Post by Wynette:
Yesterday we saw a potato truck outside the restaurant of our hotel. A delivery truck just for potatoes!
If you have studied Spanish in the US, you probably learned the word for potatoes is papas. But here in Spain they are called patatas. Pronounced pah-TAH-tahs.
When you smile for a photo in Spain they tell you to say patata. Can you say that without smiling?
They seem to be important in the diet here, at least in northern Spain. It’s rare to get a second course dish that doesn’t have potatoes on the side. Usually French fries but sometimes cooked other ways. They always seem to be cooked perfectly. We try to remember to ask for a salad to be substituted for French fries and sometimes we remember. When we get French fries we try to control ourselves. And we both agree ketchup would be nice. But they don’t serve them with ketchup.
We’ve mentioned the famous tortilla de patatas that is served in pretty much every Spanish bar. It’s eggs, potatoes, and onions. A nice hearty snack and actually makes a great sandwich filling. I’ve become, after many trips to Spain, quite fond of them. Charlie is not a fan. Our friend Holly, who has been here on Camino, is a great fan.
When I was on sabbatical in Graz I used to frequent a bakery — in Austria bakeries make bread, rolls, and a limited selection of pastries (more or less what we would call “Danish”); fancy cakes and pastries are the domain of konditorei — where I would pick up breakfast. One day a truck pulled up — for those of you who grew up with a heating oil fired furnace, the truck looked just like the trucks that would come to your house and deliver heating oil — and the driver got out and ran a hose from the truck into the basement of the bakery and proceeded to make a delivery. The side of the truck said “roggenmehl” (rye flour).
That’s pretty amazing.
D: Thanks for the “shout out” on my love for tortilla. So true- dang those things! What a treat just about every morning around 10 or 11 after our first 4 or 5 miles usually – and the bread!
The conversation Barbara and I would have after we put our poles down outside the morning cafe of the day was: “Do they have tortilla?” Nothing like it-❤️
Hey Holly, l was wondering how often you found a bar that did not have a tortilla? I’m sure it did happen sometimes and I bet you guys were disappointed.