September 6, 2024 Lunch - a Mirandilla in Rinlo. Dinner - La Yenka in Playa de Catedrales
We ate breakfast at the hotel, fresh melon, bread, biscuits (a form of coffee cake), orange juice, and coffee or tea.
Then around 11:00 we drove to the playa entrance near the Cathedral rocks and walked to the Cathedral rock arch on the beach with hundreds of other tourists at 11:30 which was low tide that made Walking on the beach easy because there is an 8 meter difference between low tide and high tide that means about 1/4 of a mile of exposed beach.
I must admit the cathedrals rocks were dramatic but I am not sure I agree that this the most beautiful beach in the world or even Spain as the local promotional material promotes. It clearly ranks among the 20 best beaches in Spain, which is impressive because, Ibiza, the Canary Islands, and Tenerife are included.
Suzette after walking to the cathedral rocks dipped her toes in the water on our way back to the stairs from the beach to the lookout (Mirador) overlooking the beach.
We then drove the 4 miles to Rinlo, which is a lovely small village we visited last year. This year we made a reservation at the best restaurant, A Mirandilla. We parked near where we parked last year across the bridge and up the hill and walked back to the center and the extra block to the restaurant 15 minutes early for our 1:30 reservation. At 1:30 we were shown to a table in the upstairs dining room. It did not take long to peruse the on line menu. We decided on Percebes (goose necked Barnacles) and a dish called clams and octopus. The plate of steamed barnacles was served first. We figured out how to remove the heavy goose neck and expose the meat inside and ate them with bread. When we finished we were served the clams and octopus that turned out to be a thick tomato and potato broth filled with clams and slices of octopus cooked to perfection, so a thick chunky soup. We loved it, especially since we had never eaten anything like it before. The waitress told us it was a traditional dish. A new Spanish Cuisine discovery.
We decided to split a molten chocolate cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert
After lunch around 3:00 we returned to the room and rested until 6:00 when I had a 2 hour zoom meeting.
At 8:30 we decided to walk to the beach but since it was cold and starting to rain we decided to stop in at the bar at the La Yenka restaurant at the end of the street across from the beach.
We sat at a table in the bar around 8:45 and Suzette ordered a vermouth and they served Yzaguirre Reserva red vermouth, her second most favored vermouth. I ordered a glass of Albariño that seemed to be slightly acidic at first but mellowed as I drank it. Soon a waiter came by with a platter of fried squid steak strips that he was offering to all persons in the bar. . I took two. Then a few minutes later a waitress returned with the platter still half full of Fried squid slices and offered them to us agin and I took two more. At this point I felt like dinner was irrelevant because I had just eaten approximately 4 oz. of squid.
The lentil stew with potatoes, ham, and chorizo
But the food kept coming. Next was a baked pastry stuffed with tuna called empanada de atun and a few minutes later another waiter came with small squares of chorizo filled empanada. I was really full by now, but in another few minutes, after we ordered seconds on our drinks which appears to be the purpose of serving all the tapas, a waiter offered small bowls of Cooked lentils in potatoes and chorizo and ham and finally around 9:30 he came with a final round of bowls of lentil with potatoes, ham, and chorizo. So in less than an hour we were served six traditional hot tapas.
Our 4 drinks came to a total of 10 Euros. I felt enchanted by this introduction to Spanish Cuisine, the free tapa that amounted to dinner with the purchase of a drink. There was an older lady sitting next to us reading a magazine who had finished eating a piece of cake before we arrived who was served all the tapas we were served. It seemed to me that the flow of tapas amounted to a show of gratitude and hospitality for patronizing the establishment. We had a similar experience in Astorga last year in Vermuteria, but their tapas were all cold. Because we were in a good restaurant with a full kitchen tonight the tapas were hot.
Every day we are having wonderful Spanish food experiences.
Bon Appetit
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