But what the hell is Ourense?
It's in a city like Ourense where chefs from all over the world will bring you souvenirs from home. Where an international meeting is held waiting for great elaborations and impossible ways to realize that the smell of stew is more powerful than any metaphysical explanation of what you have on the plate.
In the Enbhiga of this year, Carlos Rodriguez , a Costa Rican chef, explains the achiotao chicken history while the smell permeates the nostrils and takes you back to other times when dye was used to color clothes.
Further, the Chileans Miguel Catricheo and Gabriel Rapiman they say that the merkén is now a condiment made with chili chunk of goat , widely used in Mapuche cuisine. In another time it was used by warriors as an antiseptic and now it keeps families waiting for a fire that never goes out, because that fire will heat the stone that dries the pepper.
Darrel Thomas , Canadian in love with Costa Rica, prepares salmon with a sauce of seasonal products, such as pumpkin and carrot, and reduces it with maple syrup. The Italians Antonio Tedesco and Rico Laudadio they place plates of mozzarella and the Portuguese Christian Rullan is hand in hand with Hemdan Larosi, Galician born in Tindouf , which he leaves with his mouth watering (or rather, as if the floodgates of Cachamuíña had been opened) with a couscous with vegetables.
And in a corner, as if wanting to draw up an evil plan to conquer the world, Gabriela Martínez, Federico Domínguez, Nadina Keller, Pablo Quiven and Ezequiel González they keep a meat that has been 12 hours cooking.
The public attending this year's Enbhiga ( Bi-oceanic Hispanic-Latin Gastronomy Meeting ) is fascinated.
I take refuge in the kitchen of the Peruvians Darwin Santamaria and Pedro Misari. They delicately serve a bowl of carapulcra for people who want to try it. A andean stew with a Quechua name that has changed over the centuries, made of dried potatoes and chili, to continue being a dish for the people. A stew like Grandma's. How not to cry from pleasure with so much at such a short distance.
And in the middle of it all, I ask Darwin the reason for his return to traditional cuisine, of the reason for so many dishes that we already know . And he, who always held French cuisine in the highest of his esteem, goes and tells you that the really important thing is that "never forget where you come from".
OURENSE, WHAT ARE YOU?
And as we speak of not forgetting where we came from, those of us who had the privilege of living in these lands we throw of morriña to try to explain, in a few lines (which is impossible) what is the province of Ourense.
It is to go to the traditional bakery on the corner of Calle Azucena and Pasaje Flores de O Carballino Y smell of toasted flour since before going down the slope -not without first having tried the mythical octopus in the mythical Gazpara House (Rua das Flores 2) ; or cross the Cea town and see that every house is a bakery overflowing with soft, dense bread rolls.
It is getting into any of its hot springs, for example, those of Outariz, that are public, to relax at sunset watching the river, while tourists take photos of you from the top of the bridge trying to understand what they are seeing.
Or do it in private ones, like those of Prexigueiro , to cook you like a red lobster while you lose yourself in the thick green that surrounds you. Or go changing; here are hot springs to bore you.
Ethnographic Museum in O Carballiño
Or get carried away roads between the mountains to end up hiding in Trives and that they invite you to do bica and get purple and see the Sil canyons and hallucinate with socalcos (terraces) that are on the slopes and think that something as good as wine can be grown there (it is no coincidence that four of the five denominations of wines that Galicia has are here).
go to the Xariñas de Castro viewpoint and be enthralled by the views for hours. is to see To Cela , a town that was built in the middle of huge rocks. Or surprise you with Aquis Originis in Lobies , one of the eleven mansions along the Roman road XVIII and that were like hostels for travelers.
Discovering Ourense is wanting to be in a magical and mystical places , as an area that was no man's land until 1868. In the south, Meaus, Santiago and Rubiás were called Couto Mixto (Mixed Reserve), an area of difficult border delimitation between Galicia and Portugal q that shared laws and enjoyed exemptions because they did not consider themselves one or the other.
Along the paths that surround the Ribeira Sacra
Or stay frozen to know the history of holy waters , in which back in the year 139 a prefect, Olibrio -despite the play on words that gives the name the kid did not seem to have many lights- became infatuated with a young woman named Marine . He wanted to force her to abandon her Christian faith but Mariña refused. He punished her in a thousand ways but he did not succeed and she, a few days later, appeared cured of her ills, so she sentenced her to burn to death.
legend says that San Pedro helped save her by putting her body in a nearby pile. a. Olibrio ordered her head to be cut off, and it bounced three times, of which three springs.
The legend of Mariña de Augas Santas
Ourense is to try the pig ear in the center of the city, in the mythical ** Orellas ** _(rúa da Paz 6) _, between stone streets with a lot of character, or bathe in the Burgas -Have I already said that there are infinite number of hot springs here?- and give you a pantagruelian tribute of pizzas in The romantic _(Curros Enriquez 43) _; if what you prefer is to try Galician products with a twist, your site may be the one Rustic Hotel San Jaime , situated in Pereiro de Aguiar.
There's also tortillas that border on madness , like the one they do in Or Enxebre _(Lepanto 14) _ and the classic octopus, in shipyard (rúa dos Fornos 11), but if you don't want to get complicated and your body asks for tapas, between those two streets you have the whole universe.
As a bonus ball is a few steps away. It is the street of Viriato , and it is made up of four traditional bars. Cold Fountain (Viriato 6) and A Casa do Octopus (Viriato 5) are the wine and tapas classics.
Ourense is angry
Or you can give yourself a sunset walk across the roman bridge . Or go to a hot spring and feel like a real Roman. In the hot springs they recommend that, when you leave, you take it easy, that it is not good to raise the tension suddenly. Well that. Ourense if you enjoy it all year round, with time. Like good broths, or good stews.
The 'millo', one of the staple foods of Galicia