Thursday, July 31, 2014

Spanish Sojourn Day 2 part 2

Despite being quite warm and nearly 3km away, we deicded to walk from Arzak back to the city centre. We had a very strange moment when a woman started randomly speaking to us on the street - she was from the Philippines and was in Spain to visit her son. We're not really sure why she started talking to us (other than us all being Asians?) and she only stopped talking when her bus started coming up the hill. 
A bar that we stopped in for a toilet break. The sign says, "We have a broken router - NO WIFI - Talk to each other!"

Zuriola beach - definitely not as crowded as La Concha. Giant lunch or not, we damn wished we were wearing swimsuits!

There was an international jazz festival on that night but we decided that, since we were going to have to catch an early train the next day, we should spend the night packing and sleeping. Sad faces all around. We did venture out to visit our favourite places for dinner though.
And saw this BEE-YOO-TEE-FULL sunset!

Seriously

It was selfie-perfect

Although the light affected whether you could see yourself

No matter. Totally gorgeous.

Oh yeah. Bring the yums.

Speaking of which, we went back to San Telmo to get some of the things we didn't order the day before, such as this beef

And this duck ravioli

And the ministers feet - pigs trotters. The same waiter who took my order yesterday took my order again this day. He even said to me, "You were here yesterday" to which I replied, "Yes, I was!"

And completely sated once more and absolutely devastated that this would be our last meal, we walked on home to our pensione to rest *sniff sniff boooooo*

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Spanish Sojourn Day 2 part 1

Many, many months before we actually bought our tickets to San Seb, CuzJen informed me that Fremma had managed to score us a reservation at Arzak. When I told Patri, former resident of San Seb, she nearly fell off her chair. Because for those who don't know, San Sebastian has the most Michelin-starred restaurants per capita - Arzak being one of those places as well as being voted the 8th Best Restaurant in the World in 2013. So was it worth the hype? Let's go!

We got a lunch booking for 13:30 but rocked up un-Spanishly early. So early in fact that we were not only the first to arrive in the restaurant but that the staff were surprised we were there - they were outside enjoying the sun! They quickly clicked to form though.  
Embroidered tablecloths, just in case you were looking down and forgot where you were. 

Interestingly long cutlery. 

Gotta say, the bread was pretty good!

Even though it was only lunch time, we all agreed - !&$* the expense, we were all going to have the 8 course degustation! When the waiter took our orders, we were allowed to have a selection of what we'd like for each course. Unfortunately I have only recorded my own meal here which sometimes varied from  CuzJen and Fremma's. Anyway. Onto to meal! 

Course 1 - an amuse-bouche collection
Our first - Gilda with carrot and ssamjang. This reminded me a bit of the baby-corn and truffle I had at Vue de Monde  

Scorpion fish mousse with kataifi. Crispy outside, squishy inside, this kinda reminded me of things I miss from yum cha. 

Bitter raspberry juice with jamon and melon. I really enjoyed this despite not being sure how I was supposed to eat/drink it. The flavour contrast of the salty ham with the sweet melon and creamy berry juice...tasty.

Chorizo and tonic water. Research tells me that the chorizo was wrapped in thinly sliced mango and marinated in citrus juice. I had no idea that was mango - I totally thought it was something like wonton wrapper until I ate it and realised that it wasn't pastry.

Tuna with strawberry. Another flavour combination I wouldn't have thought would go together and yet, totally did! This sense of wonderment at contrasting flavours set the tone for our meal!


The first 'proper' course - apple injected with beetroot with creamy foie gras and potato 'mother of peal'. This was so pretty I just wanted to admire it. The prettiness was also a bit of a problem as I wasn't sure if I was supposed to every everything on the plate, if you get what I mean. 

Lobster 'Sea and Garden' - grilled lobster with crispy star-shaped crepe and greens. I nearly cried eating this - the lobster was so sweet and succulent and perfectly paired with the clear tomato. And the crepe looked like an octopus with curly tentacles!

Ovo-lacto - soft egg with semi-crunchy shell and baobab with leaves and curds. I was a little bit disappointed with this. Normally I love egg dishes - and the egg was wonderful - but I found the crispy shell, which was made from milk, I think, to be a bit cloying and sticky in my mouth. 

Squid on leaves - grilled squid flavoured with kaffir lime leaves served with potato confit in black oil and onion sauce. Now THIS was my favourite dish of my entire meal. Other than looking beautiful - the way the fig leaf uncurled - it tasted amazing. I don't know why the official description doesn't say so, but it also paired the squid with figs.

A combination I would have never considered, it has revolutionised my life! I wanted to go out and buy some figs and squid and try to see how to put it together!

Also, fig and matcha - gotta remember to put them together as well!

Beef with vegetable screens - grilled rib eye with caramelised vegetable glasses and couscous. Again, so pretty! And when they say 'caramelised', they really mean it because those screens were sweet. Not pictured was a side of...yoghurt? I wasn't sure how I was supposed to eat it with the meal and ended up spooning it out. 

