Our Summer. Outings, Eateries And Lots Of Vegetables!

I think I’ve been lazy for long enough. It’s about time I sat down and shared with you all a few of the enjoyable moments of our summer. The temperatures are cooling slightly now (29ºC and 75% humidity, freezing as you can see🙄) so what better moment to sit in the shade on the terrace of the wee apartment mum and I are relaxing in for a few days and begin to tell you all about the last couple of months.

As I said, mum and I are having a mini vacation in Oropesa Del Mar to celebrate, and make the most of, the end of summer. Yep, even after selling my flat here we still wanted to come and visit. Apartment or no apartment it still feels like home to us and to not spend a few days here every so often would feel like something was amiss during our favourite season. Silly really but we can’t help it 😁.

Oropesa (my first post of the town here) is a typical Spanish seaside town. Most of the flats, hotels and apartments are quite dated, having been built in the 60’s and 70’s, but in my opinion it really adds to the character of the place. There are no Michelin-star restaurants but there are some pretty good tapas bars and you can get a decent menú del día if you know where to look. Being slightly out of season now, it’s not too crowded and the weather is perfect, either for walking or swimming in the sea.

The old town is definitely worth having a meander around, we like to wander up to the ruins of the “Castillo de Oropesa”, built by the Muslims in the XI century, and contemplate the views of the town and the coastline.

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Another enjoyable walk involves walking from one of the main beaches (La Concha) to the other (Morro de Gos), all the while strolling pretty close to the sea. We pass the “faro” (lighthouse), built in the nineteenth century, and also the Torre del Rey. The latter was commissioned by Fernando of Antequera, King of the Crown of Aragón, in 1413, to defend against attacks. In 1534 it’s walls were increased to 4 metres in thickness. They must have had some noisy neighbours!! Obviously hadn’t heard of double-glazing.

Since I’ve already written a small post on Oropesa I best got off the subject and ramble on about something else. Valencia. I know, I’ve already shared a post on Valencia too (here) but Pep and I returned to this fabulous city at the beginning of July for a couple of nights. Seeing as it’s quite a bit bigger than Oropesa 😂 there are obviously more things to see, so here’s a few pics (with info) of what we visited this time around. First, the Micalet tower and the Teatro Principal.

The weather was rather warm during our stay so we caught the “metro” (underground) to the Cabanyal area of Valencia, followed by a short walk to the beach.

As usual, one of our favourite pastimes when we visit this fabulous place is eating out. We went to a couple of restaurants I spoke about in my last post on Valencia and also tried a couple of new ones. The vegetarian restaurant Oslo (website here) is one of my favourites, their menú del día is excellent value for money.

The other restaurant I spoke about in my last post is the Italian restaurant San Tommaso (website here). We couldn’t get a table until 11pm but it was well worth the wait.

Another restaurant we decided to try was a Thai restaurant called Thai Mongkut Curry House (website here). They also serve a reasonable menú del día and we thoroughly enjoyed the food. The only problem was their air conditioning. It was so blooming cold in there all I could think of was eating as quickly as possible and getting back outside into normal, summer temperatures. Maybe we’ll return once the weather is cooler, hopefully it won’t feel like we’re eating in an igloo then. I loathe air conditioning.

The restaurant we found on our most recent visit that impressed us immensely was the Latin cuisine restaurant, Margarita (how could I not like it with a name like that!)(website here). We were searching for a decent Mexican restaurant online and came across this one. It’s very simple, nothing fancy about it but the food was delicious. This is the restaurant we will be making a beeline for on our next visit. The owner (and waitress) was lovely, nothing was too much trouble. You felt like you were eating in her house. I can’t wait to return!

For those who know me, you’re probably thinking “what about dessert?”. Meals out in the summer just wouldn’t be complete without an ice cream for pudding. One of my favourite parlours in Valencia is the Véneta. There are 2 or 3 (not quite sure) scattered throughout the town. They have won various awards for best flavour and their sorbets and vegan ice creams are wonderful. The “chufa” (tiger nut) flavour is to die for, and best of all they let you have two flavours in the small tub 😁.

And while I’m on the subject of food I might as well mention a few more restaurants we visited this summer that are a bit closer to home. Of course, one of our favourites that we love to visit, whether it be in the hotter months or when it’s a tad chilly is Ca’s Pelut in Tárbena (Facebook page here). As I’ve mentioned previously on this blog, here and here, their veggie paellas are the best around (in our opinion, obviously😁) and we go quite often. It’s marvellous in the summer as you can eat on their large terrace and admire the views from Tárbena down to Benidorm.

