My Delicious Connections Facebook page recently featured some of the early highlights of our weeklong trip to northern Spain, including running with the bulls in Pamplona and sitting with Ernest Hemingway in his beloved Cafe Iruna.
Bilbao's Guggeheuim Museum is a modern masterpiece as was our dinner at La Vina del Ensanche where I enjoyed sublime pork cheeks with asparagus.
We continued on to the Rioja wine region and headed for HARO where we visited several wineries including La Rioja Alta which was outstanding. Our Delicious Connections friend, Roy Cloud, a wine importer, suggested we try their wines and we were thrilled. All of their wines were wonderful but their Vina Ardanza Reserva 2005 was outstanding, rich, complex, earthy, and crying out for a piece of red meat!
After our tasting we headed for lunch nearby at La Vieja Bodega and had one of the best meals of our trip, including a superb garlic soup and their signature dish of local vegetables with slices of cod and a red pepper sauce. The owner, Angel Perex Aguilar, took special care of us and together we visited his wine cellar under the restaurant. Angel would love to run a trip with me in the future which would be amazing.
We saved the best for the last on this trip which was San Sebastian with its elegant promenade along its curving beach la Concha.
The museo San Telmo is a gem of a museum on Basque culture and the entire old town quite charming. But the highlights here were the food. We had two superb meals, the first of which was at La Muralla in the old town where we enjoyed a 39 euro, 7 course tasting menu which included unlimited amounts of red and white house wines and delectable cod cheeks with peppers.
Our second dinner in San Sebastian was in a house up in the hills overlooking the town. Zelai Txiki, is a family owned restaurant, run by Chef Juan Carlos and his wife Eva. The pigeon and the suckling pork were perfect as were the vegetables grown in their own garden. After our fantastic meal, we had the distinct pleasure of visiting their kitchen and wine cellar. Juan Carlos and Eva want to work with me as well, so watch out, I may soon have a trip to the Spanish Basque Country!
