Uncategorized – Page 2 – Beauperi Investments

Posted on October 25, 2015October 25, 2015 by beauperi · 1 Comment

The Final Countdown

Thursday, 8 October, 2015

Today is the last day of the tour and it promises to be absolutely huge. It turns out almost nothing like the trip Itinerary but that is OK as it was very special. We start out by going to the local market Mecardo de Atarazanas.

The guy on the right with Frank is a famous local Chef, Jose Carlos Garcia. The girl and the guy at the left are our local guides for all of today. And the guy with the dark blue shirt is our Chef for the dinner tonight.

It is a typical market with lots of interesting foodstuffs.

Seafood - Malaga is right on the Mediterranean — Seafood – Malaga is right on the Mediterranean

Feed the man Meat - not much of that today — Feed the man Meat – not much of that today

Diego leaves us to go back to his restaurant and we all jump into taxis to go down to the beach. There are several restaurants on the beach with various cooking set-ups on the sand.

Threading sardines on the skewers. Note salt is the only flavouring added

The Guys watching the skewers in front of the fire

Jose Carlos showed us how to eat the sardines

More sardines - lemon can be used although it is not traditional — More sardines – lemon can be used although it is not traditional

Sue and Virginia had a go threading the sardines on a skewer. Sue’s came out perfect but Virginia’s lost one while cooking. Any way, we depart our nice hosts for a “short walk” down the beach to our next destination.

Why wasn't this our final destination — Why wasn’t this our final destination

Finally, after a long walk. Linda and I kept up the rear

It turns out we are at a nice restaurant which also doubles as a cooking school which is our first activity.

First course - cold almond soup — First course – cold almond soup

I stayed away from the “school” and had to put up with a cold snagria, wine with every course etc. Note: they provided a small cookbook for the courses that were being made. There was the first page.

The cooking class ended and we head into the restaurant for lunch, we really haven’t had enough to eat already?? Alan and Kerry depart by taxi to go to the Picasso museum while Julie decides she will walk back to town, skipping the lunch.

Plato de Los Montes - a bit of meat at last — Plato de Los Montes – a bit of meat at last

*****************************************************We take taxis back to the Hotel. We say goodbye to Carlos, our guide for the last two weeks who has to go back to Madrid to start another job tomorrow. Later on we are to go out to dinner. A new bus picks us up around the corner, street construction is still going one. A couple of the group have dropped out because they were not feeling well and during the night two more took a taxi back for the same reason. More about hit is tomorrow’s Post. We travel a while into the hills outside Malaga and end up at our destination which is a Double Tree Hotel complex.

When we get inside, Diego, El Chef Del Caviar, takes us outside to the patio where he explains that they use the only organic caviar in the world.

Diego speaking about and showing his caviar

Julie was told that they don’t make much money from the restaurant but use it to promote sales of the Caviar from the company. We are then lead back into the restaurant and settle into two tables. This is the multi-course pairing menu we were given.

Impressive presentation of Trout tartare. sturgeon cream and fake Tilapia water lily

Sturgeon sobrasada and sturgeon black pudding macarrons

Dessert - ginger bread and tangerine ice cream — Dessert – ginger bread and tangerine ice cream

As each course was served Diego would give a verbal short summary of the dish(es)

Julie took a brief tour of the modern kitchen

Diego with Di and John and a little bit of Virginia

Our young tour guides for the day. Note we were able to get some Vino Tinto, Suze moved it up the order

A very impressive meal. There are rumours of Michelin stars but I have not been able to prove that one way or the other. The following site is good in explaining about the restaurant and what Diego is doing.

Link to Spanish Spoon description of Sollo

It is after midnight. We get on the bus for the ride back to the Hotel. Once there it is good night and goodbye as we are all spreading in different directions in the morning. It is the end of what one would have to say was a great tour. Well done Suze and Josh.

Link to MPT world wide journeys

Posted on October 23, 2015October 24, 2015 by beauperi · 1 Comment

The Alhambra

Wednesday, 7 October, 2015

Today our major goal is to visit the famous Alhambra. Some of the group, notably the white wine drinkers from last night, are moving a bit slowly or not at all. However, Julie is out early to go to the local market and shops.

Julie gave these couples our presents of cans and jars of Tuna products from the Tuna factory. The couples were quite excited.

Eventually the group gets together at the Hotel and we take taxis to Alhambra. The following link will tell a much greater story than I can of this famous Moorish palace/fortress.

Link to Wikipedia story of Alhambra

****** Note the voice receivers each one in the group is wearing. The local guide has a microphone to broadcast to those receivers.

Looking over the palace itself towards Granada

I took lots of photos, as did the others, but I only want to include a few in this Blog. I am sure that there are much better available on the Net or elsewhere and this is a food and wine Blog, not one for architecture.

