Thursday, April 23, 2009

La Huerta Restaurant

More of the Pintxo contest.

In La Huerta the kitchen is open through a window so we were able to check out how the Chef was preparing the hundred of pintxos sold every night. As you can see, he´s holding the pan were the eggs for the first pintxo were made.

Huevos Rotos & Lobster.
I wanted to try it because the combination sounded a little strange, but it was good, not as a winner good, but good. The eggs were made with all the juices of the lobster, so all the pintxo tasted like it, it was nice but I´ve tried, and shown, betters. Don´t you think?
Blood Sausage Fries with bean soup.
The sausage is mixed with some nuts and breadcrumbs, then roll into some kind of corn crumbs and fried. They were good but they only tasted like the sausage, as it has such a strong flavour it is really hard to combine it with anything but sweet or spicy. I guess a no-no for this part of the pintxo.
The soup was really good, homey flavour. I wish they would have done something better with it so it would had the chance to be at the finals.


Let´s try it harder for next years!!!



Saturday, April 11, 2009

Asador Sagartoki

This bar/restaurant never stops surprising us. It has won a lot of contests in the past years and people from all Spain comes to visit it. So we never doubt their pintxos were going to be awesome.

This is a look at the bar in a normal Saturday night, always crowded.
And the pintxos are:

a) Pistachio mousse mixed with chopped green and white asparagus, pistachio and bread crumbs "soil", more pistachios, edible flours and cooked whole asparagus.
b) Milk Chocolate 2009: crunchy chocolate-caramel cake with a scoop of caramel ice cream.


Awesome, delightful, spectacular, an amazing experience.


Friday, April 10, 2009

Carey Bar

In no particular order this was the first Bar to visit for the Pintxo taste: Carey Bar.

This is the bar itself, a small place, brand new and with a nice modern-cozy feeling.

These are samples of normal daily pintxos they offer, shown on top of the big bar table so you can see what you can get. Pinxtos look very nice and artistic.
These are the two in contest:

a) Gazpacho (cold tomato-bell peppers soup) in the glass, fresh marinade anchovies with green olive jam and sprouts, over s super thin slice of toasted bread.
b) Foie Patèe, thin slice of mushroom and rose petal preserves, all over a crunchy toast of bread.
Delicate and delicious flavours, really a good choice.




Wednesday, April 8, 2009

VII Contest "Pintxo de Alava"

From April 3rd to 17th we can enjoy of the best creations in town. 60 bars participate in this contest of the best Pintxo of the City, each bar offers two pintxos in contest, besides all the ones they offer daily. So there are lots of Pintxos to try, and gladly a lot of them look very very good.

I may not be able to try them all, but I´ll do my best, at least to try the ones that seems more interesting.

First of all we have to understand what a Pintxo is. It used to be a little snack, able to be eaten with your hands and mostly all the time was served over a piece of bread and eaten within a couple of bites. Nowadays it´s more likely to understand a pintxo as miniature dishes.
This year, the judges will be the famous chefs: Ferrán Adriá, Martín Berasategui, Juan Mari Arzak and more.
So with this in mind we start our tasting.
No particular order, I´ll let you know which one I like the most, and which one wins.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Sauces

I´m not a big fan of sauces, but since a while I´ve been remembering one I tried long ago in a Catalan restaurant: Romesco Sauce.
It has all the flavours of Spring and more, but I had never prepare it before cause for some reason it sounded a little intimidating, well, not anymore, with this recipe there is no fear at all, so simple, yet incredible delicious.
One day I use it in a spinach-ham Sandwich, and discover why should I change mayonnaise for!! The next day use it with chicken in a salad and the third day with some boiled potatoes garnishing grilled fish.
You may think it is way too much romesco, but it´s not.

I kept it in a jar, and from now on will be a "must" in my refrigerator.
In the recipe mention that you can freeze it, but there is no time to do so once you try it.

I know I know, looking for a Spanish recipe in Martha´s web site, well, Martha knows a lot of things, and all of them are great!