Spain 2024

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Overview

Serena had a business trip in Malaga, so I met her in San Sebastian to eat.

San Sebastian is the food capital of the world, boasting the highest number of michelin stars per capita.

I like food, and we've been wanting to go for a long time.

The main hurdle is that it's kind of out of the way. But seeing as how Serena has a Spain business trip, we might as well capitalize on that and visit San Sebastian.

It also coincides with my birthday, so this is a nice birthday trip as well.

Itinerary is Oct 10 through Oct 16.

JFK to San Sebastian

Iberia sucks.

That was my thought after watching a lot of YouTube videos.

And I was anxious because the itinerary is JFK -> MAD -> BIL. With a 1-hour connection. Within the 1 hour, I needed to:

1. Get out of the plane
2. Go through customs
3. Go to another terminal
4. Go through security in the other terminal
5. Check out the lounge
6. Find my gate

Given Iberia's reputation, there are a lot of things that can go wrong here.

Fortunately, everything went very smoothly. The food wasn't terrible. I was able to make my transfer while knocking out all 6 things in an hour.

Things that sucked:

• No lounge if you're not business class (no credit card perks in T8 JFK)
• Everyone coughing everywhere, kind of disgusting as I can feel droplets landing on my arm
• When you recline, your knees jam up against the seat in front of you
• My recline is broken. Every few hours, it would slowly un-recline and I have to recline again.

Landed in BIL around 8:15AM local time, caught 8:45AM bus to San Sebastian, and arrived to hotel at around 10:15 AM.

San Sebastian

Dia Uno: I kicked an old man out of a queue

Surprisingly, there was a hotel room available and the nice man at the counter gave us wonderful service / recommendations. After a quick shower, we headed out and our first stop IS TO EAT BASQUE CHEESECAKE.

We went to the restaurant WHERE BASQUE CHEESECAKE WAS INVENTED (La Viña) and consumed:

• Basque cheesecake. It is really creamy and smooth. The cheese is a silky texture. Not too heavy, yet decadent. The burnt bits weren't bitter but gave it a smoky flavor. This is in contrast with imitations where the cheesecake might be too dense, or the crust is too burnt, overpowering the cheesecake.
• Cafe latte. I'm jetlagged.
• Tortilla. Back in 2021 when I went to Barcelona, the tortillas were OK. Was tough, dense, and just like a not-sweet tomago. Here, it's heaven. My enthusiasm was curbed. The potatos inside had a very satisfying texture, and the egg was mildly runny. The whole effect is a very creamy, yet savory tortilla that had a really nice egg yolk flavor to it.

All for only $13.15 USD.

Here's a photo of my enjoying the cheesecake.

5/5. Easy. Great first meal in Basque.

We finished at 11:28AM.

Then we went next door to La Cepa (all these Pintxos restaurants were next to each other in their old town, which is a relatively small town center). We had:

• Ham + mayo + tomato pintxos. The parma ham and the mayo's flavor mixed really well.
• Chorizo + pimiento (pepper) skewer. It was freshly fried and the spicy oil they used on it was excellent.
• A large bowl of fried pimientos. Really, really good. Hard for fried peppers in olive oil not to be good.

All for only $14.24 USD.

He said this was a 'small portion' of fried peppers. OK.

For the value, again, 5/5.

We finished at 11:44AM.

Then we went to a place called Bar Sport. The story behind this is last time we went to Spain, and we ordered a large thing of fois gras which I rarely ever get the chance to eat, Serena ate 90% of the portion. I have been giving her shit since then so a fois gros revenge was in order. We got:

• 3 portions of fois la plancha (grilled fois gros) pinxtos
• Red wine

Fois gros is normally expensive, but in total this was only $21.80 USD.

The fois gras is really savory and extremely heavy. Normally, I can eat very fatty foods and I don't really feel full. But on my last bite of fois, I experienced for the first time in my life going from "mmm, this is good, I'm quite hungry and can eat a lot more" to my stomach telling my brain "you are extremely full, please stop eating" between bites.

In retrospect though, it was extremely delicious. Cooked perfectly. Remarkably generous portions to turn my hunger into a food coma in literally, not figuratively, a few bites. 5/5.

We finished at 12:23PM.

Then we went to Casa Urola. We had:

• Cappuccino. I am still jetlagged.
• Mushroom mini-pie / quiche. It was really savory and complex. You'd mistake it for an amuse bouche at a fine-dining restaurant.
• Scallop with some garlic/white sauce reduction, topped with seaweed. Again, by itself, you'd mistake it for a fine-dining course.
• A large thing of water.

