Evora - Day 2

Sunday was a lazy day with another gastronomic experience. Readers of the blog may think this is a little gross, but this was always designated as our foodie weekend. So at the risk of sounding like Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as pointed out by Iain and Barbra (Iain you are welcome to act as my agent for a TV deal), here goes.

We had a slow start and a modest breakfast of fruit in preparation for dinning at the L’AND Vineyards. This is a much-praised restaurant, and is situated in a modern hotel, which is the centrepiece of the aforementioned vineyards. The dining room was ultra modern with a large picture window overlooking the hotel grounds.

The menu was again fixed with the only choice being the number of courses. Again each course was modest in size and very artistic in presentation. Initially a choice of breads was presented with a local cheese and olive oil. The cheese was really tasty and delicious. The emphasis was again on local produce and a modern take on local cooking. The surprise, these are now so much part of the scene as not to be a surprise was a gazpacho, oyster, and small piece of fish. The first course was a pork terrine covered with a langoustine sauce, delicious. The next in my opinion struck the only slightly off note. Essentially it was a steamed dumpling containing shredded chicken. Although the sauce and the filling were excellent, I felt that the dumpling did not have the gossamer texture of the Chinese dish on which it was modelled. Next a star, sea bream cooked on a bed of cockle migas, a stunning combination where the migas really brought out the flavours of the bream. We were drinking a glass of the local white wine that was in my opinion the best Portuguese wine that we had tasted to date. It had a lovely nose, with a dry finish but not one that totally disappeared. The main course was cured duck, served with a peanut and satay sauce. The duck was brilliantly cooked. Lastly we had different sweets, Marion’s one that was comprised totally of raspberries or raspberry based confections, and mine of dark and white chocolate tiramisu with coffee ice cream. Both were stunning to look at, and the coffee ice cream was probably the best that I have ever eaten. Marion accompanied this with a port like dessert wine that had flavours of liquorice, which she pronounced perfect. We rounded off with coffee and chocolates.

In all the meal took three hours and was an absolute delight, from the service, surroundings, and contents. It had a formal style that was not stuffy, probably a typical Portuguese characteristic. It terms of oomph this was the best meal of the holiday so far.

To aid the digestion I went for an early evening walk, by now I know Evora fairly well. But for the first time I appreciated the scale of the Roman aqueduct that runs from the city walls out into the countryside. It is largely intact and to see it snaking off into the distance is remarkable.

So tomorrow we are off into the northern countryside, and are probably looking forward to a simpler style of life and food.