Tag: cerro mar garden

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Pudding!

street in Albufeira

We were on holiday at the Cerro Mar Gardens in Albufeira in Portugal we made a couple of visits to the hotel restaurant. After some excellent swordfish it was time for pudding.

The dessert menu had a range of choices, but one caught my eye. It was Pudding and the English translation was Pudding.

Yes I could have asked the waiting staff what this was, but I decided to risk it and order it for my dessert.

I had no idea what Pudding would be, but there was an air of anticipation in what would arrive at the table.

This is what arrived.

pudding

This was a creme caramel.

It was quite nice, it’s not something I have had recently, I actually don’t think I’ve had it since the 1990s, or even earlier. It’s not something I would probably order, so it was nice to have the surprise.

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Mixed Grill at the Gardens

Entrance to a hotel

We were on holiday at the Cerro Mar Gardens in Albufeira in Portugal we made a couple of visits to the hotel restaurant. On my first visit I had an excellent swordfish dish.

On our second visit, I was tempted by the cataplana, but it was for two, and everyone else was choosing different dishes. I even considered just having the cataplana to myself.

Cataplana is a traditional Algarvian dish cooked in a special copper pot of the same name. The ingredients typically include onion, red and green peppers, tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, tarragon, parsley, white wine, and a variety of meat or seafood, such as cubed pork, chouriço sausage, chicken, fish, prawns, clams, or other shellfish.

In the end I went with the mixed grill. This was steak, lamb, chicken, sausage, and two kinds of pork. It was served with fries and a tiny salad.

I thought the swordfish was excellent, this dish, not so much. I was rather disappointed. Maybe it was too simple, but the cuts of meat were rather thin and were overcooked and slightly dry. I would like to have had more salad. The fries were okay. That really though sums up the whole dish, it was okay, nothing special.

I wish now I had ordered the cataplana.

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Swordfish in Portugal

This year we went on holiday to Albufeira in Portugal. We were staying at the Cerro Mar Garden apartments. Though we had booked self-catering, we visited the hotel restaurant a couple of times whilst on holiday.

On our first visit I looked over the quite extensive menu. I decided to go with a fish dish and chose the swordfish.

It took a while to arrive, but we weren’t in a hurry.

This was a lovely presented plate of food. The three pieces of swordfish on the dish was served on a bed of cooked vegetables and potatoes.

The swordfish was cooked perfectly was delicious. I liked the cooked vegetables as well, which were fresh and tasty.

Overall I really liked the dish.

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Self Catering in Cerro Mar

hotel complex

I have in previous years written about my self-catering experiences when going on holiday abroad.

Coping with self-catering in Calpe

Self-catering at La Croix Du Vieux Pont

This year we went on holiday to Albufeira in Portugal. We were staying at the Cerro Mar Garden apartments.

The self-catering kitchen in the apartment was large, spacious and well equipped.

kitchen

As well as a full size oven, four ring hob, there was a large fridge freezer, a dishwasher and a washing machine. There were lots of pans, utensils and kitchen tools. The kitchen knife was nice and sharp as well. There was a good chopping board too.

What was missing though, were some baking trays for the oven. This restricted how we could use the oven. There was also no sieve or colander. We did pasta and rice, but it was a bit of a challenge in getting them drained.

There was a kettle, a toaster, and a coffee machine. Our coffee machine was leaking, but this was quickly replaced by the hotel. It was a filter machine, I would have preferred a Nespresso capsule machine or similar.

In the past on self-catering holidays it has been challenging to cut fresh bread, this time the local supermarkets had a self service bread slicing machine you could use, so I used that to slice the bread.

One of the pans had a uneven base which meant it didn’t work on the induction hob, took me a couple of goes to realise that, as I don’t normally use induction hobs.

I appreciated the big fridge we had, and the freezer section. On self-catering holidays in caravans (mobile homes) the fridge can be quite small.

Overall it was a great apartment, and the kitchen worked out really well.