Food
Lunch at Meson Chuchi
It is still the depths of winter in La Rioja, we got about 30 to 40 cms of snow today, we are snowed and not going anywhere for at least a day. A good time to catch up on posting and drinking some nice Riojas. It has been cold all week, so a big hearty meal for lunch has been the order of the day. In this part of Spain that usually means a trip to an Asador, or as I discovered yesterday, parrilla full of chuletas (lamb chops) at home, but more on this later. If you’ve ever been to north west Spain you will have seen Asador restaurants all over the place, truck stops, small villages, big towns, everywhere. The basic premise of the Asador is a woodfired oven that is used to cook just about everything in the place.
Lunch at Amelibia
Amelibia is my favourite place to eat in the old walled town of Laguardia. We ate here a couple of times on our last trip and were very keen to get back and see what’s new. It’s a small restaurant (just 12 tables) that overlooks the vineyards and across to the Cantabrian mountain range. Laguardia is just about the last outpost of Euskadi, or Basque country, and as such the food here is a good mix of Basque food and traditional Riojan food. So you will have a menu that has things like kokotxas pil pil (throat of hake in an olive oil and garlic emulsion, a very Basque dish) and rabo de vaca al tinto vino (oxail in red wine, a typically Riojan dish).
Lunch at Bodega
I had a quick day work trip up to Sydney yesterday, so what better to do than stop into Bodega for lunch in between meetings. And what a great way to spend a couple of hours, some nice drinks, great food and outstanding atmosphere. One of the things I like here is the slight rockabilly undertone, it reminds me of being in my mid 20s, out and about seeing ska, punk and rockabilly bands.
Los Hermanos Tempranillo 2008
img_4862I’m tight for time at the moment, so I’ve done some quick notes to keep things moving…This is the hermano (brother) wine to the albarino that I had a look at last year. I think this is a great first crack at a the joven style, this looks a little like a joven tempranillo from the warmer climates of Valandapans.
Calle Laurel: a culinary institution
On my first trip to Rioja, I was given some great advice: ‘There are plenty of good places to eat in La Rioja, but there is only one place that you musteat during a trip here and that is the tapas street of Calle Laurel in the old town of Logroño.’ There are tapas streets in other towns: Haro has it’s ‘Horseshoe’ area and there are good little bars in most towns and villages, but they don’t come close to Calle Laurel.
The Sunday Roast Chicken Challenge
Just about every Sunday night at Casa Tinto y Blanco we fire up the oven and have a roast chicken with a bottle of wine. Its become something of a tradition that ends the weekend on a high, and is much more enjoyable than ironing my shirts and folding my jocks for the week. Plus it gives me a chance to look wines, mostly white wines, from all over the place with some nice food. I’ll try to write up most of these sunday sessions as something a little different for the site. If you have any suggestions for either a roast chicken recipe or a wine to try with the chicken, leave a coment and I’ll see what I can do.
Solomillo al Whisky
This is my favourite tapa of all time. A big call. Well it’s at least in the top 5. You will find a dish by this name in many areas of Spain, for me this is the one and only solomillo al whisky. If you’ve been to Sevilla, you will have seen it on the menu, it is the home of this simple marvel of blokes in the kitchen.
Movida Next Door
I got a call from Scott at The Spanish Acquisition when I was on way home last Wednesday: “We’re going to the New Movida, do you want to come along?” How could I say no? I quickly dived out of the car and made my way down to Hosier Lane to check out Movida Next Door, or Movida Dos as everyone seem to be calling it.
Lunch at Movida
I took the day of from painting to roam around the city and have some lunch. It started raining around 12, so I ducked into Movida to warm up and have a bite to eat. The great thing about Movida is that its the kind of place where you can muck around with your mates [...]
Jamon Iberico y Ceps
This is a hedonistic version of a great tapa from southern Spain. I had the end of a leg of Jamon Iberico to finish off, its far too good to throw out but a bit hard to slice without loosing a finger. You can make this dish with jamon serano and field mishrooms and its [...]
Recent Comments
- Marcelo on Mundo de Yuntero Organic Airen 2007
- sprawl on Mundo de Yuntero Organic Airen 2007
- Dave Worthington on Bierzo in a nutshell…(part 1)
- ps on Bierzo in a nutshell…(part 1)
- Larry on Travel tip sheet for Bierzo
