On a tip from a friend's boss, we found ourselves one Wednesday night in Marisquería Ribeira do Miño. An unassuming, no-frills Galician restaurant, Ribeira do Miño is famous for its shellfish. With the simple room and laminated menus, we had no idea about the seafood feast that was to come.
We looked around at our fellow diners to find that everyone had ordered the same thing: huge mountains of shellfish were being ripped apart everywhere you looked.
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| "So many eyes." |
The mariscada (shellfish platter) is overwhelming: a plate of garlicky clams, swiftly followed by a teetering tower of huge whole crabs, claws and legs, tiny crabs, langoustines, king prawns and percebes (goose barnacles), which seemed so alien that we had to ask a bemused waiter whether or not we were supposed to eat them, and how.
Although they look like tiny tortoise feet, percebes are considered a delicacy all over Spain and Portugal. They depend on the movement of the water to feed, so are frequently found on wave-battered cliff faces, mainly in Galicia.
Percebes are so difficult to harvest that they're apparently worth more than their weight in silver, with harvesters risking their lives to reach them. (There is an incredible short video of the barnacle harvest here.)
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| Some hours later... |
We had a ball ripping it all to pieces, and all for a bargain €60 between four of us. Dinner rarely gets this fun, or this messy.
