FURTHER SOUTH

Went to a little restaurant to eat my "little fish".Started off with the sweetest prawns which came to the table in abundance.Next followed fresh clams which were steamed open and served with a simple sauce of garlic and wine.Am not so fortunate to eat fresh clams back home so these were a real treat.

Next came a plate of what looked like little soles and something else which looked like baby,baby hake but these are not the babies they are a species of fish found in these parts of the world.They are coated in a special type of flour which apparently is sold as "flour for fish "then deep friend in olive oil.

Next was a plate of calamari fingers and lastly a plate of a type of shark.All so very delicious.The little hake like fish, you eat the whole thing from the head to the tail.Just love it.

And so we travel further south.From Jerez de la frontera we run for a bus and managed to get there just in time.( I am getting rather tired of running for buses ).

We arrive in San Antonio Vila Real just over 2 hours later and I got the times muddled up.Thought we were still on spanish time only to discover that Portugal was an hour behind so had to hang around the bus station to wait for our friends.

Its so good to see dear friends after so many years.My dear friend Vikki, I say, was the reason I finally had children.

I looked after her daughter just for one night when she was only a few months old and realised then that I was able to face a new adventure in my life.

We arrived to a wonderful dinner of "braaied "fish which looked like hottentot but was far more tasty.Absolutely delicious.A simple meal of the fish ,salad and potatoes in extra virgen olive oil.Heaven for me.

Spent the next day on one of the many beaches here in the Algarve and for the first time I felt like I was on holiday.

The weather has been wonderful and because it was so, we spent alot longer on the beach than we thought we would, so had to make a plan re food.Found my way to the local market and bought wonderful seasonal fruit together with olives stuffed with pimento,a traditonal portuguese snack which I cant seem to remember the name but it looks like a legume of some sort, trenosos maybe?Has a tough skin and you pop it out of its skin and enjoy.We feasted on these lovely fresh products.Headed home and had a very traditional dinner of "bacalao " which is salted cod.

Now years ago,back in 1987 when I first headed off to work in the fish factories way up in Iceland,we or rather my dear husband Antonio was doing this.

The fresh cod would be landed and these huge fish (way before over fishing became an issue ) were headed,butterflied and salted.An old way of preserving fish but oh so effective.

It needs lots of soaking to remove the saltiness before cooking and my friend Vikki has told me that once all the salt has been removed,she soaks hers in milk to tenderise the fish as it can sometimes be quite tough.

Again a simple dinner of fried bacalao with onions cooked in lots of olive oil ,potatoes roasted with rosemary and garlic ,spinach fried up with garlic.Absolutely delicious.

Ofcourse we could not miss out on the oh so delicious and traditional "pasteis nata ". A little custard tart but so very different . The real ones with pastry as light as anything and the filling set to just the right consistency.Oh, quite out of this world.

I have eaten pasteis nata back home but once you taste the ones here,you really dont want to go back to those.Going to have to try and perfect them once I get home.