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Spanish Songer/Songwriter at La Tertulia in Granada
Erin and I attended a very NYC East Village destination for music and other performing arts in Grenada.
View from launch by Placeta St. Nicolas
Best Lunch of my Life
My longtime readers know I like to eat. I’m a foodie, an eater. Newer readers need to know my primary past time is eating. Not cooking, eating. Therefore making the statement that I just experienced the best lunch of my life is a big deal.
I must qualify that the meal had the advantage of being on a hill directly across from a UNESCO world heritage site and had a panoramic view of the subject the Al Hambra. Therefore the atmosphere (and view) is what makes this the best lunch of my life.
Nevertheless without delicious, regional food – in this case Andalusian in Granada – the impressive and encompassing view would not have qualified the meal as the best lunch of my life.
We ordered a bottle of wine from Granada – 1368 Cerros de Manjos vintage 2003 – that we drank slowly as to allow it to open up.
Erin ordered an aubergine salad that was in fact more of a delicious stack of french fries as the eggplant was julienned and deep fried in a delicate batter – served with honey dipping sauce. I had a bowl of gazpacho which was surprisingly better than the recipe I make sourced from KCRW. http://goodfoodonkcrw.vox.com/library/post/gazpacho-recipe.html
For entrees Erin ordered a blood sausage pudding with a mango compote and cookie crumble topping accompanied by a port reduction sauce. I has solomillo (grilled tenderloin/ filet mignon) with the same port reduction and the enhancement of froie gras.
For dessert we had a flan prepared as a creme brûlée with a fragile caramel topping. We also ate piononos, a Granada specialty of cake rolled with caramel like a cinnamon roll served with a rich cream flavored with cinnamon.
I ordered a digestif of what turned out to be an extremely long pour of cognac. Then enjoyed the complementary shot of honey rum served with la cuenta.
The food was impeccably prepared and matched the impeccable view of the Al Hambra I focused on while enjoying the meal from my open-window, table-side, and elevated view. I was able to take in the scale of Al Hambra for over two full hours. This external, distant survey seved to prepare me for my afternoon and evening visits of Al Hambra scheduled the next day.
I must give credit to the restaurant that made this all possible… Las Estellas Mirador San Nicolas located in Placeta San Nicolas in the Albayzin neighborhood of Granada.
P.S. I apologize but I have yet to figure out how to post pics with the iPhone wordpress app. Once I get to a computer I’ll post Spain pics.
Cordoba Stopover with Visit to Mezquita
We left Barcelona today to train down to Andalucia where we were to spend one night in Cordoba before moving on to Granada. However, upon learning the trains would not operate tomorrow, 9/23 due to a general strike we opted to travel through Cordoba all the way to Granada in one day.
Nevertheless we had several hours between trains that afforded us the opportunity to visit the Mezquita mosque and a traditional Cordoba gardened patio.
The mosque in Cordoba was the second largest in the world in its day, second only to the mosque in Mecca. The Cordoba mosque had one of the first copies of the Koran and a bone of the prophet Mohamed.
Unable to viscerally experience the history of the structure I appreciated its architecture in the present. Christians conquered Cordoba in the 13th century and modified the center of the mosque into a cathedral. I had no interest in the latter remodeling and focused on the original Moorish elements.
The ornate and intricately decorated mihrab was well worth the visit as I felt connected to a sacred place. I spent an appreciable amount of time meditating on the mihrab to respect it’s significance.