back
At night it was simply too humid to sleep, so I read tirelessly,
relishing the aftertaste of the wonderful cuisine. Four travel
tips: 1) You can't get a paella unless there are at least two of
you. I spent a lot of time looking for spare people who wanted
paella. 2) There is a dish called *conejo al ajillo*, which
consists of whole cloves of garlic roasted with potatoes and
rabbit. It makes your urine smell of garlic for three days and
leaves you feeling so ecstatic that you don't care that you can't
sleep and are being gnawed to death by mosquitoes. If you don't
like garlic, or disapporve of extreme happines on religious or
moral grounds, try the grilled sole. It will make you only very
happy. 3) If you want the very best service, including free
liqueurs and bonbons, just place a notebook at the side of your
plate and make the occasional note in it. The proprietor will
suspect that you are a restaurant critic and will act
accordingly. 4) People taking photographs of their meals are not
critics; they are from the United States.
-Louis de Bernieres writing about La Tomatina, an
annual festival/tomato war in Bunol, Spain. Harpers
Magazine, August, 1995 pg 68.
back