April 20, 2025 Breakfast - El Vene, Lujan de Cuyo. Lunch - La Morada Dinner - Meat Empanadas

April 20, 2025 Breakfast - El Vene, Lujan de Cuyo. Lunch - La Morada   Dinner - Meat Empanadas

Like most days when we travel from one place to another things and food get stitched together.

I loved the collection of trees on the property, so took a few pictures in the morning.

I also loved the old 1940’s bathroom with its old tile, hot water radiators, and fixtures.

Then we loaded the car and drove to the plaza in Lujan de Cuyo and instead of an Easter service the plaza was filled with stands of vendors.

The crafts fair Suzette hoped to find appeared in front of our eyes.

We decided to first eat breakfast at a coffee shop on the corner of the plaza named El Vene.  Billy and Elaine ordered the 3000 peso breakfast of a small coffee, a small orange juice, and two doughy media Lunas. I ordered a chocolate croissant and a long crescent roll wrapped around a stick of peach jam and a large coffee con Leche.  Suzette had two coffees, the last in a to go cup so she could walk around the plaza with it.

We walked around the plaza and saw nothing to consider buying or too fragile to buy such as low fire painted ceramics.

We then drove south about 1 1/2 hours on the four lane national highway to the Uco Vally that was surprisingly warm.

We stopped at the Atomo discount grocery store where we bought bread, milk, vermouth, Malbec wine, chocolate bars, and chocolate cookies.

We the drove to Claroscuro winery where we tasted a bottle of Pinot Noir sparkling wine with a cheese plate.

We then drove to La Morada winery for lunch and to check in for the four nights we will stay in the Uco Valley at 2:30.

We ate lunch on the patio with a view of the Andes. Santiago, Chile is just on the other side of the 22,000 foot high mountains we are seeing.

Suzette and Elaine ordered the Sylvestre Salad with pears, almonds, and prosciutto with lovely fresh greens dressed with a thick sour cream dressing. Billy ordered Milanese a steak pounded, breaded and fried with a caper dressing on it and a small salad and French fries. I ordered snails stuffed with pesto. The high point of the meal was the warm freshly baked bread and butter served with lunch.

After lunch at 4:00 we checked in and were shown to our three story house on a high point surrounded by the winery on three sides. The first story held a sitting room and kitchen and a bedroom in which Suzette and I stayed. The second floor held two bedrooms were Billy and Elaine stayed and the third floor held a roof terrace.

There were fabulous views of the Andes from everywhere.

We unpacked the car and napped from 5:00 to 6:30.

Then we made vermouths with slices of oranges we were given by Iris, our waitress, and went to the terrace to watch the mountains at 7:00 after the sun set.

Then at 8:00 Elaine cooked the six empanadas we bought at the butcher shop in Lujan for thirty minutes in the oven at 220 degrees C.

I fetched the criollo sauce and poured out the last half glass of Alta Vista Malbec and Billy, Elaine, and I ate two empanadas each. Suzette’s stomach was unsettled, perhaps from a bad snail at lunch.

After dinner I had a cup of tea with milk and ate the half of brownie from Brod that I did not eat last night.

Bon Appetit