Mopeds and Castle walls

We pushed on after our Migas lunch heading for Trujillo.

Where we had pre-booked a couple of nights at the Hotel Palacio Chaves.  We had been informed that the staff spoke both spanish and french but very little english but not to worry.   We were instructed to drive to Trujillo and stop anywhere on the main road and telephone reception.  A man would then come and find us on his moped.  This he did very easily as we had hired a car from Madrid airport and our registration plate showed "Madrid".  He greeted us in Spanish and beaconed us to follow up into the medieval town and inside the Castle Walls themselves.

At one stage I stopped, thinking no way could I get a car through these narrow lanes, but he kept nodding and waving me on insisting with his fingers that he had three parking spaces.  I was glad we always choose a small budget hire car.  He pointed us to a tiny courtyard and duly disappeared.

As we walked through the main front door we were met with traditional 16th Century splendor.  I praised my navigator and researcher i.e. "the Wife" and maybe my broad smile helped, because we were duly upgraded into one of the master bedrooms, found by walking through the upstairs library and small stone corridor.

This is a magnificent building, totally unspoilt.

We excitedly unpacked, changed footwear, to allow for the cobbled paths and steps, and set off to explore the Castle walls.

And photograph more storks !

Storks and Migas

We were driving over the scorched earth plains of Extremadura from Madrid heading for Trujillo.

It had already passed midday and being as menu del dia normally starts at 2.00 p.m. we decided to pull into  the next town.  Upon observing the old rustic buildings we were shocked to see storks nesting on the chimneys and various ancient roofs.

We stopped to take photos and have lunch at the nearest bar.  The menu del dia promoted  "Migas".  We asked "what is migas?" and were told "migas is migas !!"

We have since discovered this is a very old authentic recipe and a truly regional dish.  Comprising of strips of belly pork, peppers, onion, chorizo and garlic topped with course stale breadcrumbs and cooked in olive oil.

Migas

This combination of simple food, regional wine, nature and historical buildings makes one very humble.

Mother and her young

Cafe cortado in Tossa de Mar

Not again! You wake its the middle of the night, with a raging thirst left over from the vino tinto and realise you have forgotten to buy the bottled water on your walk home last night.  I quietly explored downstairs, restaurant, bar and kitchen.  No human life.

"come on" I say quietly to my curled up wife.  "lets go for a coffee".

"but its still dark" she replies.  I had already taken the precaution of throwing a towel over the bedside clock. "lets just dress and find a cafe, we can shower and dress for breakfast later".

We walked along the beach in the early light before dawn.  Only the sound of dogs barking and the usual waves on the beach.

Normally cafes inland open before dawn, but here on the costas obviously not.  To the end of the bay at last I saw a diving centre with its adjoining cafe, with an old man refilling the oxygen tanks for today's later dive.  "Buenos dias senor, coffee? "
"Si"      -  Result !!

"dos cafe cortado por favor"

Tourists normally order con leche i.e. latte, locals order cortado.

The coffees came with the depth and intensity of a knorr stockpot.  We sat on the plastic chairs outside and watched the sun rise.  Slowly up over the sea, with the occssional sharp noise of jets of oxygen being dispensed.  We slowly walked back along the beach, only us and the odd fisherman having a smoke !

Still too early for breakfast we returned to bed.


Visited : September 2014

Three cheeses in Alicante

Nearly  all taps bars will offer you queso (cheese) as one of their tapas options.  Normally sliced and presented on a small plate.  You can then add sea salt and olive oil and enjoy with your glass of vino tinto, then you know your in Spain.

Alicante from the Castle

Some tapas bars go as far as only selling queso and have a black board full for you to try.  

Sadly gone are the days in the UK when if you went into a pub you were offered a chunk of cheddar from the bowl on the bar, the second bowl pickled onions, free because it was Sunday and it was a treat. 

