In Spain, the party (gastronomic or otherwise) doesn't stop after dinner. We just keep going.
After our post-dinner coffee and stowing all of the plates away in the cupboard, the mother of my host family asked, "Dana, how would you feel about heading into town to take some wine with Pilar, Jorge, and Koque?"
"Now?"
"Of course now!"
And shortly after this conversation, we sat in the outdoor area of La Vitrola and ordered glasses of Albariño for all. The wine was from one of the small vineyards in O Rosal (a nearby town in the Rias Baixas area). This particular Albariño was particularly crisp and tasted much more heavily of peach with just a touch of citrus. At 2 euro a glass for a very liberal pour, one glass quickly became 2.
And because the small slices of pan gallego (the best bread in the world!) and thinly cut salchichon (a type of cured meat) were not enough, we also ordered patatas bravas as a midnight snack.
Our waiter almost forgot about the patatas bravas, which was okay because he kept topping off our wine. When the patatas bravas arrived, there was no sauce! What happened?!
Of course, I am eating and drinking with the biggest jokesters around. They decided it would be extremely funny for me to explain to our waiter to make patatas bravas the proper away. I explained (in my terrible Spanish) that he needed to add some romesco sauce and aioli. The new and improved plate re-emerged and wow, was it good. So good that we were sopping up the remaining sauce with our bread.
Even as it got late, we were never rushed. Yes, it was just another one of those perfect summer nights. read more
