Casa Gerardo

[Tonyfinch]

Just back from three weeks and fifteen restaurants in the Asturias in Northern Spain. Three of the restaurants had Michelin stars and according to the very helpful egulleter Eric Malson this long established roadhouse on a scraggy stretch of road west of Gijon is, despite having "only" one star, one of Spain's best.

Casa Gerardo has been in the same family for five generations. Current chef/owner is Pedro Moran but his son Marcos speaks some English and immediately came out of the kitchen to greet us, showed us to our table in the pleasant upstairs room which was buzzing with informally dressed families and couples, and offered to devise a lunch for us. A twelve course 3 and a half hour extravaganza followed:

Spanish Omelette Ice Cream with Onion Galette

Tomato and Asturian Cheese Soup with Toasted Almonds and Asparagus

Duck Foie with two Fruit Coulis and Pine Nuts

Mussels with a Parsley and Garlic Marinara

Red Mullet with a Dessicated Tomato Salsa

Sea Bass with Pineapple and Potato Cubes and Orange Sauce

Baked Lamb with Honey

Fabada Asturiana

Orange and Papaya with Mango Ice Cream

Chocolate Mousse with Almond, and Passion Fruit ice Cream

Arroz Con Leche

Cafe Creme with Juniper and Red Grapefruit.

All this was washed down by a half bottle of Cava, a half bottle of Albarinho Rias Baxas, a bottle of Artadi Rioja and two huge glasses of Lustau PX sherry with the desserts. Coffee and Cognac were complimentary

What a lunch! It took me two days to recover. These were by no means tiny tasting portions. In truth it was too much. Asturian Fabada (similar to Cassoulet) is filling enough on its own, let alone as the eighth course of a twelve course meal. Four desserts was probably two desserts too many. But overall it was a fabulous meal, steering a fine balance between traditional regional and modern progressive and some dishes (the amazingly concentrated Tomato soup with Toasted Almonds, the Spanish Omlette Ice Cream, the spankingly fresh fillet of Mullet with the dried salsa, the Arroz Con Leche-so intense-) truly had the wow how did they do that factor.

The cost of this feast with a generous tip for the excellent service-170 Euros, about £120 for two.

If you're anywhere near the region don't miss it.

Edited August 21, 2003 by Tonyfinch (log)

[Bux]

I'm sure a large glass of PX was merited by four desserts. Thanks for this reminder about the size of some tasting menus. Mrs. B. is absolutely putting her foot down about any plans I have to expect us to take two in a row without a 36 hour separation. It's clear I may have to restrict the cava or PX as well on some days.

Casa Gerardo, in Prendes, appears to be open for lunch only except for Friday and Saturday evenings, but I can't imagine going to bed at two in the morning on a full stomach anyway. Did you find that many or most restaurants did their biggest business in the afternoon?

Is Asturias the next, ... um, well it appears as if cocina nueva is becoming less centralized, but vserna has already said that. It makes picking an area to visit a bit more difficult decision and it means you can't come back from two or three trips as an expert. Worse yet, the tables to which I want to return, are becoming not only numerous, but scattered in Spain. As for a one star restaurant being one of Spain's best, it's been proposed by a few people here that Michelin seems to be holding back on the stars in Spain. Las Rejas in Las Pedroneras was a one star that compared favorably with two star restaurants in France for us. It may have been a little less elegant an installation, but I could not fault the ambience or service and the food was exceptional. It was also remotely located, perhaps far more so than Prendes. Spain is full of bleached northern European and American tourists looking for sun and a few art museums, but generally clueless and disinterested when it comes to the food. I find a smattering of isolated articles in glossy magazines, but even the food magazines tend to focus on the regional attractions with food taking second place. Maybe that's true of France as well. Hardcore gastronomes are perceived as a small market. It's probably an accurate perception.

[pedro]

In Asturias I only know Casa Marcial, where I was few weeks ago during a one-day excursion from Cantabria. I was very impressed by the quality and creativity of their dishes, showing a good balance of seasonal products, regional cuisine and technique. From what I've heard, there are quite interesting restaurants there, like Casa Gerardo and Casa Marcial.

