Yay Mugaritz! Boo, in my tipsy wobbles, I forgot my copy of the menu there. So, here goes documenting the meal from memory.
We started out with a quick tour of the kitchen. While there, we were given a “rattle” to eat — shake it and it makes rattling sounds. Full of togarashi, caramelized onions and magic. Kindof sticky, but interesting.
Back at our table, baby radishes with tomato sauce. I like radishes, so I liked these.
Followed by a vanilla and anchovy snack that was very unphotogenic. And honestly not that tasty.
Cocoa marshmallow. With some savory things hiding underneath. Except I don’t remember what they were. Ugh. Pinenuts, I think?
Tendon, fava beans & flowers. This dish was pretty meh. I think the cracker was made of tendon, which tasted interesting on its own, but didn’t have the snap I wanted when I was eating a cracker with toppings. The texture came off as soggy.
Pork belly on toast, with greens. How can you go wrong with pork belly. Nom.
Chicken springroll. The menu described it as a “Gelatinous chicken mille feuille” — the most boringest dish of the menu.
Then it was time to eat our centerpiece! Cereal grass with a malt and cream dip.
Then we got new centerpieces… Suspiciously delicious smelling rocks. The one I picked up smelled like cloves. But they were hard and rock like. I made a tower of them, they fell over.
Scallop with fermented lentils. I hate lentils. But I should learn to ferment them. Mildly reminiscent of natto, but not nearly as strong. And far more palatable. (Let’s be real, I hate scallops too. But apparently not when perfectly cooked!)
Pig tails with a cuttlefish sauce. This seemed like lechon skins? Tasty but not particularly interesting.
Eggplant with sharp leaves, if I remember the menu right. Eggplant with some really strongly flavored herbs that I don’t recognize. The sauce was a tad bit too sweet, but after smearing it off onto the plate, this was delicious, especially with the kick added by the herbs.
Beef cheeks with something on top. I’m forgetting. Not bad. Clearly not life changing, or I’d remember.
Flatbread with cream and veggie caviar. This dish started out with a game. And at each table, only the winner got the veggie caviar. But I shared. The veggie caviar was crunchier and less salty than “real” caviar, but pretty good. Smeared over the cream + cracker, the differing textures and flavors matched quite well.
Corn & flower mash with cornbread. This dish involved us mashing together our own dip, to be eaten with the bread. Lots of fun. I want to mash more of my food! My mom pointed out that if they served it already mashed, it’d be pretty unappetizing looking.
Squash cream over peanut and crab. Meh. Squash cream and crab was good, but the peanut mochi-like lump was too heavy and too strong. I left it behind. Hah.
Bream with Mushroom threads — not a bad fish. But nothing compared to the turbot we had for lunch. More about that some other day.
Described by the menu as “Fifth quarter octopus“… What does that even mean. Turns out to be octopus in a tripe sauce. People should mix land and sea animals more, they taste good.
Baby horse. Whaaaat. Served with day lilies, which are apparently sour. And edible. And go really well with horse. Horse apparently tastes like lean-ish slightly dry pork.
Milk salad — whey and cream over leaves. I had a bit too much dairy in my ideal dairy to leaves proportions, so I left some behind. I wish I knew what all the leaves were, I want to eat them again. Maybe with whipped cream since I’m not cool enough to have any idea of how to recreate this dish.
Frozen lemon with a lemon-ish icecream. Delicious. Except I’m bad at biting cold things, so it took me a while to eat.
Coffee sandwich coffee ice cream in meringue. Nommmm.
The menu described this as a cronut, but it was a frozen chocolate meringue. So light, so tasty!
The “impossible bite” — I’m not sure why. But dough, custard on the inside and the rocks from earlier, grated over them. I got to grate. SO MUCH FUN.
Then we moved outside for the “Seven Sins“. A tower of chocolate.
from right to left — (zigzagging up and down)
Pride, golden eggs that were hollow on the inside. Wrath, spicy chocolate covered ginger. Envy, three discs of chocolate that all look different (so you’ll be envious, no matter which you take? I was way too full to be envious…). Gluttony, a bunch of little chocolates, crunchy on the inside. Greed, the empty container (LOL). Sloth, truffles willed with caramel. Lust, white chocolate filled with something fruity.
Conclusions? Lots of fun and great food. Though I was surprised at how often ingredients were repeated. For example, the meringue cronut and ice cream sandwich. Very different from other restaurants I’ve been to where ingredients aren’t repeated. Also, I usually enjoy the starters more than the heavier fish/meat dishes — but this meal was the opposite. The initial few dishes weren’t amazing, then the meal really picked up around the middle. (I almost never dislike dessert)
