September 7, 2023 Lunch - Hamburger at Pizzaria in Amares

September 7, 2023 Lunch - Hamburger at Pizzaria in Amares

Today things turned suddenly rather badly.

I don’t know if it is the culture, the lack of our ability to easily communicate, the difference in infrastructure, or our lack of preparedness.

We got up and I had a cup of tea in the room while Suzette took a 1/2 hour walk in the winery.

 ate a lovely breakfast at the resort dining room and then drove to the sales office of the winery where Suzette discussed tastings and markets and our joining a tasting in English on Saturday was discussed.

We were given instructions to the Municipal Market in Braga and Suzette had information on market day in Calvados.

We drove to Braga on tiny backroad lanes and finally got to the market building which was huge about 1:00.

We did not find any olive oil or anything else to buy since we are staying at a hotel and can not cook.

We then drove to the market at Calvados with difficulty because the roads are narrow and generally in disrepair and because in the cities many cars double park in the street. It is rather a free for all.

We were lucky to find parking places in both Braga and Calvados, but learned the hard way that you must go to a pay station and pay to validate your parking ticket before leaving the garage because there is no automatic payment system in Portugal with an electric eye reader and credit card payment system.

My initial take on Portugal is that comparing it to Spain is like comparing the US to Mexico.

They look similar but the infrastructure and level of efficiency is totally different, with Mexico and Portugal being far less easy to travel in because they are far less developed.

 It is amazing how frustrating that lack of development is until you confront it directly.

We arrived in Calvados around 1:30 and its market was huge, but it was almost all cheap clothing and some houseware stalls.  We walked the one mile through the huge market and did not see one food vendor.

I was tired and we stopped for a drink at a cafe I had a coke and Suzette had a beer and then we took a taxi back to our parked car.

It was after 3:00, so we decided to go find something to eat. We drove back toward the resort looking for a restaurant on the Internet. We did not find the first restaurant, so we decided to go to the wine bar that was recommended by the resort wine office workers in Amares, which is in the general area of the resort.  

We stopped on the way for gas and at an artisanal bakery and bought a small round loaf of dark bread. 

When we arrived in Amares it was 4:00 and the wine shop was closed. We asked an employee at a bar next door where to eat and he said, “Palacio” and pointed across the plaza. We walked across the street, through the plaza in front of and around the Casa de Judicia to the Palacio restaurant and found that it was closed.

The only place that was open was a Pizzaria on the other side of the plaza so we walked there. We asked for a menu and asked for two glasses of rose.  The Pizzaria was quite crowded , so it took a while to get service, but soon a young woman who spoke English arrived to take our order.  There weee no pizzas on the menu.  The menu was dominated by crepes and sandwiches and ice cream.  We settled on a hamburger with bacon, lettuce, egg, and cheese. Soon two large glasses of rose were served and it turned out to be rose Vino Verde of the large volume rather sweet fizzy stuff that is produced by Espiral. We did not ask but the wine could have been Espiral.

We immediately asked for a glass of ice to cool the wine and dilute the sweetness.

Then in another fifteen minutes the hamburger was served and it was terrific. I am not sure I have ever eaten a bacon, cheese, lettuce, and egg hamburger, so I can say this is the best one I have ever tasted. We had asked that it be cut in half, so we could share it. Perhaps the best part of the meal was the price, the hamburger was €5.85.

Fortified with nourishment we returned to the wine bar. We soon discovered that it was a small wine shop, it did not offer tastings, the young attendant knew less about wine than we did, and did not speak English.

So after absorbing this reality, we began exploring the wines from the Verde region where we were.  We were interested in rose, so Suzette used her Vinvino app to examine labels and I read a sort of Portuguese Wine Spectator glossy magazine.  I soon found an article on a successful winery 

celebrating its 40th year of operation named Soalheiro. I mentioned to Suzette the name of the winery and she looked in the large wine refrigerator for a rose by Soalheiro and soon found a rose of Albariño and Pinot noir for €11. We checked it on the internet and found that it was a unique new wine and highly rated. So we decided to buy it and a rose titled QM for Quinta M? and a bottle of red recommended by the kid for a total of €30.  The price in the states for the Soalheiro rose was $27.50, so we felt good about our purchases and found the winery on the map located near Ourense, where we are going next, so we plan to visit it.

We drove back to the resort and luckily the attendant was there and set us up for dinner in the breakfast room with an ice bucket of ice for the wine, plates, knives, and forks, and a sharp knife to cut bread and ham.

We went to the room and fetched our food and ate a lovely dinner with a terrific new wine, the Albariño and Pinot Noir blend rose from Soalheiro.

The Hake fish salad was particularly tasty.  After a rough day on the road we were happy to be back at the resort eating our own food with great wine.  Our plan for tomorrow is to rest and attend one wine tasting.

It was 6:30 but we were tired, so when we finished we went up to our room. I went sleep immediately and Suzette stayed up to read.

When I awakened at 10:00 I posted this entry.

All the wine grown in this region of Portugal is named de Verde or Vin Verde, even though most of the wine is wonderful wine, not the fizzy stuff.

One other note, although the price to stay in the resort is essentially the same as a parador, there is a big difference between the level of service.  The resort is in the middle of a working vineyard where the grapes are nearing the time they will be picked, so there is little or no service for us and lots of work in the vineyard.  We are the only guests and when the attendant left this evening at 6:00 we were the only persons in this huge building, unlike the Parador, where there were hundreds of attendants, cooks, and concierge staff and a bar and restaurant.

Bon Appetit