I was really full from the fois. But the scallop was really delicious. Normally, when I'm extremely full, food no longer tastes that good. This is one of the few, if not the only time in my life where I'm in slight pain due to fullness but really want to keep eating because the dish is so damn good.

Also, the plating at Casa Urola is superb. But I'd say if you just judge by the taste and uniquness, eating pintxos around San Sebastian old town is like cherry-picking the most interesting fine-dining bites you're interested in, and paying only a few Euros per pinxtos.

In Casa Urola's case, it was $18.08 USD. 5/5.

We finished at 12:48PM.

In other words, within about 90 minutes, we ate everything above across 4 restaurants.

As I'm still jetlagged, we went to the hotel room to rest. We finally worked up the courage to go eat outside at around 6PM.

We went to a place close to our hotel, la bodega donostiarra gros. We had:

• Beef tripe. Texture is really great. The sauce is not too savory but it was just right considering how savory everything else we had in the day was.
• Tuna in olive oil. Kind of dry.
• "Blood pudding" -- this actually was really good. Instead of tasting like regular blood pudding which is very salty and fatty a lot of times, this tasted more exactly like soondae. It was more chewy and lighter, while still being peppery and meaty enough to taste really delicious.
• Tuna with anchovies. Tuna still kind of dry.
• More water.

A small dinner, before our dinner.

All this was for $20.87 USD. I'm not too impressed by the tuna as the canned tuna I eat at home is less dry, but since everything else is pretty good, 3.5/5.

Right after, we made our way to Ganbara, whose claim to fame probably came from Anthony Bourdain talking about it at some point. We got very lucky to be able to get in here.

The internet recommends waiting in line 30 minutes before opening. We only went 15 minutes before because we had the pre-dinner, and we didn't know any better. When we got in the semi-long queue, the owner came out and split the line in 2.

The reasoning's because if the line's too long, the other shops are blocked by the line, so while the first 1/3rd of the line can stand in front of the restaurant, the rest formed a line across the road. Fair enough.

But this one old guy came and started lining up in the front 1/3rd of the line, effectively cutting in front of everyone else waiting in line. There were some discussions to tell the guy but eventually I went in. The reason's because these restaurants are small, so even 1 customer can be the difference of whether I get to eat here or not.

Sir, the end of the line's over there.

And off he went, to the correct end of the line.

The owner came out and started counting who could go in the restaurant and who couldn't. SERENA AND I WERE LITERALLY THE LAST ONES.

This reminds me of the famous poem about speaking up.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for my queue—and I told him to get to the back of the line.

We ate:

1. Razor clams. These tasted really fresh and juicy. They also topped it with olive oil which further enhanced the flavors.
2. Their famed mushroom dish, which has a raw egg yolk and a bunch of expensive mushrooms on the plate with olive oil. It was amazing. I've never had so much intense mushroom flavors in my mouth in a single meal.
3. Spider crab pastry. The pastry is really creamy and very soft, almost like whipped cream. The textural juxtapose with the flaky crust, like you would in a flaky-crust egg tart, is really well done.
4. A few txokoli (light white wine).
5. Monkfish skewer, with alternating shrimp and sauces. The shrimp was nice and bouncy, with a light flavor, which is a really nice flavor juxtapose with the monkfish which is more soft/creamy with a heavier flavor.
6. Fried milk pastry with ice cream. The milk inside the fried pastry is nice and fluffy and warm, like a loving hug. This contrasts well with the vanilla ice cream. The fried milk is actually a bit sweet, and the vanilla ice cream is more neutral-sweet. Thus, the ice cream acts as a nice way to temper both the sweetness and the temperature.
7. Giant shrimp. The head juice is really creamy and delicious. And luckily from our previous experience at Lisbon's Ramiro's, we know how to dissect a giant shrimp without its delicious juice leaking all over the place. No real talent needed to make this one, but the ingredient is so amazing it just stands on its own. It's also 40 euro for 1 shrimp.

Fresh, delicious razor clams.

A variety of mushrooms I can't name, topped with an egg yolk to make it creamier. In the background is the spider crab pastry.

Very large shrimp, using my head size as a reference.

Fried milk dessert, with txokoli light drink to balance out the seafood and mushrooms.

In total, this was $137.51 USD. Easy 5/5. Spectacular, unique flavors.

After shoving 6 meals down my stomach, I realized I was on a bulk. So we walked around and saw a pasteleria and had a suspiros (meringue) which had a powdered / sugary crust, but a savory, creamy egg yolk paste, similar to ovos moles. Only $2.19 USD.

