Picking up where we left off: in March, our final visit to Herzbaracke was one of the most creative, fun shows we've seen there, maybe ever: The Waffle Machine Orchestra. Imagine, if you will, a swing-meets-Dixieland-meets-ragtime band with a smattering of acrobatics thrown in, and that's roughly what The Waffle Machine Orchestra brings to the table.
That and old-timey bathing costumes.
Speaking of acrobatics: the trombone player is standing on the drummer's knees, and the bass player is holding herself vertical with her legs around the guitar player's waist, all while they're continuing to play.
Same here, obvs, and yes, she's wearing a giant bushy mustache. (This song very quickly thereafter turned into a song I can only describe as Soviet disco surfer ska--100% unique and delightful. As was the 'Minnie the Moocher'/'Hall of the Mountain King' mash-up and their cover of 'I Wanna Be Like You' from The Jungle Book.)
During another song--one about cats--they all laid down to take a "cat nap". (Again, still playing.)
Srsly, if you're into fun and/or good music, don't pass up an opportunity to see these guys. We will definitely look for them again next season on the boat, and hopefully figure out a way to see them sometime in between.
Next up, we took a few days to dash down to Piemonte--which, despite the frequency of our trips there, never gets old. And this time we managed both to bring some new friends with us and to try out some new restaurants and wineries. Yessssss. A brief overview:
The glorious tasting room at Renato Ratti.
The incredible elliptical cellars at Elio Grasso. (I think the most efficient way to get around down here would be on roller skates. Almost like it was designed for that.)
The outrageously good sheep's-milk panna cotta with burnt caramel sauce at Dai Bercau, our latest can't-miss restaurant in the Piedmont. This stuff was so good we ordered a second round of it. (The dining style there is kinda like Gemma's, but with slightly more upscale food; there's no menu and they just start bringing various courses of glorious local food, but here you actually have some control over portion size and number of courses. The whole scene is just fantastic.)
The very familiar cellar at my favorite Piemonte winery, Paolo Manzone. (They're the nicest people ever, their wine is delicious and reasonably priced, and they always bring out local salami and cheese during a tasting. Heavenly.)
Obligatory church photo prior to the obligatory lunch at Gemma's. (The only place in the world I'll eat raw beef. Gemma's is feathery-light and lightly but perfectly seasoned, more like a spread than a mound of raw meat, and it is unfathomably good.)
The views from La Morra are expansive, to say the least.
A quick stroll through Bra after lunch at the excellent 480 Gradi pizzeria.
With one exception, April was fairly quiet--but that exception was quite big: we bought an apartment! So I've been spending some time saying my goodbyes to our current, really special place, which has been our very treasured home for over 6 years now.
Yeah...it's fairly unique.
And since we still don't move for a couple of weeks, I'm trying to keep myself from going insane by doing a little writing, so...to the big event of the spring: Mike's surprise birthday trip. We've done the Nürburgring and a jet flight--what's left but snooty wine and fancy food? Or so I was thinking, anyway, since I'm an idiot and used up all of my big ideas two years ago. This year's destinations: Bilbao and San Sebastian, Spain (...Basque country!), for some incredible food, and Bordeaux, France, for some fancy-pants wine.
On our first afternoon in Bilbao--one of the three sunny days we had in the ten of our travels!--we checked in and then headed across the gorgeous Nervion river...
...to an architectural marvel I've wanted to see for a good while: the Bilbao Guggenheim.
The Guggenheim and the massive 'Maman' ironwork spider by Louise Bourgeois.
This building is utter insanity.
I love it.
The inside is just as nutty.
How on earth would you, as the architect, communicate these shapes to your contractors??
No photos are allowed of the artworks inside*, but outside, among several other pieces, is Jeff Koons' ginormous flower-covered 'Puppy,' which was in the process of getting its flowers refreshed while we were there.
Which, on the one hand, was a little disappointing--no 'Puppy' in his full flowery glory--but was also rather interesting, in that they only do this twice a year and it's a major undertaking involving 20 people and 9 days to complete.
Post-museum, but pre-dinner, we had a little time to kill, and so wandered over to check out the rather striking Tiger Building.
LOOK AT THAT THING. It is 9 meters long (...I believe...), and perches atop this great Art Deco-ish building from 1942. The double Ms on the side are the initials of the building's original owner, whose business's name and nickname both involved the word "Tiger." So there you go.
Dinner this evening was at the rather empty, but foodily extravagant, Eneko Bilbao, which is owned by the same guy that owns the current 43rd best restaurant in the world, so I figured this place would probably be ok. (His other restaurant isn't so far outside of Bilbao, but I was sold on the convenience of this location, and besides, had other plans for ridiculously high-level food on this trip...but more on that to come.)
Like idiots, we opted for the longer tasting menu--which, while absolutely delicious, was about two courses too long. That having been said, this was by far the best torrija we had on the trip. (It's kinda like a bread pudding made with french toast, but floating in a puddle of something like sweetened cream, and this version was caramelized on the outside. Holy wow.)
The next day began with relatively unstructured wandering-around time, so we headed straight for the Casco Viejo (old town) neighborhood. Here, a nifty wall mural, and a street sign in the rather incredible Basque language, which, interestingly enough, has ancient and somewhat mysterious roots and is not related to any other language in the world. Neat.
