Let’s Talk Food Part Two

A Wild Hare

Despite being a bit stuffed from lunch, we managed to make it to Aldea, a wonderfully unique restaurant that goes out of its way to offer local food that other restaurants quite clearly do not. Here’s a place that cares about where your food comes from and how they prepare it. Aldea also gave us an opportunity to experience the long relationship the area has with the sea.

We ordered two starters. First, we decided to try the sea urchins, served raw, with a fresh pepper and onion mince. At home, neither of us are huge fans of the sea urchin, but we wanted to try them prepared differently then we might find them in Hawaii. The combination was highly flavorful but balanced enough that we both ate our share. In addition, we ordered the trio of mushrooms, some locally gathered, and enjoyed the morels most of all.

We followed this with two mains. One was the locally caught hare, lightly grilled medium rare and served with a stone ground mustard and fire roasted red pepper. It was accompanied by a fresh corn polenta. It did have a stronger flavor than its cousin the rabbit, but not overly so. It was great to try it prepared more how one would prepare venison rather than in a stew, which is far more common for both rabbit and hare.

The other was Congrio or Conger Eel, served with rice and a side of what we think were razor clams. Congrio is an odd combination of fish and eel that is a common choice in Patagonia. Taken all together, it was a wonderful combination. Although we had said beforehand that we should probably have a light meal, we ate and enjoyed it all.