Arzak
2013 Remirez de Ganuza Rioja Blanco
White, Wheat, Olive Oil
Moringa and Prawn Gyoza
Beans and Apple
Banana and Squid
Marinated Sardine and Strawberry
Txistorra with Beer and Mango
Cromlech – Foie Gras, Coffee, Tea, Confit Onion
Fluke marinated with “patxaran” and dusted with purple corn
Lobster with Bee’s Pollen – Sweet and Acidic Flavors with Blue Honeycomb, Zucchini Spears
Red Space Egg – 65degree Red Egg, Red Peppers, Cereal Ferments, Crispy Pig Trotter
Monkfish and Rhubarb – Grilled, with Lillies
Duck with Potato Feathers – Traces of Mastic
The Big Truffle – Chocolate Ice Cream
Milk and Sea Buckthorn Pot – Smoked Sheeps Milk, Crispy Sweet Potato, Peanut with Basil Ice Cream
Ice Cream Assortment – Lemon, Apple, Red Fruit
House Herbero
Toqued by the father/daughter team of Juan Mari and Elena Arzak with ownership and operation of the restaurant dating to the latter’s great-grandfather in 1897, the style of Arzak has been described as everything from abstract to avant-garde by visitors for nearly fifty years since Juan Mari took over the kitchen, and described as an “Author’s Cuisine” by the Chef himself the focus is perhaps best summarized as “bringing years of French training back to the history of the Basque.”
The most storied of the region’s 3* Michelin, Relais & Chateaux rated properties, my visit to Azark was actually on the restaurant’s first day back from a well deserved break, and although Juan Mari was still away at a culinary conference his daughter and a staff of twenty were already hard at work when doors were opened at 12h00, another full booking seeing diners stacked in the lounge until seating began one hour thereafter.
Unmistakably fine dining, linens crisp and silver polished in a well adorned space that spans two-stories and several rooms, it was at a large table on the main floor that seating was offered to smaller parties as a group of twelve occupied much of the space above and declining opting for a dry Spanish white as I perused the multitude of menus it was with one substitution that the meal began, service beyond compare throughout the afternoon.
Presented two warms breads with freshly pressed olive oil to begin, each fine if not particularly creative and replenished without need for request, it was just five minutes before the first of six canapes was brought forth, the unfamiliar sweet plant bolstering the flavor of prawns in crisp dumplings while a bottle of pureed beans were lightened by lightly fermented apple.
Continuing a theme of bold flavors married to natural sweetness with a briny sardine wrapped around strawberry alongside a banana crisp topped in squid, the most interesting bite offered to the majority was no doubt the ripe mango matched to pork sausage while a bonus plate was shuttled my way for “coming such a long distance,” the tempuraed Cromlech inverted to be eaten “like an icecream cone” incredibly complex flavors of coffee and onion dancing amidst unctuous flavors of seared foie gras.
Taking every chance to offer unique ingredients, sometimes for looks but also often for taste, the 2015 tasting menu officially began with snappy slices of fluke ceviche with a boozy herbal tinge and progressing next to a raised glass square of sweetened lobster over an LCD screen I only wish the flavors would have been as inspired as the presentation, a tepid pool of acid offered in one corner while passion fruit gel threatened to unbalance everything at the south center of the plate.
Perplexed by the zucchini served prior, apparently intended as a bridge to flavors yet to come, course three was entitled “Red Space Egg” and although again elegantly plated with a great bit of texture the taste itself still left me wanting as red pepper flooded the palate to the point where one could hardly decipher the flavor of pork let alone any sort of funk or ‘ferment.’
At this point hitting a lull in service that saw thirty-five minutes pass before grilled Monkfish and Rhubarb were delivered with a beautiful tableside sauce of lillies it was finally with this penultimate savory that the experience finally lived up to its billing, the “feathered” duck to follow another unique bite with rosy soft flesh augmented through the addition of crisp potatoes with lingering notes of pine.
Told “The Big Truffle” should not be missed and not particularly sold on the minty dessert offered as part of the menu it was at no added charge that a substitution was made to the first of two sweets and although the tableside “melt” was no more impressive than that done elsewhere the purity of flavors was certainly appreciated, the sidecar of ice cream sporting an almost ethereal texture replicated in the herbal green scoop served with candied peanuts alongside Milk softened Sea Buckthorn bathed in smoked Sheeps Milk with Crispy Sweet Potato adding texture.
Treated to a clever cage of frozen bon-bons before a lengthy tour including the kitchen and wine cellar where lights went out temporarily to redefine “pitch black” it was back at the table that a small glass of house Herbero was offered, the punchy digestif a bit more than I could handle but apparently a reinvention of a traditional Catalonian liquor that the Maitre D’ was quite proud of and I was not rude enough to refuse.
http://www.arzak.info/