You're listening to Heritage Radio Network. Hi
everyone, welcome to Pot Luck Food Talks. This
is our special after Echeverry episode. I'm here
with Jose and Stephen. Yeah, this was my first
time. Jose was here already once at Echeverry.
Yeah, second time now. And for sure, top three
dining experiences I've had. Absolutely, without
a doubt. Yeah, incredible. So let's do a course
by course review of what we had. So first of
all, we entered this old Basque farmhouse. You
go upstairs, we had like this extra large table
for a group of 11, which was like a private table
on a second floor, not on the main dining room.
We just sit down and first thing we get this
pea soup, like a... Yeah, cazo de guisante, pea
broth. Pea broth, yeah. Was that like this green
broth? It tasted fresh, almost raw. Almost like
a pea juice. Yeah. Super nice. I don't know.
What can you comment about it? I mean, the color
was absolutely stunning. It felt like I was drinking
liquid emeralds. And as was the case with all
of the courses, and we'll talk about just the
smell, like the gentle smell of smoke and charcoal
and fire. It permeates everything. Starting from
the beginning, it really just kind of... sets
the tone for you know how the rest of the meal
is going to go yeah that was that wasn't where
i was thinking about this was gentle you know
like the sweet spot to to have those like freshly
kind of herb hints on it yeah it's perfect to
start yeah yeah i i really agree with you what
that sets the tone because i think that like
a transversal idea across the center was subtleness
like everything on each course like the interesting
things about each course were the subtleness
that are very complicated to communicate right
like so then next we still were in the snacks
and we got like a board with sliced costalito
chorizo like the highest quality iberian ham
chorizo just sliced with a crust of bread with
tomato and anchovies Also pretty nice. Also tone
setting. Yeah, it's still kind of warming up.
Just kind of whetting the appetite. Not very
heavy, despite it being very fatty pork. And
very, not oily, but rich anchovy on top of the
good crusty bread. Lovely. Yeah, the chorizo
I was like is... There's like really like playing
the dance at the end It's like alright who was
gonna take the last ones like you isn't me It's
like I want it to be me, but I don't want to
be I like that Usually you would expect like
an excess of salt in this type of foods But in
this case there there wasn't in the case of the
anchovies You will find like a lot of sourness
like vinegar or salt in this case. It was just
like What really stood out to me, honestly, was
the texture of the chorizo. Very unlike most
chorizos that you buy, that you get, it's like
the cured chorizo, it's always... On the tougher,
a little bit more dried out side, not hard to
chew, but this one just melted away. Yeah. From
the first bite, I just didn't need to chew. It
just dissolved on your palate, and it was basically
like pork butter, which we'll get into later.
So next, still with the snacks, we've got this
little bowl of mozzarella on top of rocket pesto.
Again, just... Very straightforward just like
enjoy the flavor of like a plain mozzarella I
think that was not even olive oil or salt on
top of it. It was just no. Yeah. It was a very
nice contrast between like the acid acid bitterness
a pepper flavor of date of the cheese and the
bitterness of the But but it was like a short
lasting bitterness of the of the rocket sauce
that I eat as a very good contrast. But it's,
you know, this subtle bitterness of the dairy
that you could also feel through the mozzarella.
The sweetness and, like, even, like, again, the
smokiness, like, permeating through everything.
Something that we haven't even talked about yet
is, like, this entire time they're giving us
house -made sourdough. which is just like a perfect
accompaniment for everything that we're eating.
I have the bread. Yeah, the bread was so good.
Almost every dish that we had, there was like
at least a little bit left in the bottom of the
plate that you just really wanted to sop up with
the crusty bread. It was a perfect accompaniment.
Yeah, super nice. Jose and I went for two bottles
of wine. We started with a white, and I read
the white was Domaine Pierre Boisson. It was
an interesting wine. We had it at the beginning
and we realized it worked better on a not so
cold temperature. Yeah, yeah. We had to regulate
the temperature throughout the course. It's losing.
Leave it outside for a bit. Put it in the ice
again. Okay, and then came for me for sure one
of the highlights. It had to be one of the highlights.
The red prawns. Yes. Incredible. Amazing stuff.
What you got is... didn't left there anything
at the place where almost all of them There is,
you know, almost all of them. Like the shell,
everything, you know? I would suck all the teeth,
every part, but you actually chew it and swallow
it. Yeah, I started, you know, breaking off the
head, sucking out, obviously the best part, you
know, the head juices are incredible, but these
are amazing. I'm never going to have prawns like
these again in my life. I have to make it worth
it. And so just eventually starting to eat the
head and the face and the tails and the legs.
