11/10

This morning we left Santiago and drove four hours to Salamanca.  Easily finding our hotel on a splendid plaza in the center of town, with a parking garage just across the street, we settled into our room on the top floor with a panoramic view of the city.

View from Hotel Condal

View from Hotel Condal at night

After that, we set off in search of tapas, first trying for Factory Gourmet, which I had read about on Tripadvisor, but unfortunately it was closed on Mondays.  Luckily, Michelin lists Tapas 2.0 as an excellent place for modern and traditional tapas, and it was just around the corner from Factory Gourmet.  We had 5 tapas, all delicious, particularly the pork “sashimi”, lightly seared pork with a soy-based sauce, and tempura of langoustines and asparagus. For dessert we had “cheesecake” with strawberries, which was not your usual cheesecake, but a liquid cheese over a bed of cake crumbs, topped with chopped strawberries.  Very good.  With a bottle of Ribeiro del Duero, this substantial meal came to 40 euros.

After lunch, we toured the town, including the Plaza Mayor, the Cathedrals (old and new, one adjoining the other) and the university.  Salamanca is a very handsome town with well-dressed stone buildings featuring distinctive wrought ironwork railings.  The university “es las muchas antigua d’Espana” but insures a youthful presence.  The wind began to pick up and it grew colder as we strolled, and a misty rain urged us back to the hotel.

The “new” cathedral

New cathedral – High Altar

Old cathedral – High Altar

Plaza Mayor

Plaza Mayor

Dinner was at El Alquimista, a modern restaurant a few blocks from the hotel, recommended in both Michelin and Tripadvisor.  This turned out to be spectacular.  The amuse-bouche of cauliflower creme was good but needed a kick, being a bit bland, but it was all uphill from there.  Tripe stew with chorizo and ham, seared tuna with pesto, beef filet with a press of potatoes, and roast suckling lamb with potato gnocchi, a deconstructed apple tart, and coffee mousse with rum and chocolate crumble were all stunning. The total came to 78 euros including water and a nice 15 euro bottle of 2009 Bierzo from Pitaccum.

11/8

A rare sunny day in a wet town.

Shrine of Saint James the Great

After a 3 hour drive through heavy rain and some misty mountain scenery, we arrived in Santiago de Compostela, the famous pilgrimage city in Galicia.  We found the Hotel Avenida easily, and managed to get a parking space on the street that is free until Monday morning.  A local parking attendant came to our aid in deciphering the parking ticket machine.  Professing to speak only “un poco inglese,” he then proceeded to explain everything with a very clear and striking British accent, attributable to the British language instructors at the local university.  Our room is large and plainly decorated in traditional style with tall French windows opening onto a tiny balcony overlooking the busy street, but absolutely soundproof. The location is perfect, just at the edge of the old town.  The first thing we did was to visit the cathedral, which is having some restoration done on the front towers which were covered by scaffolding, but whose interiors are in great shape.  We visited the shrine of St. James with its silver casket and marveled at the massive thurible (censer) hanging in the Crossing. Then we walked a short distance away from the tourist center to the tapas bar Casa Marcelo.  This used to be a Michelin-starred restaurant, but I’m assuming the economy made it more advantageous to convert it to a tapas bar (didn’t confirm the reason). The food, a combination of Spanish and Japanese, was delicious.  We had croquetas of mozzarella and bacalao, spicy tuna tartare over rice, carnitas, and veal shu mai.  For dessert we had a berry mixture with clotted cream. With a bottle of Ribeira Sacra, the bill came to 61 euros, higher than most tapas bars, but the food was superior and we were quite satisfied.  After lunch we strolled about the old town in intermittent showers.

Dinner was at Acio, a lovely place on the ring road not far from the Cathedral, but out of the tourist zone, and appears to be frequented by locals. The menu is more interesting than the typical traditional ones.  The amuse-bouche of mushroom creme was heavenly.  Then we started with Galician beef tartare, prepared tableside, and squid with cabbage and sweetbreads and a squid ink sauce.  These were just astounding, but the piece de resistance was the grouse. This is something one rarely sees on menus anywhere, and the chef knows how to do it perfectly.  It was suitably gamey and served with an intense sauce, and with roasted chestnuts, chestnut puree and quince.  For dessert we had the specialty, pumpkin souffle topped with vanilla ice cream. A wonderful, intense Ribeira del Duero 2012 was the perfect accompaniment.  The blll for all this?  113 euros. Also, I should mention that the service was exceptional.  A wonderful and memorable experience.

