57 kilometres

Saturday is a day for challenges and rewards. T will play golf with his friend, H. This leads H's girlfriend, A to challenge K to ride from Copenhagen to Elsinore on mountainbike (even if there are no mountains in Denmark). K will normally accept any challenge and this is no exception. And so it is. While the boys play golf, the girls ride from Copenhagen. For such an occasion we will look for wine that is a little out of the ordinary. As a reward, of course. However, the day begins somewhat chaotically for T who doesn't get all the sleep that he would have wanted. In fact it is not until hole 15 on the golf course that he starts to relax. Before that he has driven to Copenhagen and picked up K for shopping at Torvehallerne without being able to find a parking spot. K in the meantime has found some entrecôte steaks, a handsome filet of monkfish and various root crop. And so T drives back to Elsinore while K prepares for her bicycle ride.
When H & T finish another useless round of golf the girls are still 5 km away. That gives H&T 20 minutes to prepare some toasts of Il Fornaio's whole grain bread, open a bottle of 2008 Puligny-Montrachet from Joseph Drouhin and then arrange some pata negra on top of the toasted bread.
The girls arrive in high spirits and the starter and the first bottle of wine is soon consumed. After this, bathing starts. First K, then T and finally A. H doesn't want to, so that's too bad for A.

The first dish is baked monkfish and trumpet mushrooms on fried spinach and pine nuts.
The monkfisk is cut in portion sizes and baked in the oven at 200° C for about 10 min.
The carefully rinsed spinach is fried shortly in olive oil with a bit of shaved garlic and a squeeze of lemon
The trumpet mushrooms are given a similar treatment en another frying pan
Arranged on plates and finished with a few roasted pine nuts.

With a bottle of 2007 Corton-Charlemagne we’re off to a good start.....

Next are the beautifully marbled Entrecôtes. Just salted and fried 3 minutes on each side. They were selected as a companion to the next wines. Many rich wines with lots of body would do, but in this company we lean towards neuf du neuf. We find a bottle of Chateau Beaucastel 2009 and a bottle of Vieux Donjon 2009 both from Chateauneuf-du-Pape of course.
With the steaks we prepare a dish of roots crop that will be baked in the oven. In the dish we put beetroots (regular and candy), turnips and onions. We also have to add uncounted cloves of garlic with the skin on and herbs (the latter are massaged down into the bottom of the dish so they are not burned in the oven.) All baked for about 30-40 minutes.

It all come out very well and the wine is thus accompanied excellently. About the wine: The Vieux Donjon is delicious and already very drinkable. The Beaucastel (as some of you may recall) is not the first time we do away with a 2009. Once again, it is also excellent, a little more tight, and will keep well, if only we'll let it.

As you can imagine the 57 kilometers instills some appetite in the girls (and the boys know how to follow suit), so we need to have some cheese. We have some Danish dry cheeses (Høost and some others that we have forgotten about). It may just be an excuse to open another bottle of wine, which we do. This time a lovely/lowly Cote de Nuits Village, but from the excellent year 2005 and it tastes wonderful. K, who you you may recall has Beaucastel as one of her top-10 wines, seem to recall this latter one better the next day, whereas T does not recall much of anything.

In the end we have to eat some dessert. At this point it is kind of like a sprint. We have already put a bottle of Rayne-Vigneau Sauternes 2005 Premier Cru in the fridge and it cannot stay. But it is a race against time. H has dropped to the bed and is napping and anyone who knows T will be wondering how he is still up.

The dessert is baked plums with caramelized almonds and vanilla ice cream.
A couple of plums per person (Reine Claude) are cut in halves, stone removed and put in a baking pan with a bit of muscovado sugar and baked for about 10 minutes.
Sugar and butter are melted in a pan and when brown and bubbly almond splinters are put in.
Finally the (bought) vanilla ice cream is arranged on the side.
(Reminder: we need an ice cream machine) (and a bigger kitchen)

And it is another success, but it is also the end of the line for this evening and we are happy to send our guests to bed and hitting our own the moment their door closes.
In case you were wondering about the challenge and award thing... K was of course rewarded with some extraordinary wine (as were the entire company) this evening. T, who played some terrible golf was rewarded with an extraordinary hang-over. Both were equally just.

