August 27, 2023 Lunch - Pulperia Mario, Viviero
We took breakfast at the hotel. I ate fruit, eggs, salami, yogurt with granola, and a very delicious almond cake made at the hotel with a lovely course almond flour.
We then drove west to Viviero, that is about 40 Km. west into Galicia to see to see Europe’s largest Eucalyptus forest. As we passed Foz we began seeing lots of eucalyptus and by Viviero the lower hills were covered with them.
Viviero is an old walled city, but only three of the gates remain, although some of the walls have been excavated. We went to tourist information and got a map of the city and surrounding area including a map of a forest road to see the eucalyptus forest.
The old town was just a few blocks from tourist information so we started walking along the bay and then turned and walked up a street toward the center of old town past one of the churches with mummerer sculptures.
We turned just past the church at a lateral that appeared to traverse the middle of old town. We were correct it appeared that the street went to the west gate but just before we reached the street that connected the east and west gates was a pastelleria and since I did not take a sugar pill and it was after noon I felt a pastry would help me maintain my energy level to walk through old town. I picked a Neapolitan with cream and a horn filled with cream for €2.20? We then walked to the east west transit street and walked down toward the main Carlos V gate until we came a small plaza that had two cervezarias. We sat down at one of the tables in the plaza and I ordered a large cappuccino and Suzette ordered a small beer. We were served three churros with our drinks and I ate the pastries with coffee and Suzette helped me eat the churros that seemed to be dipped in syrup or wet sugar.
After our snack I felt refreshed and we walked down the street and out the gate and along the river back to our car.
The main gate we walked out of
Along the quay Suzette noticed how many had interesting windows.
We then decided to drive up into the eucalyptus forest along a loop road.
Near the top of the green ascent we approached a restaurant named Pulperia Mario when a car pulled back out of a perfect parking spot, which I took as an omen that this was the place for lunch and pulled into the parking spot.
We had not eaten octopus yet and octopus was something we wanted to try. So what better place than a Pulperia to try pulpo.
We took a table outside and asked for a waiter or waitress who spoke English. Soon a lady came out and we asked about the menu. We asked if served grilled octopus with garlic sauce. She replied, “We do not grill octopus here, we serve it Galician style with paprika cooked in olive oil with fried potatoes and padron peppers.
We said, “Okay, we do not want the potatoes and do not want the pulpo salted, but we will take bread and what about wine?
She replied we have a good local wine we serve by the carafe and half carafe.”
We said, “Okay, we will have a 1/2 carafe of wine if we can taste it first.
She brought us a glass with about an ounce of delicious wine. It was complex and balanced between sweet and dry, probably Ribiera, so we ordered a 1/2 carafe.
She said, “Okay, that will be an order of pulpo Galiciana, 1/2 carafe of wine, and an order of peppers.”
We gave in to the reality that we were no longer in control of this food trip and said,”Great.”
Soon a plate filled with grilled padron peppers arrived. We soon learned that they had a large seed pod in the center and the best way to eat them was to strip off the skin with your teeth. They were a little piquant but not overly hot. Then in a few more minutes a small plate filled with the most delicious tender octopus slices arrived dusted with paprika. We ate and ate octopus and peppers and dabbed pieces of bread into the olive oil in which the octopus was served.
We only ate 1/2 of the food that we were served so the lady was kind enough to bring us a to-go plastic box and we packed up the remaining Octopus, peppers and bread.
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We then continued up the road to the lookout high above the city of Viviero that again is a river that has a long bay where the river meets the ocean that creates a very secure and deep protected harbor.
We then drove to the eucalyptus forest area where the lady at tourist information had directed us. It was a very narrow Jeep trail that went deep into the forest without any interpretive center. We finally decided to turn around because it got very scary. We made it back to the main road and as we drove back to Figueres we saw mile after mile of eucalyptus trees. We decided we did not need to go off the road to see the forest. It was all around us. We enjoyed the drive and the smell of eucalyptus was pronounced all along the road, although this was a different eucalyptus than the one in Australia. This has a long thin leaf, not a small squarish leaf.
We were still feeling the warmth of the padron peppers after the 40 km. Drive back to Figueres, so we drove down to the port in Figueres and ordered two 1/2 liters of Cerveza Alhambra Rojas, a darker beer very similar to Negra Modelo but not as bitter.
We watched people sail and boat out to the sand bar in front of Figueres that became exposed at low tide around 6:00.
This is a magical area of Spain with its three or four villages surrounding the large bay that forms the boundary between Asturias and Galicia. We loved visiting it and staying in a grand old hotel.
Tomorrow we will drive to Cambados on Galicia’s western coast by way of Lugo that is another walled city and Willy’s favorite.
It is 8:00 and we are back in the room and have no desire to eat after our first encounter with Padron peppers and pulpo.
At 4:30 we woke up and I nibbled some bread and cheese with a glass of wine and enjoyed the view of Castropol from our sitting porch.
Bon Appetit
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