APAPS 18.2. 4 7 2018: Aguas Belas, or A Rocky Start

It´s the crack of dawn and a bunch of Wags arrive at the starting point, a large pile of red rocks.

having walked an extra 250 metres already.

The Starters: Paul, JohnH, Myriam, Antje, Jill, Hazel, Ingrid, Chris and TerryA: plus Sascha and Java.

Chris, in particular, was full of beans after his restorative week in Torres Vedras. More of that later.
The walk itself was nothing special, although a bit miscalculated as regards timing. If this had been a WAGS event, the Leader would have come in for some bitter criticism for offending against their strict limitations of time and distance but, as this was an APAPS outing where the dictator can make up his own rules as he goes along, on this occasion everyone held their peace. For that my thanks.
The Track

The Statistics
Total distance: …………………Breaking News !……….Breaking News !….
I´m sorry but we have to interrupt this transmission with some dramatic news just in from our very own Kitchen Correspondent:-
“Paul A. de V. Quits.
“I have just learned that this Blog´s eminent Breakfastician has stepped down with immediate effect, after scarcely two weeks in the post. I understand that an official statement is to be released very shortly. That this is indeed a heavy blow will be appreciated when one reads the profound and detailed nature of his contribution to the Blog only this last week and I quote:-
“Having had the honour of Honorary Breakfast Statistician conferred on me by the BlogMeister, I had expected to analyse the stats collected at leisure and in detail, and duly submit them to be included in the blog. Alas John has been conditioned by the New AWW ethos of submitting a Blog while the walk is fresh in his memory and hasn't been coloured by the rose-tinted spectacles of Time, and published the blog before I had even located my copious notes.
On this occasion a brief and factual summary (my underlining- “brief” and “summary”. I ask you !!!) will have to suffice. Breakfast at Retiro dos Pescadores consisted of eggs, bacon, tomatos, toast, coffee tea, figs and oranges. Of these the greatest cause of controversy would be the preparation of the eggs. !8 eggs were served to the 9 walkers, most of whom ate two, except Terry had one of Jill's. A public survey was held on marks out of 10.
Matters for consideration. 1. First breakfast of the season and marks were as optimistic as an England Football supporter after the Panama match.
2. Contributors did not allow for the fact that we have a long season to go and many eggs to assess, and (in my opinion), overmarked not leaving themselves room for manoeuvre, should Nigella Lawson turn up and cook a breakfast for us later on.
Nevertheless fried egg quality is a subjective experience, and we have the numbers. The marks ranged from a 10/10 from Maria, because she cooked them herself, to a 5/3 from myself who was fully aware of the factors above, and moreover favours an easy over with soft white and less grease.
Overall average per egg came in at 7.1 out of 10, but frankly, could easily have been better.
Bacon was judged good, but again, the more experienced Full English connoisseur would aim for thick cut unsmoked British Back Bacon rather than the available thin fatty smoked bacon again almost deep fried.
Tomatos were peeled and really tasty, toast crispy and properly buttered whereas the fruit is not in my professional sphere of breakfast foods.
A good start, but hopefully like the England team will improve as the season progresses.”
and more:-
"some people like it like that!" the perennial Portuguese answer to the question 'Why isn't.......' All great cuisines have a multitude of ways to cook and select the raw ingredients. I sincerely hope that we will get a range of breakfasts to rate. All readers of my critical preferences are free to disagree, although they will be interviewed at length to realise a rating for their experience. If they are too busy chatting or too tired to pay attention then my own subjective opinions will be utilised!”
Back to you, BlogMeister; When I have more, I will let you know.
K. C.”
Where were we? Ah yes The Statistics
Total Distance: 10.6 kms (not including the walk from and to Para e Fica)
Total time.. an excessive 2 hours 58 minutes. Average Moving Speed: 3.6 kph
Ascent: 313 metres.
The first part of the walk, as far as the Old Medronho Factory, was flat. We paused at one spot in memoriam of when Hazel had once taken an involuntary bath.