Was this one of the fifteen restaurants you visited, Tony?

[Tonyfinch]

Pedro, yes it was. But despite the spectacular mountain setting I was far less impressed. When we realised that none of the young servers spoke a SINGLE WORD of English (didn't they study it as a second language at school? at least enough to know a few basic menu words?) we relied on the English translation menu to order.

Big mistake as too late we realised that this menu bore little relation to the up to date Spanish one.Items were different, missing etc. A dish of suckling pig with "truffled rice", for example, came minus the truffled rice. A starter with "black pudding" came without black pudding. When I finally looked at the Spanish menu-no mention of truffled rice and black pudding

Partly my fault, you could argue, but if they're going to give you an English menu in the first place............

Service was also strangely rushed. Our starter plates were cleared away and maincourses bought to the table in literally seconds, before our bottle of red wine had arrived.

I tried to discuss some of those issues but there was no communication and everything I tried was met with looks of blank incomprehension, so I gave up.

I'm sure you could have a good meal here. Some of our food was OK. But some was way misconceived-an amuse of watermelon soup with fish. Watermelon and FISH? I don't think so.

IMO this place cannot hold a candle to Casa Gerardo, but you'd obviously get more out of it if you spoke more Spanish, or went with someone who does.

[Bux]

Tony, I think you've hit another reason why Spain hasn't really become the new France. This may come as a shock to many who regard the French as chauvinists who would sooner be poked in the eye than speak English, but it's harder to find English speaking people in Spain than in France in general and in tourist places.

The one thing Spanish and French menus share is that I've never seen one where the food sounds anywhere nearly as appealing when it's translated into English, even when it's accurately done. In Sevilla, our charming server, who I am sure was not Spanish and insisted on speaking to us in English, handed me a dessert menu in English. I took one look and it all sounded so boring that I said I'd skip dessert. My wife asked her to bring a Spanish menu. I could hardly decide which dessert to pick first. I have also seen the enormous English menus in restaurants that bear little resemblance to what's on the Spanish menus. It's either an old menu, or it's the one size fits all seasons. They're out of a third of the stuff and a third of the seasonal menu isn't represented at all.

You can't accuse the Spanish of going out of their way to compromise to cater to the tourist, expect when they go way out of their way to pander to them for a quick euro and when you've been there, you're happy to deal with the other and hope it doesn't change and that you learn to crack the restaurant language as you may have with French. At least that's my case, although Mrs. B's first language was Spanish, so I can be a bit more relaxed than most of us. I also fear that the sloppy translations may also be a product of many years of tourism and legions, particularly of anglos, who clearly communicated the fact that they didn't really like to eat or care what they were eating if it wasn't what they ate at home. The parts of Spain that interest me most and which I find most rewarding are very often those parts where one is least likely to hear English.

I'm glad you mentioned rushed service however. We've felt that in the past in Spain, but on our last trip to Madrid and Andalucia, it was particularly annoying. In two weeks there seemed to be only one or two meals that weren't rushed. One was a hopelessly understaffed place with two young and untrained waitresses. That was an almost painful reminder of the other extreme. Even in fine restaurants, courses arrived and waiters stood holding the dishes as the plates from our previous course were cleared.

[Tonyfinch]

Tony, I think you've hit another reason why Spain hasn't really become the new France. This may come as a shock to many who regard the French as chauvinists who would sooner be poked in the eye than speak English, but it's harder to find English speaking people in Spain than in France in general and in tourist places.

Bux, I wasn't looking for English speaking people. Just someone who could translate a few items of menuspeak. I mean you don't have to be able to hold a conversation on thermodynamics to be able to translate a few ingredients and some cooking processes from Spanish to English. I mean how hard can it be to learn a few basic words, or to ensure that the menu is accurately translated? It IS a Michelin starred restaurant after all, they must expect some foriegn foodies to pitch up there.

