Tuesday 10 August 2010

Siesta Time - the food we are eating!

Well it is almost 4:00pm on Tuesday here. We are in Cordoba and have retreated to our room for a break from the heat. It is about 40 degrees outside and oven dry hot! I thought I might just do a short blog to answer a few questions that have been asked.

Firstly the question of what we have been eating - Spanish, Spanish and more Spanish! We have had paella, and tapas and a couple of other different dishes. This afternoon for brunch (we had a very late, lazy start to the day) we had fried anchovies and pimentos stuffed with fish in a tomato sauce. It was delicious and I followed it with a strong, strong, strong expresso coffee, yum!

One night we did eat in a Japanese restaurant but it was with a Spanish twist - long story but we went there as a last resort - and had grilled seafood it was actually very good. They had these things that are shaped like a cylinder and are bivalves related to clams I think. Again I am not sure but I think they are called razor clams or navajas. We had one of those grilled on a hotplate it was delicious - sort of tasted like a scallop. We have also eaten the spicy potatoes and had melon and jambon (think prosciutto) salad. I have had cuttlefish and squid and lots and lots of other yummy stuff. Ordering can be an adventure in itself as we try to make the translations, mostly we do ok! Last night we had a degustion meal, part of which was mussels in a red wine sauce they were fabulous!

One of the things we are having to be very aware of is the amount of alcohol we are consuming. Wine comes with almost every meal and we tend to be sharing at least a bottle with a meal. Add to that our afternoon and sometimes lunchtime tipple and there is the threat of it easily becoming excessive if we do that every day for the four weeks of our holiday! In Alicante, a couple of nights ago we finally got to try Sangria - yum - it reminds me of pimms or cinzano!

Coralie you asked about the fruit hanging in the market in Barcelona - I think they were actually dried plums. If you click on the photos you can zoom in for a closer view - unfortunately the photo quality is not great once they are downloaded, but you may be able to make it out. There are also strings of chillies and corn on the cob if you have a closer look. It all looked absolutely fabulous.

I will add more photos and adventures soon.

2 comments:

Coralie said...

yes! I thought they may have been plums. Prunes are close though I reckon! Yes I just loved all the fruit and veg in that stall. But those plum things had me stumped. I was able to enlarge a fair way and work out most things.

Enlarged Gaudi too!

MMMMMMMMM! Spanish food sounds interesting.... and all that plonk. Mind you don't overdo the alcohol and miss something fabulous!
Weather is wet and stormy here... about 8degrees at present I think.
Connor at SEP camp. Lee-Ann our new boss went too. She is slowly getting to grips with the job and the bossy one!
How is the accommodation?

Ali said...

Coralie, most of the Spanish food is great, but do get the occasional disaster like this morning's paella brunch....wasn't at all nice! It will be peaceful for you with Connor away, enjoy the break. Still very hot here - over 40! The accomodation is great not too expensive and aircon works well. We have retreated for a couple of hours again during the mid-afternoon heat.

I wish I could have got more Gaudi photos!