I can´t stop thinking about food. Two things: Pimientos de Padron, and Fried Chicken. You know how sometimes you get a bee in your bonnet about something, and it totally consumes you? Well, Pimientos de Padron have consumed me. They are these little green peppers they have in Galicia and Asturias at almost every tapas bar and restaurant. They fry them in olive oil and then sprinkle them rather liberally with coarse salt. They are really addictiing and I think we ate them for every single meal last week. But here in La Rioja – no Pimientos de Padron! I saw some raw ones at a veggie stand and I almost bought them to bring back to the hotel to BEG the chef here to cook them for me. I mean, I would pay fifty euros for a plate of those puppies. Well maybe not fifty euros but I think maybe I might, well, do something random or unsavory. Well, maybe not. But I really want some. BAD.

And then, we went to this church in a town called Santo Domingo de la Calzada or somethingorother, where once upon a time there was a miracle involving a chicken and now, they have a live chicken and a live rooster in a cage in the church. So we were walking through the town and I swear to you, I smelled fried chicken. A la Kentucky Fried. I was like, Mom, do you smell that fried chicken? I WANTED it. I never want fried chicken at home. Maybe it was really fried zucchini, but they were also cooking chicken stock, so the overall aroma was one of fried chicken. But whateves. It was a good smell and I can´t stop thinking about it. That and Pimientos de Padron.

I think part of the problem is, I am hungry. Really hungry. Tonight we are going to eat Jamon Jamon Ruffles and Chocolate for dinner, because there is nothing else in this town except the hotel restaurant and it is unbearably stuffy. Speaking of ham, the other night on TV there was a Spanish take-off on Desperate Housewives, and on the show there was a cocktail party and George W. Bush was at the cocktail party. And he says to the Desperate Housewife that is having the party, MAS JAMON POR FAVOR. Or, more ham please. It was a comedy.

It´s harvest time here in La Rioja. The vines have big, fat, almost obscene clusters of purple-black grapes on them. And there are flatbed trucks everywhere, filled with grapes, going 25 miles an hour. Driving through these little villages, it is easy to almost run over someone with a juice-stained white apron crossing the street. (Which brings me to this point – why white? Why a white apron? Hmmm…) The land is very beautiful here, and we have seen some really cool stuff. But I am starving. Starving!

Speaking of starving here is how it is up here. Yesterday we were hungry so we decided to go get some cheese and bread and stuff and have a picnic in our room. So we look in one town, and there are no food shops. So we go to another, bigger town, and there is this big sign that says Supermercato. So we park, can´t find it. We look and look. All we saw was an auto parts store with dudes coming out with grape juice stained aprons. So Mom went into a Farmacia and asked, and the lady came out and showed us where it was. So we walked down there, but it was the auto parts store – said right on it, Autoservicio.

Der! Autoservicio is a food shop! No wonder we are starving, we don´t know what the hell is going on!

Well, I gotta go and eat my Jamon Jamon flavored Ruffles now, with some Rioja. Today we went to a winery that is built in caves below a town. That was pretty cool. But the shrimp with a quarter cup of mayonnaise I had as a tapa after that was gross. Man, I want some Pimientos de Padron BAD. But I guess I already said that.

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