[Bux]

When I said English speaking, I meant any and all people and any and all English. The rationale works the other way. How hard is it to learn a few words of Spanish, just enough to be sure you don't starve in Spain. In fact, France is closer, so I'd expect then to be prepared to explain things in French first. If you were Japanese would you be as adamant about having someone speak just a few words to ensure a basic translation. That may be an unfair comparison as English is a more universal language, and in fact, a Japanese friend of mine once complained that he had a hard time in Spain because no one spoke English. He travels all over the world depending oh his English, which is remarkable. If you've heard him speak English, you might wonder how he gets by in NY or London.

I don't think Asturia really sees a lot of foreign tourists and I suspect, are happy enough without it. It's our problem. Spain is one of the least multilingual countries although that's not really true when you realize that in large parts of Spain, Castillian is becoming a second language. In Barcelona my wife asked for a tourist menu for me and I got one in Spanish. She got one in the native Catalan. I can, at times, do better with a Catalan menu than a Spanish one. Be thankful they're still willing to take your order in Castillian in the Pais Vasco.

It's also unfair for either of us to compare the situation to London or New York, which are both melting pots, with Gijon where Gallegos (correct word?) and Madrileños are probably considered foreigners. But you're right in warning prospective gastronomes that the hinterlands are hard to crack.

[pedro]

Pedro, yes it was. But despite the spectacular mountain setting I was far less impressed. When we realised that none of the young servers spoke a SINGLE WORD of English (didn't they study it as a second language at school? at least enough to know a few basic menu words?) we relied on the English translation menu to order.

Big mistake as too late we realised that this menu bore little relation to the up to date Spanish one.Items were different, missing etc. A dish of suckling pig with "truffled rice", for example, came minus the truffled rice. A starter with "black pudding" came without black pudding. When I finally looked at the Spanish menu-no mention of truffled rice and black pudding

Partly my fault, you could argue, but if they're going to give you an English menu in the first place............

Service was also strangely rushed. Our starter plates were cleared away and maincourses bought to the table in literally seconds, before our bottle of red wine had arrived.

I tried to discuss some of those issues but there was no communication and everything I tried was met with looks of blank incomprehension, so I gave up.

I'm sure you could have a good meal here. Some of our food was OK. But some was way misconceived-an amuse of watermelon soup with fish. Watermelon and FISH? I don't think so.

IMO this place cannot hold a candle to Casa Gerardo, but you'd obviously get more out of it if you spoke more Spanish, or went with someone who does.

Tony, sorry to hear that. I've read that one of the biggest issues Casa Marcial has, is precisely the service. Being where it is, in that mountain setting, seems that it's not easy for them to maintain a regular staff, specially on winter. Albeit, I haven't experienced there the rushed service you mention.

Regarding the translation, I would say that is better not having a translated menu at all than having such a mess, not only because of the translation, but specially for the missing items.

And yes, one should expect that restaurants of that level are able to make foreigner customers feel comfortable and be able to order in a world wide spoken language as english. Although I would say that probably I would have similar problems in UK or the US if I ask for a menu in spanish or french instead of english.

Besides Casa Gerardo, which other restaurants did you enjoy in your visit?.

[Tonyfinch]

Bux, no I can manage in basic Spanish menuspeak quite well but when you go to Michelin restaurant, where the chef is more likely to be using non-standard ingredients, and, more importantly, non standard techniques and preparations, then standard menuspeak is less helpful and his individual creations may need some explaining. There was no-one there who had a clue. And I find that surprising. And I say its poor service. I mean haven't all these young boy and girl servers being studying any English at school? Its the world's lingua franca whether we like it or not. They didn't know the words like egg, beef , pork, tuna, let alone be able to inform me how they may be prepared. Casa Gerardo and El Corral Del Indianu (the third Michelin star we visited) had someone who could make themselves understood (although the latter also had a completely irrelevant and outdated translation. Wierd

And yes. If I ran a Michelin restaurant and I knew i was going to get a substantial number of customers where Japanese was going to be a language they could communicate in then I would have one or two people on my staff trained up in some basic Japanese restaurant speak.

