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Archive for Michelin 1 Star

Eating San Sebastian – Mugaritz

Jul22

Restaurant: Mugaritz

Location: Aldura Aldea, 20, 20100 Errenteria, Gipuzkoa, Spain

Date: June 22, 2016

Cuisine: Molecular Spanish (Michelin 2 Star)

Rating: Form over Function or Concept over Taste

_

Mugaritz is considered by many to be the most “adventurous” and modern restaurant in the world gastronomic scene. The effective “heir to elBulli.” Recently it placed #7 in a notable best restaurants in the world. It is helmed by Andoni Luis Aduriz, who cooked at elBulli. Like Ferran Adria the staff spends several months of the year experimenting.

The farmhouse-like location is situated in the countryside above San Sebastian proper.

Metallic animalistic sculptures grace the grounds and patio.


Cave to start.

The menu, regular on the left and vegetarian on the right.

Our first few courses (and the cave) were enjoyed outside on the patio.

Toasted mollete, anchovy emulsion. A kind of fennel bun with an anchovy flavored butter. Nice soft textures to the roll.

“My guts are growling.” Tripe with a cheese spread. I’m not a tripe fan, but these were sort of like crispy waffles with cheese. Only the fact that I knew it was tripe detracted.

Ceviche over a frozen turf. I didn’t taste any of these vegetarian dishes but it sure looks like a patch of sod!

Live cannellone. Sprouted chia seed with lobster ceviche. This tasted like a lobster roll mixed with a 1970s health food tuna sandwich (the kind with avocado and lots of sprouts). For some reason chia seeds are really popular in Spain right now.

Carrots wrapped in a baked veil. Looks like sushi.

Live pasta and anchovies, in vinegar. This was basically a boquerone wrapped in thin pasta. It was rather delicious actually.

After this we moved into…

The kitchen. Got to meet some of the chefs, and were informed that about 50-70 people work in the kitchen. Wow!

Our kitchen snack was:

Chicken chicharon. Basically a nice crunchy bit of chicken skin.

A photo of the gang.

Now seated at the table we tried:

2012 Albamar Rías Baixas Alma de Mar. 90 points. A nice crisp white.

Lemon oyster. No dish exemplified the problems with concept over cuisine more than this dish. Basically, it was some kind of pickled lemon stuffed with an oyster. At a technical level, getting the oyster in there was cool, but the lemon tasted like Mustarda — probably because it was a pickled fruit. Maybe there was even mustard oil. It’s an odd flavor, and not for everyone. Sour, vinegary, with a sharp almost chemical like tone. Then the oyster just added fishy/briny. Really not actually a pleasant flavor at all. Presentation, however, was great.

Artisanal sweet strip.

Clams glazed with lemon. This riffed on the mollusk and lemon again, but more successfully. Still, it was clam with lemon curds.

Chilled radishes.
 Cooked Mother rice and…

Caviar. Actually a pretty successful combination. The rice had a very thick jelly/mochi texture.

Vegetarian Caviar. Probably actually a vegetable formed with alginate into small spheres.

Garlic inflorescence. A straight fibrous strand of garlic. Tasty but…

Made you feel like an herbivore!

Chilled radishes and mollusk milk. Like a clam/radish gazpacho. Bracing, with cool sharp flavors.

Fried trout. Although really more a fried anchovy. A very nice fried fish. Actually as good a small fried fish as I’ve had.

Tear-drop pea cloud. A dough not unlike a Chinese bun dough wrapped around what seemed to be salmon caviar. Mellow and subtle sweetness, a bit of brine. I enjoyed it.

Vegetarian ravioli.

Filled asparagus.

Red mullet in colora. Red mullet on a pork skin/fat crisp with what seemed to be chorizo oil melted over it. Interesting textural interplay of crunch, fish, and oil. The fish was excellently cooked, and not “fishy”, and the chorizo flavor was pretty dominant.

“Soup” with roasted vegetables. Corn meal and garlic that had to be mashed up.

With this.

Then bread was thrown into the “pot.”

And this gelatinous cube herbs and vegetables. Looks awesome.

The whole thing was mashed into a “soup.” Not exactly a soup, but an interesting smash-up.

2013 Ossian. 90 points. Same grape as Rioja blanco. Very very interesting aromatic wine.

Jerusalem artichoke seasoned with charcoal grill. looks pretty hideous, huh? Outside tasted of pure charcoal.

Inside was highly delectable. Very starchy, soft, almost like a risotto, with a bit of tomato/garlic flavors maybe.

