Pilgrim Fare

Sofia and I are very poor.  We haven't spent much money on fancy Spanish cuisine.  Our meals are specially devised for our protein-hungry, euro-poor, and less discerning palates.

For example, we like the combination of a can of tuna and a can of corn each.  No preparation needed and quite delicious.  Bread with cheese and salami is also good, but we aren't a huge fan of fresh Spanish bread.  Too hard and crumbly.  We were on a bean kick, but after Sofia threw them all up one night she hasn't been able to stand the sight of them.  Same goes for canned asparagus.  Pasta cooked in a hostel kitchen is a typically safe and comforting bet, though last time (through a series of extenuating circumstances) our dinner was an hour in coming and our tortellinis were floppy.  Sigh.  Last night I ate a can of meatballs and a zucchini.  We fill in all the cracks with yoghurt and fresh fruit and chocolate and water.
It is not a bad life, all things considered, though we suspect we are missing out on Tapas, whatever those are and however you order them.

We did get to see a bit of local Spanish food preparation as we passed through one town.  As we were coming over a rise in the road, we heard the sound of a blowtorch.  Odd.  Then we saw an old man blasting a rotating metal basket full of black things.  With a blowtorch.  We took a video for you:

After we expressed our curiosity and surprise, he showed us that the black things were red peppers, and he was burning the outer skin so that it would peel off easily.  Brilliant!  Across the road from his pyrotechnics, four women sat in a garage, peeling black stuff off the bright red vegetable underneath.  What a lovely communal operation in the harvesting and preserving of fresh, healthy vegetables.  That was the night that I ate a can of cold garbanzo beans with tomato sauce.  Also a can of pringles.  The comparison is most alarming.

We did get one delicious Spanish meal for free at the free parochial hostel we stayed at one night.  The nuns made an amazing rice and veggies and greens salad.  It was perfectly salted.  I ate three servings before they brought out the second course of soup.  Didn't know that was coming.  I still ate some because it was green and fresh and also perfectly salted.  Dessert was an apple for each of us.  Crispy and sweet.  Yum.  I could eat like that forever.