Always Mugaritz
We had dinner at Mugaritz ('oak' and 'border', the border that delimits Errenteria and Astigarraga) a friday not so far away, end of october . Straight to the point? Come on, to the point: it was not a great day . The most irrelevant and vacuous (my) Mugaritz I have ever known. I will be back? Yeah, fuck; Yes . I will return whenever I can, I will return every time ( every year if possible ) in search of the cramp that lives under every stone of this unique restaurant in the world. That because? This is the story of why, told with fragments of my voice, but also of other voices, of other lives, of other vertigo. I can't think of any other way.
*** Hurry. Too much.** This is why we sometimes forget that eating meant sitting at the table and gobbling up the fruits of the land. We forget that eating -also- is a pleasure and a feeling, the one that whispers belonging and terroir, the language of things that sink their roots into the ground we walk on , the things that look to the past without fear of the future.
The entrails of Mugaritz
***** “ Cooking is a violent act , extreme: the crude is transformed under the torture of fire. Marine crustaceans die when immersed in boiling broth. Skin a hare, open the guts of fish or pluck a beautiful partridge, cooking humanizes nature and makes it edible. This is the great gesture Santi Santamaria.
***** You have to flee from the perfect. In the perfect there is symmetry, order, thought and distance. In the encounter there is tension, friction and chaos. Search -for this reason- that imperfect, impermanent and incomplete beauty. Wabi Sabi , what do the japs say, l The understanding of the world based on transience and impermanence . Wabi-Sabi is wood, rusty metal, hemp, raw cloth or ceramics. The beauty in asymmetry, roughness, simplicity and ingenuity.
***** "There is nothing more human or more beautiful than the gift of sharing creativity" ("There is nothing more human or more beautiful than the gift of sharing creativity"), Lawrence Lessig .
***** It is a wonderful thing that great restaurants have that, like the great movies or the great songs They seem to change over the years with every viewing, with every drink . But it's not like that, in reality we change, that's why every time you listen to "that" song it seems like it's new, you discover new nuances, hidden rooms, because you add your experiences, lights and shadows to the work , your questions and your answers.
***** “The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware. In this state of god-like awareness one sings; in this realm the world exists as poem“ ("The purpose of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyful, drunk, serene, divinely aware . In that state of divine consciousness, one sings; in that realm the world exists as a poem"), Henry Miller.
This is Mugaritz
***** Gastronomic pleasure is something else. Honesty, respect and (yes, sorry for the corny) a small token of love for the product, the diner and the kitchen . Learn to look back (to your past) to look forward... wasn't that growing up? Look at what is close to you (your surroundings) and understand gastronomy as a civilization : as leisure, as culture, as philosophy of life. Eat, drink and live.
***** “If I asked you about art, you would give me a list of books. Michelangelo, you know everything about him: his work, his political aspirations, him and the Pope, his sexual preferences, everything . But you can't tell me What does the Sistine Chapel smell like? , you have never been there or seen that beautiful ceiling, you have not seen it.”
“If I asked you about women, you would give me a list of your favorites. Maybe you've even slept with someone, but you never looked at a woman and you felt vulnerable”, Good Will Hunting.
What does the Sistine Chapel smell like?
***** Traveling, you see, I have learned to unlearn (the hardest lesson) , I learned to shut up and listen. To look at things with new eyes; to be alone and to move: action kills grief.
***** “ Listening to Camarón was knowing that helplessness is our heritage , but it was also to notice, in wonder, that At the bottom of desolation authenticity, brotherhood and happiness await us ” (Felix Grande)
***** You want to drink and not pay the bill; dance from the sofa, take safe steps, "high faith and heart ready", land on your feet and prop up pieces of that life that is half yours today. Learn the lesson (What lesson do you want to learn?) and look into the eyes again . Give up, but little. Well look, no. It can't be done. You have to play —and sometimes, lose.
There is no other way.
And there never was.
All this is Mugaritz. How not to return?
Follow @nothingimporta
Honesty and respect at Mugaritz
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