Grilled cabbage marrows. Very soft, and also wrapped around by that char. Marrow chunks added some richness. Pretty tasty.

Grilled cabbage.

Lacquered sole and butter. Sole with edible bones and a butter “paste”. An excellent bit of fish. Rich and perfectly cooked. The crunchy bones were the best part, and fairly novel.

Ail glace. The paper was used here to squeeze the garlic juice onto the toast to make garlic bread.

Lis stew. Don’t know how this was a stew, or if the menu was wrong. It was yellow tomato and marcona almonds and some flowers.

Sweetbread and garlic. I’m not a big sweetbread fan, but again this dish worked. It was hard to tell the garlic gloves from sweetbreads, which was fine by me.

Vegetal bestiary.

A thousand leaves. Swiss chard carefully stacked. Basically a mille-feuille made from chard, served with a bit of grano and a meat reduction. The sauce and cheese were great, but the vegetable was a bitter green. The textures of all those folded layers was interesting, but that was about it.

Glazed lamb over salted leaves. This was a very tasty dish. A sort of high end lamb “lettuce wrap.” Sweet and miso-like.

Eggplant and miso. The vegetarians said this was great.

2006 Costers del Siurana Priorat Clos de L’Obac. VM 92+. Vivid ruby. Deep, smoky cherry and blueberry on the nose, with notes of black cardamom and gunpowder tea adding seriousness. Chewy in texture, with real punch to its dark fruit flavors. Becomes more floral with air, finishing with solid tannins and notes of candied rose and violet. If the Miserere deserves cellar time, this demands it.

Glazed shortbread. A meaty glaze on top of shortbread. The base was very dry and pasty. Combination was okay but the texture didn’t work well. Way too dry.

Yolks and artichokes.

The cheese. A fine cheese, probably a goat.

From bitter to sweet. This was an interesting combination of sweet and “savory” flavors. It was pretty good actually, if unusual.

Kombucha mother and strawberries. These were great. Basically odd textured strawberries and cream. Too bad they were so small (we each got one).

Drunken apricot and a fresh-cut julienne. Apricots and herbs. Almost ancient Roman in vibe, but successful.

Toasted soup of oxidized wine. Shaped like the Michelin man praying for a third star.

Sadly, he didn’t taste very good. Actually the marshmallow was fine, but it was coated in some very dry, very oxidized Madeira — I like my hyper oxidized wines sweet.

The room was constructed out of local pine.

Petit fours. The seven deadly sins. This tablewide tower came in multiple puzzle box segments.
 Greed.

Envy (only 1 for the table!).

Wrath. Spicy!

Gluttony. You had to eat it with your fingers. Corn chips with white chocolate sauce.
 Pride.

Lust. Funny jellies.

Sloth. White chocolate lemon balls if I remember right.

Let’s break it down.

Location and setting were lovely. Service was extremely nice at Mugaritz, but not as attentive as it could be. On at least one occasion I had to go get the wine and pour it around. Now this isn’t a serious fault, but at this level (2 star and gunning for 3) I shouldn’t have to think about the wine. Wine recommendations were excellent though, even though they were out of 2 things I wanted (older Rioja, blanco and tinto).

But how was the food? As you can see, it looks really interesting. Modern, yet not ultra “molecular” in appearance. Ingredients per dish are extremely few. Each course is conceptual and laser focused. Cooking is extraordinarily precise. All fine. The problem problem is that the concepts seemed to outweigh the experience on the pallet. Concept over cuisine. Many dishes just didn’t taste that good and only a few tasted great. They were memorable for their form and appearance only. An example of this would be the mille-feuille swiss chard. Cool concept. But in practice it was a bitter vegetable with an interesting texture, covered with a nice reduction and a bit of cheese. This should have been caught at the test stage and rejected for not being yummy enough. And there lies the crux. To me, given this single meal, it seems that Andoni Luis Aduriz prioritizes focus and creative concept above taste. Either that or he has a radically different pallet than the rest of us at the table. Dishes were very fresh, seasonal, and tasted intensely of their source ingredients, but the combinations were odd and some of those sources needed modulating.

So overall, intellectually very interesting but not actually that tasty.

Click here to see more Eating Spain posts.

