Ala Plancha takes off!

Inspired by my travels squid ink rice lays the foundation for Black Sea Bass on the plancha, with Peppers and Hot Smoked pepper oil

Baby Octopus Chic pea puree ,chorizo and Harrisa

The Shining New Ship Sets Sail.

Renovation done,streamlined and clean. Refrigeration under counter more surface area for plating, hanging shelves, heat lamps and 2 air conditioners to help air flow and cooling. New walk-in , storeroom and pastry area. AAHHHHH at last ! We never thought it would happen. Now the fun begins!

New Day

Its been 2 1/2 months since the last post. The Trustees Dining Room reopend April 2 and offically April 6. So far so good. Its been a long process with some minor delays and a few set backs. after 3 months of renovation the TDR is back. New equipment, new pastry area and new cooking line.
We made some changes, added Plancha section to the menu and are serviing an amuse of pickeled baby vegetables at lunch. We added side to go with the fish and a trio of sauces/dips and relish. Randy is making a couple of breads and spinning all ice creams and sorbet again. We added smoked butter to go along with the regular butter. Changed quite a few item on the menu.

The End !

Its been a good trip , Just what I needed to put things in perspective. Saw a lot of great cooking and two cities I've never visited before. I made some friends along the way and ate some great food . Thanks to all (3pp) for following this ridiculous blog it was probably an enormous waste of time but at least when Im long gone from this earth this one trip will be floating around out there in cyber space for all (3pp) to read. Bon Apetite!

Madrid Fusion

Madrid Fusion: Machismo, Molecular gastronomy, flying plates, liquid nitrogen, megastar chefs, cookies made with saw dust, infused cocktails,bananas with uni, $8000 white truffle auction, syringes, tweezers, panel discussions, interviews, lots of video demos, awards and wagging tails. Not to mention simultaneous translation headphones, gorgeous sales girls, wine ,beer and very creative ideas! Yes I'm humbled, its all a bit over whelming the shear extent of the body of knowledge these Spaniards have been playing with for the last decade. A real eye opener for me ...but that's why I'm here.

MADRID!

Made to Madrid with a bit of an unsettled stomach. I may have eaten one ripe pintxos to many the night before I left San Sebastion. So unfortunatly I've been fasting for the past 2 days....
Today I toured the Musee de Reina Sofia which was great. Lots of Dali, Picasso and and Miro.
Did find a graet bowl of sopa de polla for my shakey bowels.

San Sabastian and Pintxos

A cool little city on the ocean... Steeped in history in the heart of Basque country this town boasts the most Michelin starred restaurants anywhere. If you cant afford them fortunately they have Pintxos . Small bars and eateries prepare small plates of food called Pintxos. For about 2 to 6 Euros each you can order a few with a glass of wine or small beer then move to th e next bar. They vary in quality and they just sit right there on the bar for all to grab (the hell with sneeze guards) . You can also order hot ones too. They take a few minuets to prepare but the pay off can be something like Panchetta Confit in light as air potato puree or plancha foie gras with an apple puree and pinenuts. Interesting and economical! As they say in Basque country"Onagin" which means something like Bon Apetite.

AKELARE

This was a very imaginative and creative lunch. Consider this, I was the only person for lunch that day....except for the other 12 people that showed up an hour later. A quick tour of the kitchen counted about 18 chefs. Spotless , Quite and almost surreal .....

Its situated high above the cliff of the Cambien Sea (Atlantic ocean) ...with a breath taking view. So its a 10 for atmosphere even with little bonsai trees on each table. The tasting menu 135 Euros is about $200. Yes its the most expensive lunch I ve ever had... Again great pains were taken to produce an incredible amuse bouche. This really seems to be a trade mark here . Starting out with a bang like i've never seen anywhere except Arzak. This time it included a crispy blood pudding roll ,almond dust bonbon, cheesepaper tartlette, a crunchy jamon souffled something, iced foie gras droplets with foie gras meringue like substance, a shucked oyster in cased in crisp delicate cocoa shell, and some bacalao bites coated with dehydrated tomato soup.

