What to buy in Andorra - shopping and eating tips

My family phoned from Andorra and told me: 

 .We are at the ski resort of El Pas de la Casa, skiing"'

  We just stopped for lunch."'

Food In Andorra Ski Resorts

"So I thought I'd phone. It is a typical ski resort. Everything is pizza, meat, cheese and bread. The restaurants also have fish and vegetables. They like octopus in Andorra, which is odd, as it's landlocked.

"For dessert, there's crepes, very French. With chocolate or cream, or both! 

"But nobody is fat. You are in the mountains. Outdoors. You are walking up and down. Or skiing. So everyone is fit and healthy. 

 "El Pas de la Casa is only one mile from the French border, but everything (to do with crossing the border) has shut down because of Covid (in December 2021). 

"Alcohol and tobacco are cheap. It is like England used to be ten or twenty years ago. Everything you eat and drink and smoke is unhealthy, but nobody is bothered. You can buy a pack of 1,000 cigarettes, which is enough for a year. To encourage you they stick a bottle of vodka on the side.

"We are staying in a three star hotel because over Christmas and New Year everything is expensive, but despite that it's all booked up. Pricey and full. So we picked a cheap 3 star hotel, which is well located. For Christmas and New Year we have had to eat early at 6.30 (pm).

"I went skiing. 

"While I'm skiing, she (my wife) goes shopping, looking after the baby - which is a full time job, looking for a restaurant for dinner, and eating crepes.

"Crepes are served with a layer of hot chocolate and then cream. Everything has four inches of cream.

"The first two days we stayed in the capital. 

Since I was going skiing, my wife went to the big spa for a treat. We bought her a waterproof cover for her camera. 

"It was busy, queues everywhere, to get from one zone area to the next. She tried the haman.  

"We stayed in the Panorama hotel which is a way, away, a few miles from the ski resorts. The hotel is half way up the mountain, overlooking the city It is 15 storeys high. The reception is in the middle, on what they call zero level. You go up seven floors to the rooftop pool, which is indoors. Then you go down to minus five, to street level."  

Useful Websites

https://visitandorra.com/en/visitor-information/andorra-s-tourism-offices/tourist-office-of-andorra-la-vella/

About the Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Books by Angela Lansbury
How to be the best man. (Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.(Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Unforgettable British Weekends.
Poetry Workshop Workbook.
The Tailor and the Spy. (Lulu.)
Larry The Talking Labrador. (Lulu.)
Writing Poetry for fun.

Quick Quotations

Who Said What When

 

Prince Charles, Camilla and Denbies, and Top Twenty Stories of What's new on the English and Worldwide wine, spirit and pub scene?

Problem
I went to Imbibe at Olympia exhibition hall in London looking for new wines, spirits, pubs, tours, novelties and interesting people. What do I remember best?

Answers

1 Mezcal with salt.

Mezcal display

Mezcal blue bottle featuring the blue agave plant. What a brilliant blue. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

 Tequila and Agave
My favourite chat was at the Tequila stand.
"Do you know what Mezcal is and where it comes from?" a smiling man asked me.
"Mexico?" I guessed.
"Yes. Like Tequila, it's made from the agave plant. And do you know the difference between Mezcal and tequila?"
"No. Tell me!" I said, sipping the Mezcal.
"M e z c a l comes from green agave. Tequila comes from blue agave. We drink it with a slice of orange dipped in this."

The story of the agave plant used in tequila appears in their literature. The plant appears on a beautiful blue bottle. My favourite tequila? Definitely the San Matias Gran Reserva served in a glass with salt around the rim.

The stand had a dozen types of flavoured ground pepper. All different colours. I should have stayed and tried them all. Next year. I was in too much of a hurry to race around the show to the next excitement.

On another stand I saw a huge display of agave.

2 Mist
My next memory is of the white mist rising out of the drinking glass. That caught my attention. I'd seen it before but it never fails to amaze me. Every bar tender and party host should have one. The perfect party trick. The company is called chilli stick and the chillistick costs £1.50.

It's like watching a plane fly. Whatever the explanation, I never fail to be impressed that it works. The gadget and the person operating it are fantastic, in the old fashioned sense of the word.

3 That Hat!
I moved on and saw a man in a hat. I was reminded of the old song, "Where did you get that hat?"

He makes the hats himself. The Hat man of London. Photo by Angela Lansbury. 

