Navidad

We've made the journey so many times, but there's always a wrinkle. This time it was the taxi that never came. We were waiting at my garage at work, where I could leave the car for free while I'm away, safe from being towed during "snow emergencies" (I just love that phrase). But the cab we called didn't come, and didn't come, and then it turned out to have arrived at the wrong address way across town. In order to make our flight, I drove to the airport and left the car in the rather expensive parking lot. But them's the breaks; we made it in time, there were no delays, even though flights were being canceled left and right due to storms in the rest of the country, and our transfer in Amsterdam went smoothly. It's just a long long trip. I had either seen or didn't want to see all the films on the personal video player, so I read a novel by Bruce Sterling, Islands in the Net. I had read it when it first came out in 1988, when it was science fiction. Now, so many of the things he has predicted have come true (he makes his living as a "futurist" now) that it was extremely interesting to read it again.

Here in Zaragoza we had a lovely dinner last night, and everyone is gathering again for the midday meal. After the King's yearly speech at 9, it was time to eat. Quique outdid himself with the shellfish and fish: little sea snails steamed with a bay leaf, mussels, baby eels, giant prawns called langostinos, razor clams, and fish called lubina cooked in rock salt with potatoes and tomato. Everything was absolutely fresh, perfectly cooked, lightly seasoned so you could taste the different flavors of the seafood. The composed salad was a work of art. Of course there were also little aperitivos, and Florencio made sure we all cleaned our plates. We set the bowl of fruit on the table, but just looked at it and went straight to the turrón. In addition to the traditional almond nougat, there were various kind with chocolate, coconut, nuts. Rubén made a dessert with lemon sorbet and champagne put in a blender.

Today we will have more little canapés, little crabs called nécoras a fish/seafood broth, roasted squash, duck, a big fruit salad.

Everything is so expensive--the cost of living keeps going up here so fast. The joke making the rounds is that one of the agricultural ministers made a remark at an event promoting rabbit producers about how Spaniards should have rabbit as an alternative to more expensive dishes this Christmas.

This immediately became transformed into "Let them eat rabbit!"

and now everyone is making jokes about it.