We are coming up on our 15th year living in our house. For as long as we’ve been here, there has been a great restaurant down the street that has become a staple in our lives. In years past, we would head down to Miguel’s of Belfast with our parents for dinner on a special occasion or with my sister for a quick drink and some tapas. The food and drinks have always been amazing.
Now that our kids are old enough to stay home for a few hours without us, Miguel’s has become a favorite escape for Matt and me a few times per month. When I call for a reservation, Michelle always happily answers the phone with a “Hey, Mary!” When we walk in the door, Michelle starts preparing my Rotten Ralph Martini (a dirty, spicy vodka martini) and asks Matt which beer on tap he wants to have (sometimes he surprises her and orders the Rum Punch). We joke around that Miguel’s is our own personal version of Cheers. Given the fact that the restaurant is an old Victorian inn with an amazing hand-carved, mahogany bar, you can’t help but feel at home.
Every meal starts off with Miguel’s homemade bread and dipping oil. I usually order off the Specials menu, because there is always something amazing on that menu. The soups are always to die for and the seafood is always amazing. I do have some favorites from the regular menu, like the Scallops Cantabria and the Chicken Croquettes. And one of my favorite items on the menu is the Caesar Salad, which they make tableside, making the dressing from scratch (I’m drooling, thinking about it).
And as long as the restaurant is not swamped, Miguel will sneak out of the kitchen at some point to come and greet us personally, with a hug (pre-COVID) or a fist bump (post-COVID). He always thanks us for coming and is such a gracious host. And we always rave about the great food and service.
When I told Miguel about the launch of Cow & Wine, he did not hesitate to agree to sit down with me and discuss food, wine, paella, and clam chowder. He even offered me his paella pan, which we will absolutely take him up on this summer. Who’s coming over to eat? Read on for a transcript of my conversation with Miguel, or watch the video.
C&W: So I know you’re from Spain right?
Miguel: Right, right.
C&W: So where did you grow up in Spain?
Miguel: Spain, southern Spain, Seville. Then I moved to the island, Ibiza, when I was 16.
C&W: Wow, wow, and how long have you been here?
Miguel: 37 years, something like that.
C&W: Yeah, yeah, so what are some of the things that you miss the most from Spain?
Miguel: Oh, mostly family, and friends, obviously. And of course a few things culinary.
C&W: Tell me about those? I spent some time in Madrid for business, and I drank red wine, and ate ham the whole time I was there. And manchego cheese.
Miguel: Yeah, that’s pretty much what I miss the most, you know, your hougo, ham, we call it jamón over there,
That’s, of course you miss that.
C&W: Yes, delicious, delicious. And the croquettes, the potato croquettes.
Miguel: Yeah the last one that I had there that I thought it was really good, I asked my cousin that was right outside of Seville, what it was. It was a chickpeas.
C&W: Oh, okay.
Miguel: Chickpeas croquettes. That was so tasty.
C&W: Yeah, that’s interesting.
Miguel: Well, the chickpeas that are made there, it has chorizo, there’s blood sausage, pork, chicken, you name it. It’s loaded with a lot of good stuff. Yeah, you blend the whole thing and make a croquette. It was really, really, good.
C&W: That sounds delicious.
C&W: So how did you get started in cooking? Like what was your inspiration with food, and what inspired you to, sort of, get into the restaurant business?
Miguel: Mostly, or more like a necessity than anything else. You know, being in this business, I usually was on front than in the kitchen, but when you do that, then you have to definitely know what’s going on in the kitchen just in case. Then circumstances, once again, you know, after the recession then the best thing for me is to stay there all the time. That’s pretty much it.
C&W: So did you, did your family cook a lot growing up? I mean, where did you learn all the things that you’re making?
Miguel: Right here, for the most part, Maria, right here. As I said, just necessity. You see things going out and just take them. And I always like to cook. I always made the paella in my home, but on the island, it’s every Sunday with my dad, and I did that all the time. But anything else, back home, I didn’t cook, really, that much. But as I said, once again, in this business if you’re going ahead, or try to anyway, you need to own the place. If you do that, if I didn’t know how to cook, I would have been done with this huge recession from 2008.
C&W: Yeah, yeah, a lot of good things that I learned how to cook, it was from being in the kitchen with my mom, and my dad, and my grandmother, and just watching it, right?
