I started the year working, actually the new 20’s decade. Some might contradict me and say it’s not the begining of a decade (hi dad!) but I’ll skip that part. The thing is, work came sooner than expected. On the 4th of January I played the first gig of the year. I didn’t even had the time to write my new years resolutions 😅. Just kidding, I love making lists of any kind. One of my strongest desires this year is drawing more. Fun fact, I am an Illustrator too, but I’ve been “postponing” drawing for a while now. Call it workhaholic or overworked. You might be true. 

 

 

More often than not, work means travelling for me. The place: Logroño. If you don’t live in Spain or nearby, you might know the place because it is where Rioja wine is made. Of course, we had to play in a winery.  The festival is called Actual and we had such a great time. 

 

 

 

 

We are very cautious people. We are cautious drivers and we are never in a hurry when it comes to arriving to a place. When you have to drive for so many hours every time you have to work, your commute becomes your life, so you start finding new ways of enjoying delays and tiredness. Says the person seating in a train from Barcelona to Coruña delayed at least two hours (and still 13 hours to go).

 

 

Patience is my greatest gift, and this last year I’ve been working on it, without even knowing I was working on it. 

This gig was in the afternoon, so we decided to go the day before in order to spend the night before in Logroño and that way we could enjoy a bit of the food there too. What did you expect from

 

 

On our first night while Carlos rested in the hotel room, Viña (our sound guy) and I went for a coffee.

 

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Even though it was cold outside, at Café Bretón they had outdoors heating, so we enjoyed the winter vibe. To our surprise, the streets were lively, which was a warm nice feeling. 

 

 

After coffee (well, decafs…) we met Carlos and went to the main street for pinchos and tapas. The street is called Laurel. The first place we chose was La Taberna del Tío Blas and I ordered a vegetable focaccia and a mushroom croquette. I didn’t notice you could ask them to remove the cheese (to make it vegan) but they say it on the menu, which I find very useful when they let you know they don’t mind doing it. 

 

 

I drank a rosé, just because. I think I love doing the opposite thing I’m supposed to. I don’t even do it on purpose 😂  I mean, rioja is famous for their red wine, but they have nice rosé and white too. 

 

 

Next place: Páganos (meaning Pay Us) Loving the vibe of this name. Carlos and Viña asked for the speciality: Pincho Moruno which is a skewer with marinated meat. They served it right out of the coal and, unfortunately, Carlos was a gentleman and to avoid Viña from burning himself, he burnt his fingers. He then spent the rest of the night finding spots where there were cold stuff to relieve the pain. Don’t worry, he’s ok now 😁.

 

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They only had meat in that place, but they also had tortilla, so I order a tapa and to my surprise they had a fantastic hot sauce. Which was actually hot red peppers smashed into a paste. Oh Gosh, I think I ate more hot sauce than tortilla itself. Carlos stole some of the hot sauce for his meat (just to let you know it was a good combo, don’t know if they want you to do that 😂) 

 

 

After going to such a carnivorous place, I needed to compensate. I had done my research thanks to my friend Blanca, who sent me a link for vegan options in Logroño. I knew there was this place called El Cid, that only served mushrooms. That’s it. A place specialised in grilled mushrooms. 

 

 

That was, by far my favourite place in Logroño, even if I eat fish, egg and cheese in other places because…I can’t live on mushroom. Well, I can…but Carlos and Viña wouldn’t accept. 

The mushrooms were perfectly cooked, which made them awesome. I love a good mushroom that’s been cooked to its perfect texture. 

 

 

The guy on the bar was nice and the house wine (a young wine that is usually cheaper) tasted very good. To start with, I almost never drink wine anymore. But my neck was a bit tight, and wine seems to relax my muscles better than Physiotherapy or any other legal drug.

 

 

I usually order the house wine when they have it, just because it’s usually a young wine so it tastes milder. The bad thing about this is that it’s usually bad, so it’s worth a mention when it’s not 😂 What I don’t get is why I still order it, I think it’s because I love the risk of getting a bad wine just for the sake of finding one that, unexpectedly, tastes very good. I’m a wine gambler, apparently. 

 

 

The place was decorated with grapes hanging from the ceiling, which had already become raisins. I was tempted to grab one or two, but I behaved. I notice a pattern in people. They just entered each place for a few minutes to grab a pincho and afterwards they changed places. The next day I was told this was a thing they do in Logroño, they just enter the places for one pincho and then move. That way, places are usually crowded, but then empty in a matter of seconds, just to be full again in another minute. 

 

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For dessert we found a chestnut stall on a street leading to the hotel. Well, some may say it’s not dessert, but that’s the thing with dessert with me…it doesn’t have to be sugar, it just has to be the last thing I eat on a particular meal. The chestnuts were plump and sweet and they were perfectly roasted. It’s nice to eat something warm in a cold winter night. In Galicia, they usually give them to you rolled in newspaper, so we were holding the peels until we found a bin. In Logroño they had a system with two pockets (newspaper pockets, of course) where you can throw the peel. So clever, and we…so stupid not to see it until we ate the last chestnut. But as good citizens we didn’t throw the peels to the street (except for one that ended up on a tree, but you know…it’s compostable). We had a nice chat with the chestnut lady. She told us she was from Andalucía, and we talked a bit about everything while we waited for the chestnuts to roast.

 

 

For what happened the next day, stay tuned. It will come in a later post, because I found so much photos on my phone, that I really couldn’t fit them all in one go 😄 Have fun and keep fooding!