Thursday, July 20, 2006
what is there to eat here?
what’s really sad is that i live here in spain, i’ve visited france, and yet, i’m craving english food!
i must be really backwards…
in spain, other than the ubiquitous tortilla espanola, which is really just a potato egg omelette, and the paella, which is just pan fried rice, and now is full of seafood to entice tourists who want “coastal food”, i can’t think of any food that’s very spanish… and since i haven’t had the guts to order myself rice fried with lobster, mussels, shrimp, and the like, i’ve pretty much been eating potato-egg-omelette. the sad thing is that if it’s not breakfast time they cut this up and put it between bread so you can have a sandwich - but with no sauce, no tomatoes, no onions, no nothing! it’s just a dry piece of omelette in a dry piece of bread =/ i’ve gotta start carrying around packets of ketchup with me…
sadly enough, when i went to france, the food there wasn’t amazing either - i had picnic with this family and they had 3 dishes
- canned green beans, onto which they cut boiled egg, and poured a good vinaigrette over it
- “salad" which was tomatoes, onions, peas, and rice
- salchicha, which they ate with bread
oh wait, and then you can’t forget the cheese course! yeah… they had a block of cheese and just cut it up into big chunks and everyone grabbed a chunk and started eating… i thought that woulda been fun with crackers or with bread.
i have to admit that i enjoyed the meal i had while i was in france, just that it wasn’t a culinary masterpiece… but then again, neither am i gonna go trying some escargot, so it’s just as well i had something that i enjoyed!
but then england! ENGLAND!! land of bangers and mash! fish and chips! (sans the mushy peas... ewww!!) hearty meals like shepherd’s pie which is basically meatloaf topped with mashed potatoes, and you bake it so the potatoes can get a bit crispy, and then you smother it in gravy before eating…
mmmmmm....
is it wrong to crave english food while in france? maybe i AM a stupid american tourist…