Mad About Spanish Food

I love Spanish food - as the title of this blog tells you - but there are some things I just don't 'get,' and gapacho is one of them - or should I say it was! I've always thought that the words 'cold' and 'soup' should never be combined in one phrase. I love soup, but it needs to be hot, not cold, so I've listened to people rave about gazpacho, and always thought it wasn't for me - until now.

On Sunday, we went out with friends for lunch to Restaurante Rebate, on the road to Pilar de la Horadada on the Costa Blanca. It's a favourite place of ours, and recently they've revamped the Menu del Dia. You're offered a selection of starters, then you choose your main course, and finish the meal with a selection of desserts. We were presented with 7 starters, 4 cold and 3 hot, and we started off with gazpacho.

Even though I didn't fancy it, I was paying for it, so I was determined to at least sample the gazpacho. And what a taste sensation it was! The soup had all the freshness and flavour I've come to associate with Spanish food. Some cookery writers have described gazpacho as 'liquid salad,' and that seems a perfect description to me. Of course, the predominant flavour was tomato, but I picked out olive oil, peppers and garlic, and I was left with such a wonderful residue of flavours, it seemed a shame to move on to the next starter.

So, where do you stand on gazpacho? Do you love it or hate it? Or maybe like me, you've avoided it, because you think soup should be hot, rather than cold.