After dessert 1 was done, we stumbled upon a gelataria and ate a small cup of gelato: 1 scoop nocciola (they called it Ferrero Rocher) and 1 scoop pistaccio. Only $3.29 USD, which is cheaper/more generous than my favorite gelato place in the whole world, Giolitti.

About 21K steps.

Dia Los Dos: Wow

Arzak

We slept in until around noon. Walked to Arzak, a local 3-star michelin restaurant. They've had, and held the stars since 1989. This means they've had 3-michelin stars since I've been alive.

We ate their from 1:15PM to around 4PM. It is too much for me to type out all the food so I'll just send pictures:

Though there were choices for some of them, we just each got the other option so we can try everything.

They put 2 flavors of butter in the shape of a walnut. The orange side is more spicy, with paprika, etc. The white side is more savory, done with anchovies! Both sides were great but the white side was more unique.

Fried garlic soup. Very light and crispy on the outside. When you bite into it, ultra-umame garlic soup explodes in your mouth. It's like truffle explosion, but garlic instead and a really nice crispy shell instead of a boring ravioli.

Fish of the day in oma forest. The fish biscut's head and tail had some paprika sprinkled on one end, and something else on the other. The fish was nicely done as it's served basically sashimi style. Very oily and raw, it's soft meat contrasts with the biscuit nicely. And it being a more fatty-flavored fish, its taste constrasted with the tart sauce on the biscuit very well also.

Energetic shrimp. The shrimp again was sashimi style, so it was delicious on its own. But the sauce was this, and I quote from my notes, "lemongrassy, buttery, crabby." Basically very lightly seafood-flavored, yet heavy and had complex acidic fragrants. One of my faves.

Iberico ham with its secrets. The secret is kimchi.

Fish of the day. I liked this because the fish was served sashimi style, which made the acidity contrast with it a lot better than if it was cooked. Probably my favorite.

They brought out something for me to put my fanny pack, like it was an Hermes or something.

Hake kokotxas print. The fish print is salt. The meat is fish cheeks. Muy bien.

Lobster and yeast.

Saline fried egg. Also one of my faves. The poached egg is also lightly fried (left). The biscuit on the right has some sardines and capers. You break the egg, and you're supposed to break the biscuit and mix it all together and eat it. Yum AF.

Fish according to the sea, option 1: some fish. Option 2 was better.

Fish according to the sea, option 2: some other fish. With a honey-like glaze and grapefruit. The grapefruit's small bite and slight tartness balanced out the glaze and the fish extremely well.

Marine lamb. The lamb was good, and the sauce was interesting. The spounges were more crunchy and less spoungy. The seaweed was really good, very bouncy and contrasted the lamb sauce quite well.

Pigeon with orange delights. The gaminess of the pigeon was just right and very buttery. Balanced well with the slight tartness of the sauce.

Acidic moment. Very punchy and they had my favorite ingredients: lemongrass, yuzu, and coriander (cilantro).

Apple in bloom with its cider and saffron.

First off menu dessert. Some ice cream with a caramel base. It was good. Though not as crazy and unique as some of the foods above.

Chocolate and molasses bread. The brand was nice and crunchy. The chocolate was nice and sweet.

Off menu dessert 2. This is some chocolatey thing. The brown sauce on top is the membrane of the cocoa plant. The ice cream on the side is spicy mango with orange.

Amuse bouche. 2 of them were too sweet for me. One of them that looks like a honeycomb is dark chocolate. The nut looking one had coconut and cream inside, which ws really good. And the green one in the middle exploded with passionfruit juice as soon as you bite inside.

614 euros total for 2 people. Includes 3 glasses of alcohol. 5/5, this place is called the "cathedral of food" for good reason, it turns out (I feared that it would be just hype).

After, we walked back to the hotel for a little bit and then headed back out to the town.

After a long walk on the ocean front, we went back to the old town for pintxos.

Pintxos

We went back to Casa Urola, and had:

Some cod, in some tomato sauce. It was quite good. Not pictured as we didn't snap a pic.

• 

  Steak with potato foam. Cooked rare, which is the correct way to do it. I liked the potato foam because it's a really interesting take on steak + mashed potatos. Really creamy and smooth, and balanced out the more heavy steak well. There was also a sweet pepper to contrast the fatness from the steak.

  

  Pigeon with mini-fries. The pigeon is gamey, but in a really buttery sort of way. I'm surprised pigeons can be so fatty and taste so good. Maybe I'll pick some up on the streets when I get back.

