Lee and I are heading up to Perpignan, France today to meet up with two Georgtown friends, Andrew and Joe. We´ve had an interesting relationship with Perpignan thus far. The first time we drove to Barcelona from Italy, Lee saw the sign for Perpignan and starting yelling "Oh, Oh the Perpignan Man! We have to stop!" Apparently some of the oldest human remains in Europe (not even the world) were found in a cave near Perpignan. That they are actually in an entirely separate town called Tautavel was neither here or there. A little road-weary but still game for adventure (ask me a few hours later), I pulled into town. Apparently the only thing going on in Perpignan that day was a huge anti-aging convention, which we spent a fair amount of time at. Free samples! I think some of the funky eye cream turned my skin a little orange. That and the leftover samples still in our car are all we have to show from our trip to Perpignan.

Our goal for this trip is pretty simple. Aside from picking up the guys, we´re in search of good pastry. Je cherche une boulangerie. Lee´s been practicing.

For the record, some of our (clearly still disgruntled) neighbors dumped a bag of trash on our stairwell landing in front of our door this weekend. We've been without incident since we've opened and probably do more to take care of this building than any tenant. What gives?

Once I find out who it is, they'd better hide. I wonder how you say TP in Spanish? Cuidado porque voy a PT tu piso? "Pay Tay" is not quite as menacing.

Barcelona just made it to the finals of the Champion's League and the city's going nuts!! It was a pretty fantastic final goal, but really? The amount of honking is insane almost 2 hours after the game. Apparently the designated celebration spot for Barcelona fans is about 2 blocks from my apartment. Awesome. So much for getting sleep tonight. I can't imagine what they'll do if they win. May 27th against Man U. We'll find out!

Following Saturday's lunch at Asador Etxebarri, we drove to Bilbao to take advantage of the free tickets David had scored for the Guggenheim Museum. Sweet, right? Well, it would have been had Car #2 been able to find THE MOST OBVIOUS BUILDING in the city instead of showing up at some other second rate museum to meet us instead. So we were too late to get inside, but I got to appreciate the exterior only for a second time now.



By the time we got back to San Sebastian, everyone was too full and tired to eat anymore. NOT. Of course we went out for more pintxos. My favorite stop was Borda Berri where we sampled some Idiazabal risotto, tortilla with veggies and sausage, red wine stewed beef, and goats cheese with fruit compote. Definitely a winner.

The next day we got up to head to Mugaritz in the small town of Errenteria, about 20 mins from San Sebastian. This restaurant was recently ranked #4 in the world. The chef, Andoni Aduriz was an apprentice at El Bulli (#1 and hopefully our next stop!). Again, it's a beautiful old restored farmhouse nestled in the hilly countryside. Our table wasn't ready when we arrived, so we were escorted to a small outbuilding with a wood-burning stove for aperitivos. They brought us small bowls of what seemed like rocks but were actually roasted potatoes covered in edible clay. Dipped in alioli, they were tasty. The best part was that the bathrooms were stocked with disposable toothbrushes, so there was no concern about garlic breath! After finishing our drinks, we headed inside to begin.



At the tables, everyone's place had two cards that read "Submit" or "Rebel." I guess the idea is to get you thinking about the experience, and I supposed they're hoping you choose to submit to their menu. Sure why not.


I won't take you through the whole meal, but you can see the menu here. After two consumes, they served us a "Carpaccio" and told us that they would tell us what it was when we finished. What it was was delicious, so long as you don't have any strange allergies, which our friend Keith does. He decided it was probably best to ask before finishing his. The conversation went something like this:

Keith: "Sorry, do you mind telling me what this is?"
Clueless Waitress (playing coy): "Well, you tell me. What do you think it is?"
Keith: "No really. I have allergies. Can you tell me what this is?"
Clueless Waitress (still trying to be cute): "Well, it's a type of fruit. Which one do you think it is?"
Keith (starting to hyperventilate): "Is it melon? Because I'm allergic to melon."
Clueless Waitress (relieved) : "Nope it's not melon. What are you allergic too?"
Keith (freaking out): "Please just tell me what it is. I'm allergic to watermelon."
Clueless Waitress: "Oh, well it is watermelon. (starting to panic only slightly) What do you normally do?"
Keith (turning red and chugging water): "Uh, avoid watermelon, generally."

