Don Fadrique, a taste delight
Very occasionally you meet special places, restaurants where you cook with roots and personality , people who are interested in the unique products of the area. Places and people with identity.
They had told me a lot and well about ** La Hostería de Don Fadrique ** and its creators Nicholas and Manuel Sanchez Monge but the truth is that my dinner there exceeded all possible expectations.
Dawn of Tormes – which as strange as it may seem to those who do not know the area is a river and fishing town – has a centuries-old fishing tradition and a wide and rich recipe book in this regard.
But the fact is that Alba is also at the foot of the Sierras de Candelario and Gredos and has a unique wealth of game, mushrooms, herbs and wild vegetables.
Add the proximity of Guijuelo and its pig industry , the traditional excellence of charro lambs and cows and an orchard irrigated by the abundance of water and a relatively benign climate. A whole cast of ingredients that make up a much more complete palette than might be expected a priori.
It also coincides that the Sánchez Monge brothers are restless and ambitious people and try to take advantage of the full potential of the land that gives them birth.
elaborate Iberian sausages with remarkable success and imagination; wines in the Toro area ; oils across the Portuguese border; collaborate with the University of Salamanca in his studies to give a gastronomic use to the mushrooms with which Iberian hams and sausages are cured...
Anyway, people who contribute –and a lot– to the cuisine of your region.
It is advisable, therefore, not to miss the opportunity to try some exceptional sausages and some of the "experiments" with which they have been working as pastrami or the wonderful boar's head made with nose, castañeta, cheeks and Iberian lizard.
Extraordinary dishes will parade around the table, versioning traditional recipes such as maruja's salad, garlic, orange, ponderosa amanita and oyster; the “serrano lemon”, a very peculiar and delicious salad that brings together ingredients as disparate as orange, lemon, chorizo, Iberian sirloin, egg yolk emulsion and chorizo; or the cod with vegetables, a dish of the Teresian nuns, whose convent can be guessed through the windows.
They demonstrate the same success when dealing with vegetables, sometimes wild, as in those thistle and wild borage with clams , in the asparagus from Tudela de Duero , diabla sauce and smoked eel cooked very lightly or in the extraordinary peas with cuttlefish and a mushroom pilpil that cures in ham.
All of them very remarkable dishes that lead to two of the stars of the house. On the one hand, if you are very lucky, they will offer you some freshly caught river fish in nearby waters.
Do not hesitate: the extraordinary delicacy and smoothness of the pickled trout of conservation and vinegars will bring back flavors and textures lost in memory.
On the other hand, the roundness and precision of the roast lamb in a clay sarcophagus with morels, São Jorge mushrooms and celeriac puree gives the true measure of this cuisine that dares with an overwhelming variety of registers.
A tasty cuisine that makes the most of the area's top product: river fishing (trout, bogas, river mackerel...) , game, cultivated and wild vegetables... Iberian, oils and wines of own production.
Mild cooking and well-finished dishes that only have a few decorations left over on occasions. Furthermore, careful attention and a very remarkable cellar that treasures great bottles.
And, finally, sleep over and have some freshly picked fried eggs for breakfast. Go to Alba de Tomes without hesitation. They will thank me.