari. At Atari we had braised beef cheeks that were out of this world – not quite a tapas or pintxo, but fantastic!
We then headed back to to room, hoping, correctly, that the maids were finished. Finally we were able do laundry, but not as easily as we hoped. The “dryer” portion of the washer and dryer in the write up for the apartment was outdoor clothes hanging. We weren’t comfortable with that since we were on the 3rd floor and the clothes dryer was outside, with no way to get at any clothes that may fall, so we just strategically place the clothing throughout the apartment, on the heaters, on chairs, hung up, and so on. We thought that the place included WiFi, but could not find it.
For dinner, we walked around trying to find someplace with internet access, until it started pouring rain at which time we ducked into Ttun Ttun Taberna. Here the pintxos were good, but by this time Mark was really getting bored with bread, since every pintxo is served on a baguette.
Thursday May 30, 2013
Today was a national strike day in Spain, so we woke up to protestors in the street. All of the restaurants and shops were closed. Thankfully Alexander had warned us this would happen, even though we were too late yesterday to buy any essentials. Thankfully the grocery store in the mall was open so we bought some meats and cheeses and wine to take back to the apartment to enjoy. It was a crappy weather day anyway, windy, cold & rainy. Not a great birthday for Mark so far.
After lounging around all day, we finally headed out around 7:20pm in hopes of finding a taxi to take us to Mugaritz. We were a little worried because of the strike, but thankfully, by this time many shops had opened and the strike issues had resolved themselves. After going to the wrong place for a taxi, a nice old man told us we were in the wrong place, but directed us where we needed to go. We got a taxi in a short time, with a young driver, who didn’t really know where Mugaritz was. But between his GPS (thankfully we had the address) and his phone a friend, we got there in about 15 minutes and for around 20 Euro.
We had read online that the place opens promptly at 8pm, and to be prepared to wait outside. This was not the case (although surprisingly it wasn’t raining up in the mountains). We were greeted promptly by the restaurant staff and led to a small house adjacent to the restaurant, where he fed a log into the wood burning stove and offered us a welcome drink. We each accepted a glass of cava, lounging in the romantic little house for about 15 minutes. At that time the staff came to get us and brought us to our table. The space at Mugaritz is very wide open, maybe only about 12-15 tables. We were told later that they usually have no more than 50 dinners in a service (both at dinner and lunch). We were given a table in the back end of the room, behind a screen. The table was like a big round banquet style table, but just for the two of us. It was nice not being squeezed into a really small two top crammed between two other couples, like is often the case.
We were offered the wine list, but since we had decided to be surprised at what we would be served, we were unsure what to order. We were debating on if we should just get a cava when we asked if they could provide a drink pairing for the meal. The sommelier said it was possible, so even though it was more expensive (95 Euro each), we decided to choose that.
The first course was brought out – Edible stones – these were potatoes encrusted in a crisp coating that made them resemble rocks. This was served with a garlic aioli. This was fun and whimsical and the flavor was what one would expect from a roasted potato with garlic aioli.
The first drink pairing was Fino en Rama Saca de mayo from Bodega Gutierrez Colosia which makes this Sherry just for Mugaritz. It is a dry, white sherry, instead of a sweeter caramel colored one.
The second course was “Fishbones” with nuances of lemon, garlic and cayenne pepper. These were quite addictive, like potato chips, crunchy bits with a hint of garlic. This was also served with the first drink pairing
The next course was Carrots and their smeared flowers. This was prettier than it was tasty. Not that it tasted bad, it was really just nothing unexpected. As far as carrots go, I’d give the edge (by a wide margin) to Next from the Hunt menu.
The fourth course was Smoked toast with lobster. This was served on a hot flat stone, a flatbread with 2 small pieces of lobster with what I believe was a lentil puree in the center, topped with sage leaves. This was good, but neither one of us love lobster, so we weren’t in love with the dish.
The fifth course was Fried lovage leaf with cinnamon cream. This was beautifully golden tempura leaf and was outstanding. The hint of cinnamon in the cream was delectable. This was definitely one of our favorite courses.
The sixth course was Wild sea barnacles in their own gel. I’ll admit these buggers are not exactly beautiful to look at and their own gel admittedly conjured up, so interesting thoughts, but the flavor was really just a sea flavor and the texture was similar to snails. Interesting but not necessarily something I would order again.
The next drink pairing came out and was Tokubetsu Junmaishu Sake from Gipu, Nakashima Jozo Kozaemon, very clear light crisp sake. This sake had hints of macadamia nut flavor which paired really well with the next course.