Dinner with friends

It's time for having friends over for dinner. Not that this happens seldomly. It's just such a good occasion to try out more than a single bottle of wine (or two as it sometimes happens). Tonight we try out a whole lot.
T has decided that we shall have some white Hermitage and for this a lobster bisque seems like a good choice. Secondly we will have some Lamb, as this will allow us to select som wine together with our friends. Our friends brings delicious cheeses which also calls for some wine and in the end a little desert should also provide an opportunity for a glass of wine.
Since it is Friday we are a bit stressed, so our friends have to put up with us being a bit disorganized and very informal. They are placed the at the kitchen table (and are even doing dishes from our initial preparations) and are served some tapenade with toasted bread. With this we have a glass of champagne from Debas-Comin. (Un)fortunately, we are not even close to having the first course when the champagne runs dry, but this gives K an opportunity to serve a glass of Meursault that she tried on her own some time ago and which she is understandably quite fond of. The Meursault Les Charmes, Domaine Chavy-Chouet, 2010 is very good, full and buttery and the acidity is very well integrated in the young 2010 vintage. In the meantime...

For the bisque, which is a quick friday-version, we have started a vegetable fond by frying carrot, parsnip, garlic, onion, leeks, (one small) Jerusalem artichoke and a few fresh tomatoes, one chili, adding white wine, white pepper and letting it steam off the alcohol and then pouring water on top and let it simmer for an hour. The bisque tonight is made of Norway lobsters. The meat is taken out of the lobster tails. Then the claws, heads and empty tails are fried on a hot pan. Next a generous measure of what should have been cognac, but on this occasion was rum was added and ignited. This caused quite some panic as one of the guests is on the verge of fleeing the apartment. The pan is withdrawn from the stove, the fire subsided and the fleeing guest is calmed with another glass of Meursault. We’re sorry that we did not think of taking pictures of the scene.
Next the vegetable fond, which has been sieved and the vegetables discarded, is poured over the lobsters and is left to simmer for 10 minutes, then about 1 dl of cream is added and simmers until thickening. In the meantime large scallops are fried hard and short and are placed in the bowls along with the lobster meat and the bisque is poured on top.
We are very happy with the result and together with the 2001 Chave Hermitage Blanc we are mildly exuberant. 9,4/10.

The main course is a leg of lamb arranged on root vegetables – potatoes, carrots, beet roots and of course some fresh, crisp fennel. The lamb itself is prepared with a marinate of oil, anchovies, fennel seeds, garlic, lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper.
It goes in the oven at 180°C for a good hour and then it is simply ready to go and delicious.

Our friends may have a slight preference for Chateauneuf du Pape (but have on other occasions agreed to most of what we serve for them), so when given the choice the outcome seems inevitable, as T is also very much partial to such a selection on this evening. We try out the 2008 Vieux Telegraphe and also a 2008 La Roquète. This is not as good a year as most of the recent vintages in Chateauneuf du Pape, but it is still very much to our liking. 3 prefer the Vieux Telegraphe and 2 actually prefer the less well known La Roquete.
Our guests have brought cheese – Epoisse, of course, Langre, which is a bit similar and in the end a Roquefort. This calls for a little variety, we think so, we start out with a bottle of Tasman Bay Pinot Noir 2008 and then when getting to the blue cheese we turn to an Australian Port from Kalleske, which we tasted during our trip to London. Unfortunately it is corked and so we have to open a bottle of Ortiz Port.
Actually, one of our guests suggests that the Langre should be accompanied by some Calvados and so this has to be tried out also. Alas, T is feeling sleepiness approach and so it is just our guest and K who embarks on the Calva experiment.
This port  also goes well with our small dessert – apple crumble with whipped cream. The apple crumble is on this occasion made only with apples and made in portion sizes.

