The Tasty Pilgrim

In Spain you enjoy two hot meals a day. Breakfast does not amount to much, just some coffee and biscuits.

At about two in the afternoon there is a meal consisting of starters and a main dish. Then again at ten in the evening there is another meal with starters and a main dish. In the afternoon as well as in the evening you will enjoy wine with your meal. Besides, it is usual to go out and have a meal in a restaurant a few times a week.

Spanish people go for fresh products with a high quality from their own region. Olive oil and fish are basic ingredients, the healthy Mediterranean kitchen. There is an enormous varied quantity of different regional cuisines in Spain. After having crossed the Pyrenees mountains we will find ourselves in the Navarra. With its wild and unpolluted rivers, trout is a real delicacy. Trucha a la Navarra is trout baked in ham, smells wonderful. The soil is rich and fertile and brings forth wonderful vegetables such as thirty different kinds of lettuce and artichoke, all kinds of beans and young garlic sprouts. Walking along your notice that more and more cornfields have been turned into asparagus beds, the white gold as it is referred to I short what you order here is a meal fit for a king. Cheese from sheep is still made the traditional way, the Roncal is even protected by law. Navarra is also the country famous for its red wines and rose’ variants. Wine is the main stay for the pilgrim’s engine to keep going on, his bio diesel ! It is an amazing experience to walk among the vineyards in that softly rolling landscape. Having crossed the Navarra we arrive in the Rioja region.

More than in any other part of Spain, Rioja is famous for its wines. But there is more, much more, it is rich in game, wild boar and roedeer and red deer. Also snails and mushrooms, goat yoghurt and red bell peppers which are dried in the air. Nowadays Rioja is one of the modern wine producing European regions. Yet, numerous small landowners tend their vineyards the traditional way, doing all by hand. The wine ripens in huge oak barrels. As there are not quality oak trees in Spain any more, timber is imported from Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania (USA). The oak barrels gives a distinct flavour to the wines. No wonder that Patatas a la Riojana is a typical meal, a combination of potatoes and onions and garlic and fresh bell peppers cooked in red wine. Castilia and Leon is the next province in which we find ourselves. It is sparsely populated and winters can be bitterly cold and summers know scorching heat. Here we find silence in vast open spaces. The population still has those typical Spanish traits pride, melancholy and mystical religious feelings. I have come to know them as warm and hospitable. The cuisine of the region is a melting pot of Jewish, Arab and Christian elements. The dishes only differ in meat that is used, for Christians pork and for Jews and Arabs lamb. I always take along a travel rod and line and reel and a box of flies for fly fishing outings. Along the way I am listening for the music of water, giving a different perspective of my enjoyment of the landscape. My tales often amaze other pilgrims. I have fond memories of Leon, where I went fly fishing with my Spanish friend Martin who showed me wonderful rivers and streams teeming with fish. He was proud to present me his fishing lunch with local ham and sausage and pate’ and fragrant bread and goat cheese. All accompanied of course with a special wine made from the local grape the tinta de Toro with a twist in the tail, as it has an alcohol percentage of 16 %. But you know, fishing on a lazy day, nothing compares to it.

The waters of the little river Moradillo is said to heal all kinds of skin disease. It is teeming with fresh water river crayfish which you can catch. It is for the Sopa Burgalesa which is created with lamb onion, broth and river crayfish. At last we enter Galicia the lush green part of Spain. Here we meet mist and wind and rain and sometimes sleet and snow in a dark sky, all the influence of the Atlantic Ocean. The population works in agriculture and fishing. Coastal waters offer over eighty different species of fish and shellfish, such as muscles and oysters. You will come across ancient “horreos”, large stone chests with slits in the walls in which maïs is stored and dried, but also onions, garlic and other greens. They are set on stone legs against moisture and rodents attacking the crop. “Pulpo de Feira” a meal consisting of cooked octopus is a famous delicacy from the region and you should eat it from a rustic wooden plate. “Empanadas” I cannot get enough of it. They are dough filled with meat or fish or greens. For ages pilgrims have taken them along their journey as a luncheon.

Empanada is even depicted in the cathedral of Santiago where you see a hungry pilgrim eating one and its enjoyment will be ever lasting. This figure hewn from stone is a religious monument for those who enjoy life to the full.

Let us round it off with Tarta de Santiago, a sweet pie made from almonds. Having arrived after weeks of walking along every pilgrim will surely savour one. Walking the Way I will try and write some culinary reviews for your entertainment.