ekscrunchy

Besides the Fontán market, we also browsed in a few interesting gourmet shops offering Asturian delicacies and items from the rest of Spain. Among these were Casa Veneranda, on Calle Melquiades Alvarez in the pedestrian zone, and Coalla Gourmet, across from the Fontán market.


The Real Instituto de Estudios Asturianos presented an interesting exhibit about the brown bear of the Cantabrian and Asturian mountains, so we spent an hour in that space, near the NH Hotel.

http://www.osodeasturias.es/

And, as I mentioned above, we made two separate visits to the art museum, also near our hotel. (Nothing is very far away in Oviedo!)

http://www.museobbaa.com/



We had two dinners in the city, subsequent to our excellent meal at Casa Fermin.

The first of these was at MESTURA, a very well regarded restaurant in an elegant and somewhat formal pastel dining room on the first floor of the Hotel España.

This dinner began with Salpicón de Bogavante, a variation on a lobster salad, and with (what else?) croquetas de jamón Iberico for my partner, who proclaimed them “good, but not nearly as good as the ones at Casa Fermin.” I agreed.

While the artichoke with smoked eel was not memorable, we both loved the Arroz Cremoso con Pato, rice with duck, not too dissimilar from a risotto.

Dessert: Pastry with marzipan served with turrón ice cream

All in all, this was a good dinner but not nearly as exciting, or tasty , as the dinner the night before at Fermín. For two of us, the price was: Euro 82.40



l http://www.mesturarestaurante.com/en...nte-in-oviedo/


After dinner, we walked a few blocks to the bulevar de Sidra, the Boulevard of Cider, a pedestrian street whose real name is Calle Gascona, lined on both sides with restaurants and bars offering cider, accompanied by the classic dishes of Asturian cuisine. One end of the street is marked by a giant wooden cider barrel. Since we had just finished dinner, we did not sample any of these locales, but if we had had more time in the city, we could certainly have passed part of a pleasant evening moving from one bar to another.

https://enjoyoviedo.wordpress.com/20...r-de-la-sidra/


The name of the street, Gascona, comes from the fact that many pilgrims from that French region settled here in the 13th Century, after stopping along the Camino route to Santiago.

ekscrunchy

Adding this article about Luarca, on my list for next visit to Asturias:


https://www.theguardian.com/travel/a...mertime-secret

studenttobe

Loving your report, Ekscrunchy. The region sounds fascinating. As usual, dangerous to read your TR when hungry.

ekscrunchy

Thanks so much!

Unfortunately, I never finished it but maybe will at least post some photos of the places we went after Oviedo... Oviedo is a truly underrated city.

From there we rented a car and drove to a great hotel in the teeny tiny hamlet of Cofino.



https://www.puebloastur.com/en

ekscrunchy

https://www.elespanol.com/cocinillas...0911380_0.html

Maribel

Just one day before they were awarded their 3rd Michelin star, we were fortunate at Saborea Lanzarote to attend a presentation of Esther Manzano and her son Jesús (now chef de cuisine) of Casa Marcial in tiny La Salgar before the team of Nacho Manzano (Esther's brother) was awarded their 3rd Michelin star at the Michelin awards ceremony in Murcia.

ekscrunchy

Maribel I just read that..good for them. We had a fantastic lunch there.

Maribel

Yes, it's certainly worth the journey to tiny La Salgar, especially now.
In Teguise, at the two-day Saborea Lazarote festival, Esther and Chus (mother and son--Esther is Nacho Manzano's sister) prepared for us a cuajada de apio y pesto, which we were served. I think a version of this is on one of their tasting menus, "El Cachucha".

Far too many fine Asturian restaurants yet discovered to mention here, especially in the Cuenca Minera.