Hats
Amazing, Amusing. Just like the people on the London tube trains. (I later saw a girl with purple hair on the way home - no it wasn't what I'd drunk, she had dyed purple hair.) At the show were lots of people dressed head to foot in unusual clothes and a few with very few clothes and head to foot tattoos.  The most interesting hat was worn by a visitor. The H a t  M a n of London. He has a page on Facebook. He makes hats for festivals and events. (I inserted spaces because the spelling corrector prefers batman.)

5 Pirate Hat
Speaking of hats, I heard of another hat. I was standing in the queue (Americans would say line up) for one of the tasting sessions, and I got talking to a friendly, lovely lady who is co-owner with her husband of the Voodoo cafe cum restaurant cum cocktail bar in Darlington. She showed me a picture on her mobile phone of her husband who always wears a pirate style black bandanna.

6 Denbies Vineyard Tour and Camilla
In the next queue I got chatting to a guide from Denbies vineyard, Esther Woods. I remember visiting Denbies, one of the best vineyards and cellar visits in the world. I took both tours.

I asked Esther if anybody famous had visited the vineyards. "Yes," she said. "Prince Charles and Camilla."

After my vineyard and cellar tours, I had eaten at Denbies' upstairs restaurant.

Esther told me that the upstairs restaurant with the panoramic view is very popular on summer weekends. If you are booking for a Saturday or a special occasion such as Mother's Day or Father's Day, you need to book a week in advance.

The Denbies complex also has a self service cafeteria on the ground floor alongside a huge shop with all kinds of wines and bottle openers and gadgets and wine theme kitchenware and clothes.

7 Cucumber Gin
From summer wine, to summer spirits. The subtle sweetness of summer, they say, Cucumber Gin is made in one of the UK's older distilleries using 100 British grain. Add your favourite tonic and a slice of cucumber.

8 Cornish Gin
Trevethan Distillery in Cornwall uses a family recipe from Norman Trevethan from the 1920s.

Their gin uses soft Cornish spring water. They suggest serving 50ml of Trevethan Gin with 100 ml of light tonic, a large twist of orange peel, a sprig of rosemary and juniper berries.

9 Japanese Kokoro Gin
I didn't try the Japanese gin but I admired their bottle as I walked past the stand. White, milk white, opaque, with an elegant curving black squiggle like a dancer or a piece of spiralling foil twisting in the breeze.Their gin is made with Sansho berries.

10 East London Liquor Company
Their distillery in East London produces gin, vodka and whisky.
You can sit eating and drinking and looking at the distillery. A wonderful English revival, something new in the old East End of London.

Tips
www.chillistick.com
http://www.denbiesvineyard.co.uk
http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/event/prince-charles-and-the-duchess-of-cornwall-visit-denbies-wine-estate
www.eastlondonliquorcompany.com
www.englishdrinkscompany.co.uk
www.sanmatias.com
http://www.tequila.net/tequila-reviews/extra-anejos/san-matias-tequila-extra-anejo-gran-reserva.html
https://www.facebook.com/The-Hatman-of-London-
www.trevethandistillery.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more posts on wine, food, restaurants and travel novelties. Please share links to my posts.

Cow Vodka From An English Farm With Cheddar Cheese

WHERE WAS IT?

Cow vodka from an English farm? Here's the display window in Nicholas wine shop in Great Portland Street near Great Portland Street station. Where's that? On the Metropolitan line, only one stop from Baker Street Station by Regent's Park, near enough to walk to Baker Street or Oxford Circus in London.

WHAT IS IT?

Inside the shop was a tasting of cow vodka, or milk vodka, made from milk, cow's milk. That's unusual. I've heard of Polish vodka from potato. Mostly, usually, vodka is made from grains such as barley and wheat or oats, or maize, i.e. corn. You can make vodka from anything you like. It is 96% alcohol before it's diluted, so most of the primary flavours get left behind. 

If it can be made from anything, can you make it at home? Er - no! It's illegal. Why? Not only because it is extraordinarily potent but more important during the making off the top comes ethanol which is poisonous and can make you go blind and kill you - which is why every now and then you read about individuals or whole groups of people being poisoned at places like India at a wedding where somebody has bought or brought illegal alcohol.

I started drinking vodka years ago when I heard a radio advertisement saying that it had no flavour, so it did not give you alcohol breath. But nowadays the fashion is to add flavours to vodka.

Milk alcohol? I had to try it.

HOW DO YOU FIND THESE THINGS?

I always sign up for newsletters about wines and foods and shops and tourist attractions. I am inundated. But occasionally you get a gem of news like this. Maybe I was emailed by Nicholas, or saw it in a newsletter. The Nicholas tasting event organisers usually don't give you much notice. When a note goes in my diary I should note the emailer to check. 