Pedro, I'll report on some other restaurants soon.

[Bux]

When I first started visiting France, I did not find a lot of English speaking staff, even in the few one star restaurants I visited. My experience is that Spaniards today are generally less likely to speak English than Frenchmen, especially in remote areas. I think it's also true that the Spanish have not tried to develop international gastronomic tourism as have the French or at least that they are far behind the French in that regard. An inability to speak English to guests is definitely going to hamper that kind of tourism. Your post is a useful warning to many would be tourists of potential pitfalls. I'm not disputing that. I'm only saying that there are rewards for those who persevere and that the Spanish don't owe anyone else the right to know what's going on if they don't speak the language. I've said that about the French for forty years and Pedro would have similar problems in UK or the US if he asked for a menu in Spanish orFrench instead of English.

[Tonyfinch]

I'm only saying that there are rewards for those who persevere and that the Spanish don't owe anyone else the right to know what's going on if they don't speak the language.

I agree that they don't "owe" anybody anything. I saw it as more as a reflection on their education system. Why aren't they being taught some basic English? It has got to be to the advantage of people in today's world to have at least a smattering of another languge. What are they being taught at school as another language? Ancient Asturian? Nearly all the French who have been to school in the last forty years have some basic knowledge of English. Its just that they've been too grumpy about the hegemony of English as the world's lingua franca to reveal it, although I sense that's changing now.

And if the Asturian youngsters DO have some English (which I suspect they do) but lack the confidence to allow it to be known, then that is a matter of management and staff training of IMPARTING that confidence to your staff, of encouraging them and giving them incentives to develop.

Anyway. We chose our fifteen restaurants based on recommendations. Most were based on basic regional ingredients and actually were very similar in what they had to offer-good fish and seafood, roasted and grilled meats-mostly veal and pork- fabadas and potes, cheese and cider. I have to say it struck me once again how conservative and relentlessly monocultural the regional Spanish are in their eating, in restaurants at least. They eat the same thing from the same narrow range of options again and again. I'm not saying its not good and sometimes excellent. But it's very samey. Even at Casa Gerardo, with lots more creative dishes on offer, loads of them came in to eat nothing but Fabada. I mean you can get Fabada in every single restaurant in the region bar none . I know it was good Fabada because I had some myself, but when you go to a restaurant with a Michelin star and awards for gastronomy and creative cuisine covering the walls why not try something other than Fabada for once?

It has to be said that for everyday eating the Spanish are still way behind the French in every way. Ordinary restaurants and food shops-charcuteries, supermarkets etc.do not compare for variety, quality, presentation, service etc. I just didn't feel the same passion for quality that you get in France. I know you have those very high end restaurants in Catalonia and San Sebastian etc and Barcelona is an exceptional foodie town, but there seems much more of a disconnect between high level and everyday eating than you get in France, as if in Spain the two might as well be in different countries.

Edited August 23, 2003 by Tonyfinch (log)

[Bux]

I have to say it struck me once again how conservative and relentlessly monocultural the regional Spanish are in their eating, in restaurants at least. They eat the same thing from the same narrow range of options again and again. I'm not saying its not good and sometimes excellent. But it's very samey.

No argument and it's far more apparent if one spends some time in a single region, especially some reasons. Much of Spain is very conservative. I don't know Asturias, but I hear it's quite conservative. In Galicia, in a restaurant recommended to us as one with a creative chef, we found mostly traditional foods. We ordered a carpaccio of raw fish, which I would have considered contemporary in NY or Paris, but certainly not creative in either city. Its appearance here in a provincial city was striking. The waiter said it was on the menu for a decade, but it's only been in the last year that locals have come to ordering it. In another restaurant we saw sea urchin on a "creative" menu. The waiter said it's commonly eaten in Asturias, but in Galicia, we don't eat it.

