The Pleasures of Edible Spain When on a Long Walk

By Robert McGarvey

Regular readers know that this fall I did a 150 mile Camino route through Portugal and Spain. There are two recaps in the archives.  But a trip to the Iberian peninsula is about a lot more than sweat and hills and walking in the rain.  It’s also about the very rich culinary pleasures of Spain. That’s what I will report on here.

Good thing I did so much walking because I returned home after a month weighing no more than when I left. That’s despite eating and drinking with Falstaffian abandonment.

I am pretty sure my cardiologist does not read these columns so I will reveal this fact: in past trips to Spain I stuffed myself with Iberico ham – a marvelous meat I much prefer over prosciutto – and cheeses, typically manchego, a buttery sheep’s milk cheese.  But not this last trip. I tired of both within a few days. Not that they aren’t great, but somehow I just could eat another bite of either.  

Was I doomed to starvation?

Not hardly. What I was compelled to do was look deeper in the menus and try dishes that hitherto had escaped my mouth on prior trips to Spain.

For starters, a caution: unless you have profound reasons to think otherwise, don’t eat the paella in most Spanish restaurants. I can make better at home in Phoenix. That’s because in most Spanish restaurants it is a dish meant for tourists, not dissimilar from the stuff sold on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco or any of the restaurants in Times Square.

This does not mean eat no rice. Indeed, one of my best meals was at Cool Rooms, a boutique hotel near Plaza de Santa Ana. Outside there was the raucous Spain Day celebration. Inside there was the tranquillity of El Patio de Atocha which served up Arroz seco de langostinos y zamburiñas con alioli de azafrán, dry rice with king shrimp and scallops with saffron aioli.  It was delicious and, get this, 22 Euros.  Call this a sophisticated riff on paella. The maitre d even comped a small glass of dessert wine to end the meal.

Spain also offers Michelin dining on the cheap. How cheap? For our first, celebratory meal in Santiago de Compostela – marking the completion of our 150+ mile walk – we dined at Cafe de Altamira which is a Michelin one star. No reservation was needed for lunch and on the menu is a 29 Euro menu de gustacion with an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert.  Presentation was lovely, portions small but ample, service good.

Take note: there are 211 one star Michelin restaurants in Spain, Portugal and Andorra, we’ve eaten at a handful, never with a reservation, never have had a complaint. Next time I go – note to self – I will construct an itinerary that seeks to eat at many more 1 stars.  There’s none of the stuffiness of a 3 star, nor are the prices breathtaking, but the food is inventive and good.

But not every restaurant needs a star. Another great meal was had at Hotel Chef Rivera in Padron (I also stayed the night in the attached hotel – $64 for two for a night with breakfast).  Must haves here include Gallician wine (which I prefer over the rioja which is what shows up in US wine racks), the soup of the day (typically made with local vegetables) and of course Padron peppers which are rarely available in the US.  Shishito peppers usually are substituted in the US. But the padron are far better especially when eaten in Padron – fruity, even a little sweet, slightly nutty, and plumper.  At Chef Rivera’s they were perfectly prepared, not burnt, but cooked through. Oh, and I had a steak which I never order in Spain – beef is not the local strength – but at Chef Rivera it was tender, tasty.  

Did I have disappointing meals in Spain? Not exactly. I had meals of convenience – necessitated by hunger and the availability of few options – that were blah, boring, even tasteless. I expected no better so I wasn’t disappointed. But whenever I made the effort – whenever I sought good eats – I found them in Spain. Which makes me think of one of my favorite books, Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, a memoir about dining around Paris in the 1920s.  But I’d bet that if he were writing a similar gastronomy memoir today it would be set in Spain, “the country that I loved more than any other except my own,” he wrote.  And the food is damn good.