An Amazing Lunch with the family at Restaurante Oquendo, in the heart of Caceres, Spain.

On my last day in Caceres this summer Mom and Dad took us to a fancy Caceres Restaurant where the food is supposed to be more than excellent.  I had heard so much about this restaurant that I was really looking forward to lunch.

The restaurant is small and has a very modern, minimalistic look when you walk in.

The staff was friendly and they guided us to our reserved table, which was in the back of the small restaurant facing a huge window where you could see the very petite zen like indoor patio. The photo on the side shows the view I had from where I was sitting. Very soothing.

We looked at the menu and there were so many things on there that I wanted to try… So to get the best out of my 1st experience at Chef Juanma Zamorano’s scrumptious meal I decided to order the Menu degustacion which literally means “tasting menu” or we would more often refer to as a sample menu.

For the special occasion Dad ordered a bottle of Habla 7.

Once you’ve ordered and while you wait for your food they bring an appetizer for you, each day it’s different (so I hear), for us it was Gazpacho.

My 1st course arrives: Bacalao marinado en vinagreta de sidra. Translation: Marinated codfish in a vinaigrette made with cider. The bacalao was sliced very thinly, carpaccio style, and had the vinagreta de sidra over it with some finely chopped sweet red peppers. It was very tasty!

2nd course: Laminas de foie gras (Mi-cuit) de oca. Translation: semi-cooked duck foie gras. It was served with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was very smooth and so good I had to share.

3rd course: Brocheta de rape y langostinos. Translation: monkfish and shrimp skewer. Was served with a tomato based sauce and a roasted tomato. The skewer was ok, the fish was a bit overcooked for my liking and so was the shrimp. I think that’s a common thing that happens when preparing skewers, so wouldn’t be my choice to present in a 5 course menu.

At this point in my menu they also brought my parents food and Carolina’s out. They all just chose one entrée. Carolina really liked how her plate was presented in a copper pot.  She wanted to take a photo to include in my blog, see below.

It’s a rice dish with clams, shrimp and monkfish served in a tomato and red pepper broth.  It was ok, as the pungent flavor of the red pepper domineered and it didn’t taste like the seafood as much, which is what we like more than anything.  In Carolina’s words: Mommy yours tastes better and so does Papa’s 😉

4th course: Vieira al Albariño Gratinada. Translation: Scallop with Albariño (which is a white wine from Galicia) in the oven.  What I like best about this dish is how they present the scallop in it’s original shell. For the longest time I thought Scallops and Vieiras were two different types of seafood as in the US I had never seen the beautiful shell… Scallops au gratin are not my favorite but the flavors were excellent, my mom polished this course up for me 😉

5th course: Solomillo de Iberico de bellota sobre salsa de setas de temporada.

Translation:  tenderloin medallions of Iberico de bellota (meaning the pork is of the best denomination as the pig roams free and eats a lot of acorns, it’s a different variety from your regular small pink “piglet” which makes the meat the best!) with a seasonal mushroom sauce.

The medallions were crusted with seasoned breadcrumbs, and the meat was very moist, the mushroom sauce was a perfect gravy for this dish along with the side of creamy mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes don’t carry as much butter and cream as they do in the US, so you really do get to taste the potato, and they don’t feel as heavy. With this said I’m not saying I don’t like our creamy buttery mashed potatoes 😉

Dessert: Tiramisu con chocolate belga y salsa de naranja. Translation: Tiramisu with Belgian chocolate and orange sauce.   All I can say is YUMMY! It wasn’t traditional Tiramisu, but was creamy excellent. I’m not a fan of chefs who use naming of an item that so many people have an idea of what it should taste like and the texture it should have, because it’s setting up the dish for possible failure. So in this case if I had expected Tiramisu I’d be highly disjointed, however since I don’t like the consistency of true tiramisu, this being much creamier was in my book excellent! But what especially made me excited about this dish was that melted Belgian chocolate all over it, that was heavenly delicious and I can tell you that if I had only been at home you might have caught me licking my plate clean!

All in all this was an awesome experience, the place is nice, the food is great, the company even better and I definitely want to come back to eat here and try other things on the menu… Next time I will get a picture with Chef Juanma too, as in this occasion it was really busy and by the time it was quieter and I asked for him he had already left for the day (bummer).