Four-Course Meal

At a random restaurant in Madrid, we stopped and got their menu del dia, which looked okay from the window. My only complaint was my salad, which came covered in tuna, which I absolutely despise. Even the mere hint of tuna-flavoring can make me gag, which I did several times while trying to pick through the salad to eat the few untainted bits. The real kicker came when I bit into a tomato (which I don't particularly like but they are better than tuna), only to discover that the tomato was covered in tuna water. I seriously almost threw up on the table, but I managed to overcome my disgust.

Anyway... enough about that, you don't want to know about what I ate, you want to know what Brendan ate. The top picture was the first course, crusty bread and a glass of wine. Not particularly interesting, but I thought it was a cool picture. Then the second course was some sort of soup, which was much better than my salad. I am not sure what was in it, I think some ham and peas, and maybe some sort of seafood? Then the main course, which I didn't get a picture of but it was delicious, grilled sea bass. Then the third picture is dessert, which was supposed to be some sort of lemon tart (if I understood correctly what the waiter was saying, which is questionable), but did not taste in the least bit lemony but was delicious nonetheless.

And I think that does it for the Spain pictures, although if I unearth some more from Brendan's camera I'll be sure to post them at a later date. Adios!

Street Potatoes

As you probably guessed from the bad pun in the title, this post is about sweet potatoes. That we bought from a street vendor. They were selling grilled corn on the cob also. If I remember right, we were really hungry and these were conveniently there, so we bought some. And they were pretty delicious, Brendan even ate the skins.

Soo... not much else I can think of to say about sweet potatoes...

El Museo de Jamón

If this doesn't look appetizing to you, then rest assured you are not alone. I will admit that I am not a big fan of ham. I might eat a bite or two at Thanksgiving along with my mountain of mashed potatoes, but for the most part I stay away from it. However, the ham in Spain was the most ham-flavored ham you could imagine. I mean, you would have to be a giant ham fan to enjoy this stuff, it was so hammy. And in most restaurants there were just giant legs of ham hanging all over.

At this particular restaurant, the Museum of Ham, I actually sat against a wall covered in ham legs. In fact, my hair probably brushed it, along with the hundreds of other peoples' hair. And this is the ham they serve to people also... a little gross I think.

That being said, the picture is Brendan's first course, ham with melon. Not complicated, that's just what it was: a large slice of ham draped over some honeydew melon. I say gross, Brendan says delicious.

We Three Kings of Deliciousness

All I can say about this thing is Mmmmmm...

The big Christmas-like holiday in Spain is called Dia De Los Tres Reyes, or Three Kings' Day. Children get presents, there are parades, etc. But the best part about said holiday is the donuts (Called Roscones de Reyes)! If you can even call that massive behemoth of fried dough a donut. These are only made for about a week every year, and it is a large donut filled with whipped cream and covered in candied fruit. We paid 13 Euro for this, but we ate it for dinner and breakfast and a snack, so I think it was well worth the money. Also, inside every Roscon is a "toy," which in our case was a tiny ceramic Santa which Brendan almost swallowed.

I will probably never eat another one in my life, but it was very delicious!

All-You-Can-Eat Nasty Buffet!

We went to a buffet in Madrid, because we passed about 5 million people handing out flyers for it. It was expensive, about 11 Euro, but we figured that if it was all you can eat, why not? At least we'd get to try some stuff that we had been seeing in other restaurants.

While the food was not horrible, it was not that great either. A giant vat of what looked like mashed potatoes was actually cold, like they chilled it. And there was a large amount of unidentifiable seafood, which I steered clear of although Brendan partook generously, as you can see from the above picture.

I'd like to identify what is on that plate, but I'm afraid I can't. I know the top thing is paella, and I think a meatball, but as for the other stuff your guess is as good as mine. Maybe squid tentacles, and potato wrapped in lobster? I don't know. All I know is that the buffet was definitely not worth 11 Euro.

Apparently, "Flamenquito" is Spanish for "Fried Hot Dog"

Well, for once Brendan's bravery and curiosity about trying new foods did not turn out in his favor. At a small bar/restaurant in Seville, we got to choose from about 5 dishes on the Menu of the day. Some we knew, like veal and paella, but others were a mystery. What is a "San Jacoba?" And the waiter didn't speak English, so we couldn't really ask. Brendan decided to try one of the mystery items, a Flamenquito. Much to his surprise, it turned out to be just a breaded and fried hot dog. Go figure. So, not such a great choice for Brendan, but it sure was funny.

Spanish Breakfast

I'm back, hopefully, to the blogging world. I took a hiatus, mostly because Brendan wasn't eating anything cool, but also because I am lazy.

Anyway... I never finished posting all of the food pictures from Spain, so I'll try to do that. And if Brendan makes something cool to eat, you can be sure I'll post it!

This is what we had for breakfast most days, some sort of flaky pasty filled with chocolate (or sometimes Crema Catalana, muy delicioso!) It is called a Napolitana Chocolate.