And it's like... It's all great. It was totally
worth it. Because you know the texture of the
shell, instead of being chewy, it was actually
crunchy. The part of the shell surrounding the
head was I think the only quote -unquote inedible
part. It was a little too tough. But everything
else was just like glass and shattered right
away. just this subtle lick of and kiss of smoke
it just kept bringing you back for more absolutely
yeah for me it was exactly that it was just like
a thin line between being rare and cooked being
grilled and smoked and not grilled and not smoked
such a beautiful sweetness too right there that
it was just smoked but everything very subtle
and the produce was just incredible yeah definitely
menu highlight yeah one of those yeah top three
for sure Maybe top one. I don't know. Yeah. We
got some more stuff to talk about. What came
next? Sea urchin. So there was like a whole sea
urchin, half, and the shell you use as a plate.
And you had this cream of sea urchin with its
own, like the flesh of the sea urchin creamed
into the soup with the pieces of sea urchin.
And then there was like a little oil in the middle,
which was seaweed oil and fennel. and if you
have some seaweed oil oh yeah absolutely incredible
yeah like absolutely amazing you would get this
whole sea flavor but not overly intense just
like very not overly intense but i i one of the
more decadent parts of the meal it's like it
helped that you know the portion was so small
but it's just very very rich and unctuous and
umami and i i like you know pretty much this
could be said for every plate but just it was
gone within a matter of 30 seconds uh yeah yeah
three three spoons and that was it and then we
went for the sea cucumber the sea cucumber that
the one for me it was one of the highlights in
my case i loved it yeah i remember you mentioned
uh spell it yeah yeah yeah it was part of the
experience of that dish actually smelling it
first yeah yeah and when i smell it it brought
me to uh sundae grill you know with friends yeah
absolutely it really smelled like like grill
and it was on top of peas and the peas were in
its own juice kind of like like in a juice creep
sauce around the the peas and it also had like
a garlic flour if i'm not wrong yeah and super
nice you have the sea flavors again a flesh that
wasn't that hard you could easily cut And the
texture. It was like between crunchy and chewy
at the same time. Perfectly blending in with
the peas in the bottom of the plate. Really well
balanced. Amazing produce for sure. Ah, this
little squid. The cuttlefish. Cuttlefish with
this... With the Vizcaya sauce and the tirpeas?
The tirpeas, exactly. And Vizcaina sauce. Vizcaina,
oh. Yeah, which is one of the main Basque sauces.
Or if it was not a Vizcaina, it was like a Vizcainish
kind of thing. Like a Basque ketchup. I'm sure
they'll love to hear that. Vizcaina, the main
ingredient is a pimiento choricero, which is
kind of like a paprika they want to use for chorizos,
like a powdered pepper. And you could feel this
bitterness, this chorizo kind of like flavor
in the peas that the season is just starting.
And the squid, again, not cooked, not raw, not
rare, but just in between. But grilled, not good,
but just in between. Very delicate. an incredible
experience just like seeing the magic that can
be made from so few ingredients on having and
watching it get elevated uh to you know the heights
that chef was able to do then next we had the
cocochas yeah you love them right all right i'm
a sucker for cocochas uh but this one size which
is very little for for a cococha you usually
get them relatively larger And they were on top
of a cracker that was made with wild bear garlic.
Yeah. Which is like a leaf, garlic -ish leaf
that you will find wild grown around here. And
yeah, the best way to eat a cocoche is to get
the whole thing in one bite. These were very
little. That one was a texture contrast. You
know, like the jelly. Yeah, from the cococha
and the... And these were Rebosado style, right?
Yes, yes, yes. Coated like an egg. Pretty much
coated in an omelette, basically. And on top
of this cracker. So it was like a one bite thing.
You get this very gelatinous fish feeling of
the white fish of the cococha. Do you know the
fish? It was a hake. It was hake. It was hake,
so yeah, I... I only started eating Colcochas
only a few months ago when I moved to San Sebastian,
and it's one of the highlights of Basque cuisine
for me. If you like texture, that thick gelatinous,
really sticky mouthfeel, this is about as incredible
as you can get for that. That's pretty much one
of the distinctive features of Basque cuisine
in Slovenia. That stickiness. Yeah. What came
next? Ah, then we have the caviar. We ordered
an extra caviar. that was also like absolutely
decadent yeah that was a highlight it was made
with it had like an emulsion of uh uh iberian
pork fat on the base and then the caviar is like
smoked on top and it was it had a side of goat
milk butter that was definitely insane oh i love
i eat a lot of goat cheese it's like normal chips
cheese slices but the goat ones so I'm pretty
familiar with that strong flavor of goat dairy
and this was the high quality butter version
of it where with the Iberian ham and the caviar
it was just over the top and barrel for me this
was one of the highlights for sure yeah yeah
then we have the perre chicos kind of egg yolk
scrambled no yeah kind of sort of like i would
say the reference was scrambled eggs with mushrooms
but it wasn't a very high -end refined version
which was pretty much like an egg yolk emulsion
it is almost rare mushrooms on top yeah so you
you could you could feel it reminded me of eating
raw champignons but With all the notes that you
get from a wild moth. Yeah, which are more complex.
