A furancho is not understood without a 'vine of wine'
The first rule of the furancho club is that there is no furancho club . Because what is in the south of Galicia They are houses where wine is left over a few months a year. By the way, since we are, you can eat what they offer you there , either you can take the food with you.
Sometimes shellfish gatherers or hunters go by with their own catch to eat it. Y the wine is young . They open until it runs out. N i menu or soft drinks. Welcome to the best kept secret in Galicia.
Barrantes wine cellar
We Galicians are like that, resolute and managed . We turn a broken bathtub into a cow trough as well as we fence cattle with an old bed frame. The furanchos, or also known as loureiros , began as a viable outlet for the surplus crop.
They sold it in bars nearby or in the home itself . When they kneaded it -they put the knuckle, the tap, into the barrel- they announced it by hanging a loureiro leaf -laurel- at the door of the house. The neighbors, who have known the story for three centuries, came to try it. As always there was someone who got involved, because he had something to snack on. And one thing led to another.
The furanchos They are only open a few months a year. The ban opens in December and ends in June. They can open a maximum of three months, but most of them finish the wine they have before they are two. That is why it is recommended the months of March and April , because the weather accompanies and open more furanchos . And the food is local. But local, local.
They make you the same salad with what they have in the garden next door ** they fry you some potatoes (Kennebec type, eye to detail) ** with some eggs collected that morning from their own hens. And forget about ordering exotic things –like a cocktail- that you may still be waiting for a while for them to arrive ( spoiler: do not insist, there is not ) .
Galician sidereal pie
So why so much fame? Because of the singular, rustic –here we say enxere - and authentic. And also because the prices are very cheap: pitchers of young wine do not usually exceed 6 euros and tapas do not reach 12 , except for the seafood (razor clams, clams, oysters or small crabs), which we don't object to because here seafood is religion and discussing its quality is blasphemy.
Some serve you the young wine served in cuncas directly from the barrel as soon as you sit down without having opened your mouth, the food is homemade, granite walls and wooden tables and chairs in the heat of a lareira, without noise and in the middle of nowhere surrounded green.
What's better than that for a weekend getaway? Some are in such high demand that they ended up being converted into restaurants, others took advantage of old sheds and got a bar license to be able to serve all year round. The only difficult thing is finding them. here is the question.
Furanchos or loureiros can hide anywhere
Despite attempts by local authorities to keep a record, it is not clear how many furanchos there are. What is known is that almost all of them are in the Rias Baixas , on the province of Pontevedra . Since Vigo to the region of O Salnes . The greatest concentration is in the regions of Cambados, Meis, Meaño and Sanxenxo . You have to be aware of the crowds of cars that form at the door of the houses: if you have a bay leaf on the door is a furancho.
Another way is to ask the neighbors for the nearest loureiro . They are usually houses with a large garage and surrounded by vines. Or in the GPS, since some are identified. There is even a website ( defuranchos.com ), carried out by a group of colleagues from Vilagarcía, which can help you . It is not official and depends on the users themselves.
THE GOLDEN MILE OF FURANCHO
But if you want to go for a steady shot, the best start is caves , a parish of Meaño. They concentrate a ten of them in just under a kilometer. Some are still authentic furanchos, others have chosen to become inns, but the soul is very similar. are all in Abaixo village , in the road junction EP-9302 and EP-9306 . We highlight, without any order or concert, the following:
in the furancho A of John not easy to see (like many others) . It is a wooden gate in the middle of a blind wall (without windows). If you find it, the first thing that strikes you is the letter. It is a piece the size of half a page, laminated, in which the title caps and there are “small” and “big” . I quote it because For Galicians, size is relative –everything is relative- and the big ones are fountains, you have been warned. The squid (8 euros) or the classic octopus (10 euros) are well worth it.
The surplus of the harvest, the origin of the furancho
Angel's (Rustibodega de Angel) It is renovated and has a single room as a very cozy cafeteria and a spectacular terrace where a granary reigns (It is also difficult to see, it is a two-story house with a granite wall that has a large white door and a wooden sign next to it. It stands out for a very neat kitchen. To try the tortilla and roast ham. And the star dessert is the straws.
Henry House It belongs to the veterans and has a terrace with spectacular views. The must are the usual: tortilla, richada and octopus.
In A Roda (distinguished by the upper piece of bocoy on the door) ditto. It is also worth trying the Padrón peppers and the squid, although they win over the clientele with the skewer that comes with the wine.
The gardenia It is a house with a wooden gate that is next to a stone cross. Equally cozy atmosphere in a single room. Wooden tables and stone walls . Their specialty is cod, cooked in the oven and served in a ceramic pot, and you have to order it.
Or Bacelo de Mari He is one of the last to arrive. A shed that belonged to grandfather Vicente, who was a carpenter, and his granddaughter decided to continue. The specialty **is lamb and capon (on request)** which are spectacular and served in gargantuan quantities.
Muiño da Conda It is already a restaurant that has rehabilitated the place keeping the granite stone walls. It offers a more extensive menu and is open all year round, ideal for those who cannot attend during the furancho season. The Muiño da Conda omelette is highly recommended.
Last but not least, a little far from the center there are two other highly recommended ones: **the Quirófano (place of Outeiro)**, named like that by the owner “because it was frequented by doctors”. With stunning views of the Arousa estuary, surprised by him Rye bread that they serve with the lid on the terrace with a Barrantes wine –the kind that leaves your tongue purple-.
And the vine of the house of Lar de Outeiro (or furancho de Quintela) is a worthy place to try the richada (10 euros) . A typical Galician dish served by almost all the furanchos in Pontevedra which consists of beef cut into small pieces, usually in strips, fried with peppers and potatoes that is to die for several times.
And then? Pota coffee, coffee liquor and a walk through the town . Let's walk, that the bikini operation is about to fall. And the views are well worth it.
This rye bread and the octopus speak for themselves
Between wines, vineyards, mountains and winding roads, are the furanchos