ANZAC Day 25th April 2013

04.25.2013 by Trish // Leave a Comment

At midnight last night I was tucked up in my bed in a hotel on a mountain top overlooking the sea in Spain.
It would have been 6:00am in WA, and in Geraldton people would have been gathering at Birdwood House for the Anzac Day dawn service. I can see the picture in my mind, the parade of servicemen and women and family members marching solemnly down Chapman Rd, the Guides and Scouts guarding the memorial, the elderly men and women with their own memories of the two world wars, increasingly frail but still determined to honour their memories, middle-aged folks like me who remember the Vietnam war, younger members of the crowd to whom our involvement in the Middle East and Afghanistan has more meaning, young families with their babies and toddlers rugged up against the morning chill. How wonderful that these young children will grow up honouring the ANZAC tradition. So many different people with different memories but all there with common purpose of remembering the men and women who served our wonderful country through the years, and our brave troops still overseas now.
There is no ANZAC day service here in Spain for me to pay my respects. But as I sit in the garden overlooking the Pyrenees, enjoying my coffee, I reflect on the men and women over the years who have kept Australia safe and free and who have enabled me to live the very lucky life I have lived.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Lest we forget

Is there an etiquette to eating Olla Podrida?

04.22.2013 by Trish // 4 Comments

Sampling the food of the regions has been one of the delights of our trip through Spain. We have been in Burgos (the birthplace of El Cid) for the past couple of days where two of the regional dishes are Cochinillo Asado (roast suckling pig) and Olla Podrida (stew of beans and meat, especially pork) I have seen the cute little whole piglets on sale in the butchers and I was a bit wary of ordering anything that might be looking at me from the plate. Olla Podrida was the special of the day at a cosy little restaurant we had eaten breakfast at earlier in the day, so that was the choice for both of us.

On of the things that I don’t enjoy about eating out is never knowing how small or large a plate of food may be, so we were both quite relieved when the waiter served us with a quite substantial but definitely manageable bowl of what looked red kidney bean soup. It was a chilly evening, so soup and crusty bread was just the thing. It did cross my mind that there wasn’t a lot of meat in it….

Just about to tuck in when the waiter arrived with a much more substantial and much less manageable casuela of assorted meats.

Pig's ear, pig's tail, ribs, morcilla, chorizo, ham, fat..... — Pig’s ear, pig’s tail, ribs, morcilla, chorizo, ham, fat…..

Now this is the dilemma…….is there an etiquette to eating Olla Podrida?

Is there an order in which you eat the meats? Do you start with the whole meats, then attack the bones? Or vice versa?

Do you cut pieces of meat and put them in with beans, or do you cut a piece of meat and eat it with a mouthful of beans? The bowl of beans was almost full to overflowing so I couldn’t see that you could add too much more

My hands are hovering over the knife, fork and spoon…..what will I do? I make a decision and cut into the morcilla, Spanish black pudding is made with a lot of rice and it falls apart when you cut into it. I take a spoonful of it and add some beans to the spoon, looking around to see if anyone is looking aghast at my total lack of Olla Podrida manners. So far, so good. I cut the chorizo in half in the casuela and eat it from there with a spoonful beans. Bravely and decisively I cut the meat off the ribs and transfer it to the bowl of beans, still no reaction from the diners around me. Full of confidence now I cut the meat off the assorted bones and pop it into the slowly emptying bowl of beans.

The pig’s ear is becoming more and more obvious floating in the beans. Is the pig’s ear like a bay leaf which you eat around and leave at the end? Or is it perhaps a delicacy that you save to the end to savour?

I leave that for the moment and ponder what is left in the casuela. Rude or not I am not eating the large chunk of fat, and as much as I would love to, I pass on picking up and chewing the remaining meat off the bones, although I am sure it is done in the safety of the home.

Back to the bowl I decide the pig’s ear can stay untouched, I am comfortably full of beans and pork of all different types, and I don’t appear to have offended anyone with my lack of Olla Podrida manners, so I call it a day.

Comfort food at its best, it’s a dish not to be missed if you are ever passing through Burgos.

Things you need to know about Spain – Going places

04.18.2013 by Trish // Leave a Comment

If you are driving in France or Spain, get a GPS gadget. We have Thomasina, our trusty TomTom, and couldn’t do without her. We might still be driving around Charles de Gaulle airport if we didn’t have her!

"After 60 metres you have reached your destination" — “After 60 metres you have reached your destination”

Roundabouts are tricky in Spain. If you want to turn left on a roundabout you need to go all the way around the roundabout. Do not tell the driver to go right around the roundabout, it confuses him and things get tense.
Many roundabouts have lots of roads coming in and out of them because of the large numbers of one way streets. When Thomasina tells you take the third exit, does she mean exit or street? Because a road that is coming one way into a roundabout is not technically an exit. If you think it is confusing reading this, try driving it!

Give way to your left……to your left dear…..GIVE WAY TO YOUR LEFT!!

Whoever is in charge of roads in Spain obviously doesn’t have much faith in drivers’ ability to know what side of the road they should be driving, love these cute signs painted on the road

The relationship between tourist maps of towns and cities, where streets are, and where they go, bears little resemblance to reality. This applies to walking and driving. Do not expect to read the map before you set off and actually get there in a reasonable amount of time. You will get lost at least once a day. This can cause great angst to the guardian of the map.

I think this is the way we go....... — I think this is the way we go…….

Thomasina does not recognize bollards across streets and insists on sending you down said streets.

Many streets are paved and narrow and look like a pavement,

This is a street, not a pavement with little posts for resting on the way home

street names are on the side of buildings, not conveniently marked on a sign post, so it can be very difficult to work out where the bloody hell you are (or words to that effect!)

Calle Las Cercas - Fences Street — Calle Las Cercas – Fences Street

If at all possible, check things out before driving in large towns. Otherwise park when you get there and don’t get back into the car until it is time to leave. Walking gives you an excuse for patatas bravas and a bucket of beer.