To start, Ronda is really a great idea for a day trip, but only that. It is a beautiful city built directly abutting a deep canyon. The city snakes and winds around dipping down all the way to the valley below. It was one of the major sights for Inquisition trials, which gives it a creepy factor that is hard to shake. But what really gets my heart pumping is not the beautiful canyon vistas, or the crazy Catholic history, but a one Michelin star outfit run by executive chef Benito Gomez.
Tragabuches is traditional. Traditional walk in and have your coat and scarf immediately whisked away. Traditional seated with chair pulled out and pushed in. Traditional with someone virtually walking into the bathroom with you. Traditional crumbing and marking and blah blah blah. I have to get this off my chest, but I felt so bad for the front of house staff that day. There was another solo diner who was downing glass after glass of what seemed to be pretty nice wine, while a bottle of something real nice was breathing. Well once that happened and a taste was poured for this guy, he disputed the quality! Then not only did the sommelier come over, but so did the manager. They stood there and discussed for a good fifteen minutes before the bottle was whisked away! Yikes is all I can say. The bottle was then offered to a table of about twelve lively Spanish men already enjoying their own wine, but I saw them happily polish that baby off. So much for a "turned" bottle.
I could go on, but rant aside this is what my tasting menu looked like:
1. Cod Fish Yogurt with Trout eggs and Red Sichyo
2. Tomato "Alinao"; Tomate sorbet; black olives and Picual Olive oil
3. "Ajo Blanco" of Pistachio; Cherries in lavender perfume and meringuer pistachio
4. Foie with goat's cheese with caramelised green apple
5. Season Mushrooms
6. Roasted Sea Bass; Truffled cabbage and Jabugo mayonnaise
7. Iberian Pork Cheeks, Caramelized root vegetables puree
8. Coffee cream; Muscovado sugar, bananas and white chocolate ice-cream
9. Textured Chocolate with Jamaican flavours and black beer sorbet
I must say course number two was almost identical to what I had at Cinc Sentits for course one ("Pa amb tomaquet"; fresh tomato sorbet, garlic air, toasted peasant bread). This one was better...there was an olive base that gave the sweet tomato sorbet a perfect foil, finished with just the right amount of salt.
After looking over my notes, all I have for the Ajo Blanco soup is OMG...and that's about it. I wrote that the sweet cherry meat and the creamy cold ajo blanco explodes in one's mouth, with a texture contrast provided by the crispy pistachios. It was a bowl licking dish.
The fifth course came out as a magic mushroom forest. Now if someone had slipped real magic mushrooms into my aperitif, then this dish would have really garnered a wow factor, but alas it was merely whimsical at best. The mushrooms, although clearly fresh and local, had little flavor infusion and in this setting were crying out for something. There was a white powder "jam" and quail eggs that I rationed for each bite to give the mushroom a boost, but once these accouterments ran out, so did my mushroom consumption.
The protein courses ranged from O-K (pork) to off putting (sea bass) so not much to report on there. After all that I was praying dessert would steady the roller-coaster ride I was on, and at least for the finale it did. The chocolate dessert came with a brown beer ice cream, chocolate "truffle" and dark chocolate sand. The beer was rich and complex, like a good stout and it really complemented the dark chocolate represented in two different formats.
All in all, I was happy to say I have been to Tragabuches. I think Gomez is on to some good things, but needs to step up his game when it comes to the proteins and infusing flavor into certain ingredients. Many of the dishes were playful or had one or two "cool" elements, but at the end of the day it is my taste buds that need to be convinced.
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