As for the disconnect between high and low in France and Spain, I think there's a different kind of disconnect, but France is losing the interest for artisanal quality food stuffs on a daily basis and McDonald's seem to have a greater toehold in the French provinces than in rural Spain. At the top, no one is more appreciative of quality than those willing to pay the price for bellotta quality jabugo jamon. It's nevertheless getting more and more difficult to generalize about either country.

[Tonyfinch]

I think there's a different kind of disconnect, but France is losing the interest for artisanal quality food stuffs on a daily basis and McDonald's seem to have a greater toehold in the French provinces than in rural Spain.

Definitely agree there. Didn't see a Macdonald's or any of the big fast food chains anywhere in the Asturias. They maybe there around Gijon or Oviedo but I never saw them. Also very few big supermarkets. And ham was one product where the quality was absolutely outstanding. In fact I thought that and the other pork products were every bit as good as in France, if not better.

[Bux]

Better (in Spain). Were it not for andouille, I'd be tempted to say the French can't hold a candle to the Spaniards when it comes to cured meat.

[Gerry Dawes]

"I'm glad you mentioned rushed service however. We've felt that in the past in Spain, but on our last trip to Madrid and Andalucia, it was particularly annoying. In two weeks there seemed to be only one or two meals that weren't rushed."

I am surprised to hear this. This is something I have rarely experienced in Spain, especially since Spanish restaurants don't usually turn tables (something that would drive a New York restaurateur crazy). I certainly don't remember experiencing it in finer restaurants.

[Gerry Dawes]

I have to say it struck me once again how conservative and relentlessly monocultural the regional Spanish are in their eating, in restaurants at least. They eat the same thing from the same narrow range of options again and again. I'm not saying its not good and sometimes excellent. But it's very samey.

Because of this, it can be immensely rewarding to travel across Spain eating the great regional restaurants, which I have been doing for more than three decades. This place has great suckling pig, roast lechazo, phenomenal turbot, superb seafood, or any number of perfectly executed regional dishes. If you end up spending a month in the Ribera del Duero, you may get tired of lamb, cheese, etc. but there are restaurants like one I know in Roa, that have all kinds of regional dishes--cangrejos del rio, rabbit and other dishes - - from the kitchen of a great home-style cook and down in Tudela del Duero, there is one of my favorite regional restaurants, which always has excellent dishes drawn from a range of local products. I don't get tired of eating in Sanlucar de Barrameda, either. The wonderful Bigote is one of the best restaurants in Spain and both Bigote and Balbino are two of the greatest tapas bars. Then there are a half a dozen restaurants alongside Bigote on Bajo de Guia beach. I can name a dozen dishes in these restaurants that are worthy of a detour on their own. In Barcelona, I hear about all the upscale, modern cuisine restaurants, but little about the Catalan regional places. Though I greatly appreciate the cooking of Ferran, Santi Santamaria, Carles Gaig, Xavier Pellicer and others, don't offer me the choice between eating at one of their places and digging into a plate of calcots with romesco in Tarragona or eating navajas a la plancha followed by arros negre with allioli at Can Majo. I could go on across Spain.

[vserna]

Why aren't they being taught some basic English? It has got to be to the advantage of people in today's world to have at least a smattering of another languge. What are they being taught at school as another language? Ancient Asturian?

And if the Asturian youngsters DO have some English (which I suspect they do) but lack the confidence to allow it to be known, then that is a matter of management and staff training of IMPARTING that confidence to your staff, of encouraging them and giving them incentives to develop.

I have to say it struck me once again how conservative and relentlessly monocultural the regional Spanish are in their eating, in restaurants at least. They eat the same thing from the same narrow range of options again and again. I'm not saying its not good and sometimes excellent. But it's very samey. Even at Casa Gerardo, with lots  more creative dishes on offer, loads of them came in to eat nothing but Fabada. I mean you can get Fabada in every single restaurant in the region bar none . I know it was good Fabada because I had some myself, but when you go to a restaurant with a Michelin star and awards for gastronomy and creative cuisine covering the walls why not try something other than Fabada for once?

