Its been raining pretty consistently since Monday, which has its ups and its downs. I've read a book and half, and Matthew has started working again on a regular basis, but it makes me really reluctant to go outside at all.
I've gone to a handful of restaurants around town to ask about working part time, and so far I haven't gotten any yeses, which isn't fun, but I need to keep trying. Part of the problem is that there are relatively few actual restaurants in town, its mostly bars that also serve food, so the dedicated kitchen space is even tinier than would be expected. In a lot of these places there really is only room for one or two people at the most (and if there is room for two, they already have a second person). There is one nice restaurant, and it was the second place I asked, but they have a new hire fresh out of culinary school, so again no.
But lets talk about food! We have been trying to split our meals between home and out to ensure that our money lasts, so there aren't quite as many notes to talk about as there might otherwise be.
The most interesting part for me has been that with every single beverage that you purchase, some small amount of food is also given to you. Every cup of coffee, every bottled water, every seventy-five cent glass of wine comes with an appropriate snack. None of it impressive food, none of it comes from the kitchen, but the economics of giving food away with every drink boggle my mind. Not that I'm complaining, part of me will always be a college student who loves free food. We've had bread slices with thinly sliced ham on top (with wine), canned sardines in olive oil with a slice of bread (wine, and they were pretty tasty), chorizo slices with bread (wine), muffins (coffee), chocolate (coffee), and olives (beer and water). The weird time was when I had water and Matthew had coffee, so we got one muffin and a small plate of olives. These same places then charge for a basket of bread when you order other food. The ribs that Matthew mentioned a few posts ago also theoretically work like this, but because they are coming off a grill hot, they don't actually go one for one with a drink. Plates of stacked high with ribs just get put on a table with a round of drinks. Or sometimes between rounds.
For our first meal in Puebla we basically walked into the first restaurant we could find, which happened to have the most beautiful view in town from the second story terrace. We had the traditional pulpo a la feira (fair style octopus) and padron peppers (tiny local green peppers sauteed in olive oil and a substantial amount of salt) and a total flop of a dish called jamon al adobo. We ordered three dishes expecting it to be tapas style fare. Tapas sized fare, I should say, after all, we are in Spain. The prices were in Euros about what tapas cost in dollars in the US (I know thats complicated, but thats how I'm thinking about things money wise), so 4-8 Euros a plate. When the waiter asked us if we would mind pulling over another table, to make sure all of the food would fit on the table, we were a little taken aback (we were at a table for 2). Sure enough, the portions were enormous. Matthew and I are big eaters and we were only able to make it through half of each of the plates. The octopus was a little rubbery, but actually very tasty, the peppers would have been better with beer than with wine, they were that salty. The ham was dry and basically covered in ketchup. The only redeeming part about it (in my opinion) was the french fries that came with it. They were hand cut and they were crispy most of the way through, with just a little bit of softness on the inside. I think Matthew disagrees with me, but I was very impressed.
After that meal, we were totally baffled by what we should expect. Are things that you order full size? How can you tell ahead of time without sounding like a tourist (or an idiot)? Our confusion was promptly cleared up by the realization that the snack comes with every drink is the "tapa," otherwise you are just ordering entrees and appetizers. Our hosts thought we were silly, and we had to explain that back home there were restaurants that serve food tapa style which just meant tiny and expensive plates that you have to have 10 of to have a full meal. Then they were like, oh silly americans.
Ok, I had much larger ambitions for this post on food, but it has already taken me longer than expected, so it is time for me to move on. Surprise, surprise, I will have to do another post about food while we are Spain.
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