Ambition

Saturday is time for dinner party. If you think that we have been quiet as of late it was because we needed to rehearse a little for this event. Also we have to consider the limited space in the kitchen, which is challenging when planing to have more than two guests for dinner.
We start the day out thinking that we have plenty of time to rest and reflect on the dinner from last night's 75 year birthday party, which included traditional, honest Danish food in Toldbod Bodega. And so we stay in bed late and read the newspaper knowing full well that we are prepared and this will help us execute according to schedule. After a while we head towards torvehallerne to make our last purchases. On a Saturday afternoon this is a very busy place. Not like their southern models in the sense that many people come here just to sniff around as opposed to coming with a specific objective. When we are about finished we consider a cup of coffee only to realize that we have been away for two hours and so stress sets in.
We will skip telling about the afternoon, which included an event of rare occurrence, namely T not (or almost not) watching his beloved football team cruise to a comfortable win. (The rare thing was T not watching, even though the comfortable part is also becoming quite rare).

First course is a salad. We have purchased 4 different kinds of lettuce which we will refrain from translating (Rød syre, Rucola savoy, mustard, the last one evades us by now). The leaves were mixed in a vinaigrette made of raspberry vinegar, olive oil, s/p and a little water. On top of this some smoked duck's breast thinly sliced (well, as thin as T could manage), cubes of apple and walnuts. To this we drink Meursault 2008. We had decanted the bottle for several reasons. For one thing it was something T had wanted to do for some time and secondly our poor guests were to be left guessing as to what they were drinking.

Next it is time for our primo which is oxtail ravioli. For this we have prepared oxtails one day in advance.
(Put the tails in cold water, heat to boil, skim impurities, skim, skim. Discard water. Prepare the usual soffreto (with whatever you have): onion, garlic, carrot, celery, parsnip, s/p and herbs. When soft add the lightly boiled tails, a small squeeze of tomato paste and a glass of white wine. Let steam off for a couple of minutes. Add water to cover. Cover tight and let simmer for 3-4 hours. When very tender, separate meat, vegetables and soup. Discard vegetables and let meat and soup cool. When the soup is cool it is easy to remove the top layer of fat.)
During our hectic afternoon the meat was separated from the bones. Two shallots, a couple of finely chopped cloves of garlic and 250 gr porcini is fried, chopped finely and mixed with the meat. A splash of good truffle oil. And finally a little grated parmesan to glue it all together (a fact that we cannot hide from our non-cheese-eating guest, but that does not prevent him from eating, thanks msm wb). In the meantime we have made a dough of durum flour, 3 eggs and a little salt. Now it is time for the pasta machine to roll out very thin layers of pasta and then cut out small round pieces and fill them with the stuffing. It should not be a big surprise, but this takes quite some time. Maybe it's because we do not have the help of MK and M as we did when rehearsing. The ravioli are served with broth from the preparation of the oxtails, pepped up with a little sherry and a splash of lemon juice, and a gremolata of parsley, chopped garlic and lemon zest is sprinkled on top. For this we have a 1996 Barolo from Manzone.
We now go into the kitchen to prepare the secondo and predictably the wait means that we can serve some wine in between and this we have prepared for. Nobody is able to identify the bottle of 2005 Utopia from the Danish winemaker Kelleris, but it holds up quite nicely and we will soon experiment a little with dishes to have with this wine.

The secondo is fillet of lamb served on top of puree of eggplants and baked root crop, namely pale root beets and turnips baked with oliveoil, white wine and pieces of organic lemon and some baked fennel.
The puree is made by cutting the eggplants open and filled with a little rosemary and garlic before reassembling, rolled in foil and baked for app 40 minutes until very soft. Then the insides are scraped out (removing the garlic and rosemary) and mixed with a little olive oil, vinegar and s/p. A small splash of sauce from the meat and a little red wine. For this dish we serve a Grant Burge's Filsell 2000 Barossa Shiraz from old vines.

Before dessert we serve three small pieces of Danish cheeses, all of the dry kind. First a sheep/goat milk cheese from Knuthenborg, Fyn which is the mildest then a Høost and finally a Fyrmesterost which is, we were told, actually a Vesterhavsost that has matured longer. To go with the cheese we have made chips of very thin slices of rugbrød (pumpernickel) covered with a little butter before baking for 6 minutes at a 160° C. Furthermore a small splash of homemade rhubarb marmelade. The rugbrød is a little too fresh and moist which means that we cannot slice whole big slices but they smaller, uneven slices are just as tasty, nevertheless. For this a glass of Rio Viejo Olorosso sherry from Lüstau.