So we were meeting friends for dinner in Alicante one evening and I noticed a new bar just opened.  I suggested to meet here first and then move on.   On arrival we noticed he had set himself up as a small queso bar.  I observed three very large round cheeses and nothing else.   I asked about the cheeses "were they made from goats cheese perhaps or even ewes milk?   What region were they from ? ".  

"No" he replied "they are all the same manchego, one is young, one is mature and one is very old !".

I love the simplicity of this and yes we had all three !

The Ebb and Flow of French Cuisine

Pant y Gwydr, Oxford Street, Swansea we chose for our anniversary lunch.

We were greeted with an amuse bouch of vegetable and cheese parcels and selected the Les Foncanelles dry white wine from the South of France.

We chose six escargots for starters, fabulous presentation with pesto, hazelnuts and garlic.  Sadly very bland and disappointing !

Main courses were slow cooked lamb with apricots, the most tender lamb ever and yes the apricots did work and fillet of  hake with a citrus fruit marinade with chips, soft with no bones.

Before I start you need to understand that I consider Michel Roux Senior as my all time favorite living chef , so I felt at some stage shouting "where is the sauce chef".

Verdict : service was excellent, restaurant clean, Edif Piaf in the background.  Presentation perfect and menu choice good.

Sadly everything for me was too delicate.  I prefer to be punched hard in the face with flavours, however that is me. On a positive you could take any guest here and not be disappointed.

Then the trio of chocolate desserts arrived and gave a full knock out punch.  One of the greatest finishes to a meal for a very long time and completely turned the whole meal around.

The soft boiled egg was in fact a selection of warm chocolate goo.  Outstanding !!

Sausages, cyclists and the mountain road to Xativa

I am a huge fan of the Renfe Railway System of Andalucia. Terrific for traveling north to south, but unfortunately more difficult cross country east to west.  So we hired a car.

As we started our ascent up the mountain range north of Alicante we realised that this could be a lonely adventure.  We later realised one car an hour was considered busy.

Obviously the higher you climb the less bars you find, so seeing a busy bar on the outskirts of a village full of workmen and builders having their second breakfast of the day (this is normally around 10.00 a.m.).  We decided this might be our last chance and stopped to join them.

Immediately it became apparent that this was the bar that all the cyclists doing the mountain roads stop at and also it seemed that a cold beer and sausage bap was obligatory.  I viewed the big wood burning oven in the restaurant preparing for menu del dia and although too early really decided the rustic sausages smelt fabulous.   No english was spoken but a lot of facial expressions and pointing worked its magic.  We had already had coffee and pastries much earlier and lunch planned for later, so I tactfully asked if we could have the sausages without the pan i.e. no bread.   This got lost in translation somewhere.  We were seated in the shade and made to feel welcome.

A continuous stream of cyclists passed, some stopping some returning.  I for once felt slightly overdressed as was not wearing either builders overalls or cyclists lycra.  Also my spanish phrasebook did not include expressions to wish the cyclists a good next stage as they left and the words for friendly abuse when some cycled passed without stopping!  This seems a regional custom.

The silver salver arrived not a sausage each, but a selection of various mountain sausages cooked over a wood stove, sliced and presented as if we were race officials eating in the stewards' tent.  I cannot tell you how happy this made me feel!

Salt Marsh Lamb Shagorana

At home on a Sunday afternoon wondering what to cook for supper when some good friends of ours asked if we were busy and if not would we like to join them for a curry in the Sheesh Mahal (a restaurant I have never been to) with an aperitif beforehand in our local Wetherspoons in Llanelli.

My husband and I both jumped at the chance and within twenty minutes we were in Wetherspoons with our friend GK41 and his wife.  Wetherspoons now have a number of different new gins and GK41 knew that I am a gin lover so he introduced us to the barman who took us through their different types.  I chose a Portobello Road with tonic and a slice of cucumber.  It was excellent and very refreshing !  My husband tried the Ruddles beer and found that to be very agreeable.

