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Revisiting a Spanish Favorite: Vejer


And here we are again. Our favorite little spot in Spain; the white hill town of Vejer. The grandkids still had a couple of days of school left when we arrived at Nick's house so Nick planned some non-kid activities for us to do while they were in school. The first on the list was going to Vejer. We were here last June and and it was one of our favorite days.  Above is our winter visit; below is our summer visit.  Cold weather, warm weather...

                   

We planned to eat lunch here because of the strong Moorish influence. They have a wonderful Morrocan restaurant called El Jardin Del Califa where we also ate in June.  I had my favorite Moroccan tea again. 


And everyone ordered something different since their menu had a lot of variety.  It was catorgized by ingredients and recipes such as couscous dishes, tagine dishes, different meat dishes, etc. We started off with this appetizer sampler with falafel, hummus, babaganoush, tabule, feta cheese & marrakesh salad.  After this little sampler, we all knew of the wonders that were about to come to us. 

                      

Lauren got this amazing salad.  (It was the beginning of a number of amazing salads on this trip).  This salad was called Baalbek: made with tomato, cucumber, labneh (like Greek yogurt), black olives and za'atar - a common African spice used in many dishes.  She loved it. 


For her entree, she ordered the chicken tagine that I ordered last time.


I ordered their classic lamb couscous with vegetables & chickpeas.  This is a typical Moroccan dish and it was so full of flavor.  I love dishes with lots of vegetables when they have such great seasonings.  The vegetables were cabbage and carrots and they blended wonderfully with all the Moroccan flavors.
 

Bruce ordered this steak dish from their barbecue section of the menu called 'retinto' steak. This was a sirloin from a local, organic farm with a special Pedro Ximenez sauce which is usually made with a reduction of raisins, caramel, honey, and coffee or sometimes sherry. It was served with grilled potatoes and vegetable. This was a real "Bruce-kind-of meal" and he loved his choice, too.
 

Just like their tea is special, so is their coffee. Lauren ordered their Moroccan coffee.


Moroccan coffee is a dark roast coffee with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg. Again, so special...This meal alone was reason to make this little day trip 45 minutes from Nick's house but the town itself is so charming, you can't help to fall in love with it as you wander the cobblestone streets.  

                           


                          


Vejer, we will return another day.




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