Barça!

After the delights of San Sebastian we head east over towards the Mediterranean. It is a very hot day indeed and driving in a car without air conditioning makes it even more so. When we arrive at Barcelona we settle for a swim in the pool and the hotel's restaurant. The memory of this meal has already faded from memory and will therefore not reach this blog.

Next day is a lazy day, but also one where we catch up . All the great memories of San Sebastian are organized before we finally head out to catch up on some wine purchases that needs to be done, since we never got to Ribera del Duero.

But of course the main event on this part of our trip is a visit to the unarguably best football team at the moment. So we head for Camp Nou. K, who has attended her share of games (for a woman) asks whether hooliganism is to be expected. T doesn't think so and this is confirmed by the people going to watch the match. Many women and small children are in the audience and this is really a family event. It is also an event for many, many tourists. Of the 70 000 spectators this evening as many as 10-20 000 are tourists.

The match itself is very entertaining and Barca demonstrates their strength by beating Osasuna 8-0. Unfortunately for T, this is not the first time this season he has seen a home team score 8 goals. Lionel Messi also demonstrates why he has been voted the world's best player the last couple of years and T's former idol, Fabregas is actually equally good.

It is late when the match is over and we head for the city centre and here we make a classical error. Maybe it's the late hour, maybe it's the fact that we went to the city center and maybe it's because we are hungry. So we take a restaurant on the Catalunya square and order some Tapas. We get a glass of the house's white and red wine. K's white is insipid and T's red is sour. The tapas we ordered were: Patates con aioli, Pollo con ajillo, Croquettes jamon, Pescaditos fritas and a green salad that nevertheless came with tuna, aspergus, onions, tomatoes, olives etc. None of the tapas were very good and the garlic chicken were particularly disappointing, rubber-like and dry. We had wandered into a tourist trap and even done so knowingly.

We agree to come back to Barcelona another time and do our home work better next time. But the game was good.

Modern times

We start the day with fried eggs and coffee to beat off the hang-over from last night. After a hesitant morning we manage to go down towards La Concha. First we head to the store where T bought his bathing trousers. Maybe it's the food on this vacation, but T thinks it is just the fact that Spanish sizes are much smaller. In any event he has to swap his bathing trousers to a larger size. We then go on to have tapas and white wine and on to the beach and bathing in the great surf of the the atlantic sea. La Concha is a beach placed right in the bay of the city with rather big surfs for a tranquil and sunny day. Enough to bring out the child in both K and T and to wash out the opulence of last night.

During the last days we have fallen in love with San Sebastian. Not only because of it's admittedly great restaurants but because of the city itself and its inhabitants. It is the mix of new and old, of city  and beach, of modernity and history.

We have extended our stay in San Sebastian at the expense of going to Pinafiel in the Ribera del Duero. This we must do another time, but we enjoyed the city so much and the hotel had proved to serve the purpose of this evening, namely a high-speed internet connection.

Today is election day in faraway Denmark. We have voted in advance but still like to follow election night on Danish television streamed over the Internet. We therefore go to the hotel's restaurant. This is, true to its concept, displaying a movie on the wall of the restaurant. It is Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times. Very appropriate in every way.

T does not remember much of the menu as he is watching his smartphone for election results and of course the magic of Charlie Chaplin. The meal was nevertheless great. We had a gazpacho for starters. Then a salad with tuna, next a small prawn ravioli and the next dish was steamed cod and in the end braised pork cheeks. Two small desserts are served in each their glass. One acidly and one rich – fruity and chocolate.

All our meals in San Sebastian have been great and this was also good and even if it was not cheap it was by far the least expensive, but despite that fact great.

T stayed up all night watching the end of election night whereas K quietly dozed off thanks to the sun, water and everything 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?

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

Eat your foie gras, now

After a day of driving up and down Le Routes des Chateaux we return to Le Brasserie du Lac. We had reviewed the menu the night before and T would like to try the braised veal shank ("Osso buco style"). The day had been a fine day and we have started filling the trunk with St Julien wines that will be stored away for the next 10-15 years. The drive had led us from Margaux and up north along the west bank. We had had a nice lunch in a seaside restaurant in Pauillac.

K had a salad with smoked ducks breast and T had a basil-infused gazpacho for first course. Then a slice of halibut with thyme and cracked wheat. To this a large Gruyére cracker. The best part of the meal was the cheese, 3 slices of fourmes (french blue cheese). We had a bottle of Moton-Cadet Réserve 2007 to go with the meal.