For dessert it is time for Chocolate fondant with a sorbet made from elderflower and on top some fresh raspberries.
The fondant is made from (4 servings): 100 gr dark chocolate (70%), 100 gr unsalted butter, 1 dl sugar, 3/4 dl flour, 2 whole eggs, 2 yolks. Melt the butter, chocolate and sugar in a bain marie (as cool as possible). Add the eggs and flour. Stir. Pour in suitable tins. Preferably single ones. Not like the ones we used in this photo! Put in refrigerator. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 200°C.
The sorbet is made from 6 dl. frozen dark elderflower syrup/concentrate mixed with water to a suitable sweetness. The mix should still be half frozen. Zest and juice from a lime is added. 3 egg whites are whipped and mixed. Put in freezer. If you don't have an ice cream machine, stir every now and then to get the best texture. (One kitchen appliance, we don't have – yet).
This is our most difficult serving as getting the chocolate fondant out of their baking tins take some time and so when we get the last one out and come into sit with our guests, some have already eaten theirs and asks for seconds, but alas, we have no more! Makes us wonder if we made too little food....
This is served with a glass of 2005 Chateau de Rayne Vigneau, 1er Gand Cru Sauternes.

Our big-city-kitchen is very small and does not posses a dishwasher, so we are grateful for all our guests who might not have been prepared for this kind of dinner party where everyone was made to work for their food, either as kitchen help, serving or dish washers. Which they very willingly did. THANKS!

A.O.C. Copenhagen

It is fully deserved that AOC got a Michelin star in 2010. AOC is one of the best restaurants in CPH and Christian Aarø's ability to select wine to go with the food made by Ronnie Emborg is exquisite. This makes it an choice to order the Wine menu of which there are two varieties. They are much alike and contain many wines that are in, both, but the wine menu 2 is just a bit more exclusive and thus more expensive. On this occasion we visited the restaurant in the company of 3 generations with each their preferences and taste buds and it seemed that all were impressed and satisfied.
We started with a glass of champagne and ...

Starter one: charcoaled bread with roe of lumpfish and a cheesed cream.
The bread was served on top of actual charcoal and in the dim light we were happy to choose right.

Starter two: foam with cauliflower and danish oyster served in egg shell. Light as clouds with the taste of the sea

The bread: fried brioche with butter

And on to the menu:
Grey mullet, salted and rolled mushroom powder. Raw mushrooms, mussel cream and double cream with oak oil.
Looked like pieces of wood but was soft and moist. Seved with stems of watercress and the leaves of indian cress. Juicy and crisp.

2009 Pouilly-Fumé, Les Duchesses, Domaine Laporte

Next came Summer celery and celery roots, with pure of hazelnuts, green hazelnuts and apple. The soft, bitter celery root with the sour-sweet apple, the richness of the pure and the crispness of pieces of green hazelnuts all went beautiful together.

2009 Meursault, 1. Cru Gouittes d`Or, Domaine Pierre Yves Colin-Morey

The Meursault was so good that we forgot to take a picture!

3rd dish was Cod, poached in butter. Served with summer cabbage and "irritated" egg whites flavoured with tarragon.
Perfectly treated cod. A salty marshmellow and a rich tarragon sauce.

This went down particularly well with the 3rd generation - M - asking T why he could not make dishes like this and of course T could only respond that if he could he wouldn't be working in the IT industry. But nevertheless, a challenge has been issued!

2008 Grüner Veltliner, Berg, Reserve DAC

Weingut Markus Huber, Traisental, Austria

Confit of veal sweetbreads and corn fed chicken
In sauce with lemon verbena, lingonberries and chiffon of fried jerusalem artichokes.
Yet again M voiced his pleasure and with good reason. The combination was delicious and also the sequence in the menu was perfect, i.e. the lighter fish-based dishes and then a more salty and rich dish before the beef.

2006 Pinot Noir Rho, Ampelos Vineyards, Santa Barbara, USA

Piece of beef covered in beetroot, served with parsley and smoked marrow sauce.
We asked for bread to soak up the rest of the sauce, which was delightfully concentrated. 1st generation was sure that it was wine based, but it wasn't...

