Arzak
- San Sebastian, Spain
- Jul 30, 2017
- 3 min read
San Sebastian, Spain
After doing my pinxto bar crawl and eating food that could easily be in a trendy restaurant in Soho for $20 a plate, a thought occurred to me that if this was the “bar food” in San Sebastian….what would the food be like at a three Michelin star restaurant here?
My dinner at Arzak was more than just food, it was nourishment to my soul. I barely realized that 4 hours had passed and every moment was magical and intimate.
In regards to service, the wait staff felt like good friends, ever helpful with no air of pretentiousness. They quickly came to my aid when I was presented with a hefty wine menu the size of a novel and quickly suggested a very reasonably priced 30 euro bottle that went well with the whole tasting menu. When serving tea, the waitress came within three seconds of the timer running out for the steeping to pour the tea and at the end, the host efficiently called a taxi for us.
In regards to the food, it was approachable yet also unfathomable. I found myself wondering if I had ever really tasted bread, eggs or strawberries before because they had certainly never tasted like this.
The first course was a trio of appetizers including a tiny dumpling filled with shrimp, squid on a banana chip, eel inside a crispy pastry roll, a delicious type of dried meat made crispy to resemble bread, and (one of my favorites of the night) an anchovy skewered on a strawberry which was the perfect balance of fresh and fishy.
This was followed by a thinly sliced mackerel most likely caught that day in a creamy, slightly salty sauce, decorated with colorful flower petals.
The next course was a scarlet prawn cooked to perfection underneath a chip of krill with the texture of a rice cracker which was the perfect embodiment of the ocean. Afterward was a spaceship looking poached egg with candied tomatoes and corn nuts (CORN NUTS!) which will be what I think about whenever I eat brunch.
Then came the fish courses including a white tuna with mushrooms in a fruity miso sauce paired with a grilled monkfish served with a puree of nuts, pumpkin and chickpeas. The main entrees were a medallion of lamb so tender you barely needed to move your knife served with anchovies and broccoli stalks and an orange-flavored pigeon served with cherries, oranges and onions which were mind blowing.
The palate cleanser was a surprising mix of mint and acai which I could have continued to eat every day of the summer. The desserts were very complex starting with a chocolate lava cake filled with mint with a passionfruit/kiwi sauce and a wheel of vietnamese chocolate filled with acai served on a skateboard and another brick of white chocolate which was so creamy, I will never be able to say I dislike white chocolate ever again.
The final surprise course with our tea was a group of beautifully made chocolates, gelatin, and toffee made into the shape of frogs and twigs which I felt bad biting into because they were so pretty.
In regards to the experience, once in a lifetime. I barely was able to wheeze out a sentence when in front of Juan Mari Arzak who graciously came around the dining room to meet everyone in the middle of service. If anything, I was the one who felt honored to be in the presence of the godfather of new Basque cuisine. When given the chance to tour the kitchen, I cemented my belief that I do not have what it takes to be a chef. There was a miraculous 50 people down there who each slaved away at one specific task. It felt like looking into the inner workings of a machine: precise movements, whirring plates, and a rhythmic hum of orders churning out dish after dish in blazing heat at in-human speeds.
And like that, it all felt like a dream. My stomach, body and mind were all at ease and in a state of bliss unlike any I’ve ever experienced. That night, I went to bed dreaming of anchovies swimming through a sea of strawberries.