  

  Fois gras and white beans. Fois gras is yummy as always, but the white beans added to it even more. Yesterday's fois was with bread which was really filling. But today's beans seem to help balance out the heavy feeling from the fois. I could just be less jetlagged.

  

  Porcini mushroom with white sauce and an egg yolk. It was savory, fatty, and the bounciness + fragrant of the mushroom really goes well together.

Topped with Txokoli (white wine) and a red wine.

All this for $35.49 USD. It was a bit crowded, so the vibe was "meh" -- we managed to score a seat with the back facing the street though so it was less stuffy. Still, food is 5/5.

Then we went to a place called the Kapadokia Bar. We had:

Orzo with iberico ham, in a carbonara sauce.

Prawn ravioli, finished in a pesto sauce.

An oxtail taco with lime, various herbs, and avocado sauce.

For $24.65 USD. Really nicely done. I could see all of the above being in a tasting menu. Fairly spacious standing room. 5/5.

Then went back to La Viña and picked up 1 tortilla and 2 portions (4 slices) of basque cheesecake. It was extremely crowded so did not want to eat there at all. We found a church and sat on one of the benches outside to eat it to-go. The tortilla was not as good as yesterday, but the cheesecake was amazing.

All this for only $17.53 USD. 4.5/5.

To burn off some calories, we walked along the coast for a bit before heading back to the hotel.

Ended up around 16K steps.

Dia De La Tres: Roller coaster

Casa Julian

We had an appointment at Casa Julian in Tolosa at 1:30PM. So we traveled there by bus. Took about an hour or so.

This is supposed to be the place where Michelin chefs go to eat. So we had high expectations.

At the entrance, we were greeted with preserved meats. Complete with temp and humidity control.

This preserved beef was yum. Thinly sliced, translucent, very fatty and meaty and savory. By far the best thing I had this day. The flavor was so intense that Serena described it as: "One bite, one steak."

These asparagus is unlike anything I've ever eaten. 2nd favorite thing of the day. When you cut in it, it's nice and soft like butter. It's very juicy and creamy, yet there's almost a meaty taste to it. Also came with a vinegar sauce + cream sauce. Both were very good to complement the asparagus, but the asparagus by itself is already 5/5 stars.

This honey pepper was also good. When it came to the table, it had this very in-your-face (but in a good way) sweet pepper + garlic fragrance. When you do eat the pepper, it is very juicy. And the sweetness of it helps balance out the overly salty meat.

Here's their steak. Basically one of the main things they're known for. It was too lean and the overuse of sea salt made it 1) too salty, and 2) hurt my teeth because it was like biting on rocks. I am disappoint.

For dessert we had a cheesecake and some pastries. Pastries were OK, but the cheesecake really shines. Sweet, but also a little salty from the cheese. Very creamy and soft, and melts in your mouth. Very good.

Overall, we spent 203 euro, includes:

1) 2 glass red wines (6 euros each) 2) 1 pour of laphroig on the ice (7 euros only)

Also.

My rating is 3.5/5. The sides were stellar, but I feel the need to deduct it 1.5 points because their main course and what they're known for was really subpar. Many in their Google reviews complain about their service and their price--though I thought their service was great and their price was reasonable.

I wouldn't go out of my way to go again, but if it was some place convenient, I'd go again and only order sides and cheap booze.

Amusement

We then took a bus back to San Sebastian, where there's an amusement park. You get to the amusement park via fuicular and the view at the top is spectacular.

You get to enjoy the view even further by taking a mini roller coaster in the park, where it'll loop you around 360 and show you the surrounding waters/ships, while having some steep drops.

6X speed.

We walked around and then enjoyed the view a bit more. Afterwards, there was another ride that lets you enjoy the views. This was a slower, more chill, water ride.

I don't know why there's a Peter Pan with a nude woman next to him in the ride.

Going up the funicular was 9 euros (4.5 pp), roller coaster was 6 euros (3pp), and the water ride was 4.6 euros (2.3 pp).

Meh.

Went back to town. Tried to eat at various pintxos bars but ran into the typical Spain situation which is food took forever to come out, and the bartenders were rude.

There is one place that always does it right though, despite being packed all the time, and that's La Viña. Despite the crowds, ordering was easy and we scored this meal as one of our final meals:

Our haul for the night. Very affordable.

All this 16-17 euros. 5/5 per usual.

We ate other things this night but was not memorable, so will not talk about it.

