A KNIGHTS TALE

Hello again Reader.

        I thought I had left the wilderness, which in some ways I did but whilst cousin Penny & Kens big house in the country has most things, it does not boast a TV or internet signal making blog updates impossible. I could sometimes get a 3G signal on my phone that's hopeless for writing the log on. As far as I recall I had been at Sara Neil’s for a few days.

Later in he week we went to a wild life park to see wild boa,r Ocelot, brown bears, Wolves :-

 We also went to the best restaurant in Miranda. The food was wonderful and the service second to none. I had Pork, wild boar & duck served with what closely resembled bubble & squeak for mains the starter however was a local dish called wedding soup. The restaurant was near the entrance to the wild life park in the Shanfana museum. Shanfana is a dish perculiar to the area. When the French were marauding in Portugal they plundered the land and animals leaving the people in the surrounding countryside with only the old sheep to eat, which is mutton. Very tough and a long time in the cooking. So the inventive locals devised a dish which became Shanfarna. The recipe consists pieces of Mutton on the bone chopped into bits and cooked in red wine, olive oil, onions and garlic. The ingredients are placed into an earthenware pot ( traditionally black ) then. The pot is then placed in a clay oven next to the embers and cooked for 4 hours. The oven is sealed throughout this period to take on the smoke from the wood. It's served today with bread and as with nearly all meals n Portugal rice & chips. Delicious From memory our next outing was to a village how's name have forgotten, but was the headquarters for Wellington in the famous battle. To eat to try yet another Portuguese staple dish Backalow ( spelt wrong I'm guessing ) or Salt fish ( spelt right ). the fish is left in water overnight to wash away the salt, it;s then cooked with sliced potatoes and served as memory serves with rice and salad.

Next trip out was to the city of Tomar the stronghold of the Knights Templar in Europe. A spectacular castle with so many towers,walls,courtyards, quadrangles, turrets, gardens, cellars, cell's

( bedrooms ) kitchens & dining rooms you ever saw....:-

Methinks this could be one of Dobby;s ancestors 

SIR NOBHEAD

.. Neil has been four times now and still hasn't seen it all. If you ever that way put a day aside to go and see it. While we were there we had to eat of course. So I was taken to a place called Rat Arsed well that's how I read it. Being a while ago now I'm not sure exactly what  I ate. I think I started with stone soup. The story goes that a religious Saint / Monk had nothing to eat so put hot water in a bowl and added a stone. As people passed by and asked what was in the soup he told them "just a stone" passed by would then take pity on him and would give him some cabbage or a carrot or a potato or an onion until he had a nourishing meal.

           We went to visit a local garage to put Leftie on a diagnostic computer to see if it could pin point His engine management problem. We took Bruno with us as said garage man spoke not one word of English. The test was inconclusive but the sensor on the accelerator was a likely culprit.Having paid a gob smacking £380 before I set of from the UK for being coupled to a similar computer & diagnosed a loose electrical  connection I asked Bruno to ask the guy how much I owed him  . With the test and an hour of his time hour of his time, he ask for 20 Euros!!!!! There is a God,, He just doesn't live in Brighouse.. On receiving payment we were all escorted back into the garage and through a door into his wine cellar for a glass of wine as it seemed ,custom demanded. It's almost time to move on but before I'm taken to the next village to Neil's favorite Shanfarna eatery It did not dissapoint We said our farewells and I have threatened / promised on my next trip south. thank you both for very enjoyable few days.