August 31, 2024 Breakfast - Royal III. Lunch - Sideria Daquerenia, Ribadesella Dinner - on the terrace at the Posada

August 31, 2024  Breakfast - Royal III. Lunch - Sideria Daquerenia, Ribadesella Dinner - on the terrace at the Posada

It was dark and rainy day today.  We got started around 9:00 with the intention of going to Ribadesella.

We stopped at Royal III again and shared a Tortilla York con queso and a cafe and a glass of orange juice.

We then drove to Ribadesella and entered high on a ridge above the bay. Ribadesella surrounds a large bay and River estuary. It is a larger town than Llanes or San Vicente with miles of apartment blocks. 

We drove past the center out to a highlands overlooking the coast and took this picture at a Taberna perched on the side of

We then returned to the center of town.

The center seems to hug an inner bend of the bay. We parked about 1/2 mile from the bend along the bay and walked back toward the center. The road was populated with mostly restaurants and a few souvenir shops. 

When we came to the center point where the roads met at the elbow I stopped and sat at the Sideria Daquerenia and ordered a cider natural

 And Suzette walked three or four blocks around the center and found a flea market with stalls offering antique copper items and a group of lovely old chairs, making her feel as if we needed a house to fill with furnishings.

Perhaps, some day we will, but now.

When Suzette returned we decided to eat lunch at Sideria Daquerenia.

We usually eat a large meal at lunch and eat leftovers for dinner and today was no exception. Suzette was scorpion fish pudding or pate’ on the starter menu, so we ordered that with bread and a beer for Suzette.

The waiter then explained the fish that were served for on person and which were served for two persons using an English menu so we could follow.  He told us monkfish was a two person serving. We decided to share a monkfish. Monkfish is one of Suzette’s favorite fish because it has the richness and some of the texture of lobster. I had never eaten fresh caught monkfish, so I was intrigued to try it fresh.

When the platter came it was larger than I expected, probably a three pound fish. The waiter filleted it for us, a long tube of meat cut from the fish’s strong backbone that ran the length of the fish and put half on each late with half the butter roasted potato halves and two slices of baked tomato.

The fish exceeded my expectations. It was baked in butter and olive oil, so tasted a lot like lobster dipped in drawn butter but also very fishy. We were not even offended by the cost for two of 71 Euro because we knew it would provide three meals.

We loved it, but could only eat three or four bites, so the waiter packed up the majority of the scorpion fish pate’ and the monkfish and potatoes and tomato on two plastic boxes and put them in a carrying bag for us.  We added the rolls, one of which was a yellow color with imbedded olive slices and very delicious.

On our walk back to the car we stopped at an ice cream shop and Suzette ordered a lemon and I ordered pistachio ice creams. We sat for a few minutes on a bench to eat our ice creams and then walked to our car around 2:00 and drove back to San Vicente. 

When we returned we napped until 5:30 and then read until 9:00 when we gathered our leftovers and opened a bottle of white Rioja produced by Hacienda Lopez de Haro that was lovely bottle of wine.

We ate scorpion fish pate on the olive bread drizzled with olive oil and I ate some of Suzette’s seafood salad made by combining the fleftover sardines and zamburnias (bay scallops) with three sliced green olives from our lunch two days ago. Both were delicious with the wine.

We then retired to bed around 10:30.

Bon Appetit