Who can resist a menu dish which describes itself as beef with ‘trumpets of death’?
I suppose that the truth is that many people would hesitate about a choice of food which has death as part of its title. Not I.
It turned out to be a particularly succulent piece of beef which one could cut with a fork in a rich gravy augmented with mushrooms. The fact that the listing was in Spanish made the meal all the more exotic – though the fact that I am in Spain makes it also sort of prosaic as well.
Anyway an excellent meal which started with baby broad beans cooked in the Catalan style. This is an excellent vegetable dish with the beans cooked with lumps of meat, black sausage, bacon, fennel seeds and (in spite of what one Catalan told me) mint. Simple, nourishing and tasty.
The Crema Catalana to end the meal was almost perfect – the custard base smooth and sweet while the caramelized topping was crisp and thick and with just that right degree of ‘burnt’ in the taste to counteract the cloying sweetness of the rest of the dessert.
Oh, and the wine was all part of the price. Just under nine quid. And people ask me why I moved to Spain! And it didn’t rain. Again.
All of that is contentment of course, but I did feel what can only be described as disquiet today. Mainly because I thought it was Monday rather than Sunday.
This Monday the kids are back in The School That Sacked Me and what I felt was a sort of guilt that I wasn’t there to be with them.
It didn’t last.
I suppose that the truth is that many people would hesitate about a choice of food which has death as part of its title. Not I.
It turned out to be a particularly succulent piece of beef which one could cut with a fork in a rich gravy augmented with mushrooms. The fact that the listing was in Spanish made the meal all the more exotic – though the fact that I am in Spain makes it also sort of prosaic as well.
Anyway an excellent meal which started with baby broad beans cooked in the Catalan style. This is an excellent vegetable dish with the beans cooked with lumps of meat, black sausage, bacon, fennel seeds and (in spite of what one Catalan told me) mint. Simple, nourishing and tasty.
The Crema Catalana to end the meal was almost perfect – the custard base smooth and sweet while the caramelized topping was crisp and thick and with just that right degree of ‘burnt’ in the taste to counteract the cloying sweetness of the rest of the dessert.
Oh, and the wine was all part of the price. Just under nine quid. And people ask me why I moved to Spain! And it didn’t rain. Again.
All of that is contentment of course, but I did feel what can only be described as disquiet today. Mainly because I thought it was Monday rather than Sunday.
This Monday the kids are back in The School That Sacked Me and what I felt was a sort of guilt that I wasn’t there to be with them.
It didn’t last.
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