OSA offers a single tasting menu, with long (20-22 dishes) and short (14-15 dishes)versions in a small 2-story house. Chefs Jorge Muñoz and Sara Peral, who both previously worked at Mugaritz, are the drivers of this seasonal menu with French and Japanese influences. The two dining rooms on the main floor can accommodate up to 20 guests at 5 tables. The large open kitchen is also on this floor and shines with much stainless steel and marble. There is a terrace upstairs and a small room with a fireplace that looks into the large glassed wine cellar and cabinet of pickling/preserving products. We started our long tasting up there with a tour of the wine cellar and our first 4 charcuterie snacks with a glass of Spanish cava. They had a fire going and it was fun to explore all the projects waiting to made into dishes for our plates. In the dining room the large tables were covered with white cloths and adorned with vases of orchid blooms. Different music was downstairs than upstairs but the lighting was brighter – possibly due to overhead spots and light walls. The meal was a long one but the service was exceptional and the pacing great, however some of the courses need to be scaled down and we asked that to happen about 2/3 into the tasting. The food and menu are creative and tasty making it an experience I’d recommend for any adventurous eaters.
Set-up
Food
As we settled in with our Cava they brought a dish of large olives and moistened them with first press olive oil. They were lovely.
Viande et charcuterie was 4 snacks in the order to be eaten: Neck of rooster(lower left), Scarlet beef(lower right), white bisbe (upper right) and boudin noir (upper left). The Scarlet beef was beef tongue brined in wine. Bisbe white was pork face seasoned with black pepper, and may have been a favorite, but all were good. They were presented with some housemade bread sticks that were crisp and a good cleanser in between.
Down to the main dining room the tasting continued with a terrine of Avignon veal with greens from the south of Spain and grilled sourdough bread. The greens growing location was noted as that tends to give them more saltiness which accents the terrine. Some parsley was incorporated into the terrine which gave it the green color. The terrine had lovely tender chunks of meat in it and a good blend of seasonings.
Brisket cooked over oak had a crust of spices and came with housemade pickle, French mustard and milk bread. Juniper was in the spice crust of the very tender meat. It was fun to combine different ingredients to taste and all were quite good.
Foie gras was beside a lemon butter and grilled sourdough bread. The lemon butter was made with Armagnac, spices and lemon pith that had been boiled with simple syrup before emulsifying. It made it slightly sweet and an excellent companion for the rich foie gras. The crisp toast added some texture to this wonderful course.
Red mullet amazake was barely cooked fish in a delicate, crisped exterior. Alongside was an amazake (fermented rice and water) cream. It was fabulous. The sauce was light and perfect with the crispy bite of fish.
Scallop and bacon was a good-sized scallop cut in half and surrounded by a clarified broth of bacon. The scallop was from Normandy which tends to be a sweeter variety and it was wonderful in the deeply flavored broth.
Carrot and koji was a palate cleanser of sorts. The lightly boiled carrots were covered with a sauce of Koji (rice) vinegar and carrot broth. The young tender carrots still had lots of texture and flavor which were enhanced by the saucing.
Peppers were first chocolate, named for their color rather than tasting like chocolate. They were first roasted and the juices used to make an emulsion to coat them with. They were served with untoasted bread that was great too.
The second pepper was green verdina with beans. The peppers were from Italy and combined with fresh Verdina beans to make a ‘stew’. The sauce was creamy and the beans cooked to a perfect tenderness without any breakage. This was very good.
Endive with a sauce of garum and tenkasu. Tenkasu is a “deep-fried flour batter” and this had been used to coat mackerel. It was the droppings of crunch that were added to the sauce for a wonderful effect. Rich and creamy on the lovely grilled endive, it also added a crunch.
Anolini (small round ravioli) stuffed with butifarra (Catalan pork sausage) was next. These were dense in a broth made from pork bones and meat. The broth was almost buttery in its consistency and both the pasta and broth had a tremendous depth of flavor.
Anago (wild saltwater eel) was coated with tsume, a thick bittersweet Japanese sauce. The eel was from Portugal and cured for 4 days before grilling to a crunchy skin. An eel before cooking was brought out to explain how they made the tender meat with such crunchy skin. It was super rich.
Black Grouper with ajilimójili had been aged a few days. The emulsion on the side was typical of Basque cooking made with oil and pepper. Good.
Guinea fowl from Monegros was served in several forms. First was supreme with juice, or breast meat that was sous vide at 60º for one hour and then the juices used to make a sauce. This was yummy but at this point I had to ask to cut the portions slightly so I could finish the meal.
Second was buckwheat soba (noodles) with kahesi in a broth made from roasted bones. They brought an extra container of broth if you wanted more or the noodles absorbed what was in the bowl too quickly. They were topped with grated red egg yolks. This was another deeply flavored broth which the noodles and yolks added a thickness to. Wonderful.
Last was the wing ballotine. It was stuffed tightly and seasoned with ginger, pepper and salt. Lightly spicy the skin also had lovely crispness. Good flavor and a tongue tingler. They brought a moist cloth after this one for you to wipe off.
Wood pigeons fly through Spain on their trip from Scandinavia to Morocco. This was the breast meat that was roasted which was sauced and served. The rest of the pigeon was turned into a broth mixed with some traditional Spanish bean. Both parts were quite good.
Chestnut ice cream was under a flour mochi-like wrap. For me the wrap was doughy and the ice cream was slighty grainy but with good flavor. It was to be eaten by hand which was fairly messy. You got another wet cloth after this one that was not a success.
Dairy was in two forms, first being a combination of 50% fresh milk and 50% cream were mixed with sake kasu and surrounded by frantoio olive oil from the south of Spain. It was smooth, cool and milk and a bit like a dish of crème fraiche with a slight tart component. The olive oil was the main flavor.
The second dairy was cotton and caramel which was a genoise like cake (cotton) and a layer of cream with a pool of caramel. The cake was light and moist and soaked up the caramel easily for an overall strong flavor of caramel. A good one.
Petits Fours included Madeleines coated with white chocolate and lime. They almost tasted minty. Coconut and coffee was a truffle with good flavor and fun coloring that matched the serving tray and the marble in the kitchen and bathroom. A great end to a fine meal.
