Evora to Galegos

Today we drove from the centre of Portugal to the North East a very rural area on the Spanish border. Firstly we left our hotel in Evora, it is with no sense of exaggeration that I can say that this is one of the best hotels we have ever stayed in.

Why, the staff were absolutely great and had a fantastic can do attitude. They took Portuguese hospitality to a new level. So it was a heavy heart that we left Evora as we also loved the city. Firstly we took a short drive to see a Stone Age site.

It was an impressive stone circle dating from the fourth century BC. It makes you wonder at why this was done given the difficulties of life at the time. It would seem that mankind always has the capacity for something beyond mere survival.

The fortified city of Elvas was our next stop; this is a UNESCO World Heritage site as it is a huge fortified town. ^th century aqueduct that led into the town.

Primarily it was a defensive bastion on the Portuguese/Spanish border. Outside the town were two satellite fortresses.

The one that we visited was reputedly the strongest fortress in Europe and was never captured. You can see from the great views over the city of Elvas the extent of the fortifications and the impressive 17

Then on to our final stop in Portugal, more of a bed and breakfast. There was a communal dinner with two other couples, and here we started the new social interaction when new people meet for the first time, where do you stand on Brexit. Once established that nobody voted for Brexit the conversation turns to who is able to get another European passport. Apparently to get a Portuguese passport you need to buy a property worth €500.000! Really our country has got itself into a very sad situation.

Once again the weather has been brilliant, we are getting quite worried as to how we are going to acclimatise when we get home. What a difficulty!

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.

Evora

We arrived in Evora last night and have been exploring the town ever since. This morning we strolled the short distance into town from our hotel. We sat in the main square,

which was very lively. Just up a short street was the cathedral, with wonderful cloisters,

and apparently a rather unique Iberian organ. I am not an expert on church styles but it had a narrow nave with a high round vaulted roof. It was certainly much lighter than the churches that we had visited previously in Zamora.

The previous evening I had explored the university area, nosing around lecture rooms that were decorated with the most wonderful towers. In the same area I happened on a craft market where I was able to replace a pottery nativity scene that we had bought in Portugal some year’s previously but which had broken. It was all the better as I met the craftsman who had made them.

The city has a good balance between being a local centre and a tourist town, the tourists do not overwhelm it, and as a result it has a really good feel. This is helped by the wonderful weather that we are experiencing; the days are warm (thirty degrees today), while the evenings are cool.

Sometime ago exploring some foodie blogs I came across a winery, or adega called Herdade de Esparao, which was about thirty miles from Evora. The restaurant here has received excellent reviews. It was in a modern building reached along a drive about two miles from the main road. The whole terrain was covered with vines. The dining room was a minimalist white room with picture windows on one side overlooking a lake and the vineyards and olive groves.

There was a choice of two menus, we opted for the more modest six course-tasting menu, which Marion had with a flight of wines, I tried to photograph each course. We started with some Chef’s surprises,   

and then bread was served as a separate course, with aged butter and the chefs specially blended olive oil. Breads are excellent in Portugal, and this example was among the best we have eaten.

The first course was blue-fin tuna; Marion had her doubts but was instantly converted. This was served with a small drink of a smoked tomato mixture that was wonderful; it was almost like drinking bar-b-que smoke.
The second course was four-year-old oysters; this confirmed to Marion that cooked oysters are one of her favourite dishes. This came with a smoking dish with a shell on it, when I asked whether I could eat it, I was told it was for decoration. This was followed by red mullet served with a sort of reduction. Then the highlight for me Alentejo lamb, served with three types of carrot, in a truffle sauce.  I thought this was superb. The first dessert was ewes milk ice cream (a little tasteless) served with rhubarb, not at all like that found around Wakefield. The second was fig based served with a lemongrass granita. The sharp taste of the granita provided a perfect contrast to the sweetness of the figs. Finally there was an espresso, very strong, served with three delightful sweets.

Marion enjoyed her flight of wines, I think nine or ten glasses in all, and so it was just as well that we wrote our tasting notes down. There were a couple of very good reds and an Albarino style wine that was a good accompaniment for the fish. However overall we were in agreement that although the wines were perfectly respectable, they are not in the same league as French wines. Maybe our love of Provence means that we are prejudiced.