Madrid

Dia De Los La Quatro: The Oldest Restaurant In The World

As there's no direct flights back to JFK from San Sebastian, we wanted to start heading towards Madrid to take MAD->JFK a couple days from now. Took a 5 hour train from San Sebastian back to Madrid.

Train was late by around 25 minutes, and we arrived at 2:15PM instead of 1:50PM.

Went to, and checked in to hotel at 3PM, and headed to Botin, arrived at 3:20PM.

Botin is the oldest restaurant in the world, started in 1725. From wikipedia:

Apart from using the original recipes, the restaurant has also kept the flame burning in the oven continuously, never to be extinguished.

This means the flame to roast the suckling pig I'm about to show you has been burning for 299 years as of this writing! Here's the 299-year flame:

299-year (and counting) flame.

When we went in, you go down some stairs to a cavern where all the dining tables are. That's probably how it was 300 years ago, no modern decorations. Just caves.

While waiting for food, I went down to the cellar. These bottles are 100s of years old. You can see the rust on them. Kind of spooky; like traveling back in time or discovering the remains of the titanic or something.

Many blood sausage are too salty/gamey. Not this one. Nice and crispy on the outside. Soft on the inside, with a nice and strong nutmeg and cumin fragrance. Best blood sausage I've ever had, easily.

These artichokes were served with the blood sausage and a really nice way to balance the sausages out, as well as the heavy meal coming our way.

Like yesterday, we had white asparagus with "mayo" (it says mayo on the menu by I think it is beschemel). Served alongside the suckling pig.

Botin's famous for their suckling pig. Heavy and rich fat flavors, with a crispy skin like potato chips. The meat is moist and juicy. Really excellent in every way you'd expect from a perfectly cooked roast suckling.

We ordered dessert, and one of the desserts came with 3 candles for my birthday (Serena put a note down that it was my birthday). This dessert was the cheesecake, and it was really good. Cheese was nice and runny, slightly sweeter than yesterday's cheesecake but still got that savory-cheesy taste to it.

The other 2 desserts were the Botin cake and the rice pudding. The Botin cake's got meringue, and is a sweet, moist spongecake. The rice pudding is less of a pudding, but more of a sweet-rice soup. Both were done quite well, though my favorite is still the runny cheesecake.

I honestly think the desserts in Spain surpasses Italian desserts. Probably because I really like their take on cheesecakes here, which are more runny/melted in nature, as opposed to the dense style you see a lot in the US.

My rating is 4.5/5. The food was perfect, but I deduct a full point because Serena told me that 10 years ago it used to be 1) a lot less crowded, and 2) a lot cheaper. And even from YouTube videos 2 years ago, their prices are now 25%-33% higher. Seems kind of cunty to raise prices so drastically in such a short amount of time, but I definitely understand the reasoning behind it. They earn most of the points back though because they remembered my birthday, and they didn't charge us for the cheesecake.

After Botin, we just walked around a lot. From 5PM to around 9PM. We just did some window shopping, and then did some small grocery shopping.

This hotel's got a kettle, so we got some high-protein yogurt (can't abandon my gains!) and instant ramen. We also got some fresh-squeezed orange juice as is tradition if you visit Portugal or Spain:

Fresh OJ. Fresh diabetes.

Ended this day with 20K steps.

Cinco De Dia: One of the happiest birthdays. And #4 restaurant in the world.

Pre-party

As of writing, Diverxo is the 4th best restaurant in the world. We had an appointment there at 1PM.

But first, we went to a place called El Riojano, where they had a delicious cream, chocolate pastry, and they're known for their melted hot chocolate. Instead of using cocoa powder, they melt nuggets of chocolate. A YouTube video I watched suggested to dip ladyfingers into the hot chocolate. I just drank it.

For $7.33, it's a really nice, quick snack. 5/5.

After, we went to a place to get nun cookies at Monasterio del Corpus Christi. The process of getting it is fairly funny. They give you cookies through a lazy susan, you give them cash.

They were out of most of the cookies; we got the lemon flavor. It was OK. But 0.5 kg of cookies for 13 euros was a bit expensive. 2/5. Fun for the gimmick; probably just go and watch other people buy it. Oh wait, you can do it for free with the video below:

Nun cookies. Cookies a bit too hard for my taste.

DiverXO

It had kind of a light rain, and so we started walking over to Diverxo. Once we arrived, it was spectacular. Here's the whole experience in pictures and videos:

Entryway decor. Theme is flying pigs and a lot of statues of the chef.

Coat check. Another thing of the chef. Michelin man with chef's signature mohawk, with a "three" sign for 3 michelin stars.

