Dining in Spain and France

[willifred]

I had the pleasure of going to Pamplona for the Fiesta de San Fermin this year. I'm way too old to get in the streets with the bulls, but I'm not too old to eat my way through Northern Spain and Southern France. I was over for two weeks.

We started in San Sebastian, which is one of the very best "food" cities I've ever been to. The bar food was amazing. How virtually any given bar in the "old quarter" of town could turn out the caliber of food was past anything I could have imagined. Simple to extremely intricate presentations were there for the taking. And an honor system for payment also was hard to grasp. Imagine trying that here (present company excluded). The variety of mushrooms freaked me out....dozens of them. My favorite was a simple saute of chantrelles in olive oil with salt and pepper and a little chopped parsley. But to send this over the top was a beautiful farm egg yolk in a heated spoon in the center of the plate. As the mushrooms were dipped into the yolk, it spilled over into the saute mixture to make the most amazing sauce.....But THE thing there was the FOIE...all kinds of ways. Each place had 3-5 different preparations. My thing was to line them all up and blow my brains out ....death by foie.....after a few of these I settled on a very simple version, a slice of apple and foie seared atop a crouton with a port reduction. Out of this world. I'll stop there with San Sebastian, I could write pages about it.

One day we took a little road trip into the mountains to Tolosa, my research said that Casa Jullian was one of the two best places in Spain for a Steak. They were right. The most simple of places. The grill was actually in the dining room. Walls full of wine...every wall. Eight year old Gallician beef. 3 1/2 inch Bone in strip, covered simply with coarse salt, no other seasoning. As a matter of fact there were very few choices to be made here. You could start with white asparagas or a plate of the local ham. You could have still or sparking water. Other than that , the only choice was how much you wanted to spend on wine. You didn't tell them how to cook the steak, it just came the way they saw fit. That was it.....truely an out of this world experience for a carnivor. Same as above, I'll stop with that.

We had a couple of days in Biarritz France at the Hotel du Palais....fantastic hotel. The meal there was great as well. Quite formal. Suit and tie event. Started with cream of Spider Crab soup, then roasted pigeon in its own jus, an amazing cheese cart was in the evening at some point, as was dessert of some chocolate nature. This night was consumed by wine, a Clos de la Roche , a Vosne Romanie,and a white burgundy I can't remember.... so my memory about the food was shot, especially after cigars and brandies.......sorry

Next day I found myself bellied up to the oyster bar at the city market at 10AM....cures what ails ya. A couple dozen of the best (no offence to the local ones) oysters I've ever had. Perfect balance of sweet to salty, and the white wine didn't hurt anything either. After that I put together a "picnic" for my room, bed was the only thing I could think about at that point. Smoked Salmon, Bayonne Ham, a bauggette, some gooey cheese, a little container of strawberries, and a bottle of white......the day was over after that..

I'll stop at this point as I'm sure I've gone on much longer than any of you care to read......but I'll make a separate post about the meal I had at Etxebarri later if anyone is interested.

[Oyster]

I'll stop at this point as I'm sure I've gone on much longer than any of you care to read......but I'll make a separate post about the meal I had at Etxebarri later if anyone is interested.

Not too long by a long shot...

Great post, enjoyed every wonderful item you described perfectly.

And no offense whatsoever on those oysters...

Thanks for the post. Can't wait for the Etxebarri episode!

[EatinAintCheatin]

Excellent post. Makes me want to go there now!

Love your writing style....wish I had that gift.

[Turbodog]

I really have not commented on my trip to Sapin and Italy earlier in the summer. I had intended to write a loing post when I got back, but just have not done so. I will say tis, Barcelona is awesome. I really liked the food there. Of course, some places are better than others, but, its all good. From simple pre-made sandwiches to intricate dishes at fine restaurants, it was all so good.

Oh, and I love spanish ham. A lot.

[edible complex]

Oh, and I love spanish ham. A lot.

Jamon, Jamon! I ate my weight in Jamon in Spain.

[Turbodog]

Jamon, Jamon! I ate my weight in Jamon in Spain.

I could do that! I would do that! So good.

A funny story....we went to eat (I think it was ar Bar U, or Baru, or something like that) in Barcelona. It was my wife and two oldest boys. We went in and were seated. I went ot hte rest room. When I came out, my wife was speaking spanish to the head waiter/captain. When he walked off, she said we would not order, he would "feed" us. I was a little miffed, as I wanted to order. She asked my why, I told her I didn't want whole fried little fishes, I wanted ham. Well, about 10 seconds later, the guy brings us a big platter of three diffferent ham items. We were al laughing so hard about that. Anyway, it went on to be one of the best meals I have ever had, and included only items I really liked (no whole small fried fishes thank you!).

[Gourmondo]

Tell us more when you get the chance. Sounds wonderful! We spent about 8-9 days in the Biarritz area about 10 years ago and it was awesome from the food perspective. But we were with another family (their guest actually) and they mostly wanted to cook in so we didn't get to make all the Spanish excursions we wanted to. I was watching those Mario Batali shows on Spain a few months ago and decided I need to get back there. Love that ham, too.

[edible complex]

I told her I didn't want whole fried little fishes, I wanted ham.

I've eaten a lot of strange things in my travels, and I'm with you on NO whole fried little fishes.

[Yvette]

She asked my why, I told her I didn't want whole fried little fishes, I wanted ham. Well, about 10 seconds later, the guy brings us a big platter of three diffferent ham items. We were al laughing so hard about that. Anyway, it went on to be one of the best meals I have ever had, and included only items I really liked (no whole small fried fishes thank you!).

First of all, I am surprised you wife could communicate with him. In Barcelona, the two restaurants we went were more Catalan. I could not understand any of it, much less read the menu. Our waiter also ordered for us. I had the best squid ink pasta in my life, better than anywhere in Italy. We were by the harbor.

Butttt....my husband got the fried fish. It was piled high, disgusting. I took a picture when he has one and a half left.

[Schuarta]

Now WHITE BAIT in London (UK) is also "fried little feeshes", but much smaller than your pucture. I had it many times when I was living there (1972-1975) and enjoyed it very much.