That to me, you know, I combined a bit of the
goat milk, butter with bread. And I put a bit
of those like scrambled eggs. And it was totally
like a breakfast bite. When we say scrambled
eggs, it was probably more like consistency of
like a hollandaise. Yeah, like a hollandaise.
Something similar. It was just like that. maybe
like the memory that it took me to. Absolutely,
yeah. You know, because of that like breakfast
kind of feeling. And this was like... It was
definitely more of like a Holland -esque texture.
This was like more of a homey comfort, like not
super complex in terms of technique, but like
a good textural contrast to break things up,
especially a lot of big seafood flavors and kind
of coming into, you know, break up the monotony,
but just change the flow of the course for a
little bit. the next course was like again mushrooms
we have the the they're called marzuelos in spanish
and english is march mushrooms because it's very
fitting considering we're coming to the end of
the mart end of march and truffles so you have
this broth thick broth where you would get like
not not like this overly powerful truffle but
like Very earthy, very deep, like, brown flavor.
Mid -level aromatic, not the most aromatic you
will find, but very delicious. Then this mushroom,
which were way more complex and aromatic than
the previous one, probably the tall truffles
also help on that. And the smoky notes of the
broth. Yeah. And I would... The broth was a habit.
I would drink... Like a glass of that broth.
I think I'd bathe in that broth. Listen, come
out of the bath smelling like that. Today's going
to be a good day. And a generous amount of truffle
shake. Amazing. Also one of the... There are
way too many highlights by this point. When the
caviar was taking over, a spoon is missing because
there were this pair of spoons that are used
to eat caviar. Who has it? There were six moons
and there are only five coming back. We never
found out. We never found out. We'll never know.
What do you have next? ULAs, maybe yields. Yeah,
it was actually my first time trying them. It's
my second time. I had them once in eBay. I mean,
you've had them millions of times, the fake version.
Yeah, because that's become like a... i don't
know like a traditional food for every basque
uh fridge you know like the imitation imitation
imitation of the of the angulas which which are
called gulas actually and they are it they are
usually served in the tamborada day you throw
them just with some garlic and parsley to the
pan with olive oil and that's it two minutes
stir frying man but these were definitely like
uh A cut above. Like texture, experience. Yeah,
you can also feel like the deep, meaty flavor
or feel. Yeah. But on the baby version. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. It was pretty nice to feel like the
really small structure of the spines. Like when
you eat like sardines or anchovies. Anchovies,
yep. You kind of feel the inside, but at a smaller
scale, you know? And that was definitely, for
me, a texture experience. Most of it. Also, we
all agree that this was the highest smokiness
point in the earth by that point. Everything
else was pretty light and subtle. This was like...
Here you have it. Get some smoke. I think it
also helped the way that it was served in the
bowl. They had a small cloche on it. So when
you open it, the smoke immediately builds out
and hits you in the face. It was like one of
the more, if not the most intense smoky flavors
throughout the entire dinner. And then we got
them to the main courses. The first one was the
fish, which was a grilled sea bream in the style
of the Basque coast where you emulsify. the oil
with the cullitance of the fish and then bring
it back as a sauce and I've had this kind of
fish I mean on the past country episode we had
like at least three different versions of it
but this is for sure the best one I've ever had
I think this is better than the ones I've had
at El Cano which is the grilled fish place par
excellence and in this case I would say again
finesse, subtleness, everything was just lighter
than usual. These kind of grilled fishes are
topped up with a sour vinaigrette or something
that usually is... kind of punchy but in this
case it was just like right on the point of sour
yeah not punchy at all very just and that was
very very nice very nice you also felt like the
gelatin of the fish at the same time and how
was the eye eating experience oh yeah so you
know i i said this earlier when the abyss uh
stare when you stare at the abyss the abyss stares
back and then i decided to eat said abyss that
i was you know it was an experience comfort movie
no i felt like i was living my own movie but
it was again very like if we're talking about
sticky and gelatinous it was hard to get more
so than that you know worth the experience won't
be trying again anytime soon it helped that the
re like the rest of the fish was absolutely fantastic
you know i yeah guy i can't imagine i can't remember
a better fish dish that i've had in the last
few years i think it's a better grilled fish
i've ever had and the meat was just flaky and
just loose and just cooked almost not cooked.