The seventh course was Threads of spider crab with vegetable mucilage, macadamias and pink peppercorns. This was a very nice course, both in pairing and in overall flavor. The only negative, is that the spidercrab threads kind of got stuck in your teeth, but overall, very tasty.
The next drink pairing was Sidra Inuin from Sagardo Naturala. This cidar was cloudy, but definitely better in aroma than the one from Next. And it paired well with the next course.
The eighth course was Sea anemone and mountain watercress puree. This was another good course; the sea anemone was very much like a snail, both in flavor and texture. Overall this was a very pleasant course.
The next drink pairing was Bual 10 year old Madeira from Henriques & Henriques. We could have sworn that the sommelier said that this Madeira was from Iceland, but southern Iceland because it’s warmer. We’ll need to confirm that on the internet. The Madeira was quite nice, regardless of where it’s from.
We were now offered a tour of the kitchen. It is clear that the kitchen is newer, having been replaced in recent years due to a fire that destroyed it. The kitchen was huge and bustling. It was amazing to see the number of staff involved with preparing/serving/plating 22 courses for 50 people. We were greeted by one of the staff (we didn’t catch his name), who was actually from Mexico City and explained our next course: Macaroons. Our chef friend explained that these macaroons were made in the traditional way, back in the 1700’s. Back then most of the sweets were made only on special occasions, and during a slaughter, when all parts of the animals were used to make “pudding” and thus how blood pudding got his name. He then told us that these luscious macaroons we just ate were made from blood. There was no irony flavor or offputting flavor at all, they simply tasted like fabulous almost chocolaty flavor. The chef asked us if we still liked the macaroons now that we knew how they were made. We said we didn’t mind at all. For us, if the flavor is good, that’s all that matters. He seemed a bit surprised as he had previous customers who were not happy to hear the delicious macaroon was made from blood. We then posed for a picture and headed back to our table to finish this amazing feast.
The Madeira was paired with course ten – Duck juice with tofu. The presentation came out looking more like a flan than as a savory dish, but the flavors were definitely savory. This is a tofu dish I could eat gladly. The rich, flavorful duck juice was fantastic.
The Eleventh course was Mugaritz shark fin soup without the shark fin in a roasted cauliflower broth with shredded asparagus. The flavors in the broth here were amazing, but the shredded asparagus was a little hard to eat. This is something I would order again.
Next came the bread course, which they save until the middle so as to limit getting the customers too full too quickly. Which is really a good idea as there is a LOT of food served throughout the course of this meal.
When the bread was brought out, so was a game. The game was such that you got a bag with 3 pieces in it and you were to take them out put them in one hand behind your back and then select 1-3 of them with your other hand and hold that out for your dinning partners to guess what the total number of the table had in their hand and the winner would get a “prize”. Well, Mark guessed 3 and I guessed 5, but the answer was 4. Since there was not “winner” we were able to split the prize, which was part of the thirteenth course – Roe with roasted bone marrow. The roe added a nice pop of saltiness and texture to the creamy roasted bone marrow.
The next drink pairing was Placet 09 Rioja Blanco from Palacios Remondo, a nice crisp white wine.
The fourteenth course was another surprise course not being on the menu, but it was some crusted raw (or nearly raw) fish with white “snow”. The flavor was okay, but the texture was too creamy. It was not one of our favorite courses, but it was pretty.
The next drink pairing was another sake : “Dreamy Clouds” Tokubetsu Junmai Nigori Sake, from Shimane, Rihaku. This, as the name implies was a cloudier sake but had they traditional sake flavors one expects from a good cold sake.
The fifteeth course was Loin of hake, tiger nut starch and concentrated clam juice. This was really good. The depth of flavor in the broth was really good and rich. The fish was cooked perfectly and well-seasoned. This was a winning dish for sure.
The next pairing was a Nora de Neve 07 from Rias Baixas Vina Nora. This was a nice crisp Albarino wine
The sixteenth course was one of our favorites, it really had so much flavor; Garlic and chicken soup with roasted loin of sea bream. This was served in a beautiful broth and well-seasoned and cooked fish. Definitely something I would order again and again.
The next drink pairing was Finca Sandoval 08 from Manchuela.
The seventeenth course was Sweetbread of suckling lamb with seasonal mushrooms. As expected Sue didn’t like the mushrooms, but the sweetbreads were good. Mark like the whole dish. It was very pretty with the thinly shaved mushrooms atop the sweetbread/mushroom mixture.
