Sketches of Spain

The smell of the cocido reminded them of the beginning of the pilgrimage at San Sebastian as there

they walked the modern courtyard at the Plaza de la Constitucion after the great Marmitako at
Akalarre.  If they had wanted to learn the true and authentic New Basque, then they had in the previous nights found what they were looking for.  Pedro Subijana had moved up through the ranks as a young chef in Madrid and Navarre, moving closer to his desired destination back home in San Sebastian where he would land as head chef at the great perched restaurant Akalarre.  It had been said

that he mostly wanted to innovate upon traditional Basque dishes and took "push the frontiers."  They had ordered the Marmitako, a traditional Spanish fish stew (what better dish to request when in the very lair of the greatest fisherman on the continent?), and could nearly smell, as they closed their eyes

and sniffed the broth, the very ocean.  Tuna that had been cut into small pieces; onion; cloves, bells, and white potatoes.  There had nothing that could have been more simple yet, with that softened dash of Spanish pimenton dulce, something had turned from raw ocean to elegant.  No doubt the fish stock of the stew had been bubbled just the night before, made of fish bones, onion, a leek was there, peppercorns and a pinch of thyme.  The children picked at the pieces of fish and pulled them out of the broad shallow bowl onto the surrounded plate and said that this part was the best.  The rest tasted like ocean water.  That was the trick that had earned Pedro Subijana, over his 30 years here, finally the third

Michelin star and that brought the beachgoers daily in hordes out from under the Spanish sun up the twisted cliffs to wait for the Marmitako.