Salamanca's new cathedral.
It also has an excellent Romanesque cathedral, various medieval era homes, and a thriving college night club culture which I experienced absolutely none of. Well. The drive to Salamanca was in itself a classic Spanish experience - dusty and atmospheric small towns, churches covered with storks nests, and scrubby, barren, and dramatic landscapes.
We parked beneath the old nunnery ( I suspect they administer the parking garage) then went out to explore the cathedral. There are technically two cathedrals: a Romanesque variant built in the 12th century, and a "new" one built from 1509 on. Unusually for Spain, the old cathedral was not knocked down and repurposed for parts, but simply connected to the new one - you walk from one to the other through a large door.
The "palm door" into the new cathedral.
The new cathedral's facade is a beautiful golden sandstone affair, with ornate carving and truly majestic doors. (Some restoration work was completed in 1992, and the restorer was allowed to add an astronaut and a demon eating an ice cream cone, among other things - I couldn't find him!) The actual cathedral is certainly imposing and lovely, but those of us who have been to entirely too many European cathedrals might find it a little banal (god, I'm a cathedral snob, what a horrid thing to be).
One of the 12th century paintings in the old cathedral.
Dome of the old cathedral.
Aforementioned retablo.
The old cathedral boasts one of the most amazing retablos I saw during my time in Spain. A retablo is a painting on wood placed behind an altar in the simplest terms, but these works of art achieve incredible heights in Spain. At their best, they are basically tremendous and ancient comic strips documenting events in the Bible - an amazing tool for a populace that had no hope in hell of ever actually learning Latin. Spain got around to disseminating the bible in the vernacular a little late.
Your classic medieval tomb.
A very feminine St. George slaying a dragon.
The old Romanesque cathedral is to my mind much more interesting, containing within it interesting medieval era tombs, paintings, and statuary. It's much more dark then the new cathedral, emphasizing how dark buildings and public spaces were back in the old days. It's got a very purely gothic feeling to it - wandering around inside, you really feel as if you have gone back to the middle ages. Exciting, although the middle ages is the era in history I am LEAST interested in futzing around in.
Some female saint getting beheaded in a gruesome fashion. Probably a 15th century painting. The Spanish of old really enjoyed drawing horrifically gruesome paintings of saints dying. Probably the precusor of Saw for adventorous 15th century teens.
Distressing creatures. These are on a gate that surrounds a tomb inside the old cathedral. Would like one of these on my tomb please.
Your standard Line O' Popes.
For lunch, we visited La Tormenta, a restaurant near the ornate Plaza Mayor. A somewhat fancy place, the interior was totally off-the-wall - sort of like a Gold Rush whorehouse combined with Spanish royalty with a little 80's new wave. I suggest you visit simply to sit in clear plastic chairs wand observe the kitsch-attack. The food was pretty good as well. My parents ordered off the set menu for 10 euro. Set menus are an incredible deal in Spain: for your money, you generally get a hefty starter, an appetizer, dessert, wine, and bread.
My dad choose chicken rice with his starter, a sort of rustic Spanish risotto. Very tasty and very homey - classic Spanish home cooking.
My mom chose a salad for her starter. The Spanish believe that all salads must include tuna or they don't count, which is okay since Spanish tuna is AWESOME. This salad also contained giant beans, olives, tomato, and anchovies, as well as some other stuff I cannot at this time recall. It was good.
I had salmon tartar with mango. This was good: very fresh and tropical. An nice dish on a hot day. Tartar pretty much anything, and I'll eat it.
My mom selected salmon for her main. Pretty standard issue, though skillfully cooked and the paprika oil accompaniment was nice enough.
My dad had Spanish beef stew. A similar treatment with tomato and paprika to carcamusas - rich, homey, and rustic. A good example of Spanish home and hearth cooking. Set lunch menus at most Spanish restaurants feature homey, simple dishes.
Some sort of Spanish caramel cake. Delicious with a good creamy flavor. Spain's desserts tend to revolve around eggy custards and caramel - great if you like it, distinctly unpleasant if you don't. I like it.
After lunch, we visited Salamanca's most famous habitation, The House of the Shells. An excellent example of a 15th century residential structure, the more then 300 shells represent St James (Santiago,) the patron saint of Spain and a very popular dude. (Since scallops are commonly consumed in Santiago de Compostela, the epicenter of the pilgrim's route through France, pilgrims would pin the shells to their clothes to prove they actually finished the blasted walk).
El Almacén
For dinner, we decided to visit what many call Avila's best restaurant - El Almacén. Located across the river from the city with an excellent view of the old walls, El Almacén specializes in high end Castillian cuisine in a refined ambience. We loved it: I can't recommend it enough for a killer dining experience in Avila.
Our charming Romanian server bantered with us throughout dinner, and was kind enough to walk us through the menu and provide translation for Spanish terms we were not familiar with. He was a real pleasure to be served by.
We began with an amuse bouche -a kind of creamy fish soup. Chilled fish soup can be divine when done well, and this was done well.
The menu is extensive and features almost all of Castile's culinary hits, but I settled on the Guiso picantito de chipirones y mejillones (Spicy stew with squid and mussels). A slightly chilled red pepper cream was studded with sweet, perfectly cooked squid and tender, briney mussels. I also liked the ever-so-slightly crunchy rice in the center- intentionally al dente rice can be a revelation.
My dad went for the salad with foie escabache. Apparently it's a kind of foie or pate made out of pig belly, incpororating one of Northern Spain's very favorite ingredients. The pate was deliciously rich and melted on the tounge, and the salad was also very tasty indeed.
For my main course, I selected the Merluza al horno con confitura of tomate y creme verde (Hake with tomato confit and green cream). I adore hake, a fish that's little known in the USA. A white fish, it has a fatty and slightly decadent flavor that (if you ask me) blows halibut entirely out of the water. This halibut was cooked in the oven and served with a sweet and delicious tomato confit and a green (some sort of herb involved) cream. It was a simple dish with excellent, natural flavors, and thus representative of what is good about central Spanish cooking.
My dad had the lomo de ciervo con frutos secos confitadas (Venison loin with dried fruit). Castile and Leon is renowned for its wild game, and my dad took our servers advice on this one. Glad he did: the meat was slightly caremalized, sweet, and foresty, and the incredibly rich reduction combined with the dried fruits was a perfect combination. This preparation would also be excellent with wild boar or any other kind of down n' dirty meat. A superb dish.
My mom had the Solomillo al queso Valdeón (Sirloin with Valdeón cheese sauce). Talk about decadent! This was almost akin to the Spanish version of a country fried steak, and it was damn good. Super rare and high quality steak combined with an uber rich stinky cheese sauce, this was so bad and so good at the exact same time. In less experienced hands, this could have been dangerously over the top, but El Almacén produced the perfect indulgence.
For dessert, we went with the dessert sampler, which proved to be an excellent idea. The flan had a good, loose texture - I'm not big on the thicker, chunkier flans and this fit the bill. There was also a sort of cheese mousse (yum), a caramel parfait, and rich chocolate ice cream with raspberry sauce. Just the ticket after a very rich meal.
No comments:
Post a Comment