It has to be said that for everyday eating the Spanish are still way behind the French in every way. Ordinary restaurants and food shops-charcuteries, supermarkets etc.do not compare for variety, quality, presentation, service etc. I just didn't feel the same passion for quality that you get in France.

I see lots of misconceptions based on a few experiences in a very specific region... Turning isolated cases into a nationwide verdict is an exercise that's most often condemned to fail.

English is as frequently (or infrequently - take your pick) spoken in Spain as it is in France or Italy. Practically all Spaniards under the age of 35 have had English as their first foreign language in school; older ones usually had French. And some old fogies even manage to speak and write a passable English. By the way: a huge number of Americans and northern Europeans are fluent in Spanish these days, so it's a two-way street and usually there's one way or another of understanding each other. But trying to get the local staff to explain "non-standard techniques" in English seems to me far-fetched. Go to Paris and have them explain blanquette de veau, or go to Tokyo and try to get the distinction between toro and maguro...

Confusing the fabada - Spain's greatest dish, to some - at Casa Gerardo with any other fabada in Asturias is like confusing steaks in some schmuck Manhattan steakhouse with steaks at Peter Luger. Casa Gerardo makes the best fabada in the world, and quality variations in this dish can be extremely marked ones. The comparison with PL is not coincidental, but particularly apt, I think: regional cooking has some ingrained invariability which is part of its attractiveness, just like steaks. But at Casa Gerardo you have a whole array of other, very 'un-samey' things, which is not the case in Brooklyn... This is not being 'conservative and relentlessly monocultural'; it's called having one of the richest traditions in regional cuisine anywhere in the world and keeping it alive by going out and eating fabada, or paella, or escudella. And of course all this about why they go out to eat those "boring" things is balderdash. Why do Americans go out to eat blackened catfish, New England clam chowder or cioppino? Why don't they all cook those things at home so that all restaurants can become creative 'foodie' joints?

Balderdash, too, this "for everyday eating the Spanish are still way behind the French in every way". There isn't a single covered market in France like the Boquería; the best wine shop in Paris, Lavinia, is a branch of a Spanish company that earlier opened in Madrid and Barcelona; some of the greatest pastry and chocolate shops in the world are to be found in out-of-the-way Spanish towns; the quality of $25-and-under restaurants in Spain is, in 2003, three cuts above the same type of places in France.

By the way, to me the best restaurant in Asturias today is the certainly non-monocultural Taberna Viavélez-Puerto. I would expect you ate there, didn't you? And that you didn't think it boring, conservative and 'samey'.

[Bux]

"I'm glad you mentioned rushed service however. We've felt that in the past in Spain, but on our last trip to Madrid and Andalucia, it was particularly annoying. In two weeks there seemed to be only one or two meals that weren't rushed."

I am surprised to hear this.  This is something I have rarely experienced in Spain, especially since Spanish restaurants don't usually turn tables (something that would drive a New York restaurateur crazy).  I certainly don't remember experiencing it in finer restaurants.

It surprised us as to experience it as well. We don't confuse Spain with Mexico or Puerto Rico, but we generally think of it as a more relaxed culture that northern Europe and one that enjoys the pleasures of the table along with France and Italy. "Rushed" is a relative term of course, but it sometimes struck us that in a starred restaurant where they were clearly not going to turn our table, the service struck us as too efficient at times.

[Rogelio]

Last weekend we visited Casa Gerardo, Asturias' top restaurant since 1882, to prove that it's better than ever. Well, I wasn't there a century ago, but...

We went there with Ramón Coalla, good friend and local wine importer, who got us a reservation at the kitchen table and a 21 dishes tasting menu that blew our minds and left me so exhausted that I almost asked to stop bringing dishes. :ph43r:

View from the table of the recently renewed kitchen.

The setting, atmosphere and amount of dishes was so overwhelming that I failed to picture a lot of dishes, but this is what we had:

- Apple cocktail (An apple study)

In fact an asturian apple eau de vie with tonic and apple juice. Delicious and surprising starting cocktail.

