Wined, dined and rested.

So there we were, slightly cast down as we always are on the homeward leg of a journey, leaving Spain and the dear friends we had been staying with in Zaragoza, and heading back to Blighty. This time we’d elected to cross to France via Portalet in Huesca province, passing through what has become prime Spanish skiing country in season but this was the end of April so there was little visible snow, and although the mountains never fail to raise my spirits the clouds were trying to dull their beauty.

In this region of Spain lunch is not as late as it is further south, so we were concerned that by 2.30pm we might not find food and we hadn’t brought a picnic with us. Then, on a long straight empty road with the mountains tantalisingly ahead of us we came across a large stone building claiming to be a hotel restaurant; this was clearly going to be our last chance for a bite to eat so I swung the car swiftly into the large car park of the Hotel Restaurant Casbas and we headed in, wondering what we would find.

Fortunately they were still serving food and there were a few people finishing their meal so we weren’t quite the only diners there. In mountain areas you are often offered grilled meat with no sauce or vegetables – and there is nothing wrong with that when well done – and having been ushered into a spacious restaurant area with the usual dark wood chairs and tables we opened our menus and smiled at the title “gastronomic menu”.

We almost didn’t bother looking at it and had a ha ha ha chuckle about whether we would have grilled pork, grilled steak or grilled chicken and a salad of lettuce leaves and that disgusting white asparagus that looks like anaemic slugs.

Then we actually READ the gastronomic menu – €26 for 3 courses and drink – and saw with astonishment that our encouragingly few options included tempura prawns with yellow sauce, foie gras on caramelised apple, pork in honey and mustard sauce and magret of duck with red fruit……. So we picked ourselves up off the floor and hoped the flavour of the food would surprise us as much as the menu had.

And overall it did. To start we had tempura prawns, beautifully presented with a saffron sauce and a portion of Russian salad on the side, and a fish cake with a little blob of what I think was also Russian salad next to it.

We both chose the pork in honey and mustard sauce for our main course, and the sauce was a lot nicer than this photo of mine suggests.

We were both quite full by now so we shared home made profiterolles in a very tasty “hot chocolate soup”, but we could also have chosen mango mousse.

My research has since revealed that this restaurant has been here since the mid 1950s, has remained in the same family for 3 generations and has received many accolades for its welcome and its cooking. Many Spanish people come to the area for the fishing and hiking, as well as the skiing in season, and clearly this place is a regular favourite with such nature tourists.

As we sipped our lovely Spanish coffee – when did the French forget how to make decent coffee? We always have a last coffee in Spain before crossing into France – we agreed, yet again, how much more fun it is to drive yourself around on holiday rather than just fly everywhere. Yes you can hire a car when you reach your destination, but you wouldn’t end up roaming around places like this, a tiny road heading up into the Pyrenees and a surprise gastronomic experience.