The “Molí Del Quisi” Walking Route (Benissa) And A Take-Away “Arròs Del Senyoret”

Ah, Valentine’s Day. Lovely. And on a Sunday too. This festivity would usually result in a trip to one of our favourite eateries. It’s not that we’re super romantic souls or anything like that, we just relish any excuse for a meal out.

In this part of the woods, booking a table for “San Valentín” in 2021 was off the cards. So we had to come up with another plan. It didn’t really bother us as there are plenty of ways to celebrate, especially in this marvellous part of the world. But I do feel sorry for restaurant owners and staff who, after the lull following Christmas, would rely on such days to up their takings. Hopefully they’ll soon be able to open their doors once more.

But back to our plan. As you know, whenever we can we love to explore different areas on foot. There are hundreds of local walking routes around here. Years ago, when cars were few and far between, and long before that too, the locals would walk everywhere out of necessity. From town to town and also to work their land.

Thus the municipalities were joined with different tracks and pathways throughout the countryside. Some no longer exist due to disuse, whilst others are classified by letters and numbers, depending on what type of route they are. Here’s a page (in Spanish) explaining what the different coloured markings and letters mean on the routes.

Consequently most of the walking routes around here are all interconnected. If you wanted you could walk and walk and walk till your feet fall off, never treading on the same path twice. I’d love to grab a backpack with a few necessities and spend a couple of weeks (she who says weeks also says months) wandering from one town to the next, savouring the peacefulness and the glorious scenery whilst enjoying the sense of freedom you get when surrounded by nature. Maybe one day 😊.

On with our Sunday walk. We thought it a grand idea to find a local shortish walk followed by a take-away from one of the restaurants that is offering such a service. We booked our food on Saturday (a lot of restaurants need one day’s notice, especially for paellas and the likes) and a quick search on the internet revealed the walk we would embark on the following day.

We’d attempted the “Molí del Quisi” walking route (SL-CV 136) back in 2015 but didn’t make it to the “Molí” (mill). More on that in a mo. Since the route supposedly takes around 3 hours to complete it seemed the perfect occasion to have another crack at the walk. Hopefully this time we wouldn’t get lost along the way.

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The walk begins close to the Bar Frau in Benissa. It is well marked by signposts and green and white lines. At least most of the route is. Here’s a few pics of the first few kilometres with a bit of info along the way.

Soon after, we arrived at the newly built “Pont del Quisi”, the railroad bridge I mentioned earlier. This is where we went slightly wrong on our previous attempt of the route. We ended up walking over the old, rickety structure, drastically regretting our decision half way across. Thankfully we made it to the other side without a train rumbling over it at the same time.

It seemed never-ending, full of holes and tremendously unstable. How they let trains use it I’ll never know. Two minutes after we’d gingerly walked over it we heard a train approaching. We were extremely lucky and it’s something I hope to never have to do again.

This time we walked under the bridge (you can’t walk on it anymore, it’s fenced off thank goodness) and carried along the proper route.

The route winds it’s way down to the Molí, an old water mill that was built during the fifteenth century. It’s purpose was for flour and was in use until 1930. The mill has been well cared for and is definitely worth visiting. We were pleased that we made it this time!

After visiting the mill we made our way back to Benissa. We weren’t walking quickly as Pep has had a dodgy knee and we also kept stopping for asparagus. It took us just under two and a half hours to complete so we had a stroll around the outskirts of Benissa before collecting our “arroz”.

I mentioned Restaurante 34 de San Nicolás in my post on Benissa here. We’ve often sampled their “menú del día” at lunchtime, it’s always delicious and good value for money. On occasions we’ve been at night to savour some of their “tapas” which are also very good, often including a few vegan ones on their menu. What we have never ordered is a rice dish for two off the a la carte menu. Seeing as this is what we miss most about not being able to eat out at the moment, we ordered an “arròs del senyoret” the day previous to our walk.

Thankfully you can drive to their door to collect it, you wouldn’t want to be walking too far with one of these large pans. In the boot of the car it went and we rushed home, we didn’t want it to get cold. We were also extremely famished. It was wonderful. Cooked to perfection with no artificial additives thrown in.

The “calamar” was tender, the prawns sooo juicy, even the mussels were ok and we don’t normally like them. The fresh artichoke was also a bonus, one of my favourite vegetables that often isn’t one of the “senyoret’s” ingredients. I rarely finish my half of the paella but the lot was gobbled up, no doubt due to hunger and how tasty it was, but mostly due to the fact that we hadn’t eaten a restaurant-cooked rice dish for what seemed like an eternity. Bliss.

On Valentine’s Day I usually prepare some sort of decadent dessert for Pep. He has a real sweet tooth and would probably get in a mood if I didn’t make something extremely calorific. One of his favourites has always been Tiramisu. When we first started dating, if it was on the menu in a restaurant (it often is in this area) he would always choose it.

I’ve often made one for Pep but I would rarely have any. Just one spoonful of the rich, layered pudding would make me feel as if someone had punched me in the abdomen. I think the mixture of dairy, raw egg, coffee and booze is not the most digestible concoction, even for the strongest of stomachs. So I wanted to make a vegan one, or at least one that was dairy-free and raw egg-free. If I could eat 2 or 3 spoonfuls without feeling awful I’d be happy.

I’d seen many a vegan recipe but most would call for coconut cream or coconut milk or coconut whatever and I don’t like it. Then I found one (link here). Cashews and silken tofu are the base of the cream. It does contain coconut oil but it’s the refined sort so no coconut flavour at all. The rest of the ingredients are virtually the same as in the authentic recipe, dipping the cake/biscuit things into a mix of strong coffee and alcohol of some sort. The type of alcohol seems to depend on personal preference. I often use “mistela”, a local sweet wine made from “moscatel” grapes.

You should make it the day before you want to serve it. I did cheat a bit and buy eco lady-fingers so it wasn’t technically vegan, but at least I’d managed to make it without the mascarpone and raw egg. Pep thought it was marvellous, he prefers it to the original recipe. I can also manage to eat 3 or 4 spoonfuls and not feel queasy, although it is still incredibly rich. You certainly don’t need large portions. One thing though. If you have a coffee machine, use this to make the coffee, don’t use instant. The coffee flavour will be much more intense and pure. I used decaf.

Right, that’s about it for today. Just one more recipe though 😁. I’ve recently invested in some platinum silicon doughnut moulds. I used to avoid silicone products at all costs. The ones I’d tried always gave a plasticky/rubbery taste to whatever I made. Then I found platinum silicon. Wow. What a difference. No smell or taste whatsoever and it’s completely non-stick. Here’s a recipe for gluten-free pumpkin doughnuts that are baked in the oven instead of fried.

Mine are slightly darker than the ones on the linked recipe. This is because I use “panela” instead of white sugar. I also use about a third less than what the original recipe calls for. The coconut oil I substitute for olive oil. They’re irresistible whilst still hot but they’re fine stored in an airtight container for a few days. I store mine in the fridge just in case but that’s probably not necessary. We have them for breakfast, a fabulous way to start the day 😁.

I shall bid you adieu for now. Thanks for reading. I shall be back on Valley FM this Saturday with another few minutes. Here’s last week’s spot if you fancy a listen. I’m on just after the half way mark. Here’s one more pic of the almond blossom before it’s gone for good.

As always, any questions or suggestions please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you. You can do so in the comments below, on our contact us page (link at the top and bottom of this post) or by messenger on our Facebook page here. Take care all of you. See you soon no doubt. Lots of love, Georgie and Pep xxx