We had friends over for lunch today, and they brought us a present - some Lo Pagan mud in a bottle. They'd taken their daughter and her fiance to Mar Menor yesterday, and they thought they'd share the moment with us. We took the top off the bottle - because they didn't actually tell us what it was, and we thought it might be something worth drinking - and the smell knocked us back.
They all had a good laugh at our expense, but after lunch - and a few bottles of wine - the story of the rest of the day's adventures emerged. After the mud bath, they repaired to a bar for a drink and some tapas. It was the tail end of lunch time, so supplies were running low. They ordered tortilla -'Lo siento, no tenemos tortilla.' So they tried patatas bravas - 'Lo siento, no tenemos patatas bravas.'
Somebody had the bright idea to ask for croquetas, and bingo - there were indeed croquetas still available. The waiter asked how many they wanted and Alex asked for 'Dos raciones,' showing off his command of Spanish and his experience of tapas ordering in one fell swoop - or so he thought. The waiter queried his choice a couple of times, and when Alex insisted, he went away, shaking his head.
The other members of the party - who shall remain anonymous to spare their blushes - asked what the problem was. Alex explained that helpings of tapas were usually huge, and if he'd ordered four servings, they would have ended up with a mountain of croquetas de jamon. Happy with that explanation, they sat back to wait. After a while, out came a plate, with two croquetas, garnished with a sprig of parsley. They all had a good laugh, then tossed a coin to see who would get to eat the croquetas.
As they were relating this to us, I realised the true meaning of the phrase, 'What goes around, comes around.' I took great delight in explaining that, while most tapas are indeed served up in generous raciones, croquetas are always ordered singly, so what Alex had ordered turned out to be starvation raciones - pun intended!
The moral of this tale is: Don't mess about with somebody who's lived in Spain longer than you have, and who also hosts a blog. Scores on the doors: Alex 1 Sandra 1. Looking forward to the next round!