The eighteenth course was Chippings of puffed lamb with a caramel coat. Sue didn’t get the caramel coat, but the lamb was tender and cooked to a beautiful medium rare and the puffed lamb chippings were crunchy and tasty.
The next drink pairing was a Cerveza Ahumada from Hasparen – Etxeko Bob’s beer. This was a smoked beer with definitive smoke on both the palette and the nose. Interesting, but not for drinking alone, although it was an interesting pairing with the first dessert course.
We were now offered the option of a cheese course, or heading straight to dessert. By this time we were getting pretty full and since we had cheese at lunch we declined the cheese course and jumped into the desserts.
The nineteenth course and first dessert course was Iced rye cream with aged toffee. This was really good and the rye in the ice cream paired well with the smoke of the beer.
The last drink pairing was Masia Pairal Can Carreras from Emporda, Cellar Marti Fabra, similar to a sherry. From north of Barcelona, outside of Girona.
The Twentieth course was Mocha in its lightest version. This was really good, even with the strong mocha flavor, Mark really liked it. It was a light airy crispy mocha wafer. Very good.
The Twenty-first course was Frozen Almond Turron. This was a nougat ice cream type concoction served between two wafers. Sue really liked this.
The Twenty-second course was Glass – Sugar and cocoa as a cookie. This was a chocolate and coconut flavored cookie. The coconut flavor was light and not overpowering, nice cookie.
We were then offered coffee and Sue decided, why not, so she ordered a Cappuccino, which was pretty good, although she did need to add sugar.
We had mentioned that it was Mark’s birthday on our kitchen tour and we were presented with yet another surprise course – a piece of birthday cake for Mark. The small piece of cake came wrapped in a cloth sack, which when unwrapped, we found a piece of poppy seed cake and a smear of frosting with a candle. The inside of the sack was a world map. Very good, but at this point we were really close to exploding!
We were informed that we were not yet done – for course twenty-four we needed to complete the 7 deadly sins. They proceeded to bring out a wood tower puzzle with markings on the side to represent the 7 deadly sins.
Sin 1 – Pride, inside this tier were two egg shaped gold leaf crusted hollow chocolates.
Sin 2 – Envy - Two pieces of chocolate, one white, one dark.
Sin 3 – Wrath – These were for lack of a better description, spicy peeps squares. Marshmallowy squares covered in some spicy mixture. Pretty perfect representation for the wrath sin.
Sin 4 – Gluttony – was a large serving of chocolate covered, cocoa dusted crunchy bits, almost like corn nuts.
Sin 5 – Greed – this was empty, which we thought was a really playful take on that, especially when Sue first saw there was nothing in it she stated she felt cheated.
Sin 6 – Lust – two pink rubbery cups of ooey gooey caramel.
Sin 7 – Sloth – two dark chocolate candies, at which point you are so stuffed, you can’t even move!
And so this ended the meal – over 4 ½ hours later! We paid our bill and the called for a taxi for us. Our taxi driver didn’t speak English, but we still managed to have a conversation with him on the way home. Of course, we’re not sure if we completely understood what he was trying to tell us and vice versa, but he seemed like a nice old man. The cab ride home was a little more expensive – 27 euro, which makes sense, as the taxi fares increase after midnight.
Completely stuffed, we retired to the apartment to watch a show before calling it a night at 2am!
May 31, 2013
Another cold and rainy day, I guess this ends our streak of good weather on vacation. Even after the big meal at Mugaritz, we still needed to eat lunch, so we headed to Bodegan Alejandro for lunch and did their tasting menu which was 6 courses and was really tasty. The first course was anchovies lasagna, this was not only tasty but beautiful. It was a neat little square of vegetable ragout topped with neatly topped with a row of beautiful white anchovies. Next course was Cherry tomato stuffed with squid set atop squid ink risotto; first time having squid ink, but another nice dish. Third course was Grilled hake with citrus vinaigrette – yum. Fourth course was Glazed veal cheeks, another winner. Fifth course was French toast caramelized and served with cheese ice cream and last was fresh strawberries with whipped mascarpone cream. A truly fantastic meal!
Walked around & took some pictures in the break from the rain (still cold and windy)
Decided didn’t need dinner, just snacked on leftover meats and cheeses while watching tv.
We both think with better weather we really would have loved San Sebastian, it’s a quaint town with a large beautiful beach. We’ll have to go back again someday.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Got up and headed to the train station to go to Madrid. No security at San Sebastian station, but the ticket taker spoke English and was helpful to tell us that car 5 (which is where our seats were) was actually at the front of the train, so we knew where to stand. The train ride into Madrid was completely uneventful and getting a taxi outside the station was easy. The taxi to our flat was 18 Euros – including tip. Not too bad. One of the best things though, was the sun! It’d had been so long since we’ve seen.
