Europe 2012 - England/Spain Part 12 - Eating

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I probably should introduce all who came to visit with us for this trip.

• Of course #3, 3A and 3.1
• Our friends Steve and Lady Di from Salinas CA who were with us when we did a similar trip in France
• Their daughter A and her husband Aa
• Wife’s brother G and his Wife, blogger In the Sticks who were also on that trip
• Their daughter Blogger SRM who lived with us for a while and her husband Andrew
• And two of our friends from Albuquerque Cabinet Lady, former client who owns a cabinetry business and her partner Dr. Deb, a doctor.

Based on our past experience we knew that everyone would be pretty wiped out from their trips here and that they would be chilling out the first day.  So we the only activity we had planned was a group lunch at restaurant in our town of Casarabonella. Our last members arrived at the rental with only a few minutes to spare before the reservation so we were rushing to get to it on time and there isn’t much parking around either.

We have three folks with some Spanish, Dr. Deb, #3 and Steve.  Dr. Deb stepped up to the plate on getting us ordering.  We deduced later that they were pretty much selling from a fixed menu for Sunday lunch.  Everything was served family style.  Not only that they just put the dishes on the table and you are expected to just dig in communally.  It took us a while to figure this out but eventually we saw that this was just the way things were done throughout this area.

Our meal took place in this beautiful al fresco setting on a patio on a small square in the village

The festivities got underway with my spilling a glass of red wine all over Lady Di.

We started out with this odd but good potato salad which had onions, a tiny bit of tuna, some oranges and a lot of olive oil.  It sounds like a strange combination but it was very tasty.  

 There were local olives too

 Then they brought out four dishes.  Some paella with chicken, some beans cooked with onions, tomatoes and sausage, and two grilled sausages – one like a chorizo, the other a blood sausage and some deep fried fried eggplant.  There was quite a bit of food here and we did a good job on it. 

 One problem, the classic tourists problem, their was still another course!  Out came these big ass platters of grilled meats and fries.  They had rabbit, chicken, lamb chops, pork chops, and pork loin.  We all almost fainted.  

But this is no shy crew and we did a pretty damn good job. 

 We finished off with some rice pudding, flan and baked apple for dessert.  We also had water and five bottles of wine. 

So how much do you think this all cost?  It came out to $25 a person!  Food here is definitely a value.

And some obligatory Munchkin shots :)