There's probably something like a kilometer of painted ceiling in the arcades across from the main market, Mercado de la Ribera.
Next, we took a swing through the Museum of Basque Archaeology, Ethnography, and History, which isn't nearly as large as its name might imply, but has some pretty decent exhibits on local culture. (Most of which aren't labeled in English, but you can mostly get the gist.) In the 17th-century cloisters of the original Jesuit church and school here, you can see the museum's most famous artifact, the Mikeldi idol, carved between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC.
Back outside, strolling around, we came across probably five of these bacalao stores. I know the Italians and the Spanish have this whole salted/dried cod element to their maritime cuisines, but I have never in my life seen as many stores selling only bacalao as I did in Bilbao. So much fish.
The stunning, if tiny, main train station.
We kept seeing this massive concrete thing jutting out over the city, and so I had to track down what it was. This thing is an elevator connecting the center of Bilbao with its Begoña neighborhood high above; it was inaugurated in 1947, and only stopped taking passengers in 2014. I don't really think anyone knows what to do with it now.
The beautiful front of the San Nikolas church, where we met up with Irene, our guide; Ben and Clea, a fun couple from Manchester; and Peter, Diane, and Jane, some very sweet American retirees on a major tour through Spain, for a wonderful, wonderful evening activity:
...a pintxos tour!! (As we learned, pintxos differ from tapas mainly in that they're usually served skewered to a piece of bread--which you actually shouldn't eat if you're serious about your pintxos, 'cause it's really just intended to serve as a plate. Clever.) We started at Sorginzulo, where we were presented with bacalao al pil pil, patatas bravas, and this marvelous creation: a sandwich made of tomato slices with cheese and avocado in the middle...breaded and fried. Yessssssss. (Each stop was paired with a local drink, too, so here we tried out Bizkaia Txakoli, a white wine.)
Next was a stop at the beautiful Victor Montes bar, where we sampled croquettes of squid cooked with squid ink (yummm!!), txistorra filled with Basque chorizo (kinda like chorizo-filled egg rolls), txakoli from Getaria, and gilda--these delicious little skewers of olives, pickled peppers, and anchovies. Fantastic.
On the way to our next stop, we took a stroll through the gorgeous Casco Viejo...
...past the cathedral, decorated with stone seashells to indicate that it's on one of the pilgrimage routes to Santago de Compostela. (We saw these shells on the sidewalks, too, on occasion.)
And then it was time for these absolutely spectacular shrimp and octopus skewers...
...and some of the best calamari I've ever had, and some pimientos de padron, at Berton (where we also tried a rosé from Navarra--really good!).
Next, a stop at the gorgeous food court in the Mercado de la Ribera, where we shared some idizabal cheese (origin-protected cheese made from the milk of specifically Basque breeds of sheep), sardines, jamon iberico (ok, so, not Basque, but always appreciated), and a couple of bottles of Rioja crianza...
...and then concluded the evening at La Olla with ham croquettes, gulas (shown here--these are actually little pieces of fish shaped to mimic baby eels, which are a prohibitively expensive delicacy--and I can't speak to the eels, but the gulas were delicious!), and a slab of tasty torrija...
...paired with cider, which our lovely and fun and extremely knowledgeable guide Irene showed us how to "break" by pouring it from the greatest distance one's arms can manage. (Not as easy as she makes it look.)**
Post tour, we went for drinks with Ben and Clea, who were traveling for the same reason as us--turns out, Ben's birthday is the same day as Mike's!--and ended up staying out way too late. I paid for it tremendously the next day...but what an absolutely glorious way to spend an evening in Bilbao! No regrets.***
The next day, Mike and I decided to head back to La Ribera for an early lunch...
...ugh, the gorgeousness and abundance of pintxos and olive skewers and little sandwiches make me want to weep!...
...and then it was off to pick up a rental car for the short drive to our next destination: San Sebastian. That place has been on my radar for a good while, and it did not disappoint.
*For me, the most interesting pieces in there were Richard Serra's "The Matter of Time", which is utterly massive; Anselm Kiefer's overwhelming "The Renowned Orders of the Night"; and Gerhard Richter's insanely photorealistic "Seestück" painting. And you're a cold soul if you don't like Jeff Koons' "Tulips," which is not inside, but which I utterly failed to photograph 'cause we took a wrong turn and ended up going out the exit, instead of to see the tulips. Ugh.
**One also pours txakoli from a certain distance over the wine glass, purportedly to help release its slight sparkle and foam it a little. I don't know about all that, but there's definitely some spectacle involved in Basque drinking, and I dig it.
***Shameless plug for the company with which we booked our pintxos tour: I cannot recommend The Best of Basque highly enough. I believe it's just Zach, Irene's husband, whom we did not meet, but was very helpful and patient with all of my questions during the booking process; and Irene, who is a lifelong native of Bilbao and just a delight. (She even gave us suggestions for San Sebastian.) The tour with them was actually one of the cheaper ones I found, but it guaranteed 8 pintxos at 5 bars, drinks included (...a rarity!), and it ended up being more like 12 pintxos with very free-flowing drinks. (I know Irene ordered us a few extra nibbles, and the bars themselves sent out extra wines and pintxos for us to try--so it ended up being a night of complete overindulgence, but also a really great time.)
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