August 25, 2023 Market Day and Lunch - El Cantil in Tapia de Casariego Snack - oysters del Rio. Dinner- Penalba in Figueres for Suzette’s Birthday Dinner
We slept until 9:45 and went for breakfast around 10:00 at the main dining room in the hotel’s main building. We are staying in an annex building with only rooms and a small sitting room and no WiFi.
The breakfast buffet was extensive: four or five pastries plus several different breads and hams and salamis and chorizo plus cheeses, plus lovely small bowls of yogurt with granola. We were offered fried eggs and bacon. We took two eggs each that were heavily salted and ate them with slices of a ham and pistachio nut loaf and a sort of Canadian bacon.
We were served hot coffee and milk and there was a pitcher of a mixture of juices. All in all, a very satisfying breakfast.
After breakfast we worked on our computers in the main hotel’s library where there was internet service.
We left around 11:30 for Tapia de Casariego, where the hotel person told us there was market day.
When we arrived we drove around looking for a space to no avail, so we finally parked in the public parking for tourists lot and walked three blocks to the Liber Bank where I withdrew 300€ from my checking account for $358.
We then walked the two blocks up the hill to the two streets full of stalls of food and clothing vendors.
This was the first time we had seen many of the food products of this and other areas of Spain. For example we bought paprika and saffron from a vendor with production facilities in Southern Spain, we bought a lovely semi-firm brick of goat cheese from Asturias, and a local chorizo sausage.
Around 1:45 we had finished shopping and decided it was time to have a cider and a snack. We walked to the end of the market where there was a pop up food court. We bought a bottle of Solleiro natural cider that had the best flavor of any we have tasted for €3.56.
I then walked to the next stand manned by the Cantil fish market that was grilling razor clams, shrimp, and scallops. We have not had a bad grilled scallop so far, so I ordered an order of 10 grilled scallops for €13.
We sat at a table near the counter and soon were served a plate with ten freshly grilled scallops with their milt and another plate with three wedges of lemon.
We enjoyed our snack near the large group of people gathered near the bar, smoking and talking.
I have yet to see any homeless person or anyone who looked like they were missing any meals.
After we enjoyed our snack we walked back to the car and drove to Tapia’s port and then north out of town along the coast road to the next town where we returned to the autovia and returned to the hotel in Figueres. There are three towns that face each other in this small bay that constitutes the bay at the mouth of the EO River, Castrrpol is across from us up river on the Asturias side and Ribideo is on the large peninsula across the bay from Figueres on the Galicia side of the river/bay. Both towns are visible from the glassed sitting porch in our room.
Today was an overcast day with intermittent light rain, which was wonderful because it was much cooler than the sunny day yesterday.
We rested until 5:30 and then went looking for oysters to start Suzette’s birthday dinner.
We went the Restaurant Reston in Castropol and several people said it did not open until 8:30, which is usual.
It was 6:30 so we went a bar and had a drink and waited until 8:00 reading when we could wait no longer and decided to walk down the quay.
After we passed the restaurant Reston again we came to a small snack bar that only sold oysters from the River EO, so we ordered a dozen with a bottle of Cava, Suzette’s favorite wine with oysters in Spain. The oysters were deep bowled but had a star shaped bottom to their bowl. Rather unusual in shape. The attendant said they were aqua-cultured, but they were obviously the original species of oyster native to these waters. They were large and very flavorful. Six each were more than enough.
We took our remaining Cava in a plastic cup and took a few sips as we walked back to the car but could not finish it.
We returned to the car and drove to the port in Figueres to eat dinner at Penalba Restaurant that had been recommended. We saw lots of awards when we entered but we worried about our decision because we were the only customers. We took a window table overlooking the river and Ribeiro and perused the menu. The waiter was very helpful. When Suzette selected Lobster and rice the waiter suggested a wine, Cuquien, that was a blend of Albariño and Riberio that was oak aged and very pleasant, not too sweet, it too dry, not too acidic; a rather elegant wine.
Soon the waiter brought a black rubber bucket and held up a large spiny lobster to seek our approval for use in our dish. Suzette approved. Then an appetizer was brought, a smoked anchovy in a thin long bowl lying in basil infused olive oil and a creamy mayonnaise sauce with a dinner roll. We liked the appetizer a lot and used the bread to sop up the excess sauce.
In about 15 more minutes a large deep copper baking dish arrived with our lobster broiled and cut unto six or seven pieces lying on a bed of dark flavored cooked rice. It was a fabulous dish and worth the 100 € it cost because we took half of it home for a lobster omelet in the morning.
We finished our wine, said hello to the only other couple that arrived after us and walked back to our car and drove back to the hotel at 11:00 and Suzette fell into bed. I stayed up to blog a bit longer.
We had succumbed to the Spanish way of dining: cider with lunch at 2:00, a drink at 6:30, a bottle of Cava with oysters at 8:00 and a bottle of Ribeiro/Albariño with Lobster with rice at 10:00.
Suzette loved her birthday because she had two of her favorite foods oysters, and lobster and lots of good wine.
Luke and Willy sent Suzette birthday greetings, which was lovely.
Bon Appetit
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