The Basque country is a must-do for anyone who loves food. My first stop was in Bilboa (Spain) to visit the Guggenheim Museum. Afterward, we headed next door to Nerua, a Michelin one-star restaurant offering local Basque cuisine.

We opted for the reasonably priced 85 € multi-course tasting menu with their 35 € wine pairing beautifully described by our attentive server, Asier Llona.

Our first delicacies were the labor-intense amuse-bouche: A small glass of tomato-water clear gazpacho and three pintxos on a ceramic bench plate. One was a bread croquette filled with bonito, another a mini quail egg topped with langoustine foam and then the Cricket. That’s the name they have for this oldest, vegetarian pintxos because when you eat it, the three ingredients make the sound crickets make. It’s a potato cooked in salty water topped with lettuce crisped in a slow oven and a piece of red onion. When you eat it, the sound is like that of a cricket. They served us Cava, specifically Mestres G Reserva Brut Nature 2017 D.O.


Next was Name That Herb! It was a game to play, as often done at the old Eleven Madison. Remember that? Mini peeled tomatoes were cooked in either mint, rosemary, tarragon, oregano or chives; we were asked to ID the herb.

To accompany the tomatoes and the odd eggplant dish, they served the crisp Itsad Mendi Ados 2020 Nerua D.O. Bizkaiko Txakolina. I say strange as the roasted eggplant neither looked nor tasted good; their one miss.

Conversely, the mussels’ presentation in lightly salted cucumber juice was the best looking and tasting, especially when sipped with a La Bastid Olivier Riviere 2020, D.O. Ca Rioja.

The tableside finishing of the anchovies whet the palate. One was pan-fried, the other smoked and served with green pepper pil pil and a parsley-pepper pesto. Both were amazing. As was the Bonito tuna, another traditional fish from the Basque country. We sipped Las Santas Aseginolaza & Leunda Cuuve 2019 D.O. Navarra with the final fish dish, the hake with peppers.

And our only red, Oxuel Supurao Dulce 2019 Ca Rioja, accompanied the perfectly cooked slices of veal loin atop pureed spinach.

Dessert was the Carolina, the typical Bilbao pastry with strawberries and coconut on meringue. While we were enjoying the delicate dessert, pastry chef Hirmen Fuentes proudly delivered butter ice cream in a bun, then — after we got him talking — shared his story of working himself up from being the dishwasher.

I highly recommend a visit to both the Nerua and the Guggenheim.

Nerua
Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa
Av. Abandoibarra, 2
48001 Bilbao, Bizkaia, Spain
(+34) 944 000 430
neruaguggenheimbilbao.com