Miguel: So that’s pretty much it. And now, of course, you have to like, do it a little bit, and then the results start to be more interesting the more you know, or the more you get into cooking a little bit more, then you get to know this, that. I know more now than what I did a few years ago or hope so, anyway.
C&W: No complaints from us. You see us often, so you know we don’t complain. We feel like this is our spot. I also wanted to ask you a little bit about, I mean, the past year has been insane, I think, for everybody, you know, professionally and personally. How do you think you guys have changed during Corona? I mean, obviously, we had that period where it was just take out only, right? And now capacity is being reduced which, hopefully, everything’s opening up in a couple weeks. So how has that affected you, and how has that, kind of, changed your thoughts on the industry?
Miguel: Well the industry has been changed already quite a bit. You know, just because of this virus. All the change that has moved in the area has definitely made a big change. More than anything, the virus definitely put a good stop into a lot of things equal. Especially this past December when we had a great month from Christmas party, or to take out, so that one did hurt a little bit, but, once again, you know, just, I don’t need hardly anybody in the kitchen, and we didn’t have the patio which was our schedule. So after the take-out, you open up the porch and it’s full every day from four o’clock till nine o’clock.
C&W: Yes, that’s what I would say to Matt, I’m like, “Hurry up, let’s call Michelle so we can get a spot.”
Miguel: That was great, but nevertheless you’re not paying full, like I don’t have my bar yet, I don’t have my bartender, Lori, I and miss her quite a bit, and so she misses us also. Hopefully she’ll be back, she wants to be back. It’s a pain in the neck.
C&W: You survived.
Miguel: As I said before, the recession was, I think, far more painful because that was very, very long. A lot of places around that just shut down. A lot in this time, all the restaurants, just in about 3 or 4 miles range, it went down. That one was difficult, and this one, once again, so hopefully the next few years will be nice and perfect, you know, for me and everything else, so I get to retire. But we do what we have to do, that’s it, just keep on going. I mean, Michelle is doing very well, and Crystal, you know, and the two little boys that I have back in there, so you know we’ve been all right.
C&W: It’s like a little family here.
Miguel: It is, it is. Someone came in and talk to me about working here, he’s been working with me
before and we’ll see what happens, I need some help, Mostly prepping, cooking on weekends, and cleaning.
C&W: Yeah, yeah, it’s a lot to handle.
Miguel: The cleaning, it doesn’t go away. You know I hate that. You clean up and tomorrow it’s the same thing again, and it’s over and over. So I’m going to try to get some help.
C&W: Yeah, that’ll be good. And the weather is starting to turn, so hopefully, the porch will be opened up again soon,
I think, Corona or not, we definitely fell in love with eating out there and we’re such people watchers too. We like to watch the crazy people go by.
Miguel: Hopefully, next year it will be fine to go (to Spain), because, right now, you can not travel in Spain. From most places to another they’re still locked down. So we’ll see what happens. I got both of my shots already, so we’re good to go. It’s getting there. And once everybody’s vaccinated we should be good to go. I guess in the next three or four months.
C&W: So tell me about some of the things, like what are your favorite things to cook? Actually, more importantly, what are your favorite things to eat? What do you like to eat?
Miguel: Oh, that’s an easy question. Anything that anyone cooks for me. Whatever anybody cooks for me, that’s my favorite. It’s that simple. If I don’t have to cook it, then that’s great.
C&W: That sounds very familiar. That sounds like my dad. He says he spent so many years cooking it always tastes better when somebody else makes it.
Miguel: Oh, yes, of course.
C&W: I feel like food is such, it’s usually, for me anyway, it’s more of an experience. I like to sit down and enjoy food with people that I love, people that I care about. You know the best conversations happen over a great plate of food or a bottle of wine.
Miguel: Yeah, well, the Spanish take that very seriously.
C&W: Yes, I remember I was surprised when I was there for about seven days for a business meeting. We stayed at this wonderful hotel, and we had like a two, three hour break every day when it was lunch time and we would go down into the dining room. They had tables reserved for us and there were a couple bottles of red wine, a couple bottles of white wine on the table and I’m thinking, because, here, normally, in a business lunch, it’s like you’re not really supposed to be drinking in the middle of the day.
