72. San Sebastian - Arzak

'With 15 Michelin stars, San Sebastián’s gastronomy sparkles as brightly as the turquoise sea that lies beside it, and with a population of 186,000, San Sebastián holds the second highest Michelin stars per capita in the world. ' Swide

Our second fabulous lunch in San Sebastian was at Arzak. Despite the hand drawn menus, there is nothing easy, relaxed or casual about Arzak.  

Arzak is the eighth best restaurant in the world.  It is run by chef Juan Mari Arzak and his daughter Elena, the fourth-generation Arzak to work in the building that her great-grandfather constructed in 1897. The father-and-daughter team’s menu features reworked traditional Basque flavors and preparations.

This is a formal, traditional Michelin three star restaurant with stuffy senior staff but friendly female waiters.

The decor is dark and dramatic. But from first to last, from bread to coffee, the food was excellent.

Like Mugaritz, on leaving we were given a menu translated into English.  This translation however was very good, so I will use it with the photographs I took. 

The first amuse-bouche (I'm not sure what an amuse-bouche or 'a little bite' is called in Spain - maybe a tapas) was Moringa and prawn gyoza.  Gyoza are dumplings wrapped in a thin dough. They are also known as pot stickers but there was nothing sticky about these - light, crisp and colourful.

Banana and squid.  A sweet mouthful but I would have preferred to taste more of the squid and less of the sweetish dressing.

Txistorra with beer and mango. Txistorra is a little fast-cured sausage from Aragon which was wapped in mango and presented on a squashed beer can.

Peach bitter.  Cold peach 'soup' with a plug of melon and Serrano ham. 

Marinated white tuna with strawberry.  Absolutely stunning - succulant tuna, creme-fraiche and strawberry.  I never realised strawberry went so well with fish.

Cromlech, manioc and huitlacoche.  Crispy manioc hydrated with huitlacoche and stuffed with onion, green tea and foie gras. 

I had to Google this one - Cromlech is the word used to describe the shape of the food which was made out of crispy manioc, otherwise known as cassava and filled with onion, green tea and foie gras. The idea was to pick it up with the filling inside, and eat it with your hands. And here I was thinking it was stuffed pumpkin skin.

Beet root blood apple. Apple injected with beetroot accompanied by foie gras and potato mother of pearl. The potato is the cracker and the foie gras was inside the apple.  It was gorgeous.

My first main course was Lobster with bee's pollen.  Sautéed lobster with fresh pollen, sweet and acidic flavours and blue honeycomb. Delicious, perfectly cooked, great flavours and colourful to boot. 

Paul's first fish was Mackerel with 'patxaran' and purple corn.  Patxaran is a sloe-flavoured Basque liquor.  Delicious.

Red space egg.  'Red' egg cooked sous vide at 65° with red peppers, cereal ferments and crispy pig trotters. The crispy pork was lovely as were the peppers but I wasn't so keen on the combination with the egg.

Paul's fish was called White tuna's tamale. 

Grilled white tuna covered with a wine-tinged corn leaf and purple sauce. I'm not so sure the sauce was purple but he loved it.  There are a lot of events here.

My fish was served on a glass plate on top of an iPad that was playing a movie of waves breaking on sand.  Red mullet with oak leaves.  Crispy colourful fallen leaves accompanying red mullet fillet and crustacean stock.  Red mullet must be up there with the best fish in the world.

My main meat dish was called Pigeon with guitar shavings.   Here are the light cypress guitar shavings.

And here is the pigeon.  

And here is the pigeon receiving its armagnac sauce and little bowl of perfectty roasted vegetables. Fabulous.

Paul was thrilled with his lamb.  Lamb with lotus. Wrapped in a lotus leaf, lamb served with lotus root, quinoa and its juice and some deep fried, crispy lotus root slices in the bowl.

The first of two desserts each, Paul's was The big truffle.   A large cocoa and sugar truffle with a creamy chocolate and carob filling.

It was so light and airy that the puff of a shell collapsed under the warm alcoholic sauce that was poured on. It came with carob ice cream, in the little square pot.

Square moon.  Lunar chocolate cube with a fluid core of mint, neroli and kiwi fruit. It came with tangy ice-cream. When I asked for further information the waiter said the sauce was orange and passionfruit.  Whatever, this was superb.  Tangy, tangy and more tangy plus chocolate - what more could you ask for?

Anise and apple donut.  Roasted apple rings with anise aroma and macadamia sauce. Could have done without this one.

Black lemon. Crispy black lemon shell with a sweet citrus cream interior sprinkled with the same fruit and served with lime ice-cream.  A memorable final mouthful.

Chef Jaun Mari did the rounds of the Spanish speaking tables and was then introduced to those of us from other language backgrounds.  A nice touch.  Chef Elena said goodbye at the door with plenty of English and a firm handshake.

It was very humid, overcaste  and misty on the main beach of La Concha, when we drove past at 6.30.

Not too many swimmers or sun worshippers left.  Only one lonely change-tent remains.