Eat Like Ushi

My hotel reception guy recommended El Remo for curadillo. When I asked about other restaurants/foods, he said Julio. There was no thought behind it, just straight answers. After the next couple of days I could see why. I never saw these two restaurants open at the same time - on Wednesday it was Casa Julio, Lonja, the surrounding places next to El Faro and places at the waterfront end. On Thursday is was El Remo, Opera and El Faro. I don't know if there's a system behind it or just the restaurant decision on the day (since for example El Remo said not open on Mondays other than festivals, but was closed on this Tuesday).

In any case Casa Julio and El Remo were always the busiest places. In particular Casa Julio was full for lunch and dinner. I suppose dinner that evening was helped by the Champions League showing (no Spanish team though) and some older guys standing around the bar watching. But the seated areas inside and outside were completely full with people waiting both lunch and dinner. That says something and it was all true.

The little place had a great cosy atmosphere. The staff are very friendly and helpful. My cider was served in a contraption that negated the need to pour from a great height and produced excessive fizz on demand.

I had a side serve of prawns with the cider for €6 (considering cider is €2.5 or so, that's an incredible bargain) compared to the full size prawn dish for €15. I couldn't quite understand if the prawns were bigger or just the serve was bigger in the main (I'm pretty sure the latter), but I'm sure I made the right decision for the cider bonus serve. The prawns were grilled with just a tiny amount of outside singeing but were cooked well inside and heavily salted/seasoned. I ate the whole lot, heads and all, and it was delicious.

I had read about, but wasn't overly interested in the mejillones picantes (since I can cook mussels easily myself) but thought I'd give them a try here as a cheap €8 extra dish to the prawns. I'm glad I did just to see. The mussel meat was reasonably large and the picante sauce is spicy without being very salty. It was good to eat with the basic half baguette served. Sadly half the mussels weren't debearded, but oddly the other half were. Go figure.

This would be my choice of place to eat in Cudillero if you want good simple seafood dishes.

I had read on a blog to eat at the old fish market building which is Lonja de Pescado. As interesting as that sounded, the TA reviews are generally quite average. It's one of the nicest (if not the nicest) looking restaurant in the village. I wasn't really interested in eating there per se, but the menu del dia €17 actually drew me in as it was the most interesting and unique around.

I really wanted to eat the local oricio/erizo/sea urchin and this gave me that opportunity without too much expense (the dish on the a la carte is €17 alone!). One of the signs said menu del dia for a minimum of 2 people, but I asked for 1 and they allowed it (since it was a quiet day for them perhaps).

- Revuelto de merluza y caviar de oricios - a scrambled egg mix with with small chunks of hake and definite segments of sea urchin roe chunks and permeating flavour. The sea urchin had little grainy crunchy bits in it (perhaps a bit of shell or sand?) but not too bothersome. The sea urchin flavour was nice and firm throughout;
- Arroz negro con sepia - this was really strongly flavoured and very salty. After pushing through I asked for lemon which cut threw and balanced it out better (needed to use the equivalent of one whole large lemon for the pan). The rice was nice and very al dente (which I don't mind) but no burnt crust at the bottom (which I prefer). The squid was nice;
- dessert crepe with cream and chocolate sauce - simple, nice chewy crepe.

It wasn't the best menu I've had - the starter was a nice combination of good ingredients but the main was too salty and the dessert very basic (but that's a menu del dia for you!). Nonetheless for the price, it's difficult to complain. I probably wouldn't pick it for a la carte given the prices though. I daresay there would be better value for higher end seafood from El Faro or Opera.

One of Cudillero's most well known sights is fish hanging and drying on clothes lines stretched out with sticks and left for months. The line I saw outside didn't look the most appetising and perhaps that no flies or wandering cats attacked it may be testament.

I was in two minds about trying it - part of me just wanted guaranteed quality seafood but the adventurer in me thought I had to taste a local Cudillero dish. I asked my hotel reception where to get it, and his simple unwavering answer was "El Remo". Of all the restaurant menus I read, El Remo was actually the only one I recall with curadillo on it, in a little section dedicated to Cudillero specialties (the only other option a kind of tripe dish I think). The other options open for the day were El Faro, Opera, one open on either side of El Faro (which had quite basic menu del dias) and the end of the pier (which had quite good sounding menu del dias but the reviews aren't the best on TA).

Whereas the tourists sat outside of El Remo, I chose the atmospheric interior for lunch much to the amusement of some of the locals. I think even the waiter was surprised when I ordered curadillo - perhaps it isn't the chosen dish for many tourists that go there (possibly not the locals either since they'd make their own).

My fears of a weirdly fermented fish were allayed when I sampled the firm but not tough fish flesh (I didn't ask what fish it was) in between onions, fried potatoes and a single slice of marinated red pepper. The sauce wasn't overly salty too and had deep redness of red pepper and paprika probably, almost like a nice Italian pasta sauce. The brown bread (first place in Spain I've been served brown) mopped up the sauce and sandwiched the fish very well.

Out of the Asturian stews, I probable enjoy fabada more but I would be quite happy to eat curadillo again. I didn't get to try fabas con almejas, but maybe next trip.

I tried the arroz con leche €3.5 at the end, just to have it somewhere in Asturias. To my surprise it came instantly - I had read the top layer is crusted with a hot iron so expected it to take a little longer. But not, it had been sealed in advance and refrigerated. They topped it with too much cinnamon and it was a sweet dish that was too much in the end. Never again (by myself at least). The rice was obviously cold and had a little bit of crunch to it, which I like.

The next day for my final meal in Cudillero and Asturias, I spent a solid amount of time (an hour probably) contemplating where to eat. There were only 3 options open this Thursday evening in May - El Remo, Opera and El Faro. Interestingly I had marked Opera and El Faro before I arrived and only went to

 El Remo earlier at the recommendation of my hotel host.

After much to-ing and fro-ing, I ended up back at El Remo.

In summary, Opera looks like they do more unusual combinations and dress things up fancier. El Faro is off the main strip and looked quite nice too, but their options for seafood didn't appeal to me as much. El Remo was easily the most popular and I think it's because their menu is much more standard, homestyle and with the seafood speaking for itself. El Remo is also a little cheaper for those reasons. I think I would have been very happy in any of them, and I wanted Cantabrian/local seafood, which to be fair is probably most of what any of these restaurants have.

El Remo's suggested dish of Calamares de Cudillero en su tinta €18 won the end. Like the curadillo, it doesn't get more local than that. I really wanted percebes (they didn't have them) or navajas but the waiter said that dish would be enough. And it certainly was a large dish of soft, minimally chewy calamari in a saline black liquid. The brown bread again and more potatoes gave balance. It wasn't so strong that needed lemon (and I had the acidic cider too) but in hindsight that could have been nice.