Fast forward 2 hours. Like any new country, its fun to figure out how to get to your destination from the airport. Fun in the sense of taking public transportation rather than a taxi taking you from point to point.
On our way to our final destination, we meet a local who notices that we are trying to find our way. He introduces himself and proceeds to tell us tidbits about Spain. About how our Spanish from HS will pretty much be useless and informs us that not only is Spanish spoken, but Catalan is also spoken in Spain. We mention food and various tapas and even discuss how Huevos del Toro are prepared. For those not familiar with Spanish, Huevos del Toro directly translates to "Balls of the Bull." Or Bull's testicles. Yummy! How appetizing!
Speaking of appetizing, I was really looking forward to this trip because of the food! Especially the tapas! What better place to have tapas than Spain. This was the country where it all started right?
I mean its like having a Chicago Style Hotdog in Chicago, Italian food in Italy, Guinness in Dublin, Sushi in Japan, or Chinese in Chinatown. =)
I've been to a couple tapas places in Chicago: Iberico, Emilio's, Sangria.. etc.
So how was our first tapas experience in Spain? Amazing. Unforgettable.
Gambas al ajillo, Gambas a la plancha, pulpo a la plancha, patatas bravas, championes a la plancha, empanadas, the list goes on and on. It was so good and the seafood was so fresh. Top that off with some Sangria the meal was perfect.
UNTIL.. Curiosity set in. I introduce to you the culprit: green peppers
It looks harmless. dk was curious as to what it was. Roy suggested that we try it out. If we didn't try it, we would regret it.
My taste buds were so happy until this point. I had suffered from English food long enough and my tapas experience had reached an all time food experience high. Nothing could bring me down from this high.
We ordered this dish and unfortunately, roy and dk picked a few hot peppers that were, well, WAY TOO HOT! I was luckily enough to pick the first three that were quite mild. Feeling confident, I explained my theory on how to choose the "not so hot" peppers.
I felt bad for dk and roy since they had picked "the wrong" ones. So I proceeded to explain my theory and pointed out which one I thought looked like a "REALLY HOT" pepper. Feeling their pain, and being a compassionate friend, I tested my theory.
Sure enough my theory was right.
I choose the hottest pepper I've ever tasted in my whole entire life. My "natural high" of the best tapas I've ever had came crashing down in a matter of seconds. One of the best food experiences I've ever had ended abruptly with one single bite. The joy of food all of a sudden became an agony. All because of one pepper. The spicy, hot taste would not leave my mouth and I was left with tears in my eyes. My taste buds that were once so happy now burned to death due to this damn pepper.
This would then coin the phrase... "crrassshhh landing..." and was used throughout the rest of the trip to capture the moment of a height of happiness to the lows of disappointment.
Despite the pepper, the first tapas experience in Barcelona definitely set the bar as far as my expectations for the rest of the trip. Was the bar set too high?
To be continued..
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