It's odd what's odd

When I started this series of blogs I didn't really want to write a diary of our daily lives in Spain. The idea was to comment on the things that happened to us and around us. I know the difference is subtle but, at least in my mind, there is a difference and I have tried to maintain that difference over the years.

I've just bought a takeaway lunch from "El Fogón de San Francisco." San Francisco is the name of the square where the takeaway is located and fogón means something like stove or gas burner. Maybe the San Francisco kitchens would give the correct sort of idea.

One of my students told me that this place existed just a few hundred metres from the new flat so I went to have a look. They have a daily takeaway menu. I got a salad, curry and rice with raisins, dates and other dried fruit and a spongy, trifly sort of pudding called pan de Calatrava for 6€, just over a fiver. The menu was pretty extensive.

Whilst I was waiting in the shop I thought that this little adventure would provide fodder for a blog post. Later, sitting at the kitchen table munching away, it struck me that for my average, English speaking, reader the idea of takeaway food is hardly original or different. So why did I think it was worthy of a blog entry?

The answer is that it is actually pretty unusual for Spain - at least in my experience. Obvously there is a takeaway food available. Lots of Restaurants will do a paella to order and spit roast chicken is a staple Spanish fast food. Chinese restaurants do takeaway and more recent additions like Pizza joints, McDonalds and kebab houses litter any Spanish cityscape. But this is not a country with sandwich shops and World cuisine takeaways on every corner.

No doubt about it. An appropriate commentary on life in Spain.