If you have time for one serious meal in the region of Basque Spain then you need to eat at Restaurant Arzak (if you could even get a table-reservations are made up to two years in advance on the day of). The mythical chef, Juan Mari Arzak, 62, is larger than life as is the restaurant. The restaurant which has its own spice library.
One of the signature dishes, pumpkin-and-squid ravioli, arrives hidden beneath a murky black gelee that dissolves under a stream of warm broth poured tableside to reveal the Day-Glo-orange discs below. The visual stunt is riveting, but what lingers is the sweet, earthy, intensity of pumpkin-and-squid broth. Another conceptual joke is a lamb chop veiled in tissue - a layer of cafe con leche, which has been baked and will gradually melt into the pan juices. Along with the punch line, savor this planet's loveliest, rosiest piece of meat. Oysters and potato confit in a gauzy, crinkly rice cellophane, blood sausage and apples, trapped between slices of an extravagantly colorful tropical fruit called pitahaya - both have the same delicious dichotomy: soulful Basque food in futuristic gift wrap.
This is a salad art from the restaurant.
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