2007 Fratelli Ravello, Barolo Vigna Giachini. Yet again served perfectly. Decanted and served at the right at (we think) 16 degrees ensured that this relatively young Barolo was superb.

Cheese, Danish cheese 'gnalling' shredded, served with syrup and fried pumpernickel (rugbrød). We came here last year also and had a cheese dish of the Danish Vesterhavsost with truffle oil and toasted pumpernickel and amontilado Sherry and it was so good that we had to order a second helping! This was also good, but not quite up there.

1975 Colheita Port, Burmester, Douro, Portugal

Chamomile tea pudding covered in whole milk gel and granité of sorrel juice


2006 Ürziger Würzgarten, Riesling Auslese
Weingut Jos. Christoffel jr. Mosel, Germany

Black currant in a frozen dome with elderflower and lemon juice.

1997 Château Y’quem, 1. Cru Superieur, 

Sauternes, Bordeaux, France

Coffee with petit four
Marshmallows and chocolate in a rubberlike state














Overall this was an excellent night and our choice to come back here for this years board meeting was proven successful. There are many good restaurants in Copenhagen and this is one of the best in our view. 9,5/10

Beaune - Encore fois

For the third time in a year we arrive at Beaune in Burgundy and as again we are treated with a sunny day. As usual we arrive a little late in the afternoon and have to try different places in order to get lunch.

We end up at the Grand Café Lyon and predictably we order Meursault et Escargot. This may not be the recommended combination, but we like the sound of it and since will surely be the last summer day for us for some time we have enjoy the feeling of sitting outside at a cafe table, drinking white wine. The snails (escargots) are disappointing and have a earthy taste. Maybe they were not tortured long enough on a salt tray or maybe they have gone bad. The latter may not be the case as we suffer no long term effects. The Meursault is ok.

We also have Le Plat du Jour, which today is Coq au Vin with Tagliatelle. This is ok, but K believes we can do better ourselves one day in the not too far future (so look out for that). Another problem is the Tagliatelle, which she don't think is the proper compagnon for this dish, just like it isn't for Beouf Bourgignon, despite the fact that the rest of Beaune thinks so. Well, almost. But more on that later.

Overall we have become spoilt and for lunch this is quite nice. Overall we rate the lunch as a 6,5/10 and the wine as 7,5/10.

The afternoon is spent researching which wines we should purchase and also to find some more clothes for T who has not packed sufficiently. The research has two steps. First we read up on the latest vintage and the producers who have done well. In Burgundy this means getting a list of wines of €100+ which actually doesn't help a lot, but is enough to make us envious. Secondly we visit the various wine shops and in Beaune there are many. We try to find a wine that can serve as a benchmark (in Chateauneuf it was the Beaucastel). In Beaune it is more difficult because the variuos producers are sold by various shops. Often we end up at Denis Perret who also has the best location on the town square. Another wine shopping/research activity is to go to one of the supermarkets. In France we have often made good purchases in a supermarket and it also gives us some more prices for our benchmark. On this occasion we find a bottle of 1997 Chateau Lynch Bages and the price given underneath is €11. Clearly this must be a mistake and we discuss what to do. In the end we opt for taking one and if it indeed only costs €11 we will re-enter and get the rest. As it is we conme to the counter and when scanned it costs €57. We point out that it should cost 11 and a clerk follows T down to the shelf and takes out the price tag and so we get the bottle for €11, but as she has removed the tag we cannot get the remaining 5 bottles. Incidentally a local man behind us in queue nodded approvingly despite the fact that we were purchasing bordeaux in burgundy.

In the evening we go to Caves Madeleine. This is a return visit as we were here in March and enjoyed it hugely. It is a small place with a good basic kitchen. 

Wine-wise the concept is a little special as you can select your wine from the shelves to bring home or have it with your dinner at an additional cost of €6. On the face of it this seems like a good deal, but our general research suggests that there already has been added €5-10. Nevertheless as we are Danish we are used to huge markups on wine bought at restaurants (300-400%). Still, we like the concept and we spend some time selecting a 2007 Meursault from Albert Bichot and a 2006 Pommard also from Albert Bichot. Both are very good, but of course you can get better. In Burgundy the cap on your credit card quickly becomes the limiting factor and by now we fear that the magnetic strip has worn off.

