September 14, 2024 Lunch - Restaurant Acuna in Raxo. Dinner - Paella

September 14, 2024 Lunch - Restaurant Acuna in Raxo. Dinner - Paella

We slept in. I ate the chocolate turnover for breakfast with a cup of tea. Later Luke made eggs and I ate some scrambled eggs with buttered toast spread with marmalade.

Then around 11:00 all five of us piled into the car and drove west to Raxo.  We first stopped at a beach wear shop and bought sun glasses and beach towels. We then drove down to the beach and Luke, Willy, and Suzette went swimming I sat at Acuna Restaurant and drank a beer auntie 1:30, when I went into my knees. At 2:00 we took a table for 5 at Acuna and ordered lunch. It was a chaotic scene with several large multiple family groups with larger groups than us.

Billy and I ordered the Menu, which was 13 Euros for a plate of clams in a light tomato sauce and a second plate with two pork cutlets , salad, and French fries. I drank water and Billy drank beer.  Suzette ordered a hamburger with cheese and when asked if she wanted that complete she said, “Yes, except no bacon.” Suzette thought that meant tomato, lettuce, and onion, as in the U.S., but what it meant here in Spain was with a fried egg on the burger.  Willy ordered something similar and got two hamburger patties and two fried eggs with French Fries and Luke went a little crazy as usual ordering three dishes, Langustinos a la Plancha, which were fabulous, a small Tortilla Espanol which filled a plate and which he only ate about 1/5 of, and a Cesar salad that he only ate 1/2 of. Others helped him eat the Cesar, and we had the tortilla wrapped to go with a loaf of bread and one of Willy’s uneaten hamburger steaks.

We drove back to the house at 4:00. Suzette and I napped and Willy took Billy to an ATM to withdraw $ from his account and then when they returned, Luke drove the car to Pontevedra to shop and Billy napped.

I woke up at 5:30 and Willy came from his nap and took off for a hike to the top of the mountain again. This time he made it to some ancient gpetroglyphs at the top of the ridge behind or house.

I read until 8:00 when Billy began to cook dinner. Suzette and he had agreed how to cook the paella. He would sauté the chorizo, onion, garlic and leeks and then make stock by adding a fish broth cube and tomato sauce to water and then cook the rice in the broth. Finally, we would combine the rice and sautéed vegetables and chorizo and add the monkfish, the two fish fillets, the clams, and mussels and heat the entire conglomeration.

This worked perfectly except Billy did not read the instructions on the tomato sauce jar and put the entire jar of tomato sauce instead of half, for example, which pushed the flavor in a decidedly tomato direction and for me, obscured the flavor of the saffron we added.

To make an obvious point also, the result was not a baked rice dish, as is classical Spanish paella or arroz as they call it in Galicia. Instead, it was a wet rice dish, which is what we usually cook. So we found it acceptable.

While Billy cooked I watched the first half of the Bournemouth v. Chelsea match with Willy and drank a couple of white vermouths.

We opened the bottle of Mar de Frades Albariño and discovered it was the 80% variety that is not aged on the lies. What that meant in terms of flavor was a very bright clean acidic Albariño.

After dinner I cut 3 pieces of the cube of meringue and puff pastry I bought at our favorite bakery in Combarro. Suzette would not eat any and Billy ate the chocolate turnover I bought at the bakery.

We then watched an episode of Emily in Paris and went to sleep.

Bon Appetit