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A final and fast summer gastronomic tour has taken us to the Loire , the most romantic river in France, to get to know its legendary Renaissance châteaux and to enjoy its very original wines, which are still not very well known internationally , and which are undoubtedly more interesting that the cuisine of its restaurants, nice but not great.

The Touraine had its culinary glory hour after World War II, when the young Charles Barrier opened his Tours restaurant, which would earn the three Michelin stars with dishes like his three fish terrine. But Barrier, who died a decade ago at age 93, has been the only chef in this area to reach the highest mark of the red guide, and today nobody comes close. The great French cuisine is still centered in Paris, Lyon, the Côte d'Azur and the Southwest .

Between that reality and the recent and quite satisfactory experience with the seconds of Denia that we have told here, in addition to reading the economic pages of THE WORLD, which speak of recession and make us tempt our pockets, we come up with the idea of ​​a tour clandestine : eat well in places where nobody thinks.

Naturally, a first stage crossing the Basque Country makes that discretion difficult. Well, between an unsuspected Landa and a basement in San Sebastián we did it.

A few years ago the obvious and inevitable Landa was the Castilian (Carretera Madrid-Irún, km. 235, Burgos, tel. 947 25 77 77) with its medieval tower, and the unsuspected Basque homonym (Garagartza Kalea, 32, Mendaro, Guipúzcoa , tel. 943 75 60 28), very modest food house on the ground floor of an apartment building in one of those sad industrial villages. But today the huge and exquisite soles (with one kilo and a half we ate once three journalists) of the Landa brothers are famous, has a sun in the Repsol guide and is always full. And the Landa in which nobody thinks to eat is ... the bar of the Burgos Landa, obligatory stage for a breakfast or a quick blood sausage skewer . For lunch, it was always his very good formal restaurant. But it turns out that over the years the menu of the bar has grown a lot and a feast is possible at a reasonable price : beef and poultry consommé, Iberian ham croquettes, cod burger, lamb kidneys skewer, eggs with Burgos blood sausage, cake of Casar ...

The basement of San Sebastián is that of a celebrated and crowded bar of skewers, Ganbara (San Jerónimo, 19, San Sebastián, tel. 943 42 25 75), most of whose clients ignore that there is a small dining room with an extraordinary menu below , from the blood pigeon to the whole wild turbot , baked, for two people (yes: at 85 euros, what less).

First stop and night in France just jumping the border at Les Jardins de Bakéa (1134 rue Herri Alde, Biriatou, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, tel. +33 05 59 20 02 01), famous 50 years ago when nouvelle cuisine reigned in the Southwest . Today, quite forgotten, still eating well in front of the Bidasoa: green asparagus risotto, tomato tuna braised with butter and melted herbs.

There are 600 kilometers from there to the center of the Loire, to the charming Amboise, and there is hardly any time for a sandwich on the highway (but, yes, in the galas service areas you will find some national glory such as the andouillette , stabbing inlay of intestine and stomach of veal, in its version endorsed by the Association of the Authentic Andouillette, the genuine French Triple A).

Already in the Loire, we discover the ideal clandestine restaurant: it's called L'Épicerie , the grocery store , (46 place Michel Debré, Amboise, Indre-et-Loire, tel. +33 247 57 08 94), it's in a beautiful house 14th century with exposed beams, and does not appear in any guide ... but it is always full. His skillet skillet with shallots and cream and his bourguignon deer (stew with red wine) justify it. Ah: and its prices, less wild than usual in the neighboring country.

Something less clandestine, but hidden in a tiny village north of the river, is the Auberge de la Brenne (19 rue de la République, Neuillé-le-Lierre, Indre-et-Loire, tel. +33 247 52 95 05). Charming rustic dining room, waitresses who understand wines and rejoice when we ask for a dry white of the lowercase (72 hectares) denomination Jasnières, Domaine de la Raderie 2017. Good unpretentious cuisine : fresh goat cheese with candied eggplant and prawns in tempura, Fresh cod with black rice and a vacherin glacé , that exquisite traditional dessert of vanilla ice cream with caramel and meringue.

It also falls into the category, if not clandestine, if at least unexpectedly, a good restaurant within one of the most beautiful châteaux (well, of its park), that of Chenonceau. It's called L'Orangerie (Chenonceaux, Indre-et-Loire, tel. +33 247 23 91 97). Do not ask us why the name of the town, and not that of the château , ends in x ... But the important thing is that its gratin onion soup is canonical and dishes such as Madras curry chicken breast, lemongrass rice and Cardamom are eaten with pleasure.

Someday we will expand on the Loire wines , which vary from east to west along this very long river that divides France in two: it begins with sauvignon blanc , as in Bordeaux, to pass to the great grapes of the Loire in its central part (the white chenin, the cabernet franc and côt inks), and finish in the Atlantic with the light muscadet, made with the melon de Bourgogne grape. We, with the clandestine and fresh wines of Jasnières and Touraine-Amboise, are happy.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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