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?

San Sebastian – Kokotxa

A bit tired and dehydrated we arrive to the Astoria7, our home for the next couple of days. The hotel has a movie-theme for each room and Mr Hitchcock is sitting in the lobby. T tries to get some tips, but Mr H is not budging. Our room is dedicated to Anthony Perkins. Luckily there is no full-size figure in the bathroom though.

The hotel cafe gets our nod to satisfy our hunger – and that in a very pleasant way. We get calamares, verduras tempura and toast with jamon iberico in abundant quantities, all washed down with nice white wine. Then we go to the room and spend the next couple of hours with a very tanned Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in To catch a thief.

San Sebastian is allegedly the city with the most restaurants with stars in the Michelin guide. This fact might have affected us when we selected the city for one of our destinations in this vacation. Tonight we go to restaurant Kokotxa.
First we get some very nice snacks: Gruyère grisini with avocado cream, a cold tomato-soup. Quite like a gazpacho but with cream or cream cheese and sherry.

First in the menu is marinated tuna with Wasabi and seaweeds. The tuna is perfectly marinated and it is difficult to put a finger on anything, but K would have liked just a little bit more wasabi.

Next we have a serving of scallops and babysquids with spinach clorophyl. This is the dish we are the least impressed with. Either some salt flakes and/or some acidity might have helped. As it is we find it a little bland.

Then we get a slow cooked egg with mushrooms, mandioca (casava) and idiazabal cheese (cheese made from sheep milk).

The egg had the soft texture of a poached undercooked egg but very homogeneous. The mushrooms were crisp and not cooked much and it all went very well together. One of the best dishes of the night.

On we go to halibut served on an emulsion of urchins with calamari rigatone and black ali oil. On top a leaf of a herb with an intense taste of oyster. If anybody who reads this knows the name of the herb, please tell us!

The last of the salty dishes is iberian pork roast served with granny smith apple and passion fruit. The iberian pork has a wonderful taste also as a roast, which is a first for us. To this we get a glass of Ebano red wine form Ribera del Duero, which unfortunately is the only wine we have identified for the evening. We ordered a bottle of white in the beginning on the recommendation of the hostess, but it is located in a distant cooler and we never get to see it properly (which is just a poor excuse for not being able to say something about the wine this evening, save that it was good).

We then get a pre dessert with strings to both the salty kitchen and the sweet: Coconut, lime and curry.
The coconut as a cream, the lime as ice and the curry as a crumble. Very delicious!

Finally a chocolate-orange biscuit with creamy hazelnuts and citrus.














Not being experts in basque or spanish wine it would have been nice to be offered a wine menu, but we were not. To all this we had a glass of cava, the unknown bottle of white, a glass of very nice ribera del duero and finally a moscatel dessert wine. Still this is an excellent dinner and we rate it 8,9/10

It Can't Always Be Caviar – part – Lecso

One of K's favorite books ever since finding it on the bookshelves at her grandparents in her early teens is the classic spy novel with the daring, handsome, clever Thomas Lieven as the protagonist. 400+ pages written by Johannes Mario Simmel that brings Thomas Lieven through Europe during and after the 2nd world war. A must-read!!!
Not only is it an excellent spy novel but Thomas Lieven also excels in cooking for his lovers, friends, and enemies.... and the recipes are quoted. Now T has gotten under the Lieven-spell as well and what better way to celebrate this wonderful novel than to recreate the meals.
The Danish edition has had Inge Lotz to edit the cooking. She is a home economics teacher of the old school. One of her remarks on beef soup is: Every housekeeper knows how to make a clear beef soup, so I will not repeat the recipe here.....
The recipes clearly reflects the post-war kitchen and may seem old fashioned and some of the ingredients are not up-to-date and so we will take some liberties in recreating the meals.

Anyway today it was Hungarian Lecso - with which Thomas Lieven gets a brilliant idea!

We used:
3 red onions
3 cloves of garlic
100 gr salsiccia
100 gr bacon (raw)
500 gr lamb (the recipe call for castrated ram, but where do you get that these days????)
1 kg red bell peppers (it should have been green bell peppers, but we couldn't get any)
paprika
s/p
wine
vinegar
1 cup of rice


simmered for about 1 1/4 hour. Served with bread.

It turned out very rich, good and satisfying.
A wonderful meal after a hard days work in the field.....

Since we were a little hungry we had started the meal with a little toast, canned food and sweet wine; i.e. foie gras and left over Sauternes from Saturday.

... we did not need dessert....

Food 8/10

We had a bottle of Targum 2005 from Ribera del Duero with the Lecso. 
The wine was still very fruity with lots of oak. T recalled it less so when tasting it in the spring and believes it will do better than tonight where we must rate the wine as 7,2/10 and the wine/food matching as 6,5/10



K later googled Lecso and found that it is basically a traditional vegetarian dish that you can add whatever meat you have in your back yard – or refrigerator.