Sorry for the hiatus between blogs, but the kitchen requires long hours full of learning. I'll start with the trip Tracy and I took to a little city near the French border called Hondorrabia.
It's a really quaint little city with a castle-turned-hotel at the top and several good pintxos bars.
It was a really overcast day, and cold, but the town was adorable. In this area of the country, they trim all of the trees into a knobbly shape, reminiscent of zinfandael grape vines or the whomping willows from Harry Potter books. I like this a lot, actually.
There's a great view from the top of the city, of a harbor dotted with tiny colorful fishing boats and cute sea birds.
We stopped for pintxos and vino tinto at a couple local haunts, and the barman at one insisted that I walk behind the counter to take this picture of Tracy with her gigantic camera.
I had yummy fried potatoes baked with chorizo and egg.
Tracy had wild mushrooms baked into a crispy tuille.
There was beautiful jamon Iberico at the next stop.
And foie gras with two different marmalades on brioche. They love foie here... every little place has it! (I am assuredly not complaining.)
On the way back to our bus we met this lady, selling the local Basque delicacy...
Barnacles! I haven't seen them on a menu yet (they're apparently expensive) but she was kind enough to allow me some pictures.
Yesterday we started at the restaurant, and it's been a really interesting learning experience thus far. The kitchen is huge, and beautiful, and buzzing with activity.
I'm starting on the meat station- carne, which has two main dishes and a few a la carte options. I got to try the pigeon and learned how they make it... it's incredibly juicy and flavorful, and one of the most impressive platings I've seen.
I'm slowly easing myself into the station, taking notes, asking questions, and assisting with the preparations and platings along with copying down the recipes and practicing my Spanish.
The hours are long, but the chefs and station heads are very generous in sharing their recipes and tricks of the trade with me, so I'm very excited to be learning so much, especially considering how amazing all the components I've tasted have been.
But now I'm on siesta, and it's time to relax and get off my feet for a bit. I'm heading back in for the dinner shift, wonder what I'll learn next!
Adios!
It was a really overcast day, and cold, but the town was adorable. In this area of the country, they trim all of the trees into a knobbly shape, reminiscent of zinfandael grape vines or the whomping willows from Harry Potter books. I like this a lot, actually.
We stopped for pintxos and vino tinto at a couple local haunts, and the barman at one insisted that I walk behind the counter to take this picture of Tracy with her gigantic camera.
I had yummy fried potatoes baked with chorizo and egg.
Tracy had wild mushrooms baked into a crispy tuille.
There was beautiful jamon Iberico at the next stop.
And foie gras with two different marmalades on brioche. They love foie here... every little place has it! (I am assuredly not complaining.)
On the way back to our bus we met this lady, selling the local Basque delicacy...
Barnacles! I haven't seen them on a menu yet (they're apparently expensive) but she was kind enough to allow me some pictures.
Yesterday we started at the restaurant, and it's been a really interesting learning experience thus far. The kitchen is huge, and beautiful, and buzzing with activity. 
Sounds like your enjoying the country, I'm terribly jealous. Perdiéndole, las imágenes que usted anunció son fantásticos. Desee que pueda estar allí, no aquí empacando, y para empacar, cuando lo haga termina. ¡Tengo que a mucha mierda! Karen
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I've to say that it's Hondarribia and not Hondorrabia... :) Interesting post
ReplyDeleteSorry there's a mistake in the name of the city. Is Hondarribia not "Hondorrabia"
ReplyDelete