August 18, 2023 Lunch - Casa Gerardo in Prendes.
Another day, another Michelin starred restaurant. Although this one has been a Michelin starred restaurant for thirteen years, is in the fifth generation of family ownership since 1882, and is one of Jose Andres, an Asturian’s, favorite restaurants in Asturias. It is Casa Gerardo in Prendes, which is in a small village about 6 miles outside Gijon and about 20 miles from Orvieto.
We go up at 7:30 and Suzette made me a breakfast of scrambled eggs with slices of fresh tomato and a skillet toasted a slice of baguette that I spread with marmalade. She also heated one of the pain au chocolate that I bought yesterday.
Fortified, we walked to the car park at the bottom of the hill and drove to
Gijon at 9:00. When we arrived we found it to be a big port city. We drove to the top of a hill to an area identified as battlements that probably dated back to a hill top fort from at least Celtic times, 600 or 700 BCE.
We could not find a place to park until we came back down the hill and parked in a lot under a public pier that was not close to anything.
When we emerged above ground we were about 1/3 mile out on the pier and over 2/3 mile with an uphill hike to the tourist information office, which we could see.
We got the historical and geographic importance of Gijon quickly and visually just by driving up to the battlements at the top of the hill and from information provided at the History Museum yesterday in Oviedo. The high hill that faces the sea at Gijon has always been a highly defendable position from which to view and control the sea lane along the northern coast of Spain and the hill provides a natural protection for its bay from storms and attack.
After the Romans displaced the Celts, Gijon became a major Roman garrison town and naval port. It reminded me of the high hill in Budapest a few feet from the mile wide Danube River that has been a defensive position since time immemorial.
So we drove to Luanco, about 10 miles from Gijon. Luanco was once a fishing and whaling center with a deep bay protected on the north side by high rock cliffs. After driving around we found a parking spot that was two blocks from the main pedestrian street and about four blocks from the beach. There are actually several beaches at Luanco and from appearances it has become a favored retirement community.
We found a table on the Main Street and Suzette drank her morning coffee and I drank a lemonade. After a few minutes we decided to walk to the beach but on our way found an outdoor market. I was tired and found a place to sit on a terrace above the beach with a terrific view a long way along the coast called the “Mirador de Pilatos” that literally means “the looking place of Pilots”. As the sign explained this was the place ship navigators would meet on winter mornings to decide whether it was safe to put out to sea.
I dozed as Suzette shopped. Much of the stuff was cheap clothing, not the large shopping woven baskets Suzette was looking for.
When she returned I rested a few more minutes and at 1:00 we returned to the car and drove to Prendes to Casa Gerardo.
Casa Gerardo is one of those shrines of gastronomy that draws devoted foodies from around the world, like the Camino Santiago has drawn devoted religious pilgrims and trekkers
As stated earlier, Jose Andres featured it in his 2006 PBS series on Spanish food.
Here is how Michelin describes the restaurant:
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One MICHELIN Star: High quality cooking, worth a stop! |
When the word “prestigious” is mentioned, thoughts immediately turn to restaurants such as this one, which first opened in 1882 and has been run by five generations of the same family and continues to showcase authentic Asturian cuisine.
Chef Marcos Morán now holds the reins here, in tandem with his father Pedro, with whom he has achieved a perfect symbiosis that is reflected in the balance between innovation and tradition. Choose between the modern-influenced à la carte, which includes a section dedicated to time-honoured recipes, and appetising tasting menus featuring the unmissable Fabada de Prendes bean stew and the famous rice dessert, “crema de arroz con leche requemada”. Marcos Morán’s strong connection to the roots of this area has not stopped him expanding further afield, as he now also manages Spanish-inspired restaurants in both London and Brussels.
We each chose the Clasico menu at €72 that included the restaurant’s two most famous dishes, the Prendes Fabada and its Arroz con Leche.
We ordered a bottle of Albariño and settled into our seats in an elegant dining room with full glass windows like an airport facing the hillside across the street that was wooded above with houses and an apple orchard below, a very picturesque Asturian scene.
The table service was immaculate and our waiter spoke a fair amount of English, which made the explanation of the dishes much more interesting.
What surprised me the most about the meal was the combination of cutting edge adaptations of traditional Asturian Cuisine with modern cooking techniques, especially in the appetizers.
We ordered one additional item from the daily a la carte menu that was served first, a large deep bowled oyster filled with a vegetable broth, plankton, salmon caviar and a large oyster each shell supported by a mound of salt crystals. We were happy to have ordered them. Our first oyster of the trip was a complete success.
There was also bread service with two traditional Asturian bread choices, seeded corn bread that was more flour than corn meal which we both selected and a white bread.
We were then served five starters. The waiter explained each and recommended the order in which to eat them.
The first was a small ham sandwich that was a roll of creamed cheese holding two rectangles of flat, pressed, and fried ham that resembled a tent. It was an interesting and elegant take on the ubiquitous ham sandwiches one sees everywhere in Spain.