Related posts:

  1. Eating San Sebastian – Akelaŕe
  2. Eating San Sebastian – Atari
  3. Eating San Sebastian – Zuberoa
  4. Eating San Sebastian – Abakando
  5. Eating San Sebastian – Baztán
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Andoni Luis Aduriz, eating-spain, Michelin 1 Star, Michelin Guide, Molecular Cooking, Molecular Gastronomy, Mugaritz, Spanish Cuisine

Eating San Sebastian – Zuberoa

Jul11

Restaurant: Zuberoa

Location: Araneder Bidea, Barrio Iturriotz, s/n, 20180 Oiartzun, Gipuzkoa, Spain

Date: June 18, 2016

Cuisine: Basque

Rating: Really tasty and effective (1 Michelin star)

_

We rented a lovely house outside of San Sebastian in the Basque Country town of Oiartzun — and turns out, it has a 1 Michelin star restaurant of its own, a mere 200 yards from the house.


Zuberoa is located in a charming 600 year old building! The same family has owned it for several hundred years and it was originally a tavern.

Above is part of the main dining room.

And they also have this lovely patio, which was packed on Saturday night and a smoker’s paradise.

The tasting menu.

Cava to start.

An amuse of foie gras with cherry reduction.

This was insanely good. The dollop on top was like a maple syrup foam and together with the cherry lent it a sweet, rich, candy-like quality.

Sea urchin royal to the fennel flavor. A sort of foam of fennel and urchin. Delicious too.

Lobster salad, its coral vinegar and lemon. Just a little lobster here. “Coral” must be the roe.

2006 Pazo de Señoráns Albariño Rías Baixas Selección de Añada. VM 93. Aged for 34 months on its lees in stainless steel tanks. Vivid yellow-gold. Highly complex bouquet of candied citrus fruits, almond paste, white flowers, smoky lees and minerals. Bitter orange pith and pear skin flavors gain sweetness with air and pick up an exotic floral nuance. Rich yet lively wine with superb finishing power and mineral-driven persistence. This singular wine is ready to drink and should hold well for at least another five years.

Poached cod fish to the olive oil with brandad, its skin sauce and its jelly´s crispy.

Spider crab and prawns ravioli in his broth. An awesome little rav.

Scallop, cauliflower and spring mushrooms (zizas) emulsion with brazed endive.

Confited cod fish chin, brandad and “Vizcaina” sauce. This part of the cod fish is super special and a specialty of the area. It has a particular gelatinous texture that is very prized. My extensive Chinese dining has prepared me for such culinary travels.

Egg yolk spring-like. A really delicious egg prep with a fascinating textural combination. The green was somewhat like a pea soup.

Roasted anglerfish and stir friend squid tallarine. Very nice piece of meaty fish. We googled the anglerfish and had quite the laugh at his hideous countenance.

Steamed hake with its pil-pil and pickled yellow peppers.

1981 C.V.N.E. (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España) Rioja Viña Real Gran Reserva. JG 96. This was certainly a great older Rioja. No decant but allowed it to evolve over hours. Garnet color consistent with previous, very little fading. There is an earthiness and attractive mustiness on the nose with surprisingly bright raspberry and strawberry. Palate brings light cherry and raspberry, warm spring earth, and pleasing umami flavors. Still enough of a tannic backbone to lend sufficient structure to the melange. This bottle would have still had many years of life ahead of it. If only every bottle performed this well.

Fried hake and French fries was enjoyed by my son.

Roast pigeon, liver toast and turnip filled up with mushrooms.

Roasted lamb ribs. Some very flavorful tender lamb ribs. Almost like lamb/veal.

Peach and passion fruit “ crème brûlée “ with raspberry ice-cream.

Pineapple sorbet coat in fermented coconut milk..
 Confited cherries, lemon thyme flavored with its own sorbet and Danish cookie. Pretty awesome fresh in-season cherry prep.

Chocolate, coffee, and banana set and orange nappage.

Alex enjoys his chocolate gelato!

Some finishers.

Overall, Zuberoa was really quite lovely. The food was varied, very Basque in style, and supremely tasty. While still modern in style it was a little less “wild” than the 2 and 3 star places we dined at, but in many ways this made it more approachable. Service was fabulous and they easily accommodated our varied party and even our young son. Plus it was quite reasonable by the standards of such an elaborate and fantastic meal.

Click here to see more Eating Spain posts.

Related posts:

  1. Eating San Sebastian – Akelaŕe
  2. Eating San Sebastian – Baztán
  3. Eating San Sebastian – Zeruko
  4. Eating Saigon – Hoa Tuc
  5. Eating Barcelona – Hoja Santa
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Basque cuisine, eating-spain, Michelin 1 Star, San Sebastian, Spanish Cuisine, Zuberoa
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