Spain on a Sunday Evening

So, about a month ago, we went to Costa Brava with our friends, Mr. Interested In You and Valley Girl. It was a perfect evening, and we got there a little after the start of happy hour, and we sat on the patio. Of course we had several pitchers of sangria - at $8 a pitcher, you owe it to yourself to drink as many as possible and cash in on the deal - without impairing yourself for driving, of course.


So, marinated octopus. This was on the happy hour menu. It was delicious. It was perfectly tender, and it had the right balance of acidity and olive oil and sea salt. Just wonderful.




Okay, so I think this was not on the happy hour menu, but I needed to order it anyway. This is the morcilla with onions. So so so good. I think the name blood sausage is way more scary sounding than it is. I think people think of a casing filled with gushing runny blood. Yeah, it does have blood, but it's cooked blood. It's mixed with meat, and it adds this sweet dark flavor, and the texture when cooked is crunchier (in a good way). You know, don't knock it until you try it. And this is a good way to try blood sausage for the first time, in my opinion.





Hell yeah! Fried anchovies! These are fucking delicious! It's like french fries of the sea! They are crunchy, yummy, no relation to those salty little things in the can at the grocery store. While those do have their applications, I would not eat those straight out of the can. If you want to eat yummy preserved anchovy fillets, go for the boquerones. I love those, but we didn't get those this time.





Patatas a la Brava
Damn, these are good! These were one of my favorite things that evening! Wedges of fried potato coated in spicy aioli...yummy. How can you not like that? Everyone likes these!





Mushrooms in garlic sauce. I gotta say, these were...good. So compared to everything else, they were not that exciting. If I got them somewhere else, I might be raving about how they were the best thing on the menu.






marinated olives. You know, olives. From Spain. Good stuff. Nice and plump and olivey.





Pulpo a la Gallega - octopus with olive oil and spicy paprika. This was also good. Not on the happy hour menu, but still worth the price. Tender octopus is one of the best oral experiences ever!





Ham and cheese croquetas. Ham, cheese, bechamel, rolled in a little football shape, coated with bread crumb and deep fried. How can you go wrong. They are like the original cheese sticks, really.




Pinchitos Morunos. Lamb skewers. I was getting full by this time. These were good. But not the best of the tapas. They were...a little dry. They just didn't blow up my skirt, I guess.




Garlicky escargot. Now don't tell me you don't like escargot but you've never tried them. Well, you just don't like the way they look or the fact that they are snails. C'mon. Why, cause they're black? If shrimp weren't a common food item, wouldn't people think they were weird looking and say, I don't want to try it because it looks weird with the legs and stuff. Escargot are delicious. Especially with garlic. Yummy.

So that was the food. The company equally added to the experience. Mr. IIY and VG are just lovely people and Mr. IIY is a great story teller. He was telling us about his friend, who is quite the character, and his unsavoury stripper girlfriends and police encounters and whatnots. Great stories that if you saw them in a movie, you would say, that is so unrealistic.

So we were winding down, and the place was getting packed. I think there was a wait, so one of the San Sebastian waiters asked us to move to a small round table. I was a bit tipsy, so I said, do we get a free pitcher of sangria for that? He made a face and walked away. A few minutes later, he graciously gave us a pitcher of sangria! I was just totally joking, but he gave it to us, and we drank it, and it was delicious. Then we all sobered up and drove home - because it's illegal to drive while under the influence of alcohol........