- Crunchy asturian cheese roll

It was what it says, a piece of asturian cheese into two cracker biscuits.

- Compango croquette

Delicious is not enough to describe this bite, an squared shaped croquette made with the sausages (blood sausage, chorizo, bacon) used in the cooking of a fabada (asturian bean stew)

- Seared Albacore tuna heart (sea offal)

This was more interesting and challenging than delicious, great texture and strong flavour for this unusual piece.

- Anchovy with dressing

This was a superb and very sweet anchovy, it wasn't clear if it was Cantabric or Mediterranean, dressed with concentrated coffee shots, almonds and citric olive oil.

Sardine with yeast

Delicious marinated sardine over milk yeasts, it was strange over the paper but it really worked in the mouth.

Oyster in pine nut oil

Slightly marinated Girardeu oyster in escabeche with pine nut oil. Very good but it would have been better if the product were at its season peak

- Razor clam with almond oil

Another take of the mollusk and dried fruits oil, this time much better than the former. The razor was heated just enough to enhance its flavors and the almond oil added a great contrast building a great dish.

- The liver in the sea

Another take on the sea offal, this time it was red mullet liver, the dish was so powerful that they recommend to have it in two bites. This dish was stunning offally deep, seafoodlly tasty, and again, delicious.

Roasted baby prawns (quisquillas), dried bread, roses and pistachios

This is the first attempt to use quisquillas, a seafood that I love, in high end gastronomy,. This dish contained almost raw baby prawns that we were instructed to cover with the roasted heads and eat along with the bread and pistachios paste. again the dried fruits and seafood worked extremely well. And ended sucking the few remaining roasted heads. Superb.

Albacore tuna wit tomato

Marcos Moran spent a couple of weeks earlier this year in Japan and this is one of the dishes that comes from his Asiatic experiences. Using the top part of the tuna belly he marinates it with salt and serves slightly seared as if it was a tataki with a green tomato (coming from Kooper Crest) that was sweet and tasting almost like an apple. An amazing dish that we were told to be served for the first time. A winner.

Spider crab, head and legs

This was the juice of the heads of five spider crabs concentrated and cooked (60ºC) for several hours and served over the crab leg's meat. Powerful and delicious. We were told that the flavor was different each season and also depended on the gender of the crabs, being the females sweeter. This one was salty and left us with a nice iodized aftertaste

- Lobster, cabbage and hazelnuts (Asturian mountain)

I failed to picture this one which was good but IMHO not overwhelming.

- Egg with eucalyptus and squid broth (Asturian Mountain)

This was surprising, an slow cooked egg served with a broth smelling like eucaliptus, but tasting like squid. Really nice contrast.

- Sea bream in its juice old apple and oyster leaf (Natural flavours)

Slow cooked (60º) sea bream with it's cooking juice and served with a side dish of air dried and just peeled apples with oyster leaf (another Kooper Crest creation). A nice fish dish that keep the essences and subtle flavors of the bream.

- Asparagus and argan (resin, orchard, terroir)

Perfectly cooked asparagus with mushrooms and argan oil. Great product (even if out of the season) in an original combination.

- Beef cheeks and bone marrow

Good flavors and superbly cooked but not as great as the other dishes.

- Fabada de Prendes

I also failed to picture this one, an asturian signature dish, but served with fress beans and a light but keeping all the essences broth. So good that even if I was full I had two dishes of this. Superb.

- Apple with perfume "alquitara del obispo" (Apple study)

Also failed to picture this one which was a pre dessert consisting in apple with covered with an air of this apple eau de vie made but Alquitara del obispo brand.

- Torrefacción

By this stage of the meal I could not think in pictures, eating or anything. All I remember is that this was coffee based dessert.

- Burned rice with milk cream

Another signature asturian classic dish as it's best, with just collected milk and burned like a catalan cream. Yummy.

Marcos Morán after the service.

After all a four hour of superb product driven meal enhanced by great technique but always behind the product. This meal was among my two or three best meals that I have had so far this year. An absolutely must in the area.