
Went out with Pipocas again, this time to Modesto for a fabulous Friday afternoon lunch. Pipocas had never eaten there before and we eschewed the more touristy (though very pretty) outdoor terrace and upstairs dining room in favour of sitting at the bar, which is my favourite place to eat there. It’s so much cosier and you get to chat with the barmen and the guys in the kitchen. I love that.
We started off with a fritura, then had some grilled pork tenderloin in mushroom sauce and finally tried the razorback clams. Meanwhile, our neighbours were having some interesting looking things and they were very nice about letting me take some pics of their food too. 🙂
The new pics are here (photos 17-22)
I used to love grabbing a hand full of sand and feeling the coquinas bury themselves in my palm. Soooooo do you guys eat them? Looks like a tedious snack.
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staring at my frozen pizza for dinner? somehow, it’s just not the same!
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Yes, hopefully it doesn’t wriggle before you cook it, daisy.
I agree that coquinas are way too much work, uw. The razorback clams were okay, but I think I’d have preferred the “gurumelos”.
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Hmmm – if it lives in the sea, it should be eaten in the sea – not put on my plate!
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archie – I wouldn’t have thought you were so unadventurous!
I’ll have the brains please…. and that really big wild mushroom
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Brains? Those were fish egg sacks (huevas). I personally can’t stand them but they seem to be very popular.
I wonder if Raul will see your comment on the tapa blog, nursemyra. 🙂
Not even prawns fresh off the barbie, Archie?
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I can’t believe you didn’t mention the perfume-lady, and how our olfactory senses were attacked by her, um, odours. Ick. Although, I suppose she made up for it by turning us on to the mushrooms.
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Oh bleh! That was awful, wasn’t it?
Okay, the perfume-lady story. About half-way through our lunch an older couple came in and sat next to us at the bar and immediately both Pipocas and I started gagging. The woman was not only wearing enough perfume to knock out a, um, very hard to knock out thing, but it was also very stale smelling. Like someone who doesn’t bathe or change their clothes very often and keeps plastering on more perfume instead.
We decided that she mustn’t have a very good sense of smell, possibly due to her age and the fact that she didn’t stop smoking the whole time, even when she was eating. But it really was awful. When the clams came I had to rub my fingers on the lemon and hold them under my nose.
But they were actually very nice people and, as I said, didn’t mind me taking pics of their food (the huevas and those huge mushrooms).
Still, it was a shame because just before they came in I was thinking how perfect it was, sitting at the bar with just the faintest hint of orange blossom wafting in through the open front door. . .
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So, people smoke in public places over there?
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Not as much as before the *ahem* anti-smoking laws came into being, uw. But there are so many loopholes and nobody really seems to care. Frankly, I’d rather smell cigarette smoke than gallons of stale perfume.
I also draw the line at cigars and have even been know to make a fuss (can you believe it? 😉 ) if someone lights up a cigar in a restaurant. Well, only if The Ray doesn’t work.
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