{"id":10138,"date":"2021-07-09T23:58:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T22:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/luminaris.com\/wp\/?p=10138"},"modified":"2024-08-13T14:37:22","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T13:37:22","slug":"betanzos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/luminaris.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/09\/betanzos\/","title":{"rendered":"Betanzos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the nice things about staying with (new) friends is that there are more opportunities to go on excursions out of town to places that were not on my radar. This is how I got to know the town of Betanzos and its environs. It is a small town of 13,000 today, but it was once the capital of one of the seven provinces of the Kingdom of Galicia. Its origins go back to Roman times when it was a settlement called Brigantium<\/em>. It is located north of A Coru\u00f1a at the very end of the Betanzos ria, one of 12 rias that make up the R\u00edas Altas gallegas or Galician High Rias (there are also R\u00edas Medias and R\u00edas Bajas, as the Galician coast is divided into three parts). A ria, if you don’t know, is a long, narrow inlet of a river that gradually decreases in depth as you move inland, similar to a fjord except fjords are products of glaciation and rias are drowned valleys. The whole western coast of the Iberian peninsula is full of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This being Friday, Fely and a few of her friends decided to go have lunch at some recently discovered restaurant close to the town of Betanzos and since one of these friends just so happens to work in Betanzos, it was decided that we should go and try it. By “we” I mean Fely, Paco and Roberto, another couple Alfonso and his wife (sorry, I’m bad with names), and Petunia. Roberto picked us up and then we met up with the others in Betanzos before making our way some 9km to the nearby Curri\u00f1os where the very unassuming Casa Pepito stood on the side of the road. We weren’t quite sure what to expect (we were in the middle of nowhere, really) but clearly the place was very popular, judging by the number of cars in the parking lot. Once inside, we were led to a large table on the back verandah from where we could see the whole valley below. If the food was going to be half as good as the view, we were in for a treat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Casa Pepito<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In my short time in Galicia I have discovered three food-related things: 1: yes, the octopus here is better than anywhere else in the country, 2: the bread here is also by far the best in the country, and finally 3: the Spanish tortilla is the best in the country and just the way I like it. This restaurant let me have all three at once and much more. Some of us ordered individual dishes and some of us preferred to share but once the meals arrived it was impossible not to share everything, just based on the size of the portions. Casa Pepito is the place to go when you’re famished, that’s for sure! Alfonso ordered a steak, or, at least I thought it was a steak. What he got was a slab of meat so thick it looked like half a cow. The tortilla was so humongous it overflowed its plate. And the bread! Oh the bread! I really wish I had taken more pictures of all this yummy food but I was really too busy stuffing my face and I regret nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\n\t