And now! The multi-course dessert!
The Big Truffle - large cocoa and sugar truffle with creamy chocolate and carob filling.

And then chocolate sauce was poured all over it, leading he truffle to collapse on itself.

Thank god for the cocoa coating because it's bitterness stopped the dessert from being too sweet. 


MY OTHER FAVOURITE DISH - BLACK LEMON!!! 

The lemons were made with a chocolate shell to look like the dried preserved lemons they were presented on, and then cracked open at the table to reveal the lemon curd inside. For those in constant search of tang - your hunt is at an end.

And finally, some petit fours of chocolate nuts and bolts. I could have done without this. 

We were presented with menus outlining our meal after we finished eating.

And we also got a photo and chat with Elena Arzak. She was pleasantly surprised when we told her we were from Melbourne and said that was one of her favourite places in the world with so many great places to eat. 

Now, I have read reviews/boards where people have said they found the service at Arzak brusque. Speaking from my own experience, I did not find this was the case. Maybe it was because we had a lunch service, maybe it was because they could see we were a bunch of highly enthusiastic and excitable Asians, maybe it's because we were too happy to notice if anyone was rude. It's true, some of the waitstaff were better than others, especially at describing the food and giving advice on how we were to eat it, but I would say that overall they were quite obliging.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Spanish Sojourn Day 1

As said in my last post, I spent the week on holiday. CuzJen and Fremma were travelling through Euroland and stopped by Munich for a week to check out the sights. As part of the plan, I said I would accompany them onto their next location - in my future retirement location - Spain!
An ad in the in-flight magazine on our way over. Highly relevant.

We flew to San Sebastian via an overnight stay in Barcelona, arriving at our pensione at the ungodly time of 9-something. And I really do mean ungodly because nothing was open and even the pensione staff said we were really early and everyone inside was still sleeping lol. Since we were so early, we couldn't go to our room, and we instead decided to go shopping. Shops were also largely still closed, so we went somewhere definitely not closed - the beach!
Except you know, La Concha also looked like it was closed

But a few brave early souls were out and about.

Hey there, Jesus on top of Urgull.

The guy operating the carousel allowed me and Fremma aboard! I don't have a photo of the dolphin I was riding.

CuzJen chose not to enjoy a ride, preferring instead to enjoy the view

And it sure is a pretty view!

People who know the geography of San Seb should now realise that we were near the Parte Vieja. Shops were slowly opening up (it was about 11am by now), so we entered to look around before the tourist hoards hit. As we wandered around, we realised that we were getting hungry, and after strolling for a bit longer until it was closer to midday, we decided it was time to start our gastronomic adventures!
You should have seen the happy eyes and open mouths of CuzJen and Fremma when they saw the pintxos displays. I ordered kalimotxos to go with my plate and the waiter commented that I must be on holiday to order it for breakfast! This is where CuzJen discovered her love of white anchovies and I remembered the joy of that fish...cake. I have to ask Patri for a recipe :/

At the next bar I advised that we try the local cider so that we could drink it by the bottle. Unfortunately, they didn't like it :( 

We were getting pretty full by now and only got one plate to share for the three of us at the next bar

But not so hungry that we could bypass a cake shop without getting some cake! Great photobomb, Fremma!

All the shops and restaurants were closing up so we decided to do as Donostiarra do, and take a siesta on the beach.
But seriously, it seemed everyone in town had the same idea.

Nevertheless, we were lucky enough to get a spot. My smile is huge from enjoying the rest and my dip into the Atlantic! CuzJen was so comfortable she fell asleep.

Following siesta, I literally rushed CuzJen and Fremma from our place back into the Parte Vieja to get to La Cuchara de San Telmo. They had also read the recommendations saying how wonderful this place was, although they were a bit hesitant when they saw how packed the place was. Nevertheless, I worked my way through the crowd to the bench, snagged a menu, and managed to place our order.
Along with the obligatory kalimotxos, here's some veal cheek. So soft we cut it with a spoon.

Confit bacalao (codfish!)

Suckling pig. We all agreed that it was good but nothing beats Chinese suckling pig (sorry). 

FOIE A LA PLANCHA!!! There are times when I think I could eat this every day. And then I think about what I just said and say...no

Pulpo!

And finally, pigs ears. All up, we paid only €30 much to CuzJen and Fremma's shock. 

Our next stop. We had bypassed this place in the morning for being 'too clean looking' but decided to give it a shot at night because it was packed.


We were wrong - it was pretty good! Also, those mussels in the can were amazing!

Physiology eventually stopped us from eating even moar but that was okay - it gave us time to take a nice digestion-aiding stroll and enjoy the beauty of the city.
Seriously, so purdy

I just...

I just can't deal...

With how much I love this city!!!

To cap off the day/night, we took tea at the Hotel de Londres y Inglaterra. Loved those little tea cakes!