September 7, 2024 Breakfast - Cheese on bread Lunch 8 course lunch at Casa Marcelo, Compostela.
Today was a budget buster lunch at one of José Andres’ favorite restaurants, Casa Marcelo in Compostela de Santiago, Compostella is the terminus of all the seven or eight Camino Santiago’s, and is a pilgrimage site because Saint James’ bones are buried here.
I ate a slice of the light brown bread from our lunch at O Pipote yesterday spread with butter and garnished with slices of a semi hard goat cheese and a cup of merlot for breakfast.
Then around 9:00 we left Playa Catedrales and drove to Compostela arriving around 11:30. We drove to a parking lot near the Abastos Market, a large indoor and outdoor market. We bought, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and a soft local cheese outdoors. Then we walked through one of the indoor markets and bought a slice of a Parmesan style hard cheese. We crossed the street and bought an apple for me to eat, an orange and a lemon at a fruit and vegetable store. I had to rest and so sat down while Suzette shopped.
Soon I noticed where I was sitting was a raw bar for Abastos 2.0, a Michelin recommended restaurant. It was 12:30, an hour before our reservation at Casa Marcelo, so we ate 6 Spanish oysters, note theIr fan shaped shell, and 6 raw clams with a wedge of lemon. Suzette drank a vermouth and I drank an Albariño.
We then started to walk to the restaurant but soon were diverted into a bakery that sold artisanal breads, where we bought 1/2 loaf of a light brown loaf and two pain au chocolate.
We then walked toward the cathedral plaza near where Casa Marcelo was located but were blocked by a large parade with lots of groups of uniquely dressed people and other groups playing loud music on large drums and then a bag pipe group that lasted about fifteen minutes. Later our host in Combarro said the parade was a competition by a number of villages to create a unique spectacle. It reminded us of the parade at the folk festival in Uruapan, Mexico or Carnival in Rio, or Mardi Gras.
Finally we reached the Plaza in front of the Cathedral and it was filled with people. Many more than we saw last year. We walked down the hill to the restaurant and waited 15 minutes for it to open. We were shown to a table outside and soon the waiter explained that they served an 8 course menu.
Then the sommelier came and sold us on a 2014 Pazo Senorans albarino with minerality for 79 Euros and Luis, our waiter who was from Peru, brought the first course, a technical sandwich of anchovy cream between two slices of meringue that looked like white bread but was so fluffy it seemed to have been made with egg white foam that was served with a refreshing mango and ginger and soda cocktail.
The second course was a white gazpacho that was a wine and almond milk broth poured into a bowl containing green grapes halves, two clams, blanched almonds, and small dark mounds of reduced Jerez Sherry that were slightly sweet. White gazpacho dates back to the Moors, who ruled Spain for 700 years and was a favored way to break the day long fasting of Ramadan.
We requested water and breads were served, a medium dark bread typical of Galicia like the one bought on our way to the plaza and an airy brioche.
The Pazo Senorans wine had great minerality and some character, not the usual fizzy stuff. I was impressed that a nine year old Albariño held its freshness.
The third course were French oysters garnished with a pile of fine crystals of frozen cucumber and the deep bowled shell was filled with a traditional Spanish sauce made of creamed olives, jalapeños, and anchovy paste. It was lovely and much more elegant than the raw oysters with lemon wedges we had eaten an hour previously.
The fish theme continued with the fourth course, a lovely combination of raw Aji tuna glazed with a soy and sugar reduction laid over a peeled ripe green fig sitting in a puddle of diced Aji tuna tartare. We loved its freshness and the creativity to marry a fig with tuna sashimi. We drank the last of our mango and ginger cocktail with this dish and the ginger cocktail tasted a lot better with the soy sauce than Albariño.
The fifth dish was also a fish dish, warm skinned sardine filets resting on three small sautéed Padron peppers lying on a mound of micro diced patron peppers mixed with sautéed panko. I liked this rather traditional dish the best, perhaps because I can not get enough of fresh sardines.
The sixth dish was also fish, Lubia (Sea Bass) poached in a caldilla (tomato caldo with three types of seaweed. This was really delicious but we were getting really full and it was hard to finish the ultra tender sea bass and lovely soupy sauce,
The chef had come out soon after we arrived to check on allergies and food issues. We told him we ate less salt than the average Spaniard and I could not eat black pepper.
We also discussed the meat course and we both requested pigeon. The sommelier recommended a light red wine that he claimed was perfect with the Demi-glacé sauce with blueberries on which the three or four sections of pigeon lay on. We agreed to share one glass f his recommended wine and when it was served it was a French Fleurie that was 100% gamay and although it was a light wine, it had a bitter after taste that neither Suzette or I found attractive.
I had forgotten that pigeon was red meat so I understand the need for a red wine, but I would have chosen a Mencia.
Since there were only three pieces of pigeon, we managed to eat it with no additional distress.
Then came two dessert courses. The first was a lovely small baked Alaska, a toasted meringue coating over a dome of lavender ice cream sitting on a round of custard that sat on a crumble base.
We cut it in half as Luis instructed and each of us ate a half.
The we were brought another dessert that Luis said was a classic. Two slices of puff pastry with a row of pastry cream squeezed in between.
We ordered two coffees con Leche for this final dessert because we were fearful we would fall asleep on the road to Pontavedra without some caffeine stimulus.
All in all we loved the meal and did not think the $125 Euro price was excessive.
We even were able to walk out of the restaurant unaided. We had trouble finding a taxi until we walked back to the main plaza and past the Parador and walked down the side of the Parador away from the church intil we came to an active taxi stand and were driven back to the parking area where we had left our car five hours ago.
The extreme hills and valleys of Compostela made walking difficult for me to walk, so I do not see us going back to Compostela, just like I do not see me ever walking the Camino.
We drove to Casa Chhela Hotel, just beyond Combarro, and met our AirBNB hosts, a mother and son, who took us to the house and showed us around.
Interestingly, the house is huge with five bedrooms and a decent view of the big Pontevedra Bay. When they showed us historic pictures upstairs they informed that this was their grandmother’s house.
It will offer plenty of room for all seven of us.
Later a Willy what’s append Suzette to say he and Luke will be arriving in Pontevedra on the 10th.
It is 11:00 and I am satisfied and still not hungry after the huge lunch.
Bon Appetit
No comments:
Post a Comment