The menu is small, but this is in our view by no means a bad thing. There are 3 entrees and 3 main courses to select and then we can choose between cheese or dessert.

K is the most adventurous by far and she choses the Terrine Campagne de la Maison for entree, while T selects a Cassoulet Escargot. K's terrine is good and rustic. The combination of a piece of toast, sonme terrine and on top a conichon is a deligthful mouthful. But alas, there is much too much. It is a big piece of terrine and we have to leave some. 

T's cassoulet is good and much more the size of an entree. The garlic sauce is just perfect with sufficient garlic and not too fat. And then there is a potato in there, which has not been overcooked! We rate the terrine as 8/10 and the same for the same for the cassoulet. The Meursault is good and this time we actually manage to save some for our cheese, but it was a close call.

For the main course K waver, but in the end she gives in to her adventurousness and orders the tongue in a broth with vegetables and served with Sauce Bearnaise. K is positively surprised and enjoys her meal. The bearnaise is very well made, but somewhat surprising to get a sauce served to a soup, but the acidity and richness of it suits the dish well. 

T who is not as adventurous choses the Beouf Bourgignon and this time it is even served with poatatoes and a small piece of toast. It is a nice solid dish and the sauce is very nicely powerfully concentrated.

Finally le fromage. Not much to say - just eat.



Overall we rate our meals to 8,5/10 each. K later analyses the meal and concludes that she might have been carried away by the positive surprise of liking tongue and perhaps this is a dish that would be nice as a smaller part of a menu with more courses.

It is good that this is our last day on this vacation. But our reckoning we should be so inebriated that we might have problems finding our way to the Hotel la Cloche 200m away, but we are not. The hotel, by the way, is quite nice and affordable. Good size rooms, clean, right on Place Madeleine and both the coffee and the croissants served for breakfast were good.

San Sebastian – Akelare

Today we relax in the city of San Sebastian. We take a walk to the old part of the city and around the enormous beach – La Concha pratically in the city center and surrounding the a bay with a narrow inlet. The weather is fair and T who has once again forgotten his bathing trousers buys yet another pair in dusty blue.



A walk around the harbor brings us to a small very busy restaurant where we take lunch in the form of a stuffed crab for K and grilled sole for T and to this a mixed green salad. we have a bottle of Albariño with it. It is a nice meal on a nice day, even though T observes (as usual) that the potatoes appear to be mashed potatoes formed as potatoes. It seems to us that potatoes are over cooked in most parts of southern Europe.

What we are really waiting for this day is our eagerly anticipated visit to the restaurant, Akelare.

We take a cab up into the mountainous area and arrive at a beautifully located and modern house on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic. Unfortunately it is now dark but we suspect that panoramic view is lovely in daylight. As it is we settle for seeing the occasional lantern in the dark.

The interior of Akelara is held in warm earthy shades of beige, grey and dark wood. We are welcomed to a spacious table for two. We choose to have one of each of the two tasting menus, the ARANORI (T) and the BEKARKI (K). First a glass of great cava, that we did not get the name of.

The menus both start with a plate of what looks like a sponge, soap, hand cream, bath salt and mouth wash.
It is: sponge – onion, soap – tomato and basil gel
hand cream made of idiazabal cheese
bath salt... salty – prawn cracker like.
mouth wash ... well bitter mouth wash. Perhaps a bit campari-like

T has prawns and French Beans cooked in “Orujo” Fire. The waiter comes to the table with a small iron pot and lights the pot with a match. The dish is nice, but maybe the effect is bigger than the result.

K has Crab Essence, its Coral Blini and "Gurullos". Very well put together. The rice grains are actually pasta, and has a seaweed as an extra herb. And it all has this intense taste of sea that seems to be inherent not only to Akalelare but to most of the meals we eat in San Sebastian. It is like the smell of the concha.

We both have a glass Albariño do Ferreiro – a good companion. 

For the next dish T has Molluscs in Fisherman's net.This is wide collection of tastes from the sea and beautifully served with "a fisherman's net" of rice. As we conclude later, a very significant trait of the meals we have in San Sebastian is that the seafood dishes really taste of seafood, whereas we at other times only get the white fish meat.

