I've banned all tomato buying at the house until they are in season here in CA. We do a big production at the end of the Summer to preserve those last batches of tomatoes into puree. I don't buy basil in Winter either. I make large volumes of pesto at the end of summer and freeze little containers for the winter, so I can have my little hit when I need it. More recently, we've been juicing our lemons and oranges into ice cubes for mid-summer. We can't preserve and freeze everything, but we make a concerted effort to at least use/preserve what we've grown in the backyard for later use.
Blueberries do show up along with blackberries and raspberries throughout the year and of course the ubiquitous banana. It’s difficult to have all these rules, but the tomato rule is iron clad.
I’m in Spain for a month. We stopped for lunch today at a mountain top restaurant Casa Ezequiel on a mountain road in the middle of nowhere. It was busy. We ordered off the set menu. We were brought two huge bowls, one with potatoes and octopus and another with garbanzos and sausage. They make the sausage there. The morcilla was spicy and the chorizo was er spicy too. It’s simoly help yourself with a big ladle to as much as you want to eat. Followed by sololmillo - sirloin - and chips. The beef is cut into medallions and doesn’t look much like sirloin but was perfectly cooked to medium rare. No dessert thanks! All that with 2 Demi beers and coffee, 34 euro, 29 quid. We brought the steak back to the car with us.
Nothing of this kind of place exists in the uk. Or am I wrong?
Sounds magnificent! You’re right, we’re hard pressed to find similar value in the UK.
Worth noting though, that the median wage in the UK is around double that of Spain, not to mention we do generally have higher cost of living here. All things that make the cost of our holidays appear such great value.
A beautiful dream.
Since I moved to South Africa it’s mostly like this.
Produce is mostly seasonal.
You don’t have blood oranges year round.
It’s caused a big shift in the way I do things. I appreciate your perspective of the food (in season) before the recipe.
Shame it’s only a dream for most people in the UK!
I love this Dan. And I share your vision of a culture that valued to simple but excellent over the abundant and rapid.
Thank you for the idea, Simon.
I've banned all tomato buying at the house until they are in season here in CA. We do a big production at the end of the Summer to preserve those last batches of tomatoes into puree. I don't buy basil in Winter either. I make large volumes of pesto at the end of summer and freeze little containers for the winter, so I can have my little hit when I need it. More recently, we've been juicing our lemons and oranges into ice cubes for mid-summer. We can't preserve and freeze everything, but we make a concerted effort to at least use/preserve what we've grown in the backyard for later use.
I love this, David. I might not succeed at enforcing similar rules in my house though.
Blueberries do show up along with blackberries and raspberries throughout the year and of course the ubiquitous banana. It’s difficult to have all these rules, but the tomato rule is iron clad.
Tomatoes are good ones to enforce.
I’m in Spain for a month. We stopped for lunch today at a mountain top restaurant Casa Ezequiel on a mountain road in the middle of nowhere. It was busy. We ordered off the set menu. We were brought two huge bowls, one with potatoes and octopus and another with garbanzos and sausage. They make the sausage there. The morcilla was spicy and the chorizo was er spicy too. It’s simoly help yourself with a big ladle to as much as you want to eat. Followed by sololmillo - sirloin - and chips. The beef is cut into medallions and doesn’t look much like sirloin but was perfectly cooked to medium rare. No dessert thanks! All that with 2 Demi beers and coffee, 34 euro, 29 quid. We brought the steak back to the car with us.
Nothing of this kind of place exists in the uk. Or am I wrong?
Sounds magnificent! You’re right, we’re hard pressed to find similar value in the UK.
Worth noting though, that the median wage in the UK is around double that of Spain, not to mention we do generally have higher cost of living here. All things that make the cost of our holidays appear such great value.