Website: http://www.acio.es/

11/9

This morning we visited the Pilgrims’ Museum, then took advantage of a spell of sunshine by strolling around the old town and through the Alameda, a beautiful lush park with grand views across the city.  Then back to the hotel so I could continue this post.

For lunch we tried Caney, a tapas bar that is one of the few places open on Sunday.  It looked promising as it was recommended in Michelin and Tripadvisor, but alas it was totally forgettable.

After lunch we headed to the Monasterio de San Martin Pinario. Below are some photos.

Monasterio de San Martin Pinario

The church is open to the public (2.5  euros per person), but the adjoining seminary is not accessible.  Although the architecture is more rustic than the Cathedral at Burgos, the altarpieces and decorative work are strictly over-the-top Spanish Catholic baroque, with all the prizes from the Cracker Jack box thrown in, and gilded to boot.

Dinner tonight was at Dos Reis in the Parador.  While not exceptional, the food was very good, and the setting in this historic building is very nice.  We had Jamon Iberico with pan con tomate, octopus pressed and sliced very thin, served with a fish pate and herring caviar, hake in green sauce with small clams, and turbot with asparagus and tomato. The fish dishes were perfectly cooked, i.e. not overcooked. For dessert we shared the Saint James cake (almond cake) that comes with a glass of sweet wine.  With a bottle of 2011 Ribeira del Duero and water, the bill was 135 euros, pretty good for this caliber of restaurant.

Website: http://www.parador.es/en/paradores/parador-de-santiago-de-compostela/gastronomy

Tomorrow we are off to Salamanca.

11/6

After a surprisingly pleasant flight, which arrived 45 minutes early, we picked up our rental car and set off for Leon. Google said 3 hours 25 minutes, but we made it in just under 3 hours, thanks to moi. Leon is a lovely small city, with a charming old center. Our hotel, the Posada Regia, is right in the heart of it, and has the old world charm combined with modern conveniences, that make it a 3-star. It is an incredible deal at 50 euros a night.

The hotel also houses a restaurant, Botega Regia, where we immediately settled down for a wonderful traditional lunch. Obviously popular with local businesspeople, it was busy this afternoon, though not filled to capacity. We had garlic soup and smoked tongue to start, then tripe stew and stewed pigeons (2) for mains. Both came with delicious fried potato cubes (even I, not normally a fan of potatoes, was impressed). A nice bottle of 2013 Bierzo red, the wine of this region, was only 13 euros. Total bill was 73 euros. Charming atmosphere and attentive service made this a great meal.

Website: http://www.regialeon.com/

After lunch we took a stroll around the old town, stopping at the magnificent cathedral, the much simpler basilica, and the various plazas. We wanted to get some Pedro Ximenez sherry, the very sweet cream sherry we love so much, and our hotel directed us to Casares, a small wine store that has a very nice selection. We picked up a bottle of 2008 from Albala, which we are drinking as I write this. At 14 euros, it is a great buy for vintage sherry. We also bought a bottle of Don Zoilo non-vintage for 9 euros, which we will try tomorrow.

Dinner was at Cocinandos, a Michelin starred restaurant on the edge of the city center. This was absolutely incredible. Ten tables, simple but elegant, the chef/owner and a couple of cooks, one server, and obviously a lot of passion for food and wine. The only choice is a tasting menu consisting of 6 courses, for 40 euros, and we chose to have the wine pairings, which were a mere 16 euros apiece. The cooking is innovative and beautifully plated. The wines were all from the region (Bierzo), and included a white, a rose, and a red, perfectly matched to the food, and a muscatel dessert wine. This was a truly memorable meal. It is incredible that all of this cost only 113 euros.

Website: http://www.cocinandos.com/

Below is the menu, and next to it the English translation, which comes from Google translate, and is rather comical.

11/7

On Friday, we took a day trip to Burgos.  We toured the old city and the magnificent cathedral, which was probably the grandest we have ever seen.  It’s not the biggest by any means, but the stone carving, plaster work, painting and gilding, and the stained glass are all over-the-top.

As we strolled around the town with our trusty Guide Michelin, we checked out various restaurants, and settled on Casa Ojeda, which has a bar and delicatessen on the ground floor and a formal restaurant one flight up.  The decor is charming and traditional, as is the food. We both started with the pickled partridge salad, a regional specialty seen on many menus.  Their version was top-notch.  I then had the roast suckling lamb and Stanley the confitado of suckling lamb cutlets.  Both were superb, as were the scalloped potatoes served alongside. A bottle of Ribeira del Duero 2010 was only 18 euros, and my coffee came with delicious mignardises.