We also visited the Cantonet restaurant (website here) in Calpe that I mentioned in these posts here, here and here. On this occasion we went at night and shared a few tapas. Again, excellent food. You can also have the menú del día at night but we thought it would be far too much food so we gave their a la carte menu a go.

We also enjoy the odd lunch at the Bali Café, the restaurant that sits in the grounds of the Montgó Verd garden centre (website here). There’s quite an assortment of dishes to choose from, some of their specialities include Indonesian and Thai recipes. Tuesday is one of my favourite days, Pad Thai is the “plato del día” (dish of the day).

Seeing as we’re on the subject of Asian cuisine, I’ll tell you about our evening in Altea a couple of weeks back. Last year I did a post on Altea (here) but seeing as it’s such a beautiful town I might as well ramble on about it again. Especially seeing as we had a wonderful meal at the Thai restaurant Siam Beach, situated on the sea front (Trip advisor page here where you will find a QR code for their menu amongst the photos). We had never been before but can’t wait to return, especially for lunch to sample their menú del día for 15.50€.

And yes, you guessed it, we went to our favourite ice cream parlour, Heladería Qvo, for pudding, followed by a lovely walk around the old town.

One other eatery I’ll quickly mention is the Mi Campaña Hostal/Restaurant on the Las Marinas road in Denia (Facebook page here). We’d been hoping to venture there all summer and a couple of weeks ago we eventually managed it. Their outside terrace is like a little jungle, it looks so inviting when you drive past. The food was lovely. To start we tried the “boquerones fritos” (fried fresh anchovies, not the salted, cured kind). Lovely and fresh, very tasty and not too salty. We followed this with an “arroz señoret” which we had ordered when we booked the table. It too was very good but next time we’ll try the “a banda”, we’re not too partial to too much fish or shellfish with the rice. Even so we thoroughly enjoyed it.

They also serve a menu for lunch which consists of 5 starters, the rice dish of your choice and dessert. It costs the price of the rice dish each plus 10€ per person. It sounded like too much food so we just stuck with the a la carte.

Continuing on the subject of food, but growing it rather than eating it. These last 3 months have been great for our home grown produce. As usual, courgettes, aubergines, peppers and tomatoes were (and still are) bountiful. As too are the cucumbers and the “alficoces” (snake cucumbers). Plenty of Salmorejo, Gazpacho, Espencat and Vegan Aubergine soup has been consumed in this household during the last few weeks. I’ve even frozen about 12 large tubs of salmorejo.

What we hadn’t planned on was how many corn on the cobs we would have. Last year was our first go at planting them. It was a bit of a disaster. After sowing them in one single row, Pep read that it’s best to plant them in more, shorter rows. That way pollination between the plants should be more successful. So this year we did just that. What a difference. Nearly all of the cobs were full of sweet, juicy corn. Trouble was, there were over 150! Compared to last year’s 5 or 6, that’s quite an increase 😂. We now have a freezer full of blanched corn on the cob, ready to be devoured in the months ahead. Marvellous.

We’ve also been harvesting tonnes of melons and watermelons. Last year was also a bit of a flop where they were concerned. Thankfully that’s all changed in the last couple of months and our new store room is rather packed with these wonderfully cooling fruits.

Apart from all that, the rest of our summer has revolved around gigging, picnics by the sea, growing Holy Basil, picking wild blackberries and making vegan ice cream with them, painting the house, picking our first nectarines (which were delicious), picking carobs, going to various local concerts, having friends round and sampling the rhubarb infused gin that I spoke about in this post (here’s the recipe). It’s delicious with tonic and has gone down a treat at our parties, so much so that I had to make a load more! They now think it’s some sort of magic potion and that I’m the witch that makes it. Why they think that is beyond me 😂

And that more or less sums up our summer. As you can see, it’s not much different to last summer, hence why I haven’t published a post until now. Soon we will no doubt be embarking on new walks (once it gets a bit cooler) and visiting places we have yet to discover. And when we do I’m sure I shall be telling you all about them 😊.

One more thing before I disappear for now. I made these healthy little chocolate banana bites (recipe here) the other day. Perfect to keep in the freezer for when you feel like something sweet. Depending on the chocolate you use they can be refined sugar free as the sweetness of the centre comes from bananas and dates.

Right, well, best be off, things to do. It’s been great to talk to you all again and I would love to hear from you if you feel like getting in touch. Hopefully I won’t leave it quite as long before I write another post 😁. Take care all of you. See you soon. Love Georgie and Pep xxx