Our guide showing us some of the colours of Alhambra

Throughout the Alhambra are courtyards with fountains

The Castle built by the Christians after they drove the Moors out of Spain

We end our tour and say goodbye to our local guide, who was quite good. Most of the people went into the tourist (trap) shops. Julie said she would have just a quick peak in – was just about the last one out. In any case, we head to our lunch spot which is a restaurant within a Hotel located in the “free area” of the Alhambra.

Link to Hotel Parador, Granada

I think I missed shooting some of the dishes but it was a very nice lunch. We take taxis back to the Hotel. We are only in Granada the one night so earlier today we had brought all the bags down and put them in the storage room. We wait for our bus, yet another bus driver and company. Once it arrives we load up the luggage and then ourselves and get going. We are going to Malaga, the last stop on this tour. It is an easy drive with good roads and takes around 2 hours. I am surprised at how big Malaga is, around a million people in the area.

When we get to the Hotel we run into a problem in that the street in front of the Hotel is being torn up for some reason. It means the bus can’t get close to the Hotel and hence we have a walk, not too bad, and the suitcases need to be manually humped to the Lobby. Additionally, we will have to put up with jack-hammers out the front during our stay. In spite of all that it wasn’t really too bad.

After finally getting all the suitcases in, we make it to our room. As might be expected, Julie goes out prancing for a while.

Again tonight nothing formal is planned but we are to go out with Frank and much of the group to Malaga tapas bars.

Interesting but we did not stay there long

We walk out to a bar in another area passing this along the way:

We select another bar which looks to be quite crowded but the bar puts some tables together for us an most of us get seats.

The food was good, the wine was good but we did not have the late night like the previous night. Tomorrow is the final day and we are told that it is going to be a big one.

Posted on October 22, 2015October 23, 2015 by beauperi

Oh! Granada

Tuesday, 6 October, 2015

Well, today we depart from our great experience at The Lodge. We get on the bus – new driver, different bus and pick up the Hotel group. It is around a 2 1/2 hour drive to the famous town of Granada. I thought I would start with the sights and sounds of Granada with the following music video from Vimio:

Inspirational, eh?

We arrive at our Hotel and the plan is to unload all of the luggage into the lobby and then a storage room while we go out for lunch. Turns out Julie and I are able to check-in during the unloading and put our stuff in our Hotel room. The group then heads out for lunch.

An impressive meal. I must say that this, my fourth time in Spain, I have really gained a much bigger appreciation of Spanish food. Any way we trudge back to our Hotel.

We only stayed one night in Granada many in the group wished we had been there longer.

Link to Palacio de Santa Paula

I settle into the Hotel room for rest and Blogging. Julie heads out, of course, to some of the local shops and here are a couple of her pictures.

There is nothing formal scheduled for this evening but we have decided to follow Frank and Suze to some Tapas bars. Julie and I decide to have a drink in the bar down below in the Hotel before we go out and meet up and join Kerry and Alan there. Then it is off to the first Tapas joint.

Frank and Josh in the first place, love the guy in the background. Photo from Suze.

They give me a Sherry to drink but it was too sweet, so replaced it with a red wine – which is off. As there are no chairs available we decide to move on. A bit of a walk leads us to:

It is early by Spanish time, 8:30 PM, and hence the place is virtually empty. This means we can get a couple of tables with stools, which is welcome.

The staff at Bar FM know of Frank as a famous celebrity and are delighted to pose in a photo with him.

I estimated that the non-red drinkers went through 20 bottles of white wine while Julie and I went through 1 bottle of red. OK, toward the end we ordered a second vino tinto. It was well after midnight before we got back to the Hotel and it is another big day tomorrow.

Posted on October 21, 2015October 21, 2015 by beauperi · 1 Comment

Grapes and Quail

Monday, 5 October, 2015

We start out a bit later today as it is not as full-on as some of the others. Our first destinations are two wineries in the nearby area.

Arriving at our first winery - DV — Arriving at our first winery – DV

The winery is a very old Convent from the 1500s that has been converted and restored.

Link to DV winery history

He then took us on an extensive tour of the winery and the grounds. There was moisture in the air and some of the paths / rock stairs were quite slippery. For whatever reason I did not take any photos on the tour. So we go back into the winery for the tasting.

Table set-up for our tasting after the tour

Josh organised chairs for Sue, broken leg, and me, old fart

We thank our generous host and drive off in the bus to our next stop, a second winery.

The guys start out on a tour but it is raining and I am not feeling up to it so I take a seat under cover from the last photo. I am joined by a few others as well. After a while, we are called down into the cellar for lunch – fulsome as ever.

Chinchilla meaning is the same in English and is a small rodent

Totrilla (potato omelot) with lovely green peppperw

That lunch was very good, thanks Chinchilla. We get back on the bus to go back to our relative lodging. For those of us at the Lodge, it is goodbye to Juan Carlos, our bus driver for the last 6 days, who has finished his allowable stint. I cannot remember much about the afternoon but I suspect that I crashed for a while as well as working a bit on the Blog.

