Sidra season!

As I sit in my living room watching a bit of snow fall outside, I'm reminded of my first sidra experience of the season from about 3 weeks ago. What's sidra you ask? It's magic in a bottle, that's all. More than in the bottle, the magic in sidra is going to a sidreria, sipping it all afternoon, meeting new people, eating delicious food and partaking in a centuries old Basque tradition while layin' round the shanty and puttin' a good buzz on. The sidra, or cider, itself isn't anything like the syrupy stuff you might risk having a pint of around Portland from time to time. It's briny, sour and must be drunk in quick little shots so the sediment doesn't create a murky riverbed at the bottom of your pint glass. Hence, the buzz.

Inaki and I have been talking about being here for the sidra season since we left Portland in July. When Esteban and Mirentxu suggested we go a few weeks ago we immediately became giddy with excitement. Esteban knew a great place in Beruete, which is a village in the hills of Navarra. We heard there might be some bad weather and planned to have to hike 2 km in the snow to get to the cider house, but we were lucky and the snowplow had come through that morning, so we parked right next to the house. And when I say house, I literally mean house. This sidreria was run from the animal level of an old farm home. The family that owns it lives upstairs on the house level and dad cooks the meet, mom taps the kegs and son does whatever else needs to be done.

We got there early and the family was finishing shoveling snow from the driveway. Esteban's buddy Ignacio immediately yelled out of our car window, "hey kid," addressing the son, "you need to make sure you have a contract in place, there are child labor laws you know!" A smile broke across each family member's face as they knew Ignacio and were pleased he'd returned. We hopped out of the car, pulled on our hiking boots and headed into the cider house. Mom tapped a keg for us and let us have a few pulls before sending us out into the snow for a hike with the family dog.

Here's a shot of the tap room. I love how the beams and wood look greasy and covered in the years of cooking and steam filled conversations that have gone on beneath them.

Here's a snap of me getting my first "txot" as it's called here. The cider has to be shot out of the barrel to break up the sediment and then thrown back so it doesn't get warm or start to settle.

The barrel in the next picture was barrel #3 I think. During the day, one barrel was left with a perma-tap in it, but the others were opened by mom. She'd find the hole in the side of each barrel, shove a metal pipe in and let the sidra flow as we filled our cups and stepped back for the next person to aim their glass at the tap and try not to spill any. When we were done with that barrel, she'd take a big ball of animal fat, tear off a piece and cover the hole until the next time they tapped it. You can see the fat ball on the front and the hole, covered, to the upper right.

So out we went, into the snow and the hills of Beruete. The family dog seemed to know where to go and we just followed him. When the road forked and he went right, so did we. At the end of the line, he simply stopped, turned around and walked us back to the sidreria. Too cool. And, so filthy! When he rolled in the snow, it left a little muddy stain where he had lain.

Here's a shot on the hike and one looking back at the sidreria. It's white, so it's hard to see, but when you find it, you'll say wow.

When we trudged back up to the house at about 2, other customers had begun to arrive. As it usually goes, people start out shy and stand around in their own little groups, but by the end of the day, we're just one big group chatting and rosey, new best friends. This time we bumped into some folks Inaki knew from Pamplona and a group from Catalunia. Mom came into the taproom at about 2:30 and told us to settle into the dining room. We grabbed a picnic table and waited for the first course. Here's what the atmosphere was like.

View of the apple orchard from the table with lacy little curtains. Too sweet.

The typical sidreria menu is all family style. They bring out one huge plate at a time and you serve yourself. There's always a huge loaf of bread at the table as well. Some places don't even give you extra plates, but this one did. First course is usually a tortilla bacalao, which is a cod omelet. Mmm.

No funny business with salad or soup or anything that wastes space in your stomach. Next course is chuleton, or t-bone steak. You finish one and they ask you if you want another and it's basically bottomless. The meat is such high-quality, most likely from a cow they raised at the farm we were eating at, that they can cook it rare as rare can be. It's like steak sushi. They grilled it in this hut to the left, outside the taproom and would rush it into the dining room still sizzling. Yep, lace curtains there too.

Open grill over burning coals, oh yeah! They had just taken a rack off and were about to transfer this one to the heat.