Someone certainly has a lot of time on their hands eh? First course is a warm shrimp salad only the shrimp are cooked table side on volcanic rocks in a cast iron pot set aflame with some kind of local brandy.....then served only a plate that has three little purees of screaming green haricot vert shrimp shell "soil" three leaves of ice lettuce (not ice burg) and the three thinnest strips of green beans of ever seen. The result was 3 tasty shrimp pleasing in every way. The whole lunch is like this . Menu descriptions read like chapters in a novella ,"Mollusks in the net of the Fisherman " and "Milk and Grape, Cheese and Wine in a parallel evolution." The result is spectacular. Not over the top as in WD-50. Not that that's not compelling in its own way but here I can appreciate all the ingredients from this region in their enhanced state. Best dish for me was the "Turbot with its Kokotxa " Turbots dont have a Kokotxa (throat) so the made one out of god knows what but it was Delicious. The fish cooked spot on served with natural gelatin thickened Pil pil . (garlic and oil sauce) oh and they ground up the bones after they baked them ,dehydrated them and pressed them in to a crisp 2x2" chip. I could tell you more about this meal but duty calls ....on to Pinxtos!

Good Bye Kaia Kai Pe

My thanks to Igor,Lydia and the entire staff at Kaia Kai Pe for their generosity and graciousness. Also for their patience with the worst speaker of the Spanish language .Lo Siento!

I will make this a goal this year to become fluent seeing as my whole staff back at the Met speaks Spanish I have plenty victims to practice with. Special thanks to Igor's mom ,and Josh without whose English speaking help I would have had less a rewarding experience. Suffice to say this is a great place to eat seafood and a model for the simplest way to serve seafood. (There aren't even side orders and I hardly saw any vegetables either ....but they're not the showcase here.

Shrimp a al plancha!

Its all good when its prepared as simply as possible, cooked on the plancha. Less is more here as lobsters, langoustinos and crabs receive the same treatment on the plancha. A little oil and salt is all they need.

Anguillas!

Baby eels, a rare deliacacy indeed was on the menu tonight at Kaia Kai Pe tonight, . Briefly warmed in a bit of olive oil , browned garlic and a touch whole cayenne pepper , these expensive creatures were very tasty .

San Sabastion Day (NIght?)

No! I didnt expect to see this scene on this trip but lucky me. The chefs against the British soldiers. A kind of independence day. San Sebation day has something to do with the local guys dressed as chefs, beating drums, scaring off the Brits way back when they were contemplating overthrowing the area. Or perhaps the beating of drums was a call to arms. Either way it was a party indeed with the two groups (of which there were many pairs) following each other around the city until dawn and stopping to play music every so often . Drinking lots of booze along the way is also part of the ritual nobody objects to. What fun indeed!

KAIA KAI-PE

High tech hidden in the old city. Kaia Ka-Pe is a restaurant that betrays its humble facade. Its mantra; FRESHNESS! Hiding in buildings along these cobblestone streets is a restaurant complex consisting of several small areas of operation from pumped in sea water tanks for all the live crustaceans to wine storage. There is a magnificent collection of wine I might add dating back decades. They even have bottles from the 1920s, 30s, 40 and 50s. Fabrication of the fish takes place outside the main restaurant in one of these buildings. Whole fish is grilled outdoors in front of the restaurant by Pedro and sold by weight while the other dishes come from inside the restaurants kitchen. All of it is simply prepared using just a few seasonings letting the ingredients speak for themselves. Lobsters ,langoustino, crabs and crayfish all cooked on the plancha in minuets. Browned garlic in oil with a splash of apple cider vinegar is the standard treatment for most of the whole fish after its semi de boned in the kitchen and sent out to the guest. They do this amazing thing with the gelatin from the monk fish heads! Concochas (codfish throats) are cooked in garlic oil until their gelatin makes its own sauce!! I'm enjoying the place. Igor and his staff are the nicest ,hard working people ever. Gratefully there is one guy who speaks really good English in the kitchen. He is Josh. Last night Josh took me to a kind of carnival in San Sebastian which is 20 minuets away. It was like the running of the bulls only with marching bands. We got back at 4:30am %$#@&*

Getaria on the Horizon

Perhaps one of the most charming places i ever visited . A gorgeous seaside town nestled in a fishing port. Cobblestone streets with small restaurants that each have their own outdoor grilling area for fish. Walked around at night and found some tasty pinxtos. I even have a room with a view (hey its of season ) Tomorrow begins 3 days with chef Igor of Kaia Ka Pei

ARZAK almost a 10 for me!

This was a well thought out meal with beautiful table top adornments . 5 very tasty amuse buche to begin followed buy simple coins of apple filled with a dab of foie gras burleed. A lobster salad served with a warm clear lobster broth poured table side. In fact there was so much table side action it s hard to remember it all! Toured the kitchen ,I must have counted 25 cooks!! No exaggeration!! Amazing. Had the tasting menu. It was all very good except one of the desserts was pretty regular and a bowl of dessert soup on the side reminded us of a medicinal flavor. But the "egg du jour" was probably one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten.

Hospitality was a homerun from the moment we entered to the moment we left. Never expected that kind warm treatment.