Another Tapas Contest: Tapas Picadillo in Coruña II
Hey there again! I’m on the road to Granada today.
That’s like a 10 hours journey. Although I’ve been driving already, blogging is like the perfect hobbie. Why? Because if I am bored I can talk to you for as long as I want…I don’t mind if you stop readin. I understand.
I think I need to talk about the rest of the dishes I tried for the tapas contest in Coruña.
I have thousands (exagerating) of photos and I still remember the flavours of the food I ate. So here I go!
In this second round I started in Tapa Negra. Probably one of my favourites. Very nice, smooth and very well plated. Escabeche Tuna. The vinegar, red pepper and onion reminded me of Salpicón. A typical Spanish cold sea dish.
A really nice tapa. Second, on the same street and from the same owners: Alma Negra. They had a Iberian Pork, Arzúa cheese and chili Sandwich.
The tapa was huge. Like a whole sandwich, I mean…not a tapa at all. I could have had dinner just stopping there. A good pork sandwich, with a lot of flavour and nice texture. Not very spicy, although it said chili, but very flavourful and juicy.
Next on the list, Surrey. I love this place for its fried squid tapas and some other things like bolognese filloas (Galician crêpes, find a recipe here). Delicious. For the contest, they made Pork Cheek with Potatoes. Nicely done, a good sauce and the perfect amount. No complaints.
And the last on the same street was La Mala Vida. They offered a Galician beef tataki.
The flavours were really good. The balance between savoury and sweet with a bit of acidity reminded me of nice homemade stews. The meat was very good, exept for one bit that was overcooked for a tataki. Nothing really important, it’s just the pieces that were raw, where perfect. And I forgot to say how garlicky (in a very good way) it was.
A different part of the city comes with different tapas.
Started in Cosecha del 81. Two different tapas: Saint John’s Skewer (called like this because we eat sardines on St. John’s night, June the 23rd)
Although it could look a bit tacky, the flavour was very refined and the sardine had a really nice texture. The waiter was kind to point that the blue salt was thereas an embellishment. The texture of the fake sand was really nice too and the seaweed and wasabi added more depth to the already present sea flavours.
They went for the Surf ‘n’ turf experience, so the other tapa was made of chicken. A terrine with a veggie skewer and common wheat. All was nicely done and full of nice flavours.
Last of this series: La Granera. I went there the first day, but I forgot reading about the schedules for the tapas online, so when I arrived they didn’t have it. The offered me a complimentary stew soup (if you want my recipe for Galician stew soup, click here)
It was really tasty, though a bit too salty. Probably because it takes too many hours to make a good stew soup. And I could see when I finally tried the tapas, that they used the stew for one of them. “Pork Head Dum-pig”, they called it. And although I’m more of a steamed dumpling person, this deep-fried version was very good and, again, full of nice flavours.
The other tapa, Shrimp Ceviche, was nice. My first shrimp ceviche actually (I think). I love how ceviches are claiming a spot here in Galicia lately. Very grateful for that.
To sum up, it was the perfect ending for the tapas night. I would love if they had it in their menu.
I could go on for the last day, shall I? Google maps is telling me I still have 6 more hours to arrive in Granada, so yes.. I shall.
O Fieital. This one is a place that I’ve liked since I first tried one of their contest tapas (three years ago?) A barnicle croquette. So tasty and comforting. I go there every now and then, but I also try and visit every year with Tapas Picadillo.
This year they had the two popular ingredients others had: Sardines and Pork cheek. One in the shape of an open empanada with cockles and the other one inside a bao bun.
The waiter told me he liked it more when he mixed the sauce in the glass container with the bao. I totally agreed.
Break Time was the next on the list. I left the place with mixed feelings. They had two tapas on the brochure, but although I went in the right schedule, they didn’t have the one that I was really going there for. They just had this one, callos. Which, yes, are usually awesome, but if I’m trying tapas, I don’t usually go to places to try very traditional stuff. Or at least, not just very traditional stuff. On the other hand, I asked for another tapa. It was nice and tasty. I was disappointed I couldn’t try the Marinated Albacore with Seaweed and Yuzu, but the food was good. Also, if any of you are interested in huge portions…for 2,5€ they gave me a big dish of Chicken Stroganoff with rice. You won’t leave the place hungry…I assure you that.
That same evening, I went to experience Tapas Picadillo one last time before it finished. And, unluckily, I got food poisoning. Everything tasted OK, though. It probably was a combination of the seafood and low temperature eggs that upset my stomach in some way. It was just that I wasn’t able to eat the next day, don’t think anything gross.
Started the night with this simple Salmon Tartar with Wasabi mayo (I couldn’t taste the wasabi, but the tartar was good) at La Bodeguilla de Feijoo.
Then, this Sea Egg at El Huerto de los Cantones. Cockles were amazing and the texture of the “moss” was really nice. A bit too much sea flavour for me, but they told me in advance. A very interesting tapa.
The next restaurant is Morriña. If you don’t know the word, it is a very important word in Galicia. It’s kind of homesickness, but galician homesickness. Difficult to explain.
The place had two tapas for the contest: Scorpionfish mousse and Low temperature egg with foie and potato cream. Both were really good, and really big. But I still had to try a couple more places. It was the last day…I didn’t have a choice.
Next was Malte. One of my go-to places on a Tuesday night to drink good beer. Nice people working there.
Their tapas were real tapas…I mean bite size. Exactly what I needed. I couldn’t afford huge tapas anymore. I’m still trying to be healthy 🙄
I think the coconut sauce was a bit too sweet for the cockles, but they had it put in a little bottle that realeased tiny drops so you could use as much as you liked, or none at all.
The croquettes were really crunchy and I loved that they had huge chunks of chicken. It looked like a mixture between croquettes and homemade nuggets. I usually don’t like chicken croquettes that much, I did like these a lot, so… Bravo!
And when I thought my stomach couldn’t afford eating any more…I decided I had to go to La Moviola and try their Carpaccio. What a good idea it was to go walking in order to help food get digested before trying this tapa.
I said the best tapa of the contest was the vegan chorizo in A Factoría Verde. I wasn’t lying, but there was a tie between these two. I loved this Beef Carpaccio and Cebreiro cheese. I’m a huge fan of Cebreiro cheese (see one example here and another one here) But the flavours were so well balanced that I forgot I was too full to keep eating and ordered one more. Maybe it wasn’t food poisoniong what I got the next day, it was most probably overeating.
See those green dots? I spent a couple of minutes figuring out why I liked that familiar flavour so much. And after I finished, I knew: Padrón Peppers! Of course! A bit tart and sweet and perfect. I asked the waiter and he confirmed it. A very clever twist to a classic. Well deserved first spot together with the vegan chorizo from the previous post.
I hope this was entertaining for at least one person. I didn’t get so bored on the road and…good news in half an hour I’ll be in Granada. Have fun and keep fooding!