Tonight, Frank is putting a BBQ on at The Lodge.

Snags - Chorizo. Very good. — Snags – Chorizo. Very good.

Quail - to me the highlight dish for the entire trip — Quail – to me the highlight dish for the entire trip

A similar circumstance happened on the Basque trip where Frank threw in some Ribs amongst a bunch of seafood and they were the absolute food highlight of the trip. Here the Quail was juicy, tender and very tasty. Frank partially boned the Quail and just BBQed them with lemon according to Julie.

Well done Frank, that BBQ was sensational and the Quail was divine. Off to bed as we are on the road again tomorrow.

Posted on October 20, 2015October 20, 2015 by beauperi

Olive Oil and Ronda

Sunday, 4 October, 2015

Today we start out by bus to two Olive Oil factories. At the first, Oleum Viride, we have a minimalist breakfast.

As well as Olive Oil, these people also organise bicycle tours. Hence, the bikes in the last picture. They take us on a tour of the facilities which seem to be quite modern. For some reason I only took one photo that worked out.

–
Link to Oleum Veride

We then drive to another Olive Oil factory.

It is a very old factory. We are given a tour by the owner, delightful Lady – picture later, and I take a couple of snaps.

Mats placed between layers of olives before going into the press

The beautiful lake and mountains in the background

We go into the main shop / sales area. There is a “small snack” there, much more than the breakfast earlier.

The Owner and her Daughter - absolutely wonderful people — The Owner and her Daughter – absolutely wonderful people

The Shop part - note Tripadvisor rating 5 — The Shop part – note Tripadvisor rating 5

As the blurb above shows, they also do accommodation and are rated 5 #2 of Specialty Lodging in Zahara de la Sierra.

Historic photos. One can find two with Orson Wells in them and 1 with Papa Hemingway

Both olive oil places indicated that the price for olive oil had been dropping dramatically which made it hard to make a living purely on olive oil alone. Molino El Vinculo probably did better out of the tourist trade e.g. with the accommodation. If you are in the area, make a point to drop in and see them, they are very friendly and delightful people.

Link to Molino El Vinculo

We take the bus back to The Lodge where Frank has stayed back to make us a nice lunch by the pool.

Observant readers may have noticed that Virginia and Anna were missing in this morning’s photos, along with Frank of course. They did this to provide Frank with assistance in preparing lunch which consisted of:

Killing a bottle of Rose and then opening another one

Sue and then Frank went for a swim and maybe others. The bus takes the Hotel group back to their Hotel and some are going to go into Ronda early. I find out, as she is leaving, that Julie is one of those going into town. We find out later that all of the group, except Julie, eventually came back to the Hotel but Julie pranced around Ronda all afternoon. The following are some of the photos that she took.

Looking down from the town to the people on the trail below

Crossing the new Bridge (more later) by Horse and Buggy

Julie then entered a local museum and took lots of photos of all kinds of interesting things. However, this is designed to be a food and wine Blog so I will not include any. Refer to:

Link to Casa Palacio Museo Lara

Lots of Towers attached to home in this town

Julie then went to the Bullfighting Ring in Ronda

There was a museum there too but Julie said it wasn’t as good as the other one and I am not going to include any of the photos any way.

Great story, one of the few instances in this world where common sense has prevailed.

Meanwhile, back at The Lodge, we rested and then caught the bus to go into Ronda. We pick up the Hotel group and go in. I have been waiting a long time for this pun but “Help me Ronda, Help, Help me Ronda”.

The bus is not allowed to drive in the main town so we are dropped off at the bus station and then walk the rest of the way.

We finally meet up with Julie at the “New Bridge”.

Link to the History of the New Bridge

We walk around the old town for ages, looking primarily at doors and door knobs. Some of us were getting grumpy with Carlos as it was well past time for food and drink. We eventually get to our destination.

After what seemed like ages, our, remote, end of the table was served with a Rose. I think I would have to say the worst wine I have ever tasted. Ridiculously sweet and with an off putting flavour. It wasn’t off, just terrible. We send it back and get it replaced with:

Sue had to maintain that bottle of Rose for the evening.

The Bus Driver had to end his shift and so we were going to have to take a taxi back. Supposedly there was only one in town which probably meant 4 different trips spaced out over an hour or two. Fortunately, the restaurant was able to organise us a bus to take us all back in one trip. Much better. We collapsed for the night.

Link to Trip Advisor review of Cafe Alomcabar

Beauperi Investments – Wine Consulting

Category: Uncategorized

The Final Countdown

The Alhambra

Oh! Granada

Grapes and Quail

Olive Oil and Ronda