Rotary Dinner

So as I mentioned, I was invited to join the Rotarians at their monthly dinner. Now dinner here is called cena and normally takes place at around 9:30 or 10...if not later. It was a big dinner party at a nice restaurant and I got to meet all of the wives of the Rotarians. It was nice to get to talk to everyone in a more laid back setting than the meeting had been, but the best part of this dinner was the food itself. I knew that this isn't the kind of meal I would ever be able to buy for myself, so I made a point to remember everything I ate so that I could recount every delicious bite.

There was a period of standing and drinking while we waited for everyone to arrive. We sat at a table in a private room in the back of the restaurant. Once we sat down the first thing to come out were plates of olives. Now ordinarily I don't like olives in the U.S., but I can't get enough of the green olives they have here. They had plates of little olives while we were waiting at the bar, but these olives were HUGE! Yum. Next course: plates of ham. Now most people probably know that Spain is famous for having a lot of ham...and this is why. It was super thin sliced cured ham (jamón) and it was delicious. At about this time the waiter came around and asked what we wanted for our segundo plato (second plate). I ordered bacalao (which I think is cod) and since its called segundo plato I expected it to be coming out in a little bit. Nope. Next came this sort of seafood salad. It had shrimp, octopus, and onions in some sort of spicey sauce with a lot of cilantro. I thought it was delicious. A lot of the people at the table didn't like the spiciness. I've found that the Spanish seem to have pretty weak taste buds in terms of spice (which is a bit ironic since a lot of people think Spanish food is spicy...it really isn't in general), because I thought the salad had a nice amount of spice. The next plate to come out was a pâté, which definitely scared me a little bit. I've never had liver before, but it was delicious. It was molded into this sort of loaf with marmalade on the side and served with these little toasts. It was so sweet and rich and delicious.

I bet you're thinking, NOW she's going to say the main course came. Nope. Not quite yet. Next came an asparagus plate. It had both green and white asparagus. White asparagus is one thing that is popular here that I know for a fact that I don't like. But since I was the guest, I was obligated to try everything, so I had to eat it anyway. It doesn't necessarily taste bad, but the texture is just more than I can handle. After the asparagus came the main course, at last! There were three options: porvina (which is like sea bass I think), carne (carne in general means a meat course, but this happened to be some sort of pig part), and then the bacalao. The bacalao was good but I just couldn't eat it all! I was so full from all of the "appetizers" that I could only eat about half. After the main course game dessert, of course! They brought out plates with lots of little bite size desserts. There were a few tarts and flan and cake, and they were all very tasty.

Well by this point, its about 1 AM (yes, we finished our meal after 1 AM). I'm thinking we are probably going to wrap it up pretty soon...wrong again. They came around and took orders for café and after dinner drinks and the party went on! We finally left the restaurant at close to 3 AM (!!!!). The Rotarians were ready to keep going and were going to walk to a bar next door. I, however, went home and went to bed! I was talking to Ignacio's wife Isabel about the late night culture and she said it probably all started because of the heat. It just gets so hot during the day there in the summer, that things don't start to cool down until 10 or 11 at night, so that is when people go out. It makes sense, but it's just so completely different from anything in the U.S.

I hope I gave an adequate description of the meal and that your mouthes are watering! :) I walked around the city today and took some pictures so I'll post those for you to see too!