One of our 'guests' decided they wanted to try tapas before they went home. I quite like this way of eating and everyone else was up for it, so tapas it was. We thought we would try a local place that had a good reputation and also had some good revues on the net. Every one in the family likes garlic prawns, so there were definitely going to be some of those involved. In broken Spanish, don't know why (there English is better than mine!), I took a brave stab at ordering some food. Got the wine, the bread and ali-oli, mushrooms and a few other things, right, prawns. There were none on show on the counter, so I had a quick scan of the chalkboards on the walls, pointing wasn't going to work here. Gambas ajzllo, hmm, definitely involves prawns, and looks to involve garlic in some way, so I went with that. I sat down, two pairs of eyes looking straight at me. What have we got then? A surprise, I said. I thought that was a good save, if we didn't get what I thought we were going to get, I could just say I thought we should try something different for a change. Things started to arrive at the table, I started to smile a little. Everything I asked for, and it was what I wanted. But wait, there was one dish missing, the prawns. At this point, there was quite a bit of frantic chopping going on behind the counter, then a couple of dull thuds, then flames shot up from the range the lady behind the counter was cooking on! My smile disappeared very quickly. The lady emerged from the kitchen holding an obviously very hot, large brown dish, and headed in our direction. I squirmed a little. As she got nearer, she held the dish a little lower, I sat bolt upright so I see what was in it. Yes!! There were some very large prawns in oil and garlic. I was now grinning like a Cheshire cat, and feeling quite pleased with myself. It didn't last long, and I now know what the two dull thuds were. We tucked into everything, leaving the prawns to cool a little. I am the first to try them. I stab a couple with my fork, and start chewing, they're fantastic, then it hit me. In my haste to enjoy them, I hadn't noticed the third item on my fork. The dull thuds were the sound of two very small, very red, seeds still in, birds eye chillies being bruised before being added to our prawns. I was now inadvertently chewing one of these with my prawns. Resisting the urge to drink any water I could find, I waited till the fire had died down enough for me to be able to speak in some form coherent manner. I then pointed out to everyone else that there were a couple of items in the dish they may want to give a miss. I wasn't going to admit to eating one, I'd have looked a bigger idiot than I already felt. The rest of the meal passed without incident, and the calamares were the best I'd ever had, not the usual rubbery stuff. The prawns were really good too, even if two of them were a little hot.
After eating, we moved on for a drink to a place with free Wi-Fi, so we could make a video call home. By this time, a member of our party was getting a little giddy from the tinto, so the conversation got a bit lively on both ends of the line. The phone got passed around so everyone could have their say, not that you needed to, the camera and microphone pick up everything. Things were going well, everyone catching up with what everyone else was doing. Then a lookie lookie man turned up, and started going round the tables, sunglasses and handbags, the usual stuff. He got to our table, pushed his wares in front of the person who was on the phone. What happened next caused a few seconds of silence, followed by uncontrolled laughter from everybody, except the lookie lookie man. From the speaker on the phone came a voice, loud and clear, "they don't want any because they are rubbish!" That was not the actual word used, don't want to get myself in bother now, do I. He wasn't happy, and didn't hide it very well. The sales pitch was definitely over, and I don't think he will bother us again. Maybe you had to be there, the look on his face was priceless.
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