So I work at this Spanish High School with Julie and Sam who also happen to be my roomates. We got an invite to have a Spanish-style dinner with our English department in this little pueblo of one of the teachers. Needless to say, we were looking forward to it, and since it was being spent with Spaniards, we blocked off the entire rest of our night for dinner.
The three of us girls decided to coordinate our outfits and each wear a floral skirt, but Julie backed out last minute and thus was not invited to partake in this photo.
Here, our teacher, Javier is making Queimada for us to try. It is from the northwest of Spain in Galicia and literally means "burnt". It's hard to see the flame here but it had enough of a fire going to warm all of us as we stood around it. He mixed a liquor called Orujo (which is really common for after dinner or in coffee), apples, sugar (don't quote me on that), and coffee beans. If you're curious about how that mixture tastes, especially after being heated under a flame...continue on.
Julie and Alberto are doing a faked pose on the left side. Their baby cups are actually empty seeing as how the drink is still very much on fire and was not yet ready to be served.
This was round number two, and Greg took over. It looks a bit like a potion he's mixing, which is funny considering you're supposed to say an encantation over it while it burns. Which is exactly what the lovely gentleman in the following photo did...
Antonio has the voice of a poet and he was elected (perhaps self-elected) to say the encantation in Gallego. It sounded pretty convincing, though I understood only about 1/3 of it. Something about a useless belly caught my attention. Couldn't tell you how that phrase ended.
Since I have an incurable fascination with mini-things, here I am with my mini-queimada cup before tasting.
And here is the answer to the previously posed question about the actual taste of the drink. Who says facial expressions don't cross cultures and borders? Everyone at the table knew exactly how I felt about it. It's kind of like my love/hate relationship with sidra in Asturias. And if you know me and we've ever talked about sidra you know my exact stance on it: it tastes like olives, and I don't believe they make it with apples.
Here we all are! I spend lots of coffee and tortilla eating time with my friends Antonio and Amor on the left. I also teach with Amor. I also teach with Javier who is on the far right and who worked hard with his wife to make us a wonderful meal. They asked if we preferred meat or seafood and when we said meat, they ran with it. We had bacon, lamb, chicken, chorizo, and ribs. Plus on the side we had cecina which is a cured thinly sliced meat served as an appetizer. Add to that some salad, roasted red peppers, bread, olives, and fabulous desserts from a nearby town in Astorga. To finish off we had the queimada, tea and coffee.
There is never a lack of food at a Spanish meal, nor is there a lack of conversation. In fact, after meal chats are SO important (and long) that they have a word for them "sobremesa" which literally means "over the table". There are so many times when I hunt for a word in Spanish that doesn't exist and then they surprise me with gems like that one.
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