San Sebastian Eats: Three Michelin Star dining at Akelarre
During my gastronomic weekend in San Sebastián, I had dinner at Akelarre with my friend. San Sebastián supposedly has the densest concentration of Michelin stars in the world, and I wanted to try one of the three star restaurants around town. I was surprised to get reservations here calling only a week and a half before!
There is a choice of three set menus, with no overlap between the menus. My friend and I chose different menus, and the waitress was very flexible with changing one dish for another when my friend requested changes (e.g. no foie gras, less fish).
First amuse-bouche. "Bloody Mary."
Next came a trio of trompe l'oeil amuse bouche. The thing that looks like a slice of zucchini was mashed potato sandwiched between two potato crisps (I think). And the ball that is supposed to look like a chocolate truffle enclosed mussel filling.
And these things that looked like black olives was jelly-like, enclosing anchovy paste.
My first course was "the leaves and the foie under the rain." Instructions were to eat each leaf individually, because they all had their unique taste. Then underneath, were two "leaves" of foie gras... You can see underneath the other leaves on the left is a really big leaf that has a reddish part towards the center vein. That's one of the two foie gras leaves. The rain was made from apple and other fruits. I really liked the red berries encased in white sugar.
Next course was all about the sea. In the bowl is a tail of cigala (Norwegian langoustine), and a clear sack of herbs, monkfish crisp, and prawn powder. In the plate behind is a head of cigala. The waitress poured in a broth, dissolving the sack. Lining the plate are transparent rounds of monkfish. A delicious dish!
The marine dish was followed by steak tartar. To be eaten with the "aromatic herb bread," essentially crackers. The "new Potato Soufflé" was basically puffy potato chips. This was very tasty too.
Next up was hake and "kokotxa" which is apparently prized in this area - it's the jaw of the fish. Plus oyster. Nothing innovative, just a very delicious dish. By this time I am extremely full already.
This was my friend's beef course. Next to it is a square of something that is supposed to look like tiramisu, but is ox tail (I think) and foie gras). The "coppered potato" we figured out was like Pringles, and next to it in the little bowl were sheets of red pepper.
Meanwhile I had squid ink "risotto," where instead of rice, you have pellets of squid cut in the shape of rice. I wonder whose job this is? Because it didn't look like they just put the squid in a food processor. The squid pellets were very uniformly the shape of rice grains.
A rose of butter to stir into the risotto.
The final savory course was roasted suckling pig - very nice, better than what I had in Segovia which is famous for this. The white thing on the left looks like a bone, but is made of sugar and is filled with marrow (?) Another puffy potato chip in the shape of a pig. And inside that peel of garlic is risotto.You're supposed to eat them separately, then all together.
The first dessert was my favorite of all of the courses, and my friend agreed that she liked this better than all of hers. The "coconut iced mousse" was just amazing. They look like foam blocks, and are extremely light, and have a certain texture, in that they don't melt right away. But then they dissolve in your mouth in a very clean coconut taste. The ball in the middle is a yolk and almond cake.
Finally, one of the signature dishes, "The broken Jar of Yogurt, 'Gatzatua' and berries." The yogurt jar is made of sugar, with a label that's like the Dannon logo. With yogurt pellets like Dippin Dots, red berries, and curd.
And wrapping up with chocolates, mini macaron, nougat...
Overall I really enjoyed my first foray into Michelin-starred dining, and 3 stars no less! I can't say I was "wowed" by it, though. The trompe l'oeil dishes were clever, all of the fish dishes were cooked to perfection, and the sheer quantity of food was amazing. But I remember being wowed by simple dishes like a pintxo costing a couple euros with seared shrimp which I had in San Sebastián 2 years ago, and every now and then I crave a $12 tonkatsu meal from Tonki in Tokyo which I must have had a decade ago. Those were really transformative experiences.
Time will tell if I remember this meal at Akelarre in the same way...
