Alameda Park
Possibly the best park we've been to in Europe according to Nix. She might just be right. Tulips and daisies and all manner of other flowers were in full bloom, heaps of fountains and other watery things, and cool bearded guys hanging out together.
And the highest concentration of cool ducks we've ever seen too. Ducks with mohawks, ducks with long legs, ducks with stunning plumages, heaps of cool ducks!
Silly Pilgrims
What is a little bit amusing is seeing the pilgrims (SdC is the final stop for many of a very commonly traversed pilgrimage) wandering around the old town with a map in their hands looking for the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela. They've just walked 500 plus kilometres to get to SdC and have managed to stumble just a few centimetres from the finish line. Oh dear.
The cathedral itself is a very epic building.
However, as is the fate of a lot of old, beautiful buildings, it's currently under repair and enjoying it in its full beauty wasn't possible whilst we were there.
Tapas Time - Round 2
After a couple weeks in Portugal we were back in the land of the tapas bar.
Taberna do Bispo
We broke the golden tapas rule here of not more than a couple of plates and a couple of drinks. Settling in at the bar for a while was just too bloody appealing.
Nix finally got to try her pimientos de padron, we had a great serving of whitebait and plate of deliciously meaty octopus.
o Bandullo do lambon
A random find that's a boutique food and booze store come Tapas bar. We opted not to eat anything but were presented with our first free tapa! Woo! A simple little chorizo with melted cheese on bread. Simple but effective.
O Beiro
This is a wine bar that's almost a hundred years old. We had a couple of glasses of wine before I moved onto something a little stronger, aguardiente. It is like Spanish firewater and is fermented from grapes and is sort of like the Spanish version of grappa. It's v potent and got an, "are you sure?", from the barman. I'm pretty mad though.
We ate some freebie buttery, Cheetos like things and a large plate of very interesting mixed chorizos. They were meaty meaty meaty and actually pushed Nix's meatiness threshold to its limit. Which is a difficult thing to do to someone who likes steaks that are still mooing when they hit the plate.
Trafalgar
You go to Trafalgar for one thing - their Tiger Mussels.
Massive plump mussels that swim in a spicy paprika and tomato sauce. The sauce began to rekindle Francesinha nightmares but the mussels saved the day. Big, juicy, succulent and delicious. Certainly worth a stop over on a tapas trail through SdC.
Orella
Orella translates as ear in Spanish, so it doesn't take a genius to work out what Orella specialises in. Pig's ears. Chewy, gelatinous, salty, cartilagey, porky pig's ears.
The first couple of mouthfuls take a bit of adjusting to as textually they're a slight bit on the confronting side. Which is probably why the barman laughed when I ordered them and continued to look over at us whilst we were eating them. After adjusting to them they turned out to be a rather delectable little beer snack.
O Gato Negro
This place translates as The Black Cat. However this time I'm not sure exactly why that is. We had a pretty good empenada there which I'm fairly certain wasn't cat flavoured.
We also drank house white wine in the traditional Galician ceramic cups at O Gato Negro - as seems to be the norm in the old school bars in SdC.
Note the turtle mouth on the person below.
Bar Orense
This is an old boys' club and is good for free Tapas and other fairly solid simple fare. And more wine in ceramic cups too.
Meson Abella
Epic, freebie, homemade crisps with slivers of pork on top? Check.
More pimientos de padron? Check.
Razorclams? Check!!
Mesón o 42
More pig's ears! This time they were better too. We've discovered that the more base of the ear meaty chunks you get the better.
More wine in ceramic cups as well.
Negreira
Our final stop. House speciality patatas marinated in chilli oil. A good and simple end.
The Local Specialities
Pulperia Sanjurjo
We hadn't had octopus since we were in Brussels in December in preparation for this moment. A plate of the best occy (pulpo) that you've ever laid your eyes on.
I can tell you it was worth waiting for you. We'd read about this guy who sells the famous Galician octopus at the markets from a massive stock pot so that was brekky on our first morning.
Mr Pulpo pulls one from his pot and snips up its tentacles into bite sized pieces before smothering it in olive oil and dusting it with paprika and a decent pinch of rock salt. Words don't do it justice.
Empenada Central
Is what SdC appears to be. A pulpo empenada was the pick of a bunch that also included bacalau with sultanas, minced meat and chorizo with leek.
Getting a good photo of an empenada is nigh on impossible. So here's a grid of really bad empenada photos.
Tarta de Santiago
The good food didn't stop. These almond tarts are light and airy but dense at the same time. Sexy, tasty little tarts they are.
Titty Cheese
Another SdC speciality is tetilla, otherwise known as titty cheese. No really, it is genuinely modelled on a breast to spite a prudish priest. Nicola thought she would model them for you.
*not only does that say pulpo but it's also an octopus with its hands in the air yelling woo!
