You don’t have to run a century-old business to run a historic restaurant. That is what happens to the tandem formed by Yolanda Vega and José Antonio Campoviejo, responsible for a space that, without yet having three decades of experience, is already an essential classic without which it is impossible to understand Asturian cuisine of the 21st century.
Almost 30 years of experience, 25 of them recognized with a star by the Michelin Guide, make the restaurant a witness to the modernization of cuisine in Asturias, of which it is also a particularly active part. José Antonio was one of the members of NUCA, Nueva Cocina Asturiana, a group movement composed of him, Nacho Manzano, Paco Ron and Pedro Martino and that was born precisely in this house at the end of the last century.
There are, therefore, more than enough reasons to learn about the work of El Corral. But far from remaining a memory, the visit also serves to understand where we are, to look at that line without fractures that comes from the breakup of the 90s, which reinterpreted the classics of local cuisine at the turn of the century and that, Far from having settled, it continues to evolve today, faithful to its principles, but aware that cuisines have two options: grow or mummify.
In this way, a visit to the restaurant run by Yolanda and José Antonio, a self-taught person, allows you to look at already classic dishes, but also at current preparations that are added to a repertoire in which local products and the flavors of memory are a condition. indispensable.
All this also happens in a cozy setting, with the charm of those small restaurants that make you feel at home from the moment you walk through the door. El Corral conveys that feeling of personal space, thought out in every detail, adapted to the people behind it and their vision of hospitality: of the kitchen, but also of the way of receiving and hosting.
If time permits, it is worth asking for one of the few tables in the backyard of this house, an old pharmacy converted into a restaurant, and eating in the shade of the trees. Although the interior is equally appealing, the luxury of an outdoor dinner, on an evening in the Sella Valley, is something that should be taken advantage of if you have the opportunity.
As for the cuisine proposal, what has been said would also be valid to explain what arrives on the plate: a succession of bites behind which you sense the creators of the restaurant; Away from fashion, although not disconnected from what happens in the kitchen; aware of their own classicism, respectful of the memory burden of the products they handle, but also capable of striving, at the same time, to continue evolving.
From the snacks, the historical ones of the house alternate with new proposals: tuna tartlet, trout roe and Iberian pork slice; Cabrales and white chocolate bonbon, one of the classics, such as the corn cake with guacamole and onion enchilada or the croquette, one of the great Asturian croquettes, in this case Iberian sausage.
More bites between tradition and modernity with which the chef explores the possibilities of the local pantry, through, in this case, pork, its sausages and its cured products: corn macaron and sabadiego from Noreña, brioche with anchovy and chorizo, asturcelta gochu and anchovy chicharrón.
The fabada – flavors of yesteryear, textures of today – has been on the menu for 15 years now: black pudding cream, bean cream, chorizo ??veil, crispy lacón, cabbage. One does not always have the opportunity to try dishes that are history. The salad, for its part, is approached from a similar concept: emulsion of lettuce, spinach, tomato water, cider vinegar ice cream and onion.
If there is a constant, beyond the closest revised tradition, it is the power, which does not decline in the hot cake, like a coulant, of Gamoneu del Puerto cheese with smoked eel, a sea and mountain, perhaps, better, a form of bringing the valley to the plate, really interesting that surely marks the peak of intensity of the menu.
The combination of the marine and the earthy returns with the Maldonado pork chop aged 45 days, tuna belly slice and black sesame. With the frozen sphere of piparra, sphere of olive and sardine from Güeyu Mar in apple juice, almost like an Asturianized and reformulated gilda, a pause is established, a moment that, without giving up the sweet power of the bite, achieves, with its acidity, refresh the palate and prepare it for the final stretch.
Beef gizzard breaded in hazelnut and risolada, escabeche of golondru – a rock fish – and salmon roe. More sea and mountains for an unforgettable dish, loaded with nuances, textures and contrasts that are as disconcerting at first as they are interesting. It comes next, contravening the predictable order of a menu and becoming, once again, a caesura, a contrast that refreshes and revives, the grilled oyster with toasted butter and rye. Once again, local flavors are reformulated in an unprecedented combination that fills the mouth and maintains tension.
Cantabrian beef chop, sobrasada sandwich, Afuega l’Pitu sphere, steak tartare, grilled dairy products, butter and pistachio bun. More complexity and more risk, dairy and meat, acidity, light toast, the slightly earthy nuance of the dried fruit and, above all, the ability to bring order to what could have resulted in chaos, to maintain the surprise, the curiosity of the diner at a point on the menu that on so many occasions is predictable, almost a procedure to close the salty section. From the classics to unusual dishes, of a complexity that borders the limit and is capable of skirting it. History of Asturian cuisine, but also its liveliest present. What was said at the beginning was not a simple resource.
Desserts arrive and the intention to reformulate the immediate environment does not falter: tomato, strawberry and kiwi from Asturias, avocado ice cream and kiwi air; blue cheese from La Peral and chantilly from Pedro Ximénez. Perhaps the last proposal -pineapple, lychee, rhubarb, bread- is the only one that deviates from that tonic, but it allows the menu to be finished off without excessive sweetness.
What Yolanda and Jose Antonio have managed to create in this corner of Arriondas is something unique, an intimate place, a reflection of its creators, discreet and welcoming; a local cuisine, but never predictable; aware of her history, but able not to fall prey to it; comfortable, although without giving up moments of certain radicality and making one thing and the other fit together without friction.
The one at El Corral del Indianu is a brave kitchen, a proposal that defends a way of understanding cooking and relating to the environment and turns the restaurant into a place to go to peek into the history of Asturian cuisine from the recent decades, but also to a universe that avoids adjectives and that must be enjoyed at least once. Although, most likely, after that first visit, there will be others.
