For New Years Eve we hosted the dinner festivities here in our apartment. The whole family pitched in to help prepare the food, set up the tables, and lay out the dishes. For dinners in Spain presentation is everything. This isn't just for the holidays, but for any gathering or family get together where eating is involved. When you arrive at the table the silverware is set up formally, with the little dessert spoon on top and all the plates lined up so that the detailing matches up perfectly.
A Spanish dinner always starts of with little appetizers or tapas. Normally this includes slices of ham (cut right from the pig leg that is commonly found just hanging out in the kitchen), slices of cheese, pieces of salmon, shrimp, bread and various spreads. That day I tried one of these spreads and guess what it turned out to be? The liver of a duck. Yum.
After most of these foods were consumed the first round of plates were taken away and the next dinner plates were collected and brought into the kitchen to dish out the main course. The main course of this dinner was fish cooked over apple and potato slices. Not being a huge fish fan myself I was a little skeptical at first, but it was actually really good!
Next course dessert! We had a cake that was kind of like marzipan, except it had a cool rhyming name that I can't remember. By this time it was getting close to midnight so all got out our little bags of disguises, as is customary in the U.S. as well, and we each grabbed a bowl of twelve grapes. These twelve grapes were to be eaten on the twelve strikes of midnight on New Years Eve for good luck. I am proud to announce I was able to choke down all twelve right on time!
The New Years gear! |
Once we kissed everyone in the room, as is customary in the U.S. for New Years as well, Emma and I headed out to a beach town called Sitges, one town over, to bring in the New Year with a few of her friends. We went to a very cool discoteca there called Prado, which doubles as a movie theatre. The room in which the party was held had a stage where the DJ played his music, and where the audience would be was a huge dance floor where all the party goers could dance! To my surprise this club had less attendees than the place we went to on Halloween and we thankfully had more room to dance without someone bumping into you every two seconds!
We had such a great time singing along to the songs and dancing together that we didn't leave until 6 AM. That sounds crazy compared to the norm in the U.S., but this kind of time frame is customary here in Spain! While on the train riding back to our town I realized some of the other people on the train were dressed and on their way to work! Our train pulled into town and Emma and I walked the rest of the way home. I was finally ready and tucked into bed by 7:30 AM New Years Day. Safe to say I had to be woken up at 3 PM that day for lunch time!
Before we headed out! |
No comments:
Post a Comment