Website: http://restauranteojeda.com/

After lunch, we headed to the Real Monasterio de las Huelgas, on the outskirts of the city.  With interiors that are much grander and less austere than the typical monastery, it was a very interesting tour.  Eleanor of Acquitaine brought her daughter, also Eleanor, to Burgos to marry the Castillian King, Alfonos VIII.  The monastery was Alfonso’s gift to his wife, and the two, who both died in 1214, are buried in double caskets that sit in the center of the Royal choir.  The guide was obviously very knowledgeable and passionate about her subject, eliciting chuckles from her Spanish visitors, though with our rudimentary Spanish we could only pick up snippets of the narrative.

Back in Leon, we had dinner reservations at Pablo, a very new restaurant that, like Cocinandos, offers an impressive looking tasting menu, in a similarly spare and modern setting. The food turned out to be comparable in quality with what we had the previous night. The plate pictured below is squid, just barely cooked, with pork belly. They do not offer wine pairings, but we were very happy with the one shown below, a local wine (note that it is a 2004 Prieto Picudo reserva) for less than 20 euros.  The entire bill, including water and one coffee, was 99 euros.

Website: http://www.restaurantepablo.es/

Next up: Santiago de Compostela

Perbacco is not a place that had been on my radar, but when I received an offer from Blackboard Eats, I looked for reports on Chowhound, my most trusted source for dining info. I found a few positive mentions, but with little detail. Yelp reviews, which I find less credible, were almost unanimously positive. It seemed worth taking a chance, and turned out to be a fine choice. There were 3 of us so we got to taste a number of dishes.  Our appetizers were swordfish carpaccio with oranges, grilled octopus salad, and creme brulee of parmigiano reggiano.  The creme brulee was an unusual and delicious dish, with a balsamic glaze.  The octopus was tender and flavorful, and the swordfish worked very well with the orange. Main courses were chicken scallopine with taleggio and truffle oil, trippa alla Romana, and ravioli.  All were interesting and tasty, and the tripe had a nice spicy kick to it.  We finished off with a wonderful prune armagnac gelato and orange hibiscus sorbetto.

Decor is warm and cozy, service was excellent, and they have a nice selection of Italian beers, which we appreciated.  The menu is quite extensive so there will be lots of dishes to try when we return, which I look forward to.

Website: http://perbaccony.com/

I was just looking at these photos I took last February, and thought it would be fun to post them.  Driving by a farm near our house in Claverack, we saw a flock of sheep, with their babies, in a pen right by the road.  It was very early in the year for them to have been born, but there they were. So, to keep them cozy, each one had a sweater on, in several fashion colors.

They’re a bit hard to see, but if you click on each photo it will display more clearly.

Cocktail hour at the Opera House

This past Saturday we attended the 20th annual Movable Feast, a fund-raising event for the Hudson Opera House, a historic building in Hudson, New York that is in the process of restoration, and houses exhibit and performance spaces.  The Opera House also has art, music and theater programs for children and adults.

HOH website: http://hudsonoperahouse.org/

As always, the festivities began with wine and hors d’oeuvres at the Opera House, all donated by local businesses.

Marty Davidson tending bar

The upstairs performance space, still undergoing restoration

After nibbling and chatting with old and new friends, we moved on to dinner.  Dinners were hosted by 16 volunteers at their homes or businesses.  We had a lovely dinner at the home of architect Peggy Anderson, a spectacular two-story loft building directly behind the Opera House. Her good friend Darren Norris, visiting from Brooklyn, prepared a meal of Persian specialties.

We started again with cocktails – a special concoction following the Persian theme – and began to introduce ourselves to the other guests and the three rambunctious but well-behaved dogs.  There were four couples and four singles, with assigned seats at a long trestle table.  Architecture, graphic design, medical, real estate and non-profit administration (and one lone lawyer) were the dominant skill sets in attendance.  The first course was a pumpkin soup with pomegranate infusion. The main course was a duck stew with a sauce of ground walnuts and spices served with wondrously aromatic rice with a crust and mixed greens.

The idea is to return to the Opera House at around 9 or 9:30 for dessert, but this time, as has sometimes happened in the past, dessert was served – a selection of Persian pastries accompanied by cognac.   The conversation was so engrossing, the space so embracing, and the dogs so entertaining that we did not leave until almost 11, and thus did not return to the Opera House.

Standing on Peggy’s upper deck (which had just gotten its railings!), one could see the transformation in Hudson wrought by institutions such as the Opera House.  Every neighbor’s house was bright with lights and activity, vanquishing the gloom and fear of the past. One of our friends, who runs a B&B in Hudson, remarked that he stumbled upon a traveler sitting on his front porch, hoping there was a room available.  The last available hotel room in Columbia County that weekend was in Chatham, and the gentleman was sent on his way.