You know, like super, super nice. And then we
had like this bridge between fish main course
and to meat main course, which was, they call
it chorizo tartar. That was one of the highlights
as well. That was surprisingly up there in terms
of everything. We had, you know, I think... Between
the desserts and like the add -ons, the angoulas
and the caviar, I think it was maybe like 16
courses or 16, 17 courses or something like that
on top of everything. And this was like by far
one of the standouts. And how would you describe
it? I mean, I know we're beating a dead horse
here, but smoky is like the first thing. But
just everything you like, all the flavor you
love about chorizo, so unctuous and fatty and
a little sweet. It's incredible. kind of like
a sandwich between two crackers and the crackers
were like talos yeah it was like a tallow yeah
to put it in a very simple way it's like like
a basque taco yeah like a basket tortilla yeah
corn tortilla and it probably it was something
adapted from mexican tortillas into century -old
basque cultures uh which is something traditional
here and you have this tortilla this tacos made
with this the past tortillas that are called
talos which is different from from a mexican
tortilla it's its own thing and you eat it with
chistorra which is like a like a grilled chorizo
and in this case you add something very similar
between these two crackers and the tartar in
the middle with the highest quality chorizo you're
good it's definitely super super nice you know
it's not often i eat raw pork but this is you
know really like i changed a lot of uh We don't
really eat raw pork at all in the U .S. If you
see tartare, it's steak tartare, and that's it.
And I think more people should be eating pork
tartare, provided it's safe and it's of the highest
quality, but incredible. Yeah, yeah. I'm not
even sure if this was rare. I was wondering the
same. I'm not sure. I feel this was at least
cured. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, at least. But I
don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I wondered
the same. I wondered exactly the same. We should
have asked the chef while we had the chance.
Maybe Tartaro only referred to the chopping.
To the chopping of the meat, yeah. But I don't
know. We'll have to ask. And then we had the
main course and one of the icons of Echavarri,
which is the chuleta, the chop. It's a bone and
sirloin, which is the magical thing about this,
it's rare but warm. But wait, wait, it was a
blonde? Galician, got a cow, 10 years old. Her
name was Marlin Monroe. And 36 days of dry aging.
Yeah. And it looked almost like a tomahawk, you
know? Yeah. It looked like that, yeah. Some more
long rib, bone, and a lot of incredible. Super
darkly charred though. Right in the middle. Only
salt. We went to a point we thought that the
salt was a ginomoto on top of that. I literally
cannot remember a better steak I've ever had.
I think by far it just blows everything else
out of the water. I agree, I agree. I would say
maybe it's my, yeah, it's probably my top steak
ever. One of the highlights for me for sure was
eating from the bone. Yeah. Yeah, like Basque
style. Basque proper style. I feel like Fred
Flintstones eating a dinosaur bone. It's just...
And then we enter the realm of the streets. First,
smoked sheep milk ice cream and beetroots. That's
the name. So you feel the smokiness and this...
It felt like a smoked cheese, but very subtle.
and then the beetroot i think it was rare for
sure right like a high quality raw yeah earthy
very earthy reduced or you also like this square
notes it was a perfect combination between like
the oily fatty rich mouth feel of the cream of
the of the dairy but at the same time like with
a refreshing feeling from the cold beetroot juice
and that combination like in every bite It was
amazing. The execution of the ice cream for me,
it was perfect. Hot crystals, it's creamy, stable,
super nice. You know that when it's one of the
best desserts you've ever had, and it's quite
literally only two or three ingredients. Two
elements. Two elements. You have just this beautiful,
incredibly simple smoked milk ice cream, and
raw beetroot juice. It's incredible. Just the
simplicity and the execution was phenomenal.
I remember from the first time I went to Chavarri,
they explained that they reduce the milk in the,
like in the, where they burn the, where they
make the brasas. The grills. The grills, yeah.
