August 19, 2023 Lunch - Sautéed Bonito and Onions and a salad with Rey Silo cheese. Dinner - Leftover Casa Gerardo Fabada and Arroz con Leche with an Onion, cucumber, and tomato salad and cheese.
We did not plan to do much today and I did take a morning and an afternoon nap but we also went out twice. In the morning to Fontan Food Hall which is close to the apartment and for a longer 1.6 mile walk from 5:00 to 7:00 in the evening.
We started the day with a weird omelet made from the Cachopa meat and cheese left from lunch three days ago after removing the fried flour crust with the addition of some diced fresh tomato plus a toasted slice of baguette spread with butter and bitter orange marmalade.
We are leaving tomorrow so we are trying to get rid of excess food.
Around 10:00 we walked to Fontan Food Hall about two blocks from the apartment. It was full of local purveyors of fruits, seafood, and meats.
We decided to make a salad and sauté a piece of fish for lunch.
There were about six or seven fish shops and they all looked appealing.
We picked one that had round slices of Bonito del Norte from Aviles. which we drove near yesterday when we drove along the northern coast, so we knew it was fresh and local, especially since the shop had a row of whole large Bonito. We picked a number and when it was called we pointed to about a 3/4 inch thick round and I told the fishmonger that we wanted it boned. He took a fish carving knife and expertly removed the skin and then the bones leaving four quarters of pure meat that he put in a bag and weighed. The cost was €5.11 for about 1/2 pound of filets. We also bought a lemon and figs. At a meat shop we bought an Angelton natural apple cider for €2.50 that I have been wanting to try in furtherance of my search of the best cider in Asturias.
Finally, we wanted to buy Jose Andres’ favorite cheese, Maximo Rey Silo. We found it at a cheese shop in its own box for €10.60.
It was now almost noon and Suzette had not had her coffee, so we walked across the plaza to a bakery/coffee bar and sat in the shade under an awning and ordered two cappuccinos and a brezlar, which is circular twisted puff pastry wrapped around chocolate and nuts.
View from our table at the bakery/coffee bar
We then returned to the apartment and at 1:30 Suzette started to cook lunch. She made a salad with red leaf and bibb lettuce, tomatoes, and baby artichoke hearts and I sliced and diced pieces of Maximo Rey Silo cheese. While we ate a bag pipe cCeltic band marched up the street playing music.
I opened the bottle of Cava we bought at Mercadona supermarket across the plaza from Fontan Food Hall and poured us glasses.
Suzette then sautéed the four bonito filets with butter, some Cava, and the PPI sautéed onions from yesterday. The result was very tasty. We thought the consistency and flavor of the bonito reminded us of albacore tuna. I just checked and Bonito del Norte is albacore tuna from the Cantabrian Sea.
We are now cooking, eating, and drinking wonderful local ingredients in the manner we are used to without any additional salt or grease.
The salad included delicious Asturian tomatoes that now are in season and we loved the small chunks of creamy Rey Silo cheese.
We drank Cava with the meal which gave it a light touch because the Cava is a very mild sparkling wine.
I rested after lunch and at 5:00 we went for a longer 1.6 mile walk through the lovely wooded San Francisco Park to the Statue of Woody Allen, who loves Oviedo, and back up the hill to the apartment at 7:00.
We read until 8:30 and then heated the to-go box of Fabada from casa Gerardo for dinner, with which we drank Angelton cider. We decided that most Asturian cider has lots of yeast and is fermented until really dry.
I also diced some onion, the rest of the tomato, and last 2/3 of cucumber and tossed them with the remaining dijonaise dressing I made for the salad at lunch. We ate some tomato, cucumber, and onion salad with the Fabada and will pack the rest and take it with us for lunch tomorrow.
Then we opened a bottle of Tempranillo Reserva and I sliced bread and slices of goat cheese, cured Iberico, and a bit of the red tres leches cheese for a cheese course.
Finally we heated the leftover rice pudding from our lunch at Casa Gerardo and enjoyed the best arroz con leche/rice pudding I have ever eaten. The caramelized burnt crust melted into the pudding to provide an extra burnt sugar sauce that made it taste even better.
Willy called soon after we finished dinner at 9:45 and we talked for a while.
Then Suzette went to bed and I blogged this entry.
We go to the weekly cheese market tomorrow in Onis tomorrow.
Bon Appetit
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