Category: Food and Travel

Vending machines with REAL MILK

My oldest sister Denise always says that my daughter should be a spokesperson for Asturias,  as it is her favorite province in Northern Spain.  We have been vacationing up north since she was a very small baby and it is something she looks forward to all year long.  She will ramble on about the green landscape, the beautiful beaches, the wonderful food, and of course the healthy cows that produce her favorite milk and ice-cream.  We try to spend most of our time in campgrounds while visiting the north of Spain because we love the people and the freedom that Luna has to run around.  Spending the days swimming and hiking from cove to cove is one of our favorite past times.  One of the most picturesque towns is Luanco, just west of Gijón.  We spent one night in the town a few years ago at a beautiful hotel right on the sea where they served us breakfast as we watched the fish swim.

Breakfast and Fish

We always go back to Luanco for a few reasons.  One, is the delicious ice-cream we have found there, my favorite being rice pudding, which is the richest most delicious bit of cream I have ever tasted.  Luna always tastes a different flavor, trying to never repeat.  The other reason for visiting Luanco is the wonderful family beach in the town.  But, on our last trip Luna found her best excuse for visiting Luanco.   Milk from Asturian cows sold in a vending machine!!! For one euro she proudly carried her liter of fresh cow milk back to the campground.  Amazing.  Milk from a vending machine that tasted like actual milk and even had a layer of cream on top.  Does life get better than this when you are 5, or 39??????

Rabas and Bravas

Rabas y Bravas
Rabas y Bravas

Deep fried food.  Before moving to Spain this was something I ate occasionally in a bar or to cure a hangover.  In Spain however, fried food disguises itself in a way that almost makes it seem healthy.  And, according to many a Spaniard, if it is prepared correctly it is healthy indeed.  You may try to avoid it, try to minimize, but it is always there and always delicious.  Even after 17 years I still haven’t taken up the tradition of deep frying in my own home.  I prefer to leave the dirty work to someone else and enjoy my “fritanga” sitting on a beach or a pleasant terrace.  The smell of my neighbor’s fried fish wafting into my open windows three times a week is as close as I need to be.

Two years ago we discovered a great campground in a national park on the Northern coast of Spain in the region of Cantabria.  From the campground you can walk down to an extensive beach, Oyambre, that allows amazing views of the “Picos de Europa”, a spectacular mountain range.  Last year we discovered a great little restaurant still open in the off season where we enjoyed a menu of the day that included a pinto bean stew and an excellent tuna with onions or atún encebollado, typical along this coast.  When we returned this year in August, the main beach restaurant or “chiringuito” as we would call it here was open.  El Pájaro Amarillo as it is called has beautiful views of the beach from its extensive terrace.  We were looking to eat something “light” on our first afternoon at the beach.  Since my daughter is a huge fan of fried calamares we decided to order “rabas” .  They are basically deep fried squid cut to be straight instead of rings.  We also ordered a “ración” of patatas bravas ( fried potatoes in a spicy sauce).  The fried squid in Cantabria is one of the most tender and delicious that I have had in the country (and my daughter eats it everywhere possible).  But, the patatas bravas were unbelievable.  This is a typical tapa served all over the country in many different ways.  Like my daughter with fired squid, I try to taste all varieties of patatas bravas throughout the country.  What usually varies the most is the sauce.  These were actually patatas mixtas which includes both the spicy tomato sauce and an alioli or garlic mayonnaise.  Both of the sauces were so delicious that we dipped both the potatoes and the squid into the sauce.  YUM!!!  The alioli held enough garlic to ward off the flu for 5 years and the brava sauce was actually SPICY!!!  Something very unusual in Spain.  We returned the next day and ordered the exact same simple meal without one regret.  The beach is beautiful and the mixture of sand, sun and fried yumminess makes it all the more worth the visit!!!

Bonito Encebollado