Back in 2015 I wrote about my first visit to the Boroa Jatetxea Restaurant. I write this following my second visit, which took place in November 2016.
The converted 15th century farmhouse is a wonderful building, spacious and “warm”. Do not let the rural setting fool you. This is a one Michelin star restaurant.
Íñigo Elorriaga, a Basque who lives in nearby Gernica (Guernica), is the chef in charge of innovation.
Jabier Gartzia Ruiz, a native of Gernica, is the head chef.
Oxtail capuccino came as a welcome drink and it was delicious! Light enough not to overpower the senses, but still capable of providing flavor, it was smooth and warm.
Chorizo is always welcome on my plate, especially this one that was accompanied by a sauce that had all the flavor of this wonderful sausage.
Slightly smoked European eel and avocado in spiced quince veil over foie gras with citric aroma was my starter. An absolute winner, a dish I could again and again without ever getting bored.
This is what great cooking is all about.
Cod tasting (grilled, vizcaina and pil pil) was my main course. I have a special devotion to salt cod and it cannot get any better than what I taste in Basque Country.
The dish has three pieces, wach cooked in a different way.
The first is pil-pil, which is a traditional Basque preparation. The sauce is an emulsion of olive oil and the cod’s juices.
The second piece is “vizcaina”, another local preparation, with a thich red sauce. The purists say that the sauce should be made only with red peppers, that is without any tomatoes. Today it is more often than not that you find a tomato thrown in the sauce.
The last preparation is grilled. This is a “nowhere to hide” preparation. The smallest fault of the fish will reveal itself on the grill, as well as the cook’s ability to maintain all the juices and aromas of salt cod’s most expensive cut.
Raspberry, yogurt and Dulcey junket Dulcey crumble, raspberry and yogurt junket, creamy yogurt, different Dulcey textures and raspberry meringue was my desert.
The desert was recommended to me by the propritetor, Mª Asun Ibarrondo, and I obliged.
The desert was a harmony of tastes and textures and aromas, and by the time I finished it I could only think of how hard it would be to improve on such a finish to a wonderful meal.
Some time ago, I visited Casa Garras to have lunch. It is located some 60 km southwest of Bilbao, and more than half of the route is twisty, narrow, and requires extra care. The low clouds and mist did not make the route easier. After such a challenging drive, I was wondering whether the place was worth it.
The entrance leads you to the bar, where you can have a drink and some pintxos (tapas in the Basque language). The restaurant is on the first floor. I arrived early, at 1345 hrs – by local standards – and had the opportunity to observe the customers settling in. I think I was the only foreigner in the restaurant. In addition to the families and couples, there were large groups of friends, mostly men, getting together to enjoy lunch. By 1500 hrs – the time locals usually have lunch on a Saturday – the place was packed solid.
The chef of the restaurant is Txema Llamosas, whose parents owned Casa Garras, has worked with some of the holy monsters of Basque and Catalan cuisine: Eneko Atxa (Azurmendi), Juan Maaari Arzak (Arzak), and Ferran Adria (elBulli), and returned to his parents’ restaurant in 2010. With his inspiration and the support of his wife Pilar, who is the somelier of the restaurant, Txema has managed to establish Casa Garras as a gastronomic jewel in the Valley of Carranza, one of the nicest and mostly unknown area of Vizkaya in the Basque Country.
I tasted the gastronomic menu on offer. and took a bottle of the locally produced txakoli wine (txakolina).
The somelier recommended Casa Garras’s brand “Petite”, and I obliged.
This foamy, hot, tasty broth made from ox’s tail started the meal. Its depth is unforgettable.
Soft cheese made from locally produced Idiazabal cheese, served with a butter brioche.
Extremely smooth and tasty! And it looked good too!
Marinated red tuna in its emulsion, ponzu soup, wakame seaweed and pearls of wasabi. The visible fusion of Basque cuisine with Japanese flavors.
White shrimp from Huelva on cod skin and mayonaise made from the stock of their heads and shells.
The shrimp comes from Huelva, a city in the southern region of Andalucia.
Glazed red tuna neck, avocado mousse, pickled purple onion and morcels of fried pigskin. I do not remember the sauce’s name, but it was delicious.
Hake double chins cooked the pil pil way, with organic olive oil.
I absolutely love “kokotxas” (the double chin of the fish) and I can only find them in Spain and the Basque country!
Stuffed squid, fried legs, and sauce made from its ink. The squid is stuffed with finely chopped legs.
Egg yolk on carbonara cream, cured pig’s jowl and idiazabal cheese crisp.
Grilled hake on a cauliflower emulsion.
Rib steak of Karrantza beef, served with morcels of its fat.
This is one of the best steaks I have ever eaten! It melts in your mouth, and it unbelievably tasty!
The desert was based on panacotta, and it was nice, but nothing compared to the savoury dishes. It is clear that Chef Llamosas prefers savoury!
Today I want to share some images from my beloved Basque Country.
I first visited Bilbao and San Sebastian back in 2003 and since then I have them in my heart. As I visited more and more, I started appreciating the country and not only the two cities.
This beautiful structure was the first reason I wanted to visit Bilbao. I became aware of it back in 1999 and put it on my list as a place to visit. It is true that the museum by itself is a good reason to visit Bilbao. Is it the only one?
