Fabulous Basque cuisine in Barcelona

We have never tried Basque food before even though we were briefly in Basque country visiting Bilbao.  We were surprised to stumble upon a Basque restaurant our first night in Barcelona.  This was the Irati Taverna Basca in a small street just a few minutes' walk from the Ramblas.  

It was a place known for its tapas but it had been a long day and we really wanted to sit down for dinner even though it was really too early for the locals - the place was empty, even too early for tapas! We overruled our own practice of avoiding empty restaurants and sat down. We ordered the grilled duck magret with bittersweet summer fruit and the surprising crispy suckling pig with pisto.

To our pleasant surprise, both dishes were superbly done, in fact, the suckling pig tasted better than any we have ever tasted anywhere and we have tasted plenty of these. The suckling pig meat was super tender and the skin super thin and crispy. The duck was very tasty although slightly too rare for me; the accompanying bittersweet summer fruit was delicious as well and "bittersweet" was the perfect description for it. 

The suckling pig was a rare find and totally unexpected - which made it even more memorable. I wished we had gone back a second night but our schedule the rest of our stay did not allow for it.  Next time...

Amuse bouche - Txistorra - Basque pork sausages

Roast pork suckling pig - melt in your mouth delicious!

Duck Magret with bittersweet summer fruit

Tapas section starting up as we were leaving

Different ambiances for different menus - Lieve Belgisch Restaurant

We stumbled upon an interesting food experience when we were in Amsterdam.  We were curious when we saw the opulent table settings on several tables outside this restaurant - Lieve Belgisch Restaurant on Herengracht, a short block from our BnB.  Gold cutlery and crystal goblets for streetside eating?  We stopped by and was further intrigued when the young Maitre D' tried to explain the menu to us.

It seems that depending on how much you pay, you get a different menu and different kind of food - and corresponding ambiance!  The gold cutlery was for the "Mrs. Bubbles" menu and then there was another one called Belgian Baroque where everyone shared the food from plates put in the centre.  

One of the menus, "Mum's Kitchen" appealed to us as we were looking for some homecooking.  We were seated right below a poster with someone's "Mom" on it, complete with red checkered table cloth and kitchen casual cutlery.

Farmer's pork paté with mustard preserved fruit

Cheese waffle with beer dip - the dip was perfect for the cheese which was tactfully hidden inside the waffle without overwhelming

Braised pork neck with piccalilli sauce

Beer chicken with smoked Roseval potatoes and green beans

Honey and lavender parfait

Cherry Tiramisu

The appetizers and mains were both very good, the desserts being the weakest.  But it was a very entertaining evening for us.  We were fascinated by the ambiance-switching going on inside the restaurant right beside us.  It seems that tables that were preset had the cutlery and glasses placed on plexiglass so that when guests wandered in requesting a certain menu, the whole setting could be lifted up with the plexi-glass and moved around depending on the seating.  Moving glass on top of glass was no mean manoeuver and there were times when we held our breaths through some narrow misses by the staff.  But it was all very interesting!