As much as I enjoy seeing new places, there is a particular joy in returning to somewhere familiar. Since I am currently in Salamanca, a city I have loved for ten years, I am particularly reminded of this, and especially when I am navigating the food scene. The first evening, I went out to get a quick bite to eat before bedtime, and I ended up in a bar with an intriguing selection of toasts. Spanish toasts are, luckily, more elaborate than the ones commonly found in the UK, for instance, and these were laden with delicious spreads and condiments. Trying to make decisions, I asked the waitress what the things were, and I could not help notice a bemused look that bordered on delight when she witnessed this very obvious foreigner correctly identifying such local specialties as the morcilla, the blood sausage. It turned out to be spectacular, but the joy of the food itself was nothing compared to that deep feeling of belonging - of having returned to a beloved place and, while clearly not a native, being sufficiently well-versed in the language, the various references, the iconography, to encounter the familiar yet also to expand the horizon in different directions.
Ingen kommentarer:
Legg inn en kommentar