The country matrioshka with salad.
From Ibiza to Ibiza. **But from the Balearic island to the center of Madrid, to the popular gastronomic area in front of El Retiro park. ** It is the journey you have made Sa Breeze and its cuisine with a Mediterranean soul, a very Ibizan spirit and international flair.
After five years settling on the island, its founders Esther Bonet and Pere Vendrell They decided to jump to solid ground and chose Madrid. Another environment, very different, to which they have brought a bit of that sea and its 'fruits' in their proposal. Sa Brisa "is a kitchen of roots, experimental and innovative", they define.
Your chef and now a partner, Gonzalo Araguez develop more and speaks of autochthonous products, of artisan producers. He explains how he has decided to trace in the culinary past of Ibiza to discover dishes that until now weren't too popular there (full of international offers for tourism) and certainly hadn't left the island.
The 'bullit de peix', your new favorite Ibizan.
“Like the bullit de fish”, he says he when asking for examples. “We all know the Menorcan fish stew, but I don't think many people know the bullit de peix. It's a fish stew. It is served first and then, separately, a rice that is made with the broth”.
Aragüez says that Ibizans who live in Madrid "are finally grateful to have a place to eat it, even if it's not the most traditional version." "We serve it on separate plates, but it comes to the table," he says. And, in addition, they have gone a little further by serving it in croquettes. That is Sa Brisa: tradition and avant-garde. Or as its owners used to say: roots and innovation.
The decoration has been devised by Proyecto Singular.
Born in Argentina, educated there, Gonzalo Aragüez came to Spain to work as a young man. of the stoves by Martín Berasategui jumped to Mexico and it was there that he matured as a chef, with a job that also allowed him to spend time in other cuisines: from Peru to Las Vegas. Aragüez has poured all that backpack into the usual recipes of Ibiza and in their local products.
The chef cooks with women from the island to learn his recipes and techniques. "I have Antonia, for example, a 90-year-old woman who has taught me recipes such as matanza rice," he counts. And to which she has paid a very special tribute: "She told me that as a child during the postwar period they did not have much and one of her favorite desserts was bread with dried figs and goat cheese." He has turned it into a hot torrija with creamy cheese that is one of the local's favorite desserts.
Argentine empanadas with peasant sauce.
Besides of bullit de fish or the slaughter rice, the porc negre (black pig), a Balearic breed, is another of the products that Aragüez has made a star on the Sa Brisa menu. of fish only use varieties of rock, very much from the island, and some that are hardly even used there, “like the spider”. They make the bread with a special Ibizan wheat . Serve your own version of the payesa salad and sofrito payés he uses it to fill empanadas.
Traditional products with an international flavor that also innovate in presentation. The 'Ibicencan follies', one of the reinventions of typical products and dishes, he arrives at the table in a head with a crown of spoons. Assorted croquettes appear on a tree with twisted branches. And his version of the hot dog – squid with kimchi – comes out on top of a balloon dog sculpture (very Jeff Koons).
Black pork or Ibizan suckling pig.
A very varied and extensive menu that, depending on how you feel, they recommend trying it in its two possibilities of tasting menu (€42 and €65) or a la carte, where they suggest you order to share, "To try the more dishes, the better," says Vendrell.
WHY GO
To discover Ibizan gastronomy, if you did not know it yet. Or to rediscover it, if you had already had the luck. Because of the bullit de peix and also its most eye-catching and instagrammable dishes: the hot dog, the Ibizan Follies...
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
The terrace overlooking the Retiro. And the uninterrupted kitchen, from the appetizer to the dinner with a long after-meal. And the possibility of trying their cocktails, where that very Ibiza spirit is also noticeable.
The varied croquettes in tree.
Address: C/ Menénde Pelayo, 15 See map
Telephone: 91 022 44 50
Schedule: Monday to Sunday from 12:00 to 24:00
Half price: Menu: €40. Menu from Ibiza to the World: €42. Menu of the World to Ibiza: €65