Well, it is thankfully all over! Whilst it is definitely true that there is less rubbish surrounding Christmas here than in UK it does drag on! It feels as if the festive season started with the first Bank Holiday on 6th December. And on it goes...another Bank Holiday, Kids break up, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, back to work next day, New Year and finally Kings' Day on Jan 6th. Finally the stuff comes down. Our favourite piece of tat decoration was at our local supermarket. There were two cardboard reindeer covered with sacking next to the baskets. A couple of days later a head fell off! A few days later it was back with a neck-brace!So, festive-fare-wise we managed to avoid turkey, pudding and mince pies. Here are some gastronomic highlights:
Pre-Christmas - the pheasant brought over by Chloe from Oxford.
Christmas Eve - the upshot of the "cock-up on the poultry front". Bob had wanted a goose and friends Jill and Dave had got a frozen one from Lanzarote. We ordered at the fancy butchers, but the day before we were due to collect it they rang to say it had arrived but was of such poor quality they wouldn't accept it, so we had a long re-think and took two ducks instead, using all the bits such as apricot stuffing and spicy red cabbage that we had prepared for the goose. Then Bucks Fizz jelly and beautiful truffles hand-made by cook Eileen across the road. All rather lovely! (The same cannot be said of the weather! It was the coldest and cloudiest dry day ever)
Christmas Day - (and the sun shone - but certainly not enough for the traditional dip in the pool!) In the early afternoon we went down to Blue Rock where there were all sorts of festive nibbles then back for siesta. We had a longstanding arrangement with our friends, agents and concierges - Mike and Liz. Living up to the Champagne Charlie nickname he had arranged dinner for 13 at Manolo's (not a place we had frequented but with a good reputation). It was a lavish and very Spanish/Canarian affair plus crackers - and all on him! We had:- Local cheese and Serrano ham
- Deep fried large prawns
- Ham croquettes
- Octopus in Galician style
- Fish goujons with chips!
- Huge hunks of shoulder of lamb
- Free-flowing El Coto red wine
Interesting company too!
(Not) Boxing Day - Chloe's last full day and she
wanted yet more tapas after serious shopping for stuff to sell and give back in UK. We went to La Chalana by the port and chose fiduega (like paella with pasta instead of rice, albondigas (meat balls in sauce), deep-fried baby squid, and Canarian potatoes.
- and Sangria! A long, langourous and messy afternoon as shown!
The weather was good for most of the day, but panic ensued as we borrowed a spring balance and realised Chloe's bag was (as we had predicted) well over the Ryanair limit. Plastic bottles replaced glass, toiletries were dumped and things were jammed into her hand baggage. We made it to one decimal place! More on Ryanair later!
New Years Eve: Our third consecutive one at Caracoles with Carlos and Sylvia. They offer a surprise menu which this year consisted of:
- Rich chicken and mushroom broth served with a spring roll
- Home-made stuffed pork terrine
- Seafood platter
- Beef fillet in rosemary and redcurrant sauce with garlic stuffed tomato
- Lemon sorbet with Cava
Afterwards we went to the Council's music offering in the square, which had been an excellent rock band last year. This time (after the deposition of the mayor) there was just recorded stuff. We saw in 2009 at Blue Rock and watched the fireworks being let off across the bay at the 5star Bahia Real. There were no council fireworks this year!