One thing the four of us like is food. And, we each love to cook. We have shared many, many wonderful meals together during our friendship, some at dégustation standard, at least as best we can manage, but more often, simple home-cooked meals following a call across our adjoining fence back home, saying come over as there is enough for four.

Yesterday though, we dined at Riberach in Bélesta, and chose the dégustation menu of 8 courses.

Mick and I had experienced it almost 3 years ago on my birthday, and earlier this year on New Years Day, other dear friends who were visiting us while we were house sitting, treated us to a fancy brunch. It was fancy, but not really what we had expected at the time, and not really everyone’s cup of tea.

And again, it didn’t quite live up to our expectations.

Don’t get me wrong. We had a wonderful time. And each of the 8 courses and 3 amuse-bouche* courses and cheese plate (12 in total), had been very throughly prepared and skilfully plated. It was just that some of the combinations were not to our tastes.

*An amuse-bouche or amuse-gueule is a single, bite-sized hors d’œuvre. Amuse-bouches are different from appetizers in that they are not ordered from a menu by patrons but are served free and according to the chef’s selection alone

My favourite courses were the amuse-bouches, and then:

• the ‘oyster’ garden.

A very large oyster that had taken 6 years to grow, had been lightly smoked and served with oyster ice cream with apples, flowers and apple gelato. (Trust me though it was much more complicated than that!)

• The Toulouse onion combo.

Featuring caramelised onions, onion ice cream, onion gelato (yes there was a repetition in most dishes with a flavoured ice cream), and pickled onions.

For our cheese selection we were offered a traditional plate – a choice of two cheeses, or the chef’s surprise.

Mistake – we all went for the chef’s surprise and it included…

…..cheese ice cream!!!! Plus some other crunchy ingredients. But we would have been better to have stuck to the traditonal option for this one.

My least favourite dish consisted of sweetbreads, which the trainee waiter explained was from near the neck.

Sweetbreads: the thymus gland (or, rarely, the pancreas) of an animal, especially as used for food.

And I guess he was correct as it is located just between the lungs and behind the sternum in humans.

It had the texture of brains without the regularity of shape. Neither Helen nor I could eat it, but thankfully Mick helped me out and cleared my plate. For him, this was his favourite course.

I’m pretty sure that was Mick’s and my last visit to that particular restaurant. But, we have more food adventures coming up over the next few days of our holidays with our friends. Lucky us.