The food was wonderful everywhere. We did some of our own cooking too in the North where we had a stove and bought all sorts of things to try. My favorite recipe was limpinas, split and broiled in garlic oil. I inhaled the chorizos I had missed all these years. I love them fried with eggs for breakfast. We enjoyed the lamb and suckling pig often talked about on this board. We missed the chicken in cider because we were too full. If we lived in Madrid. we would eat in the middle of the day and then very lightly at night as we do not sleep well on full stomachs, but for this month we tried to eat everything and wanted every opportunity. It was a tough job, but someone has to do it, right?


Here are foods we had which we had not read about on this board.

In Madrid we became regulars at La Galocha on Calle de Don Ramon de la Cruz between Plaza Manuel Becerra and Calle Conde de Penalver. Owned by a husband from Morocco and a wife who escaped the troubles from the Island of Timor, near Australia, we were treated to one meal after another, always taking what they recommended and enjoying it. Along with our meal came free tapas of chorizo or after dinner drinks of Patxaran Orozko and plenty of friendly talk. If you stop, tell him we sent you. He’ll remember me as the fellow whose tan pants were soaked with the contents of an overflowing bottle of some after dinner cherry drink.

In Santander we ate a fancy meal at restaurante Zacharias and met Zacarias himself how autographed his cookbook and told us of his four restaurants scattered around Spain. The pianist was sick but the dessert sample tray gave us a taste of every sweet they make.
Here also we went down into the port where our host took us to packed restaurants with platters of the best seafood. I can’t recall the names, but there was an entire street and you could go in one restaurant and out another on the street behind. No tourists. hard to believe that in Santander.


At Cristo de Limpias near the North coast, just south of Laredo, we ate with our chocolate the most luscious sugared, creamy like centered pastry called picatostes, an alternative to churros. They are made when ordered and come hot. By the way chocolate can be made at home easily by buying the bars of chocolate for that purpose and dissolving the bars in milk, much easier than in the days when the chocolate needed to be grated to dissolve.

A good menu of the day was had at Nevandi in Espinama near Fuete De where one portion of the mountain stews could feed a dozen people.

In Guernica we ate at a restaurant near the main square with Jatetxea in the name that is in the Rough Guide. (Sorry I’ve lent the book out) I had a sirloin in pastry shell with rouqefort that was wonderful. A little French taste in Spain.

I guess the only meals I did not enjoy fully were breakfasts. I don’t drink coffee and am not so fond of the typical Spanish breakfast. Otherwise, everything was a great adventure. Thanks for the help of the board.