LUCKY travellers are sometimes fortunate enough to experience something, or come across a place, so special that, in itself, would motivate a return to an area. Restaurante Arzak (pronounced Ar-thack), which has three Michelin stars, is one such place for JetMoney.
Lunch there yesterday was truly remarkable across many levels - the generosity of spirit of the father-and-daughter team Juan Mari and Elena Arzak, who walked the floors greeting guests and explaining the background and construction of various dishes; the small but comfortable dining room; but most especially the food. You expect clever food at three-star restaurants but you can't hope that everything will be delicious. It was here.
From the outset we knew this was going to be great meal, as Arzak himself stood beside us, dictating to his maitre d' a degustation menu designed just for us.
First came a series of beautiful looking and individually tasty amuses, the favourites of which were a crunchy mouthful of rice-encrusted mushroom and a fun melon-wrapped goat cheese which was sprinkled with popping toffee.
Next came a perfect pairing of apple slices with foie gras: hot and delicious, the apple's acidity offset the butteriness of the foie gras giving it length without letting it be cloying. One of the biggest foie gras fans at our table rated it as one of the best dishes of the food he'd tasted in a long time. Another went so far as to deem it the best dish he'd had so far this trip.
The lobster dish that followed looked frightening at first, arriving atop a pimentos, raspberry and vermouth sauce sprinkled with what looked like flour. As it turned out, the "flour" was a form of tapioca, used on this plate as a thickening agent for the sauce, constructed by the kitchen but put into action by the diner. The sweet nature of the lobster with its snappy texture worked wonders with the gelatinous nature of the resulting sauce.
What came next was a dish not to be missed by those visiting Arzak - a "chicken and egg" combo that was part comfort food, part haute cuisine. A poached egg lay in a slightly thickened chicken stock surrounded by smatterings of crispy dried-then-fried chicken skin and slices of mushroom, all of which was draped with a freeze-dried paper-thin sheet of yolk. Every morsel was devored, our plates wiped clean with bread.
Two different fish dishes arrived after an appropriate break: monk fish with a sauce of the fish's liver, and hake with green sauce. The highlight of the latter was the block of almond, clam and "clay" that accompanied it. Also tremendous were the sides of tiny peas (remember the reference to Basque caviar?) and baby broad beans. The beans were so young they didn't need to be skinned and had an unbelievably earthy, nutty crunch. But the peas - OK, these are the best in the world so anyone who's into the vegetable needs to make the trek to the Basque region by the end of May.
Then came tender, succulent lamb with a fine romesco sauce coupled with a spoon of pimento "yolk"; and pigeon with blue potatoes in a rosemary/liver sauce. The latter was yet another clever example of how modern thickening agents are enabling chefs to create sauces that coat the tongue and give great length while remaining super fresh rather than being reduced to within an inch of their lives.
There's a lot going on with Arzak food. It's complex, but it retains balance. Everything goes together and everything tastes good. That's better than a three-star effort.
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Posted by: Steve Plotnicki | July 17, 2007 at 06:14 PM