September 17, 2024 Lunch - De la Manu, Tui, Spain Dinner - Asadero Ruta dos Muíños de Samieira
We got a slow start today but we finally went to a small winery, Adeja Eidos, that makes four wines that are 100% Albariño with both Pontevedra watershed and ocean exposure near O Grove at noon. Willy was not feeling well so he stayed at the house.
We tasted the wines and liked several. Rebecca wanted to stay for the 12:30 tour in English and tasting. We stayed for one of the most comprehensive tours I have ever attended. We visited the vineyard, then the fermenting room, and finally the production facility as the boxes of picked grapes were being delivered. It was a great tour.
Since we had tasted the wines, Billy, Suzette, and I left at 1:00 to so we could meet Elaine and her companions who planned to meet us for lunch in Tui, a town on the Spain side of the Mino River where a bridge crosses the Mino at 2:00.
We arrived a few minutes before 2:00 and went to the De La Manu restaurant and as soon as we were seated at a table with a view of the Mino they arrived. Mickey and Rebecca arrived a few minutes later.
The restaurant offered a two course lunch with bread, and a beverage for 14Euros and one could add a dessert for an extra Euro. I ordered cannelloni stuffed with pork cheeks covered with a cream sauce and Duck breast with rice and a creamy banana sauce plus a glass of red wine.
Suzette ordered a tomato, smoked salmon, and baby eel salad that she liked very much and her second dish was the fish of the day that was a whole sea bass butterflied and cooked a la plancha with salad and baked potato slices with a glass of white wine. Rebecca ordered sautéed shrimp and Hake in a green sauce.
We were very satisfied with the food and service
We shared are dishes and enjoyed the variety of ingredients.
After we finished our two dishes the menu allowed for the addition of a dessert for 1 Euro more, which about 1/2 of us elected. Billy got a three chocolate torte and I got a dark rather firm slice of flan dusted with chocolate powder and sprinkled with roasted almond slivers. Both were lovely desserts.
As we ate we discussed what to do after lunch and I suggested visiting the ruins of a Celtic village on Monte Santa Tegra about ten miles away where the Mino River meets the Atlantic. Mickey and Rebecca were ambivalent and decided to go on their own. Elaine wanted to go home and shower and nap, which made sense since she has been up walking since sun up.
We walked around the area of the restaurant three blocks to an ATM at a Banco Santander where Elaine, Billy, and I drew out money from our bank accounts for a 7 Euro fee for use of their ATM.
As we walked I noticed that there were an extraordinary number of empty buildings. It looked like the Covid melt down hit this area hard or Tui has become a depressed real estate market. That explained to me why lunch was such a good value. The restaurant had discounted it otherwise excellent food and wonderful view of the river valley and Portugal to attract the volume of customers needed to keep the doors open. The restaurant was packed, so the strategy appeared to be working.
So around 4:00 I drove the adults drove the hour back to the house and a nap.
As it turned out, Mickey and Rebecca visited the Celtic ruins on Monte Santa Trega and returned around 6:30. Monte Trega is the most dramatic sighting and best preserved Celtic ruin I have ever seen, although the top of the hill in Boda in Budapestis equally dramatic but lacks actual ruins.
Redemuseos@aguarda.es
https://www.turismoaguarda.es/monte-santa-trega/#gallery-10
After our naps around 7:00 Willy told us about a lovely area near our house where a spring created a gurgling creek where old water powered grain mills were located, at a small village a little way up the hill from the coast named Samieira. There was an improved hiking trail with boardwalks fording the creek called the Ruta dos Muíños de Samieira that snaked up the hillside past 23 old abandoned mills and an asadero at the bottom of the route (ruta).
We decided to drive there since everyone wanted to hike the route and eat at the asadero if it grilled meats on an open grill, as its name implied.
We drove to the Asadero which had a large flat parking area and easy parking.
It was 7:45 and the sign on the Asadero said it did not open until 8:00, so we all walked across the improved road where the route began and walked on the path along the creek up the hill. I made it past the first two mills before turning around. Others made it farther. I returned to the asadero and ordered a 1906 Amber beer. As soon as Willy returned he asked for a table for 7. We were shown to a large table on the terrace of the restaurant.
Soon everyone joined us. Elaine and I were not terribly hungry after the large lunch. Mickey suggested ordering three items, an appetizer of Iberico ham, zamburineas (bay scallops grilled in their half shells with olive oil served with a wedge of lemon and bread to sop up the cooking juices), and a mixed grill Argentinean platter with chicken, beef, pork ribs, and chorizo. We also ordered a bottle of Rioja Reserva red wine to share and several ordered red vermouths.
The food portions were generous and very tasty. The bill came to 114 Euros and I was surprised when Willy and Rebecca offered to pay for dinner. What a pleasant surprise. Willy paid with his Robinhood gold credit card that I think is connected to his savings account.
We had talked about favorite movies at dinner and given the extreme dining experience we had yesterday, Mickey recommended The Menu with Ralph Finnes that is about an extreme multi course dinner where all the guests except one die
After dinner we returned home around 10:30 and Mickey was able with some effort manipulating the controls of the TV to rent The Menu and we watched it. At 12:30 I could no longer endure the violence and went to bed and started this blog entry.
Suzette soon followed after the movie.
Bon Appetit
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