Not so deep now as it then was

Myriam Medico give Antje a bit of technical help



Then a pause before the hill.
And then upwards

The climb up to the ridge, although not particularly arduous, went slowly and, by the time we had worked our way round and back down to the crossroads, it was clear that we were going to be late for breakfast scheduled for 9 15 am, but a phone call to our hostess, Ana, who seemed to be in a particularly sunny mood, soon put that right. And so it was, in over-due course and about an hour behind schedule, we all got back to Para e Fica, in most cases, ravenous for food.
Breakfast orders were taken, and pão caseiro was served, still warm from the oven, along with proper butter in butter dishes.
While we were waiting for the rest of the meal, Chris regaled us with stories of his experiences up in Torres Vedras, what with nubile Brazilian babes in the pool doing zumba routines and, apparently, a carefully calculated technique of exponentially increasing the heart-beat by the skillful deployment of attractive young blondes to take blood pressures, certainly aroused our interest. I´m sure that there is more to learn.
Turning our attention back to Para e Fica, we were trying to keep the conversation serious in accordance with this year´s mantra, but outbreaks of frivolity kept occurring, particularly from the distaff end of the table. Then breakfast arrived and Paul did his best with his rating examination. Some looked undecided and not greatly enthusiastic:


.
As for myself, I had extra bacon, thanks to Myriam, and my eggs - while looking a trifle wrinkly - had that perfect balance of moistness and firmness that is neccessary to anchor them to the buttered bread.


Wrinkly

Less wrinkly
In general, I myself think the meal was well up to our normal standards and most plates were completely cleared by the time coffees came out. But then, there are normal standards, and then there are Paul´s standards. And now, I have more coming in from our Kitchen Correspondent following on from the shock! horror! news of said Paul´s resignation.
“KC, is he quitting the walks or just the breakfasts? It´s becoming too frequent, this business of people leaving on matters of principle.”
“No. BlogMeister, it´s not quite as bad as it might have seemed at first sight.What I think has happened is that he has found it almost impossible to get reliable ratings from breakfast participants and, something I have from an anonymous source, his design of an artistic and sophisticated spreadsheet on which to record his findings has proved to be beyond the processing capabilities of even the most advanced modern computer and that proved to be the last straw. But here is his latest statement which gives a bit more info and which he has titled:-
“Breakfast appreciation politics
“Having done some rather deep and profound Boketto on the subject, I have formed the opinion that breakfast stats are a bit of a cul-de-sac for the APAPS, in terms of a meaningful overall picture of the standards. We each have different standards, motives and priorities when it comes to the finest of breakfasts, and to be frank, many of our members don´t have an ideal to live up to, unless of course they came to the end of season Esperanca breakfast last year.
   And so it is with a heavy heart that I withdraw from in depth interviews, consultations and attempts to quantify the simplest of sensory pleasures in numerical form.  I suggest that it be replaced with a satisfaction index, by way of comment,  based on my personal opinion as a Trip Advisor Restaurant Expert Level 69 (really!). Others might be encouraged to add their breakfast thoughts, but I don't anticipate a deluge of responses.
     I see the AWW are Sparrowfarting again.  Well, we do that every Wednesday!!”
Back to you, BlogMeister.
KC”
Well, that will take a bit of time to digest, I guess.
I´m not sure what “Boketto “ is but it seems that we shall still have the benefit of his pensées culinaires. I for one am thankful for that because, when Paul is in full flow, I don´t have to write so much myself. Of course, there is always the possibility that he is beginning to turn his attention away from food and more onto how to deal with it in the Blog when England lose to France in the final of the World Cup. How will that affect his palate? We shall see.
Meanwhile, to those APAPS breakfasteers who might feel a little bit upset at the suggestion that they don´t have ideals to live up to, in the breakfast context that is, here is Paul´s picture of his ideal breakfast dish, one to which he awards a score of 10 out of 10.

The Perfect 10
Clockwise from the top right:-
Indeterminate crispy things ( tuilles of mashed potato?)
Bacon
Mushrooms
Cherry tomatoes
Baked beans
Three perfect sausages
Two fried somethings on top of
Two slices of black pudding
In the centre two perfect fried eggs, sunny-side up if I´m not mistaken
And, to the right, triangles of toast.
Ten ingredients, no less, all presented with colourful paper doillies. Perfection on a plate.
Not to be found in the Algarve, I fear. One probably has to embark on expensive P & O cruises to get such bounty.
Ah well, food for thought.
And now to close on a suitably sombre note, here´s a picture by Hazel with chiaroscuro that Caravaggio would have been proud of.

Photocredits: Antje, Hazel, JohnH, Paul.
And, after we´ve had another look at the 10 out of 10 breakfast photo, our quotation has to be:-
“To eat well in England, you should have breakfast three times a day."
(W.Somerset Maugham)