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| Maribel, Carlita and I |
So thís past weekend I was lucky enough to get invited to a Spanish village for lunch on Saturday. I was invited by one of the families that I give private lessons to. The country house (or cortigo as they call it here) belongs to the father´s family. The try to get out to the village nearly everyweekend to have a long lunch with family, and this weekend they brought me along! I drove out there with the family which consists of a 18 month old girl (Carlita), a four year old boy (Dani), a mother (Maribel) and the father (Juan). It only took as about 40 minutes to get there, but I definitely wasn´t in the city anymore! The village, which is called "La fuente de higuera" (translates to the source of fig trees), is situated among rolling hills, olive trees, cacti, and blooming almond trees. The entire town only consists of about 30 houses and one empty church. Not a restaurante, cafe, shop or bar in sight!
I got there and was immediately introduced to everyone. There were about fifteen of us in all! Food prep started almost immediately after I got there, washing vegetables and skinning potatoes. However, shortly after we arrived there was a fiasco because "we didn´t have enough bread" according to the grandmother. Even though we already had four loaves of bread between 15 people (four of which are children), a few of use drove to the closest town about ten minutes away to get some bread (four more loaves!). When I came back, the lunch preparation was in full motion! Meat was on the grill and over the open fire just outside the house, potatoes were chopped and being fried, and a big salad was being prepared. After about an hour more of visiting and cooking, we finally sat down to lunch around 2:30pm. We had chicken fillets, pork fillets, blood sausage, salchicha (sausage), breakfast sausage and huge slabs of bacon. And that´s just the meat! We also had bread, fresh fries, and a salad with fresh kiwis and mangos in it! It was all delicious but I couldn´t fit any more in my stomach after about a plate and a half of heavy food. The grandfather kept telling me to eat more but I had to politely recline even though everything was delicious! Additoinally, while I chose to drink wine out of a glass like normal, the grandpa was drinking his wine out of a traditional Spanish porrón (see picture) and just poured wine into his mouth throughout the meal using that!
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| The village "La fuente de higuera" |
After lunch, we cleaned up and went for a walk outside to see a little bit of the village. Then, we came back for dessert which consisted of tangerines, coffee, and bizcotcho. Bizcotch is like a cross between cake and bread and we had two, one lemon flavored and the other orange. Both delicious. After dessert hour, there was a surprise for the kids. A man up the road owned a couple of donkeys and offered the little kids a ride on them! After the donkey rides, the sun was setting and it was time for us to head back.
I had a great day in the village and felt so lucky that I got to see into the life of a Spaniard for an afternoon. The entire family asked me to come back to the country house or to the beach house next time and I might just have to take them up on that offer :)
I got there and was immediately introduced to everyone. There were about fifteen of us in all! Food prep started almost immediately after I got there, washing vegetables and skinning potatoes. However, shortly after we arrived there was a fiasco because "we didn´t have enough bread" according to the grandmother. Even though we already had four loaves of bread between 15 people (four of which are children), a few of use drove to the closest town about ten minutes away to get some bread (four more loaves!). When I came back, the lunch preparation was in full motion! Meat was on the grill and over the open fire just outside the house, potatoes were chopped and being fried, and a big salad was being prepared. After about an hour more of visiting and cooking, we finally sat down to lunch around 2:30pm. We had chicken fillets, pork fillets, blood sausage, salchicha (sausage), breakfast sausage and huge slabs of bacon. And that´s just the meat! We also had bread, fresh fries, and a salad with fresh kiwis and mangos in it! It was all delicious but I couldn´t fit any more in my stomach after about a plate and a half of heavy food. The grandfather kept telling me to eat more but I had to politely recline even though everything was delicious! Additoinally, while I chose to drink wine out of a glass like normal, the grandpa was drinking his wine out of a traditional Spanish porrón (see picture) and just poured wine into his mouth throughout the meal using that! 
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