Dinner

We knew where to get dinner after our first evening here.  We headed back over to that area and looked for tapas.  We didn't find any real tapas, where you get the little portions for a few euros.  And there were a ton of pizza places!  We walked up and down the street, sometimes being acosted by waiters trying to get our business. We finally stopped at a little place with a nice woman who showed us the menu.

At first, Frank wanted to get more Paella Valenciana, to compare.  It's an order for 2, but Frank said he could eat both.  But it would take 40 minutes, so he decided against it.  I ordered shrimp in garlic, calamari, and fried potatoes.  Frank got a meat plate with 2 kinds of iberian ham, chorizo, and something like salami, and some cheese.  OMG!  One of the hams was so freaking good.  We have pictures of the meat plate but were so hungry we don't have any others.

The lady asked if Frank wanted some bread, so she brought out a bread plate with 2 slices of white, 2 of wheat, and tomato aioli.  Wow - that aioli was amazing!  The bread was nice and chewy.  The calamari rings were big and chewy too.  Not rubbery, but chewy because they were so big.  They brought mayonaise instead of marinara, and it wasn't bad.  This is not your mother's Helmann's!  When my shrimp came out, there were 10 of them.  The biggest one was about as thick as a Twix bar.  We were really happy with the meal!  Even the fries were nicely fried and salted.

When we finished the lady brought us some shots, on the house.  They were some kind of passion fruit juice and maybe peach juice in a small glass bigger than a shot glass, with ice and a straw.  It was really good.  I actually drank the whole thing and you know how little I like alcohol.

That brings me to another topic.  Almost every place we've eaten at has given us something extra, for free.  The place where I puked gave us the 2 tapas dishes.  The museum gave us the bowl of peanuts.  The dinner place gave us shots.  It's really nice.

That brings me to my next topic.  We're not eating in fine dining establishments.  These are just random cafes on the street.  The food they serve would be in trendy or upscale restaurants in the US.  Here, they just call it food.