Blend All About Wine Restaurant G, at Pousada of St. Bartolomeo, Bragança

Text José Silva

One of the most interesting motives for those of us who share this activity of gastronomy and wine is, now and then, to find things that can surprise us and make us happy. It is also one of the reasons why we keep up the will and pleasure to go on and develop this work. That´s what happened in a recent visit to Bragança, much in the interior of Trás-os-Montes, when a friendly hand took me to the Pousada of Saint Bartolomeo, to have lunch.

The Pousada has got a great tradition, that I know very well, as I slept there many times, visiting Bragança, but the big surprise is that the “Geadas” group, that owns the restaurant with the same name in Bragança, assumed the administration. For several decades restaurant “Geadas” has been the best known place to eat in town, supervised by two brothers, serving traditional Trás-os-Montes food. However, in the last years, they developed an alternative creative menu, based on Trás-os-Montes products. Now, with this acquisition, the two brothers decided to transfer this creative concept to the pousada´s restaurant, that they simply called “G”.

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The place has been reorganized, it is now more comfortable and cozy, with a refined offer, based on regional products, that we praise. Room full of light, with a view over town from above, preceded by a living room, where you can see some regional products, like olive oil, smoked sausages and sweets. Tables very well set, with everything good on top, irreprehensible service, including wine service, performed by personnel with great experience.

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During the meal I shared with friends, they first served us some regional Bragança bread and a delicious smoked meat bread, very tasty. And that required the first glass of wine, in this case also from Trás-os-Montes, red wine “Quinta das Corriças Reserve 2011”. Full bodied but at the same time very elegant, the acidity very much present giving balance, soft red fruit notes and some smoke, just a fragrance.

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There are several tasting menus, the price changing according to the number of courses and wines of each. In our meal we began by enjoying a small roll with smoked sausage from Vinhais and fine herbs butter, served in a round brick, which was still warm, the butter easily melting and going deep into the fluffy bread dough. What a good start!

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In another brick, this one thinner and longer, there was a can, like those of tinned food, which served as a receptacle for a Vinhais rocket sausage “à Braz”, with small slices of smoked sausage, the fried potatoes well connected with the rocket sausage paste and the contrast with the smoked sausage as a sophisticated touch.

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Another round brick came as well, with two temperatures pickling brine partridge, the partridge meat very well shredded, all that very well pressed and the pickling brine on top, in a simple but refined execution. As hot dishes we tasted a hunting bird soup (pheasant and partridge), with turnip and pumpkin, juicy and very tasty, the soup very hot, in a beautiful chromatic composition, the color orange of the pumpkin dominating, several tastes very well integrated in a delicious exotic soup.

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The main course proposed was a superb matured “bísaro” pork loin, soft, smooth, very well cooked, with a slight cover of its own fat, an excellence meat. With the company of some pot cabbages, traditional in the pig killing ceremony, here served with style, stuffing a crispy seeds millefeuille, delicious. And still as a side note, a caramelized fig, stuffed with some of the pig´s giblets. Almost a work of art! We closed the meal with a traditional orange tart in good company.

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By that time, the second wine bottle was already at the end…

Contacts

Pousada de São Bartolomeu
Rua Estrada do Turismo, 5300-271 Bragança
Tel: (+351) 273 331 493 Fax: (+351) 273 323 453
guest@pousadas.pt
Pousada-De-Bragança

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Restaurant G, at Pousada of St. Bartolomeo, Bragança

About José Silva

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