We left for Spain on 9/11/10. The morning we left, we fried up a small plate of pimientos de Padrón to gobble up before we left. We also took this picture. Pimientos de Padrón are little peppers (we'd call them chiles here in New Mexico) from Galicia in Spain. They're sweet and super tasty when fried in olive oil and served with sprinkled with sea salt. Spaniards, in general, do not like spicy anythings. These pimientos are generally not spicy, but maybe one in 20 packs a bit of heat. This is part of the fun, since eating them is a bit like Russian roulette, especially for the people who don't have high tolerance for heat. Of course we love them all. When we visited Spain last year, a package of seeds for these pimientos ended up in our luggage somehow, so we tried to grow them. We didn't have much luck, but we did get this small plate of pimientos that ripened up right before we left. Oddly enough, a month or two prior, we discovered that these peppers are the hot treat (i.e. "hot" as in trendy) at the Santa Fe Farmer's Market, with many vendors selling them.
Our honeymoon ended two weeks later on 9/25/10. On our return flight we encountered a Neo-Nazi Delta gate attendant in Atlanta who swore that Lisa's suitcase was too large to carry on the plane. This was despite the fact that this particular suitcase was purchased specifically because it does meet carry-on dimensions. This all led to an ugly scene at the gate in Atlanta that ended with Hitlerina extorting $25 from us to gate-check the bag before we would be permitted to board the flight. The picture below shows Lisa's bag a couple hour later upon arrival in Albuquerque clearly fitting in the Delta carry-on measuring device. You cynics will accuse us of having tampered with the bag, but this is not true. Not one tissue was removed before we took this photo. This incident prompted us to write a withering complaint to Delta for their mistreatment. To their credit, they did refund the $25 and give us each a $50 voucher, but you can still be sure that next time this happens, I'll get video of it as it happens. Bitch.
On a happier note, we soon arrived home at Jennifer's house where we presented our nephew Diego with a complete Real Madrid soccer uniform:
I found a pimienton plant at the Mennonite Relief sale this spring. I got just about as many pimientons as you did. That was one of my favorite dishes in Spain too.
ReplyDeleteThere were truckloads of those things at the Santa Fe Farmers' Market this year. Those guys figured out how to grow them. I think that their farms were more like a Spanish farm: hot and dry. Las Vegas is too cold.
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