Overall it was a great eating experience with some very high quality cooking with exemplary imaginative presentation. It was certainly on a par with the great meals that we have eaten elsewhere.

So then it was back to the hotel for a quiet evening. It was warm enough to play Scrabble outside, before retiring for a late supper. A day that displayed Portugal to its absolute best.

Touril to Evora

Today we travelled across the south of the Alentejo to the capital of the area, Evora. This is a town that we are already falling in love with. On the way we passed an archaeological site.

Superficially it appeared unremarkable, but then I was realised that I was looking at a Bronze Age burial site from the fifth century BC. All the more remarkable as it was unprotected in the middle of nowhere.

We stopped for lunch at the small town of Ourique where we had two baguettes, two waters and a coffee for just over €5, incredible. We arrived in Evora at around 4pm to a lovely welcome at the hotel. Our room is superb and the situation is great within the city walls. Evora is a town not much bigger than Scarborough, totally enclosed by fortified walls. A cathedral and university dominate it. I walked around and the whole place has a good feel. There was a lot going on, with pop-up markets, bands parading through the streets and many cafes.

 

In the evening we went to a restaurant, Momentos, that scored well on the Internet, we were not disappointed, due to my state of inebriation Marion is going to describe the experience for the blog.

How do I describe the delicious meal we had tonight?  Jorge, the proprietor of Momentos restaurant in Evora pulled no punches. " When you eat here you get no chips, no rice, no gravy. Everything is sourced locally" The result was a fabulous meal. We began with an amuse bouche of pumpkin and beans. Then cold soup - gazpacho for Nigel and pear and courgette for me. Then wonderful sardines in an almond crust with a variety of mushrooms tossed in herbs. We couldn't decide what to have for mains and asked Jorge for a recommendation and we had some sea bass and then slow cooked pork cheek and fillet. The wonderful thing was it came with a fab variety of perfectly cooked vegetables. We were stuffed but did try the special (and mercifully quite small!) cheesy muffin type cakes that were Jorge's mother's recipe. All this, with an extremely acceptable bottle of local red wine, made us feel we had dined out in style!  We have eaten very good food in Portugal, mostly very simply prepared, but this was a highlight. We couldn't help feeling that our friends Iain and Barbara would have loved it!

Touril - 2

Before I start today’s blog a photo of last night’s lovely sunset.

Not to be repeated tonight I am afraid as Touril suffered the equivalent of a sea-fret from about 7pm. Never mind it has been another glorious day of weather here in Southern Portugal.

Today we ventured inland exploring the range of hills that back onto both the Western Coast and the Algarve. These are of course the home of one of Portugal’s famous products, cork. Marion was researching this and tells me that one tree can produce up to 100,000 corks a year, sounds a lot to me. However we saw the inner trunks of trees lying in fields, presumably drying before the production process. Any help on how bottle corks are actually manufactures would be gratefully received.

We soon stopped for coffee in a small, remote roadside café. Again drinks are amazing value in Portugal, a coffee and mineral water was €2!

The road through the hills was impressive, suddenly we came upon a Roman bridge, and this was less impressive as it was neither a whole bridge, nor did it look particularly Roman.

It was near a railway station, so for the benefit of Laura I took a picture of a Portuguese train that just happened to be calling there.

We then passed through the small spa town of Monchique, which was beautifully situated in a quiet valley. From there the road rose over the hills to about 1,500 feet and it was possible to view across to the Algarve Coast. We were back at the hotel by 4pm so I took the opportunity for a long walk along the coast, managing about six miles. The walking is easy; if sandy as unlike the coast around Scarborough it does not ascend and descend much. Once again the views are spectacular in particular the little inlets formed in the cliffs. There are supposed to be stork’s nests on the cliff stacks, but I did not spot any – it maybe the wrong season. Great walking country.

Tonight we reprised the same restaurant as last night A Barca and had a spectacular simply cooked meal. Fish soup, sautéed prawns, grilled sole that we were presented with before cooking, and a dessert. The meat just fell of the sole. Together with half a bottle of wine, water and coffee this came to the princely sum of €66. For top quality ingredients simply cooked it could not be beaten. There was also great friendly service. One of those meals that you always remember.

So tomorrow we move on from the coast to the inland city of Evora, more from there.