Mr. HalfFull gets a closer look at the clay oven @ El Asador de Arnada
We’ve been telling you about our 3-course meals in Spain, but this one takes the cake! Mr. HalfFull read about a restaurant called El Asador de Aranda, which brings traditional Castilian gastronomy to several locations throughout Spain. The photos featuring clay ovens and legs of meat on the wall enticed Mr. HalfFull to experience this manly palace of meat for himself.
Mr. HalfFull salivates over our lamb and pork lunch entrées
Of course, this restaurant also had a 3-course lunch with wine. Since our language skills are limited, a predefined menu is a deliciously easy way out! This was advertised as a 3-course meal, but 3 courses it was not. The food and alcohol just kept coming and we were continually surprised.
The surprise licorice grappa and cookie course
We ordered lamb and pork to split (because we’re cute like that). It was so much food already, but then they brought grappa with cookies. Oh wow, MORE alcohol? Wasn’t a bottle of wine for 2 people at lunch enough? Of course not!
We ended up finishing the whole bottle of licorice grappa. Do you see the size of that bottle?
Ms. HalfEmpty with the glass of cava she declined, but received
Then they offered us cava. I declined and they proceeded to bring us glasses of the bubbly white wine. How could anyone refuse Castilian hospitality? I guess it’s just not possible.
With an inebriated smile, Mr. HalfFull holds up the empty victory bottle!
By the time we left, we were stuffed and drunk. I could barely move and definitely couldn’t walk straight. I think I was rather giggly as well. But Mr. HalfFull had a day of sightseeing planned. So he dragged his wife along the streets of Barcelona.
Ms. HalfEmpty stared longingly at the siesta shades as we departed El Asador de Arnada
I really needed a siesta after that lunch and enviously spied the yellow siesta shades hanging from a nearby building. But we had a lazy morning and lunch was our first departure from the hotel that day. So perhaps I hadn’t really earned a siesta.
Due to my inebriation, the rest of the afternoon is a little fuzzy; I was walking around in a haze. I’m sure Mr. HalfFull imparted various cultural and historical facts to me, but I can’t regurgitate any of them. I was just concentrating on standing upright.
Of course, he picked this day to show me Gaudí buildings. Ordinarily, Gaudí buildings look strange and dreamlike with their roots and treelike limbs protruding this way and that. But these buildings seemed to blend quite well with my stupor.
Casa Batlló by Gaudí looks like the type of fantastical building you would see in a drunken stupor
In Barcelona, 1 in 3 deaths in traffic accidents are on foot
I was lazily walking along, dragging behind Mr. HalfFull until I read a sign painted on the crosswalk in the street. After staring for several seconds and working through my pretend human Catalan translation engine, I realized it said that 1 in 3 traffic accident deaths in Barcelona are pedestrians. I sobered up quickly.
- Do you and your significant other split meals?
- Would you drink the whole bottle of grappa?
- Have you been served an unending meal?
- Would you be able to sight-see after such a lunch?
- Do you think the sign on the crosswalk causes more pedestrian accidents than it prevents while people stop in the road to read it?
Gaudí buildings are surreal
beaufitul tower @ Passeig de Gràcia
Gorgeous architecture at Gran Via Corts Catalanes
Just another seductive giraffe statue laying in the street. Perfectly normal.
What self-respecting city doesn’t have a statue of an anthropomorphized bull?
#1 by Sarah P. on July 4, 2012 - 8:08 AM
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Ha! Just another seductive giraffe statue!! That’s hilarious. I can’t believe you guys finished that whole bottle of grappa! Impressive… incredible. Isn’t it really concentrated?? I think I would have been beyond the giggly stage of drunk, and might’ve lost my three-course meal.
I remember a meal I had that sounds similar… my older brother and I had dinner at a restaurant on that little island in the Seine, in Paris. It was a pre-fixe menu with a bunch of courses AND the accompanying alcohol… we started with kir, moved on to a bottle of wine, and ended with something I can’t remember! The food was incredible and just kept coming, and we talked and ate for what felt like hours. Then we staggered up the hill of Montmartre, and where Sacre Coeur is, and there happened to see fireworks from there! It was crazy. Anyway, that was the night before we left Paris, and I remember sleeping horribly that night because I was so dehydrated from all the alcohol.
So I guess we did kind of sight-see after that dinner, but it wasn’t very intellectual!
#2 by Ms. HalfEmpty on July 4, 2012 - 4:02 PM
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Sarah, I’m glad you enjoyed my photo commentary!
I can’t believe we finished the whole bottle of grappa either. But Matt just kept pouring it. After a while, it just seems silly to leave a little left!
Thanks for sharing your story of dinner on the Seine. What an awesome conclusion with fireworks!
#3 by Kathleen on July 7, 2012 - 10:00 AM
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I love Spain and always felt at home there as if it were my own country. The hospitality and the tempo fit my personality. When I took my husband to Spain, we missed the lunch time and were too early for dinner (4pm). We were in Andalusia close to Granada and everything was closed for lunch. We drove then to a small town Rio Frio, where there were only 2 restaurants (all closed), but the bar was open. We stepped in and I asked if we could eat. The bartender asked me if I was Castellana with my American husband. He immediately invited us to the dining area and he said he would make us lunch of his own choosing (Fish from the Rio). It was unending and so romantic (just the two of us). We could not believe the bill, and we had to double it for tip as the “experience” was more than the lunch. Memorable Spain
#4 by Ms. HalfEmpty on July 7, 2012 - 1:26 PM
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What does Castellana mean? A woman from Castilla? Was it because of your native accent?
Mr. HalfFull and I had a few time on our travels when we were too late for lunch and too early for dinner like in Matakana wine country in New Zealand. No one cooked for us, but we did enjoy wine with a delicious cheese platter. Sounds like you had an amazing experience and meal in Spain. Thanks for sharing!