The Guggenheim in Bilbao features a dining room by one of the leading Basque restaurateurs, Martin Berasategui. In between galleries, Mimi and I treated ourselves to a 3 hour lunch on Sunday. Lucky us. Here’s the menu (the restaurant’s translation from Spanish), along with my comments:
CREATION, FREEDOM AND TENDENCIES
To start, we were given a melon shooter topped with foam.
Lightly baked egg,
on a bed of “ratte” potato,
dressed with kalamata olive oil and a red peppers nectar
The Spanish really love their eggs! The red pepper nectar was warm, but still lightly gelled.
Crunchy vegetables emulsion,
flavoured with black truffle
covered with a legumes and fennel smooth gel
and crystallized grapefruit skin
The bitterness of the grapefruit was a wonderful complement to the intense truffle and delicate fennel flavours, not something I would have thought of , but it worked. The aftertaste of truffle and grapefruit lasted until the next course.
Fresh borage stalks
Served over an “Aloe Vera” stock
Seasoned with hazelnut oil and lime skin
Kind of tasted like chicken soup with aloe vera for body. The borage had a cucumber/ asparagus flavour.
Roast fish of the day
with a tender almonds puree,
tomato juice emulsion and chervil roots
The fish was hake (one of Basque country’s favourite fish, along with salt cod and monkfish), and included julienne fresh apple, a nice touch. The waiter asserted that the hake and apple combination is not a traditional one, in spite of our having been served roast apple with hake at dinner the previous night. Crunchy salt crystals garnished the dish.
Roast suckling lamb shoulder
with a base of sherry,
“Guernica” pepper seeds and yellow lemon
Simply fabulous this milk-fed lamb, seemingly served everywhere. The meat is nearly as pale as veal, still assertively lamb flavoured. Again garnished with that coarse salt.
Fresh casein milkshake
with strawberries ice cream and violet croquant
Three desserts in one menu is not uncommon here, a tradition I think we should adopt in Canada! This one was pretty nice until I bit into a salt crystal – yuk! Complaining to the waiter got me the explanation that the chef wanted to create a bridge between sweet and savoury courses. Don’t try this at home…
A cold juice of dark cacao
with frozen milk and anis infusion and almond crunchy leaves
Curd of pistachio
covered with a coffee extract
This really was a bridge between sweet and savoury. The coffee was only slightly sweetened, more bitter than sweet. The pistachio purée was incredibly rich. A fine finish to the meal.
We drank a wine recommended by our waiter, Baltasar Cracián Garnacha Viñas Viejas 2002
All in all, truly food as art, fitting for the gallery. One small criticism: everything was smooth-textured, with the exception of the meringues on the two dessert courses (oh, and the nice crusty cornbread served on the side). The whole meal could have been eaten with a straw!
Price: 158 Euros, including tax and tip (approximately $250 Canadian)
©copyright 2005 Christopher Klugman, All Rights Reserved