Paula, from the rental company met us at the apartment. She was very friendly and helped us get settled in. Her English was really good. She said she was trying to start her own tour company and offered her services, which she was quick to explain only meant touring Madrid (not sure what else she thought we might be interested in). She offered to take us around a trendy neighborhood for only 5 Euro each, but since she was super skinny, we decided we couldn’t trust her food recommendations, so we passed.
We decided to do a little exploring of the area, so we walked over to Plaza Mayor and picked out a random terrace restaurant to have a late lunch. We chose Restaurante Hegar and while the wine (Rosado) was good, the food was not. But it was nice being outside in the sunny warmth and people watching. And there are lots of “street artists” on the plaza to keep you entertained.
We decided to hit the local super market for some vino and head in for the night.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Again another beautiful sunny day, so we decided to get out and move. We walked over to San Miguel Mercado where we enjoyed some fresh oysters and a glass of cava (breakfast of champions!). San Miguel is much smaller than La Boqueria in Barcelona, and it was less crowded, even on Sunday.
We decided to move on and try to find Estado Puro, another Ryan Poli recommendation. We walked through the Puerto del Sol, but the streets were crazy busy with lots of people walking around in yellow t-shirts – obviously some sort of group. Turns out it was a 25th anniversary of a movement to help people with disabilities. Streets were cordoned off and there were literally about a 1000 long distance buses lined up on the street. We found Estado Puro in the NH Hotel and chose to sit on the terrace to enjoy the day. The terrace is more expensive, but it was a beautiful day and fun to people watch. The waiter made sure we were careful about our cellphones as thefts are not uncommon. We didn’t have any issues, thankfully. The food at Estado Puro was really good. We had their potatas bravas, croquettes, mixed paella and meat bombs. The paella was good (with the exception of dry chicken) and the potatas bravas were probably the best we had in Spain.
After lunch we walked over to the Parque del Retiro, which was quite a buzzing place on Sunday. With the weather as nice as it was, it really wasn’t surprising to see so many people out. After walking around there, we started heading back to the apartment, with a stop at another terrace (Tiroso café) for some Rosado. All that walking really gets your thirst up!
After that brief detour, it was time for a quick stop at the super Mercado for what was becoming our Madrid evening plans: Cava, sausage, cheese and tv.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Today we got up a little earlier than normal, but just hung out at the apartment. We knew we had to get to bed at a decent time tonight, since our cab was due at 5:15am!
We putzed around the apartment until about 1pm before heading off to another one of Ryan Poli’s suggested eateries. Today we landed at Casa Lucas and as this was our first meal of the day, we were way early per Spain standards, showing up just after 1pm. But this was a great little place. We ordered a few things, but the waiter said it was too much (and he was right), but we were able to cut back on one of the dishes to still try all 4. We got the croquettes, Alella – which was chicken served on toast with caramelized onions and corn mousse (yummy!), Fardos – which was calamari wrapped in bacon and served with squid ink mousse and also Rabo de Toro – Oxtail with pureed potatoes. Sue’s least favorite was the calamari, not because it tasted bad, but because it looked nasty. It came out all beautiful then the waiter said, he will carve it up for us and which point he cuts it all up (the pieces were quite large) and then mixes in the squid ink mousse – so now everything looked dirty. But the flavor was pretty good, albeit a tad chewy.
After that we decided to walk to Camp Del Moro to see what that park looked like. We didn’t actually go down into the park as it was downhill (only to have to climb back out). The views from the street level of the Spain mountains and country side were really lovely. We then walked on to the Royal Palace and Plaza Oriental. Then began winding our way back towards the Plaza Mayor. We stopped a tad short of Plaza Mayor at Postas Quinces for a bottle of Rose and enjoyed the lovely weather and people watching, including people taking pictures at the candy shop, a sexually suggestive toddler and an old man with black socks and sandals walk back and forth about 4 or 5 times. We didn’t need food as we were still full from our lunch at Casa Lucas.
Then as the afternoon was winding down we performed our Madrid evening ritual and headed home.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Man, 4am is early! And we both woke up without the alarm. Paula was true to her word and got us a taxi, who arrived a little early. We got to the airport in under 30 minutes as there was no traffic out at that time of the morning. The cab ride cost 34 Euro, but part of that is a surcharge for the early hour and airport taxes. As we were driving through the city center, it was funny to see all the late teen/early twenties group still out and about from the night before.