Miguel: Well, I don’t think it’s the same thing right now, but when I was, I think I was like 17, that I worked in this hotel. We lived there also, and sleep there, and then you, of course, you had breakfast, lunch and dinner there. Then at lunch time, dinner time, or whatever that was, or both of them. Then you have your own table with all your things to eat, and then in the middle with a carafe of wine. When you’re working.
C&W: Yeah, that makes you a more pleasant employee though, right?
Miguel: And some people actually used to actually put sugar to get a little, a little bit more of a buzz.
C&W: That’s funny, that’s funny. So I think you told me before that you have two daughters, and they live in New Orleans, right? So what do you think about the food and the cuisine down there? Cajun cuisine, is that something that you enjoy?
Miguel: Oh, I love it. I love cajun cuisine. I don’t think there was enough cajun places. Honestly, that may sound a little funny, but there is food from all over the world. Anything you can imagine, but I thought I would see more smaller restaurants throughout the city of just, southern. I think it falls a little short, but there are so many great places.
C&W: We’ve never been there, but it’s definitely on my list of places that I’d like to go.
Miguel: It’s beautiful and the people are nice.
C&W: What if you had to just give a message, or if you had to sum up, you know, what your restaurant is about, or the way you feel about food, what would you say?
Miguel: Oh, what’s my restaurant about? Well I’m from Spain, so I’m trying to go there from that direction, but really Belfast, Pennsylvania so you want to, you can blend both things, you know, maybe you can call it continental, but actually most of the specials that I do, they are my recipes which is, pretty much, what I like the most. Like making sauce of just about anything. You know, for the most part, most of the things that we serve over here is not right with the different sauce, but maybe that’s the part I like the most. And open-minded, to anything, really. I mean, I wish I could have all Spanish, but I mean from Spain, you gotta be careful when you say Spanish around here. It could be Cuban, you don’t know.
C&W: Yes, so many definitions, right?
Miguel: But I’m fine with this, I’m fine with what we’re doing right now. I can change it a little bit at a time.
C&W: Well, definitely seems like you guys are like one of the best kept secrets around here. You know, I belong to a lot of different food groups on Facebook, and whenever we come I always take pictures of our food. He gets mad at me because I’m like, “Don’t eat that, I have to take a picture.” So I always take pictures and I post it, and, you know, a lot of times, people say, “Oh, where is that from,” and I know I see other people around the area, you know, when they come they’ll post pictures on the food blogs and things like that, so there’s a lot of people that don’t really know that this place is here. You know, I don’t want to be selfish, right, it’s like I think it’s great, almost, that it’s the best kept secret because we can always get in, right? But I really do think that more people should come here, try it out, and that’s what I hope, you know, from putting this out there as well, that people will see it, people will come and try it. And I feel like, especially in the next two weeks as, you know, restrictions start to get a little bit less, people are dying to get out and try new things. I mean people have been eating at home for the past year, right?
Miguel: Yeah, you’d be surprised, there’s quite a few places, and the bars have been open all the time, all the time, the whole bar. You know, we’re gonna try to just to stay away from nothing, just keep going safe, keep our customers safe. Most people don’t give a damn. All these places around here, they’re all open. Which I don’t understand. You know, we’re on the same boat, we’re all hurting. But at the same time too, if you do what you need to do… And think about those people that are working in hospitals, and paramedics, and all the, you know, it’s just, you gotta think about the whole picture, they don’t. Shame on them, I guess. But maybe they can’t afford to do what I’m doing. we’re paying our bills, I’m not making money we should be making, but we’re pretty good we’re fine.
C&W: I love the fact that it’s such a community feel here. We’ve never had a bad time here. In fact, I think one of the best times we’ve had is when we came one time last year, and we were sitting over in the dining room. There was a big wedding party in there, and we just had so much fun watching this big party. We just like to come and watch the people, talk to everybody.
Miguel: Yeah that’s this business, the nature of this business, a lot of good things. A lot of bad things happened this year, Pain in the neck. Not for me anymore, but you work, for the most part, mostly holidays, and you get a lot of late hours, and this and that. It’s a lot of things and so much work. You’re always committed to the business. Anyone that owns a business, it’s a business.