In the past, the Movable Feast has been held in April, but was moved this year to October to accommodate a shift in the date for the Opera House Gala.  Attendance was not as robust, but it was quickly noted the number of competing events and benefits (John Waters at Basilica Hudson, for example) that have made Hudson such a thriving hive of cultural buzz.  We are very happy to remain loyal to the Movable Feast.

The table, set for dinner at Peggy Anderson’s

UPDATE: Sale closed on 5/28/15 for $400,000

This is a perfect starter home or pied-a-terre with incredibly low maintenance!

To view, click on images below and enlarge as needed:

Please visit the web page to see photos and video:

http://www.wohlfarth.com/listing-details/coop-970042.html

Click on the image below to view, and enlarge as needed:

On Saturday we attended the second annual Hudson Valley Dance Festival in Catskill, sponsored by Dancers Responding to AIDS. Stanley and I were members of the host committee, so we had done our best to invite our sophisticated and culturally responsible friends to join in support. By four o’clock, the gratin of Hudson Valley society began to descend upon Catskill at historic Catskill Point, where the Catskill Creek meets the Hudson River. The weather was perfect, creating a splendid outdoor setting of Fall foliage along the Hudson River, expertly arranged by the volunteer set designers, for the pre-performance reception. The 350 seats were sold out long ago, but this year local business and major corporate sponsors began to answer the call, and the amount raised jumped from @ $75,000 to over $120,000.

Paul Taylor Dance Company – Photo by Daniel Roberts

Pontus Lidberg Dance
– Photo by Daniel Roberts

Keigwin + Company – Photo by Daniel Roberts

Gallim Dance – Photo by Whitney Browne

Dorrance Dance – Photo by Whitney Browne

Paul Taylor Dance Company – Photo by Daniel Roberts

After wine and snacks, we moved inside for the performance, which was riveting. Five superb dance companies participated: Pontus Lidberg Dance, Gallim Dance, Keigwin + Company, Dorrance Dance and Paul Taylor Dance Company. Pontus Liberg opened with Faune set to Debussy, wherein the cast cannily exchanged their pants, until the identity of the true faune made itself known. In Pupil Suite, Gallim Dance gave a hyper-energetic study in imitation and emulation that truly stretched the dancers’ limbs in awkward and humorous ways. Keigwin + Company hit the mattress in Mattress Suite which had the young honeymooners bouncing into one another. The razz-matazz came when Dorrance Dance out busby-ed Busby Berkeley in Boards and Chains, where the tapping feet of 42nd Street met the Dungeon. It all came to a rapturous conclusion in Paul Taylor’s Promethean Fire, the sort of modern dance that could make it at as a half-time show on a football field (if Bard and Oberlin had football teams). We are usually loath to indulge the modern madness for standing ovations for monkey organ grinders, but there was no way we could stay in our seats after all this.

After the spectacular performance, we moved on to the reception at the home of Mark Beard and James Manfredi, which rampages through a former church in downtown Catskill chock-a-block with their artwork and other fancies. We schmoozed with friends old and new and offered our thanks to all the vibrant young talent that had come to do this one-day wonder of a performance. If you weren’t there, you may have a good excuse this time. But next year . . .

To view the Hudson Valley Dance Festival website:

https://www.dradance.org/_events–tickets/dra-hudson-valley-dance-festival-2014

Recently opened at 6th Ave. and 11th St., Shu Han Ju doesn’t even have a permanent sign on the front yet.  Nor does it have a liquor license, so for now you will have to BYO.  I’d been waiting for it to open, but was a bit skeptical as the temporary sign says Authentic Chinese Food, Sichuan Style.  Did that mean it was really authentic Sichuan?  So once I saw the menu posted I took a look, and it seemed quite promising.  Lots of spicy dishes, many of them the same as what we’ve had at Szechuan Gourmet, so we decided to give it a try on Wednesday night, hoping it would turn out to be a good place to have around the corner from home.

I’m happy to report that we were very impressed.  The Chengdu pork dumplings were comparable to those at Szechuan Gourmet, and the ox tongue and tripe were even better.  Cumin lamb was the best we’ve had, tender and juicy, substantial pieces of lamb, again better than SG and way better than Legend.  The only dish that did not excite was the chicken with Chinese broccoli, which was supposed to be spicy but had no detectable spice (don’t know what went wrong with that one).  We added some chili oil and pepper which livened it up.

I am thrilled to have Shu Han Ju in the neighborhood, and hope they will be successful.  Even if you don’t live nearby, it is well worth a detour.

Website: http://www.shuhanjuchineserestaurant.com/