Here's our first post for February. And once again, a big thank you to Mercedes for writing the last post in January.
Over the last couple of days I've been involved in a couple of conversations about food. We've been talking about favourite food and memorable meals. I always have the same problem when someone asks me what my favourite is. It doesn't matter if it's my favourite book, my favourite colour, my favourite film, my favourite song, I can never think of an answer. It's as if the fact of having to choose one out of so many possibilities just makes my mind go blank! So, when one of the kids asked me what my favourite food was I couldn't think of any one kind of food, but I did start to remember so many memorable meals. Memorable often because of where I ate them as much as the food itself.
This is one of the meals I remember. I don't have a photo of the food, but I do have a photo of the place. You'll recognise it no doubt if you're a local. If you're a visitor, please read on to find out more.
We were there last weekend. It was such a beautiful day, and everything looked so green and fresh. In case you don't recognise it, it's Bolonia, and the photo is taken from the car park outside the visitor's centre at the Roman ruins. But the meal I remember eating at Bolonia was much longer ago.
If you look very carefully at the left hand side of the photo, more or less at the same height as the beach, you'll see a collection of low buildings. These are beach restaurants. They were closed when we were there last weekend, but during the summer they're usually full, and they're a great place to sit and watch the sun go down. And that's what we were doing one evening a couple of summers ago. We'd been on the beach most of the afternoon and the sun was going down. We had the choice of driving home or eating at the beach. It was such a beautiful time of day that we decided to stay. Just in front of one of the restaurants there's a little garden, and in front of the garden a green, grassy bank that leads down to the beach. We, the adults, sat at a table in the garden, and the kids played on the grass. It was beautifully quiet and peaceful. We could see the lights coming on in Morocco across the straits. There was a cool breeze blowing (as there always is in Bolonia).
We ordered grilled cuttlefish. Very plain, very simple, served with a bit of salad and bread. I don't know if it was just the magic of the moment, but that cuttlefish tasted like the best thing I'd ever eaten. It was so fresh, done just right and it melted in our mouths. I can taste it now as I type, and feel the warmth of the sun from the day on the beach, and the cool breeze on my skin. What a great place. What a great meal. What a great memory.
So, over to you. Do you have any memorable meals to share with us? I'd love to hear your stories. And if you haven't got time to write a story, no problem, but I'd love it if you could leave a short comment. :-)
Thank you!
Speak soon,
Ceri
This was a fascinating post. It took me a while to choose just one memorable meal - there are so many!
ReplyDeleteThe one I want to tell you about is from my gap year. I went on a volunteer expedition to the jungle in Sarawak, Borneo. We slept in hammock, cooked on campfires and washed in the river. While we were there, we built an accommodation block for scientists for a local research project. To say thank you, the project managers took us in small groups of about 8 (there were 24 of us in total) for meals at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge. http://www.borneorainforestlodge.com/ It's a 5-star set of small lodges, with a restaurant attached, in the middle of the jungle. The food was amazing - we were so excited to eat fresh food, especially chicken, after four or five weeks of having tinned food with occasional fresh fruit.
Truly a memorable meal!
Sandy
Hi Sandy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for calling by. I love your story. It makes me think of so many others as well - great memories :). Isn't the power of food just amazing?
Ceri
Hi Ceri. I took a long time without writing. But i can see you don´t stop working It takes time to do it well, so here is an article about Food Expressions. This is just a summary. I write the link at the end where you can wacth and listen the completely article
ReplyDeletelist of popular expressions about food:
For example, a cucumber is a long, green vegetable that people often eat in salads. You might say a person is as cool as a cucumber if he never seems to worry about anything and stays calm in a stressful situation. If you put a cucumber in a solution of vinegar and spices for a long time, it becomes a pickle. But if you are in a pickle, you are in trouble or a difficult situation.
If two people are very similar, you might say they are like two peas in a pod.
Potatoes are a popular food in many areas. But something is considered small potatoes if it is not important. You probably would not want to hold a hot potato in your bare hands. This also means a problem or issue that no one wants to deal with. Someone might call you a couch potato if you sit and watch television all day and get little or no physical exercise.
Students often have to take a difficult test to gain entrance to a special school. So you could say the ones who are chosen are the best ones, or the cream of the crop.
There is an old saying that forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest. That means some people get pleasure from doing something that they are not supposed to do.
Bananas are a popular fruit to eat. But if you go bananas, you are wild with excitement or worry.
Finally, let us talk about lemons. Lemons make a nice drink when you mix their juice with sugar and water. So here is an expression about lemons that we like: If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. This means you should always try to make the best of a bad situation.
See you soon
http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/words-stories/Words-and-Their-Stories-Food-Expressions--116079729.html
Hi Paco!
ReplyDeleteSo nice to see you here! Thanks for this collection of food expressions. I like the way it's written. Do you have any favourites? Are there any similar expressions in Spanish? I wonder if they translate into English as well. It'd be interesting to know.
Speak soon,
Ceri
Hi Ceri!!
ReplyDeleteThere are many popular sayings in Spanish language about food expressions, like those:
For exemple: our famous bread , we say "al pan, pan y al vino, vino" ( bread, bread and wine, wine) It means every thing to call by name
we usually say "las cosas claras y el chocolate espeso" (accounts/things clear and thick chocolate) It´s a play on words, its means that the only thing that shuold be thick is chocolate.
By for now
Paco J.
Hi everyone!
ReplyDeleteI specially remember a meal in La Coruña. It was the day before of one of my brother's wedding. We met with muy sister in law's family in ha restaurant of there and ate loads of seafood like crabs, lobsters, prawns, crayfish, the tipical octopus, among others things. It was while I ate more seafood in my life.
There's another foods expresions in spanish: "Mas bueno que el pan" (Better than bread) to say if something is really good, or "es un cacho de pan" (He/she is a pieze of bread) to say if someone is a good person, or "es un cacho de carne con ojos" (He/she is a piece of meat with eyes)to say if someone is idiot or a person who don't think.
Bye for now
Fernando
Hello again Fernando!
ReplyDeletemmm ... my mouth is watering as I read! I've never been to Galicia, but there used to be (and probably still is) a great Galician restaurant a couple of streets away from where we lived in Madrid. We used to go there for special occasions. They'd serve up a mountain of seafood - all delicious - some of it I'd never seen before. I love seafood. And I can only imagine that at a Galician wedding it's ten times (maybe a hundred times) better :)
I love the food expressions. I knew the one about the piece of bread (they use it in Italian too - un pezzo di pane) but I didn't know the one about the meat and the eyes. I'm going to try and use that one in a Spanish conversation and see what reaction I get ;)
Speak soon,
Ceri