C&W: Yeah, you know, it’s like another child, right?
Miguel; Exactly. It doesn’t matter what the business is, I think.
C&W: Yeah, good. Well tell me about this paella recipe. You’re going to share it with me, right?
Miguel: Are you going to cook it?
C&W: I can try.
Miguel; You’re making just fine, but Maria, the paella, I think the recipe, the original one, which is from Valencia, south but not as much south maybe. The upper east coast that it originated. And for the most part, it was just rice and beans, green beans. And then it does come in a lot of different ways. You can put lobster, you can put king crabs, you can put a lot of things on it. Ironically, I don’t remember putting any clams back home in Spain, but, going back to the recipe, I’m not going to use the one I have here because that’s not the best one. It’s not because you don’t have… And you will have issues because people like to alter things. Anyway, going back to the recipe that we used to do Ibiza with my parents, most people in Ibiza did that. We, everyone, they would dig a hole in the backyard and get out, get out the giant pan. I have some here if you wanted to take it.
C&W: Really? I don’t know if it’ll fit on my stove, we’ll have to do it outside.
Miguel; You got to do it outside, and bring it back, but it could serve about six people. What we did there, we had pork, rabbit, and chicken, those were the meats. Once again, you can put your king crab legs in there, your shrimp, the mussels. and your rice, obviously. The rice is the most important thing once you make the paella, and also, of course, how the rice tastes.
C&W: Right, and it’s short grain rice that you use, right?
Miguel: Yeah, or long grain is fine, okay, long grain is fine. it’s the same. But I just know that, once again, as everything, it’s the sauce. This is the same thing with the paella, you have to have the right broth. Chicken stock and fish stock which I can’t get over here, that I could get, a small little fish then you make your stock, the taste is quite a little bit different, and also you’re gonna put some tomato, garlic, and parsley, all chopped, to go with it. How would I start doing that? The rabbit takes a long time, so, you know, you just got to set all your meats. The rabbit first, then the paella pan, at the same time too, it gets hot really fast. So you’ll put your rabbit in there, cut in pieces. And, don’t be afraid of the rabbit, they’re so tasty.
C&W: I’m trying to think, I don’t know if I’ve ever had rabbit before.
Miguel: They’re so tasty, that’s big in Spain, in quite a few different ways. But saute that, saute your pork, saute your chicken. Then once you do that, then you’re gonna put your tomato, diced tomato, with your garlic and your parsley according to how big the paella is, is how much you’re gonna put in there. I’m not gonna give you the amounts, how much.
C&W: I never cook that way anyway. I was taught you put some of this in there, you put some of that, and then you do it until it tastes right. My dad never measured anything.
Miguel; Once you do something a few times then you shouldn’t need to measure it. If I had to measure things, then forget it. But, that’s what you do. Get all that, we never put chorizo in Spain, in the paella, that’s Portugese. Just, all nice and brown and once you do that you put your rice in it, just mix the whole thing up. And then you put your broth in,
both of them, your chicken and your seafood broth. I would not buy a carton of chicken stock, bouillon, I don’t like that. I’d probably just get a whole chicken and everything else to make a good stock, okay, with your vegetables. And also a little bit of a chicken base, that also helps, same thing with the fish. And you put in both of them in there, and once you put the water in your paella pan, you should just leave it, and the rice should be a little bit burnt on the bottom. It’s that simple. I don’t know if I gave you enough clues in there how to make that, the paella.
C&W: Yeah, I think I can figure it out. right?
Miguel; Yeah, I think so, and if you don’t want to use the rabbit, don’t use it.
C&W: No, I would be eager to try that. I’ll try anything. The only thing I don’t eat is eggs. I don’t like eggs. But, yeah, I’ll definitely, we’ll give the rabbit a try. you’ll eat it and Nathan will eat it. We just won’t tell Alex what it is, we’ll tell him it’s chicken.
Miguel: Yeah, that’s a very simple, put some lemon in there and saffron. Now this is another thing I think is funny, about the saffron, that we don’t really put saffron in Spain. It’s pretty much like a saffron powder.
C&W: Because it’s really expensive.
Miguel: Yes, and that you don’t really need it. We don’t do that, we just put in as food coloring.
C&W: Yeah, I was gonna say, it’s just for the color.