We ate the vegetable appetizer next; a small corn tart shell filled with a potato and tuna salad bound together with a piquant mayonnaise served on a bed of black sesame seeds.
Next we drank the small cup of crab and lamb broth that was noticeably salty and very rich, sort of like a thick heavily herbed French bouillabaisse broth. We found it necessary to drink it in small sips interspersed with sips of Albariño and pieces of buttered bread; perhaps the point of the dish.
The last two appetizers were croquettes, one of ham and the last of morcilla, chorizo, and ham. We have eaten ham croquettes three times now and never seen even a bit of ham. If today’s and last night’s offering at Gloria are representative of the perfect ham croquette, it is mashed potatoes combined with béchamel sauce made with ham broth, coated with bread crumbs, and fried so that the filling is hot and creamy and melts in your mouth.
The last appetizer was a Morcilla, ham, and chorizo croquette. Again, only a slight blemish from the dark blood sausage altered the otherwise white creaminess of the potato filling, but in this croquette one could detect the strength of the meat broth flavoring the béchamel and whipped potatoes and the fried bread crumb coating was slightly darkened.
There was a waiter and his assistant who removed and replaced the plates and silver after each course and refilled our wine glasses to 1/8 full several times from our bottle resting in the large Dom Perignon ice bucket. After a few wine pours and the incredible food we could not help feeling we were experiencing a rarified gastronomic experience.
And, that was just the beginning of the meal.
Next we were served small bowls with a single baby eggplant that had been steamed until completely softened resting in a puddle of light green curry sauce dotted with small squares of Maximo Rey Silo cheese, which our waiter, when explaining the dish, mentioned was Jose Andres’ favorite cheese.
Next we were served the surprise dish of the meal that I had almost ordered a la carte, a fish cake made with hake and covered with a light tomato sauce and garnished with tiny squares of fried potato. It was fabulous and reminded me of some of my favorite dishes served by my mother: fish or veal Quenelles steamed in broth and my favorite dish of our Jewish New Year’s meals, ghefilte fish, which is essentially a fish cake of carp or whitefish cooked in broth that is then turned into aspic and served with red beet colored horseradish.
This fish cake was so good, it entered my pantheon of poached fish cakes and its firmness and saturated fish flavor separated it from the loose fish pudding we were served with a mayonnaise sauce at Goya in Santander.
At this point both Suzette and I were done after an oyster, appetizers, a vegetable course and a fish course. We could not even imagine how one could make it through Casa Gerardo’s famous 18 course tasting menu.
The owner chefs mingled with customers and were kind enough to allow us a photo with the son, head chef.
And we had the two most iconic dishes yet to be served: the restaurant’s Prendes Fabada and its rice pudding/arroz con Leche (again a Jose Andres favorite).
When the Fabada was served we dutifully cut the accompanying warm chunks of chorizo, ham (pork belly), and morcilla and added them to the bowl of large Asturian white beans in a delicious broth and ate a couple of bites and then stopped, unable to eat another bite.
We asked our waiter if he could box the Fabada in a take out box and he graciously took the bowls from the table and returned several minutes later with a bag with the boxed Fabada.
He asked if we wanted to eat the arroz con Leche and we vigorously confirmed that we did, so soon that was served. It was the best we have had to date. The rice was extra creamy and there was a serious warm caramelized shell covering the pudding just like in the PBS series. We loved it but could only eat half and again requested the rest to be boxed.
Bob in the parking lot, happy and full
The total bill was just under €200, which is a lot a money but fair considering the quality of food and service and that we have two of the most iconic Asturian dishes in our fridge for another meal.
Those dishes will not be eaten tonight because it is 10:30 and Suzette has just gone to bed and neither of us is hungry after gorging on some of the best food in Asturias.
After we finished lunch I drank a small cup of coffee with hot milk and sugar that was served with a small plate of chocolates to make sure I did not fall asleep on the drive back to Oviedo.
Suzette expertly navigated us back to the parking garage where we have parked the car and I trekked uphill the five blocks to Cimadelvilla where the apartment is located without any pain and in good spirits.
As Suzette says, “Good food puts you in a good mood.”
It was 5:00 when we arrived at the apartment and I was done for the day and changed into my pajamas and napped for 1 1/2 hours, while Suzette worked on her computer, until Luke called from our house to tell us he had arrived in Albuquerque for his yoga retreat with Avery at Ghost Ranch and we talked for a few minutes.
We then got up, I to blog and Suzette to read.
It is now 10:30 and Suzette has gone to bed and I am ready to load this description into the blog and perhaps read a bit, as I sit by the open French doors of the apartment listening to the folks eating, drinking, and talking below.
We are liking Asturias and Spain more each day. Tomorrow our only planned activity is to visit the large food hall near our apartment in Plaza Fontan built in 1908, where I hope to find Maximo Rey Silo cheese.
Bon Appetit
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