After about an hour we walked next door to the Sheesh Mahal, an Award Winning Authentic Indian Restaurant.  We were greeted by the owner and shown to our table.   The boys had water and the girls dry white wine.

Being vegetarian my husband and I were very interested to sample their lovely curry.  After looking at the menu the owner came over and asked if we were ready to order, GK introduced us to the owner and explained we were veggies and asked what he would recommend for us off the menu, and would he eat what he had recommended ?

I settled on the vegetable Paneer, mixed vegetables cooked with coconut, hot and sour sauce.  My husband had Chanda dal, chick peas and lentils cooked with onions tomato and garlic.  We shared various rices and Peshwari Naan.  GK had the Salt Marsh Lamb Shagorana and his wife the Hasina Chicken Cafreal.  We did not have to wait long and the smell was amazing and we all tucked straight in.  The curries were delicious, not too hot and spicy as some can be.  We both tasted each others and agreed they were excellent, not too overpowering so that you could still taste the vegetables.

GK41 was enthusing about the lamb and we were enjoying so much that we even tried some of the meat ! After not eating meat for five years we found this to be a very sweet and tasty curry.  What happens on a "gig" stays on the "gig" so don't tell anybody we ate meat !

The atmosphere for a Sunday evening was great with many tables filled.  All in all we had a lovely meal and would definitely eat there again.

AN UNEXPECTED CURRY written by our guest blogger SA

Snails in Sevilla

We hit Sevilla early, arriving by train from Cordoba, rather dehydrated and a hangover gathering momentum.  After checking in we decided to explore the other side of the river, so that hopefully we could retrace our steps later that evening to this less tourist trod quarter.  To avoid the intense heat we called in at the famous fish market, but too early for lunch. To get a taste we chose a vendor displaying the big red prawns.  To this day I still don't know why, but I chose the raw octopus salad in vinagarette as a pre lunch tapa. Sadly this did not help settle my stomach.

We walked over the bridge to explore and stopped in a buzzing local bar postered with pictures of "the weeping virgin".

The Saturday sign was duly placed outside and families started to gather.

Despite my love for trying snails in different countries my stomach today was not feeling playful!   So I chose the small caracoles tapa rather than the larger caracoles, as I thought I would at least be able to tackle these. Yes they were good, in their hot garlic sauce, one picks out the snail with a cocktail stick and then sucks each snail out completely from its shell.  Hot, messy and endless fun.

Despite my ambition to be accepted as a local, this time my hangover won and I could not finish my plate.
At this stage we elected "la cuenta por favor" (the bill) as I felt best to leave before I lost my composure.  As the bill arrived the owner of the bar smiled at me with great gusto and pronounced in pigeon english "that another table had ordered too many, so please have this bowl of the large caracoles on the casa (house)".

Kebabs in Mumbles

Mediterranean Restaurant 640 Mumbles Road, The Mumbles, Swansea SA3 4EA

You might say that a two hour return drive for a kebab a bit extravagant ? I disagree ! Being as I am a huge fan of some of the lebanese restaurants in London and have very fond memories of donner kebabs whilst working away I have wanted to try this Turkish style restaurant for a while.

The Mediterranean is probably far more buzzing and atmospheric by night and probably warmer.  But we were met and served professionally and courteously by a smart gentleman named Alex.  I did my usual of ignoring any menu and asking for recommendations.

My lamb shish kebab was excellent and tender and my son and wife chose a mixture of Adana and Tavuk Beyti spiced Kebabs all grilled over the charcoal in the open kitchen next to us.

I enjoyed this experience and authenticity of the food.  I like it when restaurants play their national music and the Chefs don't speak english.

The baklava to follow was superbly fresh and homemade, with the strong turkish coffee a stylish end to the meal.  With two glasses of excellent dry french white and a coke cost £57.10.

Would I go again - Yes

You can find them here

Kebabs and Baklava

Hi, just setting off for lunch at The Mediterranean Restaurant in Mumbles ! Looking forward to authentic kebabs and baklava.  Photos and review to follow.