Back at the brasserie du Lac problems arose when we tried to order a half-bottle of white wine. Yesterday we had settled for the Rochemorin as the only Pessac-Leognan available, but this night even that was out of stock. The waiter came back with a Graves Floridenne 2004 but that had died. At this point our waiter was very embarrassed, as he said. We got the feeling that at this place one of the main criteria for hiring staff was their ability to talk English. That is not to say they were not very polite and overall we clearly recommend the place, but they did seem a bit distressed at times. T had been looking longingly at the golf course which of course is the main attraction of the place and it seems to us that for a golf and wine lover this is clearly a place to stay for a longer period.

Anyway, a new bottle of the 2004 Graves was opened and it was better, but they will not last longer than this season. With the wine we opted to split one of the dishes from the Fish and Risotto section of the menu. This we had also looked at yesterday and decided that it fell into the category of you can have too much of a good thing: Risotto with bacon and foie gras and a gruyére cracker again. The French risotto is often strange to us and so it was also today. It was made of brown rice and the slice of foie gras on top. Predictably the combination did not appeal much to us. In fact K soon finished and left the rest to T with the words, "Eat your foie gras, now".

 For our main course we had the braised veal shank. Even if it was very tender the serving did not agree much with us. It was placed on pile of over-cooked penne pasta and heavily laced with orange and orange zest. With it we had a bottle of 2000 Croizet-Bages, which on the other hand was very nice.
Not dessert for us today, but instead a coffee and a 1982 Cognac XO for T and a an 83 Armagnac for K and so we were glad to have stayed at the hotel as it only left us 200 metres home.

Margaux

After visiting old friends in their lovely home in Luxembourg we drive to Bordeaux in France. We arrive at the Relais de Margaux a little late after driving through heavy rain we had hoped to have left far behind – in Denmark. Luckily we emerge on the other side and even if the weather cannot measure up to the lovely day in Luxembourg and its 28 degrees centigrade and a long evening sitting with good friends and looking down on the small town of Echternach it is still fair weather.

We order (predictably, since we are now in France) foie gras with fruit bread and a rib-eye steak, bearnaise and chips. To this we have half a bottle of Rochemorin and a bottle of Marquis de Terme 2004.

The fois gras was served in two generous slices with some pickled figs and the fruit bread. Coarse salt was sprinkled on top. Very simple and very nice

The bearnaise was served cold – almost as a herbed butter – the chips were good but a bit soft and finally the meat was cooked perfectly – if we had ordered perfectly.

A little lesson in french... saignant is VERY RARE (but not bleu, which is even more raw)
The waiter misunderstood the medium rare ... and we took her word for it....

For future reference –
Rare: saignant

Medium rare: à point

Medium: cuit
Well done: bien cuit

For dessert we had creme brulée and a three-kind-of-chocolate cake and to drink a sauterne.
The sauterne – much to our surprise – went better with the cake than the pudding...

The dinner at the 'Brasserie du Lac' (the restaurant of the hotel) did the trick for the two tired travelers. We are quite satisfied and going back to both the hotel and the restaurant,  not only one more night, but probably in the future as well.

The ferry

Today we start our vacation that will take us to various wine capitals of Europe. But first we have to drive a long way to get there. The first day we take the ferry between Denmark and Germany and even though this provides us with time for dinner we are apprehensive to the extent that T suggests that we stop for a drive-in burger instead.
K talks him to (a little more) reason and we get to the ferry. To our pleasant surprise there are only two other guests in the Steaks and Seafood restaurant and that leaves time for the good humored waiter to chat a bit with us and he recommends the veal medaillon. We accept his recommendation and have a glass of Brown Brothers Shiraz with it. Not because this strikes as the best wine to accompany the veal, but because of the wine lists 3 wines this seems the lesser evil.

The result is very positive. the veal is good and well prepared. Cooked to near perfection and nice and tender. The salad bar is reasonably fresh. The potatoes come in two varieties (french fries or the Danish specialty – potatoes baked in cream) and neither of them made within the last couple of hours. Three sauces are offered: a bernaise look-a-like, a brown thick gravy and one more .... probably whiskey sauce. we try the bearnaise, but quickly abandon this sauce as well. But never the less: The dinner at Prins Richard, sailing Rødby-Puttgarden, was actually satisfying ... and good. We had expected to give this meal a harsh review, but as it is we will just give the waiter and the veal a fully deserved 9/10