The final product.

We ate until we couldn't eat anymore, all the while jumping up to taste sidra from freshly tapped barrels, "txots!" When we were stuffed, they brought out the dessert, which is another staple and fixed menu item: walnuts, cured cheese and a fruit compote kind of a thing (membrillo). All three flavors in your mouth at once are to die for. Nutty, earthy, creamy, sweet and salty. At this particular sidreria, they offered a digestive of apple brandy that they made there and coffee, of course.

Inaki is the kind of guy that likes to get a lot of value for his money. His motto is, "if it's free, give me 2." So, when we go to sidrerias and the sidra is all you can drink, he's not shy about filling that glass. When he arrives to an inevitable state of euphoria, he likes to start using his head for things it doesn't typically get used for. One of those things is cracking walnuts by placing them on the table and crushing them with his forehead. Observe:

Yep, he did it. But he's always a little sore the next day.

I don't think I can find a better place to end this blog as this is a pretty good grand finale. We all headed home in a steamy car (DD driven!) to long afternoon naps after a bit of bowling.

The sidra season starts in January and goes until mid-April. So, if you want to go to a really cool sidreria, now is the time to be here. There are some good ones that are open year-round, I've heard, and I'll be testing them out and letting you know for sure. Regardless, it's a one of a kind experience and I think I'll buy an orchard in HRV when we are back in Oregon and try to get the sidra ball rolling state-side!

Santander!

I mopped today. Like, the whole house. I have never done that before unless someone was coming to visit. I just needed things clean to start the week... who am I!?! Ahhhhhh! Domestication!!!!!

So, I've decided to blog about a wonderful trip we took this summer in hopes that it will get me back to my gritty traveler, adventure's my middle name, roots. We visited Inaki's aunt Pilar way back in July and had a great time tooting around Santander. I mentioned her in the Peaks of Europe post, because we stayed with her then too, as Santander isn't too far from the peaks. BUT, Santander is a not-to-miss city in my opinion. Lots of beautiful beaches, hikes, fish and the convenience of the buzzing metropolis right nearby.

The day we arrived we headed out to the beach to catch some rays. Santander's beach weather is closer to Oregon Coast than San Diego, so we figured we better get some sun while we could. I can't remember the name of this beach, but it was just a 10 minute drive from Pilar's. She also has a few within walking distance and then you can hike on the bluffs in between good spots.

On day two we hiked from one beach to another, which you can see above. I can't remember where we started, but the last picture you see is a really tough beach to get down to and stays pretty deserted because of that. So pretty! We ended up at Arnia (accent on the "i") and met the family for a beer and some rabas (long, thick, fry shaped calamaris) at what seemed to be the only bar for miles.

This was the coolest bar! Right on the edge of a cliff looking out over the sea. I guess on Thursday's they have live music, but we haven't made it back for that yet. Hopefully this summer! The view in the last photo (above) is from the parking lot of the bar. Awesome!

The following day, we took Paco out to meet a business associate and had the car for the day. So, we cruised around to a couple other beach towns. The first one we hit was San Vicente. The weather wasn't great, so we hiked to the top of the town to see the church/castle (I'm not sure which it was, they're all a blur, you know how it is).

Inaki wanted to do a senior picture in that last one. Looks pretty good I think!

After a pintxo, we rolled into Comillas, which means "quotation marks" in Spanish. We were air quoting pretty much everything we said that day and thought we were hilarious, which we were. Here's some "charm" for you to "enjoy"...

They've got a Gaudi structure in Comillas that we didn't go to because it costs 5 Euros, but we saw it from the other side of town poking out above the trees, suckers! We did get to check out the graveyard, which was pretty cool. They're so different from ours in Oregon with the graves all close together and protected by a wall. Look at this threatening angel perched above the site. Scary!

Day four was spent back in Santa and it was lovely. A fabulous lunch, a long walk and some great views.

That final panorama is a golf course that sits on a bluff above the beach. And, it's public! We walked all around it and it would be a fantastic place to play for you golf peeps out there.

OK, my adventurous spirit is feeling replenished and excited to get into a bit of mischief next weekend. I hope yours does too! Tata!