Memorable meal

I was given a special treat by the Chaplaincy wardens today. Ron and Jenny called and took me out to L'Antic Moli, a fine Catalan restaurant just outside St Rafael de Riu, where we met with Paul and Beryl for lunch. I came here once before with Michael and Pamela eighteen months ago and was impressed by the high standard and variety of the cuisine.

I had a sushi style marinaded tuna for a starter followed by braised rabbit and alubia beans. The rabbit was covered in a light olive oil, which made an otherwise dryish meat succulent and didn't overwhelm the flavour. Reading the menu beforehand, I noticed that as part of the restaurant's signature gourmet supper, an olive oil tasting course is offered, with seven different local varieties to try. There were some excellent green olives on the table to share as well, though I was the only one to eat them, and ate more than my share during the first two courses.

Then there was blood orange and strawberry sorbet to follow for postre, and the meal was washed down with Catalan vin negre or vin rosado. Normally I don't eat bread with a cooked meal, but the roll was offered was so crisp fresh and light, it was worth making a exception. These were all splendid tastes to remember, and it was a good occasion for the five of us to share, ahead of my final service on Sunday which will be the fifth Sunday united chaplaincy celebration in Vinaròs Fishermen's Chapel. In July 2012, the first time I was here, the fifth Sunday celebration was in Vinaròs, but that time it was at the Ermita, outside town, with its wonderful views of the sierras and coastal plain. Which reminds me, I must re-visit there before I leave. It's a special place.

On returning to the house, I took a brief siesta, then walked up the Costa Norte, enjoying the slightly cooler weather and the breeze coming in off the sea. There are more holidaymakers now than when I arrived in each of many pebbled coves along the Costa, and the sandy beaches along the town sea front are quite busy, as they have been for several weeks. If my memory serves me well, it'll be even more crowded in the first three weeks of August, when the French as well as the Spanish fill the hotels and holiday lettings all along the Mediterranean coast. Even so, traffic and pedestrian crowds in Vinaròs are not nearly as heavy as in Benicarló and Peñìscola, both of which have many more high rise hotels and apartment blocks, such a contrast to how it is in winter and spring.

This evening, there was work to do on a briefing for the BCRP Board about the challenges of the recent enforced upgrade of RadioNet equipment, and how they have been successfully tackled, without need for a crisis loan. Perhaps its something to do with the age that Ashley and I both have in common, that we know how to conserve and not resources, and are quite risk averse when it comes to costly credit. It's good to think that we put old fashioned principles and business ethics to work, and continue to develop our voluntary enterprise, albeit slowly and carefully. Very satisfying.

Lunch and an evening exhibition

Michael and Pamela took me out lunch today at L'Antic Moli, one of their favourite restaurants outside of St Rafael del riu on the road to La Senia. This old mill building has been interestingly renovated and expanded, and has an excellent varied menu. I had braised pork cheek and mushrooms with a seafood 'swiss roll' to start with, consisting of minced morcels of fish and raisins, wrapped in a thin layer of a sweet brioche. Quite original. Nice wine too, a Catalunyan vin negre of deep dark colour.

On the way there, at the end of morning, I noticed many fruit pickers at work in the orchards alongside the road. As Michael pointed out, this is the time for harvesting Clementines and Tangerines to bring to market for Christmas. Oranges get picked later, in January. At the moment the former are present on fruit stalls in abundance, and they're cheap as well as deliciously fresh.

In the late afternoon, I walked into Vinaros to savour the evening atmosphere. As the sun sets the skies fill momentarily with tens of thousands of starlings, regrouping before heading to their roosting place for the night. They look like a dark cloud of locusts, swirling in exquisite aerial forms, then they leave as quickly as they appear.

Crowds of kids come out of school at five, then the streets wake up. By six they are busy with shoppers for the next three hours. The number of toy shops in the town centre is remarkable, as well as shops selling children's wear generally. It's a family oriented town in many ways.

In one of the streets there's a 17th century restored nobleman's town house, called the Caixa de Vinaros, which serves as a town museum with an interest in its economic history, displaying photographs and artifacts to do with its agrarian, maritime and industrial past. There's a very fine display of model ships from different periods of regional history. The model maker was there, chatting with the custodian and we got talking. Then he gave me a personal tour of his collection, which was an interesting challenge to my primitive Spanish, but most enjoyable.

The top two floors of the house are given over to an exhibition of paintings by Antoni Miro, an artist who lives in the town of Alcoy, north of Alicante. During the Civil War, a hospital was set up in his home town to treat the wounded. It was funded by Swedish and Norwegian supporters of the Republic. The paintings on display tell the story of the hospital. They are based on photographs taken at the time, made up into large lithographs, tinted in reds, oranges and yellow republican colours, with the faces painted in human flesh tones to take away the sense of abstraction attached to old enlarged photos, not always well defined or in focus. An interesting interpretative device for a powerful narrative about solidarity.

I asked if I could buy a couple of the booklets explaining the exhibition and was told they were for giving away. Free culture and history!  This gives me two more presents I can mail out from here. Pity I didn't take one for myself as well. Sadly there's nothing on Miro's website about this exhibition of his works completed in 2012. The Caixa de Vinaros is an unusual civic asset to say the least.