My Mystery Meal

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I wrote a post earlier whilst I was sitting in the hotel restaurant wondering if I'd made a terrible mistake by letting the chef decide what to feed me. The restaurant is in a Spanish owned hotel and I couldn't see anything I was particularly keen on when I looked at the menu so had taken the chance to have a three course deal for €32. I was feeling very nervous. If I order food that turns out to be awful, then it's my fault for choosing the wrong thing. If I let the chef choose and it's rubbish, then it's his fault. The waitress turned up with a plate of bread, a strange spiced mayo spread and some olive oil and then returned a few minutes later with three small plates. I was really not sure what to make of this. One was a small portion of seared tuna with a soy, ginger and spring onion dressing. Another was a piped pumpkin puree topped with dried wild mushrooms which were bursting with flavour. And the third was two slices of goat cheese drizzled with honey, served with slices of red beet and served with a blob of Portabello mushroom mousse. That mousse was absolutely spectacular. The whole way through I was thinking "Is this my starter or are these my three courses all in one go?" After all that's a very Spanish tapas-type approach. I really wasn't sure. It seemed like too much for a starter but not really enough for the whole shebang. It was very unsettling. When I finished, a guy collected my plates and asked if he could bring me anything else. I said I'd need some time to think - but what I was thinking was that it had been nice but it didn't really feel like a proper dinner. After about 5 minutes, the waitress strolled back and I asked her if I could see the dessert menu. She said I still had a lot more food to get through and the dessert was included in my deal. I told her the guy had totally confused me by asking if he could bring anything else. Apparently he must have been confused - but possibly not as much as I was. The main - oh boy, I should have saved more space. I had a plate and two dishes. The plate was a large sea bass fillet, skin on and served on a bed of mash and wild spinach. One of the two bowls was a dressed beetroot and rocket salad and the other a mound of Dutch fries with mayo. Aside from the weirdness of mash and chips, it was awesome. I particularly liked the spinach and the beetroot. I should probably have said no to dessert but how can you say no when you don't know what you'd be saying no to? It was a creme brulee, beautifully done and served with a ball of odd slighly spiced ice-cream, some thin shortbread biscuits and a lemon cream. Against all logic, I finished the creme but left a lot of the other bits. Did I want a coffee? No way - I couldn't have managed another mouthful. By the end I felt like maybe I'd slipped into some kind of parallel universe where all of that couldn't possibly have cost just €32 but I hadn't and it had. €38 with a big bottle of sparkling water. I am as impressed as I am totally stuffed to the gills.