Wynette. We are in Cirueña where we’ll stay the night. We walked about 10 miles today. Around 2:30 we arrived at our B&B , Casa Victoria. After checking in with a nice man we walked next door to Bar Jacobeo for lunch, pictured above. (The only place for lunch in this tiny town. Not even a grocery store.) We thought we’d just ask for fried eggs and toast. But that caused quite a stir. They definitely could not make us toast. Our only option was a bocadilla or the pilgrim’s menu. So we had the menu. Fine, because we were hungry. We placed our order and sat down. Our waiter (man in black shirt standing and watching TV above) brought our water and napkins. He’d placed the napkins at our right hand. After he left I unconsciously moved mine to my left the way we do it in the States. He returned with the silverware and saw I’d moved my napkin and he made me move it back over to the right. He seemed genuinely upset I’d moved my napkin. Soon he brought the first course. Charlie had ordered garbanzo beans and I had ordered the soup. What we got was probably the best pilgrim’s meal we’ve had so far. The garbanzos came with two kinds of sausage and a pork rib. The soup was cod with potatoes and vegetables. Everything perfectly cooked and flavored. We decided that in the kitchen of this unassuming bar was someone’s grandmother. When the waiter brought us the second course, we asked “Who is la cocinera (the cook)?” He smiled for the first time and pointed to a woman sitting at the end of the bar. She was probably around 30, not grandmotherly at all. She must have heard us ask because she waved and smiled at us. Our second courses (beef and chicken) were delicious, too.
(Everyone in the bar was watching a big bike race on the TV.)
First course with silverware on the right :
From the look of Charlie’s sausage and beans, it would appear that one of the sausages, the black one, is some form of blood sausage. These are popular all over western (and probably eastern) Europe: boudin noir in France, blutwurst in Germany, black pudding in Britain. Always yummy…just don’t ask too many questions.
Henry, yes it seemed to be a blood sausage, we had one before also. I liked the other sausages better but it was good. It seemed to have some cereal or grain in it.