Wined, dined and rested.

So there you are in the middle of Soria, a rural province in the middle of Spain, oodles of history all around you but not much sign of cutting edge gastronomy, tbh. Then suddenly your friends tell you they are taking you to a Michelin-starred restaurant. Gulp. In the one 20th century village in an area steeped in Moors vs Christians medieval sites, on a dusty road to somewhere else, there is an unprepossessing small 1960s 3-floor block of flats with a rather striking wooden door on the ground floor.

 

This is “La Lobita”, in Navaleno. The chef is Elena Lucas, her husband Diego Muñoz is the sommelier and the restaurant has had a Michelin star for a few years now. “La Lobita” was started as a truck stop by Ms Lucas’ grandparents, then it was run as a small restaurant by her parents. The young Elena went off to train as a chef, meeting her future husband at that time, then returned to make use of her native area’s many natural ingredients in the family restaurant, which has gradually changed appearance over the years and currently has a cool, modern décor that clearly defines it as a palace of gastronomy.

And local ingredients define all the dishes. The area is wooded, timber being the main product, and these woods produce fine growing conditions for all kinds of mushrooms, which appear all over the 11-course (plus ‘aperitivos’) tasting menu.
Señor Muñoz runs front of house with enthusiasm and care, explaining with pride the evolution and composition of dishes, as well as discussing at length the attributes of his comprehensive wine cellar when asked.

 

I’m afraid we may have disappointed him a little by going for one of the cheaper red wines on his list, but the wine bears the name of a well-known 1980s song called “Camino Soria” and it seemed appropriate!

 

This was the 2014, and it is actually a good wine, a deep cherry red with a fruity beginning and a good depth of flavour; for the price (I can’t remember exactly but it was in the €20 region) it is surprisingly long. It’s a Denominación de Origen Ribera del Duero from an interesting wine producer near Gormaz and uses 100% tempranillo (or Tinto del Pais, as it’s often known in Ribera del Duero). The producer, José Luis Sanz, an aeronautical engineer turned winemaker, makes a point of saying that the grapes for each of his wines come from a particular part of his own vineyard, and even uses the word “terroir” in his explanation. In Spain it is very common for even renowned producers to mix grapes from different vineyards and even different growers in order to achieve consistency of flavour year after year; this winemaker is taking a more French approach. Anyway, this is a good entry-level wine and I recommend it.

 
So, to the “aperitivos”. These were 3 mouthfuls of beautifully-crafted food to tantalise us before the main dishes started arriving. The first was this very sophisticated chef’s version of the local snack called a “torrezno”; a torrezno is what in the UK we call “crackling” or “pork scratchings”, or in Mexico we call “chicharrón”. It’s pork skin heated until it bubbles – it doesn’t sound very appetising, and it’s essentially a pub snack, but people who love it are passionate about it. Here it was more of an art form, airy and subtle.

 

The next aperitivo was mushroom in cones of spinach crisp, all dressed up as an air plant, one of those cactuses that sits on a piece of tree branch and appears to live only off air. The flavour was delicious, a tiny taste of something that is definitely mushroom but that also makes you think of the forest and moss and fresh leaves……

The final aperitivo was tuna tartare, a dish that we all think we know as it has become more common on menus across Europe. Here the tiny taste of exquisite tuna tartare was tucked inside a little packet of crisp pastry with half a cherry dressed with one single leaf of a herb I think was marjoram placed carefully on top of the hole where the tuna was sitting.

The woodland theme is everywhere – a branch over there, tree bark here, pine cones there, pine needles all over the place….. our opening ‘real’ dish was Ms Lucas’ interpretation of that classic, Spanish omelette. Again this is ‘common denominator’ food, but what an interpretation! It looked stunning and tasted excellent. And look, there’s a pine cone…..

We were then brought carpaccio of red Mediterranean prawn; the skill required to slice prawns so thinly must surely be worth at least half a Michelin star itself (what do you mean, that’s not how they judge?) ……….

Next there followed one of the best courses from this very skilled chef who clearly specialises in trompe l’oeuil, making food look like something else….. Continuing the mushroom/ woodland theme, she had created the most delicious and delicate mushroom mousse, then somehow dressed it up to look like a small tree trunk.

While you’re oohing and aaaaahing about the look of it, a waitress comes and with dramatic precision produces a small dropper and places precisely four droplets of resin-infused oil on it, before (slightly smugly) giving you permission to eat it…..

The absolute apogee of trompe l’oeuil was to follow; I’d seen that the course was called “breakfast at the bar”, and wondered what would arrive. Well, breakfast at the bar comes in two parts – firstly you are given this:

… which of course is the newspaper with which you start your breakfast – it is a small piece of rice paper with edible, perfectly readable, ink showing a story about the grandparents and their ‘truck stop bar’ from years ago. You are given a few minutes to read the paper – dramatic timing has become an art form here – then you are brought the rest of your ‘breakfast’…….

… mushroom soup looking like coffee, and savoury toast looking like a sweet pastry. You are told to roll up your newspaper and dunk it in your coffee! We are nothing if not obedient so off we went.

The mushroom soup had far more flavour than I was expecting, slightly earthy but with a tiny tang to it as well, so the course was far more than just a clever trick. I wonder what their brainstorming sessions are like – “Hey, great idea! Let’s make mushroom soup look like breakfast!” “Oh wow yes, then we could make burnt toast look like black forest gateau”…. Etc.

 
We continued with a series of other dishes, each an exquisite small piece of art and most of them delicious.

 

 

There was a deconstructed croquette, octopus in sauce, mushrooms pretending to be tripe, mushrooms pretending to be artichokes, then there was an option to add in a plate of local cheeses. I love cheese, I especially love tasting local cheeses but by this point we were all in full-blown gastronomy fatigue and we had to eschew this delight.

 
So we moved onto the two desserts, firstly a kind of set milk (“cuajada”) which was really very good indeed for something that we had all made a face about when we saw it on the menu; it’s normally a bit slimy and, well, tasteless. Here it was actually tasty – what skill.

 

However the dessert that sent the four of us, food-drunk by now, into complete hysterical giggles was the final course, labelled “Churros and chocolate?”.

 

We knew by now, rather like devotees of the Times crossword, that the question mark meant that it was going to be an unexpected version of something; Ms Lucas has created a churro that contains the chocolate, so you break into it and the chocolate pours out. It was certainly very delicious, although it looks initially rather unappealing.

However the uncontrollable hysteria was as a result of the fact that the bowl in which it was served – no doubt extremely expensive, and apparently a very good bone china – resembled nothing so much as a urinal. I apologise for lowering the tone, but once one person had said it the rest of us could think of nothing else, and conversation became impossible for about 20 minutes as we kept showing each other the progress of our churros con chocolate……

Finally, as we enjoyed coffee with some petits-fours, we recovered enough to agree that this had been an extraordinary meal in surprising surroundings, and every step of the design, execution and serving of it had shown a passion for the purity of local ingredients coupled with a high degree of culinary skill.

Importantly, we had also been in excellent company with our friends who share our excitement at discovering these very special places. It is a privilege to have eaten here – I don’t mean that every single course was perfection, for example the octopus although perfectly cooked didn’t have the depth of flavour of other courses. But for me so much enjoyment, whether that be of food or places to stay or wine, comes from the appreciation of the passions of other people to be the best in their field.

Congratulations Ms Lucas and Mr Muñoz, your restaurant is your passion and those of us lucky enough to have eaten in it must spread the word. Michelin clearly believes this, they don’t give out those stars with milk bottle tops…….