La cena

All things Spanish have dominated our kitchen, our entertainment, and our delusions of expensive vacations. My friend Yaz let us borrow her dvd of Anthony Bourdain’s tv special “Decoding Ferrán Adria.” Clinton's boss will add "Spanish Restaurant" to his arsenal soon. Old episodes of Jose Andres’ “Made in Spain”, Bourdain’s recent episode of No Reservations in Spain, and Mario Batali’s "Spain: On the Road Again" will forever occupy 4% of our DVR hardrive. (Well, maybe not Batali's; I don't know how many more closeups of Gwyneth Paltrow and indiscreet Mercedes Benz product placement shots I can stomach.) A few weeks ago, Clinton practically stole a case of Spanish wine from Specs. It only makes sense that on the third day of his four-day respite from work, he got creative and I got lucky.

First on the menu: calçotadas.


Spring onions broiled and served with romesco. Add this dish to our list of “stuff to cook once we get our own house” under the subheading “stuff to cook once we get our own grill.”


The main course was inspired by one of Jose Andres’ dishes: snap peas with sausage, mint, and squash blossoms. The bite of the peas, spiciness of the sausage, and the cooling mint was a refreshing mouthful. The squash blossoms were delicious too except that farmer’s market squash blossoms are far superior to Central Market’s. Score one for local farmers. He found a caterpillar crawling around inside one of the blossoms too. It was green and looked scared.

It reminded me of one time Lola Nena and I were washing raspberries that we had picked from the bush outside my old bedroom at Keats Rd. She found a tiny grey slug/caterpillar/creepy crawly in one of the berries and squished it in between two giant paper towels. Score one for Lola.