4th of september

For the last six years this date has become a very special one, where the main goal is having a great time. This year we spent it in Poio, a little town in the Ria de Pontevedra, where by now we have a couple of places I can say we adore.

After a few "aperitivos" this long lunch started with mackerel, which was basically hidden under a colourful mini-garden. A "fried egg" was meant to be the following stop, which ended up providing much more than a plain fried egg could ever dream with.

Another classic in our Galician diet is a good plate of "chipirones", so we couldn't afford not to try them after such a revealing egg moment.

The produce was truly brilliant, but the engineering behind it was even better. "Merluza" (hake) was about to arrive, and again it was tremendously full of flavour. 

Meat was also on the list, but this time it did't really feel as such, given the lightness and delicacy of the whole combination of ingredients: caramelized veal sweetbread on a truffled pure; simply brilliant.

One more time we decided to go the albariño way, and again we explored one we didn't know; the result was certainly impressive. This one came from Cambados, and is was apparently the first release.

It was time for cheese, and we got a five piece exercise, in order to keep our good shape. The suggested combination was perfectly balanced: Italian Carlina with soybean shoots, French Comté with muesli and honey, Basque Idiazabal with raisins, French St. Paulin with pistachios, Sicilian Ubriaco di Nero d'Avola with orange, and finally Canarian Majorero with green apple.

"Queimada" is not the kind of drink you expect to drink before dessert. I particularly never was a big fan of it, but taking a few elements away, and twisting a little bit the traditional practice, it became another winning moment of this phenomenal meal. In this case it was cold and it basically had no alcohol left.

Having three options and being able to take the three of them is not the usual thing, but when dining in Poio almost anything is possible. Of course we didn't hesitate, and our combined efforts proved we were right.

Chocolate somehow always makes life more enjoyable, doesn't it? But we didn't forget we want to be healthy, so we could not forget some fruit, which for some reason seems to be a perfect complement to ice cream.

And this wasn't purely ice cream. It had to include something else that would make it more valuable. They simply called it "leche, cacao, avellanas y azucar (milk, cacao, walnuts and sugar)", which used to be the slogan for a well known Spanish spread. As you probably can see, they went a little farther than what that boring name was anticipating.

It was time to finish so, after our ice coffee, we entered the finale: more chocolate and pineapple lollipops made a perfect ending to this magnificent fourth day of September.