Two different fourth courses were served to us, gnocchi and crab. The Buttery Idiazábal Cheese Gnocchi consists of mini mozzarellas with contrasting vegetables surrounded in a salted Iberian pork boullion. This cheese was a popular cheese from the region. Each glossy gnocchi was paired with a carefully chosen flower or herb. The bouillon was mild in order to focus on the distinct flavour of each herb. What an interesting course!

The crab was the best dish of our meal. Hidden under a thin rice cracker was crab and sea urchin with toasted saffron dressing. Every single element of this course was incredible, combining altogether to become one of the most brilliant dishes ever! The fresh flaky crab, the sweet creamy sea urchin, and the crispy rice cracker, offered a complete contrast in texture. Especially when rice cracker was soaked with the stimulating saffron sauce, it was really a dish from heaven. This course was also very light, left you with a desire of wanting more. We would definitely be happy to eat a full meal of just one mega size of this dish!

Our fifth course was an elegant piece of local king crab cooked in goat’s milk butter, resting on top of few black beans, sitting in a thick black bean puree. This king crab was from this region in Biscay Bay. The sauce was very light, just a bit buttery, fully preserving the remarkably intense natural seafood taste of the king crab. Absolutely speechless!

King crab / goat’s milk butter / black bean	Hake roasted over artichoke / Chios Mastiha resin

Our sixth course was roasted hake in Mastic resin. Unbelievable again, the fish was extremely fresh with delicate flavour. It was perfectly timed that its soft flesh just melted in our mouth. The puree of Jeruselum artichoke underneath was mild which did not distract the hake, yet provided a different texture. The resin was a thick transparent sap from tree in certain area of Greece. It had a strange bitterness and was interesting when mixed with hake, but unpleasant to be tasted alone.

The seventh course was the chef’s specialty -- a foie gras course. Grilled and poached roast duck foie gras with bomba rice and sea lettuce broth. We have been waiting impatiently for the foie gras king’s masterpiece. When the dish was presented to us, we almost dropped our eyeballs – a huge piece of liver, looked very raw. We comforted each other, saying that despite its look, the taste might be heavenly. So we took a deep breath and carefully put a small piece into our mouth. That small piece of liver made me almost throw up! Not only the liver looked so raw, it tasted even rawer! We could understand the chef’s effort of focusing on the natural and pure flavour of the ingredient, but both the idea and the taste of eating an almost raw liver disgusted me so much. This dish definitely taught me how much difference various methods of preparing the same ingredient can make…

Our eight course was roast Iberian pork with red curry paste garnished by plum salad leaves. With the help of bright red curry paste and green salad leaves, this dish looked very colourful. After our bad experience from the previous course, we were a bit dubious of the red curry paste. Fortunately, the red curry paste was quite mild and paired well with the tender, moist, and perfectly timed pork. It was such a simple dish, yet so delicious. The portion looked big, but you would not feel so because it was irresistible after the first bite.