Our "epic" special meal this Spain trip was at Azurmendi, a 3-Michelin starred restaurant in the neighboring town of Larrabetzu, a 20 minute drive from our hotel in Bilbao.
We had just finished an amazing day touring around the Rioja region. Our guide Gabriella knew our dinner plans, so she purposefully kept our daytime eating (and wine tasting) activities reasonable so that we'd have room for dinner!
Azurmendi's and Chef Eneko Atxa's philosophy is "[u]sing cooking to achieve a more sustainable, healthy, and just society." The restaurant is very active in its community, organizing activities and events to help children with autism spectrum disorder, cancer, and the like, as well as involvement in the Basque slow food movement.
The "Picnic"
Our meal began with a sustainability "feel". We entered a huge glass enclosed room filled with indoor greens and trees.
After the picnic ended, they guided us into a second room. We left the forest and entered what looked like a busting kitchen. We walked up to a counter.
A chef created a Truffled Egg + Truffled Meringue in front of our eyes. Using a syringe, he squeezed a black truffle essence into a sphere that looked like a yolk. It was, indeed, an "egg" made using the spherification technique. Biting into it gave a pop of truffle-y goodness.
This was paired with a foamy apple + truffle drink.
They ushered us into yet another room. This one was full of fantasy, like Alice in Wonderland in a gprgeous floral garden.
But this was a different garden with leaves you could "pick" and eat (like this glazed shiso leaf).
Finally, to Our Seats
The garden theme continued after we sat down, and more "leaves", "flowers", and dirt appeared in front of us.
The Sea
Next was a different type of cylinder, a tiny one-bite maki "roll" wrapped with nori (seaweed) with caviar on one side and trout roe on the other side.
Spider crab foam topped crabmeat "gelee" was next, served in a sea urchin bowl. Who can resist a lovely Dom Perignon from 2004?
We really tasted the essence of the ocean in this next course, simply titled "The Sea", which showcased a single French oyster served with sea granita and sea beans.
Bread Part 1
Like many high end restaurants, Azurmendi waits to serve the bread course a little later in the tasting menu. What's a bit more unusual is that Azurmendi has TWO bread courses. The first one reminded me a lot of a Chinese steamed bun.
Tomato
Next, a delicious tomato "consomme" served with fresh tomatoes, a tomato powder, and dried tomato skin.
Seafood
Bread Part 2
A second piece of bread, this time a yeast-risen corn bread.
Meat
The final meat course was "IBERIAN PORK".
The preparation was a pork "duxelle", a minced mixture of mushrooms, shallots, and herbs. It was surprisingly light for a final meat course.
Cheese
Dessert
Video
The pictures don't do justice to the entire experience of the dinner. To "sense" the meal in a different way, you can watch the short video I made below.
Consider how much work this meal took, 272.73 EUROS per person was quite reasonable. I really liked the garden theme and the overall focus on vegetables, sustainability, and health. I especially enjoyed the use of different techniques to showcase the essence of different vegetables. The overall "journey" -- complete with a picnic in a forest, a kitchen visit, a rose garden, and multiple surprises at our table -- certainly make this one of the more memorable meals I've had!
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