Camino Food

Meals the verdict!

28 10 2007

You have to go back three pages of posts (click previous entries at the bottom of the page) to find the candidates for the top meals on the camino – this is what we wrote back then..

“Tonight in Villamangos we gave it a major thumbs up.
Los Arcos clutches its gold

But Silver and bronze is still being fought out by

Mansilla de las Mulas 6.8 euro
Atapuerca
Sahagun 57 euro in hostal – Si’s was good
Templairos
Navarette
Carrion de los Condes
Villamangos

Made the semi-final

Hontanas
Fromista
Roncesvalles
Puente la Reina
Estrella
Removed from the Roster

Never made the qualifying standard

Redecilla – the worst by a stretch
Zubiri – I was taught how to eat it was that chewy!

Too much fun to eat

Pamplona
Logrono
Burgos
Leon”

So what’s new since then. We had to classify;

Astorga, a la carte, bad choice of fish which had been cooked in vinegar, not good 35 euro too

Foncebadon (top wine), a local vintage of which the hopitalero was very proud, the food was good too and we gave it a silver.

Ponferrrade, we did tapas but the horsemen told us it was commended!

Trabadelo, too tired to taste the wine meant an alcohol free day and an impatience to get the bill and off to bed  meant we forgot what we ate. Truth is we ate it. 18 euro was the bill so semi final.

O’Cebriero, Si and the large white bait, commonly know as small trout. We liked this but the wine was as bad, as the trabedelo had smelt. Same price, same medal for the wine, but the food was good, so all in a semi finalist.

Triacastela, two choices here as we stoked the fires for the future. We might have chosen the wrong starter as the locals had the patatas and veg which was called something else, not the juedas verdes we were used to. Brilliant meal though so definitely in the final. That was lunch, dinner was equally good although the slab of meat was the same size as my boots and was a major test for the new eating habits I’d been learning.

Sarria, this was a lunch. It was excellent and we were going back for the same again at tea time but this time the rugby wasn’t  on so they lost a star. The service at lunchtime was superb again. As usual in Spain there is one person waiting on 40 tables and somehow managing to get all the drinks and orders correctly. She was fantastic and we gave her a big tip, get an assistant, so Simon helped her all afternoon! This is a finalist for the whole atmosphere, very like Palas de Rei.

Portomarin, again a lunch, a 1 1/2 hour extragavanza in the middle of our longest walking day, some 48 kilometres by the time we reached Palas de rei. It was fantastic. I’d gone for Soup starter which was served in the usual fashion. “Here’s a big terrine with a ladel, help yourself.”  I got 5 bowls as Simon watched me dig in for the last 4 waiting for the moment when I would normally say – “want the rest?”, except I didn’t. The Lomo followed as did the pudding and a wee coffee. This was up there for sustenance, service and quality. We didn’t have the wine as we were walking so cant recommend the drink, but the water was good and the price was the usual. Under 20 euro including the kerry oot of water.

Palas de Rei was the hunt for Red October. We had the red mist descending on our red faces from the overlong walk and waited from 8.15 – 8.20 at a restaurant while the world seemed to want a table and there were none. We left in search of another place and went down to the Albergue where a small restaurant was attached. Again a wait but not so long. We took a table that had just been vacated and within 5 minutes our order had been taken, drink had arrived and our order had been re-ordered as the chef had earlier seen a run on the pork. Francois had told us, its a good sign when places run out, it means they dont have 5 week meat in the bottom drawer to sell you, important if your stomach is like Al’s not Si’s. The food was great, so was the drink, the company was good too considering this was the start of where we encountered the english language at every  turn.

Arzua another finalist. This was possibly the best food since Los Arcos. We lapped it up and put it in the final. The hostal in the centre of town just where the road splits to go downhill. Well worth stopping at.

Finally Santiago de Compostela. Its a bit of a cheat as Santiago has many attempts at it. Well, as it transpires, I wouldn’t go back there for the food. Tapas the first night was ok but very expensive. The second night Simon had a fantastic plate of chops for 18euro and a plate of Calimari for 12 euro while I had the set meal which was, well, not so good. Spend enough cash the foods great, but not a finalist for me.

So the Verdict

Los Arcos wins the rosette

Navarette

Portomarin joint with Arzua

 

2011 its all new

There´s a fantastic place in Estrella which is unlikely to be beaten – ensallada Rusa to die for and the rest was pretty good too.

The place is near the bridge at the beginning of the Calle Mayor or maybe before it even becomes Calle Mayor – it also has WiFi