K has Razor Shell with Veal Shank and cauliflower mushroom. A theme of textures, flavours and contrasts. The veal shank is the actual bone prepared to a texture of gel. The razor shell almost raw. Excellent.

We both have a glass of white wine from Priorat. This is a white Grenache from Trio Infernal. T likes it a lot, whereas K has some reservations which predictably relates to the barrel aging.

For the next dish T has a Pasta carpaccio with Piquillo and Iberico Carpaccio, Mushrooms and Parmesan and Arugola (Rucola). The effect is that of meat even if it is vegetable. (Which of course is much to T's taste).

T has a 100-year old sherry (well not all of it)

K has a Sautéed Fresh Foie Gras with "Salt Flakes and Grain Pepper". Again perceptions deceive and the pepper is in fact popped black rice and the salt flakes are sugar based. It is very simple and the foie is cooked to perfection. T's experience with sauteed foie gras has not been entirely positive, but after a mouthful of the dish he concedes that this is perfectly prepared – the inside is preserved, i.e. not warm.

Along with the foie gras K has a cider, Malus Mama from 2009. This was very special, and predictably well selected by our sommelier. He is an unobtrusive man who is also very professional. His quiet remark that local wines were not the same as Spanish wines was a reminder that San Sebastian is in fact Basque country. He livened much up when we could tell him that we had just arrived from Bordeaux and had seen harvesting commencing in some places.

The next dish for T came in a box apparently filled with sawdust that nevertheless were edible. T thinks it may have been lightly fried vegetables, some of it potatoes – "Desalted" Cod Box with Shavings

K – Squid Broth, mini squid and Fried Bread.
Again a play with textures and taste. The black squid made of paper like material and the squid cooked at low temperature.

To drink we have Ossian 2009 which is a Verdejo based wine from Rueda

Next, T has Whole-Grain Red Mullet with Sauce "Fusili".
The whole-grain part is because there are small "pralines" of the mullet's head, bones and liver. Along with this fusili with soy, parsley and "ajo blanco"

K – Turbot with its "Kokotxa".
Served with chips of the turbot skin and pil-pil sauce.

To these dishes we are both served a full-bodied red wine, called Demencia, which our Sommelier tells us is a word-play used as the grape used is Mencia.

Now, T has Grilled Lamb with Wine Lees. The

dish is accompanied with a Regina Vides 2004 from Ribera del Duero. It is excellent and because the kitchen is just a little behind when coming to this dish our sommelier has served this a couple of minutes early so they have to give us another glass. The next bottle is also a Ribera del Duero from 2004 this time from Bodegas Trus.

K – Roasted baby Pork with Tomato “Bolao” and Iberian emulsion. The pork is served with crispy skin, fillets of tomato and crisp sugar-tomato meringue. A bit on the sweet side to K's taste but beautifully prepared.

We now come to the desserts and K has Milk and Grape, Cheese and Wine in parallel evolution.
The plate went right to left from curded sheep milk – a very clean milk taste, through powdered fresh cream, quark cheese, idiazabal semi-matured, a torta of grape and raisins to very rich gorgonzola ice cream.

K has a glass of 30 year old Oloroso Dulce, Metusalem.

T gets Xaxu and foaming Coconut Ice Cream. He is told to eat it in a hurry as the coconut ice cream will otherwise collapse. Maybe that is the reason he forgets to take a picture of it, but if you are missing this picture go and have a look at it on the restaurants website: akelarre.net
T has a glass of Jorge Ordonez Old vines.

The last dessert for T is  "Another Apple Tart" which is wrapped in paper made from apple and printed with chocolate letters, Akelare of course.
We conclude that the restaurant's name is spelled with just one r with an accent aigue, but in writing this seems to translate into double-r.

K's meal is concluded with a beautiful Peach Flower. Peach prepared in three different ways and not least the spectacular rose also made of peach. 

To this we have a glass of dessert wine from Chivite

To drink

Finally a tiny brandy, coffee and petit fours. Not because we need it, but just because we would like to extend our stay for a little longer.

We have not rated the different dishes and the accompanying wine, because there was so much, but we arrive at an overall 9,8/10. You might think that the rate should be higher – and perhaps it should, but what if we need to use a higher rate in the future?