Wednesday 25 September
Moving slowly this morning, probably as a result of the 14,000 steps done yesterday. In what could prove to be a dangerous move, the team splits up. Lady P to the cafe for breakfast to sustain her assault on the shops and Flashy to the couch for some feet up time. We agree to meet at 1400h under the University clock tower. This all seems a bit le Carre spy stuff but despite Lady P's unease, Flashy reckons he can find the clock tower. Now, it was right and then right four blocks..... or was it left? Clock towers are big things so if you look up in the sky you can usually see them, so Flashy decides to take a break from walking and seek refuge in a uni pub with the youngsters. After a couple of wines he lurks about under the clock tower waiting for the secret phrase “ winter is cold in Moscow". Lady P arrives and sneaks up on him. “Let's hit the shops.” So, a little retail therapy then home for a siesta before our Michelin meal at Alkimia Restaurant. Dressed accordingly, we stroll to our restaurant, only it's not that simple. Alkimia has no real front door. You have to look for number 41 and 45 and somewhere in the middle is a big, solid timber door to a group of apartments. You must know that this is 43. The blank button is pushed and a voice says “Hola", to which we reply “Penny, dos reservation" and buzz..... and you're in. The stairs lead to what was once an apartment but has now been converted into a 12 seat restaurant with a small bistro area and a private function space. I shall let Lady P the designer describe the incredible interior. There are 12 in the kitchen brigade and a completely open kitchen. Enough! To the meal. We decided on the 18 course degustation menu and after a discussion with Berrrrrnarrrd the sommelier, We let him put together a matching wine selection. So firstly to the wines. As Bernard suggested, the backbone of the wines would be a very nice Cava from Catalunya. This means that after toasting our anniversary at the start, our sparkling glass would never be empty. So we started in magnificent, fine stemmed coupes, with a Recaredo Serral del Vell 2011 Cava. And throughout the meal, at special food points, Bernard would bring out the following. Equipo Navero SS Manzinalla Jersz Sherry. Yes a Sherry and how wonderfully well it worked with the first three dishes. The Chateau Musar 2009 white from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon was a bit of a treat. Back to Spain with the second Sherry – A Valdespina Palo Cortado Calle Ponce. Again excellent. The Pian dell'Orino Rosso from Montalcino Italy was also perfectly matched to the food. Another Catalunyan wine followed, a Sarai Rene Viticultors Patrida Pedres 2015 and then came the Chateauneuf de Pape Domaine Charvin 2015 in a small carafe thankfully. The Italian Vigna del Volta Colli Piacentini Malvasia Passito 2006 was pretty good as well and to cap off the desserts, the Palo Cortado Viejo CP, again from Catalunya, was superb. Ah, the food you say. Well firstly, if you have exceptional service, bespoke cutlery and crockery, hot plates for hot food and cold plates for cold food, incredibly artistic plating and a relaxed ambience, which of course we did, then you can make good food exceptional. Well, we had exceptional food made even more so by the combination of all of the above. Here it is. Potato souffle and truffle, which was extruded potato, made into little nests, fried, salted and a shaving of truffle on top, served on a wavy zinc plate; crustacean esqueixada with romenesco sauce and pumpkin seeds, which was a ceveche of prawn on half a lime so you picked it up, squeezed the lime and licked off the prawn; Moscato do di cardinale; white gazpacho of almond with tonka bean oil and grilled sardine, which was delicious and the white gazpacho was thickened so it could be quenelled on the plate; spider crab and squid ceveche; toast with anchovy butter and cured jowl of Iberian pig. This was two separate plates served together and the pork was transparent; white suquet of seafood with fish sherry wine and grilled onion. The onion was a single half leaf from the centre of an onion.; grilled xisqueta lamb with potatoes and pine nuts, cheese and romesco sauce. We watched the whole leg of lamb being cooked over charcoal then brought to the table on a slab of wood for our inspection, before a small portion was carved off for our delight; mushrooms with caramelised cabbage and carrot toffee. Very good mushroom flavour, but there was a lack of carrot flavour in the toffee; potato gnocchis cim i tomba with conger eel skin. Gnocchi the size of small pearls and just cooked so they melted in your mouth; tempura sea cucumber and double romesco. This was excellently executed and a balance between the textures was very good; mar i Montana of sea cucumber and pig; baby squid with oyster stuffing and meat sauce. Good and interesting; grilled pigeon breast with chard and ganxet beans (A super sharp timber handled flick knife accompanied this course- not because the pigeon was tough, just because it added to the wild theme of the dish). My favourite and it opened the batting for the reds; leek pastry with horseradish cream sauce. Brilliant presentation with the leeks delightfully dominant; mont blanc. Very clever this one. A spiral of extruded chestnut cream wound around a centre of meringue; lychee and melon soup, cucumber and muscat granita. Stunning. Could have licked the plate and probably did! And finally, chocolate pie with pickled plum ice cream. We did not need coffee, but Lady P had a fancy tea. Flashy asked for a cognac and cigar but copped a stern look, so declined. The staff provided us with a signed menu and Flashy, as a visiting chef, got a tour of the kitchen from the executive chef. There were lots of hand signals at this stage. So all you little gastronaughts, as Floyd would say, that was the meal. It is difficult to convey the amazing service during the evening. Our sommelier, Bernard, spoke English, Spanish and French fluently. He was a very good sommelier and Flashy was as pleased as punch and possibly a little overindulged with the wine matching. All the floor staff were young, slender, attractive, bilingual at least and skilled at service. We reckon they probably fight hard to get into these restaurants. As we have mentioned before, whenever there is music played in stores, bars and restaurants, it's usually in English. Even the taxi drivers have the local Spanish station playing and they introduce the song in Spanish, then it plays – and it's often some sloppy 1960’s or 70’s pop – in English. We've heard Carley Simon, The Carpenters, Abba, Elton and last night, during dinner, everything from the Stones to Simon and Garfunkel. Softly in the background, of course even during our degustation dining experience.