Pretty hilarious after the fact, but it wasn't so funny thinking Keith might get sick, or worse, I'd have to miss the meal to drive him to the hospital!


The sommelier, Linda, did a great job pairing wines with our courses (and not at wallet busting prices). She used to work at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago, actually. So we finished the meal and headed outside for coffees and some cigars. It felt pretty glorious to lounge in the sun completely full and enjoying life. Despite a few misses food-wise (salsify? no gracias) the whole experience was incredible. It's definitely left me wanting to tour the other 98 restaurants on the top 100 list. We're trying to decide what's next. El Bulli? Fat Duck? Noma? I'll keep you posted.

What a weekend! After our last calcotada, Lee passed around this episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. High on romesco sauce, a few of us decided to complete a pilgrimage to San Sebastian to visit some of the same restaurants. So we set off on Friday afternoon with reservations at Asador Etxebarri on Saturday afternoon and at Mugaritz on Sunday afternoon. Coincidentally, these restaurants were both ranked in the World's 50 Best Restaurants list that came out last week (39 and 4, respectively)

We were joined on the roadtrip by Gorana (an old HSBC friend from London), Annie fresh off a WWOOFing farm, and Keith (a Georgetown friend in BCN of Basque decent). We got on the road at about 1 pm and promptly got distracted by a Renaissance Fair in the medieval Catalan town of Montblanc, complete with costumed locals, food stalls, and animals. We got the stomach stretching started with some plates of grilled meats and escudella, a stew of sausage, beans, potatoes and pasta. For sake of autheticity, our only utensils were giant wooden spoons.


Back on the road, we finally made it to San Sebastian around 8:30pm where we were met by other friends in from Dublin and London, David and Rob. We stayed at a little pension smack in the center of the Old Town called Adore Plaza. It's run by a young guy named Santi, looked after by his somewhat grumpy parents, and overrun by their three cats. Not quite Somnio, but the location was great and the price was right. We promptly deposited our bags and headed out for the first of many pintxos. Armed with a terrific book about the best pintxos in town and a few other resources, our first stop was Tamboril, where we downed a few glasses of the local sparkling white wine Txakolin and started with some fried shrimp, garlicky mushrooms, and fried red peppers stuffed with melted morcilla (blood sausage). It was an incredible start. We headed next to La Cuchara de San Telmo for some sauteed foie with apple, duck, scallops wrapped in bacon, grilled cod, and a stewed tomato. All delicious, but the place was super crowded and stopped serving food by 11. Fortunately, some local hooligans had gotten in a bar fight, were taken away by the cops and left plates of untouched food for us to graze. We hit up a few more generic places and stopped by a couple bars before resting up for Saturday's adventure in grilled foods. Miraculously, everything was about 10 euros a person at each stop along the way.

Asador Etxebarri is located in the tiny town of Axpe, which is about half way between San Sebastian and Bilbao. It's a little tough to find, as the town hasn't yet made it on Google Maps or GPS. I had a set of directions in our car, but the boys weren't able to benefit from my good planning and had to wing it. I thought Keith was going to have a heartattack by the time they made it to the village. The place is set at the foot of a mountain, and is incredible scenic. I'd love to know more about the history of how it came to be what it is. I'm guessing it just started as a tiny local restaurant until word got out that the chef is a genius. Everything is cooked on a grill, including their homemade bread and smoked butter. According to the Bourdain interview, the chef has custom made grills and grill accessories for every kind of food. We did the tasting menu that included homemade smoked butter, a beautiful giant red prawn, purple potatoes with spring mushrooms, peas with pancetta, baby squids, nice steak, and a caramelized french toast with ice cream. We took a beautiful walk around the village afterwards to work off some of the meal.




Up next... Bilbao and Mugaritz...

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