September 17, 2023 Tito Bustillo Cave, Lunch - Restaurante Parrera, Niembru, Asturias
This morning we started at 9:00 with a Cafe con Leche and our two chocolate croissants in the Hotel Gaudi bar. I also ate a small container of yogurt. This the croissant with the most chocolate I have ever eaten. There is like 1/2 of a Hershey’s bar of milk chocolate in each. Look at the thickness and width of the chocolate. It covers over half the width of the croissant.
We then drove to the Titi Bustillo Cave in Ribadesella, Asturias. To get there we had to drive over the Picos de Europa, the mountain range that forms the border between Leon and Asturias.
We took the autovia, which is a four or six lane divided highway that is as good or better than US’ Interstate Highway.
The drive was dramatic with long tunnels through several mountains. We went through two tunnels of over a mile and one over 2.5 miles long.
When we popped out on the Asturias side it was a long winding road down to Ribadesella, where the Tito Bustillo cave is located.
Tito Bustillo was the person who discovered the cave in 1968 and named it.
It is over a 1/2 mile walk through a long pathway inside the cave to the Gran Sala where the most beautiful paintings are located. I was slow but I made it. I have no idea how Paleolithic artists made the trek inside the mountain 17,000 years ago without the use of a path and total illumination.
It
The paintings were dramatic. There were several horses and several reindeer that were particularly well drafted.
We entered the cave at 1:15 and did not exit until 2:30.
Suzette was hungry so we drove into the center of Ribadesella but found no parking places and decided to drive on toward Comillas where we were staying.
Suzette picked a restaurant on the way in the small beach town of Niembru named La Parrera with a good rating, so we drove there.
When we arrived it was almost full of families eating Sunday lunch.
Lots of folks were eating lobster, but we decided on more pedestrian dishes.
We decided to share a traditional dish of Asturian beans (fabes) with clams (almejas). The most famous Asturian dish is Fabada, which is cooked Asturian beans served with a piece each of ham, blood sausage and chorizo. So what we ordered is probably a seafood adaptation.
The other dish we shared was Grilled Hake, a really delicious fish plentiful and popular along the north coast of Spain.
We were served two grilled fillets of hake with sautéed sliced potatoes with a strip of chili Padron, which is also traditional.
We asked for a bottle of Albariño and the waitress grabbed three to show us but before she reached our table a couple at a table near us suggested the Bodegas Terra Gauda, so we chose it. The couple later stopped on their way out of the restaurant to tell us they had been to the winery and really liked it. We agreed that the wine was fermented on the lees and had a good balance between acidity and fruit that made it both a good seafood and drinking wine.
We thanked them for their recommendation.
Probably most of the customers have eaten fabes all their lives and had no desire to eat another one but we had eaten them only a few times and loved them and had never eaten them with clams. So we loved this simple dish that was served in a flat round ceramic dish bubbling hot from the oven.
We were served lovely rolls and water along with the wine. We enjoyed wiping the bean dish clean with pieces of roll.
Then two fillets of the grilled hake was served iwith cooked and sautéed potatoes with onions, bell pepper and padron chili strips.
After lunch as we drove out of Giembru back to the highway we opened the orange chocolate bar we had bought in Astroga and enjoyed several,pieces of chocolate for dessert.
We arrived at Hotel Mirador within thirty minutes and rested until 6:30 when I helped Rahim with his project and Suzette took her laptop down to the lovely public rooms and worked on several documents.
We walked a bit at 8:30 but did not eat dinner. Basically, we rested and Suzette went to bed at 10:00 and I blogged and ate a bite or two of bread and cheese and chorizo around 11:00.
We do not seem to develop much hunger after the big lunch meal that ends around 4:30.
Perhaps that is why it is referred to as Comida del Dia. That is all you need to eat.
Bon Appetit
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