Miguel: Yeah, because saffron rice sounds good and everything else, but we don’t really do the saffron in there, we just put it for coloring, and it’s nice and yellow. But, and then you eat it.
C&W: Sounds good, with some crusty bread.
Miguel: Yeah, that’s, that’s pretty much it.
C&W: We’ll give it a shot. We’ll see how we do.
Miguel: You can go on the internet and see recipes for paella from Spain and there are a few different ones, but the most important thing is the rice, and then what you put in there is up to you. Yeah, some small crab legs in there, that’s really, really tasty. And then, of course, everything is, once again, it’s ingredients, imagination, and timing. When to put everything together, when to put everything in at the same time. It’s pretty much all there is. It’s fun.
C&W: Yeah, we’ll give it a shot. It’s definitely, it’s one of our favorites.
Miguel: If you dig a hole in your backyard let me know. You can take the paella pan, it’s fun.
C&W: There you go. We’ll definitely do that. That would be so much fun. And we’ll have some people over.
Miguel: It’s the best. All you’ve gotta do is make sure that you have the same flame underneath all the time. You’re going to have fire and stick in here, you’re going to be adding, so you keep it going the same. It tastes better and you’re eating with the shell of the mussel. No spoons, no forks.
C&W: That’s perfect. Less dishes too.
Miguel: Well, you can use paper plates. Just use the mussels, that’s what we did over there you don’t take silverware to the shore.
C&W: Yeah, just take your giant pan, and serve it with some nice wine. I always have to have my wine.
you have to take advantage of free
Miguel: I love my wine too. What do you like, red or white?
C&W: I like mostly reds. I’ve been trying to try some different whites, and I found, with a lot of them, with a lot of whites, I prefer stainless steel aged rather than oak aged whites. That’s just not not a big thing for me, but I love reds. I love a good cabernet, or a good rioja, or a good malbec. Those are usually my favorites.
Miguel; Oh, yeah, there’s nothing wrong with that. I bought one a couple weeks ago, Spain, it’s usually about $60, or whatever,there that’s about forty, fifty or whatever. They hit about thirty, twenty nine something I believe…
C&W: So you have to buy it. I’m like, “It’s a great deal.”
Miguel: That’s such a great wine. I bought it only because I knew that wine, And I knew the wine used to be around $12 a bottle, that was years back. Now it’s like fifty something or whatever, but there they had it on sale, I bought one, and, man, it tastes just as good as I remember.
C&W: I do enjoy a good glass of wine. Well, I do have to say we’ve been enjoying the soups lately, too. That clam chowder, We were here on Friday, that clam chowder was out of this world. Now, I have to tell you, I made clam chowder at home earlier last week, and…
Miguel: Do you put clam base in it?
C&W: I just use the clam juice.
Miguel: Well, you have to use clam base. I’ll give you some if you want before you leave.
C&W: Sure.
Miguel: Because that’s pretty much what does , gives the extra…
Matt: Yeah, that’s what you said. It needed more clam or something.
C&W: Yeah, and I, it doesn’t need more clam, it’s just not clammy enough, but clam base, yeah. We also love the beer and cheese soup. No, we love the… I mean almost every time we come I order off of the specials menu, other than, I think the other thing that I always order is the chicken croquettes. Those are one of my favorites. The scallops with the saffron cream sauce, that’s another one of my favorites, and, what is it, the clams with the chorizo. Those are some of my favorite things.
Miguel: Yeah, those sell well. All the appetizers sell really well. People say sometimes, “You don’t want to change the menu,” but what do you take off? Then most people tell me on the specials, “You should put that on the menu.” Then it’s gonna be like this, because you can’t take this, because then, “Oh, where’s my…”
C&W: Yes, and that’s a lot for a one man kitchen. Well, we love just about everything on the menu. I think we’ve had everything on the menu.
Miguel: Thank you.
C&W: Well, thank you, I really appreciate it.
Miguel: Yeah, if you have any questions on any of this give me a call or stop over.
C&W: Yeah, I was gonna say you’ll probably see us on Thursday anyway. We like to come out for drinks on Thursdays.
I hope this conversation with Miguel has inspired you to get out to your favorite local places, and if you happen to stop in at Miguel’s, tell him Maria sent you! Until next time…