Really interesting decor going in. The butterfly + books theme extends throughout, into the restroom.

As soon as I sat down, I was welcomed with a 'Happy Birthday' sign that Serena prepared for me. Wow!

A note on the courses. Most courses have either an elaborate drawing, or a postcard describing the ingredients. The only ones that do not are surprise courses.

Course 1 was various seafood served in sashimi style. For more details, zoom in.

2nd course was like a cockles ceviche. With thai flavorings, so creamy coconut-y, spicy sauce. This balances out nicely with the ceviche. The best surprise? Corn nuts inside. Gave a great crunchy textural juxtapose + saltiness to balance.

Course 3, part 1. Some thai foamy soup inside kohlrabi. Spoon on right was some fish cheek one-biter.

3rd course, part 2. Coconuty, thai flavor with flowers.

4th course. Crab marinated Chinese style. And then a mixture of ingredients in crab shell. Zhenjiang jelly, kimchi ice cream, fermented crab, marinated ginger, crab gel with coral powder. On top are strawberries with flower for bites. Many things going on. The crab + strawberry was great. The kimchi ice cream was too overpowering.

5th course. Some fish with a spicy honey sauce. The parmesan-based chili sauce on the bottom was really great, especially when dipped with the rice paper.

Course 6. Peas with farmed caviar (sturgeon, so real). In 2 sauces: pastachio + jalapeno, and macadamia nut/coconut/horseradish. The crunchiness/lightness of the peas contrasted perfectly with the creamy, iberian-ham fat enhanced, savory taste of the caviar. The macadmia sauce was nice and creamy and paired well with this dish. The Pistachio one was too powerful for this dish, especially since we already have iberian-ham fat glazed caviar to do the savory heavy lifting.

Course 7. Sea cucumber innards with a sauce. Tuna tartare hidden at the bottom of the dish. With a bite of potato. The sauce is too overpowering for the delicate tuna tartare, which kind of wastes the tartare. Pairs good with the potato though and then sea cucumber innards though. They should have plated the tartare separately.

Course 8. Crisply skin from suckling pig with pesto, sriracha, caramel sheet, basil, cheese, rocket, cold cuts inside. They recommended 2 bites, but after the 1st bite everything inside kind of gets squeezed out. This is a one-biter, strictly. The cheese's flavor was overpowering everything else, so you really just taste salty cheese with a nice crispy crunch of the skin. The cheese kind of ruined the dish and wasted all the other ingredients as I could not taste anything other than the cheese.

Course 9. Barnacles with 2 sauces. They used a curry thai sauce, again. Tastes good but this flavor has already been in almost half the courses at this point. The taco on the side with flowers and fried-something + egg yolk was delicious. The egg yolk explodes in your mouth, and the creaminess of it contrasts with the crunchiness of the taco and the delicate flowers nicely.

Course 10. Chicken thigh with baby eels + sauce. Plus a chicken feet one-biter. The one-biter is delicious. Crispy chip + soft/tender chicken feet. Very nice. The baby eels had a nice bounciness to it, and the ravioli was great too. The chicken thigh was a little dry. The sauce is just a standard hot + sour sauce, with collagen.

11th DiverXO course. Bone marrow one-biter. And hot+sour soup in a horn. The latter was OK, like any Chinese soup. The one-biter is one of my favorite things though. Crispy on the outside, but when you bite into it, bone marrow explodes in your mouth. Similar to black truffle explosion in Alinea, except bone marrow instead of truffle, and a really delicate + crispy shell instead of a boring ravioli.

12th course, part 1. Lobster with various sauces and beet. At 12 o'clock is lobster gel with vindalo curry. Lobster cooked perfectly. Tomato sauce had a really nice balance. And the beet gave good textural contrast. Drinking the juice from the lobster head was also a great finisher. If you notice in the picture, there's a Dali elephant not in the video.

Course 12, part 2. Lobster claw meat on a pani puri (thin shell), with salmorejo (tomato soup) inside. Served on top of a very tall elephant. Similar to the bone marrow one-biter, this one explodes soup in your mouth. Though the soup overpowers the delicate lobster on the top, so you can't taste the lobster, but only feel its texture.

13th course. Final savory course. A bunch of caramelized stuff as sauce with veggies, topped with truffle. 12 o'clock is pizza dough that's been steam, fried, and toasted. To be used to mop up sauce. The sauce was savory to the point where you don't really taste the vegetables or anything else. The pizza's texture is really good, and the sauce they had on it by itself was better than the overdone sauce they had in the pan.

