I enjoy blogging and I enjoy eating but as a “gastro” blogger I ought to be taken out to the shed and put out of my misery. Really, I am so shambolic at times it is almost artistic. Today I had an absolutely wonderful lunch in Alabaster, including a cabracho (red scorpionfish) that almost had me crying big salty tears all over the plate. But I utterly failed to take its picture until what could be termed as “too late”. You can see the photo above.

Luckily the heartbreak was assuaged by a jurel (horse mackerel) that was equally emotional, and if it hadn’t been for those two dishes I would be telling you all about the roasted leek with smoked eel. On a blog where superlatives abound today’s lunch was superlatively superlative, a succession of dishes each of which would have more than justified the trip.

And the wines were possibly even more superlative than that. I will have to come back to them in detail because, once again, Fran (who has form for this kind of thing) picked out some absolutely great pairings including one wine – a dorado from Rueda – that I had never tried but always wanted to, two very fine and very hard to get wines from el marco and a red that was just perfect with the mackerel.

You add to all of that the way these guys look after you it really makes for a special lunch – one of the very best I have had in a very long time (and I have had a few). Many congratulations to the chef for the outstanding, superlative superlative dishes, to Fran for some dazzling wines and pairings and to Oscar and Ricardo for the great care they took of me. I will be back to try and get a picture of a cabracho!