Monday, 5 October 2015

I've been away ...



I know that it’s been a while, but that’s what vacations do, I’m afraid. We’ve been holidaying on the sub-tropical island of Madeira, which is in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 450 miles off the west coast of Africa. It’s a pretty place where they grow bananas, sugar cane and lots of (sub) tropical fruit. The foot isn’t particularly outstanding, though there is the Scabbard Fish (Espada in Portuguese) which live at great depths (maybe 2000 metres or more). They’re not pretty, but they are reasonably tasty. Unfortunately, Madeiran restaurants seem to over-cook fish (certainly to my taste) and also tend to serve it with fried bananas and passion fruit!




Restaurants all seem to serve a touristic menu, which is OK. Grilled limpets are a local delicacy, but I’m not really sure why, they’re rather like escargots in my opinion.

Soups are the favourite starter and they ARE good. Tomato soup in Madeira is mostly onion soup with a bit of tomato. Fish soups are splendid bisque-like creations. Even the ubiquitous vegetable soup can be a delight.

Anyway, we’re back now and I’m enjoying cooking Autumn food, so cottage pie is becoming a regular on the menu at the moment.

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