Maison Du Pata Negra

"If you are looking for us on the Sundays we spend in Bordeaux, it’s probably an easy bet that you will find us at Maison de Pata Negra in the bustling Capucines Market. Yes, there are other tapas restaurants in town, but Pata Negra seems...somehow more special each time we come. As always, the counters are filled with platters and platters of freshly made tapas chorizo sausage with manchego cheese and olives, quail eggs with roasted peppers, white fish paste with a dollop of black caviar, serrano ham topped with manchego cheese and quince paste the list goes on and on. And there are always surprises that are delightful. This year we tried two new hot tapas crispy fried skirts and tubes of calamari served with wedges of lemon, as well as gambas large sauteed head 0n shrimp, delightfully spiced, their meat moist and very sweet. The system at this little place is deceptively simple. Your server seats you and asks for your drink order in our case a bottle of 100 percent garnacha rosé from Navarro. He puts your order ticket in a shot glass in the middle of the table. You are handed platters and urged to circle the counters loaded with trays to pick your own choices from the dozens of tapas. The offerings range from little glasses of gazpacho all the way to tapas prepared as a strawberry tart. Each tapa has a pic stuck in it, color coded to their costs. As you eat, you put your pics in the shot glass. When you are done your server will accompany you to the cashier, who will count your pics and total your bill. As I have said many times, Pata Negra is a wonderful place to go for people with different appetites. You simply eat as much or as little as you want. But let me not leave out what I consider the bests tapas of all two from southwestern France. With the first of these tapas both served warm a skewer with chunks of sauteed duck breast is laid down over the bread. The warm juices from the pieces of duck soak the bread turning each bite into a moist, savory morsel that leaves you licking your fingers. But better yet is my all time favorite. A slice of foie gras is seared and laid down over the bread, dripped with aged balsamic vinegar and finished with a small dollop of fig jam. This tapa is so tender, moist and savory that each bite virtually melts on your tongue. In years past, Madame Patricia and Monsieur Pascal, who own the restaurant and head the team preparing this cornucopia of treats, have tried several methods of equitably serving both the duck breast and foie gras tapas. This year, when servers emerged from the kitchen with platters of these tapas, they put them down on a counter near a silver bill. The bell was given a couple of rings to invite all those interested. Be vigilant; these tapas go fast. I was headed for the last of the foie gras tapas when another patron picked it up. “Desole”, sorry, he said with a shy smile. On the next platter, I was ready. So my tip for this year is to ask to be seated, if possible, at the community table near the bell. We were in the center, two French couples about our age sat on one side of us, a young French couple with two very charming kids sat on the other. Greetings were made in French, but then those who called up a little English got to practice. In no time, as each party ate away, filling its shot glass with pics, we had all become friends. Completely stuffed, we finished off our meal with glasses of the delicious and light Spanish apple liqueur, Manzana."