Between the Gola del Ter and the Mediterranean, a restaurant that explains a country

The Ter river is born in a spring in Ulldeter (Ripollès) and flows into the Mediterranean. Very close to the Gola del Ter there is a restaurant founded in 1961 by the Xicars family. In this location, converted into a hostel-restaurant, there used to be a farmhouse where Josep Xicars' great-grandfather lived, trying to cover basic needs while raising his family. “At eight years old I was already peeling potatoes. The shower was a basin and we had to go to the fields to relieve ourselves. My father turned it into what it is now and I have followed in his footsteps,” says Josep, feeling the weight of the passing years.We are in a pleasant place that is part of an enviable environment. "The river is life", as was claimed in the early 2000s in the Terres de l’Ebre in an environmental and territorial protest. The sea is right next door. The clientele is mostly local, with some foreign practitioners of the noble sport of golf. Within a radius of very few kilometers we find Empordà Golf and Golf de Pals, two renowned golf courses.We don't play around with this, but we really like discovering places where you can eat well, wherever they may be. Knowing the virtues of the restaurant (fish, seafood, and good rice dishes), we start the meal with some Gillardeau oysters, some steamed rock mussels with an orange vinaigrette, a dish of sand eels, and an exceptional jig-caught squid. The wine that accompanies us is Els Boscals, a 2023 Garnacha Negra from the Boscals valley, in the Gavarres.Once we have finished our first courses, we move on to the second, in the singular. We play it safe and order a Pals rice with lobster. Everything is perfect: the ingredients, the taste, and the cooking are at their optimum point. We can only say good things about it. For dessert, puff pastry with angel hair and communion wine, coulant of chocolate and nougat ice cream.Waiting for relief

Josep is a peculiar guy, with good conversation. We sit in the dining room, where there are paintings representing his father. “My father started by doing a bit of everything. He worked as a cook, he was a fisherman, a hunter, he had made the tables himself... He lived basically off the river environment”. Josep is not a professional cook, he is one out of necessity and because life has brought him here. “Well, for me, just like for my father, I have always liked eating well, and that is the main basis for knowing how to cook. If you know how to eat well, you will know how to cook well, because that is the best way to satisfy the diner. You want the best for them”.He is nearly seventy and is looking to retire, but for the moment he cannot find anyone to replace him. In the meantime, he enjoys the satisfaction of a job well done and the recognition of his customers. Sooner or later he will leave, and we hope that life grants him many more years of health so he can live without working and enjoy a rest that he has earned since, at eight years old, he began peeling potatoes in the family business.We, as long as we are at the foot of the canyon, will return. There are meals and people that become unforgettable.