Firstly a quick explanation, there has not been any reports on the Epicureans for three months because two of the restaurants we visited were return visits and have been written about recently and we had a vacation in Thailand for a month – I would love to give you details and recommend one restaurant in Phuket that was just fabulous but it is rather a long way to go for “lunch”!
The April meeting of the Epicureans took place in Restaurant La Ereta in the grounds of Alicante Castle, what a stunning location, this glass fronted restaurant gives fabulous panoramic views over Alicante, the port and the sea with spectacular views up to the castle.
Beautiful crisp white table clothes, good quality cutlery and “proper” wine glasses. Menu’s are available in Spanish and English for those of you that struggle with “Espanole”. La Ereta is not easy to find, while some of our members were still going round in ever decreasing circle in the back streets of Alicante, we thought we would sample the house red, a gorgeous Rioja, unusually fruity and rounded for a Rioja, just perfect for a lovely sunny day.
The menu offers a somewhat limited range of dishes to tempt your taste buds, but dishes and combinations that you will probably not find anywhere else. I will warn you now, this is not a cheap restaurant but the food and the location makes it well worth a visit. First dish to the table was “compliments of the chef”, a slate platter with three intense and very unusual appetizers, a sliver of cod on a rice square, a spoon of sardine with herbs and nuts and a tiny jar of, what I can only describe as the best vegetable soup you have ever had – unbelievable. I started with steak tartar, fabulous raw minced steak, beautifully presented, but not the best tartar I have ever had but their unique combination of raw steak with a green Dijon mustard did hold a strange sort of magic.
Some members started with the “crispy” scallops, 3 beautiful scallops perfectly cooked and topped with a fried potato disc served in a succulent sauce. Delicious but they could have been hotter, a minor hiccup.
One member had the Foie Gras, an ultra smooth mousse of goose liver, I tried it, it was “too die for” – fantastic. Most of the members chose one of the Restaurants specialities for their main course slow cooked baby goat. This meat is cooked for twenty eight hours, you can just imagine how this succulent juicy intensely flavoured meat just melts in your mouth, they serve it with a hot gravy and “Mediterranean Dust”, a coating and sprinkling of crushed almonds and herbs. It is worth visiting this restaurant just for this dish, I just wish it had come with a side dish of baby vegetables; it needed an accompaniment to really allow you to appreciate each mouthful.
Some other members had Ox a meat ball in an intense sauce, thumbs up for that as well.
The wine has flowed as has the conversation and best of all the laughs, the food been great, the location, fabulous and the ambiance in the restaurant is relaxed. Time for dessert. I chose the chocolate brownie – a chocoholic’s dream a trip to chocolate heaven, 500 calories of pure delight.
My wife had the soufflé, another delight, a double cooked soufflé with a liquid centre, as you cut into this ultra light sponge a river of “loveliness” flowed out into the dish. The exact flavour we could not determine but it was gorgeous. No coffees or liqueurs this time, we are all totally satiated and wonderfully happy, three hours of pure pleasure.
So now down to the money, when the bill arrived, it was as we expected around 60.00 Euro’s a head but everyone agreed it was well worth it. Restaurant La Ereta is located in the Parque de la Ereta, Alicante in the grounds of Alicante Castle, enter the castle grounds at the back of the castle and follow the signs to the restaurant. Telephone 965143250 for reservations or visit their web site www.laereta.es. So that is another fabulous restaurant added to The Epicureans list of eating houses, if you appreciate good food and fabulous company why not join us. If you think that you may be interested in becoming a member of “The Epicureans” register your interest by sending me an email to barberic@terra.es or drop me a note to Eric Arnold, Appt. Correos 201, Sax, 03630, Alicante.