Of course not! The Basque country is a place where you can enjoy food to the fullest, and at the same time you can enjoy nature, be it the sea, or the mountains!
Salted dry cod – bacalao – is one of the other reasons to visit the Basque country! In San Sebastian there is a shop specializing in bacalao, they sell some 20 different cuts! The “steak” is better than beef!
Fishing is traditionally a major activity, these fishing vessels testify to the fact.
The road from Bilbao to San Sebastian is an opportunity to see the sea coast in all of its rocky magnificence, and enjoy – weather permitting – the beautiful sandy beaches.
The Basque people love the sea, and you can see the proof in the hundreds of boats in every small town.
The mountains are a short drive away.
The mountainous terrain provides for excellent lambs meat and wool.
Back in San Sebastian, you can enjoy the city and the relaxed atmosphere.
Ang go to the patriarch of Basque cuisine for a nice meal!
Juan Mari Arzak has three Michelin stars since 1973! When I first visited his restaurant in 2003, I was terrified, having the experience of 3-star restaurants in France. But the Basque country is different! In Arzak’s restaurant I felt like eating in the taverna of my neighborhood. People were normal, and Arzak obviously knew them all! They are people from his city, and they consider Arzak’s their own restaurant! Dress code is smart casual, and thats it!
I close this short journey with a bunch of flowers from the Guggenheim.
In case you are interested, I have written articles in this blog about:
Update 2021: The restaurant is no longer in operation inside the museum building. A new restaurant “Neua Guggenheim Bilbao” has pened and operates in an adjacent area of the museum vomplex.
I visited the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum in July 2008 and had lunch in the restaurant. It is a restaurant much acclaimed and I was quite curious to see, smell, and taste the food.
The Chef is Josean Martínez Alija, a disciple of Martín Berasategui’s.
Before lunch, I had the opportunity to visit the brilliant exhibition of works by the Spanish Artist Juan Munoz.
Back in the restaurant, I opted for the gastronomic menu with the rather overwhelming title “Creation, Freedom and Tendencies”.
Having in mind that this is a title more suitable for a Ph.D. in Philosophy, I waited for the amuse bouche.
It turned out to be “tempura” peppers, which I liked very much. They were sweet, tender and very fresh.
The first dish of the menu was “Stewed tapioca pearls”. I was told that this is a simulation of a traditional Basque dish which has humbler ingredients. The dish was perfect, the pearls had absorbed the flavours of the stew and I had the sense of the pearls exploding in my mouth, releasing their flavours. Imaginative and pleasing.
The “Roasted red endives” followed. This was a “minimal” dish and I have mixed feelings about it. I like endives, but at the end of the day an endive by itself is not the most pleasing dish. Although it was full of flavour, this was not enough to constitue a dish in a gastronomic menu.
Another roasted vegetable was next: “Roasted aubergine flavoured with “makil goxo”. I have the same comments as in the endives dish. Yes, the aubergine was very tender and juicy, but there was no complexity of flavours, no synthesis worth mentioning.
The next dish was also roasted: “Roasted fish of the day”. The “minimalism” of the previous dishes continued with the hake. A good piece of fresh fish is not a gastronomic dish.
The last dish was the “Iberian pork stew”, and it was a very good stew. But only a stew.
All in all, I was rather diappointed. In my view gastronomy requires synthesis of ingredients, tastes (and traditions in some cases), an abstract concept is not enough.
I found Andra Mari in the Red Michelin Guide and visited it last year (2007). I was positively impressed to the extent that I thought I just was lucky and everything turned out well during my visit. This year I visited Andra Mari again, wondering what the experience would be. I will try to describe it in this post.
The weathwer was gorgeous and I had the pleasure of eating al fresco in the veranda. Galdakao is a small town 10 km southeast of Bilbao, and is very easy to reach.
The view from the veranda is peaceful, and the air aviation enthusiasts can see all the airplanes as they approach the Bilbao airport, without suffering any noise effects, as they are still at a high altitude (I would say over 500 meters).
I had the “Andra Mari” Menu, which is the showpiece of the chef’s artistry and skill.
The start was “foie gras terrine with Pedro Jimenez Jelly”.
The second dish was “Sardine Fillets with roasted peppers and parmesan cheese”.
An apotheosis of colours followed, with the title “Grilled Summer Vegetables”.
The grilled lobster that followed was served with “Amaranto” risotto, which is in fact a cereal popular in South America.
What followed was my favourite dish a year ago. A cottage egg served with octopus. The richness of the egg combined with the octopus flavours will remain unforgettable.
The tuna loin that came next was a step down from the platform of excitement that the lobster and the octopus had built. I would nopt mind if it weren’t there at all.
To conclude they served a dish with Iberian pork cuts. The taste of the meat was superb, but the dish lacked the finesse and creative intensity of the previous dishes (excluding the tuna). I could live without it and have more lobster with the South American Cereal.
Deserts came next, starting with a junket with cherries.
To wrap things up they served a sponge cake with pears.
Overall, the experience was of the highest level, and in terms of value for money it tops the Basque Charts.
Andra MAri is now formly on my standard Basque Itinerary and for a very good reason. It serves excellent food at a very reasonable price!