Spain Day 19 - Local Comida
Trip Start
Jun 25, 2008
1
25
77
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Pie de concha, Spain
Thursday, July 17, 2008
I'm super excited about today because our across-the-street neighbor, Mariangeles has agreed to cook us a special lunch feast. We'd buy the ingredients, she'd cook it up for us. It was actually really cute, because every time I would ask her about cooking, or when I confirmed the date and time ... she would go on and on about how it was a really strong dish, and she wasn't sure if we'd like it, and maybe we shouldn't because normally is only served during the winter. She was so nervous we wouldn't like the cooking!
After a morning of enjoying the village and visiting the library, ... Mariangeles brings us the food.
The dish, known as Cocido Montanes, is a stew of sorts with beans, spices, potatoes, carrots ... but what makes it special is the slow cooking of meat in the stew. Basically, it gets the bulk of its flavor when three different types of pork are cooked over the course of three or four hours in the stew. Then, the meat is scooped out and served on a separate plate (along with an egg with herb tortilla sort of thing that is also cooked in the stew). Its a really tasty stew all by itself, but what I loved most about it is that after enjoying the basic stew a bit, you snag a bit of meat off the plate and add it to your next bite and it totally alters the taste in to something new! The three types of meats were Chorizzo (all of the Chorizzo we've tried in Spain is totally different than Mexico's Chorizzo. Also, we've yet to try the spicy version ... always just a very tasty, acidic sort of sausage), pork ribs that were cooked so perfectly the bones dropped out as soon as we touched the meat, and finally a big black sausage looking thing that honestly did not look to appetizing. After my two experiences with cow stomach, I wanted to be sure what I was eating before digging in, so I went across the street and asked Mariangeles about the mystery sausage. Turns out its pork meat, with rice, and special spices that turn it all black. A very strange looking thing ... but very very good tasting and totally different than everything else we've eaten so far. All six of us devoured the Cocido Montanes ... even the kids liked it!
After our wonderful lunch, Bob and I took the car and headed out to explore some nearby coastal towns. Rachel said repeatedly she could live in a place like Pie de Concha. Bob liked it well enough, but the small village feel left him a bit bored after an hour or two. : ) ... So today, I took him to Comillas and the famous Santillana Del Mar to see some sights.
Janice and Rachel stayed at home with the kids to relax and to let Rachel finish up some laundry.
We got home, ate dinner, and headed to bed early. Tomorrow I have to get up early in order to drive the train station by 8am to see the Burts off. Gotta sleep now!
Comments
WOW
I had like 6 days worth of posts to catch up on!! My head feels a little dizzy from it all. Janice - so glad your parents could stop by - I bet your little ones liked seeing something familiar! Poor little Ella and the ants.. I imagine my niece, Emma, doing the same. Any little thing that crawls or flies freaks her out. As for the cow stomach or whatever.. my gag reflex would have been in overdrive! You guys are adventurous for even trying it - not sure I could say I would! Take care!!
I am reading your posts just to gather a perspective on my "home area" (Bilbao and Somo in Cantabria) for some freinds coming over. Glad you enjoyed it but I am really intrigued by the number of misunderstandings (not really important but funny) that happen in translation, even when one speaks the language.
One of the things that intrigues me is that you didn't pick up on Spanish, esp. kids having 4 meals - a bocadillo, a yoghurt, and fruit at 5-6 ish, which is how they last up to dinnertime.
And I am sorry to say that Morcilla, the black sausage in your stew is blood sausage, with rice and/or vegetables and spices. Utterly delicious, although as everywhere in Spain, varieties are different depending on the place.
Your complaint about not being able to change things on the menu at whim or the service I hear frequently. Just think that in Spain a lot of them are run by families, or people you treat as such, and you ge tfood cooked fresh daily from scratch. The Mum/Dad cooking in the kitchen, wouldn't be able to do this every lunch and evening if she/he was at the beck and call of serving odd things all throughout the day. Something you gain (9 euros menu including everything even wine) in exchange for sticking to certain hours a day for stuff. I know what I would rather have. And that is the reason you cannot have a pudding on its own. They will have made the number of puddings to go with the number of menus del día or lunches/dinner they expect to serve in the day, and giving 4 desserts away is likely to leave some menus del día short changed. Again, you are getting home-ame desserts cooked from scratch...
Also, servive in Spain is good, I will argue with anyone over that, but it is never servile, The waiter earns a decent salary waiting (therefore no tips), is not a temp summer job, is probably a life-long job for him, and it pays enough to live decently and bring up kids. You treat him as an equal and a professional when you go into a restaurant, but you won't get all the Sir/Madaming you get in some other countries, but they always know what they are doing.
I guess that comes across as "bad" service to many foreigners, we find it very comfortable on the other hand.
Its a great blog, and one that I will recommend to friends who are coming over.