Cuisine de Camino

I´ve had a couple of e-mails from people asking about the food situation on the trip, so while we´re still hunkered down in Leon with this very nice internet connection, it´s a good time to tackle this one. It´s amazing how this trip brings you down to the basics: can I move myself from Point A to Point B, will I find a place to sleep and a take a hot shower and will I find anything to eat? That´s pretty much the daily agenda. So far, all has been well on the food front. Unlike most of Spain, dinner is the big meal for the pilgrims. When you´re reading up for the trip, you don´t find a whole lot of kind words for Franco with one exception - he instituted a law to protect pilgrims from financial exploitation by the local shopkeepers. If a town is going to provide sleeping accomodations for the pilgrims, it also has to provide reasonably priced meals. As a result, every town that has an albergue has somewhere that´s offering a Pilgrim´s Menu. It´s a three course meal, including bread and red wine, that costs about 10€ ($14). Sometimes it´s offered by the albergue, sometimes by a taverna or restaurant; sometimes everybody sits at one long table, sometimes they have multiple tables for four; sometimes you´re asked to help cook, sometimes the meal is served; sometimes you´re handed a menu, sometimes you eat what´s placed in front of you. But regardless of the form, a hot meal is always welcome at the end of a long day. The first course is usually a mixed salad (lettuce, tomato, tuna, onion and corn - that has been so consistent I suspect that it was embedded in Franco´s legislation!), or a bowl of soup. The second course is meat or fish almost always in the form of a stew or grilled with a side of patatas fritas. The last course is some type of dessert: ice cream, a piece of fruit or a slice of flan. The food is very simple - no sauces or sides. The wine is local and rustic and wonderful! And the funny thing is that you don´t really get tired of the food, even though you mostly eat the same thing every night. You´re so glad to be able to sit in a warm place and compare notes with the other travellers, that it always tastes absolutely delicious. Dinner is a little celebration every night.
You may note that there isn´t a lot of vegetable action going on with dinner. Unless you get the salad, you won´t get anything green and crunchy. For that reason, Mark and I have been packing picnic lunches to eat during the day. Each night after taking a shower and washing our clothers, we go down to the local market and pick up next day´s lunch. For those of you who know Mark well, it won´t surprise you to learn that even in the smallest, one aisle market, Mark entices the shopkeeper into a lengthy discussion about what is the best produce or meat or cheese that they have to offer. He is in heaven with all of the chorizos, cured hams and pork loins and the wide variety of cheese. We´ve been pretty lucky in finding locally grown fruits and veggies and equally lucky in finding beautiful places along the Camino to serve as a backdrop for lunch. If you don´t want to carry the extra weight of a picnic, you can just buy a bocadillo (small sandwich) in the town that you hit closest to lunch.
By far, our favorite source of snacks has been the Camino itself. As we walked through Navarra and La Rioja, the Camino wound through vineyards, fields and gardens. There were plenty of fruit trees where we found plums, figs, and apples. We also scored several days of blackberry bushes just as the berries were hitting their peak. The grapes were plentiful and we tested the ´07 vintage pretty liberally. The one thing that really just about drove Mark over the edge was the red peppers. We literally walked along acres planted with peppers. They were just getting ready to harvest and truly looked delicious. But everytime we went to market, we couldn´t find them! Finally, Mark broke down and bought a jar of roasted peppers. You should have seen us - we fussed over them like a Frenchmen would a fresh truffle. We commented on the sublime smell, we examined their perfect color and finally we gushed over the exquisite taste. It wasn´t until after the meal, fully sated and examining the jar, that we discovered that the peppers had been imported from Peru!!!! Globalization hits the Camino.
Mark seems to have mended well so we´re going to hit the road again tomorrow. It´s cold and wet and we can´t wait to get out there again!