It’s that time of the month again. The one where I want to share something interesting with you, but the realisation that the interesting things that have occurred in my life lately have mostly just involved, well, food.
From the hills of Galicia, to the heat of Andalucía, but not forgetting the laid-back pace of Portugal in between, I have been eating my way are the Iberian Peninsula, as per normal. So what better way to share these tasty treats with you than give you a nice round up of my favourite dishes lately.
FISH TACOS
I am a believer in eating the local food in places where I travel, but, every now and then, the urge to have something different comes around. And when I am in Lagos, the perfect solution lies inside a burger bar. But it ain’t a burger.
Once I get over the giggling from suggesting to whoever I am with that they should have the “Blue Ball Buster”, “Big Bob’s Cock Meat Sandwich” or “Luis Figo’s Wet Dream”, I am happily tucking into my fish tacos. Beer battered fish with pineapple salsa, avocado, cheese and sour cream, all wrapped up in three soft corn tortillas. And I always wash in down with a Corona, rather than Portugal’s local Superbock beer, just to go against the grain even more than I already am. Yep. Sometimes a girl’s just gotta chow down on some fish tacos.
THE SWEET TASTE OF PORT
After Lagos, I made my way up to the north of Portugal, ending up in Porto which is famous for, of course, its sweet Port wine. I had never really drunk port before my first visit to Porto last year, but you know what? I love it. So when I went and visited Offley, I was happy to indulge in the three port tastings at the end of the tour. My favourite is actually the Port branco, white Port, which is very difficult to find outside of Porto. I guess that’s what makes it that little bit extra special.
Port branco makes the perfect summer drink in a long glass, over ice, with a squeeze of lemon or lime and a spring of mint. That makes me sound really classy right about now! Classier than I really am…
AN EPIC CHEESECAKE
Santiago de Compostela is known for its food, and while it is primarily the seafood that gets talked about the most, the desserts are definitely on par with the quality too. It was here that I ate this deconstructed cheesecake. A little glass layered with cream cheese, crumble, and a raspberry foam on top. heaven in a class!
I like to consider myself somewhat of a cheesecake aficionado. I am sure it is because I spent my childhood eating my mum’s homemade cheesecakes, and so I feel it is my duty to the world to try any cheesecake that I come across and test it out to see if it is as good as Mamma Nomad’s.
BIG, JUICY SCALLOPS
In Finisterre on the coast of Galicia, I chowed down these juicy scallops as part of a massive seafood feast. There were cooked simply, just fried with a little salt, olive oil and lemon and then served up in their shells.
Scallops are one thing that I find get often ruined easily by over zealous chefs, who want to go mad with cooking and flavouring but not realising that the secret to scallops is the their natural flavour and texture. A good fresh scallop doesn’t need all that jazz. Natural is best and didn’t this little local fisherman’s bar in Finisterre get that right!
HOJALDRE WITH CHEESE AND SPINACH
I left Galicia and soon enough found myself in Madrid, where I ate this tasty hojaldre. Don’t worry, I haven’t gone all fancy on you. Hojaldre is the fancy spanish word for a puff pastry parcel, only it sounds way more exotic than our English description.
This hojaldre was filled with spinach and cheese (my favourite) and it was so tasty that I wanted to try every other dish available at the bar. But it was a very generous sized ración (large plate) and as I was there by myself I had to call it quits after one dish. I will take this as a good excuse to go back next time I am in Madrid and find out what surprises await me…Watch this space.
GRILLED VEGETABLE WRAP
It was in Madrid again that I ate the vegetarian wrap to end all vegetarian wraps. I can confidently sit back and say that this wrap was the best wrap I have eaten in Spain – no wait, that the best wrap that even EXISTS in Spain – because finding something simple like this can often be difficult here.
But even when I look at my experience of eating vegetarian wraps over my last 28 years of life, I struggle to think of one that competes. This tasty concoction was filled with grilled vegetables, mozzarella and a balsamic vinegar cream, and it certainly kicked ass over my previous wrap addiction. That was the avocado and herb salad wrap at Pret A Manger in the UK, and sometimes I found myself at Pret A Manger for breakfast, lunch, and occasionally, even dinner.
PULPO
From Madrid I went down to Andalucía and met up with one of my beautiful friends for a dinner. We visited one of Seville’s popular gastronomic tapas bars and scoffed down this pulpo (octopus) that was grilled up and served in a velouté sauce.
Although I am an advocate for simple seafood, sometimes something a bit different is nice, and especially when it is done as well as this! The darkness of the bar hindered my photography skills so the picture is not the best, but I can tell you: it was amazing!
MACKEREL SALAD
After all this trampling around Spain and Portugal I made it home to Logroño. No food in the house meant that I was ready to eat the first menu del día (lunch menu) that I could find. Ensalada mixta is a common starter option for a menu del día, and a typical ensalada mixta has lettuce, tomato, carrot, olive, egg, tuna and maybe white asparagus if you are lucky. In fact, regardless of whether it is a lunch or dinner time, this ensalada mixta is the most common salad on the menu.
So when I found a, for lack of better description, interesting salad on the menu, I had to try it. I ate this grilled vegetable and mackerel salad, accompanied with salad leaves and an orange mustard dressing. Say whaaaaaaat? I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn’t a dream. It wasn’t. This is like practically salad luxury in Spanish terms!
So that’s what’s been keeping me full and making sure I get up and do 30 minutes of pilates each morning. What about you? Have you tried anything tasty on your travels? Maybe you made yourself a really good meal? Tell me all about it in the comments below!
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Silvia says
Cheesecake in a glass! All of these photos have my mouth watering. Looks like you’ve been eating well!
Cyra says
Haha, it is a pretty novel idea… and so tasty. 🙂