08 June 2009

Here Piggy Piggy


Okay, I don't eat a whole lot of meat on a regular basis, and I'm definitely not a huge fan of pork—but when you are in Spain you do as the Spaniards do. In this case, you eat jamon.

I have had ham every day. Almost every meal. And it is delicious! The thing to do here on a special occasion is buy a whole leg of air dried Iberian ham, prop it on a special serving piece, and cut paper-thin slices to eat as an appetizer. I am with a small group of folks from the U.S., and while we will visit a total of 14 wineries while we're here, each of the proprietors only has one impression to make. So they all bring on the bacon.

Iberian ham is delicious. The most famous kind is pata negra, or black-hoofed pig, and it's a couple hundred dollars for one of them (not one pig, mind you, one hoof). I wish I could cash in the total of what I've consumed and put it into my IRA account.

If I owned a bed and breakfast, we would serve something very similar to the spread I've seen in every Spanish Parador—there is always fresh fruit and fresh-squeezed juice, shirred eggs on toast, and cafe con leche; fresh local queso, aged manchego, and membrillo always starts the day off right.

But at each buffet, there is one more major component: you can have pork eight different ways before you even touch your first cup of coffee. Maybe you're in the mood for sausage; prosciutto; salame; with or without paprika? The list appears to be endless.

I'm not complaining—it is certainly worlds better than the baked beans and tomatoes I was served for breakfast in England. I simply find it hard to fathom that most of the Spaniards I have seen are skinny. Proof indeed that they're doing something right. And while I don't know exactly WHAT the secret is, I'm going to start by having a big plate of ham. Ole!

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