I had the chance to taste a lot of wines last week. And I mean a lot!
Continue reading “Unconventional wines”Unconventional wines
Casa Julio (Fontanars dels Alforins)
This was the second birthday surprise for my mum! Lunch at the famous Casa Julio in Fontanars.
The story goes that it was a traditional restaurant, then got an ambitious chef, they did really well, so well they got a Michelin star at some point, then got really stressed about the implications of having the star, and then gave it up and went back to just serving nice food but without the added stress of being in the Michelin guide.
Star or no star, we did want to go both for the first time and also back again—some of us thought we had been there before in one of the pre-star incarnations. But weren’t really sure, as when restaurants are “traditional” it’s sometimes hard to distinguish between them, specially when that visit was many years ago. Had we been there? Did it really matter? No!
Continue reading “Casa Julio (Fontanars dels Alforins)”A visit to Pago de Tharsys
(Continuing our Requena trip – read part 1 here).
After our copious lunch, we walked, rather than taking a taxi, to the next stop in our journey: Pago de Tharsys, a winery.
I had initially tried to book a taxi to drive us there, but the driver that picked us in the morning swore that this would be a really nice and quiet walk, and it would be very good to help with the digestion after lunch.
Introduction to sake
I’ve been asked a few times for sake recommendations, such as where to start in terms of understanding different types, or how to choose a good sake.
Before going into that, I wanted to explain a couple of things about sake.
Continue reading “Introduction to sake”Self isolation, week 12: we get a very special brewing kit, the cast iron pan is brought back from exile, we have a very Valencian Sunday, some shops reopen, and I am also really fed up
This week has become a bit colder and rainy, which I suppose means we’re getting full on into the summer!
Continue reading “Self isolation, week 12: we get a very special brewing kit, the cast iron pan is brought back from exile, we have a very Valencian Sunday, some shops reopen, and I am also really fed up”