It has been a couple of weeks and it is time to get caught up to date on what we have been eating. As I often state, we don't do high end dining when we travel. We look for stuff that is in the neighborhoods we are visiting or living in, try to find things that are representative, and that are relatively well rated.
The Many Meals of Lami
Pizzeria-Restaurante Lami in El Campello is our kind of 'regular'. It is not in the tourist center, offers good, solid food at good prices. We are now 'sort of known' by the young family member who manages the place. We usually go there 3 or 4 times while we are in Campello. We love the pizza
And the menu del dia is even more of a value because it has an extra course of soup to start. Gazpacho was the selection a couple of times this trip
First courses we had included
Beans with Sausage
Croquettas
Meatball Stew with Potatoes
Seconds included
A Lasgna Wife enjoyed a lot
And a Roasted Ham Hock (a popular item in this area) that I enjoyed a lot as well
We are expanding beyond the pizza and menu del dia items
One day I had their version of Patatas Bravas
It was made with homemade potato chips rather than roasted potatoes and had a different make of Brava sauce then we usually see.
RMG, who is vegetarian, had Pear Ravioli which featured a blue cheese type of sauce and walnuts
I've seen on their menu a Roasted Meat Platter for Two. Having 3.2, a confirmed carnivore, visiting provided the excuse to try it
The meat was far better than I expected, some of the best we've had in Spain. Plus 3.2 and I nearly finished the whole plate! We ate about 80% and consumed the rest the following day.
We had a couple of nice desserts. One, a tiramisu, didn't make it on the phone camera. The other, this hot brownie with both a dark and white chocolate center, was a big hit with Wife, RMG and I. Sharing a dessert is a very common thing to do in Spain according to RMG
A Weird Meal in Cartagena
We usually do pretty well finding places to eat on the fly when we are visiting places for our day trips. But our selection in Cartagena was not a winner. It was a bar and hand small plates rather then the usual menu del dia we get. And it was a bit of an experimental/fusion type place which I hadn't anticipated either
This is Octopus Toast
The octopus itself was excellent. Very tender and tasty. But the sauce on it was sweet! Which was to NOT appealing to me at all!
We tried the Croquettas of Prawn
They were okay, but not particularly strong in prawn flavor
We tried Artichoke with ham and cheese
We thought the ham and cheese would be melted on it. But it was just cold pieces and fell off as you tried to eat it so you didn't get the flavor combination. Plus which the sauce on the bottom was again a sweet, fruit based sauce with some very syrupy balsamic.
Finally we had ordered what was called a Coconut Prawn Curry. This is what came out.
The prawns were cold and the curry was a sauce over it. The black stuff was a type of salt crystal. The prawn heads were deep fried but a bit too big and tough to really eat (I sucked the juice). Underneath was a salad like an Ensaladilla Rusa but I think with crab.
This was the meal that did not sit well with us before our boat trip on the harbor
Later in the day, we stopped for Gelato.
Wife contemplates the unusual flavor
The chocolate was mixed with some kind of nut paste to give it an almost chewy texture rather than a gelato texture
We punted for dinner. We had Ramen
Which was fine. Though the place it was served in was a bit over the top for us.
A Menu del Dia by Alicante Train Station returns all that is right in the world
After picking RMG up at the train station, we realized it was lunch time. We picked a place that was on the way between the station and the parking garage. Nothing exceptional, and were rewarded with the kind of dependable, solid food we've come to expect.
I had a Andalusian style soup with Garbanzo Beans and Bacalao and a strong saffron broth
Wife's first course was a Spaghetti Carbonara
Wife's main was Prawns and Scrambled Eggs (which she liked)
I had a grilled pork dish that was quite tough
RMG didn't want a whole meal so had a fried eggplant dish that was both attractive with the eggplant crispy on the outside and soft on the inside
I've talked about this so many times, but the Menu del Dias were under $14 each which included a drink
Finally, no compendium of Eldership trip gastronomy is complete with out at least a small report on Casa Miquel
Breakfast of Pain au Chocolat & Chocolat Croissants from local bakery
We had many meals of mega salads from the bounty of our local markets
