It's apple harvest time, and it's another crisp Saturday night on Calle Gascona (below right) in downtown Oviedo, an old university city that's the genteel, postcard-pretty capital of emerald-green Asturias in north Spain, with happy-faced students and snazzy locals of all ages roaming the sloping three-block stretch and jamming the café and eatery terraces.
Looking closer, you realize this isn't just another restaurant row in yet another Spanish college town. I spot waiter after waiter execut
cider (2)
It's autumn again in the northern hemisphere, and in a few key regions of a few key countries that means apples and cider, both “hard” (mildly alcoholic) and not. While pomaceous potions are brewed — in versions sweet, dry, and downright tart — in countries as varied as Argentina, Russia, and South Africa, in certain fetching parts of Europe and North America, cidre, sidra, and Apfelwein are an integral part of the life and culture. Any one of them would make a juicy getaway ind
