Borderlands are often the most interesting. From the spy mysteries of Tangier or Algeria, where Camus set his Stranger, to the stories of flight and coming and going in the Pyrenees, where Walter Benjamin spent his last days, to the blurred borders drawn by the Galician cliffs, where a Fariña arrives that has been such a successful report that it even became a Netflix series. Borders are, by definition, a permeable place, a stable and unstable ground at the same time, a person with one foot on each side and a multiple personality. In short, an interesting place.
The border between Valencia and Catalonia does not have, as far as we know, a writer to tell it but it does have, now that we have tasted it, a cook to draw it. His name is Aitor and he cooks at Citrus del Tancat, a restaurant that is literally on the last piece of land in Catalonia before the Sènia river, which forms the border between the two communities. From there, with one foot on each side, this Valencian chef cooks for Catalans a menu that synthesizes the two sides of the border.
Valencian fish, Delta de l’Ebre rice.
Editorial credit: Citrus del Tancat restaurant.
Citrus del Tancat has three menus, the longest, Sol de Riu the name of the area where the Sènia flows, with about fifteen passes that serve to travel that wobble between the two lands. Round of snacks that, as always in these places, declares intentions: coca of bell pepper and tomato with tuna cured in anchovies (in its liquid). Sea, land and two communities in one dish. And another, our favorite snack: shrimp tartare in fried kale and its juices infused in Palo Cortado. Wonderful idea, like eating a deconstructed shrimp suquet. Naked flavor in the tartar and deep and complex in the infusion with the wine.
The last house in Catalunya is literal.Citrus del Tancat is on the premises of Codorniu’s Hotel Tancat, which encompasses an old refurbished 19th century walled farmhouse that was once the resting place of Alfonso XII and literally reaches the banks of the Sència River, the natural border between Catalonia and the País Valencià.
Here Aitor López, Valencian, cooks surrounded by 2,000 orange trees (hence the name Citrus) with local products: fennel (Mediterranean plant) confit with aniseed-flavored bouillabaisse of mussels from the delta. Suquet de llucet de la Ràpita and fritters of its brandade. An interesting part of eating in creative cuisine restaurants is to detect the traits of each chef’s cuisine. One of Aitor’s traits are those “combination dishes” where a single dish involves two independent elaborations that combine to form one.
Another trait: his eye for trends. Aitor presents a wonderful table of sea cured meats, heir to those cured meats that Ángel León promotes in Aponiente or the salted meats of Quique Dacosta or Ricard Camarena. Cooking just a stone’s throw from Valencia, Aitor cannot ignore his colleagues.
The menu is seasonal so there is little point in repeating his dishes. Among its main courses, of course, rice dishes almost always and game or boletus when it’s time. Among the desserts, which are kept more, of course, the orange.Tancat orange with frozen yogurt and honey from Perelló or canned Calanda peach with saffron flan from Perelló and tonka bean, all made with some of the Tancat oranges or products from their orchard.
Beyond the product, the space deserves a separate mention. Citrus del Tancat breathes elegance and harmony. Its large windows let in a lot of light, which gives the space a play of colors marked by the incidence of the sun. Attic ceilings of wood and large circular tables overlooking the landscape; a large plot of trees that makes the experience of lunch or dinner a spectacle to behold.
More than enough, in short, to get the Michelin star deserved and to continue thinking now how, from the last house of Catalonia, you can reach the whole world.
Citrus is located on the first floor of the Hotel Tancat de Codorniu, an old 19th century farmhouse renovated and converted into a building with its own unique personality and character. It is located in a completely walled estate and was once the place where Alfonso XII sought his rest. The environment has an orchard with more than 2,500 orange trees in full production, gardens, swimming pools and paths to get lost and walk that invite wellness and tranquility.