WARM AND NOW SUNNY MANILVA ON WEDNESDAY;

WEDNESDAY 19^th/ MARCH 2014.

After our breakfast this morning we showered and freshened ourselves up before we went for a walk with the dog around the village; today here in Spain its ‘ Dia De Padre -Father’s Day’ so all the old ladies of the village have been busy in the cemetery with their flower vases as you can see in the pictures above.

The weather today is a little overcast at the moment with the sun braking through later, its still 22degs and the forecast for the next few days up to the weekend is OK; this evening for supper we are having flattened ‘Breast of Chicken’ pan-fried in foaming Lime butter with a dash of Balsamic vinegar, finely sliced Green Beans and dry-sautéed thick-cut Baked potato – simple but nice!

Last night we watched the football on TVE1 - “UEFA Champions League” as Real Madrid and Chelsea both went into the quarter final draw, tonight its Manchester Utds last chance to progress and win something?!  Later we watched a very gory science fiction horror film called “ The Thing !’ from 2011 – you have to watch it just to see “ The Thing !!” I can’t print what Brenda thought about it only to say the it started with ‘C’ and ended with ‘P’!!

Now back to my holiday adventures with my Dad & Mum back in the 1950s; you will see where my culinary taste came from as we traveled around Europe always on trains; it started when I was 5/6 when we went to Ostend in Belgium, I found a ‘Frits’ stall down by the harbor and started my love of them and all potato dishes from then! Also I ate fresh fish, Sole,Hake,and Bass etc for the first time.

We then went to Holland the next year when I was 7 and I soon found out about ‘Frits and Mayo’ in Amsterdam, while there I had my first exotic meal in an ‘Indonesian’ restaurant when we had a “ Rijsttafel’ – lots of courses in small potions of all sorts of food! The following year we went to Spain and stayed in Barcelona, at the age of 8 I went to the famous bullring and of course I had my first ‘Paella’

The following year as I said the other day it was Germany, we stayed in different towns as we moved around, I had the famous ‘Goulash’ and at another restaurant my first steak “ RumpSteak ” topped with a fried Egg! On my 10^th birthday we were in Switzerland staying in Interlaken where I learned about the famous “ Swiss Potato Rosti ”

Austria was next on the list as stayed in Salzburg – I can taste to this day my very first “ Wiener Schnitzel ” which correctly should be deep-fried in Breadcrumbs and served with lots of Lemon wedges, Chicken, Pork or my favorite Veal are all used! Then at the age of 12 I was in the still communist state of Yugoslavia under the rule of ‘Marshall Tito’ visiting the city of ‘Ljubljana’ – my only memory of the food was ‘Dumplings!’

Lastly at the age of 13 we traveled to Northern Italy to the lake district and stayed in an hotel at the side of ‘Lago Maggiore’ and visited the famous lakes of ‘Como,Garda and Lugano’ – you have already guessed that my love of ‘Risotto’ started then – and lasts to this day!

So you now can understand why we eat what we eat now !!

Thought for the Day; See above.

..