And they reduce it, they evaporate the water
until the fat percentage of the milk is like
high enough to make an ice cream. So it's like
a slow process. Yeah, I guess it's only that
melt with some kind of stabilizer. Yeah, and
that's it. Yeah, that's insane. We saw the ovens
in the kitchen. Those are the ovens where they
actually reduce the ice. Just reduce on a charcoal
grill. Yes, exactly. Yeah, that's amazing. That
is incredible. I remember also Kevin and Phil
talking about this dessert. It's my top one.
My top one, like, restaurant dessert ever. And
I mean, Kevin, for example, he's a chef at Noma,
and he has tried all kinds of things all over
the world. He says the same thing. You know,
it's crazy. And for me, what is impressive is
how do you come up with something like this?
Yeah, man. I don't know. Let's say you make an
ice cream and just put beetroot, broad beetroot
juice. You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It has to
be, like, a very strange way to get there, you
know? Like, a very specific way to get there.
It's like this and the Chuleter, like, these
are his flagships, what he's been doing for years,
because he knows they work. So he had to figure
this out early on, that this is just, like, an
incredible combination, and it's worked very,
very well for him. No, and I guess it's also
years of perfectioning, fine -tuning until it
gets there. I don't think it was like that at
the beginning. I think it's something that evolved.
across the years then we had the second dessert
which was the white chocolate and dark chocolate
souffle for me this I felt like watching cartoons
on television on a like childhood memories it
really felt like childhood sweets yeah to me
it was like a pretty amazing texture contrast
as well because the top of the of the of the
dessert was like very foamy like airy uh white
chocolate mousse or foam i would say and on on
the the bottom was a bit more like like a bit
thicker dense more dense you could feel the contrast
in your mouth and i think for classic souffle
standards for a french standard this would be
rare It would be too rare. Right? Like a French
would say, oh, you can't do that. Because you
would break it and it would fall apart and you
would have soles all over, like a liquid, and
then you could mix it. But that's the fun thing
about it. Also, the best part is the liquid part.
There's something to be said, like, whereas we
were talking about, like, the incredible balance
of the last dessert, the ice cream and the beetroot,
this was, like, for me, a real masterclass in,
like, desserts can be only sweet. I like, it
was almost verging on too sweet, but it's like,
there was enough contrast between like the bitterness
of the dark chocolate and the really like eggy
but intense sweetness of the outer souffle. It
was just like, primarily it's just sweet and
you don't get, there's like, there's only, I
wouldn't say as much nuance to the first dessert,
but no less delicious. Then we had two desserts
at the same time. The first one was a pear tartlet.
This was basically puff pastry with slices of
pear. And yeah, very classy, very crunchy. You
would get like pieces of puff pastry. Those are
nice puff pastry. And fine slices of pear. I
mean, like a classic. But particularly a highlight,
but like a very nice one for me. It was a great
way to finish up our meal. But we still have
one more dessert to talk about. The other one
was, for me, that was one of the highlights.
The cheese flan. Yeah. We were talking earlier
about Basque cheesecake. I've always described
Basque cheesecake in terms of formula as a cream
cheese flan, baked. Because in terms of formula,
it's pretty much that. But in this case, where
there was no kind of flour, which you will find
in Basque cheesecake. I love that it was warm.
I read that you mentioned that you like that
warm feeling of a cheesecake. So this was like
a warm cheese flan. and yeah it was like creamy
cheesy i mean it had everything and then and
nothing no no sauce no garnish no no it was just
that yeah it had it had like a caramel base but
it was very like very subtle all all the desserts
and our entire meal but i'd say especially the
desserts were just so very simple so few elements
like not a lot of garnish not a lot of like primping
and preening and tweezer work and it's like i
think that that's just like message that we can
say about the entire meal it's like everything
was done so simply well yeah i also have to say
that like the the environment the the space It
really felt like being at someone's home. Especially
because we had a private room for ourselves.
Yeah. But I mean, also when we went to the terrace
to have coffee at the end, it felt, you know,
like visiting someone's home and, you know. Yeah,
and the landscape and the surroundings, man.
You would see the cows on the mountain there.
And like, even as we're sitting down, we're at
this long wooden table, you know, like... Yes,
they're white tablecloths, but not, like, pristine
white that have been ironed, like, three times
a day. But, like, you know, the things that you'll
see at your grandma's house that she lays out
for you. You can almost see... I feel like you
almost see, like, scratches on the table. But
to see, like, books lining the shelves around
you, you really do feel like that someone's welcomed
you into your home. Yeah, like, that's something
I like very much, that it was not overly formal.
Right? Like, also the treatment of the service.
It was like being at someone's house at some
point. They would tell us, you don't do that.
Or turn your knife on the other way around. Or
who stole my spoon? That's it for this week's
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