Course 14. Probably one of my faves, again. Sour greek yogurt (white cream) with cured egg yolk (both underneath the cream and the dots on the left), and chocolate contrasts (the sponge looking thing on the right). The chocolate is not too sweet, and while it looks like a sponge, is actually airy and crunchy. Yet, when you touch it with your tongue, it melts. The mild sweetness is contrasted with the mildly salty, cheesy, sour yogurt + cured egg yolk. And the sauce helps enhance the whole dish a little bit too.

Course 15. Black garlic (little shells on top) with blackcurrant/liquorice (purple sphere), coconut ash yuzu ice cream. With coconut cream. This is one of the most insanely delicious desserts. The black garlic is airy, yet dissolves in your mouth like space food does. You can see the purple sphere in the photo has some juice that has exploded out. Tastes like liquorice/blackcurrent bubble gum. A nice, sweet, herby flavor. Contrasted with the light coconut cream and the delicate yuzu ice cream. Insane.

16th and final course (petit four). Various mochis and desserts. Of note is the 2nd hat filmed which is a brand new dessert they're serving for the very service. It is a sweet corn + vanilla core, braded with corn nuts and tangerine cream and Thai chili. With crispy popcorn. All the petit fours were really excellent. None of them were boring, and all of them had a nice balance of "sweet-but-not-too-sweet" and the textures were really nice on each.

During petit four, they brought out a huge (non-edible) cake for us to take a photo. Though it is a novelty cake, it's got a candle that they lit so I can make a birthday wish. Underneath the top layer actually, they were hiding a real, secret cake. He took the top cake off to reveal the actual final, hidden course.

The hidden cake is a lip-shaped raspberry cake. With flower decorations. Even though a 'surprise,' this didn't feel like an afterthought and was actually extremely delicious. The bottom third is a mild, yet harder/crunchy chocolate inside the cake. Even their surprise cake is complex in flavor, and not just sweet for the sake of being sweet.

Drinks + 2 person meal = $54.69 + $981.81 = $1036.5 total.

This is expensive, even for 3-star michelin standards. But how's it fare? I think it's a 5/5 despite my many critical complaints about their mains. While not perfect, the food's generally good and the service is stellar.

To compare against Arzak: I'd say Arzak is less "wild" in terms of presentation so it is less of an "experience." Taste-wise, Arzak's main are much better executed, and much more well balanced. DiverXO's main are hit or miss. When they miss, the dish just tastes of a salty flavor, indicative that they did too much. It still tastes "not bad"--but when the meal's more than $500 per-person, "not bad" isn't what we're going for here. And DiverXO's failed mains remind me of whenever I try to do "too much"--spend an extra 40 minutes on a dish or an extra 3 weeks on a feature, only for it to come out disappointing. That said, Arzak's desserts were really mediocre in the same way, and DiverXO's desserts is probably the best that's ever done it.

While service at Arzak was great, the service at DiverXO was still significantly better.

Though neither ever noticed I was left handed and ever put the utencils on the correct side, like Benu did.

I'd say DiverXO is definitely worth going for the experience and the dessert, but Arzak's mains are better in general.

If I had infinite money, I'd visit Arzak frequently, but probably go to DiverXO once for the worthwhile experience.

We saw Mark Wien's video on DiverXO a while back and thought it would be extremely filling. While I was satisfied, I was not hunched-over full. So we went back to town for some tapas.

Post-party

If you do your research on Spanish tapas in Madrid on YouTube, Casa Amadeo shows up a lot. It's generally this 90+ year old dude that loves the food he puts out and they're famous for their snails.

Snails in a savory sauce, tripe (not pictured), and fresh tortilla.

The snails were amazing. Nice and bouncy, which went well with the savory, yet buttery sauce. The tortilla was fresh-made and was runny in the middle. Chased with yummy sweet peppers. They also gave us some soft bread, which is nice as a lot of times they give you hard bread which is harder to use to mop up sauces.

I also had a vermouth for like 2.5 euros. It was mildly sweet and was great to sip between heavy bites.

All for $35.22, 5/5.

On the way out, Serena wanted to take a photo of their famous snail in their broth. The waitress was really kind and asked Serena for her phone. Helped her take a photo from behind the counter and a video of her mixing the snails in the broth. All unsolicited:

Yummy snails in their broth.

Still not quite full, we went to San Miguel market. Serena said she had a mojito there once that was very intense; I tried to get it too, but they ran out. Instead, we got these fish-based tapas at only 1-1.5 euro per pop. In total, all of the below's less than 15 euros.