WHAT'S THE TASTE AND TEXTURE?

The flavouring is very subtle. But it's the opposite of whisky which hits you and cuts your throat and make you cough. Much gentler. Very slightly creamy.

Apparently it's a very pleasant and gentle addition to a cocktail. If you live or work in central London and want to splash the cash you can buy Cow Vodka from a wine shop in a central or upmarket area, or the big stores, especially those specialising in food and drink such as Fortnum and Mason.

Frankly, my first thought was, that's a lot of money for a mixer. Why so much? The box is not durable but looks disposable. They've deliberately gone for the natural, rural look.

CHEDDAR CHEESE

But there's more to buy and taste from the same people. Cheese from the same farm to go with the vodka, a cheddar cheese, but one you probably haven't tried before, and nor have most of your guests if you are having a big party. (It won't go far in a crowd;,you have to cut it up into tiny pieces.) But the round block is the same size as the other cheeses for a small dinner party or wine and cheese party or wine tasting dinner ending with cheese.

COW

Does the cheese come from the same kind of cow? Which kind of cow? Actually (I try to avoid using the over-used word actually, but here it actually fits), yes, the farm actually has three kinds of cows.  The milk used for the cheese is a blend.

Why bother with three kinds of cow? What's the difference? One cow give you a high yield. More milk for the money you spent buying the cow, more to sell. Perfect for volumes of skimmed milk. Why go for anything else? Another kind of cow gives fattier, creamier milk. Ah. Another is a very strong, sturdy, healthy cow. (I think, but don't say, a kind of insurance?)

What did they do before? They used be a dairy farm. But now their premium products are their cheese and milk or cow vodka. 

SEEING MILKING & VISITING THE FARM

The cows are milked twice a day, at 6.30 am, too early for most people to ever see, but also again at 2 pm. By August this year, 2016, if their plans are fulfilled to time, in time for the summer holiday season, the building work on their proposed Visitor Centre will be finished. Then you will be able to go there see a film, learn about the process, presumably buy milk vodka and cheese.  I'm not sure if they will sell you a pint of milk but they are planning to serve tea and coffee so there must be some fresh milk to try. 

WHERE?

You are likely to be able to find the Cow Vodka at wine and  spirits and food shows in the UK throughout the year.

This weekend, Saturday May 14, Londoners and tourists can attend the Spirited Wine Spring Fair, entry charge £15. Later in the year there's a trade only show, Imbibe.

Where is the farm? Near Axminster and Yeovil. Not in the prime summer holiday areas of Cornwall and Devon, known for Devonshire cream teas of scones and clotted cream, but, on the other hand, a handy stop on the way, and nearer to London. 

WHEN?

Only three months from now, you might be able to see the farm and watch the milking. Will you be able to milk a cow? I'm not sure about that. I'm not sure I'd want to. I imagine if you get it wrong an annoyed cow has a nasty kick. The thought of it would be me off my tea, and even turn me to drink - how about a taste of that cow vodka.

You can try vodka cocktails at Mark Hix restaurants, said Kathryn, the Black Cow ambassador. (What's an ambassador? I think it's the wine trade's fancy name for PR, marketing and general enthusiasm and information along with a bit of customer service.)

You don't have to visit London to buy the Black Cow vodka. It has just been launched in the USA, in 2016, and you can buy it on line. 

It's especially popular for Christmas, not just for serving at a party, but mainly as a gift. For somebody who has everything. Or even your own wish list.

PRICE

How much? 70 cl vodka £37.50

200 g cheese £7.95

If you have cash to splash, the vodka or both vodka and cheese make a nice gift. If you are looking for something more modestly priced, the cheese would be a great gift. I liked it. 

What did I like? The cheese has the occasional crunchy grain of salt which is what I most like about French Comte cheese from La Fromagerie (near Baker Street station and a short walk from the Nicolas wine shop - now I have found that grain of salt in cheddar cheese.

MORE INFO ON VODKA

More details about the cow vodka and cheddar cheese and forthcoming visitor centre from 

blackcow.co.uk

MORE INFO ON AUTHOR ANGELA LANSBURY

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, author, speaker. In addition to travelling and trying out new foods and drinks, I can give talks to business, universities and colleges and schools, and teach English to adults in workshops. See more about Angela Lansbury the author on Facebook, LinkedIn, and a Youtube video on restaurant etiquette.Read excerpts from my books and buy them on Lulu.com