Lamprea rellena stuffed

Of Sea Lamprey, risk premiums and toxic banking…

With the opening of the Galician Sea-Lamprey Season 2013 just around the corner on January 15th, I thought it only right and fitting that I talked to Nito Calviño of Casa Calviño in As Neves (Pontevedra), one of the ‘consecrated temples’ of Sea-Lamprey cuisine on Galicia’s River Miño. I have to admit that the first…

Galician Mussel

Fish Farms Muscling In On Mussels

I read a very alarming statistic today. 60% of mussels prepared and canned in Galicia are imported from Chile. While I’ve nothing against Chile or the Chilean people, I have to say their mussels are crap compared to ‘Mytilus Galloprovincialis’, the Galician Mussel. Basically it’s ‘more economically viable’ to import Chilean product, add to that…

Tira do Cordel Restaurant

Death Is Not The End.

A trip to Fisterra, or Finisterre to BBC Radio Shipping Broadcast enthusiasts, on Galicia’s treacherous Costa da Morte or Death Coast would never be complete without experiencing what is, without any shadow of a doubt, one of the finest fish and seafood restaurants in all Spain, A Tira do Cordel. This restaurant’s excellent reputation is…

Mako Shark

Short Finned Mako Shark a la plancha.

There are lots of good reasons to visit the lovely fishing village of Cedeira in Galicia’s Rías Altas, but the humungous portions (the photo shows a tapa!) served up in the Kilowatio are what draw me back time after time. Marraxo (Isaurus Oxyrinchus) or Short Finned Mako Shark is cooked simply though triumphantly on a…

Lamprey Mouth

Anyone For Lamprey ?

King Henry I of England is reputed to have died from eating a surfeit of them, and according to the great Spanish born Roman philosopher Seneca, Caesar August punished Vedius Pollio for attempting to feed a clumsy slave to the lampreys in his fishpond. Moved by the sheer novelty of the cruelty, Caesar ordered the…