Salmon, honey + fish, cod liver, and other tapas.

All of it was really nice, as the fish toppings were generally nice, soft, savory. Whereas the bread underneath it was crispy which had a great contrast. The main highlights for me was the honey and the cod liver though. They say San Miguel is very expensive and a tourist trap, but this one is actually quite fairly priced and the quality was amazing. All for $12.58. 5/5.

All in all, this was one of my happiest birthdays, if not the happiest. I feel very fortunate to have Serena who helped planned not only this day of great eating, but this entire trip. Best of all is being able to share these unique and unforgettable memories with her together while we're still young.

Conclusion: Iberia Sucks

Breakfast

The next day, we woke up at around 11AM and grabbed lunch at a Chinese place before we left for the airport.

Last year, before we left Italy, we also ate Chinese food as our last meal. Perhaps getting tired of local foods and just wanting to eat Chinese food at the end is becoming a tradition for us. Anyway, we went to a place called Mama Dumplings:

Noodles with shrimp and dumpling soup.

We also had steamed dumplings.

The shrimp was nice and soft, and everything else was OK. The steamed dumplings, while freshly wrapped, was over-seasoned and the wrap was too sticky and thick.

Not that expensive at all considering we ordered 4 things, at $30.02. Tastewise, 3/5.

Taxi to airport was 33 euros, which isn't bad considering it was a 40 minute ride.

Iberia

Iberia changed our seats last minute, separating me and Serena. Serena went from a window seat to an aisle seat, and I went from aisle to a middle seat (in a 2-4-2 configuration, we had a "2", now I'm a middle in a "4").

At the counter, they basically told us to fuck off.

Luckily, when we boarded, the nice lady that was supposed to sit next to me swapped with Serena (which is an easy enough trade as she just went from one aisle to another aisle, that's one row behind).

During the flight:

• The person in front of me reclined their seat way back, which is fine.
• So I reclined my seat way back, only for a Spanish couple behind me to tell me to recline it forward. I nicely was reclining it forward but they kept hurrying me up to recline it forward, so I stopped and gave them some words. And then reclined my seat all the way back.
• Meanwhile the dude on my right side kept eating and had his crumbs keep falling on my lap and his blanket spilling over into my space, and took his shoes off and had them behind my feet instead of in his own space.

Attacked from 3 out of the 4 sides, I now understand why some people just snap.

Spain is OK

Northern Spain is less crowded and a bit more peaceful. Big cities are crowded and not as fun, since food can take forever. Though even in San Sebastian, in crowded pinxtos, places, it is frustrating to waste an hour waiting for 3 small plates. In general, the mantra in Europe is more hedonistic and the mentality is "go slow, enjoy life."

As a result, there's a lot of smoking in the streets which I don't like. And there is a heavy drinking culture, which is also something I've grown out of.

Is waiting too long worth the great food? In my opinion, no. I think the strategy in Spain is just to eat earlier, and as soon as the crowds come, just go to places with fewer people.

Kind of like how you'd strategize going on all rides in an amusement park. Go early and hit the most popular rides when not many are around, and then line up for the less popular rides once the crowd rolls in.

That said, it is kind of annoying to deal with some tapas places though. I don't mind their "burly" service which is more brusque and has no "please" and "thank yous." I do mind waiting a long time for a plate of food and incompetence. Which does happen if you go to more popular tapas places.

There are of course, reverse outliers. Like in Casa Amadeo the service is so amazing that I was actually shocked.

Though I don't think one should plan a trip based on the off-chance that you'll run into amazing service, but instead should base it on expected experiences.

So, it's nice to go a few times over the course of a lifetime to experience the food, but not a really good place to frequent compared to most other European countries.

Lessons learned

• Simple is better, and less is more. DiverXO adding too much to some of their mains degraded their quality, not improved it. They could have done a lot better if they just separated out the very savory sauces as another dish, or deleted it, period. Likewise, any feature or business venture I go into, I should seek to pursue the minimum thing and have it go to market. It's tempting to thing "adding" will make a product better, even if slightly. But in most cases, it just makes it worse--if not harder to maintain, it makes UI more confusing and increases friction.
• Bad experiences in economy classes is a good motivator for me to get more money.
  • I really should take a picture of me, being pissed off in economy, frame it, and the hang it in front of my workstation as a daily motivator.
• Spain is OK. The logistics can be kind of annoying and not tourist friendly, but if you strategize it properly, you can have a great trip. Not worth going frequently though. And not my favorite European country.

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